USA > Nebraska > Nebraska history and record of pioneer days, Vol I > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
Eli Davis Shockey, born in Kentucky, May 25, 1824, died at his home in Hastings, August 7, aged ninety-four years, two months and fourteen days. He came to Richardson county, Nebraska, fifty-one years ago, where he resided to the time of his death .- (From the Locomotive, Lawrence, Nebr., September 6.)
James Hanlon, Sr., died September 2, at Peru. He was born . in Ohio, September 30, 1850; while he was a child the family moved to Kentucky; on account of political persecution near the beginning of the civil war they came to Nebraska, where they have lived ever since. Mr. Hanlon was married to Miss Nettie Vance October 28, 1874 .- (From The Peru Pointer, September 6.)
George W. Richardson, born February 22, 1847, at Cleveland, Ohio; died August 24, near Oakland; served in Company K, Third Regiment, Ohio Volunteers, during nineteen months of the civil war; came to Omaha in 1867 and for several years drove a stage between Blair and Omaha, Calhoun and Omaha and Herman, Tekamah and Decatur .- (From the Oakland Independent, August 30.)
Mrs. Elizabeth Reed Bell died August 26 at Palmyra. She was born in England, February 9, 1827; married to Thomas Bell, August 6, 1849; they came to Nebraska in 1867. Mrs. Bell was the mother of eleven children .- (From Palmyra items in The Nebraska Daily Press, Nebraska City, September 1.)
Mrs. Jeannette Graham, widow of Thomas Graham, died at Omaha, August 29, aged eighty-one years. The Grahams settled on a homestead in Seward county in 1857; but Mrs. Graham moved to Omaha several years ago .-- (From the Blue Valley Blade, Seward, September 4.)
Some Recent Acquisitions of the Society
The principal founders of St. Louis were an adventurous group of Frenchmen whose principal business was trading with the Indians of "the Nebraska Country", exchanging merchandise or money for furs and peltries. The profits of this trade were a very important factor in the growth of the city for more than half a century. Thus St. Louis and Nebraska mutually started each other. The names of these traders were applied to many settlements, towns and other geographical features in the valleys of the Missouri and the Platte- though not as numerously, I think, as they ought to have been.
Consequently St. Louis is the principal depository of the early history of Nebraska, including newspapers beginning in the year 1808, and biographical sketches, business records and portraits of the pioneers adverted to. I have laboriously examined the larger part of these records, taking notes or copying data appertaining to Nebraska and the outlying Northwest. In April, 1917, I called on Mrs. Armand B. Peugnet at her home in St. Louis for the main pur- pose of obtaining information about her uncle, Peter A. Sarpy, who was the first permanent white settler in Nebraska. Mrs. Peugnet, whose maiden name was Virginia Sarpy, was born in St. Louis on July 4, 1827, daughter of John Baptiste Sarpy and Adele Cabanne Sarpy and niece of Peter A. Sarpy. She was anxious to learn from me, in turn, all that I knew about her uncle's life in Nebraska and presently called my attention to an oil portrait of him hanging in an adjacent room. Impressed by the fact disclosed in my information that his career here had been conspicuous and important, she promptly agreed that the portrait ought to be placed permanently ,with the Nebraska State Historical Society. Mrs. Peugnet died on August 11, 1917, at the age of ninety years and a month. In the following June, her daughter, who was present when her mother promised that she would leave the portrait to our Society, wrote me that it would be sent as soon as a copy of it for the family could be taken. Last July I again met Mrs. Berthold in St. Louis and we made final arrangements for shipping the picture. It is of somewhat more than life size, and it will be, perhaps, the most valuable of the Society's collection of portraits. A copy of it hangs in the gallery of the Missouri Historical Society.
Last June Mrs. Berthold presented to the Society photographic copies of portraits of Madame Peugnet; John B. Sarpy, born in St. Louis, January 11, 1799; Sylvestre Labadie, born in St. Louis in July, 1779, maternal uncle of Peter A. and John B. Sarpy; Emilie Lauveur Labadie, sister of Sylvestre, born in St. Louis in 1781, and married in 1794 to Bernard Pratte, who was licensed in the eighteen-
(Continued on Fourth Page.)
1
Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days
Early Fur Trader Dies
JOHN B. DIDIER
An intelligent biographical sketch of Mr, Didier, written by Mr. L. C. Edwards, is printed in The Falls City News of October 4, 1918. Mr. Didier was born in France on Christmas day, 1827, and he died on September 27, 1918, at the residence of his daughter, in Barada pre- cinct, Richardson county. He settled on a claim, now in Barada pre- cinct, in 1854 and lived there continuously until his death. It is said that he was the first permanent settler in Richardson county, but claims of that kind are nearly always disputed, as this one is, and it is usually impossible to settle such disputes ..
Mr. Didier came from France to America in 1847, stopping in Cin- cinnati two years; went to St. Louis in 1849 where he was employed by Pierre Chouteau, Jr., & Company; in 1852 was sent to the com- pany's trading post five miles below Fort Laramie; while he was in charge of the post, on August 19, 1854, the so-called Grattan massacre occurred at Sarpy's Point, on the Platte River about eight miles below the fort. Lieutenant John L. Grattan, a young and inexperienced of- ficer, was detailed from the fort to arrest an Indian who had stolen a cow from a Mormon emigrant. On the refusal of the culprit to sur- render the soldiers were ordered to fire upon the Indians indiscrimi- nately, whereupon they were attacked by the entire body, more than a thousand in number. All of the command, comprising Lieutenant Grattan and twenty-nine men, were killed.
The Indians, who comprised Oglala, Brule, and Miniconjou Sioux, were in camp waiting for an expected distribution of presents, which were at the house of the American Fur Company, of which the Choteau company was a branch. The enraged savages carried off or destroyed a large part of the company's goods.
Lieutenant Grattan and Lieutenant H. B. Fleming, of the Sixth In- fantry, commandant at Fort Laramie, were both condemned for in- competency and commended for their conduct in the contemporary accounts of the tragedy printed in the St. Louis newspapers. Mr. Didier believed that it was caused by the foolishness of the command- ing officers. Immediately after this affair, hie quit the service of the Chouteau company and then settled in Richardson county. He came from St. Louis to St. Joseph by steamboat and the rest of the way by land.
About a year later-September 3, 1855-an army under command of General William S. Harney punished the Indians at the Battle of
the Blue Water, in which eighty-six men, women and children were killed. This event was also commonly called a massacre. Dr. George L. Miller so denounced it in his newspaper, The Omaha Herald. While both catastrophes might have been avoided by due wisdom and jus- tice on the part of the whites, in the circumstances the punishment. inflicted by General Harney was perhaps necessary.
The Battle of the Blue Water-the name by which it was called in the official report-was fought in the valley of Blue Water Creek, between six and seven miles northwest of the mouth of Ash Hollow, the name by which the battle is commonly known. It came to be so called because Ash Hollow was an important and well known rendezvous or station on the Oregon Trail, so that its application to the battle-field most conveniently indicated its approximate location. This mislead- ing name should now be abandoned in favor of the original and ap- propriate one.
(Continued from Third Page.)
twenties to trade with Indians at Bellevue, and was one of the most. famous operators in the Northwest.
The parents of these French founders of St. Louis came from France. Their descendants intermarried intricately. Mrs. Peugnet was a very handsome woman and in the forties the acknowledged belle of St. Louis. The original portrait of John B. Sarpy, in the gallery of the Missouri Historical Society, shows that he was very distinguished in appearance, and the contemporary newspaper notices of him disclose that he was one of the most important men of the city.
While in St. Louis last July, I obtained from the "Chouteau Papers", among the collections of the Missouri Society, copies of business documents written and signed by Peter A. Sarpy, as manager of the American Fur Company at Bellevue, in 1844, 1847, and 1850, respectively; another written and signed by Peter A. Sarpy and signed also by John B. Sarpy and Frederick Berthold, in 1853: another by Peter A. Sarpy dated Point aux Poules-opposite Bellevue -afterward Traders Point, June 8, 1846; and another written and signed by the eccentric Stephen Decatur as Peter A. Sarpy's clerk, at Bellevue, August 13, 1852 . Mr. Sarpy wrote a beautiful hand. The copies were taken by photostat.
I also procured a typewritten copy of an order book in Peter A. Sarpy's handwriting, containing a long list of goods ordered for his store at St. Mary (not far below Bellevue on the Iowa side of the river) in 1855. This document is an interesting disclosure of the kinds of goods in demand at that time.
Mrs. Nettie Harney Beauregard, archivist of the Missouri His- torical Society, is related to these old French families through her mother. She is grand-daughter of General William S. Harney, a famous fighter of the Mexican war and against the Indians of the Nebraska plains, and daughter-in-law of the noted Confederate general, P. T. Beauregard. The Nebraska State Historical Society is greatly indebted to Mrs. Beauregard and Miss Stella M. Drumm, librarian of the Missouri Historical Society, for its acquisitions from St. Louis .- A. W.
Following is a facsimile of an order, somewhat reduced in size, written by Peter A. Sarpy at Bellevue in 1844:
P CHOUTEAU MAFFITT COLLECTION
HISTORICAL SOCIETY SAINT LOUIS
Salle Van Nov 21 1844
Nor C. Finky Sir have the kindness to your For me to Feather Hoging The Same of Twenty Dollars. and forward your act to my Brother in Hours
Respectfully yours
Est có huren
a rainy - ra. o.d
STATE
NEBRASKA AND RECORD OF
SIFAL OF
HISTORY PIONEER DAYS
NEBRASKA HISTORY AND RECORD OF PIONEER DAYS
Published Monthly by the Nebraska State Historical Society
Editor, ADDISON E. SHELDON Associate Editors The Staffs of the Nebraska State Historical Society and Legislative Reference Bureau
Subscription $2.00 Per Year
q All sustaining members of the Nebraska State Historical Society receive Nebraska History without further payment.
[ Entered as second class mail matter, under act of July 16, 1894, at Lincoln, Nebraska, April 2, 1918.
VOLUME I. NOVEMBER, 1918 NUMBER 7
SECRETARY SHELDON IN EUROPE.
Addison E. Sheldon, secretary of the Historical Society, is now in France, his mission being to study on the western front the part Nebraska is taking in the war. Mr. Sheldon went as a press répre- sentative, which gives him the opportunity to get near the front lines. He sailed from New York on October 4, landing at Liverpool October 18 and reaching France October 22. A number of journalists were on board the boat going to England, and an organization was there formed and a paper issued to which Mr. Sheldon was one of the contributors. It was his intention when he left Lincoln to return before the legislature convenes in January.
FATHER CHRISTIAN HOECKEN.
Rev. Michael A. Shine explains that "Father Hogins," named as payee in the draft made by Peter A. Sarpy, a copy of which was printed in the October number of Nebraska History, was Rev. Chris- tian Hoecken, a Roman Catholic missionary to Indians. Some account of Father Hoecken's heroic care of passengers on the steamboat St. Ange who were stricken by cholera on the voyage from St. Louis to Fort Union, in 1851, is given at page 102 of volume I of the History of Nebraska. Father Hoecken himself died of the epidemic when the boat had reached a point near the mouth of the Little Sioux River where, on the evening of June 19, he was temporarily buried, "with all the ceremonies of the church," as Father De Smet relates. On the boat's return the coffin was exhumed and carried to Florissant for final interment. This village, founded near the middle of the eighteenth century, is situated about sixteen miles in a northwesterly direction from St. Louis and three miles south of the Missouri river.
ORIGINAL OWNER OF GIBBON TOWN SITE DIES.
Mrs. Jane Thorp Gilmore, who was intimately associated with pioneer life in Nebraska, died on November 1 at her home in Gibbon. The Gibbon Reporter's story of this interesting woman's life is in part as follows: "She was a sister of John Thorp, founder of the Soldiers Free Homestead Colony which made settlement at Gibbon Siding, Buffalo county, in April, 1871. Mr. and Mrs. George Gilmore with their three children moved from Ohio to Nebraska in an emi- grant car, bringing all of their household goods and a team of horses. In a box car on the siding at Gibbon they furnished meals for transients and visitors until their hotel building was completed. In a box car on the Gibbon siding they entertained at dinner officers from Fort McPherson, located near the present city of North Platte, who came in a friendly way to call on the members of the colony just arrived. Accompanying the officers were Sergeant Michael Coady, then in charge of the few soldiers remaining at Fort Kearny, and also William Cody (Buffalo Bill), then a scout and hunter, stationed at Fort McPherson.
"Mrs. Gilmore was part owner of the original town site of Gibbon and the first deeds given for lots in the village contained a provision that no intoxicating liquors should be kept for sale."
CHARLES McDONALD, NONAGENARIAN PIONEER.
On October 25, Charles McDonald celebrated his ninety-second birthday, at his home in North Platte. He was born in Morristown, Tennessee; came to Nebraska in 1855; first stopped briefly at the site of Peru and then at Nebraska City; next, in the fall of the same year, settled in the vicinity of the subsequent site of Pawnee City; two years later moved again, to Salem, Richardson county; in De- cember, 1859, went to Cottonwood Springs, where he established his famous road ranch; in 1872 moved finally to North Platte; there he was engaged in mercantile business from 1873 to 1899; in 1878 estab- lished the "Bank of Charles McDonald" which he conducted with the general store until 1899; since that time has given exclusive atten- tion to his bank; while he lived in Pawnee county was a member of the House of Representatives of the second Legislative Assembly. His son, W. H. McDonald, is said to be the first white child born in Lincoln county; his grandson, Charles M. Reynolds of Omaha, mar- ried Miss Irene Neville, sister of Governor Neville.
Two skeletons were found by workmen who were digging a hole for a gasoline tank at Alliance on October 24. The bones were found about six feet underground, lying side by side, their heads toward the northeast. No remains of a coffin were found, and so it is thought that they died before that part of the country was settled, their bodies lying undiscovered until they were covered up by the shifting sand. In each of the upper jawbones there was a very large tooth still sound.
Mrs. William Henry Bruss of Fullerton is one of triplets, who will have reached the age of seventy-nine years next December, and who are perhaps the oldest triplet sisters in the world. The other sisters are Mrs. Sara Jane Fisher of Huntington, Indiana, and Mrs. Elizabeth Little Beck of Lena, in the same state. All of them have recently be- come widows. Two of the husbands were veterans of the civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Bruss settled in Nebraska in 1889. Mr. Bruss died on the 13th of last October. (The Fullerton Post.)
The Bayard Transcript observed the thirty-first anniversary of its beginning on November 1. Commenting on the incident R. A. Wisner, the publisher, says: "In looking back over the course which marks the path from its humble beginning in a sod house in the western part of this city, up to the present time, there is a feeling of satisfaction on the part of the present publisher that it has in some measure at least filled the sphere in life for which it was in- tended. Perhaps no one outside of those interested have realized or could realize what the struggle was to keep a publication going in Bayard in an early day. At least it was not a boy's job." The Transcript has now an up-to-date plant for a country town, in- cluding a Model C Intertype which cost $3,700.
Captain Frederick A. Williams, an old time printer of Omaha who came west in the fifties, has been reunited to his wife after a separation of forty years. Captain Williams had gone east on a business trip a few years after the marriage and was reported among the dead following a fire which destroyed a hotel in which he was a. guest. But though Williams escaped death he was badly burned and was taken to a hospital where he was confined a long time. After his recovery he tried in vain to find his girl bride. Only a few months ago Mrs. Williams applied for a pension, and she asked Con- gressman Lobeck to assist her in obtaining it. As a result of the proceeding the bride and groom of forty-five years ago were brought. together and are living happily in their home in Omaha. Captain Williams is now eighty-three years old and his wife is a few years younger, says the World Herald.
F. X. DeLone, one of the pioneers of Omaha, celebrated his eighty-fifth birthday anniversary on October 23. The World-Herald says of the event: "Mr. DeLone came to Omaha in 1856, and he and three other men lived for a time in a little shanty where the munic- ipal auditorium now stands. Mr. DeLone was active in business here for many years. At one time he owned the ground now occupied by the Conant hotel. He gave it away. In 1891 he built the DeLone hotel at Fourteenth street and Capitol avenue, the building now occu- pied by Lister hospital. When the building was erected DeLone told his friends that whoever tore it down would have to dynamite it. This remark was recalled recently when workmen attempted to cut a doorway through the basement wall. The work which ordinarily would require but a few hours, took several days, t is said to be the best constructed building erected in Omaha up to that time."
2
Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days
The French Settlement at Julian
Jean Marie Bize and Louise Bize, above; Laurent Bernard, be- low- all of Julian, Nebraska.
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard were the first settlers at Julian. Julien Bahuand came a year or two after Mr. and Mrs. Bernard, and then came Mr. and Mrs. Jean Lavigne and next Mr. and Mrs. Jean Marie Bize.
The movement of French people into the Nebraska country began before the territory was opened for settlement, the first men coming frem France being trappers, or Indian traders. For a hundred years or more they had roamed over this region, and to them it owes many geographic names.
When the territory was opened to white settlers there were already small colonies of French people at Rulo, Bellevue, and along the Missouri and Niobrara rivers. They were closely associated with the Indian tribes and commonly took Indian wives. The genuine French settlers canie in the late fifties, and for ten or fifteen years thereafter. One of the most important of their settlements was at and in the vicinity of the present village of Julian, a station on the Missouri Pacific railroad. Julien Bahuaud was among the first settlers, and the new town which was established on the railroad was named for him. It is said that the railroad company called the station Julian because they could not pronounce the surname of the most prominent sottler.
The rich land in that vicinity attracted thrifty people from France until about forty families had settled there. They were edu- cated and intelligent. For a time their trading places were Glenrock, Brock, Peru, and Brownville. When the Missouri Pacific railroad came through the county with two branches, Julian was the French center though there were a goodly number at Brock. They quickly acquired the American spirit, and while the French language was kept up in the homes, English was spoken elsewhere. Only two or three of their whole number failed to acquire the English language. These were the older women who lacked the practise in speech which contact with people of other nationalities would have given them. All of the younger generation were educated in English in the schools and in French at home, and their home environment gave them the polite demeanor peculiar to the French people. The immigration of these settlers to Nemaha county was not a sectarian movement. The colonists were about equally Catholics and protestants.
On May 20, 1918, the French people of Nemaha county held a picnic and celebration, calling together all those who had remained in the original colony, as well as those who had gone elsewhere in later years. A large number gathered for this celebration, which consisted of a basket picnic and then a meeting in a grove in Julian where
stories were told and songs sung. The address of welcome was by Mr. C. L. Mesnet, speaking both in English and French, with responses by several of the others.
The principal feature of the day, perhaps, was the taking of moving pictures of the assemblage at the grove, of the gathering at the railroad station to speed to the war some French boys, and of the parade of the Home Guard.
This picnic was a good start on what may later develop into du state association of French people and their descendants. For this purpose a partial list of the early settlers and their childrest was made, as follows:
Jules and Mary Bernard; Blanche, Rozelle, Laurent, Lenora.
Lucian and Theresa Bernard; Alice, Richard.
Calixte L. and Millie Mesnet.
Frantz and Mariette Gamboni; Franky, Calixte.
Mrs. Louise Bize, mother; Paul and Blanche Bize; Paul, David, Louise.
Mrs. Marchand, mother; Henry and Marie Lavigne; Albert,
Pierre, Blanche, Henri, Rose, Alice, Catherine, Paul, George.
Emile and Laura Marchand; Raymond, Ma'v'n, Frederic, Marie. George and Louise Chavez; Emma, Louis, Stella.
Fred and Louise Bourlier; Laura, Blanche, Clifton, Ivan, Leston .. Fremont and Emma Jodry; Amber, Harold, Mildred.
Mrs. Catherine Vernier; Sophia, Jane, May Beason.
J. M. and Louise Burress.
James and Flora Bourlier; Sidney, Floyd.
James, (Sr.) and Laura Bourlier.
Fred and Liza Bourlier; James, Elsa, John, Blanehe, Helen, Nellie.
John and Susie Bourlier; Donna, Lysle.
Mrs. Mellie Bourlier.
Fred, Frank and Armand Barbier.
Emile Berlet and wife; Amelie, Alice, Blanche, Irma.
Fred and Amelie Marchand; Alphonze, Emma, Charles, Lea, Louise, Lilly, Laura, Mary, George, Rose, Jules, Blanche. Peter Berlet and wife; Fred, Lucile, Mina, Emma, Victoria, Elois. Fred and Jennie Donze; Dot, Fred.
Fred and Vina Kiechel; Walter, Addie, Raymond, Doane.
Frank and Mary Gilbert; Gus, Millie.
Mrs. Muster and Mrs. Besancon.
' Th's list is incomplete, being largely made up from families at- tending the picnic. Messrs. C. L. Mesnet and Paul Bize expect to complete the roll of all the living persons who have been connected with the Nemaha county colony, so that a comprehensive history of the settlement may be written.
TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS
The following interesting records are copied from inscriptions on monuments in the Catholic and protestant cemeteries, respectively:
CATHOLIC CEMETERY.
Bahnaud, Julian Born 1827 Died 1899
Repos de son ame
Bize, Jean Marie
Born in Nantes, France
March, 30, 1835
Died November 30, 1894
40 ans d'Amerique Native de France
Bernard, Laurent
Master, Michel
Died July 21, 18SS
Born Sept. 29, 1834
At 71 years, 11 months, 14 days
Died Apr. 26, 1898
Bernard, Annie E.
Daughter of Julian and May
Born Aug. 22, 1890
Born April 30, 1907
Died Jan. 23, 1891
Died September 13, 1909
Breuil, John A.
Anville Caliste Isidore
Born July 29, 1832
Born April 4. 1916 Died September 11, 1916
Breuil, Albert Born July 3, 1892
Ne a Ste-Remi-Savoie, France
Died Aug. 2, 1893
le 18 December, 1847 decede a Julian, Nebr.
Marconnit, John F. Non of
le 9 Mars 1907
Fred and Mary
Michel Marie M. Adelaide Died April 29, 1885
Born in Suisse
Burger, Col. Peter
Aug. 23, 1830
Born in
Died June 22, 1893
Loraine, France May 15. 1835 Died April 17, 1903
Ne le 7 Avril
May, wife of
derede le 6 Novembere 1014
Peter Burger
Miehon Panline H.
Ne Paris, France
Died Feb. 16, 1893 Age 62 yrs. 1 mo. 15 days.
le 15 October 1872 decede 24 October 1911
PROTESTANT CEMETERY.
Bonrlier. Augusta Oct. 29, 1862
Raymond, son of
II. A. & N. L.
Bonrlier, William
Barber, Peter
Nov. 15, 1884
Mar. 14, 1876
Aug. 30, 1911 Sept. 8. 1905
Bourlier. Irvin L.
Barber, Margaret
Oct. 16, 190S
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.