USA > Nebraska > Nebraska history and record of pioneer days, Vol I > Part 18
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The recent retirement of Casper Enoch Yost from the presidency of the Nebraska Telephone Company, the Iowa Telephone Company, and the Northwestern Telephone Exchange Company directs attention to the very remarkable fact that the telephone system of Nebraska has developed into its present magnitude and very great importance during only a part of a man's "active life"-a clumsy and inaccurate dis- tinction, by the way.
Mr. Yost started on his life's career at the age of twenty-three, when he came to Omaha, from Michigan, in 1864. He began to be a lawyer, but at once dropped into politics and political place. In the year of his arrival he was appointed a deputy United States Marshal, and the next year marshal of the territory, holding the office until 1867 when he was appointed marshal for the state for four years. He was postmaster of Omaha from 1872 to 1876. From 1875 to 1886 he was the business manager of the Omaha Republican. After this varied but effective preparation, in 1889 he became vice-president and gen- eral manager of the Nebraska Telephone Company and in 1891 its president; in 1897 he became president of the Iowa Telephone Com- pany, and in 1903 president of the Northwestern Telephone Company, which operated in the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Though seventy-eight years old, he retains the chairmanship of the board of directors of the three companies.
The first telephone directory for Omaha was published in 1879, with only 150 names. Like the railroad and the telegraph before, Mr. Yost says that the telephone was for some time treated with skepticism, and such patronage as it was at first favored with was due more to the boosting western spirit which inclines to help anything new on the chance of its becoming an additional "asset", than to confidence in its usefulness. Thus this indispensable instrument of business and general social communication, with its vast and complex ramifica- tions, is scarcely half as old as the man who has been its principal projector and still survives as its virtual manager.
Mr. Yost's remarkable ability to throw off his early propensity for politics and the consequent long addiction to the insidious habit of holding office, was prophetic of his persisting vitality.
JOHN CLAY COWIN
This eminent lawyer died at his home in Omaha on December 20, 1918. He was born in Warrensville, Ohio, January 11, 1846; in 1861 he enlisted as a private in the Twenty-third regiment, Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry, rose to the rank of captain and was mustered out at the close of the war-in 1865. This is a remarkable record for a lad between fifteen and nineteen years of age. After preparing for the bar in a law school in Cleveland, he came to Omaha in the spring of 1867 to begin his uniformly brilliant career at the bar. He was most skilful as a trial lawyer, excelling both in the examination of witnesses and in arguing cases before a jury. His style of address was powerfully dramatic. In this respect or aspect he has not been equalled at the Nebraska bar, I think. When the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific railroad companies were placed under receivers in 1893, General Cowin was appointed by President Cleveland to protect the interests of the United States, and he successfully performed this very difficult duty.
General Cowin's most notable episodes in politics were as counsel for Governor Furnas in his famous libel suit against Dr. George L. Miller and Lyman Richardson, publishers of the Omaha Herald, and his spectacular fight for nomination for member of Congress in 1876. Dr. Miller closely resembled his contemporary, Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun, in the relentless persistence and pile driver force
of his attacks upon offenders. When Furnas was nominated for the office of governor, in 1872, the Herald bombarded him with the charge of having taken a large bribe in 1857 from partisans of Omaha in consideration for his refusal, as a member of the upper house of the general assembly, to support the passage over the governor's veto of a bill for the removal of the capital to a point on Salt Creek. Powerful as the preponderance of his party over its opponent then was, Furnas could not safely rely upon it to carry him through in the face of the specific charges if he should ignore them; so he authorized General Cowin to begin the suit. The general refused to undertake the case (so he informed the writer hereof) except with the under- standing that it should be pushed to trial. Accordingly the trial took place some time after Furnas was elected, resulting in a disagreement of the jury, and the case was afterward dismissed.
In the seventies a sharp controversy arose between the Union Pacific and Burlington & Missouri railroad companies about what was called the pro rata question. For example, the Burlington demanded that if it shipped freight destined for San Francisco from Plattsmouth to Kearney over its own line, the Union Pacific should carry it the rest of the way at the same proportional rate as it received for shipments from Omaha to San Francisco all the way by its own line. Lorenzo Crounse, who was then a member of the House of Representatives from Nebraska, was trying to put through a bill establishing the propor- tional rate-but so far without success. With the purpose of running for the senatorship against Hitchcock, Mr. Crounse declined to be- come a candidate again for the lower house, and so General Cowin stepped into his shoes, and Frank Welch became the candidate of the Hitchcock-anti-pro-rata faction. The convention was in session four days and throughout one night. Welch was at last nominated. Dr. Miller asserted in the Herald that "Cowin went into the convention with forty or fifty majority. He came out defeated by a very large majority, owing to a shameless purchase of votes by bribery and cor- ruption." At any rate, Welch was far inferior in ability and character to his brilliant opponent. This was General Cowin's only important venture in politics, and to my thinking this defeat was Fortune's way of smiling upon him.
The general's military title was bestowed by Furnas, who ap- pointed him upon his staff with the rank of brigadier general. But compared to his career at the bar, won by sheer merit, this title was as tinsel-like as a term of Congress would have been .- Albert Watkins.
ANTELOPE COUNTY HISTORIAN PASSES ON.
Adoniram Judson Leach died June 10, 1919 and was buried at Oakdale June 12. He was born September 19, 1834, in Cuyahoga county, Ohio. He crossed the plains to Oregon in 1852, came to Omaha in 1867, homesteaded in Antelope county in 1869 and has resided there since.
The life of Mr. Leach was interwoven with the early settlement and development of Antelope county. When he settled there the county merited its name. Great herds of elk and deer made com- pany for the antelope. At rare intervals the smoke of a log cabin escended from the midst of the woodland along the streams. In his favorite occupations of hunting and surveying Mr. Leach came to know each individual family as it settled in the region. He served the growing community as county surveyor, county superintendent of schools, and in the later years as county treasurer.
The permanent fame of Mr. Leach rests securely upon his work as the historian of Antelope county. His history combines pains- taking research and verification of facts with a clear style and just sense of proportion. He was fortunate in having lived through the period of which he wrote and in having intimately known the men and women who took part in its events. His history of Ante- lope county is a model in its field and will remain throughout all time the authority for the pioneer years in that region. A second book published in 1916 is entitled "Early Day Stories,' and while not of equal value with his history of Antelope county will be a source of entertainment for many generations.
It was in 1884 that the editor of this magazine first formed a friendship with Mr. Leach. I was making my first venture in the newspaper field at the town of Burnett, now Tilden, situated on the county line of Antelope and Madison counties. Mr. Leach was agent for the Burlington railroad lands at Oakdale, eight miles distant. He was one of my first subscribers and advertisers and remained a faithful counselor and friend through those years of privation and hardship in the Elkhorn valley. When a mob con- nected with the saloon at Burnett and the distillery at Deer Creek attempted to whip the editor and drive him out of business Mr. Leach increased his advertising and took an active interest in the for- tunes of the first newspaper at Tilden.
The work of county historian so well done by Mr. Leach in Antelope county needs to be done in many other Nebraska counties. The writing of local history requires a combination of old settler, critical student and attractive literary style. It should be a labor of love and requires years for the collection of material and revision of narrative. No hurry-up productions for profit of a publishing company will ever fill the bill. In many counties of the state there is need of a county history like Leach's History of Antelope County- an enduring monument to its author and a permanent contribution to the true history of our commonwealth.
THE OLD FURNAS PRINTING PRESS
For many years the Secretary of this Society has sought to get hold of the old hand printing press which Robert W. Furnas brought with him to Brownville in 1856 and used in the publication of the Nebraska Advertiser and later the Nebraska Farmer. Several times traces of this old press have been secured, but the trail has disappeared. Now it seems likely to lead to the press itself. From Mr. W. P. Camp- bell, custodian of the Oklahoma historical society, we have recently
8
Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days
received two letters, from which the following extracts are taken:
Feb. 12, 1919 .- This Society is pleased to acknowledge receipt of publications of your society.
These documents call to mind many incidents still fresh in my memory. Some of the older characters I knew in a way, and others more than passingly; one being Governor Furnas when he published the Nebraska Advertiser with "Limpy" Jim Fisher as his foreman, printer, manager, editor, collector and boss generally, when the gov- ernor was off "fighten." I knew his sons Will and George quite well. Dora Hacker was also a remembered attache of the Advertiser. I bought part of the Advertiser material-surplusage-and moved it to Augusta, Ills., in 1864, and established the first paper of that town. The old Adams undercut press is out in the weather at Waukomis in this state, and some of the type cases are also here, with "R. W. Fur- nas" brushed on the backs with "Brownville, Nebraska Territory," added-all quite legible. Had I time I could write a long, long story of those old days. You could probably secure these old cases should you desire them. I once tendered them to your Society, but those in charge did not then consider them as of importance. Have lost track of J. Amos Barrett at one time connected with your Society.
May 7, 1919 .- Governor Furnas was indeed a historic character of the history-making and its gathering and conservation inditing him as a veritable trinity on historic lines, beating his way from orphan- age to the highest seat in your state's affairs-as publisher, as presi- dent of your Society, as Indian agent and as leader of the 2nd Nebraska against the Sioux-a history which you no doubt have in all its full- ness. Besides, his career in the Indian service in what is now Okla- homa entitles him to no small niche in our "Hall of Fame." When Col. Fred Salomon of the Wisconsin 9th undertook in July, 1862, to lead the loyal Indians from their refuge on the neutral lands of Kan- sas back to their old homes in Oklahoma, it fell to him to arrest his superior-Col. Wm. Weer-after crossing to the territory side, camp- ing at Wolf Creek, and assuming command. Retreating back to nearer base of supplies with his white troops left Col. Furnas ranking officer. He not only retained colonelcy of the 2nd Indian regiment, but also became at the same time brigade commander of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Indian regiments. Operated at various points-Fort Gibson, Tahle- quah, Pryor Creek, and across the Grand river at Camp Wattles. This is, of course, but a very brief summary of liis short but active work here in 1862, after associating with a number of others in an effort to enlist loyal Indians in Kansas.
NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES
In 1886 J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, at Washington, published his report upon the Indian linguistic families of North America. The report showed fifty-eight different language stocks north of the Rio Grande and many more dialects.
Systematic study of Indian languages in America dates from the Powell report. During the past twenty years Dr. Franz Boas of Columbia University, and students who have been prepared by him, have carried on the work with energy and ability. The aim has been to gather the material for a dictionary and grammar of every sur- viving Indian language on the continent. This has involved months of continuous residence with the Indian tribes, careful writing down of each word and phrase and its subsequent verification by repetition.
An important contribution to knowledge in this field has just been published by the University of California. It is by Dr. Paul Radin, who was a fellow student with the writer under Dr. Boas at Columbia ten years ago. Dr. Radin's studies tend to show that the fifty-eight linguistic stocks of Director Powell may be re- duced to twelve and possibly fewer.
Indian languages are very different in their structure from European languages. They are deficient in generalized terms, but rich and full in specific ways of saying things. The various aspects of verbs are shown in some languages by prefixes, in others by suffixes, while still others split the verb in two putting the modifier in the middle like the ham in a ham sandwich.
Dr. Radin's studies indicate a very long period of time during which the North American Indian languages have been in process of formation. Among other things he says "most recent American archeologists seem to be agreed that 15,000 years is an adequate maximum for the settlement of North America by the Indians. That implies very definitely that the assumed differentiation into fifty- eight distinct stocks must have taken place in northeastern Asia, the assumed home of our aborigines. However, there is no evi- dence, either in the present or past linguistic picture of northeastern Asia, that would justify us in assuming a large number of distinct languages, and we are consequently forced to the conclusion that the differentiation in North America is secondary and took place after the settlement of the continent."
Four Indian linguistic stocks occupied Nebraska since the first white man came. These were Siouan, Pawnee or Caddoan, Algon- quian, (represented by the Arapahoe and Cheyenne tribes) and Kiowan. The studies of Dr. Radin do not seem to indicate a closer relationship of these stocks than the one hitherto entertained. In other words, Nebraska Indian languages came from far separated stocks which had lived many centuries by themselves before coming together in Nebraska.
John Frederick Kees, who settled on a homestead near Filley in 1867, celebrated his eighty-third birthday on May 7. The Filley Spotlight says that he is the oldest homesteader still occupying his original claim.
Charles McDonald
A sketch of Charles McDonald's life was printed in the November issue of this magazine, on the occasion of the ninety-second anni- versary of his birthday. He died at his home in North Platte on April 22, 1919, of pneumonia, which resulted from exposure in listen- ing to an address by Secretary McAdoo in behalf of the sale of victory bonds, which the venerable pioneer patriotically promoted. He came to Nebraska from Tennessee in 1855: settled at first near the site now occupied by Pawnee City; two years later moved to Salem, Richardson county; in 1859 established his famous road ranch at Cottonwood Springs; in 1872 moved to North Platte where he had lived ever since, at first engaged in mercantile business, but in 1878 he established the Bank of Charles McDonald to which he gave almost exclusive attention from 1899 until his last illness. He was a member of the House of Representatives of the second Legislative Assembly-in 1855-56.
Jesse Retherford died December 17 at his home in Potter; born February 10, 1856, at Philadelphia Road, Ohio; came to Nebraska. in 1865.
Mrs. Henry Shoebotham died December 23, at Fairbury; born in London, Canada, November 12, 1840; came to Jefferson county, Neb., in 1868; her husband came a year earlier.
Mrs. William Brower, Sr., died December 21 at her home in Nebraska City; born April 17, 1853, at Sandusky, Ohio; the fam- ily settled in Cass county, Neb., near where Nehawka is now sit- uated, in 1854.
Mrs. John W. Pittman, killed in an automobile accident, near Union, Neb., December 16; born March 15, 1840, in Marion county, Iowa. She came to Nebraska when a young girl, nearly sixty years ago.
Mrs. James W. Sperry, whose maiden name was Margaret Jane McDermed, died December 24 at the home near Weeping Water, where the family had lived thirty-eight years; she was born in Illi- nois in November 1854; came to Nebraska in 1866, with her par- ents, who settled on a farm five miles southeast of Weeping (Water; married to Mr. Sperry November 29, 1874.
Mrs. Mary Green Rossiter died December 7 at her home near Dewitt aged ninety-four years, one month and thirteen days; said to have been the oldest resident of Gage county at the time of her death; born in Somersetshire, England, October 24, 1824; came to America and to Gage county with her husband in 1856, where they settled on a homestead,
Dr. George Grant Gere died December 28 at his home in San Francisco; born in Greene, New York, December 27, 1848, a brother of John Gere, who was killed by Indians in 1871, and of Charles H. Gere, first editor of the Nebraska State Journal: came to Ne- braska with his parents in 1857 and settled in Table Rock. Dr. Gere gained a wide reputation in surgery, was an instructor in a medical college, president of the California state medical association, vice president of the national eclectic association, and was author of books on surgery. Four children survive; two of the three sons were soldiers in the great war.
David Sleeth Hacker of Auburn died December 24; born near Fairland, Indiana, August 24, 1839; July 25, 1862, enlisted in Company F, Seventieth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, of which Benjamin Harrison, afterward president of the United States, was colonel, and served until June 8. 1865; in the fall of 1865 came west with his father and they took homesteads in the southwest part of Nemaha county, three miles south of Febing, or Stone Church; March 7, 1867, married to Miss Nancy P. Giel, who died February 11. 1911; they had six children of whom four survive; moved with his family to Auburn, then called Sheridan, in 1877, where he had since resided; helped to organize the first Methodist church in the southwest part of the county and was one of the char- ter members of the first Methodist church in Auburn, and the last one of the original members of this church to die.
GENEALOGY DEPT.
OCT 20 1994
NEBR Aten County Public Library AND RECORD OF
NEBRASKA HISTORY AND RECORD OF PIONEER DAYS
Published Quarterly 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
" 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 II.
JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1919 NUMBER 3
THE COUNCIL BLUFF HISTORICAL PARK
Two centennial celebrations have now been held at Fort Cal- houn. The first commemorated the Lewis and Clark Council with Nebraska Indians, August 3, 1804. The second recalls the estab- lishment of Fort Atkinson in 1819-20 and with it the coming of school, library, farming, factory and other companions of civilized white settlement to the Nebraska region.
As the decades and centuries come and go, the beginnings grow in importance, honor and public consideration. The places of historic interest will grow into objects of perpetual pilgrimage and patriotic inspiration. In Nebraska a few such places will be- come famous.
One of these is the Council Bluff plateau at Fort Calhoun. A hundred years hence it will be another Plymouth Rock in interest and attraction, visited by tourists from all parts of the world for its commanding beauty and for its pioneer associations with the Great West.
It is time now at the end of a hundred years to dedicate to the public use the places made memorable in our history and preserve there in permanent form all that recalls the deeds of the past. We have already delayed this too lorg.
Fort Atkinson stood on a wroble bluff overlooking the Missouri valley for many miles. It is also the site of the Lewis and Clark Council. An historical park should be made here. A building to preserve the many relics of the early " ___ rs should be in the park. An automobile drive should circle the park, giving a view of the Missouri valley. The expense of such a park should be met jointly by the citizens of Fort Calhoun and the state. Plans to achieve this result will be worked out during the coming months.
OUR NEWSPAPER DEPARTMENT
The newspaper department of the Society is now receiving four hundred and nine of the state publications. These include all but sixty-eight of the papers or periodicals of any description which are published regularly in Nebraska.
The papers now coming cover all of the state from Harrison to Falls City, and from South Sioux City to Haigler. Besides the regu- lar newspapers, all classes of people and societies are represented, such as the Lincoln Trade Review, the Omaha Trade Exhibit. the Western Banker, the Philatelic West, of Superior, devoting its pages to the interest of the coin collector. There are several farm maga- zines, and there are children's publications, such as Every Child's Magazine, and Homeless Children's Advocate; and we have teachers' magazines, religious and political publications-Indian, Danish, Ger- man, Jewish and Catholic; and the Christian Record, of College View, published in the point system for the blind.
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The busy newsgatherers are compiling daily the history of every nook and corner of the state, with its tragedies and joys, its developments both mental and physical, weaving wonderful life stories in these pages.
It is the mission of the Society to collect and preserve these valuable records. Many publishers keep files only for a short time. Unless the county keeps them; the records published therein are frequently lost. This Society is the only organization in the state which endeavors to preserve these papers, and we have calls from all over the state for help in finding proof of publications. One incident will illustrate this: a town in Nebraska was in a fight about a waterworks system, the clerk's books during the year the ordinance was passed, were lost, and the newspaper publishing the legal notices had no files of the paper. What appeared to become a long-drawn out wrangle was concluded quickly by finding the desired papers stored safely in our vaults.
PERSHING'S WREATH TO LAFAYETTE
The tomb of Lafayette at Paris is most difficult to find. It is in the back garden of a convent in the Rue Picpus. Readers of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables need no introduction to the Rue Picpus, for it is the scene of Jean Valjean's most thrilling adven- tures. Last December, after an hour's search of that quar;f or Paris, I found myself standing in front of a high wall with an iron- barred gate. Thru a peephole an eye appeared when I touched a button. After explanations of my mission 1 was admitted, but my camera was at once put in cold storage. Led by the attendant I followed a winding path through shrubbery, around corners, under heavy doorways, until in a remote corner he suddenly pointed to the tomb, smothered with flowers and with a large United States flag above it. With what emotion an American stands for the first time, uncovered at the grave of Lafayette! Dear to the imagination of every patriotic American schoolboy every detail of his life. What a scene! All about are the hla-and monuments a repen anh"sty most of whom died in the French revolution. The tomb of Lafayet e modest and low, is in the futhes co. i.e. of th wall. Laying my own tribute on the tomb I noticed the large metal- lic wreath of immortelles left by General John I. Parchivar a for weeks before. I told the attendant that I was from the home of General Pershing. He quickly bent over, picked a leaf which had been broken from the Pershing wreath and fallen on the tomb, gave it to me in silence. And that is how a leaf from the Pershing wreath on the tomb of Lafayette is one of the treasures in the museum of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
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