USA > Nebraska > Nebraska history and record of pioneer days, Vol I > Part 9
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Vincent, C., Omaha, Nebr. Vogltance, Frank J., Schuyler, Nebr. Votaw, William W., Lincoln, Nebr.
Walker, Hugh C., Douglas, Nebr. Walling, Augustus H., David City, Nebr. Watts, William I., Edgar, Nebr. Weaver, Mrs. Martha A., Falls City, Nebr. Wehner, Fred E., Cedar Bluffs, Nebr. Weil, Morris, Lincoln, Nebr. Weitzel, Frederick M., Albion, Nebr. Wertz, George W., Schuyler, Nebr. Wettling, Louis E., Chicago, Ill. Whitmore, Mrs. Ida J., Valley, Nebr. Whitmore, William G., Valley, Nebr. Wiggenhorn, Edwin C., Ashland, Nebr. Wiggins, Horace S., Linco'n, Nebr. Wilson, Henry D., Nebraska City, Nebr. Wilhelm, Charles M., Omaha, Nebr. Williams, Thomas F. A., Lincoln, Nebr. Wilson, Miss Mary S., Nebraska City, Nebr. Wilson, William C., Lincoln, Nebr. Wiltsee, Chauncey L., Fullerton, Nebr. Winnett, Hudson J., Lincoln, Nebr.
Wolfe, William A., Beatrice, Nebr. Wood, James V., University Place, Nebr. Wooster, Charles, Silver Creek, Nebr. Wright, Charles R., Genoa, Nebr. Wyckoff, W. W., York, Nebr.
Yates, Henry W., Jr., Omaha, Nebr. Yont, Edwin C., Brock, Nebr.
NEW MEMBERS
The new members are as follows: Buckley, Frank E., Lincoln, Nebr. Lanigan, Thomas W., Greeley, Nebr. Vance, Mark E., Lincoln, Nebr. Vance, Mrs. Mark E., Lincoln, Nebr. Melia, P. J., Gretna, Nebr. Rosicky, Miss Rose, Omaha, Nebr. Powell, William, Syracuse, Nebr. Tuveson, Nels A., Weston, Nebr. Young, David A., Murray, Nebr. . Goff, John W., Fremont, Nebr. Gerrard, E. A., Monroe, Nebr. Sanders, William Wesley, Farretson, S. D. Stolley, Mrs. William F., Grand Island, Nebr. Coolidge, Albert, North Platte, Nebr. Faught, T. W., Cozad, Nebr. Wilcox, Mrs. Ida Giltner, Cozad, Nebr. Young, Andrew, Jr., Craig, Nebr. Stephens, Ezra F., Nampa, Idaho. Lonergan, Mrs. Will, Florence, Nebr.
ยท Hempel, Miss Theresa, Plattsmouth, Nebr. Guthmann, Miss Minnie, Plattsmouth, Nebr. Wiltsee, Jerome, Sr., Falls City, Nebr. Norval, Richard S., Seward, Nebr. Thornburn, Miss Jennie, Lincoln, Nebr. Piller, Reinhold E., Millerton, Nebr. Longnecker, John, Indianola, Nebr. McKearney, Mrs. Jessie, Clarinda, Iowa. Dech, William H., Ithaca, Nebr. Hopewell, Henry M., Tekamah, Nebr. Shallenberger, O. P., Imperial, Nebr. Young, Mrs. Nellie H., York, Nebr. Gilmore, Melvin R., Bismarck, N. D. Lane, Arthur W., Lincoln, Nebr. Pound, Roscoe, Cambridge, Mass. Bassett, Samuel C., Gibbon, Nebr. Shine, Michael A., Plattsmouth, Nebr. Colby, Leonard W., Beatrice, Nebr. Howard, George E., Lincoln, Nebr. Perin, Senator W., Lincoln, Nebr. Collins, Mrs. Louisa E., Kearney, Nebr. Barnes, John B., Lincoln, Nebr. Hayward, Mary Smith, Chadron, Nebr. Williams, Miss Mary H., Kenesaw, Nebr. Anderson, Victor, Bridgeport, Nebr. Hunt, George J., Bridgeport, Nebr. Colby, Leonard W., Beatrice, Nebr. Frost, Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebr,. ' . Paine, Bayard H., Grand Island, Nebr. Shaw, James C., Lincoln, Nebr. Malster, J. C., Stromsburg, Nebr.
NEBRASKA AND RECORD. 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.
OCTOBER, 1918 NUMBER 6
The Nebraska State Historical Society made its usual exhibit at the state fair this year. The walls of the booth were covered with photographs of Nebraska soldiers and other war workers. The pictures on the swinging frame attracted much attention. This frame carries numerous photographs of pioneer days as well as many others of his- torical interest selected from our collection. The traveling museum case, which contains some valuable and curious museum specimens mounted for use in schools and libraries, helped to make the display attractive.
Mrs. John T. Borland, of Exeter, Nebraska, has given to the His- torical Society a medal of Lincoln and Hamlin which was struck for the campaign of 1860. This medal is about the size of our twenty-five cent piece and contains a tintype of Abraham Lincoln on one side and of Hannibal Hamlin on the reverse. John T. Borland, who died June 19, 1916, settled on a homestead near Exeter in 1870. Mrs. Borland has lived there since 1871. Mr. Borland presented to the Society The Montana Post, printed at "City of Virginia," Montana, April 29, 1865, and containing an account of the assassination of President Lincoln.
On September 11, M. E. Smith & Company, of Omaha, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of their business, which was started in Council Bluffs in 1868 and removed to Omaha in 1869, with a style show in which past and present styles of clothes were exhibited. Among the interesting gowns was one which has been worn at the in- auguration of Governor Saunders fifty-one years ago; others worn at the opening of the Grand Central hotel, and at the governor's ball. There were Paisley shawls in the exhibit ranging in value from $1,000 to $3,000.
By the way, the Grand Central was the pride of Omaha because it was the first hotel there which in style and dimension satisfied the cosmopolitan aspiration of the still somewhat mushroom town. The name indicates the feeling toward the pretentious edifice. It was built upon the lagging proceeds of public subscription-started in 1871- opened in October, 1873, and, after a successful, but short career of five years, was destroyed by fire on September 24, 1878. The Paxton Hotel succeeded to its site.
AN OLD BATTLE-FIELD NEAR BROKEN BOW
On August 18 the secretary and curator of the Historical Society, with a party of about twenty people of Broken Bow, including several old settlers in the vicinity, visited what is known as the old battle-
field, situated in Custer county about seventeen miles northeast of the town.
The field was probably an intrenched camp, consisting of 108 rifle pits arranged in the form of an ellipse and enclosing five or six acres of ground. The ellipse is about 550 feet long north and south and somewhat less in breadth. It is situated upon a rise of ground in a branch of Clear Creek valley. The site was chosen for defense, com- manding the valley in every direction. The trenches vary from six feet to thirty feet in length and are now about three feet deep. The bottoms and sides are grassed over, and the earliest settlers in that region found them so when they came there about forty years ago. The trenches were well calculated for defense, being double at the salient angles, thereby giving a defending force better protection over their flanks.
At least one hundred men, and probably two hundred, were in the company which constructed these defenses. A smaller number would not have made so extensive an enclosure. At the north end they over- look a ravine about thirty feet in depth which is a water course for heavy rains. It runs into what is said to be a permanent water hole about a quarter of a mile from the camp.
On digging down into some of the rifle pits to a deptn of six feet, abundant charcoal was found at the bottom, showing that fires had been made there by the men holding them. The butt of an old rifle lay on the slope of one trench. Apparently this fortification was made more than fifty years ago. Apparently also it was a temporary camp, since wood and water were to be found at a distance of three or four miles in the main Clear Creek valley, and if it had been intended to be permanent the camp would have been placed near them. During the period of hostilities between Indians and white intruders, some forty years, there were numerous military expeditions into the region of the Loups, but we have no report that any of them established a camp in Clear Creek valley. Diligent inquiry will perhaps discover some ac- count of this one. Unless it is very old, which, in the circumstances is not probable, it could not have been of more than temporary im- portance. Otherwise there would be accounts of it in the records of the war department and in more popular forms.
A CUSTER COUNTY CAMP SITE
On August 20 of this year the curator of the museum of the His- torical Society, in company with Augustus G. Humphrey, of Broken Bow, inspected an old Indian site some four miles northeast of Sargent. About a mile back from the low crown of bluffs which skirts the Mid- dle Loup on the north, is a hill-encircled valley containing about two hundred acres of level, fertile land. Immediately west of this valley, on the bluffs which encircle it, they found fragments of pottery and chips of flint, indicating that Indians once inhabited the vicinity.
From inspection of the surrounding country, it appears that at some date prior to the time when Indians of the plains trafficked with white men some tribe used this secluded valley as a hunting camp. Here perhaps they came, year after year, to procure their winter sup- ply of meat and hides. Some of their headmen died while the com- pany sojourned in this summer camp, and they were laid to rest on the hill which towered above it to the west.
This was the former domain of the Pawnee, and the curator thinks that the texture and appearance of the potsherds found indicate that the site was occupied by them at an early date and that the chipped flints and arrowheads which have been found on the plowed fields of the level valley indicate that their tepees were pitched there for the summer hunt. There is an easy route in a southeasterly direction to the banks of the Middle Loup, and along it potsherds were found.
This trail is about five miles due east of Sargent and about a mile southeast of the site of the camp. Chips of flint which originally came from Texas were found along this route and also at the camp; so per- haps the material for making implements was brought by the Pawnee on their northern migration.
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GRAVE OF A SETTLER ON THE OREGON TRAIL
On August 30, this year, Thomas Moran wrote to the secretary of the state of Nebraska, from Oshkosh, to say that John Hollman, who died in 1853, was buried on a hillside above a sandy draw in section 9, township 16, range 44 west; that a recent heavy rain washed away the bank of the draw to a point within ten or twelve feet of the grave, and that the next flood would take it off. Mr. Moran properly urged that this old and interesting landmark should be protected from its imminent danger. The Historical Society hopes to gain the cooperation of residents in the vicinity of the grave in preserving and marking it.
Oshkosh, the county seat of Garden county, is situated on the Union Pacific railroad about a mile north of the North Platte River. The Oregon Trail ran through section 9, which contains Mr. Holl- man's grave. This section lies on the south side of the river and about four miles southwesterly from Oshkosh.
Reminder of Nebraska's Troubled Beginning
The recent visit to the headquarters of the Historical Society of Mr. J. H. Sweet, editor of the Nebraska Daily Press, in company with Mr. George H Heinke, also of Nebraska City, recalls incidents of the rough-house days of the later sixties and early seventies. Mr. Sweet is a grand-nephew of James Sweet, the second state treasurer of Ne- braska. At the preliminary election held on June 2, 1866, were chosen the four executive officers which the constitution provided for, a rep- resentative in congress, members of the first state legislature, and three justices of the supreme court. Augustus Kountze, afterward a very prominent banker at Omaha and New York, was the first treas- urer. He was treasurer of the territory from January 1, 1862, until he became state treasurer when the territory was admitted into the union on March 1, 1867. James Sweet was elected treasurer at the reg- ular election of 1868 and held the office from January 21, 1869, to Janu- ary 11, 1871. At the election of October 11, 1859, he was a candidate on the republican ticket for the office of territorial treasurer and received 2,644 votes against 3,683 cast for William W. Wyman, his democratic opponent. He was a resident of Nebraska City, continuously, from May, 1857 to May, 1866.
Throughout the territorial period there was hostility between the two sections divided by the Platte River, but although there was a preponderance of population in the southern section, so long as the executive officers were appointed at Washington it could not get a gov- ernor friendly to its project of removing the capital from Omaha to some point south of the troublesome stream. At the first election of state officers, however, a governor of and for the South Platte was chosen, and under his aggressive leadership removal was at once ac- complished. But the more difficult task was to keep the long coveted prize. The first requirement was to erect a capitol and other public buildings with the proceeds of the sale of lots in the projected capital city. James Sweet was one of a group of men from Nebraska City who undertook to buy enough lots to give the scheme a substantial start. Though the act of removal required that the proceeds of the sales of lots should be deposited in the state treasury, the astute mana- gers of the adventure flouted the law rather than trust the precious funds to the custody of Treasurer Kountze, who was of and for Omaha. So they made Sweet the custodian. In furtherance of this safety first policy, Governor Butler procured the choice of Sweet for treasurer at the election next following the act of removal. The other three of the first state officers, being safe for the south side scheme, were re- elected.
But, though Sweet was true to his specific trust, he paid dear for his whistle. When he declined to become a candidate for the treas- urership because he could not afford to hold it on the salary of four hundred dollars, Governor Butler advised him that such a meagre com- pensation was specified in the constitution with the understanding that the treasurers would make use of the balances for their personal profit and thus get adequate payment for their services. Presently the treas- urer and the auditor-John Gillespie-proposed to invest $25,000 of the permanent school fund in territorial and state warrants, which was authorized by statute. "A short time after," as Mr. Sweet publicly re- lated, "a gentleman from Omaha, some way connected with the Repub- lican newspaper, appeared at the state treasurer's office and asked me not to advocate or urge the investment of the permanent school funds in general fund warrants. Said he had formed a syndicate of men in Omaha with plenty of money to buy up all the general fund, territorial, and state warrants, and after they had done so then Gillespie and I could change our minds and urge the investment of the school funds in the warrants. Told my interviewer, 'I am not a thief and will have nothing to do with any such conspiracy to rob the state'." Consequent-
ly, as Mr. Sweet asserted, a bill was passed requiring the treasurer to keep on hand the identical funds deposited in the treasury, thus de- priving him of the opportunity of using them to his own profit and con- fining his compensation to the beggarly salary. Soon afterward the legislature changed the law so as to permit loaning the school funds to private persons on their own security. Consequently some twenty-five needy next friends of the administration procured loans, many of them on worthless or inadequate security, resulting in a great scandal and much loss to the state. One of these lame duck loans, $10,000, was to A. C. Tichenor, nominal proprietor of the Tichenor House, in Lincoln, afterward called the Oriental Hotel, with only a third mortgage on the property for security. The state brought suit against Sweet for the face of the loan and interest, whereupon he agreed to pay the principal and part of the interest. 'He made the last payment in 1879.
In 1871 Governor Butler was impeached on eleven articles, or causes of action, the first one charging that he had misappropriated to his personal use money belonging to the school fund, $16,881.26 in amount; and on this article he was convicted and removed from of- fice. The defense turned on the contention that the governor deposited the money in the treasury and then borrowed it, and he tried to persuade Sweet to testify to the truth of this contention, which he stoutly refused to do on the ground that to comply would not only be perjury, but would make him and his bondsmen liable for the misap- plied funds. So the plucky treasurer had the last word if not the last laugh touching the most notorious and perhaps the most tragic scan- dal in the history of the state.
Sweet established the first bank in Lincoln, but his young nephew, Nelson C. Brock, conducted its business and also that of the state treas- ury. Sweet continued to live in Nebraska City and made only occa- sional visits to Lincoln. He testified that he knew nothing about the loan of the school money to the governor, or his appropriation of it to his own use, until a year after the transaction occurred. The evi- dence showed that Brock, as banker, credited Butler's account with the money. Nine of the twelve senators who constituted the jury of the court of impeachment and found him guilty on this charge, evidently decided that the money was not deposited in the treasury at all. Mr. Brock, one of the few surviving actors in this typical drama of our western frontiers, is still in active business in Lincoln. It appeared that the money was used by the governor to build his "mansion," which, much made over, is now the home of the Country Club of . Lincoln.
In compassing removal of the capital Nebraska City had the rather slim satisfaction of beating Omaha at her own game, but afterward had the chagrin of finding out that she, too, had paid dear, very dear, for her whistle. For, by establishing Lincoln she destroyed her own certain prospect of being always one of the most important cities in the state, and the probability of remaining the second city. Moreover, it is at least doubtful that the loss of the capital injured her rival at all.
Even J. Sterling Morton's wonted clear foresight was temporarily clouded at this critical juncture in the fortune of the town of which he had been almost from its beginning a tutelary patron, by the illusory scheme of hurting Omaha, a relative long distance rival, by starting another rival almost in the beneficiary's dooryard. So that his decrial of the misadventure when the pudding soon came to be proved in the eating lacked the full force of an I told you so.
Passing of the Nebraska Pioneer
The territorial pioneers, some of whom had moved on many times before they settled permanently in Nebraska, are rapidly passing to their very last resting place. The Nebraska History Magazine will record the deaths of these pioneers month by month, beginning with August 15. Territorial pioneers comprise those who settled in Ne- braska within its territorial period-prior to March 1, 1867. The data of these records are accredited to the newspapers in which they are found.
Deaths Since August 15.
John J. Baldwin, born in Jackson county, Iowa, April 24, 1840; died at his home in Plainview, August 15. He crossed the river at Omaha June 9, 1859, and homesteaded in the Missouri valley. Later he lived in Antelope county, and thirty-five years ago moved to Plain- view .- (From the Plainview Republican, August 22.)
John Michael Melcher, 97 years old, died August 22, at Benson. He was born June 1, 1821, at Brandenburg, Germany, came to America in 1848; settled first in Wisconsin; in 1865 moved to Nebraska, taking a homestead in Cuming county. It took him five and a half weeks to make the trip west. The boys drove the cattle and sheep and the older people rode in wagons drawn by oxen and horses .- (From the Cuming County Democrat, West Point, August 30.)
Mrs. David Wittwer, of Humboldt, died September 18. She was born in Richardson county on December 3, 1860, and lived there all her
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Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days
life .- (From The Humboldt Leader, September 26.)
James Allison Walker died at his home in Murray, September 20, aged eighty years. He came to Nebraska from Pennsylvania in 1861, settling first at Rock Bluffs .- (From the Nehawka News, September 26.)
W. H. Banning, eighty-one years old, who had lived near Union for the past sixty years, died September 25 .- (From the Morning World-Herald, September 26.)
Mary Ann Allen, of Overton, died September 19. She was born at Winterset, Iowa, October 9, 1864, and moved to Nebraska with her parents in the year of her birth .- (From the Ashland Gazette, Septem- ber 26.)
Albert E. Rickley, son of John Rickley one of the founders of Columbus, and who was born in that town November 7, 1858, died at Hobart, Oklahoma, September 26 .- (From The Columbus Telegram, October 1.)
Peder Pedersen, born in Denmark, but a resident of Omaha for the last fifty-four years, died September 27. He drove ox teams haul- ing freight wagons between Omaha and Virginia City, Montana, in 1864, and was afterward a carriage builder in Omaha .- (From The Omaha Daily Bee, September 28.)
Mrs. Frederica Kleihauer, born in Germany. January 20, 1843, herself mother of twelve children, died at her home in Auburn, Sep- tember 17. She settled on a farm near Johnson in 1865 .- (From the Nemaha County Herald, September 20.)
Susan Catherine Whorton died at the home of Mrs. Gilbert Blauser, near Diller, September 2. She was born in Effingham county, Illinois, July 30, 1838; married to Rev .. L. B. Whorton, a Baptist preacher, near her home, April 3, 1856; the family removed from Illinois to Cuming county, Nebraska, in 1867, and again to Harbine, Jefferson county, where they have lived ever since. Mr. Whorton died December 14, 1897 .- (From The Diller Record, September .6)
Captain William Harrison Corbin of Alliance died at Monticello, Illinois, September 11. He was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1838; served in the One hundredth Regiment, Penn- sylvania Volunteers, throughout the civil war, rising to the rank of captain; returned to Monticello whence he came to Nebraska in 1867; at first was employed by the Union Pacific Railroad Company; afterward settled in Red Willow county, where he was county judge and county clerk; removed in 1887 to Box Butte county, where he conducted a ranch until 1900, when he became vice president of the Alliance National Bank, holding the office until his death .- (From The Alliance Semi-Weekly Times, September 13.)
The military records show that Mr. Corbin enlisted on August 27, 1861, as a sergeant in Company E, One hundredth Regiment, Penn- sylvania Volunteers; was discharged December 28, 1863; reenlisted, and finally discharged March 14, 1865, with the rank of second lieu- tenant. This organization was distinguished as the Roundhead Regi- ment.
Elijah Sorter, born at Mayfield, Ohio, November 7, 1845, died at his home, near Seward, September 2. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the 150th Regiment, Ohio Volunteers, and served through- out the war. At its close he came west to Iowa; attended the state university at Iowa City for a time; then came to Nebraska, walking all the way; in 1870 took a homestead near Tamora; was married to Miss Elizabeth Pickrel, July 3, 1875, and seven children were born to them. He was a member of the G. A. R. post at Seward .- (From the Seward Independent-Democrat, September 12.)
Mrs. Sarah Nichol of Auburn died September 10, aged eighty-nine years. She was born in Scotland, February 28, 1829; came to Illinois when she was sixteen years of age; was married there in 1854 to William Archibald; soon afterward the family came to Nebraska, taking a homestead in Nemaha county; not long after her husband died, and two years later she was married to Walter Nichol, in Illinois, but they came to Nemaha county and remained permanently .- (From the Nemaha County Herald, September 13.)
Ben Johnston, aged sixty years, died at his home at Steinauer, August 31. He was known all over eastern Nebraska and Kansas as a trainer and driver of fast horses. His father, who was born at Sterling, Nebraska, November 23, 1857, was a pioneer preacher; the son lived at a number of towns in Nebraska and Kansas before moving to Steinauer .- (The Pawnee Chief, September 13.)
Christian Bull died at his home in Millard on September, , aged seventy-eight years. He came from Mecklenburg, Germany, in 1865; settled first in Pennsylvania and came to Nebraska two years later. He lived on his farm near Millard from 1876 to 1900 and since 1900, in Millard .- (From the Morning World-Herald, Septem- ber 6.)
Mrs. Mary Ottens died September 4, at Auburn, aged eighty
years. She was a native of Ireland; came to America at the age of sixteen years; a year later, 1855, married in Minnesota to Bernard J. Ottens; they came immediately to Nebraska and settled on a home- stead in what is now known as the Hickory Grove neighborhood, in Nemaha county .- (From the Nemaha County Herald, September 6.)
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