USA > Nebraska > Nebraska history and record of pioneer days, Vol. V > Part 4
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Enjoin on them habits of industry. Teach them to abhor idleness and the accompanying vices-such as gambling and the like.
Urge them to cease the use of ardent spirits, for intem- perance is their greatest enemy.
Encourage the young to go to school. And let all fear God and keep his commandments.
A great responsibility rests on you and the other Chiefs -and I ardently hope you may all be found equal to any emergency that may arise in your country and among your people.
I cannot impress too strongly on you the necessity of at all times conducting yourself properly. Your example should be such as to inspire your people with confidence. Much de- pends on this. I confidently hope you will appreciate the deep responsibility that rests on you, and set an example of dili- gence, temperance, patience and kindness before your people.
I will often think of you when far, far away, and shall be anxious to hear the news from your country, hoping that it may always be good.
Your friend, GEO. W. MANYPENNY. Commissioner.
The original of the above interesting historical document is now in the museum of the Nebraska State Historical Society. It is presented by Richard William Shunatona, representative of this Society to the Otoe tribe. Mr. Shunatona is very much interested in the work of this Society and especially in preservation of the history and traditions of the Otoe tribe. The story of his family on the opposite page of this magazine is an interesting contribution to this history.
28
NEBRASKA HISTORY
EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS
John R. Swanton is one of the most painstaking students and attractive writers upon American Indians. His latest book is bulletin 73 of the Bureau of American Ethnology- just issued. The book gives a condensed story of the Creek tribe from their first contact with white people. The tribe was one of those encountered by the Spanish explorer, Ferdi- nand De Soto, in 1539. They then lived in the Georgia region, had well-built villages, cultivated fields and were fierce and warlike. Ever since that time the Creeks have been among the bravest of the southern tribes. General Jackson found them such in his Indian campaigns.
For Nebraska readers Mr. Swanton's last volume has chief interest from its account of the Siouan tribes on the At- lantic coast. These tribes, related by blood and language to the Nebraska Otoe, Omaha, Ponca and Sioux tribes, have al- most disappeared. They have been the subject of special stor- ies by Mr. Mooney and the facts brought out by him go far to confirm the traditions of the Nebraska tribes that their an- cestors journeyed a long distance from the east into the Miss- issippi valley and thence up the Missouri to their home in this state.
A valuable feature of Mr. Swanton's book is a series of ten maps showing the location of the various southern Indian tribes as described by the early white explorers and their gradual migration westward to their present home in Okla- homa.
J. H. Sweet, editor of the Nebraska City Daily Press, writes the fol- lowing very interesting comment on the custom of New Year's Carriers address. We hope other editors will give their recollections and present practice:
I was very much interested in your article on "Carriers' Addresses" which appeared in a recent copy of "Nebraska History." You wonder why the custom did not survive.
The custom does survive in Nebraska City. Our carriers take out with them on each New Year's Day an "address' for their patrons. Us- ually the boys are rewarded. The "Address," however, is somewhat dif- ferent from that which was in vogue in the early sixties and seventies and has more utilitarian purpose. It is usually a calendar or something of that sort.
I have tried to stop the custom, but I have found it almost impossible to do so. The carriers expect it and the patrons, good naturedly, have asked that it be continued. Personally, I have felt that the boys' monthly compensation should be sufficient, but, apparently, my opinion has not been affirmed by the higher court.
I wonder if these addresses are still given out by other newspaper carriers-that is, in other portions of the state.
29
NEBRASKA HISTORY
PORTRAIT OF WM. J. BRYAN
From Mrs. Josephine Hull, of Los Angeles, California, the Historical Society recently received the gift of a fine portrait of William J. Bryan, and this letter:
Yours received and was glad to know you received the picture of Wm. J. Bryan all right. In regard to how I came to make it was through request of Miss Butterfield, superintend- ent of the Art department of the Nebraska building at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha, who came to my Stu- dio and asked me to paint several life size portraits to be ex- hibited there, as the Nebraska Artists' donation, I being a resi- dent of Nebraska at that time, 1898, and as my husband and I were great admirers of William J., we took it with us to Cal- ifornia-but since his death, and my son's wife's death, am at present here with him.
The portraits were done in water color and India ink, and were of ex-senator Allen of Madison, Nebraska, Governor Hol- comb, ex-Governor Dawes of Crete, Nebraska, and ex-Senator Allison of Iowa, which hung in the Governor's parlors during the Fair, except that of Governor Holcomb which they draped in flags and hung it on balcony, over fountain in center of main building, opposite entrance, and also selected my five, from the many and hung them over the speakers opening day. Should there be any other information, would gladly give it. JOSEPHINE HULL.
AN ADDRESS BY HARDY W. CAMPBELL
At Alliance on February 15 deserves place in the historical record. The subject of his address was "Summer Tillage" and was a condensa- tion of twenty-five years experiment and experience west of the Missouri River. Mr. Campbell was not the inventor, nor the discoverer, of what is called "Dry Farming." He was and is its chief publicity agent and promoter. The plan in its essential features was used in California, Utah, and other dry regions many years before it was tried by Mr. Camp- bell in South Dakota and brought to Nebraska by him in the early nine- ties. A propaganda, organized by Mr. Campbell and others, had its chief center of distribution in Lincoln, the home of Mr. Campbell for a number of years. The vast literature upon dry farming, now filling thousands of printed pages, started here. Looking back over thirty years it can now be seen what a great movement then began. The high plains of western Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado have become the homes of thousands of successful farmers. The scientific methods for raising crops on scant rainfall, and their limitations, are now fairly well established. Successful crops cannot be grown in the absence of water. Hot winds like those of 1894 and little rainfall as in 1910 will reduce dry farming yields below the point of profit. But the average yield in aver- age years may be doubled and trebled by the application of present dry farming methods. H. W. Campbell, as the largest contributor to the prac- tice and the propaganda of this method, deserves high rank in the future history of Nebraska. His present residence is at Los Angeles where he is in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad. A daughter, Mrs. A. E. Yarter, lives at Alliance.
30
NEBRASKA HISTORY
THE SIOUX-PAWNEE WAR.
Mr. S. C. Bassett ,a member of the Historical Society board, and one of the most discriminating students of Nebraska history, adds his per- sonal recollection to the story of the last battle field of the Sioux- Pawnee war in a recent letter:
In the last Historical Society quarterly I have just been reading with much pleasure and interest every item of a historical nature, and especially "The Last Nebraska Battlefield of the Sioux-Pawnee War."
The Pawnee hunting expedition route in 1873, from the reservation to the hunting grounds, was up the Platte valley following the public highway which ran close beside the Union Pacific railroad. We were liv- ing on our homestead claim a mile distant from this highway. James Ogilvie, station agent at Gibbon, informed us that hundreds of Pawnee Indians were coming up the Platte valley going on an annual buffalo hunt on the divide between the Platte and Republican rivers. Train men reported that the Indians had camped, the night before, at a point east of the present village of Shelton, and our family all went to the high- way to see them pass by. It was about the middle of the forenoon when Indians first appeared. First were several hundred Indian men, mount- ed on ponies. Following were ponies dragging tepee poles on which were the camp equipage, these in charge of the women. Bringing up the rear were hundreds of loose ponies driven by the Indian boys and girls.
The procession was more than a mile in length and all our people were deeply interested. It was reported the Indians crossed the Platte near Plum Creek (now Lexington). The divide west of Ft. Kearny and south of the Platte was the last stand of buffalo in Nebraska and very many of our people had hunted the buffalo in that region.
We first learned of the Sioux-Pawnee battle when hundreds of Pawnees were hauled in box cars and on top of freight cars, on the Union Pacific railroad from Plum Creek to a point near the reservation.
From P. M. Hannibal-Howard County.
We came here from Wisconsin in 1871 when there was not a build- ing in this county. About 200 Pawnee Indians camped on the Loup River within a mile of our Danish Colony that numbered only 20 per- sons and the Sioux were not far away and we were not sure but they might come any day. They never troubled us but they did threaten our friends in Valley County who took claims up there in 1872. The Sioux got so close that all the Danes up there left their claims to come down here to stay with us a while. But on their way down the North Loup they met a lot of soldiers going up with a gang of workers to build a fort! That settled the Sioux problem for them and for us! Later, Jeppe Smith became first postmaster of Ord. The post office was on his claim about four miles above where it is now. Peter Mortensen, late state treasurer, was the first school district treasurer there. I was the first teacher here, helping some other Danes to learn good English. I taught the first and second terms of school up there. Andersen, Mortensen and Smith were here before they went up there. We had many a good talk together-"lu the days when we were pioneers-fifty years ago." We got our postoffice here in 1872. Before that our nearest postoffice was Grand Island, with no roads or bridges. We forded the Loup with oxen and got over the sloughs and sand hills the best we could. "In God we trust," was our motto and God helped us all the way.
31
NEBRASKA HISTORY
LOGAN COUNTY-FIRST THINGS.
The Gandy Pioneer gives the following as among the first happen- ings in the history of white men in Logan county. Although possessing a fine body of rich, black, table land and splendid water, the Logan county region was flanked by sand hills and out of the beaten path of land seekers. It was not until the middle eighties, after the construc- tion of the Burlington road across Custer county, that homesteaders settled in considerable numbers in Logan. This record of the earliest settlement deserves wider knowledge and additional detail. It would be quite worth while to know something of the life of Thomas Kirby, the pioneer hunter and trapper:
Thomas Kirby, hunter and trapper, in the summer of 1873, built the first house in Logan county. It was built on the north bank of the Loup River, three-quarters of a mile north of the town of Logan. This house was part dug and part made of cedar logs, there being a big grove of these in the canyon near by.
The canyons surrounding the Clark table were a favorite place for black tailed deer and wild horses ranged on the table land.
In the early days beaver were plenty, also a few otter. They did not bother to trap musk rats as there were plenty of the more valuable and larger fur bearing animals.
In 1876 Charlie Ewing, as part of a cattle company organized at Co- lumbus, Nebraska, brought in a car load of Texas cattle and built a frame house on the north side of the Loup one mile east of Logan, on the land now known as the M. Laughler farm. This was the first frame house built in Logan County.
The Camp Fire girls of Sutton celebrated Arbor Day by planting a red cedar tree to mark the spot where the first white man lived at that place. The man was Luther French who homesteaded in 1870 and built a dug-out on the south bank of School Creek. A secret room was dug with the dugout where his children could hide from Indians when the father was away hunting. Underground rooms were common in the early period of settlement. At the old Fouse ranch on Beaver Creek, a station on the Nebraska City-Denver trail, there was a large underground stable capable of holding a hundred head of stock. This was constructed for defense against Indian attacks, although hostile Indian raids never quite reached the ranch. The "underground fort" at the Fouse ranch is one of the outstanding remembrances of the editor's childhood.
V. J. McGonigle of Jackson, Nebraska, is writing a most interesting series of letters in the Dakota City Herald upon the early white history of that region. Mr. McGonigle is a new member of the Historical So- ciety and promises important help in preserving historical material in that region.
W. A. Anderson settled near Ord on February 1, 1879. There are only a few settlers of that period now living. He is the donor of im- portant early implements to our museum.
A letter from Abraham Lincoln to Judge Reavis of Falls City, father of Congressman Frank Reavis, dated November 5, 1855, is one of the documents treasured in the Reavis family. An extract from the letter reads "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than anything else."
32
NEBRASKA HISTORY
In the soldiers' plat in the San Diego cemetery, I recently came across a grave marked with one of the regulation marble markers, such as are furnished by the government for soldiers, and also with a granite mon- ument. The marker bears this inscription:
"George P. Hall Co. B., 2nd Neb. Cav."
The monument bears the following inscription:
"George P. Hall. April 22, 1841-May 12, 1915 Mary Elizabeth Hall His wife Dec. 28, 1847. GEORGE J. REMSBURG, San Diego, Cal.
A letter from Hon. F. F. Haase, of Emerson, President of the Farm- ers' State Bank and senator from that district in 1917, adds his name to the membership list of the State Historical Society.
The Daughters of the American Revolution in Lincoln have placed a complete set of the Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Historical Library. Mrs. Elsie Mastermann has contributed typewritten copies of the Tedrow and Mastermann families for the manuscript files. The li- brarian desires to acknowledge receipt of gifts from Mr. Dale P. Stough, Mrs. H. R. Fling, Mr. George J. Remsburg, Mr. N. J. Anderson, Mr. T. N. Bobbitt, and the Deborah Avery Chapter, D. A. R.
Mr. George F. Smith of Waterbury, sends a note upon the death of Augustus H. Surber who died there June 15, 1922. He enlisted at 16 years of age in Co. E, Fourth Iowa Infantry, serving three years. He settled in Dixon county in 1883 and was the last surviving veteran of the Civil War at that place.
John Louis Dougherty, vice-president of the Commercial Bank at Liberty, Missouri, writes us a most interesting letter relating to his fam- ily. His father was Lewis B. Dougherty, son of John Dougherty, early Indian trader and United States agent to the Nebraska Indians in the period 1820-1840. His aunt, Annie Elizabeth Dougherty, was born at Fort Atkinson, Aug. 29, 1824 and was therefore one of the first white children born in Nebraska. She married Charles F. Ruff of the United States Army, in 1842 and had four children, three of whom are still liv- ing. She died in Philadelphia, July 11, 1909. The old military records of Fort Atkinson do not give reports of the births at that frontier post, but the editor of this magazine hopes to establish by other reliable evi- dence the birth of the first white child in the present Nebraska region, who may be Annie Elizabeth Dougherty.
Casper Stork, eighty-one, died at Arlington April, 1922. Mr. Stork was a member of the Quincy colony, moving from the city of that name in Illinois to Fontanelle in 1858 and has resided there ever since.
Charles W. Pearsall, court reporter at Omaha, finished thirty-five years service in that profession April 11, 1922. Mr. Pearsall has reported some of the most important trials held in Nebraska, including the Yocum murder trial in the Dismal river region, the Comstock-Richards land fraud cases, Mabray frauds, the Union Pacific mail robbery at Seymour and many others.
STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, CIRCULA- TION, ETC., REQUIRED BY THE ACT OF CONGRESS OF AUGUST 24, 1912
Of
Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days, published quarterly at Lincoln, Nebr., for April, 1922.
State of Nebraska, County of Lancaster, ss.
Before me, a Notary Public in and for the State and county afore- said, personally appeared A. E. Sheldon, who, having been duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that he is the Managing Editor of the Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days, and that the follow- ing is, to the best of his knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership, management (and if a daily paper, the circulation), etc., of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, re- quired by the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied in section 443, Postal Laws and Regulations, printed on the reverse of this form, to wit:
1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, manag- ing editor, and business managers are:
Publisher, Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebr. Editor, A. E. Sheldon, Lincoln ,Nebr.
Managing Editor, A. E. Sheldon, Lincoln, Nebr.
Business Managers, A. E. Sheldon, Lincoln, Nebr.
2. That the owners are: Nebraska State Historical Society.
3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: None.
4. That the two paragraphs next above, giving the names of the owners, stockholders, and security holders, if any, contain not only the list of stockholders and security holders as they appear upon the books of the company but also, in cases where the stockholder or security hold- er appears upon the books of the company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, is given; also that the said two paragraphs contain statements embracing affiant's full knowledge and belief as to the cir- cumstances and conditions under which stockholders and security holders who do not appear upon the books of the company as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity other than that of a bona fide owner; and this affiant has no reason to believe that any other person, association, or corporation has any interest direct or indirect in the said stock, bonds, or other securities than as so stated by him.
A. E. SHELDON, Editor.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 11th day of April 1922. (SEAL) MAX WESTERMANN, Notary Public. (My Commission expires Aug. 4, 1927.)
NEBRASKA AND RECORD OF
HISTORY PIONEER DAYS
0€
Vol. V
July-September, 1922
No. 3
CONTENTS
The Nebraska G. A. R. 33
Chalk Bluff or Happy Jack 34
Freighting-Buffalo Breeding-Pawnee Squaw 35
Skull Creek, Butler County 36
Crist Anderson-Josiah Miner-G. F. Smith 37 Good Old Man-H. W. Brown-Jacob Adriance 38
Whitney Village, Dawes County 39-40
General John M. Thayer 41-46
Site of Plum Creek Massacre
47-48
Death of Mrs. John Pilcher
49
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY LINCOLN
Entered as second class matter February 4, 1918, at the Post Office, Lincoln, Nebraska, under Act August 24, 1912.
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Made a State Institution February 27, 1883.
An act of the Nebraska legislature, recommended by Governor James W. Dawes in his inaugural and signed by him, made the State Historical Society a State institution in the following:
Be it Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska:
Section 1. That the "Nebraska State Historical Society," an or- ganization now in existence-Robt. W. Furnas, President; James M. Woolworth and Elmer S. Dundy, Vice-Presidents; Samuel Aughey, Secretary, and W. W. Wilson, Treasurer, their associates and successors- be, and the same is hereby recognized as a state institution.
Section 2. That it shall be the duty of the President and Secretary of said institution to make annually reports to the governor, as required by other state institutions. Said report to embrace the transactions and expenditures of the organization, together with all historical addresses, which have been or may hereafter be read before the Society or furnished it as historical matter, data of the state or adjacent western regions of country.
Sertion 3. That sa'd reports, addresses, and papers shall be pub- lished at the expense of the state, and distributed as other similar official reports, a reasonable number, to be decided by the state and Society, to be furnished said Society for its use and distribution.
Property and Equipment
The present State Historical Society owns in fee simple title as trustee of the State the half block of land opposite and east of the State House with the basement thereon. It occupies for offices and working quarters basement rooms in the University Library building at 11th and R streets. The basement building at 16th and H is crowded with the collections of the Historical Society which it can not exhibit, including some 15,000 volumes of Nebraska newspapers and a large part of its museum. Its rooms in the University Library building are likewise crowded with library and museum material. The annual inventory of its property returned to the State Auditor for the year 1920 is as follows:
Value of Land, 1/2 block 16th and H $75,000
Value of Buildings and permanent improvements. 35,000
Value of Furniture and Furnishings 5,000
Value of Special Equipment, including Apparatus,
Machinery and Tools 1,000
Educational Specimens (Art, Museum, or other) 74,800
Library (Books and Publications) 75,000
Newspaper Collection 52,395
Total Resources $318,195
Much of this property is priceless, being the only articles of their kind and impossible to duplicate.
NEBRASKA AND RECORD OF
HISTORY PIONEER DAYS
Published Quarterly by the Nebraska Historical Society
Addison E. Sheldon, Editor
Subscription, $2.00 per year
All sustaining members of the Nebraska State Historical Society receive Nebraska History and other publications without further payment.
Vol. V July-September, 1922 No. 3
The Grand Army of the Republic in Nebraska marches on with the flag, its ranks greatly diminished. State Adjutant Harmon Bross gives the present numbers as 149 posts and 1,731 members. Thirty years ago there were 350 posts and nearly 10,000 members. During the year 1922 156 members passed on. Five posts in the state disbanded during the year for lack of membership. Under arrangements made by Adjutant Bross the original records of posts now disbanded are taken in charge by the State Historical Society and carefully preserved for future histori- cal use. A hundred years from now these records will be regarded as treasures of the greatest importance, equal in interest and value to those of the Revolutionary War. We are yet too near the period of the Civil War adequately to estimate the importance to America and to the world of its results. One thought gives a clue to this. America has become the strongest nation in the world, its influence the most powerful in world councils. The influence of America for the peace and good will of the nations is the great hope of the world. How different all this if our great country had been permanently divided by secession.
Peter Berlet died at Avburn, January 27, 1923, aged 82. He was born in France, settled in Nemaha county in 1866 and had a long,success- ful and influential career. He was a member of the Nebraska House of Representatives in 1899 and of the senate in 1901. He was one of a group of French speaking Nebraskans in Nemaha and Richardson coun- ties, where the natives of France and of Germany dwell in peace side by side, even in time of World War.
34
NEBRASKA HISTORY
CHALK BLUFF OR HAPPY JACK
A Land Mark in the North Loup Valley
The Seventh Day Baptist people settled at North Loup fifty years ago. They were an industrious, God-fearing folk, intelligent, inclined to read, rather set in their religious faith and willing to debate the subject with any one who was rash enough to run the risk. They made a settlement that "stuck." The beautiful farms were opened along the valley. The more adventurous climbed the hills and made good there. Theirs was the common experience of pioneers in Nebraska fifty years ago. The grasshopper made his abode with them. The Sioux Indians occasionally raided down the Loup. Dry weath- er and hot winds encouraged religious zeal by removing the temptation of much earthly possessions.
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