USA > Nebraska > Nebraska history and record of pioneer days, Vol. V > Part 6
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We are especially pleased to have so good a likeness of General Thayer and this, combined with the sketch, will make an interesting chapter in the forthcoming history.
SKETCH
GENERAL JOHN MILTON THAYER
General John Milton Thayer, one of the most distinguish- ed veterans of the Worcester Light Infantry, was born in the town of Bellingham, Massaachusetts, January 24, 1920. He was the ninth child and son of Lieutenant Elias and Ruth (Staples) Thayer, both natives of Mendon, Mass. He gradu- ated from Brown University in 1841; took up the study of law in the office of William Lincoln in Worcester; was admitted to the bar of Worcester County and practiced here until about 1854. While engaged in his profession, he was for a short period editor of the old Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal, a publication which gave promise of becoming noted but which unfortunately through lack of financial backing, had a short existence.
General Thayer was regarded here as a man of consider- able literary and professional ability and one of the most prom- ising members of the bar. He was a member of an old and distinguished New England family of common ancestry with others of the same name who became distinguished in public life, one of whom, Hon. Eli Thaver, of Worcester, became nationally famous thru his advocacy of the admission of Ore- gon into the Union his efforts in making Kansas and its settle- ment by "organized emigration" in the "fifties."
At the age of twenty-two, in the first year after his graduation from college, General Thayer became a member of the "Infantry," which was then designated as a "A Company of Light Infantry," attached to the 8th Regiment, 5th Brigade and 3d Division, of the Mass. Militia. He was appointed Third
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
Lieutenant, July 23, 1842 and second Lieutenant, April 27, 1843, then because of the demands of his profession, he retir- ed from the militia here. He was married in Worcester, on December 17, 1842 to Mary Laura Albee.
In 1854 General Thayer removed to the new Territory of Nebraska and engaged in the practice of law at Omaha, in which he continued until the outbreak of the War of the Re- bellion in 1861.
When the Territorial Militia of Nebraska was organiz- ed in 1855 and a choice was to be made for a' Brigadier Gener- al to command same, Gen. Thayer was selected. As stated by a State of Nebraska official, "by reason of his previous military training in your organization (Worcester Light Infantry) General Thayer was regarded as the best equipped man to be appointed Brigadier General" and he was commissioned as such, retaining this office until outbreak of the Civil War.
On June 30, 1861, he was mustered into the service of the United States as Colonel of the First Nebraska Infantry, which organization subsequently became the First Nebraska Caval- ry. This regiment had a good record in the war, participat- ing in the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and elsewhere. On November 1, 1862, General Thayer was honor- ably discharged as Colonel, by reason of his acceptance on that date of an appointment as Brigadier General of Volunteers, re- signing his commission at the end of the war and receiving his discharge on July 19, 1865.
From 1867 to 1871, General Thayer was United States Senator from Nebraska; in 1875 he was appointed by Presi- dent Grant Governor of Wyoming Territory and from 1887 to 1891 he was Governor of Nebraska.
His death occurred at Lincoln, Nebraska, March 19, 1906, at the age of 86. When the news of his death reached Wor- cester by Associated Press dispatches, there were a number of old members of the bar and ex-member of the militia living who remembered him when a citizen of Worcester.
General Thayer became a citizen of Nebraska when it was a young and somewhat turbulent territory, The country, outside of Omaha and a very few other places was very thinly settled and there was considerable lawlessness and disregard of civilized authority, especially on the part of the Indians, of whom there were a great number in and surrounding the territory and with these elements the military forces of the territory had more or less trouble.
The most notable occasion in which General Thayer played a leading part was the so-called "Pawnee War of 1859" which consisted of a stern chase after the marauding red men by a volunteer force under General Thayer. The Indians compris-
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
ed practically the entire tribe of "Pawnees" and while this con- flict did not result in bloodshed, this was due altogether to the coolness, daring and quick-wittedness of the general, who- realizing fully the responsibility resting upon him and the great risk he was taking, ordered his force of only one hundred and ninety-four mounted men, with one small piece of field ar- tillery, to charge the Indian who were in camp and numbered fourteen hundred armed warriors, constituting the fighting force of the tribe that numbered altogether about five thou- sand males, females and children.
The story of this campaign has been told by various par- ties but the best and undoubtedly the most truthful account has been related by General Thayer himself, who modestly attributed his success to the fact that every man of his small force was a trained frontiersman, of courage and daring. They were thoroughly incensed at the Indians, many of them hav- ing suffered by their continual raids and all were anxious to retaliate. The very audacity of the charge took the red men "off their feet" and caused their complete surrender without the loss of a life and could not be considered otherwise than a most notable achievement.
In connection with this campaign, there was a story which was not given general publicity until many years after the incident occurred. It was told by General Thayer at a meeting of the Nebraska State Historical Society, January 10, 1900, the particulars of which are given in the published re- port of the society for that year, furnished through the kind- ness of its Superintendent, Addison E. Sheldon.
It appears that when news of the uprising of the "Paw- nees" first reached the Capitol at Omaha, brought in by cour- iers from the regions along the Elkhorn river, where the In- dians were driving out the settlers, burning their homes and devastating their settlements, the Governor of the territory was absent and the duties of governorship fell upon the then secretary, Honorable J. Sterling Morton (afterwards Secre- tary of Agriculture under President Cleveland.) Because of the exigency of the moment, Acting Governor Morton issued orders to General Thayer to recruit a force of volunteers im- mediately and set out to rescue the settlers and subjugate the Indians.
Acting in strict accord with his orders from the Acting Governor, General Thayer started with such force as he was able to raise for the seat of the trouble. It appears however, that the Governor himself had learned of the affair and the start of the expedition and General Thayer had not been out more than two days before he was overtaken by the territor- ial Governor, who, unfortunately, was very much under the
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
influence of liquor and very far from being in a tractable frame of mind. He immediately tried to assume command of the expedition and issued some orders which threatened to cause a revolt and actual disbandment unless something was promptly done. General Thayer had no time to consult with anyone at headquarters-there were no quick means of com- munication-and realizing the temper of his man and the fu- tility of trying to reason with his drunken Governor, His Com- mander-in-Chief, he immediately placed him under arrest; had him placed in an ambulance wagon under guard and kept him there until the force had met and overcome the Indians.
General Thayer felt very sure that because of the fact that he was out there in an unbroken wilderness, where no law or authority, except that of "might," prevailed, he was justi- fied in his course of action. The-force under him was purely voluntary-not even enlisted-and he felt that the emergency called for prompt and drastic action, such as would command the respect of his men-and it did. The Indians were overtak- en and thoroughly subdued; the Governor sobered up and the incident of his arrest seems to have been forgotten, so far as any "official" action went.
General Thayer was regarded by the people of Nebraska as one of the state's most distinguished citizens. His civil and military record there covered a period of more than fifty years, from 1854 to 1906. He was buried in the beautiful Wyuka cemetery, adjoining the city of Lincoln, where a hand- some monument marks his grave.
Everyone familiar with the townsite of the city of Scottsbluffs twenty years ago recalls how it was distinguished above other places in the North Platte valley by the beautiful young groves of cottonwood planted by the early settlers. At that time these cottonwoods were sap- lings, just about tall enough to hide a horse. They gave the townsite an attractive appearance which was certainly some contribution to the future metropolis of the North Platte valley. Those trees now shade the city and the Scottsbluff Star-Herald notes that these cottonwood pioneers are now being removed from the business blocks by axe and saw.
Rev. Thomas L. Sexton died in Lincoln, November 29, 1922, aged 83. Dr. Sexton came to Seward as a Presbyterian minister in 1882 and was for forty years one of the leaders of his denomination in the state, a strong, high-minded spirit, a Union soldier in the Civil War.
A fire at Blair December 1 burned the millinery store of Mrs. T. C. Hilton, thereby calling attention to the fact that she had been continuous- ly in the millinery business at that place since the spring of 1869. Her husband, L. F. Hilton, was editor for many years of the Blair Pilot and his name familiar in the early newspaper annals of the state.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
SITE OF PLUM CREEK MASSACRE
Visited by President Harvey and Secretary Sheldon of the State Historical Society-A Smooth Plat of Unbroken Prairie in the Midst of a Cornfield on the Oregon Trail About Ten Miles Southeast of Lexington
In October, 1922, President Harvey and Superintendent Sheldon visited the site of the Plum Creek Massacre on the south side of the Platte river, about ten miles from Lexington. We were guided to the place by County Surveyor Beattie, of Dawson County, one of the early pioneers of the region.
The site is located near the center of an eighty acre corn- field and about sixty rods north of the section line highway. The land is part of the Dilworth ranch owned by C. J. Dil- worth, former attorney general of Nebraska. The murdered party of emigrants were buried by the soldiers who arrived soon after the massacre. Other persons were subsequently buried in the same plot of ground. It is a perfectly level tract ยท about one-fourth acre in extent, about a quarter of a mile from the banks of Plum Creek. The Oregon Trail wound its way across this level bench of prairie, crossing Plum Creek at a point about a mile west of the site where the dead are buried. The wagon tracks of the old trail are clearly visible even today. Several gravestones mark the site of the massacre, some of them broken. There are several individual graves and one or two large mounds apparently marking the common grave of a number of people.
The owner of the land has carefully refrained from culti- vating this little patch of Nebraska sod in the midst of his field. It is inaccessible to the public, except by walking across the cultivated land. A strip of land for a public drive leading in to the burial site should be secured. A worthy monument should be erected at the spot. The survey of the Burlington railroad extension from Newark up the south side of the Platte to North Platte and Bridgeport runs across this bench land near the line of the Oregon Trail. The manage- ment of the Burlington road could do a noble deed and add to the historic interest of this line, when constructed, by bring- ing this little consecrated strip with its pioneer graves into its right of way and making the monument one of the conspicuous historic marks upon its historic highway.
The nearest to an eye witness account of the Plum Creek massacre in existence was written by James Green, of Central City, for the annual meeting of the State Historical Society a few years ago. Mr. Green is now seventy-eight years old. His account of the massacre, which he narrowly escaped with
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
his own life, has sufficient interest to warrant printing at this time when the extension of the Burlington railroad is appar- ently an event of the near future. His story is as follows :
In the spring of 1860 I went with my parents to Pike's Peak, where I passed the time until January, 1862. Then I, with my brother, S. S. Green, now of Schuyler, Nebr., started, each with an ox team, from Denver to Omaha after freight. From January to November in the y ear 1862 we made these round trips from Denver to Omaha, driving 3,600 miles in eleven months with oxmobile.
In the s pring of 1863 my brother went to Montana. At this time I exchanged my cattle for a mule team and made one trip with them in the early summer of sixty three. While in Omaha I became entangled in the famous Judge Tator trial for the murder of his friend, Isaac Neff and I think I was the most important witness in the case. Judge Tator was con- victed and executed some time in the fall of 1863. It was, I believe, the first legal execution in the territory.
Having become highly taken up with the country around Shinn's ferry, about seven miles west of the present city of Schuyler, I came back from Denver and squatted on a piece of land where the present station of Edholm now stands. On May thirteenth following I was married to Miss Elizabeth Garrett who lived with her parents twenty miles east of me in Saunders county. Not long after this, some time in July, I got a hankering for the old Rockies again and we loaded our traps in the wagon and started across the Plains, fully expect- ing to make our future home some where along the foot of the Rocky mountains. At the time we started there were faint rumors that the Indians were going to cause trouble and on ar- riving at Fort Kearney, 125 miles west, the officers there were advising the emigrants to travel in large companies for self- protection. But, being perfectly familiar with the country and also with the Indians, for they were always in evidence along the route, we proceeded on our way and went as far as Cottonwood Springs, later Fort McPherson. On our arrival at this point the air was full of rumors of depredation further west and it was said one man had been killed and his stock run off. After due consideration we concluded the best thing to do was to turn back and wait a year, when perhaps the In- dian troubles would be settled.
So early in the morning, August 6, we turned our oxen to the east and drove to Gillman's ranch, twelve miles east, and went into camp one half mile east of the ranch on the bank of the river. The river here was full of little tow heads and small channels a few inches deep trickling over the sand. After we had been in camp perhaps one and one half hours and I was
(Continued in Vol. V No. 4)
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
DEATH OF MRS. JOHN PILCHER
A Famous Woman of French and Indian Blood Whose Family Connects the Present Time With the Earliest White Settlement in Nebraska
Mrs. Harriett Pilcher, widow of John Pilcher, died at Walthill December 14, 1922, in her eighty-second year. She was born at Philadelphia August 28, 1841, and with her par- ents made the long journey by ox team arriving at Omaha on December 1, 1855. Her father's name was Arlington, the village being named for him. A little later she moved to De- catur, where in 1860 she married John Pilcher. Ten children were born of this marriage and eighty-seven grandchildren and great grandchildren at the time of her death. Eight of her grandsons served as soldiers in the World War, one of them being wounded in the Argonne.
John Pilcher was the son of Major Pilcher, leading Indian trader in the Nebraska region a century ago. His trading posts along the Missouri river were famous resorts of Indians and white men. In 1823 he became president of the Ameri- can Fur Company at St. Louis and in 1838 he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for this region. He died in 1843. The mother of his son John was an Omaha Indian woman.
The children of early fur traders and Indian women have been the great connecting link between the savage customs and traditions of the Indian tribes and the civilization of the white man. Speaking the languages of both the Indian tribes and the white men, and knowing from childhood the ways of the Indian, they became not only the interpreters between the white and red men at their councils but, even more, the inter- preters of Indian life to the civilized world. Without their aid we should have inevitably lost the large part of the know- ledge of Indian customs, folklore and religion which is such a valuable storehouse for future literature and perpetual in- terpreter of prehistoric times to present day people.
The Pilcher home, on a beautiful site two miles west of Walthill, has for many years been a center of all that was hest in both Indian and frontier white society. Six daugh- 1 ers in the family made an attractive center for many young men. All the daughters married well. Mrs. Pilcher was a deeply religious woman, full of sympathy and helpfulness for Indian or white people. Her name will always be an honored one in Nebraska history and in the annals of the Omaha Indian tribe.
NEBRASKA AND RECORD OF
HISTORY PIONEER DAYS
Vol. V
October-December, 1922
No. 4
CONTENTS
Letter from Editor Edson, Filley Spotlight.
.
50
Rock Bluff-Grange Song Book-Joel Warner 51
Tom Powers, Cattleman - James E. Newsome, U. P. porter 52
J. P. Dunlap-Pioneer Nurseryman in Butler
County
53-56
Legend of Weeping Water
57-59
Hastings Monument-Agate Springs-North
Platte Log Cabin
59
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 Elnier 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.
Section 3. That said 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 arc 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. 5 October-December, 1922 No. 4
George T. Edson, editor of the Spotlight at Filley, in sending the Historical Society the most complete file of that publication in exist- ence takes occasion to add a few remarks of general interest to the pub- lic and of special interest to newspaper publishers in Nebraska. From it we quote.
"The Filley Spotlight was established in November, 1915, but the files for the first two years were burned with the printing office in March, 1918. The paper was again started August 18, 1918, and the files are fairly complete from that date. A few are missing, but none are to be supplied from this office.
"I will entrust them to your care, hoping that in future years some- thing may be found in them of interest or value. The editor has been careful in the collection of vital statistics and has endeavored to give a good deal of information in the obituaries. I have often inquired the name of the father of some aged resident, and thus recorded a genera- tion of the family which will be unknown in our next generation. The earlier copies are poorly printed, owing to the handicaps under which the publisher worked after the fire which cleaned out his plant. In the interim between November, 1917 and March 1918, I was in Mexico, and from March, 1918, until the following August I was figuring on how I could resume publication and trying to earn enough money to buy a junk plant.
"Hereafter I shall mail the Historical Society regular numbers of the Spotlight, which may be added to the file I am sending you. I am a well wisher of the Society and hope to see it housed in commodious quarters some day, with ample facilities to care for its collections."
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
SONGS of THE GRANGE Set to Music and Dedicated to The Order of Patrons of Husbandry In the United States
Philadelphia : J. A. Wagenseller, Printer, 23 N. 6th St. 1874
The above lines represent the title page of a gift to the Historical Society by D. A. Young of Plattsmouth. This par- ticular copy was used by the old Rock Bluff Grange of Cass county. The songs sung by the grangers in those years were a great influence in that society which did the first work in the field of farmers' organization of Nebraska. The tunes in many cases are familiar. The words breathe a high type of fellowship and motive. Among the hundred songs of this book, one stanza may be quoted as a sample of its sentiments :
The farmer's the chief of the nation The oldest of nobles is he; How blest beyond others his station, From want and from envy how free; His patent was granted in Eden, Long ages and ages ago; O, the farmer, the farmer forever; Three cheers for the plow, spade and hoe!
The oldest librarian in Nebraska (perhaps in the world) is Rev. Joel Warner of Hooper, now in his eighty-fifth year. He is still ac- tively and keenly interested in the development of the public library there. Mr. Hooper has been a resident of Nebraska for fifty-eight years, most of them spent as minister of Presbyterian churches. He has been candidate on the Prohibition Party ticket for governor and has lived to see a dry nation-once regarded as an impossible dream. In the winter of 1865-6 Mr. Hooper taught school at Bellevue and organized there the first literary society in the state so far as his information goes. His active memory recalls the great prairie fire which swept over Elk Hill at Bellevue, afterward the site of Bellevue College. It was like a scene from Dante's Inferno. Mr. Warner writes: "In those years as soon as the grass was dry in the fall, the great fires would sweep over the prairie and destroy all vegetation, leaving the roots exposed to the sun's rays, the winter's frost, and fierce winds. It was no wonder that emigrants who passed over the country late in the fall or early in the spring pronounced it a desert land, since far as the eye could reach nothing was seen but the blackened prairie."
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