USA > Nebraska > Nebraska history and record of pioneer days, Vol. VI > Part 7
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By the death of Mrs. William F. Stolley, aged 86, at Grand Island, January 31, 1923, one of the best known pioneer women of that region has gone. Mrs. Stolley was a native of Holstein, Germany. She came to America on a sailing ship, landing at New Orleans when she was twelve years old. In 1856 she was married at Davenport, Iowa, and came with her husband the next year as a member of the German colony to Grand Island. The story of that pioneer colony is one of the most thrilling of the Nebraska frontier and its final victory over hardships and dangers one of the most notable in the history of our state. Mrs. Stolley was the mother of ten children among them Emil G. Stolley member of the Constitutional Convention in 1920.
Grant L. Shumway of Scottsbluff calls attention to the Fickler's Ranch, sometimes known as Scottsbluff Pony Express and Stage Station. It was located a few miles east of where Gering stands now and the re- mains of sod walls still exist. Early travellers on the overland trail mention the place but the actual time of its construction and ownership are in doubt.
The story of the great roundup at Camp Clark Bridge (sometimes called Sidney Bridge) across the North Platte river in the spring of 1881 was told recently at Bridgeport by W. E. Guthrie at a noon day luncheon of the Lions' Club. At that time the big cattle outfits con- trolled the panhandle region of northwest Nebraska. The business was highly profitable. Thousands of cattle covered the country and hundreds of cowboys were employed. On June 1, 1881, about 300 cowboys started from the Camp Clark Bridge and covered the entire range from the Union. Pacific railroad to the Niobrara river in one great roundup. It was the great event of the land, long remembered around the fading campfires as the cowboys were crowded from the range.
Joseph Wilkenson, 2627 Davenport Street, Omaha, was one hundred and one years old October 31. He has lived in Omaha since 1880. Bought from his savings as an iron moulder a little farm of six acres forty years ago. The farm was sold recently for enough to make a compe- tence for himself and family even though they might live for another one hundred years,-one of the many examples of the increased value of land arising from the increase of population.
Margaret Engbery Crisler writes an interesting story in the State Journal regarding Table Rock, in Pawnee county, one of the historical sites in Nebraska. Originally the rock looked like a toadstool, but the top became loosened and slid down the hill. The rocky wall there is a favorite place for people to carve their names. One of the names carved upon the rock was that of old John Brown, the anti-slavery lead- er who made frequent journeys through this part of Nebraska in the earlier years.
At Spencer, Boyd county, James T. Woods, said to have been the first white settler in that county after it was opened to settlement in 1890, died November 16, 1922, aged eighty-five years. He was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War.
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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, Sec- retary, 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 work- ing quarters ground floor 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 like- wise crowded with library and museum material. The annual inventory of its property returned to the State Auditor for the year 1922 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, Ma- chinery 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.
1923
Beginnings of Nebraska Literature 1
NEBRASKA AND RECORD OF
HISTORY PIONEER DAYS
Published Quarterly by the Nebraska State 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. VI
July-September, 1923
No. 3
CONTENTS
Page
A Tribute to Robert Harvey, Grant Lee Shumway
73
Portrait of Robert Harvey 74
Robert Harvey, Sketch-The Editor 75-76
War Time Speech of Charles H. VanWyck 76-78
Annual Meeting January. 16, 1924. 79
A Nebraska Bean, Dr. M. R. Gilmore. 79
Letter from Baron Marc de Villiers. 80
The Fight for Prohibition in Nebraska (with portrait), S. D. Fitchie. 81-88
Western Newspaper Men, H. C. Parkhurst. Historical Notes-Richardson County Poem-
89
The November, 1871, Storm-Early Days in
Webster County -- How Grasshoppers Stopped
Union Pacific Trains-First Nebraska Creamery-Death of Charles Wooster-Wil-
liam Hawxby, Pioneer, Etc., Etc. 92-96
Entered as second class matter February 4, 1918, at the Post Office, Lincoln, Nebraska, under Act August 24, 1912.
Printed December, 1923
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Founded September 25, 1878
The Nebraska State Historical Society was founded Sep- tember 25, 1878, at a public meeting held in the Commercial Hotel in Lincoln. About thirty well known citizens of the State were present. Robert W. Furnas was chosen president and Professor Samuel Aughey, secretary .. Previous to this date, on August 26, 1867, the State Historical Society and Library Association was incorporated in order to receive from the State the gift of the block of ground, now known as Hay- market Square. This original Historical Association held no meetings. It was superseded by the present State Historical Society.
PRESENT GOVERNING BOARD
Executive Board -- Officers and Elected Members
President, Hamilton B. Lowry, Lincoln
1st V-President, W. E. Hardy, Lincoln
2nd V-President, Rev. M. A. Shine, Plattsmouth
Secretary, Addison E. Sheldon, Lincoln
Treasurer, Don L. Love, Lincoln
James F. Hanson, Fremont
Samuel C. Bassett, Gibbon John F. Cordeal, McCook
Novia Z. Snell, Lincoln
*Robert Harvey, Lincoln
Ex Officio Members
Charles W. Bryan, Governor of Nebraska Samuel Avery, Chancellor of University of Nebraska J. S. Kroh, Ogallala, President of Nebraska Press Association Andrew M. Morrissey, Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Nebraska.
*Died, Nov. 1, 1923.
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A TRIBUTE TO ROBERT HARVEY
The following tribute to Robert Harvey, pioneer of Nebraska and state surveyor, was written by Grant Lee Shumway, who as state com- missioner of public lands and buildings, was associated with Mr. Harvey: He ran the lines of the frontier leas When buffalo roamed the plain, His cheeks were brown by western breeze, He laughed at storm and rain,
He laid the corners across the sand To far-off vanishing ken, And outlined leagues of the golden land For homes of children of men,
He treaded the trails in Indian wars 'Til red-men were subdued, He knew the glory of western stars, And camped in primitive wood,
He saw the cattlemen come and go In the pageant of the years, They swept the plain of the buffalo And filled it with Texas steers.
And on they went in the Big stampede Far over the Great Divide, Then frontier trails of the grangers lead To settlements far and wide;
The little grey house of western lore Rose out of the native sod, And commerce came with a rush and roar Across the prairies of God.
So Robert Harvey, of earlier times, You traced the prairies and streams, You saw folks coming from other climes The people who builded dreams.
But you have gone to the New Frontiers In the land of the Is-to-Be, Where boundless spaces and changing years, Are merged in Eternity.
GRANT LEE SHUMWAY.
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73
ROBERT HARVEY 1844-1923
Pioneer, Homesteader, Surveyor, President, Oregon Trail Commission, Historian of Howard County
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ROBERT HARVEY
State Surveyor, President of Oregon Trail Commission, Former President of Nebraska State Historical Society.
A Brief Sketch of His Life and His Service to Nebraska.
The Nebraska State Historical Society mourns the loss of one of its most active and efficient members and officers, in the person of Robert Harvey who died at his home in Lincoln, November 1, 1923.
Mr. Harvey was born in Ashland county, Ohio, January 5, 1844. He moved with his parents to Noble county, Indiana, where he grew up on a farm, attended country school. He enlisted in Company D, 74th Indiana Volunteer Infantry in August, 1862, and saw many marches and battles in the south. After being mustered out of the U. S. service he became a student in Adrian and Albion colleges, Michigan. He was especially interested in history and surveying.
In 1869 Mr. Harvey moved to Nebraska, having married Miss A. H. Ames of Coldwater, Michigan, in 1868. Soon after coming to this state he took service in U. S. surveying forces. He was almost continually in the field surveying for the next thirty years, being promoted until he became the chief of a surveying corps. His delight was in running guide meridians and standard parallels,-the frame-work of the sur- veying which followed. He had charge of a large part of the field surveys in the country west of Grand Island, both north and south of the Platte. Surveying in this region, in early years, called for a high combination of engineering skill, physical endurance, management of men and personal courage. Hostile Indian bands roamed over the re- gion. Every survey party went armed and frequent skirmishes were a regular feature of life on the surveys.
In 1902 Mr. Harvey became State Surveyor, having charge of the original U. S. plats and field notes at the state capitol. He held this position until his death. He became widely known as the man having the most detailed and accurate knowledge of U. S. surveys in Nebraska. He was frequently called upon to settle important land disputes, both as a surveyor and as a witness in court. He was an expert in relocat- ing lost corners and wrote a book on that subject which was approved for use by the Land Department at Washington.
In the field of Nebraska history Mr. Harvey was a pioneer home- steader, taking a soldier's homestead, April 16, 1871, near St. Paul, Howard county. He became the historian of Howard county, writing its centennial history in 1876 and subsequently revising it. He became a member of Nebraska Historical Society Board in 1905 and has been con- tinuously upon that board, being president of the Society during the years 1921-22. He wrote for the Society publications an account of the battle of Ash Hollow, an account of Ft. Grattan, a History of the Second Standard Parallel and many other contributions.
In 1911 Mr. Harvey was made president of the Oregon Trail Com- mission, which he held until his death. Under his direction surveys were made and fifty-five monuments erected at different points on that trail across the state, reaching from the Kansas line to the Wyoming border. A history of the Oregon Trail in Nebraska, was the last work upon which Mr. Harvey was engaged.
For the writer of this article the memory of Mr. Harvey is forever blended with the memories of several summers spent with him- upon the Oregon Trail in Nebraska. Tracing the Trail from section line to section line, marking the points where monuments should be placed, surveying and platting carefully the location of these monuments by
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the government corners of the land, making field notes of old Indian fights to accompany the illustrations, camping out under the open sky and talking of the pioneer days gone by,-these were part of the ex- perience of the summers upon the Oregon Trail with Robert Harvey. His ambition was to make the report upon the Oregon Trail in Nebraska a complete and authentic document, fully illustrated with pictures of all the important scenes upon its course, with an accurate map and field notes which should make it a perpetual memorial of the heroic days and people of the pioneer period. This work is incomplete, but all the man- uscripts, plats and documents for the complete book are in the possess- ion of the Historical Society and will be prepared for publication at the earliest date when there are funds available therefor.
Like a good soldier, Mr. Harvey met the last call. He knew that he was going. Just a few days before he departed he asked the sup- erintendent of the Historical Society to visit him and went over care- fully the things he desired done after his death. To each member of the Historical Society staff and to its board he sent his last message say- ing: "When the board meets again I will not be there, but I believe the Historical Society has a great work to do and I want to see a gen- erous state afford it the means for its work."
So passed the spirit of one of the great pioneers of the West, quiet and simple, painstaking and thorough in all that he did, and with over- flowing love for the life of the frontier and for its literature.
A WARTIME SPEECH
Echoes of the Old Slavery Bitterness Between North and South Sound Strangely in These Years.
A. Republican Campaign Document of 1860 With a Speech of Chas. H. Van Wyck, Now in the Library of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
[The library of this Society has just received a republican party campaign document used in the campaign of 1860. It is a speech made hv Chas. H. Van Wyck. then a representative in Congress from New York, afterward U. S. Senator from Nebraska. The day is long past when publication of such a speech could create sectional division be- tween the north and south. A few extracts from the speech are printed herewith as historic antiquities. It seems incredible now that rational American citizens could ever have reached the state of mind shown by this speech and its interruptions. Still more incredible that human slav- ery in a land dedicated to freedom and liberty could have been the basis for such antagonisms.]
The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union-Mr. Van Wyck said:
Mr. Chairman: For many weeks I was a patient listener to elo- anent speeches from the leaders of the so-called democratic party on the floor of this House.
Why do they charge the republicans as agitators, when thev them- selves have been sounding the notes of disunion. and preaching violence, for the only purpose of alarming the timidity of one and the weakness of another section of a common country: of arraving faction against faction: first. to steel the heart against, all sentiments of humanity, and then nerve the arm to execute its unholy impulses: charging upon the North and counselling the South to rebellion and resistance?
Within a few weeks. the legislature of Nebraska. by law, prohibited slavery therein; and the willing tool of this administration vetoed the
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bill. The people of that territory, now numbering some forty or fifty thousand, along whose rivers villages and cities are springing up as if by magic, whose prairies are teeming with fruits of free and educated industry, are told that they cannot frame their domestic institutions, even to keeping back "the bitter water that causeth the curse."
Pause for a moment, and see the positions democratic leaders must assume in waging this unholy war to extend slavery. Senator Jefferson Davis said, in Mississippi, in July last: "Thus for a long period error scattered her seed broadcast, while reason, in over confidence, stood pas- sive. The recent free discussion by the press and on the forum have dispelled delusions which had obscured the minds of a generation, until even among ourselves it was more easy to find the apologist than the defender."
Alexander H. Stephens, the acknowledged leader of the democracy on this floor. during the last congress, said in Georgia, in June last: "Negro slavery is but in its infancy; it is a mere problem of our gov- ernment; our fathers did not understand it. I grant that the public men of the south were once against it, but they did not understand it." Do you ever reflect upon the treason of your insane threats? said the member from South Carolina, (Mr. Keitt) :
"The south will resist, to the overthrow of the government, the ascendency of the republican party. Should the republican party suc- ceed at the next presidential election, my advice to the south is, to snap the cords of the Union at once and forever."
Said the member from Mississippi, (Mr. Davis) :
"The Black Republicans showed their organized rebellion when they presented Fremont as a sectional candidate for the presidency, as a representative of their system of free labor in opposition to our system of slave labor. Against that rebellion we intend to act; we mean to put it down, even if we have to do it with the bayonet. Gentlemen of the republican party, I warn you; present your sectional candidate for 1860, elect him as a representative of your system of labor, and we of the south will tear the constitution into pieces."
Sir, craze your brain, nerve your arm, precipitate this issue upon us. and we are ready. Our northern fathers were told by an English officer, "Disperse, ye rebels; throw down your arms, and disperse." Their answer, if necessary, shall be our answer
He (Mr. Davis) continued:
"I, today have more affection for an Englishman than a Black Repub- lican""
Quite likely. Many of the men in the south, during the Revolu- tion, experienced the same thrill of joy in loving a British red-coat. or a Hessian child-butcher, better than an American patriot or a colonial rebel.
You also threaten to dissolve the Union in case another demand is not complied with. The member from Georgia (Mr. Crawford) said: "We have now four million slaves. In some twenty-five years hence we will have eight million. We demand expansion. We will have ex- pansion in spite of the republican party."
The member from Mississippi (Mr. Singleton) said:
"We have now four million slaves in fifteen States: we will. in fifty years from now, have sixteen million. But I tell you the institution of slavery must be sustained. Yes sir: we will expand this institution; we do not intend to be confined within our present limits; and there are not men enough in all your borders to coerce three million armed men in the south."
Have you, gentlemen, made anv calculation where you will expand your institution when you have withdrawn from the Union? Have you
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the madness and the folly to believe that you could wrest it from the states who retain their allegiance to the Constitution and Government?
Sır, I will indulge in no unkind remark to wound the feelings of any man; but the charge must be met, and history vindicated, let the consequences fall where and as they may. One other gentleman spoke of Massachusetts burning witches in the ancient times. Does he not know that your own people burn slaves at the stake, and it seems to awaken no horror in your minds ?
Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, (interrupting). { pronounce the gentle- man a liar and scoundrel, I pronounce the gentleman's assertion false- utterly false.
Mr. Van Wyck. My time is short, and I hope not to be interrupted. Mr. Davis, of Mississippi. You have no right to utter such foul and false slanders.
Mr. Gartrell. I rise to point of order. It .s, that no member upon this floor has a right to libel the people of an; section of this country, and then deny to the representatives of that people the right to reply. I pronounce the assertion made by the gentleman false and unfounded. (Cries of "Order!" on the republican side.)
Mr. Van Wyck. I have heard such words before, and I am not to be disturbed or interfered with by any blustering of that sort. I am not here to libel any part of the Union.
Mr. Davis, of Mississippi. Will you go out side of the District of Columbia, and test the question of personal courage with any southern man ?
Mr. Van Wyck. I travel anywhere, and without fear of any one. For the first eight weeks of this session, you stood upon this floor con- tinually libelling the north and the people of the free states, charging them with treason, and all manner of crimes, and now you are thrown into great rage when I tell you a few facts.
Gentlemen tell us; in certain contingencies they will dissolve the Union. However much you desire it, whatever of power and influence the "Gulf squadron" may bring to bear upon that issue, neither you nor your children's children will witness that gloomy event.
Your own people would rebuke your mad ambition. Their arm of power would be raised, and the voice of prayer ascend to spare us the curse of a ruptured brotherhood. They would suffer you to commit no such treason against human hope. They never would indulge you in the agricultural pursuit of which so flippantly you have spoken, "to run a burning plowshare over the foundations of the Republic."
In the decade 1870 to 1880 Western Nebraska had closer contact with Texas than with any other part of the Union. The reason for this was that farming in western Nebraska was regarded as impossible. No one attempted it. On the other hand grazing was highly profitable, since grass and water cost nothing, not even taxes. Texas had a surplus of cattle, wild long horns running loose in the cactus and mesquite. A great commerce sprang up between Texas and Nebraska. By driv- ing of thousands of head of cattle every summer north from Texas to the grassy plains of Nebraska, thousands of Texans became familiar with western Nebraska and sometimes stayed there. One of these Texas cow men, David Albert Cockran, died. at Kimball, Nov. 3, 1923, aged 59. He was noted as one of the best riders and ropers on the plains. He had a large circle of friends and a family of children.
Dennis Tracy died at Cedar Rapids, November 2, 1923, aged 78. He served four years in Company D', 6th Indiana volunteers during the civil war, being wounded at Vicksburg and ten months in prison at Tyler, Texas. He homesteaded near Cedar Rapids in 1879 and was for twenty-five -five wears nostmaster ter at that place.
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FORTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING
The 47th Annual Meeting of the Nebraska State Histori- cal Society will be held Wednesday, January 16, 1924, in Art Hall, State University Library Building.
Business Meeting 10 a. m.
Program-Afternoon and Evening.
See Daily press for full announcement.
H. B. LOWRY, President ADDISON E. SHELDON, Supt.
A NEBRASKA BEAN-WORTHY CULTIVATION
Dr. Melvin R. Gilmore, formerly a member of State Historical So- ciety staff, has recently been on the Omaha reservation in Thurston county. He has revived interest in the ground bean, a wild Nebraska plant which he discovered and wrote upon while engaged in Nebraska. . His latest discussion of the ground bean is worthy of preservation in the history of this state and is here given:
"The plant, called the ground bean, originally was native and com- mon over many of the north central states and was known as far east as New York. It belongs to the bean family and is near relative of the present day bean which has been improved by long cultivation. There are two species of the plant and it has a peculiar characteristic of a two-fold fruit habit. The plant has a vine like growth that climbs fences and shrubs and produces a cluster of beans, larger than the or- dinary bean, in the air. In addition it produces an underground fruit like the peanut plant. Both are edible and either will produce a new plant.
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