USA > Nebraska > Furnas County > Pioneer stories of Furnas County, Nebraska > Part 6
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In 1875 I went to Fillmore county for a load of furniture for a Mr. Spehr. I left home at noon and drove 8 miles north of Orleans that afternoon. The next forenoon I drove to Walk- er's ranch and the afternoon to "Dirty Man's Ranch," intend- ing to take a new road just opened to Hastings. The next morn- ing there was a regular blizzard on and the new road not being much used I concluded to go by way of Lowell. The next morn- ing was clear but oh, how cold. I stayed with a farmer between Inland and Harvard that next night and the next I reached the home of Mr. Spehr's father, about four miles from Geneva. For four or five days it stormed every day but I managed to get over to Geneva and have my horses rough shod. The first good day that came I started for home and reached Harvard where I stayed with a Mr. Smith, brother-in-law of S. S. Therwechter, during another two days of storm. Then I started on and reached Juniata, where I took the new road to avoid the sandhills. The second day from Harvard I arrived at about where the city of Minden now stands. Here was a group of four sod houses on the corners of four claims. I asked here to stay all night but the woman who came to the door told me they did not keep anyone but that a Swede, a half mile farther on, kept travelers and that I could stay there. I drove to the Swede's and watered my horses, but I could see no one around, but found that there were three children in the house. They told me their folks had gone to the Blue River for wood and would not be home that night and that they could not keep me It was 14 miles to the next ranch and a blizzard was on, but I drove back to the four houses and when a woman came out and asked what I wanted, I told her I wanted to stay all night and that I had gone to the Swede's and could not stay there and it was 14 miles to the next ranch. 1
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unhitched my team, dug some straw out of a snow bank to feed them after putting them in the barn and went into the house. I was well entertained. The men returned about 10 o'clock that night from the Blue River where they had gone for wood, and they said it was fortunate for me that I did not attempt going on to the ranch, as I would have lost my way over a new road in the blinding storm and would probably have frozen to death. I reached the ranch the next day at about 11 o'clock and Charley Boehl and the late Judge Robbins of Harlan county arrived soon after and we journeyed together for the larger part of the rest of the way. The next day at noon we camped on Turkey Creek and that evening, just as the sun was going down, we crossed the Republican river on the ice west of Orleans. Here Charley turned east to go to his ranch on the Sappa and the judge and I journeyed on till we came to his home on "High Toned Flats," where he left me and I came on alone to the Keiser ranch. One mile west of where Stamford now is I had to cross a draw and the banks were so steep and my horse's shoes so worn that I could not pull my load over and had to unhitch and leave my load in the draw and lead my team home. The next morning I got a neighbor to help me and we got the load safely home but this is a picture of some of the vicissitudes of early travel and of what it cost to have "store furniture" in your homes.
There were many laughable incidents of those early days and I will relate a few of them as I recall them. A man who was once well known in Beaver City shot a buffalo and he thought he was dead. The man laid his gun down on a little mound and with butcherknife in hand ran to the fallen buffalo. IIe laid the knife on the wooly hump and stepped back to shed his coat prepara- tory to the skinning when the buffalo jumped up and away he ran and was out of sight before the hunter could reach his gun.
One man came from the east to hunt buffalo with a squirrel rifle.
After I had lived on my homestead four or five years and had made some improvements so that it looked a little homelike, a man drove up one day with a fairly good team and wagon. I was just watering my team at the end of the day's work and he asked : "Do you live here?" I said yes. "How long have you been here?" was the next question. I said I had always lived here. "Did you homestead ?" and I said yes I had homesteaded. Then he declared: "I wouldn't mind taking a homestead if I
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could get as good a one as you have," and drove off without fur- ther comment.
A good many years ago we used to grind cane and boil sor- ghum molasses One day a moving wagon stopped and a man came in with a jug to get some sorghum. While I filled his jug he related a story about as follows:
"I came from Iowa. Left there on a certain day. Lived there all my life till then. Am so many years old. Was married so many years. Have three children. Iowa is not as good a state as it used to be. Am going to Kansas to get a ranch. Think we will like it all right."
I had a neighbor girl helping with the sorghum making that day and she said :
"Mr. Keiser, if that man had told you one more thing, you could have written his biography."
I asked what that one thing would have been and she re- plied :
"If he would have told you the name of the woman he mar- ried. "'
In conclusion I would say that I did not think the Garden of Eden was ever located in southwest Nebraska, but I do be- lieve that this was the hunter's paradise of America. The writer has hunted in the woods of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan in the early '50s, and we thought it was great hunting and it was, but it was no comparison to southwest Nebraska. Here were herds and herds of buffalo; droves of elk and deer in every grove and thicket; antelope on every flat and hillside; turkey all along the creeks; geese, brants and wild dueks in season ; grouse and prai- rie chieken in endless numbers. And what a field for the trapper. There were coyotes and timber wolves and along the creeks were beaver and otter, mink and raccoon, badger and skunk and, if you wished, you could trap the festive prairie dog. But the white man is a destructive animal and in a few short years this immense aggregation of wild animals was all wantonly destroyed -was wiped off the earth as if it had never been, so that man might be satisfied in his desire to slay.
On a Monady morning, the latter part of November in 1875. Philip French, Charley Rosenberg, Orin Ross and myself started down the Republican valley for corn. We arrived at Riverton Tuesday afternoon and inquired of a merchant if he knew of
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any corn for sale in that vicinity. He told us there was a man in town who had corn and potatoes for sale We soon found the man and he said he lived four miles down the river and that his corn and potatoes were yet in the field, but that we could help him husk his corn and dig the potatoes if we wanted them. We accepted his invitation and began husking Wednesday and by Friday night we had his corn all husked and his potatoes all dug and were started for home on Saturday morning with full loads. Up to this time the weather had been fine but Saturday morning was eloudy and the wind was from the east, which soon developed into a mist, and when we camped in an oak grove near Naponee that night it was snowing and by morning we were snowed under and it was cold with the wind from the northwest. We got breakfast, fed our teams and in all due haste started homeward. We drove down to the river next morning but did not think the ice was strong enough to hold up our teams and loads, so we unhitehed and led the horses across on the ice and then we run the wagons out on the ice as far as we thought it would hold, when we tied a long rope on to the end of the wagon tongue and hitched a team to the other end of the rope. In this way we could keep the wagon going pretty fast so it would not break through. My wagon was first, then French's, and then Rosen- berg's and all three were brought across in safety. Finally Ross' wagon was drawn across till the front wheels were on the bank when the hind wheels went through the ice and we had to unload part of the load before we could pull the wagon out but this was finally accomplished and we reached home with our loads about noon that day.
JOHN KEISER.
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CHAPTER XII
Byron F. Whitney, Now of Ashland, Was One of Beaver Valley's Earliest Pioneers, and Writes of the Old Days
(The following series of articles were written by Byron F. Whitney of Ashland. Nebr .. who was one of the pioneers of Beaver Valley, than whom there is none better able to give a vivid recital of the stirring times of early settlement and the early settlers :)
Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things and conditions which occurred and existed in those early days of the settlement of Furnas county, even as they happened, it seems to me, also, having had perfect understand- ing of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most esteemed editor, that those might know the certain- ty of those things of which thou hast been instructed.
The first time that the writer visited the territory af- terward organized as Furnas BYRON F. WHITNEY county, was by horse and wag- on in company with Wm. B. Bishop and John Keiser, in the latter part of March and April, 1872. Leaving Ashland, Nebr., we passed through Lincoln and Beatrice, and struck Hebron, reaching the Republican valley east of Guide Rock, and following the valley west as far as Oxford. The weather was moderate most of the journey, although some
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days were very windy and cold. The journey presented many novel and interesting sights for the writer, as he had never be- fore been in a country composed entirely of prairie land. Soon after passing Guide Rock, we found the country's surface spotted with the carcasses of hundreds of dead Texas cattle, and the air disagreeably impregnated with the effluvia of their decaying bodies. They had been driven from Texas the preceding autumn and herded there to winter through, being designed for Indian supplies or to stock some cattle king's ranch in Wyoming or Montana the following spring. But the winter of 1871-2 was one of the most severe ever experienced, and for several months the country west of the Missouri river was covered with a sheet of ice, preventing all stock from grazing and these poor cattle had starved and frozen to death. Besides this nearly the entire route after reaching the eastern border of the short grass country re- gion, was thickly dotted with the bleaching bones of mules, horses and oxen near the trail, which we followed the remains of teams belonging to immigrants and overland traders between river points and Denver, while on every side in all directions were the bones of countless buffalo. These were all gathered by the settlers. after the advent of the railroads, and shipped east, and converted into fertilizer.
I was interested and amused when I first saw the prairie dogs. The little fellows appeared so bright, so intelligent, and yet so wary and cautions, and withal so indignant at having their communities invaded by strangers, that, sitting at the en- trance of their dens. they would vigorously protest by a short, sharp bark, resembling the bark of a young puppy-and accom- panying each yelp with a comical jerk of the tail that excited my mirth. John Keiser asserted that the barking was produced by the jerking of the tail. Perhaps he believed it-being of German descent-but it failed to convince me.
We also passed many evidences of Indian encampments, and at one time the site of an Indian village, long since abandoned. A huge pile of buffalo skulls, fully ten feet in height, occupied a prominent position visible a long ways, and at a distance re- sembling a monumental pile of marble.
At or near the present town of Franklin we visited John Harman, a brother of William and Otto Harman. We remained with him over night, and we had for breakfast the next morn- ing, some steaks of elk meat, a trophy of Mr. Harman's rifle.
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We continued westward on the north side of the river, dili- gently inquiring of the few settlers for land claims containing timber and water, with hay land, such being our desire, until we reached the present town of Oxford. We concluded to cross the river and search for vacant land in the Beaver and Sappa val- leys. Finding a place on the river bank that appeared to offer a chance for fording, Keiser removed his boots and pants and carrying them in his hand, with a dry stick for a staff in the other, proceeded to wade into the stream, trying the depth with the stick as he cautiously advanced. Finding the bottom safe for the team and wagon, Bishop drove in and by vigorous driving suc- ceeded in crossing safely without any mishap. As soon as Keiser had been "reinvested of what he had been divested" he climbed into the wagon and we struck out in a southerly direction until at the setting of the sun we descended into the valley of the Bea- ver, and went into camp on the present site of JJohn Keiser's homestead.
The country had been burned over by a band of Indians on a hunting expedition and presented a blackened and entirely desolate prospect. However, with tired bodies and ravenons ap- petites, we built our camp fire in a sheltered grove, prepared our supper, spread our blankets and slept the sleep of the just.
Just as we had finished our breakfast on the following morn- ing, we were surprised by the appearance of an old nian, vener- able in aspect and polite in hearing, coming to us with a cordial greeting. ITis few seattering locks of hair were silvery white, his cheeks ruddy with health, his eyes keen and sparkling with Intelligence. His voice was modulated and his countenance wreathed in smiles and his steps quick and active, as those of a young man of thirty. He informed us that his name was Suth- erland and his speech betrayed his nativity to be of Bonnie Scot- land. Ile said that he had been in search of land and had selected a claim one or two miles farther up the creek. He had slept there the night previous and was now on his return journey to the land office at Beatrice and to his people in Iowa. In reply to our inquiries he told us of another man still farther down the creek who was well versed in the location and numbers of the government survey whom we could readily get as a guide in se- leeting our claims. At our offer he readily accepted breakfast and offered to show us the way to find our guide. Bishop and Keiser left camp in his company, while I remained to pack up
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and await their return. While they were absent I took the rifle and proceeded to reconnoiter the vicinity.
As I emerged from the shelter of the grove and climbed on- to the higher land I saw a deer spring from the woods on the creek south of me and disappear again in the timber. I started in that direction hoping to obtain a shot at it, but as I descended into a small draw or ravine I discovered a number of footprints made by feet wearing moccasins, and it occurred to me that per- haps I might be an object hunted as well as the deer, so I deferred following the deer and contented myself with a very cursory survey of the locality, and returned to the camp fire to quietly await the return of Bishop and Keiser. They soon made their appearance, and with them the guide. I was rather fascinated by his appearance. A tall, slender form, straight and erect as an Indian ; a face lean and gaunt, eyes of steely grey, steady and calm in their gaze; hair of an auburn tinge and complexion to
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From Photo Taken From Court House Cupola in 1888
Residence of Mrs. Mary Simmons in foreground. Hadley Opera House on right and buildings of Wade & Davis in the center, below which is the livery stable burned in 1889. West and south sides in distance.
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match ; in speech slow and deliberate. He was thinly clad as to nether garments, and with a threadbare army overcoat, minus the capes and skirts and buttoned closely up under his chin. Keiser told me afterwards that the poor fellow had no vest or shirt be- neath the fragment of an overcoat. This was Galen James, re- membered I presume, by all of the earliest settlers on the Beaver and Sappa creeks as the first white settler in the then unorganized territory, afterward named Furnas in honor of the governor of the state, but it was to James that this honor rightfully belonged. While he was not be counted among the refined and cultured. yet nature had endowed him with a keen intellect and a brave heart as well as a generous nature. llis early life, as he re- lated it to me, had been spent on the high seas and mostly on board of whaling ships, with the exception of three years' ser- vice on a man of war during the civil war. As an index to his character I will relate an incident that he told to me. While serving in the navy he was placed in the "gig" as a punishment for a break of discipline, for which he alleged he was not to blame. Hle submitted, of course, as he had to, but there ever rankled in his heart a bitter enmity toward the officer who sen- tenced him. He served his time and when he was discharged from the services his papers of discharge were tendered him he re- fused to accept them, and when asked why he replied. "I want nothing to show that I was ever fool enough to enlist in the United States service."
Our team was soon hitched and with Mr. James we started up the creek to inspect some claims that Bishop had obtained the numbers of at the land office in Beatrice. At noon we stopped and cooked our dinner on or near the land afterwards entered by Bishop. After eating our dinner, Bishop, Keiser and James pro- ceeded to locate corners of the government survey, while 1 amused myself by simply looking at and admiring the beanti- ful landscape. Off to the south and east appeared some rocky headlands or "Bluffs," and near their base several large "la- goons" or ponds, with their surfaces slightly ruffled by the gen- the breeze, and their margins thickly covered, and the air above filled with apparently hundreds of wild waterfowl. Taking the rifle and finding a place to cross the creek, I went to investigate the rocks. As I came near the waters, the wild fowl took alarm and rose in the air in myriads, each trumpeting their fright in their own peculiar manner, with notes and sounds rivaling the
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confusion of tongues at the dispersion of the Builders of Babel. I found the rocks to be a sort of decomposed limestone, unfit for building purposes, or any other, except to help maintain the bulk of mother earth. Yet I noticed mingled in this rock evi- dences of the remains of marine life, consisting of fragments of shells, and even petrified forms of once living creatures, and in imagination I could behold the distant past, when this beautiful land gradually rose from among the rolling billows of an an- cient ocean, and the receding waters formed the beautiful valley that now lay spread before me.
We went still farther west and ate our supper on the present site of Beaver City. Keiser took the numbers of the claim where we first camped, and we returned to the location of James' domi- cile, and I with the others continued the search on the Sappa creek above its juncture with the Beaver. Our progress had been very slow. as we were obliged to make long detnors in or- der to find places to cross over the various ravines. We went into camp in the shelter of timber not far below the junction of the Sappa and Beaver near the James dugout. It had begun to snow with a cold wind from the northwest. The next morning, Easter Sunday, 1872 with chilled and shivering bodies, we start- ed on our return to Beatrice, over a landscape white with snow. We filed at the land office on our claims, I taking the ne 144 of cection 35, town 2. n range 21, W. 6th p m., at present owned, I believe by Mrs. Deaver, mother of Mrs. C. E. V. Smith of Beaver ('ity.
After reaching Ashland, rapid preparations were made for moving families and goods to the new country. This was ac- complished by ox teams, and was a slow and tedious task, a weary journey of about two weeks, cooking our meals by the roadside. However, in due time we reached the beautiful valley of the Beaver, finding it changed from a blackened, desolate waste to a country of lovely verdure. Trees were putting on their coats and the prairie a velvety green carpet decorated with many new, strange, but really beautiful flowers.
On the 6th of May we halted at the end of our journey, with hearts full of happiness and minds filled with visions of the future. And why not ? Here is a land of surpassing beauty. a soil of the highest fertility, pure water, plenty of timber, and a most salub- rious elimate, and all merely waiting for the hand of industry to convert the whole into happy, prosperous homes for thousands.
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On every side beauty reigned supreme, with gentle and frequent showers, balmy breezes, the trees vocal with the songs of birds. Droves of antelope always in sight, occasionally a deer swiftly fleeing across the creek lowlands, and wild turkeys showing them- selves occasionally, and each morning ushered in by the erowing or booming of the prairie chickens. A land to rejoice the heart of a sportsman, to interest the naturalist, to enrich the homeless, to exchange the glory of the country, to become a power in the future of the nation. Why should not our hearts be happy with all these pleasing prospects and the reward to be gained, sustain us with courage to dare and to do? With such sentiments we worked with energy to build our new domiciles, to break our
Looking south from the court house cupola in 1888. Schoolhouse, built in 1884,-now Times-Tribune office-in center. Former residence of Judge J. T. Sumny-now occup ed by W. C. F. Lumley-in foreground. First brick building in Beaver City, built by W. J. Kinsman in 1886, at northeast corner of the square. Across the square, at the southeast corner, is the old frame building on the present site of the Bank of Beav- er City or Norris block. This building was used for offices for county officials and various commercial purposes until it was torn down in 1893.
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lands, to plant our erops, with hope and faith in our hearts and songs on our lips, rejoicing every day.
We had reached our future home and now it behooved us to build houses of some sort. The only available building mater- ial was either a clay bank, prairie sod or logs. As I was fortunate to have timber I determined to build a log cabin. Before doing this I assisted my brother-in-law, Mr. Bishop, to complete a dug- out and then left my family to go to the land that I had selected to break out some land and plant sod corn. This was seven miles distant from Bishop's. I had an ox team, a covered wagon, a few loaves of bread, some coffee, a chunk of salt pork, a rifle and a breaking plow: also about a bushel of seed corn and a hand- planter, as well as camp utensils. At night, after staking out the cattle and eating my supper I would sit by the camp fire smoking and building castles in the air while I listened to the howling of the coyotes. One day I found a man with a rifle awaiting my arrival at the end of one of my furrows. He told me that some scouts from Fort Hayes in Kansas, had passed, and were sent to inform the settlers that a band of Indians had left their reserva- tion, had killed one soldier and several settlers in Kansas, and were on the warpath. On this information, I hitched the oxen to the wagon and returned to my family at Bishop's. I learned that the scouts, so-called, had stopped at Bishop's the day before, had had dinner there, and told practically the same story. Many settlers had arrived in the country, and had located their elaims, all on the streams. A council was called and means of protection discussed. Among the muumber gathered was an Englishman named James Lumley, who claimed that he had held a captain's commission in the English army and had seen serviee in Cashmere in the East Indies. Another man named Charles Rosenberger had served as a private in the civil war, and Galen James had served in the navy. These three were the only ones at that time who had any military experience. It was the opinion of the majority that a stockade should be built where the women and children eould be protected. But there came the division, as every one seemed to desire the location of the stockade to be very convenient to his own claim. Finally, I appealed to the Englishman for his opinion. He gave it. but it met with no more hearty endorsement than any of the others. I then proposed that we select some one of us as a commander and obligate ourselves to obey his orders, and pro- posed the name of Mr. Lumley, but he declined the position. We
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then elected Mr. Rosenberger and dispersed with the agreement to meet the next day prepared to go to work under his orders However, the next day arrived with less than six men reporting. Some had started east with their wives and children rather than take the risk of an Indian massacre. Others professed to believe that there was no danger from Indians. Rosenberger was dis- gusted and manifested it. He was an Indiana Dutchman, and as he left our company he expressed himself. "If dey don't vant to obey orders dey can go to h-l. I can take care of mine own folks and dey can do de same." So occurred the first general Indian scare, and so it ended.
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