USA > Nebraska > Fillmore County > Pioneer stories of the pioneers of Fillmore and adjoining counties > Part 5
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One of the settlers on the creek had lost a number of turkeys with the cholera and had thrown them into the bush, and this same lot of Indialis (they were Omahas and Pawnees) found them and while they lasted tne oaors from their camp kettle were most fragiant.
One night he was sitting in the tent next to a particularly good look- ing Indian maiden, when she got hungry and putting her nand under a pile of buffalo robes on which they were sitting, pulled out a big cows liver wnien someone had given them, and cutting off two or three slices with a dirty looking butcher knife, threw them on the fire in the imudie of the tent, and when they were just barely warmed, drew them out and began to eat. This and other things ne saw knocked all the romance of indian nfe out of Mr. Howarth, no such cooking for him.
During the time Mr. Howarth was teaching school, one day one of the girls who lived near the school house (a sod affair) stayed at nome to help her mother wash. About the middle of the forenoon sne ran into the school house crying as if her heart would break, "Oh! teacher," she said, "Will you and the big boys come over, papa's away, and the house is full of In- wians." Of course they went, and found lo or 20 Indians in possession. Houses in those days were wonderfully elastic affairs, and though this con- sisted of only one room, yet it held the beds and furniture for an average sized family, and in addition a little stock of groceries. The Indians were taking these irom the shelves and asking for them; after they got there the Indians bought and paid for a few things and soon left, but there was no more school that morning. The girl and her mother were in no per- sonal danger, but no doubt they would have stolen something, and as one of the Indians was sharpening his hatchet on a little grindstone which stood near the door, poor little Jennie thought her last day had surely come.
That school house, crude affair as it was, with sod walls, home-made desks, and planks for seats, turned out two or three pupils who afterwards became very successful teachers; they didn't have a little smattering of Latin or Algebra or Botany, but were well grounded in the essentials-the 3 R's and after that the rest was easy of accomplishment.
One spring morning he was busily at work in the yard, he had finished teaching school the week before, (here let us say, that in the 5 years he taught, 6 months was the school term, and $25 per month the highest sal- ary he received) and had just drawn all his back pay. It was a beautiful morning, the kind of a day which makes one glad to be alive, and altogether he wes feeling particularly happy and free from care. The poet says; "In Spring the young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love"' and he was singing at the top of his voice, "Come where my love lies dreaming" (The strains of which in some way or other reached Bolton with satisfac- tory results) when happening to turn round there stood a 6 foot Indian right close to him. The moment he saw him the thought of his money came into his mind, for he had taken his purse from his pocket and thrown it into the cupboard, and the house door was open and the cupboard door also, and to get to him the Indian had to pass the open door. So Mr.
Howarth grabbed up his hatchet and ran to the house; and if the purse was hot there, right there was going to be a fight between an Englishman and an Indian. But there it was in plain sight, so he invited Mr. Indian into the house and had a visit. The Indian couldn't speak much English but he could beg and proceeded to do so. On the table was a side of bacon from which that morning he had taken te ribs intending to boil them with some beans, so when he asked for meat he gave him the ribs, he held them in one hand and looked them over, then put them in the other hand and took anoth- er look, then put the poor ribs on the table and grunted "no good" didn't want them; and after they had been in his dirty paws Mr. Howarth didn't want them either so he threw them outside to the dog. After that the Indian saw the writing materials on the table, and drew from some part of
his dress a letter or permit given to him by the Indian Agent when he was leaving the reservation. The letter was torn, creased and very dirty, and he made it known that he wanted a clean copy, which Mr. Howarth soon made. It stated that John Wangawah was a good Indian, but in great heed of help, that it would be an act of Christian charity to aid him, and that he would pray continually for all those who bestowed gifts upon him.
In telling us these stories-without intending to do so-he has shown us the condition of a bachelor's shanty, writing materials and a side of bacon on the same table, and without doubt, a pile of unwashed dishes; these latter were attended to quite religiously every Sunday. It was on the same trip of the Indians that two or three of them suddenly appeared at the door of a dug out and so frightened the woman of the house-a very large fleshy person-that she dived under the bedstead-a home made contrivance of ash poles-and there stuck until relieved by her husband.
Churches, there were none, but occasionally an itinenant preacher came around and held services wherever he could; either in a private house or school house. They were generally of that brand who believe the more noise they make the more effect they will have. He remembers one who apologized, saying he was not the man he once was, as now he had only one lung, but after he was well warmed up, he yelled with forty lung power, sad to say the boys in the back seats were falling off with laughter. Never before or since has he heard such a racket in a place of worship, no doubt the man meant well, but instead of creating a reverant feeling he dispelled it. He thinks it was in that same series of meetings that the preacher in a Sunday School class asked one of the boys a question he could not answer; so he said "I pass" and immediately the next boy said "then clubs are trumps" and both teacher and class laughed.
The people came to the meetings on horseback or in wagons, some in wagons drawn by oxen, he did not know of a man who owned a buggy, and doubts if there were half a dozen in the county.
What would now be regarded as horrible hardships were not so looked upon by the early settlers, but taken as part of the ordinary routine of life. For instance one of them said, he and his wife lived on corn meal mush three times a day until they tired of it, and he started out on foot to Mil- ford, a distance of at least 25 miles and brought home on his back all that distance, a sack of flour and he didn't seem to think he had done anything extraordinary. Others have said that when they first came here, they had to go to Nebraska City for their groceries, but one thing is certain their wants were not many.
A few of the genuine old frontiersmen who had come in and settled on the creek some 8 or 10 years before his arrival were still scattered here and there, but the country soon became too thickly settled, and they sold out and moved again still farther West. They had characteristics all their own; never very anxious to work, and content with the simple necessities, they lived an easy life.
After the grasshopper visitation of '74 there was great distress in Ne- braska, and charitable people in the East sent a number of car loads of pro- visions and clothing for the "grasshopper sufferers" as they were called. Mr. Howarth was one of a committee of two appointed to go around their school district and see who were in need of aid, or rather who would accept it, while they were all poor, some were poorer than others, yet some were too proud to accept charity. It was a bitterly cold morning when they started on their rounds-10 or 15 below zero. They called at every house in the district and in so doing had to cross the creek a couple of times, the ice being 12 or 14 inches thick, but on their last time over he happened to step on some thin ice over a spring and went down clear to his arm pits, the companion pulled him out and they started for his house about half a mile away, but it was not long before his clothing was frozen stiff and jingled like the bead and jet ornaments on a ladies dress.
After putting on a complete change of clothing belonging to the com- panion which was several sizes too large, they started for Friend with the list of requirements but unfortunately arrived too late, for all the most de- sirable articles had been taken, and all they got were two or three pounds of plug tobacco and some cloaks and dresses. These they distributed but the recipients did not seem very grateful they expected someting better, and they never got any thanks for their labor. Those were hard times and many left the country, he remembers seeing an emigrant wagon going East on the cover of which was printed "In God we trusted in Nebraska we busted, off back to my wife's folks," but of those who stayed most have achieved a fair measure of success, and the old days are a pleasant recol- lection.
Fred Walmsley came from Bolton, England, with Mr. Howarth and homesteaded south of the Turkey creek, but remained only one year; com- muting for his claim and receiving a deed by paying two and a half dol- lars per acre, and returned to his native hearth. While here he passed through the blizzard of '73, when he was snowed in for three days and had to find a way to daylight by opening the window and boring a hole through the snow with a broomstick; afterwards making his escape with the help of an Irish neighbor named Tom Gilroy, who had come to see what had be- come of the young Englishman, by burrowing his way through that hole to liberty.
During that brief stay, he, with Mr. Howarth entertained some lady friends to dinner. The menu for that specific occasion is not forthcoming, but whether or not after the American or English style; there is reason to believe that "All's well that ends well" is applicable as far as the dinner itself was concerned, for it won unstinted praise.
The only difficulty arising in connection with the undertaking was the losing of the dishcloth, which loss, for a time hindered the bachelors from washing the dishes. But as Shakespeare says "Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, but cheerly seek how to redress their harms," so they sought for it. We cannot now tell how much of blame or suspicion was placed upon their lady guests, or even if they deserved any! but let us remember, quoting again their illustrious poet, "Men are men; the best sometimes for- get"-where they lay the dishcloth. So after all these years, and especially for the benefit of posterity, hoping at the same time to free the innocent from any blame or suspicion, I set on record, that; the dishcloth was found safe and snug as though it were a linen handkerchief, carefully tucked away in Fred Walmsley's hip pocket, but again the poet says; "Sweet are the uses of adversity," and who knows how much of good resulted from that experience ? The one's continued life on the land, and the other's sub- sequent life in the city of Manchester, England, are perhaps richer and
fuller for having provided that dinner, and for a time, losing that dishcloth in those far off pioneer days.
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MR. CHARLES HOLE
Mr. Charles Hole came to America, in 1870, from West Pennard, near the famous city of Glastonbury, Somersetshire, England. He landed in Poston, and made his way up to Detroit, where he lived for two years. In April 1872, he came to Exeter, Nebr., and homesteaded 80 acres of land three miles south of town. There were three other young men who came from Somerset at that time and settled in this neighborhood, Alfred Corp, "Bill" Haimes, already mentioned elsewhere, and Frank Appleby, a cousin to Haimes. We can quite imagine how great would be the change of environment offered to these young men by the open prairie, they having come from so beauti- ful a county as Somerset; it being only excelled for beauty by its neighbor, Devonshire, and from such an historic place as Glastonbury.
According to the old legend, it was to Glastonbury that Joseph of Arimathea came with eleven other disciples, when sent to England by Philip. the Lord's disciple, soon after the death of Jesus. Taking with him: "The cup, the cup itself, from which our Lord
Drank at the last sad supper with his own, To Glastonbury, where the winter thorn
Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord."
At Glastonbury is found the site of the earliest Christian Church in Great Britain; said to have been completed in the year 64, A. D.
Here too, is the burial place of the famous King "Arthur" and his Queen, "Guinevere."
We are reminded of Tennyson's "Morte D' Arthur":
"Pray for my soul; more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of,
But now farewell, I am going a long way
To this island valley of Avilion;
Where I shall heal me of my grevious wound."
But the King died.
Also of his "Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere:"
"Then in the boyhood of the year Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere
Rode thro' the coverts of the deer
With blissful treble mingling clear,
She seem'd a part of joyous spring. A man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this
To waste his whole heart in one kiss Upon her perfect lips."
"Me hopes-to use the brogue common in this part of England-I baint saying more than is necessary about thick there three lads coom from Zomerset, and the ist'ry of their plazes."
Having commenced my Christian ministry in that country, and for nearly three years going in and out its thatched homes, and old world gardens, and having climbed the Quantock and Brendon hills, and visited the shrines of its Poets and Prophets, and many of the places made famous in Blackmore's "Lorna Doone;" all of which are places that Americans love
to visit. I thought it would be to our advantage; "If us knows something about the plazes I have tooched upon and which I zay, show us in contrast perhaps more so than oother plazes, the great changes of environment some people have made in coming from the old world to the new." There's a country where hedges, ferns, flowers and fruits are most luxurious and abundant, yet, they came and settled on an open prairie, an antithesis in every relationship.
Frank Appleby found an early grave; he died at the residence of War- ren Woodard in the spring of 1872, and was the first white man buried in this district, his grave being at first south of town, but his body was after- wards laid to rest in the new cemetery.
He was a carpenter by trade and went to work on the new bridge over the Platte river at Kearney. Having to work in the water, he caught a cold which developed pneumonia with which he died.
Mr. Hole married and settled in Exeter in 1878. Then in 1881 he built his present home, having now lived in it 33 years. They are believed to be the only people in town who have lived so long a time in one house. On the afternoon of their marriage they bought a cook stove, which stove, after 36 years, they are still using. It has not only had the regular wear and tear for so many years, but the first two winters it burned corn; which is consider- ed extra hot in the burning. Corn at that time was worth only 10 cents a bushel, so in many cases it was burned instead of coal.
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W. J. WAITE'S EARLY HISTORY.
My good friend and neighbor, Rev. G. R. McKeith, has asked me for a few lines regarding my recollections of the early days of Exeter. I have gotten somehow out of the writing habit and my first recollection of Exeter is somewhat vague. The first time I saw it, I didn't see it because it wasn't there (or should I say here?) In the early days of the summer of 1871, the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska, (for such was its legal and official name at that time), was in operation from Plattsmouth to Crete, with a short stub from Oreapolis to Omaha. West of Crete construc- tion work was going on at different points between Crete and, as we always said in those days, Ft. Kearney. From Crete Westward we could have the choice of walking or negotiate with the fellows running the construction train. We negotiated and got to the end of the track and I have often wondered what that red-headed brakeman did with the money. Anyhow he was a good fellow and shared his lunch with us.
The end of the track at that time was but a short distance east of where Exeter now is, a mile perhaps, for it was not a long walk to the home of Warren Woodard where we were told we could get a conveyance to take us to School Creek, as the present city of Sutton was then generally called.
In our party was Jim Kelly, (not our Jim, but a Lincoln saloon keeper arranging to start a branch at School Creek,) and W. A. Way-"Billy"-who I think is still living at Lincoln, and who homesteaded the eigthy on which part of Sutton now stands and afterwards run a hardware store there.
Arriving at the Woodard home we found the "Boss" away locating land seekers but were told that Charley Boyce, who was the original homesteader of the farm now owned by Geo. Craven, might get us through and from the Woodard house we wended our way to his shack and were driven to School Creek, following the railroad grade and camps pretty closely.
The Nebraska of 1871 hardly looks like that of 1914. If one could have stood on a little elevation, say like Cemetery Hill, he would only see a broad expanse, over which for unrecorded centuries the shadows had chased
the sunshine and but little to relieve the monotony of the view except, per- haps a frings of blue haze hanging over the Valleys of the Blue to the north and Turkey Creek on the south. With a good glass he might have seen an occasional homestead shack or a prairie schooner plowing its way westward-always westward ..
If necessity required an eastern trip for supplies, the schooner top was left behind for shelter for family and supplies and the "schooner" became a common every-day wagon.
This was my first introduction to Exeter. I located in Clay County, first at Sutton in the drug business and if anybody ever sold a box of pills in the country west of the east line of Clay County in Nebraska, south of the Platte river before I did I have never succeeded in identifying him. From that to 1877, my recollection of Exeter is extremely hazy, as I only rarely passed through it on the train and my Exeter acquaintances were J. W. Dolan and J. W. Ellis.
Traveling for a Lincoln Newspaper, I was here twice in 1877 and by a series of events, unfortunate both to myself and the community, I came here in January 1878 to engage in the newspaper business, and the way it hap- pened was this:
Up in Clay County, I had been postmaster at Edgar, and in the course of politics had come into possession of a newspaper and printing office-or the office came into possession of me, maybe would be putting it better. I had leased it to a party by the name of K. A. Connell, who had started the Exeter Enterprise in October, 1877, and after running it three months, went broke and abondoned the plant. Desiring to remove it to Fairbury, I came down to get possession of it. I found that the people, what few of them there were, rather strongly in favor of keeping the paper alive and so I resur- rected it and to that fact is due many of the woes which have since come upon Exeter, in 1878.
The following is a fairly complete business directory of Exeter :-
J. W. Dolan, grain and lumber.
H. G. Smith, W. H. Taylor and P. W. McCauley, general merchandise. Failing Bros., general merchandise and drugs.
J H. Edney, hardware and implements.
Hannes & Stilley, hardware and grain.
Dayton Bros., furniture.
Dr. G. W. Whipple, physician.
R. Beecher, physician.
Job Hathaway, livery
Centennial Hotel by Warren Woodard.
J. P. Kettlewell, meat artist, (that's the way he used to advertise.)
Elias Peterman, harness shop.
That was about the whole push in olden, golden days of '78, but things started pretty lively with settlement of the alternate section of railroad land, which was mostly sold that year. A Catholic church was built in 1877 and Congregational in 1878, Methodist and Baptist churches in 1879, and during those and succeeding years various new enterprises were started, which I may mention later if this don't kill the reading population of this neighbor- hood.
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Mr. and Mrs. John Spencer Anderson, The First Homesteaders in York County, Nebraska, Locating Near Bluevale, in February, 1865.
JOHN H. ANDERSON.
John H. Anderson came to York County in February of 1865 with his father, John Spencer Anderson, and four brothers. The father was the first to homestead in that county, filing on Section 2, Town 9, Range 1, W. Their home was located on the bottom lands of the Blue, 1 mile west of the Sew- ard county line. When quite young he had to break prairie with 5 yoke of oxen, and had aften to go to Nebraska City a distance of 100 miles, driving 2 yoke of oxen. The trip was usually taken 3 times a year, and needed seven days to make it, and sometimes the journey was undertaken to get a new plough shear, or an old one sharpened. During these trips, which were along the Government Freight Road, he would meet trains of as many as 100 Government wagons coming west.
On one occasion he had been to Beaver Creek ploughing and, on return- ing home with his colts, and when between the Blue and the Government road, an old Indian named "Kee-walk," a Pawnee with one eye, ran up to him and presenting a revolver tried to frighten him, hoping evidently that he would run away leaving the colts. But young Anderson snatched the revolver out of his hand and made his escape. On reaching home and telling his story a complaint was made, and the Indian had to quit the country.
Mr. Anderson has seen thousands of Indians passing up and down the Blue and could therefore give more stories than are here recorded. The following are selected because they are somewhat different to the others already given, and present to us a new feature of pioneer life.
In December of 1870 he went with a well armed hunting party compos- ed of nine men and five wagons. They made their way up the Blue to the forks, and then crossed over the country to the Republican river, and cros- sing the old Cottonwood ford, passed on South into Kansas, going up the country between the Sappy and Prairie Dog Rivers. One man had been sent ahead on horseback to find a camping ground and was seen to suddenly stop and turn back. He reported that he had seen nine Indians, and then as soon as they saw him, they jumped onto their ponies, and said he; "They are coming!" The party at once made a barrackade with the wagons, the whole arrangement being in charge of Anderson senior, a stalwart Kentuck- ian.
The Indians soon rode up, and one came near, saying, "We are tame Indians, we won't hurt you! come with us to wigwams." After some par- leying, they accepted their invitation and went to their camp to spend the night, but someone stood guard, and they were careful to refuse to turn their horses loose with the Indian ponies. In the morning the Indians told them where they would find the buffalos, "they had to go one steep (i, e, sleep or night) and they find heap of buffalo." The party set out as directed and found as the Indians had said, "heaps of buffalo."
It was Sunday when they made ready to return, having secured all the meat they could haul. It was getting dark and they were thinking of their night's rest in preparation for the return journey; when the air was filled with the most unearthly noises. It was as though the whole country was filled with wild Indians and buffalos, which made them feel alarmed, they very naturally wondered what was going to happen to them. Soon a band of Indians came from out the distance, yelping and howling like wild beasts, until the hunting party felt scared. At last one of the Andersons ventured to go and ask what they wanted. It appears that the Indians had lost the location of their wigwams, and this was their method of making the fact known to those in their camp.
They departed for home on the Monday morning, and in three days reached the Republican river but were unable to cross because large quan-
tities of mush ice were floating down, so they camped overnight. The weather became so cold that by morning the river was completely frozen, then by leading the teams and pushing the wagons across the ice, they were able to start again for home, completing the journey in nine days.
The brother, Boon, was working one time near Kearney, when it was reported that the Sioux Indians were coming down to make war with the Omahas and Pawnees. All the men were put on guard and this brother was lying somewhere in the grass armed with a double barreled gun filled with buck shot; when he heard a movement and saw something in the distance at which he fired. There was a rush for the house, but soon all was quiet, and waking up courage to go and investigate as to what had happened they found a calf lying dead.
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