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Full text of "History of western Nebraska and its people. General history. Cheyenne, Box Butte, Deuel, Garden, Sioux, Kimball, Morrill, Sheridan, Scotts Bluff, Banner, and Dawes counties. A group often called the panhandle of Nebraska"
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M.U
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978.2
Sh9h
v. 2
1192386
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
1833 01065 1435
History of Western Nebraska
and its People
: — (T
History of
Western Nebraska
*. — —
and its People
GENERAL HISTORY. CHEYENNE, BOX BUTTE, DEUEL, GARDEN,
SIOUX, KIMBALL, MORRILL, SHERIDAN, SCOTTS BLUFF,
BANNER, AND DAWES COUNTIES. A GROUP
OFTEN CALLED THE PANHANDLE
OF NEBRASKA
GRANT L. SHUMWAY, SCOTTSBLUFF, NEBRASKA
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ISSUED IN THREE ROYAL OCTAVO VOLUMES
VOLUME II.
ILLUSTRATED
THE WESTERN PUBLISHING & ENGRAVING COMPANY
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
19 2 1
COPYRIGHTED 1921
BY
WESTERN PUBLISHING Sc ENGRAVING COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS
PART I
11S2386
CHAPTER I 1
Nebraska Came From the Sea
CHAPTER II 4
Old Trails
CHAPTER III ... 6
The Flag of France in the Wilderness
CHAPTER IV 8
The Fur-Traders
CHAPTER V 10
Robert Stuart's Winter Camp
CHAPTER VI 12
Jacques Laramie's Caravans and Fleets
CHAPTER VII 14
General William H. Ashley's Trappers — Death of Hiram Scott
CHAPTER VIII IS
Joshua Pilcher and Forty-Five Trappers
^CHAPTER IX 17
First Wagons on Overland Trails
CHAPTER X 19
Wyeth, of "Cape Bay," and His "Down Easters"
CHAPTER XI 21
Nez Perce and Crow Indians — Crow Creek Named
CHAPTER XII .... - 22
Little Moon Lake — Famous Missionaries
CHAPTER XIII 24
Forts at the Laramie
CHAPTER XIV 26
Robideaux of St. Genevieve — Kiowa Raid by Red Cloud
CHAPTER XV 28
The Steamboat El Paso Here — Reuleau, the Trapper
CHAPTER XVI 30
Government Buys Fort Laramie — Ft. Fontenelle is Built
CHAPTER XVII 32
Brady Island Tragedy — French Boat Song — Jim Bridger Meets Sir George Gore
PART II
CHAPTER I 34
Indian Migration across the Platte
CHAPTER II 36
Indian War and Legend — The Story Teller
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER III 39
The Pawnee Pilgrimage — The Spotted Robe — Ti-wa-ra, the God of Court House Rock
— Battle of Ash Hollow
CHAPTER IV 42
The Legend of the White Hawk— Old Bull Tail's Daughter
CHAPTER V .... 44
Belden, Bridger and Baker Episodes — Early Conferences With Indians
CHAPTER VI 47
Songs of Parker and Minto
CHAPTER VII 49
Red Cloud and Spotted Tail — Massacre of Cottonwood Canyon
CHAPTER VIII 51
Sunset on the Platte — The C.ibralter of Nebraska — Cheyenne S on Bellechugwater
CHAPTER IX 53
In the Shadows — The Fire Fly Song— Cached Furs — Old Land Marks — Trapper's
Rock
CHAPTER X 55
Stage Drivers — Road Agents — Pony Express Riders — Chas. Cliff's Adventures — Jules
and Slade Feud — Creighton's Quick Fortune
CHAPTER XI 57
Sacrifice of Frontier Women — Indian Execution at Ft. Laramie
CHAPTER XII 59
The Grattan Massacre — Spotted Tail's Dramatic Deed
CHAPTER XIV 62
Butler's Storv of the Cow War— Harnev the Squaw Killer — Another Ash Hollow
Battle
CHAPTER XV 65
Murder of Spotted Tail — Cow Dog's Puni shment — Battle in Scottsbluff Mountain Pass
CHAPTER XVI 67
A Buffalo Bill Episode — More Indian Troubles
CHAPTER XVII 69
The Battle of Horse Creek — Colonel Moonlight's Mistake — President Lincoln's Message
to the West
CHAPTER XVIII 72
Julesburg Burned — Mud Springs Attacked — Battle on Cedar Creek
I'll \ITEK XIX 75
Coad's Battle on Lawrence Fork — "Shorter" Countv Organized — Tank Fighting on the
Platter— Buffalo Bill Kills Tall Bull
CHAPTER XX 77
Indian Vgencies Adjusted— Sitting Bull's Determination — Battle of War Bonnet Creek
CHAPTER XX] 79
Sand Hills Station Robbery — Big Bear, or Crazy Woman — The Sod Cabin — Priva-
tions "t Early 5 ears
CHAPTER XX 11 82
Revolt of Dull Knife — Winter Fighting in the Pine Ridge — End of Indian Wars — Sign
Language
CHAPTER XXII I 8 4
'I'lu Winding Story — Sages Tale of Orgies — The Xew Dawn
PART 111
en VPTER I S7
When Cattle Mm Wen- Kings
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER II 90
Stage Station Ranches — Naming Fort Mitchell — First Ranches on the North Platte
River
CHAPTER IV 92
The Battle of Sixty-Six Mountain
CHAPTER V 95
The Ride of Dan Dillon and Others — The Start of the Texas Trail
CHAPTER VI 97
Cowboy Escapades — Death of Jimmy Tate — Red Path Bill — Fraternal and Class Senti-
ment
CHAPTER VII 100
Coad's Ranch at Scottsbluff Station — Sheedy's Seven-U Ranch — Anecdotes About
Them
CHAPTER VIII 102
Surveyor Schleigel's Teamster Hung at Sidney — The Bosler Range — The VB Brand —
Minnie Montgomery Honeymoon — The House of La Grange
CHAPTER IX 104
Creighton's — The First Ranch of All — Death of Creel in Bull Canyon — Tom Kane's
Adventure — A Cowboy Wedding
CHAPTER X 106
First Ranch in Nebraska West of North Platte, Keith & Barton — H. V. Redington's
Ranch — Nerud's Corner — Later Snake Creek Ranches
CHAPTER XI 109
Colonel Charles Coffee of Creighton's. Box Elder, Rock Ranch, Hat Creek and Chadron
— Emmet & Brewster — Arrest of Fly Speck Bill — First Gardens in Sioux County
CHAPTER XII Ill
John Adams Joins Redington in First Ranch of the Panhandle — The Rustlers — Origin
of Ranches on Cedar Creek — Smith's Fork or Rush Creek — Vantassel's Tie Contract
CHAPTER XIII 113
Jim Kidd's Training Ground — V-Cross and Cherry Creek Ranches — Henry County
Hughes — Little Moon Postoffice — Oelrich's Wild Escapades
CHAPTER XIV 116
Around Camp Wagons — A Horse Trade With Doc Middleton — Arbuckle's Break Post —
Scotchmen Buy Big Ranches — John Clay and the Two-Bar
CHAPTER XV 118
Frewen's Ranch Experience — Hanging of Billy Nurse by Vigilantes — Holding up Doc.
Middleton — Death of the Famous Character
CHAPTER XVI 121
Perry Yeast's Success — Judge Gaslin, Who Wrote "The Law of the West" — Tom Ryan's
Defiance
CHAPTER XVII 123
Newman's Ranch on the Running Water — Bartlett Richards & Company — The Scourge
of the Land Inquisition — Cattle Rustlers — Hall & Evans — Evan's Battle For Right —
First Dairy Herd
CHAPTER XVIII 125
Big Ranches Round About — First Dry Farming at Big Springs — Other Ranches on
Lodgepole — Newman Leads the Turks Through "Jerusalem" — Walrath. from Ox Team
to Aeroplane
CHAPTER XIX .127
Creighton Expands — Snodgrass and McShane — Mcintosh Founds "The Circle Arrow" —
Simpson Organizes the Bay State Companj
CHAPTER XX 129
Earlv Sub-Irrigation — Bav State Buvs Coad's North River Ranch — J. S. Robb, Foreman
— Mary Rose's Grave — The Grout House — J. 11. D. Ranch — Round-up at Circle Arrow
— Death of "Skv Pilot" at Pine Bluffs
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXI
Paxton's Ogallala Company— Hall'? Famous Drive to Pine Ridge— Dick Bean's Death
— Gun .Men and Frantz's Comical Episode
CHAPTER XXII
I \. Hall and Robert Graham's Old Time Ranch — Ogallala Men and Events— Indians
Get Southers — Bargain Sales of Ranch Locations — Harper's Deal
CHAPTER XXIII
An Indian Wagon Race — Building Camp Clarke Bridge — Round-up — Wild West Shows
— Tom Horn's Outlaw Horse — Six Thousand Cattle Milling in the River
I'll M'TKK XXIV ..." .' ,
The Farquerers and Cross Country Riding — Hunting Geese on Hughes Island — Fun of
the Frontier — Jimmy Moore's Long Walk
CHAPTER XXV
The First Grangers— Murder of Collins at Camp Clarke — Sheriff Campbell Gets Doc.
Romine — Beginning of Minatare
CHAPTER XXVI
Perry Braziel Arrives on the Texas Trail — Trailing Cattle to Judith Basin — Sunder-
ling's Elkskin Trousers — The Drive to Pine Ridge — Two Girls of the Prairie
CHAPTER XXVII
Laing's Ranch — The Water Holes — Death of Wheeler — First Hogs on North River —
First Hogs on Pumpkin Creek — Killing Rattlesnakes
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Virginian — Arbuckle's Ranch — Romance of Parents of Madeline Force — Lingle of
Valley View — Connoly's of the "PF" — New Ranches — Hank Inghram's Narrow Escape
CHAPTER XXIX
The Shifting Sands — The Storm of 78— First Settlers on Pumpkin Creek — First Cow
in Western Nebraska— Mental Giants of the Big Cow Days
CHAPTER XXX
Vigilantes Hang Reed at Sidney— The Great Bullion Robbery — Whispering Smith Gets
CHAPTER XXXI
Oberfelders Demonstrate Hog and Alfalfa Combination — Later Ranchers Near Oshkosh
— Poor's Ranch. Where Sheldon Hit the We st — Cowbovs Marking Graves — The Mid-
night Ride of Wild Horse Harris
CHAPTER XXXII
McDonald Hung by Vigilantes at Sidney — Sheriff Trognitz's Joke— Practical Jokes of
Old Timers
CM M'TKk XXXIII
Gordon's and Whitehead's Ranches — Voder's Beginning and Expansion — New Develop-
ment in Goshen Holes — Beginning of Alfalfa and Sugar Beets
CHAPTER XXXIV
Sand Hill Ranches of Todav — Dangers of the Stampede — Origin of Some Western Ex-
pressions—Pranks of Early Days
CHAPTER XXXV
First Ranch in Dawes County — Graham and Snvder on Niobrara River — Other Ranches
War Fort Robinson — Stampedin' on the Old Trail
CHEYENNE COUNTY
CHAPTER I
Historj of ilu- Count)
('II M'TKk M
Wihh-t Days
<ll M'l'Kk HI
nization of Cheyenne County
CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER IV 182
Ivodgepole
CHAPTER V 188
State Officials
CHAPTER VI 191
The Press
CHAPTER VII 192
Fraternal Orders and Clubs
CHAPTER VIII . . . ' . . • - 194
The Church — The Bar — The Medical Profession
CHAPTER IX 197
The World War
BOX BUTTE COUNTY
CHAPTER I 199
Organization of the County
CHAPTER II 207
Churches — The Press — The Bar — Professions and Businesses
CHAPTER III 210
Military History
CHAPTER IV 214
Civil War Veterans
DEUEL COUNTY
CHAPTER I 220
Organizations of Deuel County
CHAPTER II 221
First Settlers
CHAPTER III 222
County Organization and Development
CHAPTER IV 224
Irrigation in Deuel County
CHAPTER V 226
County Officers
CHAPTER VI 228
Towns
CHAPTER VII 233
Schools in Deuel County
CHAPTER VIII 235
The Churches in Deuel County
CHAPTER IX 237
The Press— Banks and Finance — Bench and Bar — Medical Profession — Fraternal Or-
ganizations
CHAPTER X 242
Deuel County's War Record — Grand Army of the Republic
CHAPTER XI 244
Climate and Products of Deuel County
x CONTEXTS
GARDEN COUNTY
CHAPTER I 246
Early History
CHAPTER II 252
Boundary Disputes — As Between Individuals
CHAPTER HI ■ 254
Agricultural and Live Stock Industries
CHAPTER IV .... ' 256
Towns in the County
CHAPTER V 264
Railroads — Schools — Churches — The Press — Bench and Bar — Banking and Finance
CHAPTER VI 271
The County's Part in the World War
CHAPTER VII 274
Social and Fraternal Organization
CHAPTER VIII 276
The Medical Profession
SIOUX COUNTY
CHAPTER I . 277
Description and Early History
CHAPTER II 280
First Settlers and Early Town Histories
CHAPTER III 284
Medical Fraternity — The Bar — Story of the Schools — The Churches
CHAPTER IV 288
Banking and Finance — Fraternal Organizations — Industries
CHAPTER V ' 292
Organization of Sioux County — County Officials
CHAPTER VI 296
Sioux County in the World War — Early Schools — Wild Life
KIMBALL COUNTY
CHAPTER I 302
The History of Kimball County
CHAPTER II 313
Soil, Climate and Possibilities
CHAPTER [II 321
Transportation — I [ighwaj s
CI I \ITKR IV 325
The Community of Kimball
CHAPTER V 337
Kimball County in the World War
MORRILL COUNTY
CHAPTER] 348
Morrill Count}
CHAPTER H 360
1 ransportation I levelopment
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER III 363
How the Land Changed
CHAPTER IV 371
Government Irrigation
CHAPTER V 380
Bridgeport Business Directory — The World War — Other Activities
CHAPTER VI 397
Bayard
CHAPTER VII 405
Morrill County in the World War
SHEHIDAN COUNTY
CHAPTER I 417
How We Began
CHAPTER II 422
Creation of Sheridan County
CHAPTER III 428
Banking and Finance
CHAPTER IV .434
The Story of the Schools
CHAPTER V 440
Sheridan County and the World War
SCOTTS BLUFF COUNTY
CHAPTER I 444
When Part of Cheyenne — Early Experiences
CHAPTER II 449
Gering — First of Many Things
CHAPTER III 454
City of Scottsbluff
CHAPTER IV ...... ' 463
The Newspapers — Early Days in the County
CHAPTER V 469
Incidents and Personalities
CHAPTER VI . 476
The Story of Irrigation
CHAPTER VII 480
More of the Irrigation Storv
CHAPTER VIII 487
Scotts Bluff County Schools
CHAPTER IX +90
Officials Scotts Bluff County
CHAPTER X 494
The Farmers Revolution
CHAPTER XI 498
The Church — Its Accomplishments — First Religious Services
CHAPTER XII 502
Scenic Beauty — Manufacturing and Other Industries
CHAPTER XIII 50S
The County Military Record— Honor Roll — Fraternal Orders
xn CONTENTS
BANNER COUNTY
CHAPTER I
Following Horace Greeley's Advice — Early Experiences
CHAPTER II
Beautiful Scenery — Tragedies — Ranches 'and Schools
CHAPTER III
How the County Began — Early Officers
CHAPTER IV
Once a Part of Lyons County - Banks - The Press -Industries
CHAPTER V
Irrigation — Early Postoffices — Early Experiences
DAWES COUNTY
CHAPTER I
The Earliest Years
CHAPTER II ....
Chmate — Agriculture and Soils
CHAPTER III
' Settlement and Indian Days in Dawes County
CHAPTER IV ... .
Early Days — And Crawford — Many Fir
CHAPTER V
County Organization and Government
CHAPTER VI ....
Town of Chadron
CHAPTER VII ...
Businesses and Professions
CHAPTER VIII
Churches and Schools - Banks — In the World War
Things
511
515
520
523
526
530
534
540
547
550
553
568
571
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"Came From the; Sea" 3
Robert Stuart's Winter Camp, 1812-13 11
Death oe Hiram Scott 14
Grave of Red Cloud's Daughter, Fort Laramie, Wyoming 49
Camping Ground of the Hostiles 64
HostilEs Coming in From the Bad Lands to Surrender 66
Indians "Home Life" 68
On the Range Near "Signal Buttes" 87
"Branding Calves" 88
Cowboys Resting and Playing MumblEpeg 88
Sidney R. Probst, Sr. , 89
Four Old Time Cowpunchers 98
John Bratt 119
Long Horn's Fagin Ranch, Alliance 123
Hanging Reed by Vigilantes Committee 152
First Cemetery, Sidney 167
Fine Residence of Sidney 167
Sidney Short Route to Black Hills 168
Sidney in 1877 169
Interior of Oberfelders Outfitting Store, 1877 170
Overland Trail on the "Old Trails" Route For San Francisco . . . . 170
Pony Express and Overland Mail Office, Fort Kearney 170
An Old Prairie Schooner 172
Old Court, Sheriff's Residence 177
Cheyenne County Court House, Sidney 178
New High School, Sidney 180
Catholic Square, Sidney 180
Birdseye View, Sidney 181
Carnegie Library, Sidney 181
North Side of ShElden Street, Lodgepole 183
High School, Lodgepole 184
Blind Cannon Near Point of Rocks 186
■Methodist Church, Sidney 194
"Samie Girls" 197
How the Court House Was Moved to Hemingford 200
Box Butte County Court House, Alliance • . 201
Street Scene, Alliance 204
High School, Alliance 205
St. Agnes Parochial School, Alliance 206
Oscar O'Bannon and S. Avery 211
Deuel County Court House, Chappell 225
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Chappell in 1886 ....
Business House, Chappell
Street View, Chappell
Western Lumber & Hardware Co., Chappell
Farmers Elevator, Chappele
Street Corner, Chappell
High School, Chappell
Methodist Episcopal Church. Chappell
Catholic Church, Chappell
Christ Lake
Farm Home, at Ash Hollow
Rock at Ash Hollow. Near Spring
Rush Creek Ranch. Rocky Point
Pulling Dead Cattle Out of Swan Lake After Bli
Old Hartman Store and Postoffice, 1892
First Schooehouse, Oshkosh, 1898
First Store, Oshkosh
First Dwelling, Oshkosh
Street Scene, Oshkosh
Main Street, Lewellen
First National Bank, Lewellen
Street View, Lisco ....
Residence of Mr. Myers. Lisco
Schoolhouse, Lewellen
Old Stone Schoolhouse, Oshkosh
Grade School, Oshkosh
State Bank Building, Oshkosh
"Feeding Time," Nicholson Bros. Ranch
"Some Winter/" April 17, 1920, Harrison
First House Erected in 1886
Sioux County Court House, Harrison
Public School, Harrison ....
Methodist Church and Parsonage, Harrison
Catholic Church, Harrison
Drilling For Oil At Agate
New Road, Monroe Canyon. Near Harrison
"When iiie Boys Were Leaving"
"Haunted House," Near Harrison
Coliseum Rocks, Near Harrison
Street View, Bushnell ....
High School, Bushnele ....
i 1 i Residence of Isaac Roush (2) Residence of John I,
Settlers of Kimball (4) Right. Residence of He
Cambele
Mrs. \,\ N( H. First Settler, Born June 24, 1832
KiMiiAi.L County Court House, Kimball
Win: \r Seeding on the Ranch of T. L. Bogle
Branding Scene Near Kimball
Ranch RESIDENCE OF WiHTCOMB BROTHERS, North of Dix
Marc
Filer
h, 1913
(3) Some:
ogler; Left,
arlv
John
LIST < )F ILLUSTRATIONS
Birdseye View of Kimball in 1900 .
Street Scene, Kimball * . . .
Residence of Robert Garrard, Near Kimball
Kimball County High School, Kimball
Modern School Near Kimball Known as "Pedrett
Methodist Episcopal Church and Sunday School
Residence of John Ewbank. Near Kimball
Residence of Chas. E. Jacoby, Photographer, Ki
High School, Dix
Residence of Petrus Peterson, Dix
Residence of E. E. Goding, Dix
Rural School, North of Dix
Soldier Boys in World War
Court Hou^se Rock, South of Bridgeport
Morrill County Court House, Bridgeport
Public School, Bridgeport
Sheridan County Court House, Rusiiyille
Western Potash Company, Antioch
Street View of Antioch ....
Second Street, Rushville ....
Rusiiyille School
National Potash Company
East Ward Si
"Where Pltrd
Antioch
rooL, Scottsbluff
Primed the Pump With Milk'
First Cabin, Gering, 1886
Gering Courier, 1887 ....
Street Scene. Gering
Public School, Gering ....
Site of Roubidoux's First Blacksmith Shop
Site of Roubidoux's Second Blacksmith Shop
Homestead of Mrs. Elizabeth McClenahan, 1889
Primitiye Soddy, Scottsbluff
First Church, Scottsbll t ff
Residence of T. C. Hally, Scottsbluff
View From DEroT, Scottsbluff
Broadway, Scottsbluff
A. T. Crawford's Garage, Scottsbluff
Old Home Place of Jesse Pickering Near Mix at.-
Farm Ranch of J. A. Jones
Spillway Pathfinder Dam, Nebraska's Niagar.
Rev. J. B. Currens
Scotts Bluff Mountain
Sugar Factory, Scottsbluff
Lover's Leap
"Twix Sisters" Ruck
Smoke Stack Rock
Early Schoolhouse
Wheat Seeding
Marketing Potatoes
School
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Hampton's Golden Wedding 528
First House in Dawes County, Built in 1879 ......... 531
One Hill of Dawes County Suds 535
Dawes County Trout Stream 536
Superior Domino, 557924, Owned by Mrs. Wm. Braddock 538
Braddock and Deffenbargh, Breeders of Registered Cattle 539
Bordeau Ranch, Owned by P. B. Nelson, Chadron 540
Dawks County Court House, Chadron 548
Cram ford in 1886 550
An Early Day Home. Chadron . 554
Street View, Chadron 559
Second Street, Chadron . . . . . ... . . ■ . . 560
Jack Rabbit Roundup, Chadron 561
First Schoolhouse, Ten Miles South of Chadron 562
Public Library, Chadron 566
Federal Building, Chadron . 567
C. T. Coffee. Chadron, on Tract in 1871 570
Methodist Church 573
State Normal School, Chadron 574
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
AND ITS PEOPLE
CHAPTER I
NEBRASKA CAME FROM THE SEA
We will begin at the beginning, and add a
chapter to the geology of the state, a geology
heretofore treated by Barbour, and Condra,
and Schramm, and to which research and ex-
ploration has added much of valuable infor-
mation. We will tell of the far-off , misty
past, when White river, and the Niobrara,
Snake creek, Bluewater, the Lodgepole, and
the twin merging valleys of the Platte, or
Flatwater, and Gonneville, or Pumpkin creek
were yet to be. When the surface of the earth
was of hot rocks in the forming, and the sky
above was hidden in the mists which enveloped
our celestial baby world.
At first the sun could hardly penetrate the
humid atmosphere, and the dull haze was il-
lumined by lurid igneous fires, but by and
by sunlight broke through and startled the
concentrating elements to pulsating life — life
that came from the hot ooze of primeval
oceans, and which has developed through long
laborious years, to busy brain-driven entities.
History is moving rapidly in these later
days ; there have been sordid things like war to
take time and attention, but at intervals, in
silences and solitudes, the mind finds re-
laxation. The intellect finds restful exercise in
contemplation of origin and destiny, or in
translation of the silent language of the ages,
from the rocks of the pre-historic world.
Clumsily, I have sought to assist, and in
reading the rocks, I find the story of the an-
cient sea, the islands and the antecedent
streams of our own state, and this particular
part thereof, written legibly upon the cliffs,
and in the hills and valleys. So while the
floor of the world is granite, we find above
that floor, Nebraska, even as it stood in the
midst of the first landed area of the earth,
while the waves of the Cambrian sea beat
upon shores in Wyoming, Ohio and Oklahoma.
And here, the first live creatures of the world
crawled from the primal slime, upon the
shore of the primeval sea. But later, when
the- entire Mississippi valley was in the bot-
tom of the Silurian ocean, Nebraska also took
the plunge.
Again nearly all of the North American con-
tinent emerged in the lower Devonian, and
was connected to Asia by way of the Behring
straits. At that time the Omaha, Lincoln,
Witchita mountain range was a particular
scenic attraction of Nebraska and Kansas. Its
axis was a little east of the present site of
Lincoln, and could you sweep away the cov-
erings, you would still find its rugged peaks
and canyon beauty.
During the Carboniferous period this gran-
ite range was there. Around it is spread the
sedimentaries of the Mississippian, and over
it the Pennsylvanian formations, for the great-
er part of Nebraska took another plunge
into the sea. Eastern Nebraska came up from
the ocean, with almost all of the North Ameri-
can continent at a little later date. But an
estuary from the Pacific covered that part of
the state west of the one hundredth meridian,
and it also covered western Kansas, Oklahoma,
through the varying ages, came down to a
time comparatively and geologically modern.
The course massive buff and grey Dakota
sands, some places five hundred feet thick,
were spread over Nebraska, indicating a mov-
ing body of water with currents sufficient to
carry away the silts, and also indicating that
eastern Nebraska was also again under the
water surface.
At the close of the carboniferous age, inter-
nal forces again disturbed the Omaha. Lincoln,
Wichita range, but it never reached full pro-
portions, owing to the weight of covering de-
positions. Buried under the sedimentaries of
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
eastern Nebraska and central Kansas, it still
exists, a twin of the Ozarks, lower in altitude,
and covering a much larger area.
When the more violent disturbances shook
the fractured region, great slabs of granite one
hundred feet thick and miles in area, were in
places thrust out almost horizontally through
the comparatively newer rocks and shales, and
these granitic intrusions have puzzled geolo-
gists, and turned aside the tides of oil pros-
pectors from time to time. Granite and Red
Beds have been discouraging features to oil
geologists : yet daring prospectors have drilled
through these granite barriers into the shales
below,. and others have found best qualities of
petroleum in Red Bed anticlines.
West and east of these sunken mountains
are faults and folds, synclines and anticlines.
In Kansas and Oklahoma are battery after
battery of perforations, where the oil drill
has penetrated the upper sediments and cover-
ing caps, and from these pour steady streams
of oil, and gas wells bring forth elements for
the service of mankind. And so Nebraska
may some soon day yield from her interior
store, rich contributions for her people.
West of this mountain range rolled the
waves of the last Cretaceous sea — the vast
marine water which divided the American
continent. Perhaps a low coastal range separ-
ated it from the Gulf, and it probably extend-
ed, widening, to the arctic circle.
Between the Nebraska-Kansas range and
the Ozarks there was an estuary, which might
be called Topeka bay, and on the western
shore of the sea were others, and into these the
ebb and flow of tide and current carried sponge-
like woods, where water-logged and slime-
burdened they settled down, and after ages
they became coal beds.
Out in the expanse of the Central Ocean,
there was an island, a hundred miles or more
in length, along about the eastern border of
the present Laramie plains. This Hartville
island as we shall call it, was of igneous
rocks, thrust edgewise up above the sea. Its
western shore was of rugged wave-washed
granite cliffs, and its eastern border was of
crumbling Benton shales and greenhorn lime.
Tin- Benton series was fractured when this
island was funned, it was the newest of the
rock so broken. And the Niobrara chalk rock-
was the first laid after the faulting of the
world's crustal shell. In the rapidly shallow-
' ing sea that covered most of Nebraska's cen-
tral plains, the Niobrara, the Pierre, and
other shales were laid. Much of this part
of the ocean for long year.-,, probably ranged
in depth from one hundred to two hundred
fathoms. There the little grains of glaucon-
ite occurred from decomposition of organic
matter contained in tiny foraminiferal shells.
This hydrous silicate of potassium and iron is
seventeen percent potash. The soil of Ne-
braska is fertile as a result.
There came a time when the ocean floor
was bared, except for pools, lagoons and
marshes, and long lakes of slowly moving,
brakish water ; and the antecedents of the
Niobrara, White river and the Platte ran west-
ward from the mountains to an inland sea. It
was at this time, after the Pierre shales were
laid, that Hartville island sank, and Nebras-
ka's sea was shallowed. Islands and banks of
mud, sand and rock arose dripping from a
dismal swamp, and miles and miles of marsh
appeared. The Laramie, or Fox Hills, mas-
sive sands and varigated shales, and thin
silicious lime rocks were laid about the base of
the sinking Hartville island. Cross currents
made mixed bedding, and slightly moving
water left sandstones marked with ripples.
Paleo-zoologists say the Laramie period was
the last of the Cretaceous, and paleo-botanists
say that it was the first of the Tertiary.
Marine animal life lingered over into the new
and marshy conditions, while plants changed
quickly, and the old varieties passed away.
Quite likely, the Cretaceous was before and
the Tertiary after, and the Laramie during the
Rocky Mountain revolution. It was the per-
iod of transition. Benton oysters found new
expansion, then changed into large fresh wat-
er clams, ten inches long. Soft woods of
prodigious growth, that made ligniteous coal,
passed away, and hard woods took possession
of the plains. The Hartville Island sank still
more, and over the west the great pleistocene
lake was spread.
Bones of the Eocene were caught and swept
along by the rushing waters, and are to be
found in these later days of science, in rifts
and drifts at Agate, and in the Goshen
Holes. The country east and west of the sink-
ing island warped and cracked. Great fis-
sures paralleling the island opened up. to be
quickly filled with ooze and slime, now hard-
ened into Brule clay. At the base of the
Scotts Bluff mountain (there was no mountain
then) and in the Ardmore country, the clay
was warped and twisted and tilted, and caught
mammoth turtles, and winged water bats in
its toils, to hold them there forever.
The original horse, a dozen varieties of the
hippos family, from tree climbing horses and
five toed ponies eighteen inches high, to the
almost modern horse, left skeletons in the Agate
fields. And there are bones of giant hogs,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
that once wallowed in the marshes of White
river, and duck-billed dinosaurs that crawled
awkwardly through the water and mud.
Croaking amphibious monsters, sprawled in
mud and sand, or coiled under dripping trees,
or splashed in shallow waters, in search of
food, and wrote dumb tales of the Pliocene on
the rocks.
Through the rifts in the clouds that envel-
oped the earth, the eternal sun was breaking.
The brain cases of the higher forms of animal
life were growing, and yet there is lacking evi-
dence of the existence of primitive man. His
bones are not found in White river stones,
along with his presumed contemporaries, but
"Came From The Sea"
the evidence does exist that the Day of the
Brain was dawning in the Younger World.
Over the marshes swept the untrammelled
wind. Over stretches of water and sand is-
lands, aeolion agitation bore volcanic ash and
dust and sand, which found lodgement in deep
lagoons and moist places. When the later
igneous activity stirred the western mountains,
air currents carried the ashes high and far,
and then for days and days they sifted down
into the wastes of water on Nebraska. Thou-
sands of acres in the Holdrege-Orleans dis-
trict, and in the Scotts Bluff-Wildcat moun-
tains, and in the Pineridge, contain beds of
volcanic ash, of fine commercial quality.
Aerial combinations of ashes, dust and sand,
and glauconite came over the wastes. Into
the shallow waters they sank, and interstrati-
fied with sub-aerial and lacustrine substances,
and formed the rich Loess soil.
When the last terrestial convulsion came, the
Omaha-Lincoln-Wichita range growled and
rumbled in its subterranean depths, the Ozarks
hesitated and finally thrust their ragged sum-
mits higher, the Sierras came up out of the
sea, and lava beds spread over Idaho ; the
Black Hills rose towering, and Hartville is-
land came up again to the sun. Nebraska hesi-
tated for a time, deciding whether to become
an agricultural state or break up into tumbled
mountains. Ah, what a time that would have
been to have lived, and seen old Nature build
the heart of the American continent.
A nearly mountain range, "that died a born-
in' " ran from Furnas county to Dawes and
Sioux counties. Nearly volcanoes sprung
the earth in a dozen counties of Nebraska. The
Goshen Holes, east as far as Broadwater, Ne-
braska, swelled like a poisoned carcass, and
there today are rounded domes and anticlines,
of older rocks surrounded by the new, and
geology points prophetic fingers to the de-
formations.
Depositions of the Gering river and the
Hartville sea tell vividly the story. Out of
the range of mountains in eastern Nebraska,
from much of Nebraska's area, the waters
cumulated in great, slow-moving streams, that
meandered westward until they encountered
the lifted ridge of the nearly mountains. One
broke these hills somewhere in Sheridan coun-
ty, and another near Curtis, and they moved
westerly with increasing velocity. The finer
silts were carried on in the currents and the
coarser sands filled the river beds. We have
traced the course of the Gering river; we find
it between the forks of the Platte, and in the
Scotts Bluff- Wildcat mountains. Partly broken
and gone, partly eroded away, yet sufficient re-
mains to trace the majestic current, that left
coarse grey and brown sandrocks, flecked with
rectangular specks of black. The turreted fa-
cades in the castellated hills, from Courthouse
rock to Eaglenest, are the sands of the Gering
river. At Chimney rock the sands of the spire
indicate one hundred forty feet of deposited
sand.
The sands grow finer from Scotts Bluff
mountain as the current slowed down. Then
step by step the finer silts appear, and over all
the once bottom of the Hartville sea, from
Rawhide buttes to Pawnee buttes, the wind-
perforated rocks and soft sandstones are
formed in wierd fantastic shapes. They give
identity to the hills along the Red Cloud trail,
they are as monuments for a long dead sea.
The sun shines on the whitened lifted rocks,
'and the pale moon on ghostly forms that rose
out of the ancient waters, while places disturb-
ed by the last upheaval, have been worn away
by wind, and storm and stream. And glaucon-
ite has been wafted from the ancient ocean
floor, along with other sand, and it covers the
Dawes and Furnas ridge for miles and miles
and miles. Hence the Great Sand Hills of Ne-
braska.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER II
OLD TRAILS
There is a woof and warp to every garment.
And the garment of frontier history is made
over and upon old trails that twist and wind
through canyons and woods, over mountains,
and in the valley. These trails were old when
the trapper came, when the first Latin ad-
venturers penetrated the wilderness, which is
now so alive and teeming with inspiration, with
human action, and human thrills of ecstacy
and tragedy. They wound along the banks of
the rivers and their tributaries, finding the most
passable fords and accessible passes, the drink-
ing places and the meadows.
From the Bluewater (Snake creek), and
L'eau qui court (pronounced lo-ke-cort and
now called the Running water or Niobrara),
from the Lodgepole, Gonneville (or Pumpkin)
creek, Lorrens' (Lawrence) fork, and from
White river; and to and from the springs in
the hills, criss-crossing the valleys, in the sand
hills, or on the high divides, they made a verit-
able net work of trails — -trails which were
made long before the time of the Indian.
Before the periods of those industrious
peoples — the mound-builders of the Missis-
sippi valley, and the cliff-dwellers of the sad
southwest, and the earth-dwellers of Nebraska
— this land about us, newly risen from prim-
eval sea, this mystical sunland of the younger
world, became a land of trails. At the foot
of Scotts Bluff mountain, in the bad lands
north of Harrison, in the bluffs of the Run-
ning water, are found fossils, telling an un-
recorded story. Pterodactylus, the flying lizard
of long ago, turtles, and the bones of the
Mastodon are here. We may yet find trails of
Irish Elk and Cave Bear, which the first men
slew for food and for adventure.
First men were strong — grotesque and
powerful — huge hairy frames and knotted
twisted knees, with muscles which could tear
limbs from the trees. The battle of the world
was for the physically endowed. They cared
nut for the un-named stars; nor that the sec-
cond sign of the Zodiac had appeared, and
smiling on the world, was yielding a new in-
flux and order of intelligence. They knew not
thai man's mentality had begun to grow, and
would continue until the world was swept free
of the cumbersome, useless creatures of Plio-
cene, and their old trails would be no more.
These trails are buried now, under the
drill of glaciers and the wash and ashes of the
ages. And the trails of glaciers, the ice-grind
of centuries are strewn with stranger rocks and
stones, torn from the breast of their mother
mountains, and carried on long journeys, and
each peculiar kind, and its worn face, tells the
story of its pilgrimage.
The glaciers melting, poured released floods
in natural channels, and new rivers began
the first hilarious journey to the sea. Pos-
sibly the same liquids have made the same
journey many times — coming back in vapors
and falling in rain or snow — and then follow-
ing the water trails made by the melting gla-
ciers, centuries ago.
Deer, buffalo and elk, kindred and hostile
beasts of early America, made the trails of the
later "Overland." They crossed the gaps in
the Pineridge, and in the Scotts Bluff- Wildcat
range; they meandered up and down the val-
leys, and made worn thoroughfares over the
South Pass, long before the American Indian
found the heart of the new world.
We can go back only a relatively short per-
iod in our stories of events along the old trails,
for only the smooth surfaces of stones, only
silent fossils of giant things, only echoes from
a disintegrating atmosphere, and the dumb si-
lent zodiac, furnish the meagre information
as to what happened here, before the half-
savage French or Spanish trapper and adven-
turer penetrated the vast wilderness of the new
continent.
It has been a delight to find a bit of un-
usual or remote history that has a local signifi-
cance, and any motive behind human action is
always interesting. There are but vague ref-
erences to the first trails of Europeans in this
land, and they are so conflicting that it leaves
a question mark in the mind. Fortunately, I
have found in my rambles, stories that I shall
give here, and leave the reader to determine
their historic value. They may find incredu-
lous minds, but to me they have become fixed
as signal fires along the horizon of the past, in-
dicating the mark of the first white.man's foot
in all of Nebraska. The opening trail of civ-
ilization in the mighty west.
The first story dates back to about the
time of Coronado's search for Quivera, the
wonderful city of gold, which brought about
the discovery of the great plains and the buffa-
lo. It was following Coronado's futile attempt
that the Padres were inspired to attempt to
plant religion among the Indians of the great
plains.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Spain had established a foothold in New
Mexico, and the Padres were advancing into
the plain and mountain tribes, to plant the seed
of the church. The southwest had been par-
ticularly susceptible to their teachings, and
vast missions of adobe were in the building
stage of development.
Some years ago, I was in the San Juan
valley, and there met Jay Turley who is as full
of romance and constructive genius as the
sand-hills of Nebraska are full of lakes. To-
gether we traveled several days, through the
valley which is rich in resource and tradition,
and there we met, feasted with the ancient
families, Jaques and Archileto. Over fri-
joles (beans) and stewed lamb, hot with pep-
pers, we chatted w,ith "Le Vent," (the wind)
who was a French-Spanish-American. At
Farmington I met Stapleton and his charming
Celtic bride, whose father had for years lived
under the shadow of the pueblos at Taos
(pronounced Tous). There were stories and
stories, and legends and legends, and I deter-
mined to learn more of them. To familiarize
myself, I went to the Indian country. At a
trading post I met an old Navajo, who direct-
ed some remark to the ladies of our party
which the trader interpreted as "pretty wom-
en." For us, he asked the weather beaten man
if he could tell where we were from, and he
made a comprehensive gesture to the north
and said the one word "Cheyenne." As an
indication of how he knew, he touched a fur
worn by one of the party, which was of beaver
trapped at the base of Laramie peak, which
was once the land of the Cheyennes.
My investigations later led me to old Santa
Fe, and I stood at the corner of the Plaza,
which was once the end of the Santa Fe trail.
I stood with uncovered head in the shadow of
the mission — centuries old — that was near
this spot. About a half a block from the
Plaza, which, had it articulation, could tell
such wonderful stories, through one of the
many doors in the white Wall that faces the
street, is the home of Ex-Governor L. Brad-
ford Prince, the historian of New Mexico.
And facing the Plaza itself, is an ancient adobe
building, the home of the state historical so-
ciety. In this I loitered by day pouring over
old scraps of history, and at night I would
leave the hotel to stand in the Plaza, listening
to the whispering winds and voices out of the
past.
It was at Santa Fe that I learned of Dacom-
bo, who, so far as I can learn, was the first
white man to visit America's valley of the
Nile. With an introductory note from Don
Juan Jaquez I met Don Sol Luna, then republi-
can national committeeman, but who is now
passed, and asked him if he knew any stories of
the first Spanish invasion of the north. I asked
him about the Padres and Dacombo. He knew
little of them in an historical way, but he re-
membered one person of that name residing
along the trail from Raton to Taos, of which
I made note. Then I visited Taos, going in
over the Cimmaron desert.
About twenty-five miles east of Taos, near
the summit of the continental divide, is a lone-
ly hut and when I went to Taos, I paused there
for refreshments, and also because Senor Sol
Luna had given me a token of introduction to
Miguel Dacombo; and here it was that he,
knowing of my desire, sat squat upon the
ground, and with a stick sketched crudely in
the sand, after the manner of story tellers and
tradition men of the southwest. And this is
the story imperfectly told in broken English,
as it had come to him through fourteen genera-
tions of ancestry:
"I, Miguel Dacombo (the camper), being of
the ancient family, will tell you now the story
of 'The Nine Years.' Fra Juan de Padilla,
and Fra Juan de La Cruz, and Dacombo, the
soldier with two boys, Lucas and Sabastian,
went into the far land of Quivera, to teach
the desert men, the Christ. They crossed
leagues of waste, perhaps three hundred and
perhaps rive hundred. They forded rivers, and
after a time, Padre Padilla said, 'We have
reached the land.' It was late in the summer,
and they had come upon a bluff overlooking a
wide glade. A river there was in the glade,
which they afterwards found to be very shal-
low and full of dangerous quick-sands. Many
islands there w r ere, and trees and grass. Here
were the people they had come to teach.
"The desert men came running, whereupon
Padre Padillo told all to hide and he would
meet them alone. He knelt down to pray, and
the desert men fell upon and killed him, while
kneeling. Fra de La Cruz, some days later,
saw a small band, and being in sore need of
food, he tried to reconcile them, but they also
killed him. Then it was that the Soldier spoke :
'They are God-less, — they are devils, — let us
go away.'
"They went not back over the desert, but fol-
lowed the river toward the mountains. They
traveled slowly and crossed the river many
times. They followed other rivers that ran in-
to it, and became lost in great mountains of
sand. Winter came and they made a cave.
There were winds that almost buried them
in the sand, and there were snows. They had
good water and plenty of fish ; and Sebastian,
who hunted, occasionally smothered a deer in
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the snow-drifts. They had no weapons but
knives.
•'Summer came, but they found not their way
out of the sand mountains, for the mountains
shifted in the mighty winds, and the mirage
lured them many a league, and arroyas be-
wildered and confused them. Another winter
was spenl like the first. They had plenty of
meal and wood, and clothing made of skins.
"Another summer, and the great river again.
They blessed the Holy Virgin that they were
out of the sand mountains. One day, as in a
vision, great cities shone in the sunset; and
they travelled towards them many days. At
last they saw they were mountains, almost
like great pueblos. Mountains, many miles
of them, that stood up, like ruins of castles.
The Soldier said to Lucas and Sebastian, 'This
is like dear old Spain.' There were giant
castles, churches, long walls, steeples, all won-
derful ; but there were no desert men. No
people were there.
"The 'crooked-backed oxen of the plains,' in
mighty herds, moved over the hills and val-
leys to the south. Where can they go ? They
travelled by for days and days, and the sol-
dier said, 'We must be far from home, for the
oxen never get as far as Piguex.' They spent
a winter in this land. The boys dreamed of
the giants that had builded these great castles,
but the soldier was tired, and his body had
many sores. He was sick, but he dreamed and
dreamed and dreamed.
"Summer came and the wild cattle went
north. Sometimes they ran. and a few are
killed, which they found were good for food,
and with the coming of summer, the soldier
and his boys travelled south for many a league,
where they found another river. Many times
they left it, and wandered into the desert trying
to get home, but they were driven back fam-
ished. Finally, captured by a tribe of desert
men, they were taken toward the sunset until
they reached mountains that shone red at
sundown like the Blood of Christ. Here there
was water, and wood, and game and berries.
How far did they go? Once Sebastian had
fever, and once Lucas had sores on his body,
and oh, how they all wanted to go home. But
with the wild people, and the impassable moun-
tains, where trails in the canyons ended abrupt-
ly, and the swift and ever swifter passing of
seasons, it seemed like they never could reach
their people.
"Nine years passed before they found the In-
dian village Piguex. The boys were bearded
men. Few were there who knew them, but
their hearts were glad to be once more among
their own people. The mark of the desert is
upon us. Here am I. still in the desert, at-
tending goats ; and telling you this story, as it
has come to me, from father to son, and fath-
er to son, since it was first told by Dacombo.
the soldier, and his sons, fourteen men ago."
The Padres Padilla and Le Cruz were killed,
probably near Columbus, and the river of
castles is quite likelv the North Platte river,
and the time about 1540-1550.
CHAPTER III
THE FLAG OF FRANCE IN THE WILDERNESS
'flic nexl old trail, the mxt white man's foot
dial made iis mark upon the soil of Nebras-
ka, was in 1739, when Mallei brothers made
their journey into the wilderness, and research
of historians regarding this enterprise is of a
very meagre and indefinite order.
The Spaniard had taken Mexico, and estab-
lished himself as Ear north as Santa Fe and
England was having its historic strug-
gle Hi' colonizing the Atlantic coast, and the
ith splendid enterprise, were reach-
ing far into the interior of the western world,
and, amalgamating with the native tribes, were
laying firm foundations for grasping an em-
pire.
From Montreal and Canadian possessions
the call of the wild had attracted French ad-
venturers into the mighty forests west of the
great lakes, and now, in 1739. from New Or-
leans, then a frontier city, Mallet brothers
began a noteworthy journey into the new and
wild country. They were to ascend the Missis-
sippi river to the mouth of the Missouri, then
to follow that stream for a distance, then strike
west into the unknown land, descend upon
Santa Fe from the north, and to lav claim to
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
everything north of the Spanish city in the
name of France.
Some history makers say that they ascend-
ed the Missouri river to the Arikarie villages,
then turned south and crossed the Platte and
Arkansas rivers. Watkins says their journey
is somewhat shadowy, and Chittendon tells
us that they left the Missouri river at or near
the present site of Sioux City, on May 29th,
and reached the Platte July 2d (a physical im-
possibility in those days of slow travel, and
that they ascended the Platte to the forks, and
the south fork to the mountains, arriving at
Santa Fe, July 22d. The distance would be a
thousand miles, and the time fifty days, or
an average of twenty miles per day. which
deduction makes it questionable, although pos-
sible.
But the story I have to tell, as I said, will
fall upon some incredulous ears. It bridges
in such a remarkable manner, the one hundred
and fifty years from the time the trip was
made, to the date the story came to me, that
I would hardly venture to include it in his-
tory, except that I found some translations
from Duiderot and De Margry, that fix the
dates as stated, and lend confirmation to the
balance of the story.
Old-timers, over on Gonneville, or Pumpkin
creek, will remember Francois Jourdain, and
around Sixty-Six mountain the pioneers will
remember "Tommy" Chaunavierre. (The
cowboys called him "Shunover.")
In the old days, thirty or more years ago, I
frequently visited "Frenchy" Jourdain's cabin,
which was about three miles east of Wildcat
mountain, and I enjoyed his stories. He was
not a voluble man, but if you started him upon
reminiscence, tradition or history, he would
wax eloquent in gesticulation and expression of
countenance, even if not very articulate.
On more than one occasion, I found "Old
Tommy" visiting him, and at such times I
could be little more than a listener. Their
volatile conversation rattled on, half in French,
and occasionally Tommy would refer to some
ancient manuscript. Frenchy had a coverless
book to which he occasionally referred, and
this was printed in the French language.
The words "Mallet" (Mawley) and "De
Margry" (Demarjory) soon fixed themselves
in my mind, and after a time I got the story.
Tommy claimed that a distant relative — a far
off ancestor — once had the wonderful distinc-
tion of being selected by the Crown of France,
as one of the party of eight, who under Mallet,
was on a tour of investigation and exploration,
and that about one hundred and fifty years
before, they had passed through this very part
of the country. Their route, as outlined by
Chaunavierre, left the Missouri river near the
present site of Pierre (Pe-air), and up the lit-
tle Missouri or Teton river, then across to
White river, entering Nebraska at a point a
little west of the present site of Chadron. They
crossed the Pineridge near the Belmont sta-
tion and the Running Water at Bell, where
Charles H. Irion once was in the mercantile
business. Then up Whistle creek and Coyote
canyon, crossing the Snake creek valley, a few
miles west of the present site of Curley, then
near Spottedtail springs and down the west
Sportedtail to the Platte river, then up Horse
creek to a point some distance above the old Y-
cross ranch, then turning southward, keeping
close to the foot-hills, they arrived at Santa
Fe in due time and completed their mission.
De Margry says that they reached the Platte
river on June 2. 1739, and that they called it
"Flatwater." This is the first time in all rec-
ord, that I have seen the Platte river designat-
ed by a name, and it is the second story of
white people in western Nebraska.
Since taking up this work the old story came
back to me, and I have sought for its confirma-
tion in contempory history. A story of start-
ling interest has been uncovered.
One would hardly think that, during the
reign of Louis XV, the Crown of France
would take much interest in the development
of foreign empire ; but some years before, an
adventurer named John Law had wrecked the
finances of the French government in a Mis-
sissippi speculation, and the succeeding prime
minister. Cardinal Fleury. was engaged in the
desperate task of reconstruction. There was
only one way by which this could be accom-
plished, and that was by keeping the youthful
king busy with frivolous pastime, while the
master-hand performed the labor. And in
this matter, the careless act of a nurse material-
ly assisted. She was an attendant of Louis
XV, when he was a child, and permitted him
to play with the daughter of a blacksmith, for
whom he formed a childish attachment.
At the ripe age of fifteen years, the minis-
try selected a Polish princess as the bride for
the king. They reasoned that this plaything
would keep him out of public affairs. After a
time he began to think of the playmate of his
childhood, and to keep him amused, the min-
istry made search, and found her, then grown
into a beautiful woman. The king was might-
ily pleased, and he bestowed upon the black-
smith's daughter the title of Marchioness le
Pompadour, and for twenty years she was the
virtual ruler of France.
Spain had been anticipating an alliance of
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the French King with some one of Castillian
nobility, and it is not the character of the
Spaniard to take kindly to the shattering of
hopes because of a blacksmith's daughter. The
conditions had reached such a stage that they
involved the territory of the new world. Span-
iards had been endeavoring to get a foothold
in the valleys of the Arkansas and the Platte,
and it was under the direction of the French
ministry that Mallet brothers traversed the
wilderness in 1739.
It may be noted that during the latter part of
Lady Pompadour's sway over King Louis, that
the French people were seized with a spasm of
interest in literature. This was indeed one of
the great epochs of France, and was likely
brought about by the skeptic, Voltaire, who
jarred upon the super-sensitive religious in-
clinations of the time, and so suited the French
temperament of that period, that it provoked
their sluggish intellects, drugged with long
years of excesses and vices, into some sort of
natural action. In passing it may be well to
add that after the death of Pompadour, when
Madame Du Barry became the favorite of the
degenerate king, the French government prac-
tically collapsed.
Mallet brothers, carrying the French flag
into the wilderness, was the wise work of .
Cardinal Fleury, and it was the same force that
prompted the expedition of Verendrye into
northern Wyoming in 1740.
Whatever feeble collateral history there is
available at this time, was probably inspired by
Lady Pompadour. And from Duiderot, one
of the famous scriveners of the time, and from
De Margry, are the only references to the jour-
ney, that I have been able to find. I would
give much for the manuscript of Tommy
Chaunavierre, but he is passed; and the family
long scattered to other lands.
CHAPTER IV
THE FUR-TRADERS
The fur trade began in the territory about
us, a little over one hundred years ago, and it
continued until the passing of the buffalo.
The active period was for about fifty years,
and the romance of that wild, hard life is now
only a memory.
The dangers attendant during the Indian
wars, the thrilling experiences of emigrants
and pony express riders, and the overland
stage, and the later inspiration of the cowmen,
each have important parts ; and in the evolution
of the past, the homesteaders of twenty-five to
thirty-five years ago, and the people of the
later periods, each have been history makers.
The slow process of irrigation, has been an-
other epoch in our little world, and the full-
ness of its glory is not yet nearly reached. But
fur trailers and trappers came into this primi-
tive wilderness, largely for the love of ad-
venture, and they built campfires that burned
so brightly for a time which now have faded
and smoldered, and are lost into the receding
past.
The Latin races have always been pioneers
ration and enterprise. The Cross of
Christ, and the Sword of the Spanish Con-
querer, have gone hand in hand over the great
southwest, and it was in the early centuries that
Spanish pilgrims wandered into the northwest,
and many of them never returned.
Foremost among the fur-traders, came Man-
uel Lisa. He organized the Missouri Fur
Company about 1807, and sent out trappers
and pushed boats up the Missouri and the
Yellowstone. The fierce competition waged by
the Hudson Bay company, on the upper Mis-
souri river and its tributaries, effected a change
of base. We find no record of Lisa visiting
this section of the state, but his mark is
stamped indelibly on this land. A number of
writers seem to think he was here about 1809,
but no real record has been found. Manuel
Lisa and his wife were the first white people to
set up housekeeping in Nebraska, they estab-
lishing a home near the mouth of the Platte
about 1809.
Jacques Laramie, was at or near that time,
associating himself with free trappers and es-
tablishing a rendezvous at the confluence of
the Platte and Laramie rivers, and there are
evidences that white men had preceded him.
Someone in earlier years had left the mark on
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the Hartville hills. Roi and Dornin were met
by the returning Astorians, at the eastern end
of Grand Island, in the spring of 1813, and
they were on their way up the Platte. For
how many years they had been coming there
is no record, but that they might have been
associated with Manuel Lisa, seems quite prob-
able. They appeared as free trappers at the
mouth of the Laramie in the later years.
When Robert Stuart and party met them at
Grand Island, they had come up the river in
a boat, and they disposed of the elkskin craft
to the Stuart party. Rio and Dornin them mov-
ed on up the Platte through the Sand Hills,
and must have traversed the Old Trail some-
time during the same year.
The fur hunters of that day left their mark
upon the country and some of the names linger
over to this time. Among those who met in the
annual rendezvous on the Laramie, were
Jaques Laramie, and M. Goshe, and Gonne-
ville. Each left his bones in the western land,
and each brought lingering names to the geog-
raphy of the west : Laramie peak, Laramie
mountains, Laramie plains, Laramie river and
the Little Laramie, Laramie city and old Fort
Laramie. Goshe frequented the land south-
east of the annual rendezvous, and had built
him a cabin on Cherry creek, and here he was
found dead, apparently murdered by Arapa-
hoes, which were never to be trusted, and then
the numerous basins and flats on the eastern
border of Wyoming, south of the Platte, be-
came known as Goshe's Holes.
Probably the change in the name was due to
the Mormons, who probably misunderstood it
in the first place. The notes of many para-
graphers call it "Goshen Hole" after the Mor-
mons' pilgrimage to the valley of Great Salt
Lake. John Henry Smith, a once prominent
Mormon, now passed, told me that there was
something about this country that appealed to
those of his faith, when journeying into the
mountains, and many of them wished that this
could be made the Mecca of their journey.
Among the meagre personal effects of M.
Goshe, at the time of his demise, were found
crude sketches which indicated that he trap-
ped on Cherry creek, Horse creek, Bear creek,
Lodgepole creek, Lawrence fork, and Gon-
neville or Pumpkin creek, all of which were
then unnamed.
Gonneville was like Goshe, a French Creole,
and after the annual meet at the Laramie ren-
dezvous, he would disappear into the southeast
wilderness, where he trapped for beaver as
far east probably as Ash Hollow. His period
of activity extended from 1820 to 1830. He
was with Bissonette at the time the bones of
immortal Scott were found near the spring on
Scotts Bluff mountain, and he was killed by
Indians in 1830, near the point where Lor-
ren's fork joins Pumpkin creek. The latter then
became known as Gonneville creek, until the
coming of the cowmen.
It seems natural for successive classes of
people in any territory, to unconsciously en-
deavor to obliterate the names and the glory
of the departing peoples. Thus the reckless
and contemptuous cowmen changed much of
our geographical nomenclature. Lodgepole
creek became commonly known as Pole creek,
and Gonneville creek lost its historic signifi-
cance in the prosiac Pumpkinseed. Lorren's
fork became Lawrence fork, and the beautiful
Bluewater now bears a disagreeable name, the
Snake.
There is a justification for new people, who
accomplish new things, to stamp indelibly the
fact upon some physical attraction, but if it
must be done by tearing down an identity that
was here long before, it becomes a travesty,
and an act little short of vandalism.
Take for instance, Mud Springs, so full of
history that a volume could be written concern-
ing it but the railroad has named the station
"Simla." What does Simla indicate? Pos-
sibly the name of some railroad official, and
possibly not so much as that. But it does mean
the obliteration of an historical identity and
association, and a sentiment that the genera-
tions of men would appreciate.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER V
ROBERT STUART'S WINTER CAMP
On June 20th, 1812, Robert Stuart, with a
party of six others, left Astoria, Oregon, car-
rying dispatches to John Jacob Astor, of New
York. The personnel of this party were hard-
ened mountaineers and each is worthy of a
volume of history, but as the achievements ap-
pear from time to time, it will not be neces-
sary to give them further introduction now.
\\ Inn near the present site of Walla Walla,
Washington, John Day, who was one of the
party, was taken ill, and attempted suicide.
Friendly Indians were prevailed upon to take
him back to Astoria, where one report says
he died. Another says that he recovered,
which is quite likely true, for mention of his
deeds can be found in the records as late as
1819.
Upon the upper Mad river, now called
Snake, they met with a party of four trappers,
which the Astorians had left in the moun-
tains the year previous. These consisted of
Edward Robinson, a Kentuckian who in a
brush with the Indians at an earlier date had
lost his scalp, and John Hoback, Jacob Rizner
and Jacob Miller. The Blackfeet had strip-
ped them completely, and the first three named
returned to the mountains to recoup their lost
fortunes, while Miller joined Stuart's party,
which made it again seven in number. Robin-
son. Hoback and Rizner all perished in the
wilderness.
Stuart's party proceeded onward, and met
with many hardships. When near the conti-
nental divide, which they crossed on October
20th; when for several days they had been
without food, LeClerc, a French-Canadian,
came to the leader with the startling proposi-
tion that they cast lots to see who should die
to furnish food for the others. To obtain the
consent of Stuart, he proposed that the leader
should not take the hazard. Unable to prevail
upon the man to desist from his horrible sug-
gestion in any other way. Stuart told him that
if In- heard another word of it. the man who
made the suggestion would be the one to die.
The Canadian subsided, and fortunately they
soon thereafter killed a run-down buffalo bull.
With lives sustained, the party was enabled
to continue proceed as tin- discoverers of
1 Iverland Trail, which from the east
as far west as western Wyoming, has been
used with only slight variation-, by ( Iregon
emigrants, California gold seekers, ami Mor-
mons.
This adventurous party went into winter
quarters early in November, 1812, on the north
bank of the river, which they afterwards iden-
tified as the Platte, at the point where Poison
Spider creek comes out of the north. Game
was abundant, and while four of the party
worked at making a suitable winter habitation,
the other three were out in the adjoining
mountains shooting buffalo, deer, bighorns,
and other big game with which the country
abounded.
Here they reveled and feasted after their
days of famine and meat boiled, broiled and
roasted made the variety of the daily fare.
But they were not destined to remain undis-
turbed in their comfortable quarters. Early in
December they \vere visited by a score or more
of hungry Indians, professing friendship af-
ter the manner of the early redmen when des-
titute and hungry. They were fed from the
abundant stores of the Stuart party and sent
upon their way with several days rations.
This visit, the travelers knew, would be only
a beginning, so they reluctantly broke camp on
the 13th of December and proceeded down the
river.
It was late in the month when the party
reached the prairies of Nebraska. They trav-
eled on until about the line between the pres-
ent counties of Morrill and Garden, where the
white dreary solitude looked so destitute of
subsistence that they retraced their steps for
three days before finding a suitable location
for their camp.
On New Year's day, 1813, they were in a
Cottonwood grove on the north bank of the
river at a point about four miles west of the
present city of Scottsbluff. Here there were
trees large enough to make canoes, and the
Platte, though frozen over had an appearance
of being navigable for small boats.
In the years that have passed since then,
the river has changed its course, and has cut
into the lower end of Spring creek, leaving
the location of the old camp upon what is
know n as Big Island just at its lower extrem-
ity.
At this place some of the older dwellers of
the valley — Theo. D. Deutsch and others —
can recollect the very old cottonwood stumps,
possibly the very trees cut by this party and
made into canoes. And Mr. Deutsch is the
owner of a hand forged ax, found on this is-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
land which might have been once used by the
Stuart party 100 years ago.
I wonder if the resolute Stuart ever had
visions of the future — if he ever dreamed
that he and his party were blazing the trail
for the mighty shifting of population that
later crossed the continent. Children not then
born, were the heads of families with Marcus
Whitman, who piloted emigrants to Oregon in
1842-43 and 44. And there are great grand-
parents now living that were not born when
Whitman made his journey.
This camp on Big Island was in the long
ago. It was fifteen years before Hiram Scott
Robert Stuart's Winter Camp, 1812-13
Drawn from description and survey of Big Island.
perished on the bluff that bears his name, and
was twenty years earlier than the time that
Captain Bonneville visited the Scottsbluff
county and made mention of the famous
mountain.
The hut builded by these adventurers con-
sisted of cottonwood posts, over which were
fastened buffalo robes, making a wall that
kept out the sweeping blasts that came down
through Platte canyon, and roared over the
bleak, bare prairies. In true wild fashion, the
hole through which the smoke from the fires
escaped was in the center of their winter
home. Buffalo robes were piled upon the
ground for the beds. The old horse that had
done them such service in packing over the
mountains was turned loose to find food and
shelter in the primitive way.
There were two Canadians in the party, Val-
ler and LeClerc, who were relied upon to do
much of the hunting. And Robert McLellan,
who was with Wayne in the Indian wars east
of the Mississippi, was not of a temperament
for the confinement of a camp. The river was
frozen over, and the hunters went at will
among the south hills, or hunted sheep on the
mountain.
It is quite generally known these peculiar
creatures of the wild used to frequent the
most inaccessible cliffs of old Scotts Bluff, and
they could be seen standing out in bold relief
on the outermost pinnacles, surveying the bad
lands and the valley with proprietary dignity.
They would bound along the ledges that no
hunter would dare to follow, or would leap
over precipices when hard pressed striking
upon their horns fifty or one hundred feet be-
low, and recovering their feet, Would run
away unharmed.
The last of these animals in the Scotts
Bluff country were killed by Hardy Farns-
Worth and George Slonecker about 1888, and
the head and horns of that killed by Slonecker
weighed forty-seven pounds.
McLellan would often be out for several
days, and the worse the weather the better it
suited his wild nature. Like the stormy petrol,
he glorified in defying the tempests. Frequent-
ly his campfire beacons gleamed above the hills
in the direction of the landmarks of what
in after years became known as the "Hogback"
and "Wildcat Mountain."
Beaver were found along the river and the
hunters added a number of their pelts to their
store.
There was but little game upon the prairie,
the buffalo having retired to the mountains
or migrated southward. But occasionally great
droves of antelope could be seen in the open
or passing over some distant ridge. The tim-
bered hills to the southward afforded plenty
of blacktail deer, and when the hunters first
appeared among them they were too wild to be
scared. Upon the approach of the white man
they would bound out of the thicket only a
few feet away, and turn and stand looking
at one, with wide and wondering eyes.
Early in March, the ice went out of the
river, and on the eighth of the month, the
party embarked in their canoes, and proceed-
ed d.-iwn the turbulent stream. Only a few
miles below they encountered snags and sand
bars, obliging them to abandon their canoe
and continue their journey on foot. Near
the eastern extremity of Grand Island, they
met an Otte (Otoe) Indian, who directed
them to the camp of two white traders, who
were on their way into the wilderness. From
them they procured an elkhide boat and con-
tinued their journey to St. Louis by water.
These arc the men who made the' wonderful
and hazardous trip, without the loss of a man,
in the worst part of the year, who discovered
and traversed the most practical route across
the continental divide, and laid the founda-
tion for a great national, ocean to ocean high-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
wey, and to whom a stone shall be raised that
will fittingly commemorate their achievements :
Robert Stuart, Ramsey Crooks, Robert Mc-
Clellan, Ben Jones, Joseph Miller, Francis Le-
Clerc and Andri Valler.
CHAPTER VI
JACQUES LARAMIE'S CARAVANS AND FLEETS
The romance of the hunter and trapper has
always appealed to boys. We have all had our
; s iins^ and there are few of us who have not,
at some time in our career, set steel traps in
the creeks and ponds around home, or impro-
vised a snare for wild game.
Many of the hunters and trappers of one
hundred years ago, took to the wilderness for
the love of the tiling, but there were some who
went into it for gain. Of such, not all were
destined to receive the profit which they hoped
would be theirs.
Of the former class John Day, with his six
feet two, and his manly upright bearing was a
type. It is true that like many another of his
kind, he died far away from civilization, and
wild animals gnawed at, and fought over his
bones. Too many of them shared this melan-
choly fate ; and too many of them shared the
fate of Manuel Lisa who put so much spirit
end energy into the fur enterprise. He was of
more than average intelligence and had much
practical knowledge of the business, but it did
not avail. The hazards were too great, and
he died absolutely insolvent.
Robert Stuart and Ramsey Crooks were
among the fortunate. They early became the
western lieutenants of the fur king, John
Jacob A si or. and in that capacity made money
not only for him but for themselves.
Early in the year 1814 word found way in-
to the mountains that the party of Astorians
had reached St. Louis by a much shorter route
than that usually taken, and devoid of many
of the dangers along the Missouri river route.
This fact naturally led to a shifting of free
trappers from tin more frequented fields into
tin- new and fresher territory along the Platte
and Sweetwater.
About 1815, tin competition among the big
companies operating in the mountain- reach-
ed such a stage that some of the partisans
seemed to think that robbery and murder were
duties oi faithful employees. This
caused peace loving men like Jacques Laramie
to leave the partisans of the trade, and engage
in free trapping. He held that the world was
large enough for all. The result was that a
large number who believed as he did, had
decided to let the partisans fight it out ; and
they had taken to the newer fields of enter-
prise, and had made a rendezvous at the junc-
tion of the Laramie Fork and the North Platte.
And from this point they loaded their packs of
beaver for St. Louis.
After the first year's experience, the his-
toric spot became an annual rendezvous — the
place of meeting to journey to civilization,
and point of dispersing into the wilderness.
History is somewhat of a desert as to the
free trapping fraternity. Their independence,
and for the most part illiteracy, combined to
condemn them to obscurity.
It was the manner of many of the half wild
people of the mountains to go with their pel-
tries into the city, and after disposing of them,
to spend the money royally, after which they
would repair to the wilderness for more. The
wild was a part of their lives.
The stormy petrol, — Robert McLellan —
who returned with Stuart to St. Louis through
the valley of the "Flat Water," in 1812-13,
never again returned to the mountains. But
civilization was not of his kind, and he died
less than two years thereafter.
Jacques Laramie was an unusual character
among the people of long ago. Too many of
the wilderness men were inclined to forget
their obligation. Expediency and the needs
of the moment were of vastly greater concern
to them than the vague uncomprehensive con-
tract signed with "his x mark" made to some
partisans of the fur trade.
Yet for the purpose of disposing of their
peltries, it was necessary for them to rely
upon some one to do the mathematical work,
and one who would not let the "wise ones" of
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
13
civilized trade, take their hides along with
the pelts of animals.
Laramie became a leader of free trappers —
the man whom all trusted — -and from year to
year the rendezvous at "Laramie's fork" grew,
as new men heard of the newer and safer
route to and from the base of supplies.
For five years after 1S15 the trappers met
in May of each year, and when conditions
were favorable, the peltries were loaded on the
bullboats, and Laramie with a party would
convey them down the river. Another party
would take horses to a point about four hun-
dred miles below to assist their return. Keel-
boats plying on the Missouri river, would take
Laramie "and his cargo from the mouth of the
Platte to St. Louis and return, and occasionally
keelboats could ascend the Platte as far as
Grand Island — then an unnamed island.
Ordinarily, however, the party were com-
pelled to use its bullboats up the Platte to the
meeting place. Sometimes traders would be
found at the island rendezvous, who would
take all their pelts, furnish them with supplies
and permit them to return. Pack horses were
invariably used on this return through western
Nebraska.
Here the supplies were distributed by the
just hand of Laramie, as had been ordered and
was required by each trapper or company of
trappers and all would then take to the prairies
or mountains, each announcing the portion of
the wild in which he proposed to operate for
the coming year.
Thus it transpired that from 1815 onward,
there were troops of horse, and fleets of bat-
teaux frequently traversing the great valley of
the North Platte.
There was always plenty of driftwood for
their small needs, as the trips were made
quickly. The boats traveled about seventy-
five miles per day, and the horses about thirty,
so that five or six days would take the boat to
the island rendezvous, and twelve or fifteen
would bring the horses back to Laramie's fork.
At this time of the year the Indians south
of the Platte, particularly the Arapahoes, were
following buffalo herds northward The Ogal-
lalas and Tetons who claimed the territory
north of the Platte always resisted the prog-
ress of the southern tribes into their hunting
grounds, and the river was the halting line.
Above the fork of the Laramie, that river
was the line of resistance.
Arapahoes were always distrustful of the
white people, and continued hostile until 1832,
when Captain Gant established a post on the
Arkansas, and won their friendship. The
Cheyennes, also south of the river, were of
the same unreliable nature, and about 1815,
they joined the Arapahoes, and operated with
them for several years.
On the other hand, the Tetons and Ogal-
lalas were always friendly up to this period.
Even in the later wars, Spotted Tail, the fam-
ous chief of the Ogallalas, was a peace loving
Indian, and regretted the necessity of fighting
the whites, but he could not do otherwise than
"throw in with his people," when the eloquence
of Red Cloud won them over to war.
So marked was this condition, that the trap-
pers who made the annual trips up and down
the Platte, found it better to keep on the
north side of the stream, particularly on the
return trip which was made in June. The
river made a natural barrier against their pre-
datory foes, and afforded comparative safety
to those of the caravans moving along the
valley during the high water period.
The greater number of the trappers went
north and west from the rendezvous for the
same reason. Those who took to the streams
on the south to gather beaver usually met with
disaster. Goshe was found dead in his cabin,
and Gonneville was killed on the creek that
bore his name for so many years, and even
that friend of the Indian, the gentle Jacques
Laramie, was not immune from the vicious
Arapahoes.
In 1820, he announced that he would trap
on Laramie fork the coming season, and when
the other trappers pointed out the dangers,
he said he would go alone. He did — and he
died alone, at the base of the great mountain
that bears his name. His body was found in
his cabin in 1821 by a party of trappers who
had gone in search of him.
He had failed to meet at the rendezvous as
agreed, but he had gone the way of brave
John Day, and of Hoback, Robinson, Rezner
and McLellan. into a stranger land — to a
Final Rendezvous in the Wilderness of Stars.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER VII
GENERAL WILLIAM H. ASHLEY'S TRAPPERS — DEATH OF HIRAM SCOTT
In 1823, General Ashley started with a pow-
erful party up the Missouri, but at the Ankara
villages they met with such hostilities that a
number of men were killed and others utterly
discouraged. Following the talk of mutiny, he
released all, and called for volunteers. Forty
men, most of them hardy mountaineers from
Kentucky, responded ; the others returning to
St. Louis. Among the forty was Hiram Scott,
a man of considerable education and romance.
With these men General Ashley returned to
the Platte and ascended the river to the moun-
tains. At the forks, he sent a small detach-
ment up the south river with instructions to
meet the main party on the Seeds-keedee, or
prairie-hen river, which had been called the
Spanish river for some time, and soon after
it was changed to Green river. With about
thirty men he crossed the south fork of the
Platte at the point where the city of North
Platte now lies, and the north fork at or near
the mouth of the Birdwood.
Closely crowding the river on the north side
were the sand hills, of which it was said:
"This remarkable region is composed of round-
ed hillrocks of sand, and blowouts, so similar
that one better be lost in the trackless forest
than to become confused in his bearings."
When opposite "the Needle," no doubt Chim-
ney Rock, they were halted three hours to allow
the buffalo to pass. Thousands of them were
coming out of the mountains, crossing the river,
and disappearing into the hills of the north.
General Ashley's party camped that night
at "an island of considerable proportions
which, seemed to be a rendezvous for wild
fowl." The description given tallies with Long
Island, occasionally designated as Hughes Is-
land, where wild geese nested in earlier days.
There was an old saying among the Indians
thai " Vbove the forks of the Platte, the grass
does not burn." In the shadowy first years
then- was very little grass in this country, and
the little that did spring up in the early season,
and much of the prairie was absolute-
ly ban- by the middle of July. Thus it occur-
red that when General Ashley reached "the
meadows," he rested for a few day. to let
his horses recup
"A mountain of considerable proportions
was nearly Opposite the camp," and one wild
soul remarked that when he died he hoped that
his body would be buried upon the top
minence as that. I have wondered if
the man who thus remarked was Hiram Scott,
and if, five years later, it was the memory of
this mountain that had inspired him onward
to die at its feet.
Somewhere in the mountains Mr. Scott met
Narcisse LeClerc. Francis LeClerc, who was
with Stuart in 1812, was a kinsman of Nar-
cisse, and had told him of the wonderful fur
resources in the mountains, and the former
was not long in finding his way into the
wilds.
General Ashlev had returned to St. Louis
Death of Hiriam Scott
in the autumn of 1823, and Scott had become
a free trapper, when he met LeClerc. (Fer-
ris says that Scott was clerk of the American
Fur Company, and that may have been true
at one time, but not in 1828.)
The competition among the companies had
driven the most enterprising men into the free
trapper fraternity, and the exactions of free
trappers drove the companies to consolidation.
The Northwest had become a part of the Hud-
son Bay, and in July, 1827, the American Fur
Company absorbed the Columbia. Free trap-
pers would undoubtedly receive less for their
peltries, and LeClerc and Scott determined to
organize a new company.
MrKenzie, manager of the post of the Am-
erican, was a special object of dislike. LeClerc
told Papin, a confrere, at a later date, that he
"would like nothing better, than puffing a
good cigar along side of McKenzie."
Now while the Northwest had been ab-
sorbed by the Hudson Bay, the name had a
traditional and commercial value, and LeClerc
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
15
and Scott decided upon "Northwest Fur Com-
pany," as the name for their new concern.
Thus it transpired that a considerable number
of free trappers were assembled under the
leadership of LeClerc, with Hiram Scott as
clerk and bookkeeper. And they were enroute
for St. Louis in 1828, to dispose of their first
collection of peltries, and formally launch
their company.
Chittendon says that this new company was
outfitted by Henry Shaw, but that was later
and after the death of Scott.
Just above Platte canyon, at the rock bot-
tom ford, Scott was taken ill, and left behind
with Roi and Bissonette, to be taken by a bull-
boat through the Platte canyon, and to over-
take the party at "the big bluff one hundred
miles down the river," where they would tar-
ry and trap. (People coming to Scotts Bluff
from the plain refer to it as a mountain, but
people from the mountains regularly called
it a bluff.)
The story of the naming of Scotts Bluff, as
told by Washington Irving in "Captain Bonne-
ville," needs only these few alterations and
embellishments, which I have garnered from
the notes of other brave men of the mountains,
to make it complete.
After a few days the boat was launched, but
was upset in the canyon, and all provisions
and ammunition were lost. The three men
reached the shore, however, and after some
difficulty reached Laramie's fork. While
searching for food, Roi and Bissonette came
upon the fresh trail of LeClerc and party, and
abandoned Scott in the wilderness. On reach-
ing the big bluff, they found that the others
had not waited as agreed, so they pushed on-
ward. When overtaking the party, they im-
provised the story that Scott had died from
exposure and fever.
The following year Bissonette, Gonneville
and Roubideaux were returning from civiliza-
tion, and they found a skeleton at the spring, on
the mountain, which the former declared was
that of Hiram Scott. He had walked or crawl-
ed seventy miles, before his resolute spirit took
its flight. The Bissonette here mentioned was
a son of Antoine Bissonette and one of his
many Indian wives. Antoine was with Man-
uel Lisa in 1807, and deserted. With Lisa's
order to retake him dead or alive, Drouillard
shot and mortally wounded him. The mongrel
son, who inherited his father's penchant for
deserting a companion, lived to a ripe old age,
and is mentioned by Francis Parkman, who
visited this village on Horse Creek in 1846.
He had married a squaw — several of them
in fact — and was the chief of a small band
when visited by Parkman. They were camp-
ed near the present site of La Grange, and were
miserably poor. Their principal food consisted
of choke berries crushed with stones and dried
on buffalo robes in the sun. They had journey-
ed in from the south, and on the trip had lived
for the most part on huge wingless grass-
hoppers, which clumsily fell about their moc-
casins as they walked.
History is singularly destitute relating to the
future movements of Roi, but Narcisse Le-
Clerc was a live wire for several years that
followed.
CHAPTER VIII
TOSHUA PILCHER AND FORTY-FIVE TRAPPERS
When Manuel Lisa died, in August, 1820,
Joshua Pilcher succeeded him as manager of
the Missouri Fur Company. Pilcher followed
the much used route up the Missouri river for
several years.
He was with Leavenworth and Ashley in the
Arikara fight which was participated in by
Hiram Scott and others familiar in Scotts Bluff
history. This little event on the Missouri and
subsequent bitterness between him and Colonel
Leavenworth, and the increased hostility of
the Arikaras after the Leavenworth fiasco,
caused the Platte river to lie selected for
Pilcher's operations.
For a while he confined himself to short
journeys up the river as far as Grand Island
where he met trappers coming from the moun-
tains, and up the Loup and other tributaries
trading with the Pawnees.
In September, 1827, he started from Coun-
cil Bluffs, where he had a trading station, with
a party of forty-five trappers for Salt Lake
Valley. This was the first recorded time of
his journeying above "the coast of the Platte,"
16
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
as the bluffs on either side of the river from
Kearney west were afterwards named.
The original Council Bluffs were on the
west side of the Missouri, and some twenty-five
miles up the river from the present site of the
modern city of that name. They were so
named because of a famous council held there
between the Indian tribes and Lewis and
Clarke. About twenty trading posts had been
established between these bluffs and the mouth
of the Platte.
Pilcher followed the usual method and di-
vided his party at the forks of the Platte, a
small detachment crossing both forks of the
river near that point, and going up the south
side of the "South River." with instructions
to join the main party in the vicinity of the
"Southern Pass."
With thirty men he proceeded up the north
side of the "North river," leaving the forks of
the river on September 25th.
On the 27th he passed the Birdwood, and
October 4th found them "opposite the low ly-
ing, fantastic bluffs, resembling citadels, castles,
towers, and other works of man."
"The Chimney" was passed the following
day. and so far as I have been able to find, this
is the first time it was called "chimney," by
early travelers. Two days after they crossed
the meadows, and camped opposite the "first
real mountain on the journey." At this time
Scotts Bluff had not received its name.
Buffalo herds were drifting southward, and
there were thousands of them. They were
being chased into the valley by friendly In-
dians from the north, who were laying in their
winter supply of meat. And the southern
tribes, hungry and hostile, were meeting them
a) tin- river, and chasing them over the hills to
the south. On the morning of October Sth, a
large herd was espied in the valley to the
westward, and the hunters experienced no dif-
ficult) in crossing the river, as it was at low
water stage. Several fat buffalo were slaugh-
tered in what later became known as Mitchell
valley. The robes and choicest cuts of the
meat, and the tallow were saved, and the bal-
ance left to the wolves.
The hard life of the trapper would indeed
have been mure serious had it not been for
the buffalo, They furnished much of the sub-
sistence required, and thereby the long jour-
neys through the prairie country to the moun-
tain- was quite as profitable to the trapping
fraternity as the time spent in the shadows
of the mountains.
Two days later the party passed the point
of rocks west of Morrill.' and on the 13th
crossed the Platte river above the mouth of
the Laramie. By October 15th the party was
well out of the part of the country of which
our story tells.
On reaching the Sweetwater, Pilcher had
his horses stolen. He cached his supplies and
went through the South Pass light. A num-
ber of his men, having arrived in the moun-
tains, deserted, and no doubt some of them
were with LeClerc the following year, when
Hiram Scott was left to die.
Pilcher had one of the most wonderful trips
ever made in the mountains, going with only
one companion for many hundreds of miles. He
returned to St. Louis in June, 1830, and after
the death of General Clarke in 1838, he became
Superintendent of Indian affairs, which posi-
tion he held for nine years. It was under his
regime that Andrew Drips became Indian
Agent at Fort Laramie at a later date, much to
the advantage of the American Fur Company,
then operating a trading post at that point.
In 1826, three of the "enterprising young
men," who accompanied General Ashley in
1823, organized a company and Ashley wishing
to retire from the fur trade, sold out to them.
Ashley was about $200,000 in debt at the time
he began operations, but he retired in 1826 with
a fortune of over $300,000.
The style of the new firm was Smith, Jack-
son & Sublette. The senior member, Jebediah
Smith, was a great, great uncle of Mrs. C. P.
Calhoun, who lived near the signal point seven
miles northeast of Scottsbluff, a few years ago.
One of the prettiest valleys in the mountains
and one of the most charming nature spots of
the west were named after Jackson — the Jack-
son holes and Jackson lake.
William Sublette was one of the characters
in history building in the western country for
several years, and it is right that more than
passing mention be made of him and his
achievements. He was born in 1799 and at
the age of nineteen started in business for him-
self by ope/iing a billiard hall at Saint Charles,
Missouri. He was a Kentuckian, and his fath-
er was said to be the man who killed Chief Te-
cumseh.
His first visit into this country was on the
trip up the valley with General Ashley in
1823, when Scott was one of the party.
Sublette had several brothers in the wilder-
ness, one of whom, Milton, died at Fort Lara-
mie in 1836. William was a thorough moun-
taineer, a man with a frank and open counte-
nance, very expressive ; was light complection-
ed and had blue eyes. He stood six feet two
in his moccasins.
In the years 1827-1828 and 1829, Sublette
was the member of the firm that conveyed pel-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
17
tries to market and provisions and merchandise
into the mountains. He used pack horses and
mules for the most part, and followed the
trail of Jacques Laramie.
This partnership with Smith and Jackson
ended in 1831 upon the death of Smith. And
immediately thereafter he formed a partner-
ship with Robert Campbell, another of General
Ashley's "enterprising young men."
Going a little ahead of my story, Campbell,
in June, 1835, with thirteen men, began the
erection of a trading post about a mile from
the mouth of the Laramie river, and in honor
of William Sublette he named it Fort William.
This was the beginning of Fort Laramie.
The partnership was dissolved in 1842, when
Sublette retired from mountain trade, and in
July, 1845, while on his way to Washington
he was taken ill and died. The Sublette fam-
ily is now extinct.
William Sublette died independently weal-
thy, being one of the few fur traders who
made money, and kept any of it. He was mar-
ried March 21, 1844, to an Alabama lady nam-
ed Miss Frances Hereford, and Chittendon
tells this little romance which is not without its
human interest.
Miss Hereford had a prior attachment for
a younger brother, Solomon, but William had
the greater fortune, and it turned the scale in
his favor. Soon after his marriage he made
a will giving his fortune to her at his death
in case she did not change her name. He died
on the 2d of July, 1845, and the lady later
married her first love, Solomon, that probably
being the intention of William when he put
the provision in his will.
CHAPTER IX
FIRST WAGONS ON OVERLAND TRAILS
The valley of the "Flat W r ater" had become
well known as a highway for trappers. While
data of special trips are a little difficult to ob-
tain, yet mention is made frequently of the
movement of some voyageur, or pack caravan,
and it is stated that "they took the usual Platte
and Sweetwater route."
This valley is still relatively new as a thor-
oughfare. Some day in the not far distant fu-
ture there will be streaming east and west, long
strings of Pullmans as the Overland pants its
way from sea to sea ; and Transcontinental
tourists motoring east and west will be as
common as emigrants were on Oregon trail.
Away back yonder the trapper found it, and
it was new to him, but for generations the
aborigines had traveled up and down the val-
ley, and before their time wild animals trailed
along the banks of the Platte, ever looking for
that greener pasture a little farther on.
Wherever the foot of man goeth, there have
been others before. It seems a part of destiny.
The old world whirls on, blazing a trail across
the wilderness of space, yet probably the path
it moves along has been worn smooth by va-
grant worlds still moving on before.
Having traversed this part of the wilderness
with a pack horse several times, it was quite
natural that one should look for easier modes
of conveyance. Thus it was that in the early
spring of 1830 two years before Captain Bon-
neville made his journey up the Platte, Will-
iam Sublette set out with a party of trappers
from St. Louis.
He had ten wagons, each laden with about
a ton of merchandise and drawn by five mules,
two light vehicles drawn by one mule each, and
eighty men mounted on mules. With the cara-
van were twelve cattle, and one milch cow. The
cattle were for food until they should reach
the buffalo country.
They moved up the Missouri river to the
mouth of the Platte, and followed the north
bank of the Platte into the mountains.
It was in June that the first wagons on the
Overland Trail passed through the Scotts
Bluff country. They traveled at the rate of
about fifteen miles a day through the prairie
country, slowing down when reaching the
mountains.
About the middle of August the wagons
laden with peltries, returned through the val-
ley, and arrived at St. Louis early in October.
Speaking of this trip, Smith, Jackson and
18
I IIS TORN' OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Sublette wrote a letter in October, 1830, to
Chouteau, which found its way into the Cong-
gressional Record. It covers a wide variety of
subjects. The feasibility of carrying on traffic
by wagon trains to the Columbia river country
comes in for a liberal share.
( Ine quotation of interest to the North "Platte
river is: "We began to fall in with the buf-
faloes on the Platte, about three hundred and
fifty miles from the white settlements; and
from that time on, lived on buffaloes, the
quantity being infinitely beyond what we
needed."
This directly refers to the country from Gar-
den county to the mountains. This letter is
found in Sen. Doc. 39, 21st Cong. 2d Ses.
The following spring another caravan was
made up, and proceeded along the identical
route, but on the return trip stopped at the
mouth of the Platte. And from this time for a
few years, the plan was to bring merchandise
by water up the Missouri to the Platte, then
by wagons into the mountains. Returning
parties brought wagons to the Missouri and
transferred the beaver to boats, letting the
mules rest while the journey was made to St.
Louis and return.
Thomas Forsyth in a letter to the Secretary
of War in October, 1831, called the river "The
Little Platte," and also outlined the route as
above given.
The rendezvous agreed upon in 1830 was
on what was then called "Wind river," but
which is now the "Popo Agie." for Sublette
speaks of the "Southern Pass," (no doubt
South Pass) and he said that wagons could
easily be taken this route through the moun-
tains. The average time of the 1300 mile
trip was thirteen miles per day. And between
June 5th and June 25th they made the trip
from the foiks of the Platte to "Laramie's
Rendezvous."
The death of Hiram Scott on the mountains
"i- bluff, bad at last given it a name, and
"Scott's Bluff" smm became known as a land-
mark by practically every trapper in the wild-
and H brought about a change in the
habits (if the fraternity in journeys up and
down the valley.
If there is one sentimenl in which the whole
human race is in accord, that sentiment is the
desire to \ isil a graveyard.
There is an indescribable thrill that stirs
' Of a soldier win. takes off his hat
at the grave of a comrade who has s h;
him the perils of war.
'I lure is an emotion that moves the slates-
man when he stands uncovered Inf., re the
mausoleum of another who has shared with
him the inspirations of nation building.
We, of the humbler walks of life, have ours,
beside the little mound where rests a brother
of toil with whom we have labored shoulder
to shoulder. The Indian passes the burial tree
as often as he conveniently can. So, with old
trappers. Could they conveniently pass the
grave of a comrade who had shared the joys
and tribulations of the wilderness, they would
have taken some additional hazard for the
privilege.
What old cowman of this country has not
yisited "Boot's Graveyard," at Sidney, where
sleep many of the comrades of the days of
Creighton, Snodgrass, Coad, Sheedy and Rob-
inson — cowboys who died with their boots
on, and were buried booted and spurred ready
for the long ride to the "Home Ranch?"
Trappers began to take the southside route
through Mitchell Pass by the Scottsbluff
spring, that they might do homage to the mem-
ory of Scott. Before buffalo and Arapahoes
reached the river in the annual movement to
the north, the route was comparatively free
from danger.
It was but a few years after the death
of Scott that Captain Gant won the friendship
of the Arapahoes, and their hostility to the
whites for the time ceased. About the same
time the hostile spirit of the Indians on the
Missouri river in Dakota began to percolate
through the tribes to the north. The Ogallalas
and Tetons became suspicious of white people
when they discovered them on friendly terms
with the Arapahoes, and the result was preda-
tory raids upon the Overland.
In April, 1831, seventy men under Zenas
Leonard for Gant & Blackwell, left St. Louis,
and on the first of August, arrived at the
forks of the Platte. The next month was
spent in the North river country between the
forks and the Laramie river. The slow prog-
ress was made because of side trips hunting
and trapping, on Gonneville creek, and over
on Blue Water, and to L'Eau qui court, and
in the chalk mountains from the present Court
House Rock to Signal Buttes.
At the Laramie, the party divided for the
fall trapping campaign. Many of them were
never heard from again, some found their way
to Santa Fe, and others to Gant & Blackwell's
fort on the Arkansas. Twenty-one men un-
der A. K. Stevens, a grandson of Daniel
Roone. worked up towards the Laramie moun-
tains. During the winter they lost all their
horses, and after an ineffectual attempt to
reach Santa Fe, returned to the Laramie ren-
dezvous in April, 1832. stripped of nearlv
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
19
everything of value, as they were on the line
of clashes between the northern and southern
tribes.
In the early summer of 1832, a general
i rendezvous of all the fur companies and trap-
pers had been arranged for at Pierre's Hole,
some six hundred miles to the northwest.
Fitzpatrick and Bridger were to be there
with supplies which William Sublette was to
bring from St. Louis. To hurry him along
Fitzpatrick took two of their fleetest horses
and went to meet him.
This was Sublette's third wagon caravan
and as usual he had the wagons loaded with
about a ton each and five mules to the wagon,
besides a number of mounts.
On the seventh of June, Fitzpatrick crossed
the Laramie river and started for Scotts Bluff
mountains. When opposite, and a little above
Signal Buttes, he espied the caravan on the
north side of the river, near the present site
of Morrill.
On the tenth of June, he crossed the river,
by swimming his horses, as the water was
high. The meeting of these two hardened
hunters — one from the mountains and the
other fresh from the white man's world, was
an event that called for liberal libations, and
much genialty.
Being admonished of the urgent need of
haste, Sublette left his famous old cow and
she was never seen again. Spurred onward,
he made the six hundred miles to Pierre's
Hole in thirty-two days.
The party picked up the remnant of Gant &
Blackwell's trappers at the Laramie, fording
the Platte at that point.
CHAPTER X
WYETH, OF "CAPE COD BAY," AND HIS "DOWN EASTERS'
When William Sublette was coming up the
Missouri river in the spring of ;1832, the
boat stopped at Independence and took on a
party of New Englanders. This party had
little to commend it to the mountains except
its purpose and the indomitable will of its
members. Otherwise they were wholly un-
fitted for mountain, adventure, by liack of
experience, equipment, knowledge of Indians,
habits of wild game, or even the use of fire-
arms.
This was Nathaniel J. Wyeth, of Boston
and his "down easters." Wyeth learned where
Sublette and party were bound, and with the
directness and frankness of the New England-
er character he told him his purpose and di-
lemma. Sublette readily agreed that the two
parties travel together. On the way across the
prairies. Sublette's experienced hunters had
taught the New Englanders how to hunt, and
much other necessary information of the wild-
erness, and by this time they were much bet-
ter equipped for the emergencies of the moun-
tains. Horses had been acquired at the mouth
of the Platte, and the party were all well
mounted and had plenty to pack their mer-
chandise.
Wyeth's definite purpose was to establish
posts on the Columbia, and supply them from
ships around "the Horn," using the ships to
convey the peltries back to market. The
plan was not successful. He always felt out
of his element in the mountains, and the full
force of the hardships fell heavily upon him.
He frequently wrote in a discouraging vein.
"I am sitting on a rock with plain dried buf-
falo as my entire meal." "I gave the boys
some alcohol, more than was good for the
peace of the party, and went on a good sized
spree myself," etc.
Wyeth raised the American flag over the
wilderness of Idaho, when he built Fort Hall,
and on the Columbia over the lost Astoria.
But in the end he sold his fort on Wappatoo
island to the Hudson Bay, and Fort Hall was
burned in a Blackfeet Indian raid, in which
the hardy mountaineers, Rezner and Robin-
son lost their lives.
In the later vigorous years of the formation
of Oregon territory when Senator Benton of
Missouri, was hammer and tongs after Ore-
gon recognition. New England was reluctant
to sustain the spirit of enterprise exemplified
by Nathaniel J. Wyeth.
Now at the time Fitzpatrick met Su'olette
and Wyeth near Morrill, another wagon train
20
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
was nearing the forks of the Platte river. The
party had left Fort Osage, on the first day of
May, with twenty wagons drawn by oxen, and
further consisted of a large number of horses
with one hundred and ten men under the
leadership of Captain B. L. E. Bonneville, and
his able lieutenants, M. S. Cerre and I. R.
Walker.
They had followed the Sante Fe trail to
White riume's agency, then blazed a new trail
in a northwesterly course, which has since
been followed by many thousands of emigrants
striking the Platte near Grand Island, then
called "Great Island."
Had they reached this point some ten days
earlier, they might have observed upon the
north side of the river the wagon train of Will-
iam Sublette, and the caravan of horses used
by Wyeth's party.
On arriving at the forks of the Platte, they
found the South fork impassible for fording
and proceeded two day's journey up the river
before affecting a crossing.
They then removed the wheels from their
wagons, and improvised boats by stretching
buffalo hides under the wagon boxes and
smearing them with a compound of ashes and
buffalo tallow. And on this identical day, June
13, 1832, William Sublette and Nathaniel J.
Wyeth were fording the North fork at the
point just above its junction with the "Lara-
mie."
It would be utterly impossible to improve
upon the language of Washington Irving in
describing this trip. And I would not vary
from it in the least, except that I want to
identify spots of interest by modern land-
marks, and include events connected with
Bonneville's experiences, which I have ob-
tained from other sources than Irving's nar-
rative.
Irving and Bonneville were less familiar
with the North Platte valley than are many of
our readers, or the trappers who for twenty
years had used the natural highway. Irving
says "Of the other [meaning the North River]
branch he knew nothing. Its sources might
lie among inaccessible cliffs, and tumble and
foam down rugged defiles and over craggy
precipices. But its direction was the true
course, and up this stream he determined to
prosecute his route."
The crossing of the South fork was effected
near the | siti of Sutherland, and "a
march of nine miles took them over the high
rolling prairie to tin- North fork."
"Skirting the North fork for a day or two,
I) annoyed by the misquitos, and buf-
falo gnats, they reached, on the evening of
June 17th, a -mall but beautiful grove, from
which issued the confused notes of singing
birds, the first they had heard since crossing the
boundary of Missouri." This is the ravine
that became historical as Ash Hollow.
"It was a beautiful sunset, and the sight of
the glowing rays, mantling the tree tops and
rustling of branches, gladdened every heart.
They pitched their camp in the grove, kindled
their fires, partook merrily of their rude fare,
and resigned themselves to the sweetest sleep
they had enjoyed since their outset upon the
prairies."
The country now became more rugged and
broken. High bluffs advanced upon the river
and forced the travelers to occasionally leave
its banks and wind their course into the in-
terior.
Captain Bonneville ascended the high cliffs
back of Chimney rock, and looked over the
valley. "As far as the eye could reach the
country seemed absolutely blackened with in-
numerable herds" of buffalo. "No language
could convey an adequate idea of the vast liv-
ing mass thus presented to the eye. He re-
marked that the bulls and the cows generally
congregated in separate herds."
Here they began to see blacktail deer, which
abounded in the hills, and were larger than the
"prairie species," or antelope.
In the gap back of Castle rock they discov-
ered the trail of four or five pedestrians, which
later proved to be Crow spies, who had dogged
the train in secret for several days, astonished
at wagons and oxen, and especially a cow and
a calf which were sedately following the cara-
van.
Crow Indians were not habitually along this
part of the Platte, their habitat being in the Big
Horn mountains and Basin. Had they been
familiar with; the valley, they might have
observed in the last two years, the wagons
in Sublette's several caravans.
The discovery of these moccasin tracks put
the party upon its guard, for "when you can
see no Indians is just the time to look out for
them." is a part of Jim Bridger's philosophy.
Inasmuch as Bridger came to the mountains
with General Ashley in 1823, and was guide
during the Indian wars as late as 1865, it may
be accepted that he ought to know.
"On the 21st," Bonneville's party "camped
amid the high and beetling cliffs of indurated
clay and sandstone, bearing the semblance of
towers, castles, churches, and fortified cities.
At a distance it is scarcely possible to persuade
one's self that the works of art were not
mingled with these fantastic freaks of nature."
Five years earlier Joshua Pilcher lias sim-
ilarlv remarked their formation.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XI
NEZ PERCE AND CROW INDIANS — CROW CREEK NAMED
After arriving at the famous mountain,
Bonneville gives an abbreviated story of the
naming of "Scotts, Bluff" which has been
heretofore given in detail. The story then con-
tinues :
"Amid the wild and striking scenery, Cap-
tain Bonneville for the first time beheld flocks
of ahsahta or bighorn, an animal which fre-
quents the cliffs in great numbers. They ac-
cord with the nature of the scenery, and add
much to its romantic effect; bounding like
goats from crag to crag, often trooping along
the lofty shelves of the mountain under the
guide of some venerable patriarch, with horns
twisted lower than his muzzle, and sometimes
peering over the edge of a precipice, so high
that they appear scarce bigger than crows. In-
deed, it seems to be a pleasure to them to seek
the most rugged and frightful situations,
doubtless from the feeling of security."
On the 22nd of June, Captain Bonneville
negotiated the passage of the big gap in the
mountain, experiencing considerable difficulty.
Thus were wagons taken over this road for the
first time in history, and the gateway between
the mountains and the plain on the south side
of the river opened — a gateway through which
has since poured enough people to populate
an empire.
Before evening of this eventful day they
had reached the upper part of Mitchell valley,
and the following day crossed Horse creek
about the hour of noon.
In the evening of the 23rd they went into
camp on a small, but pretty meadow near the
present state line. As they were lighting their
campfires for preparation for their evening
meal, they were startled by seeing an elkskin
craft bearing four Indians shoot silently into
the stream from the overhanging cottonwoods
upon the north shore, and rapidly approach the
camp.
They proved to be the deputation of Nez
Perce Indians (meaning pierced nosed In-
dians) which had been sent from their nation
over on the Columbia to the White Fathers of
the east, to learn of the White Man's Book
and the Great Spirit of the White People.
Bonneville remarked they were far from
their native habitat, and while they had pre-
viously met the wagons of Sublette they were
greatly impressed with "wigwams on wheels,"
and the "long horned buffalo."
On the 24th, as the caravan was slowly trav-
ersing the Hunting Meadows, the scouts which
Captain Bonneville always kept on ahead, came
galloping back with the cry of "Indians."
Preparations were made for an attack, as
the Indians were reported to be Crows, and
believed to be warlike and crafty. Suddenly
out of the adjoining hills there burst, with all
the wildness and suddenness of a mountain
storm, sixty warriors in battle array, painted
and bedecked in all the colors and trappings
of aborigines, and they thundered down upon
the party, with many a wild and dexterous
evolution.
"Their mode of approach, to one not ac-
quainted with the tactics and ceremonies of
the rude chivalry of the wilderness, had an
air of direct hostility. They came galloping
forward in a body, as if about to make a fur-
ious charge, and when close at hand opened to
the right and left and wheeled in wide circles
around the travelers, whooping and yelling like
maniacs.
"This done their mock fury settled into a
calm, and the chief, approaching the captain,
who had remained warily drawn up, though
informed of the pacific nature of the maneuv-
er, extended to him the hand of friendship.
The pipe of peace was smoked and now all was
good fellowship.
"The Crows were in pursuit of a band of
Cheyennes, who had attacked their village in
the night, and killed one of their people. They
had been five and twenty days on the track of
the marauders, and were determined not to
return home until they had sated their re-
venge."
This was accomplished, some fifty or sixty
miles to the southward, where they surprised
their enemies. The maurauders believed that
they had passed out of the danger zone of pur-
suit, and had in a measure relaxed their vigi-
lance.
They lost three scalps in the engagement that
followed, which satisfied their pursuers. War
signs were left by the Crows, as a warning for-
ever to the Cheyennes ; and from this circum-
stance, Indians and whites who since have
visited the ravine south of Pine Bluffs, refer-
red to it as "Crow Creek," which name it bears
today. The cow and calf with Bonneville's
party came in for a full share of attention.
The Indians remarked their extreme docility,
and thought the calf must be "great Medicine,"
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
but their ideas were dashed when the men of-
fered to trade it for a pony.
The extreme friendliness of the Indians was
considerable of a nuisance to the members of
the party, but was endured, and after they had
gone upon their journey, they found many of
them had lost their hunting knives, which ex-
plained the motive of the Indian's caresses.
Some days later the war party returned to
the Platte, and followed Bonneville's trail until
overtaking the caravan, in order to exhibit
the scalps of their adversaries. They then pro-
ceeded toward the northwest "to appease the
manes of their comrades by proofs that his
death had been avenged, and they intended to
have scalp dances and other triumphal re-
joicings."
On the 26th, Bonneville's party camped at
Laramie's fork "a clear and beautiful stream
rising in the southwest, maintaing an average
width of twenty yards, and winding through
broad meadows, abounding in currants and
gooseberries, and adorned with groves and
clumps of trees.
Here Bonneville tells of his observations,
and Irving includes the story of the building
of Fort William. He tells also that in 1835,
Robert Campbell descended the river in boats,
thus proving what had always been in doubt,
that the river was navigable. Of course this
was Irving's opinion, but the facts have been
related that fleets of boats had for years been
descending the river, laden with peltries.
The boniface captain, the "bald chief." as
the Indians called him, is now passing out of
Scotts Bluff country, so w r e will not follow his
rambles in the wilderness.
In the spirit of fairness, one would think
that mention would have been made of wagons
on the trail before Bonneville's party, for
there must have been abundant evidences of
the existence of Sublette's caravan, which had
preceded them at the Laramie river only
thirteen days.
But Bonneville was of French extraction,
and the national characteristic is exaggeration
and boast fulness. He was likely to omit any-
thing that detracted from his glory. Bancroft
is exceedingly severe in his criticism of Bonne-
ville. Irving, who was Bonneville's chronicler
of events, was a novelist. And one who has
read Irving much is frequently amused at his
exaggerations of the character of his heroes.
Should his principal character, together with
others, go on a spree, his would always "main-
tain the dignity of a gentleman, although in-
toxicated," while the other would be "beastly
drunk."
Farther in the wilderness, over on the Green
river. Captain Bonneville accused Fontenelle
of taking from him some of his Delaware In-
dian guides, with promise of better wages. As
Fontenelle has much to do with Nebraska his-
tory in subsequent years, readers will become
acquainted with him, and they will find it hard
to believe that he ever took unfair advantage
of any one. In fact the Delawares were form-
erly of Fontenelle's party, and only attached
themselves to Bonneville to make their way
into the wilderness again, of which purpose
the captain was probably unaware.
Some two and a half years later, the rem-
nant of Bonneville's party came back over the
trail which he had traversed, and which later
became one of the most remarkable highways
in the history of the world.
CHAPTER Xll
.ITTI.K MOON LAKE — FAMOUS MISSIONARIES
June 22. 1X.i2, an elkskin boat bearing four
Indians came plunging out of the rapids at the
lower end of Platte canyon and pulled in upon
the shore, making camp at about the present
site of Guernsey. < >n the following day they
■ 1 down the river to a grove upon what
to be .hi island. To the right of it.
the waters rushed with increasing velocity, but
on the left were invitingly quiet,
They pulled in for their regular night's rest
upon a pretty lagoon, and found that its lower
extremity was banked by a beaver dam. These
animals had cut the trees and built a substan-
tial structure across what had been a channel
of the Platte. This lagoon is now known as
Little Moon Lake.
It was nearly nightfall, when they discov-
ered, upon the opposite bank of the river,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
something that filled them with wonder and
amazement. Long horned buffalo were trail-
ing wigwams into a grass plot, where Captain
Bonneville and party were about to make
camp.
About noon the following day, the swift cur-
rent of the river carried the four strangers
"near the breast of a mountain on which they
could plainly see bighorns," and at night they
passed "the wigwam," no doubt referring to
Chimney rock.
Then there was the long journey through
prairies the like of which they had never
dreamed, and at the river mouth they were
taken on a keel-boat coming down the Mis-
souri.
General Clarke, a brother of the explorer,
was then superintendent of Indian affairs at
St. Louis, and when these Indians met him and
told him their mission, he was dumbfounded.
It seemed that Lewis and Clarke had left
some fragmentary knowledge of religion with
the tribe when they visited it in 1804, and this,
with rude fragments of Christianity that came
to them from French, had left the tribe with a
thirst for more knowledge of the Book of Life.
And these four "savages" had braved the
terrors of an unknown and perilous wilderness,
on a three thousand mile journey in search of
the Christ. They had "seen his Star in the
East."
General Clarke entertained and fed them
royally after the manner of white people, but
it was too much for their uneducated systems,
and the two elder members of the party died
from excesses. The others remained for some
time, being taken from one manner of white
man's amusements to another, and finally on
the announcement of their intention to return
to their people, they were given a farewell
banquet.
At this affair one of the guests of honor
arose at the request of General Clarke, and
this is the literal translation of the redman's
address :
"I come to you over a trail of many moons
from the setting sun. You were the friends
of my Fathers who have all gone the long
way. I came with an eye partly open for my
people, who sit in darkness. I go back with
both eyes closed. How can I go back to my
blind people? I made my way to you with
strong arms, through many enemies and
strange lands, that I might carry much back
to them. I go back with both arms broken
and empty.
"Two fathers came with us, and they were
the braves of many Winters and wars. We
leave them asleep by your great waters and
wigwams. They were tired in many moons
and the moccasins wore out. My people sent
me to get the white man's Book of Heaven.
You took me where they worship the Great
Spirit with candles, and the Book was not
there. You showed me images of the good
spirits, and the picture of the good land be-
yond, but the Book was not among them to
tell us the way.
"I am going back the long and sad trail
to my people in the dark land. You make
my feet heavy with gifts, and my moccasins
will grow old carrying them, yet the Book is
not among them. When I tell my poor blind
people, after one more snow, in the big council,
that I did not bring the Book, no word will be
spoken by our old men or our young braves.
One by one they will rise up in silence and
go out. My people will die in darkness, and
they will go the long way to other hunting
grounds. No white man will go with them,
and no white man's Book will be there to make
the way plain. I have no more words."
This Macedonian cry, "come over and help
us," given by this brave upon his departure on
the long journey home, was published in the
Christian Advocate, in March, 1833, and made
a profound sensation. It started missionaries
all over the west.
The two Lees, Jason and Daniel, were the
first to respond, and they went for the Metho-
dist church, in 1834. While their trip through
this country was without any startling inci-
dent, they became powers in the great north-
west, and founded the Methodist faith upon a
most enduring basis in the Puget Sound coun-
try, and on the Williamette river.
The Presbyterians, in 1835, sent Whitman
and Parker into Oregon. And what man with
one spark of patriot blood, does not know Mar-
cus Whitman? Whitman and his bride made
their wedding journey through the valley of
the "Flat Water." and perished as martyrs at
the hands of the people they went to save.
In 1840, Father Peter De Smet, went out
for the Catholics into the great inter-moun-
tain region. Some two hundred miles to the
northwest of Scottsbluff is an extinct crater
of a volcano, and the basin has filled with the
clear sweet water of the Big Horn mountains.
The lake, fed by everlasting springs, is named
Lake De Smet. ~
There were many other heroic bearers of
the Cross in the wilderness, but forever will
the names of Jason and Daniel Lee. Marcus
Whitman, Samuel Parker and Peter De Smet
be heard, for the dangers which they braved
and the foundations they laid for Christian re-
ligion in the mighty wilderness of the west.
24
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
About the first of June, 1833, two braves
of the Nez Perce tribe, carried their burdens
with meloncholy tread along the valley of
the "Flat Water," then beautiful in the ver-
dure of early summer. They reached the top
of a slight eminence beyond the thicket of
mountain ash. later described as "Ash Hollow."
and they heard the whistling of song birds,
and paused. The grove gave forth a multitude
of sounds. In the thrilling silence of the at-
mosphere, they heard the call of nature to their
souls. Their sagging spirits were being reno-
vated by the Great Spirit of the universe. In
the shimmering mirage of the west they saw
the silhouettes of mountains — the wigwam, and
far away the dim trembling outline of Scotts-
bluff.
And glad to see the beginning of their na-
tive element — the mountains — they sent rev-
erberating up to the silent sky, the shrill and
plaintive cry of the coast tribe Indians. They
broke into a run — down into and out past the
shadows of the grove, and on, until their
bronzed figures danced and shivered and shim-
mered in the glare of the setting sun.
A few days later Reuleau, a trapper, saw
one of them at the mouth of the Laramie, and
saw him depart onward into the west. What
happened to the other no one knows, and no
white man knows if this one ever reached his
people.
CHAPTER XIII
FORTS AT THE LARAMIE
We should remark more fully of Jebediah
Smith, the great, great uncle of Airs. C. P. Cal-
houn, as he passed through the Scotts Bluff
country in 1823, with General Ashley, in that
he and his party of wilderness men were the
first white men over the link of the Overland
Trail from Salt Lake valley to California. This
was accomplished in 1826.
While on the Santa Fe Trail in 1831, he was
killed by Comanches, and the firm of Smith
Jackson & Sublette was dissolved. It was then
that William Sublette and Robert Campbell
became partners in transportaion and fur en-
terprise.
In 1834. Mr. Campbell accompanied Sublette
to the mountains. The route taken was the
cut off from Fort Osage to "Great Island,"
which had become considerable in use in the
two years previous.
They determined upon building a trading
post at the junction of the Laramie and North
Platte rivers, for from this point there were
now two well established routes to St. Louis.
The trail opened by Robert Stuart was first
in use, but from the date of Bonneville's trip,
until the great Mormon pilgrimage, in 1847,
the southern route was mosl in use. After that
time for two or three years, "the Council Bluffs
route" held the big travel.
The first fort at the Laramie was begun in
June, 1834, and was built stockade plan, logs
about forteen feet long set on end, enclosing the
building of logs. This was after the pattern of
so many early structures, which served the
purpose of the wilderness men.
Previously to this date, the Indians had
learned to come to the rendezvous of free
trappers, and many hundred of them journeyed
annually to trade their peltries for the bright
shining trinkets and tinsel so dear to their
nature.
After naming the place "Fort William," it
occurred to Campbell that there were other
Fort Williams in the west, and to prevent con-
fusion in shipments, goods addressed to this
point were marked "Fort William on the Lara-
mie."
In 1836, Adams and Sabylle built another
stockade and trading post about a half-mile be-
low Fort William on the Laramie, which they
named "Fort John." after John P. Sarpy, who
is a well known character in the history of
Nebraska.
Jacques Laramie, whom we have had occa-
sion to mention heretofore, and who had by
his life and death given the river and the moun-
tains a name, was only incidentally responsible
for the rechristening of Fort William. How
"Fort Laramie" became a name in history was
told by Antoine Ladeau, an interpreter of half
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
25
a century ago, who accompanied General Con-
nor on his Powder river expedition.
Ladeau's father was a French-Creole and his
mother a Pawnee squaw. When a small boy he
was captured by the Sioux, by whom he was
brought up. He was born on the Platte river,
was an old timer at the Fort, and died about
thirty years ago. This is the story handed
down by John Hunton, now living at the old
fort and who located there in the sixties.
A mullet-headed shipping clerk in Campbell's
store at St. Louis had difficulty in remembering
names of the forts on the Laramie, and it
seemed hopelessly mixed regarding the identi-
ty of Fort William and Fort John.
(Later Chittendon was about as badly con-
fused, for he says Fort William was re-chris-
tened Fort John when it was rebuilt. The date
of the building of Fort John being identical
with that of the rebuilding of Fort William no
doubt led to this confusion.)
One day, there being no one handy of whom
this shipping clerk might inquire, he marked a
number of bales and boxes destined for "Fort
William on the Laramie," simply for "Fort
Laramie," remembering only the river on which
the fort was situated. Campbell, observing
this, liked the idea and he changed the name as
it would prevent confusion in future. This
incident occurred some time after Sublette and
Campbell had sold the fort, and while it was
the property of the American Fur Company,
who were extensive dealers at the Campbell
commissar}'.
It was in 1835 that Sublette and Campbell
sold Fort William to a syndicate of famous
trappers headed by Jim Bridger. And about
the same time Lucien Fontenelle, with a large
force of trappers for the American Fur Com-
pany dropped down from the Big Horn coun-
try, into the rich fields for beaver along the
North Platte and its tributaries.
Both he and Bridger had been too long in
the mountains not to know the ruinous effect
of stiff competition, and after some prelimin-
aries the fort became a part of the American
Fur Company, and Bridger and his associates
became members thereof. Fontenelle was
made general manager, and after that date
they had practically all the fur trade of Wy-
oming and western Nebraska.
In later years there were many smaller es-
tablishments that ran for a time, but the bulk
of the business went to the well established
American Fur Company.
Among these smaller concerns was Adams
and Sabylle who built Fort John in 1836, and
who later built another fort on what finally be-
came known as Sabylle creek. The latter fort
was burned by Indians in about 1863. Fort
Platte was built in 1842 by Pratt, Cabanne &
Company on the narrow tongue of land at the
point where the Platte and Laramie rivers
unite.
In 1836. the green stockade posts of Fort
Laramie, showing signs of decay, it was rebuilt.
There were at that time some Mexicans so-
journing in this part of the wilderness, and they
were employed to build it of adobe bricks. A
solid wall enclosed all the buildings, and at
the corners and over the gate were block, houses
for defense.
Under and around these walls for years
thereafter, camped the nomadic and migratory
thousands. Here the Indians came and loiter-
ed, and then wandered away into the wilder-
ness. Hundreds of trappers periodically ap-
peared, and from here some journeyed to civ-
ilization while others returned to the wilds.
Thousands and thousands came from the east,
and went on into the west ; some for homes
on the Williamette and the Columbia, others to
follow the trail of Jedediah Smith into the gold-
en mecca of California. Adventurers going
and coming across the continental divide drift-
ed with the moving tide ; and later came, unfet-
tered and free, the dauntless and undaunted
cowmen.
For the greater part of the year both rivers
were fordable at this point, and here the two
great trails from the east merged into one.
Even so early as the operations of Manuel
Lisa and Jacques Laramie the demoralizing
effect of fire water upon savages required fed-
eral intervention. Yet it was many years be-
fore control over the traffic was anything like
complete. Much liquor was smuggled in from
the Spanish possessions at Santa Fe and Taos.
Attaches of Fort John were extremely reck-
less in the use of liquor. Fontenelle had early
seen its demoralizing effect, changing good
beaver hunters to fanatics after drink, and he
determined to rid the North Platte valley of
the lawlessness if possible.
So when Joshua Pilcher became commission-
er of Indian affairs after the death of Gen-
eral Clarke, the influence of the American Fur
Company was such that they were able to
secure the appointment of Andrew Drips, an
employee of the company at Fort Laramie, as
resident agent. It raised quite a storm of
protest from the other traders, but the depart-
ment soon became fully advised that it was only
because he enforced on other traders the same
strict observances of liquor laws, that the
American Fur Company had observed for
years.
Renegades from the Spanish domain found
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the hazards too great to be inviting, but con-
tinued intermittent attempts to get liquor
through to the North Platte valley.
Finding the caches and destroying the liq-
uors in the vicinity of the fort were so frequent
that the traffic was soon practically abandoned.
One outlaw, a squawman by name of Rich-
ards, continued, however, and built a small
stockade about six miles east of the fort on
the south side of the river. He is mentioned
by Francis Parkman, who visited him in 1847.
This man Richards gave the federal authorities
no little trouble, but in resisting a detachment
from Fort Laramie, which had been seent out
to destroy the quantity of liquor which he
had brought in from the south, he was killed
about 1850.
CHAPTER XIV
ROBIDEAUX OF ST. GENEVIEVE — KIOWA RAID BY RED CLOUD
Sources of information in matters of his-
tory are often widely scattered, and the stories
themselves are made from putting together lit-
tle fragments gathered here and there ; some
from records, and others from ptrsonal en-
counters with people having fragmentary
knowledge of the events which one is trying
to assemble.
The stories herein contained, of Count Ger-
main, of Basil Robideaux, and of Kiowa creek
come to us through many sources. D'Adel-
bert, Diderot, Chittendon, Bancroft, Parkman,
Coutant, and other chroniclers of the past
have each yielded up a portion, but perhaps
the most valuable information we have in this
connection comes from old timers living and
dead who were of later generations here.
There was Frank Vallet, a Frenchman;
Hank Wise, the cross-eyed cowpuncher,
both from old St. Genevieve ; and there was
Nick Genice, a well known squawman living
at the old Spotted Tail Agency which used to
be upon the ground now occupied by the upper
PF ranch.
(For those who care to know, the exact lo-
cation was where the spring house is now
situated, just southeast of the big spring.)
Last, but not least, there was old "Buck-
skin Charley" White, the intrepid government
scout.
From these, and partly through the kindly
offices of Perry Braziel, Runey Campbell and
John Peters, I am able to patch together an
interesting tale, which otherwise would likely
have remained in obscurity, and forever lost.
The story I feel is so nearly correct, that it
can be vouched for as to accuracy, comparable
with most history.
"When wilderness was king" hereabout, the
great center of commerce for mountain and
plain was St. Louis.
When Mallet Brothers penetrated the Scotts-
bluff country, this was claimed as French
territory. Cardinal Fluery, who was respon-
sible for the Mallet expedition, died in 1742,
and the prime minister of France who succeed-
ed him, had less conception, or inspiration
perhaps it should be called, of the coming em-
pire.
In 1748, Count Germain, one of the mys-
terious characters of French history appeared.
Who he was, where he came from, and how he
obtained admittance to the exclusive French
Court of the time, no history reveals. He
claimed to be an alchemist, avowing to have
discovered formulas for defying the ravages
of time and age, and also of turning baser
metals to gold. He said he was born 300 B.
C. and expected to live forever. He was not
an adventurer, for he had independent means,
although the sources thereof were unknown.
He was wonderfully informed, and talked in-
telligently of conversations he claimed to have
had with Christ, the Apostles, Pliny, Nero, and
other people of the past.
He became a favorite with Marchioness Le
Pompadour, and was consulted upon many
matters of state. Among other things he said
that destiny required the disposition of French
American territory to Spain.
In 1762, the degenerate king made a secret
sale of Louisiana territory to the Spanish
Crown. And the sale has proven of especial
significance to western Nebraska, for upon
Spanish sovereignty, where the doctrine of
appropriation of water for useful purposes
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
had been in force for centuries, is based a
court decision in Nebraska, which is the foun-
dation of all our irrigation appropriations.
Francis G. Hamer, now upon the Supreme
bench, is the man who contested for this de-
cision, and won against the old English com-
mon law of riparian rights.
While the Spanish flag floated over the city
of St. Louis, until Napoleon, with his tre-
mendous energy appeared to change the maps
of the world, the population of the city was
largely French, and the voyageurs who allied
with trapping, hunting and exploring expe-
ditions, were largely of French extraction.
Readers will note the preponderance of French
names appearing in these stories. St. Gene-
vieve, near St. Louis, was formerly one of
the points much connected with this particu-
lar territory. Many of these buoyant, laugh-
ing, singing, industrious people, had to do
with the taming of the wilderness about us.
Partizans, as the leaders of trapping ex-
peditions were called, found that French-Cre-
oles were much better men for the routine
camp work, and for knowing the habits of
wild game. But when it came to time of pri-
vation, stress, or danger, one Kentucky rifle-
man was worth several of them. Under such
conditions almost invariably, the French voy-
ager would revert quickly to animal type, with
sly and brutish instincts. Trappers had rea-
son to believe that in many cases of hunger,
they had resorted to cannibalism, perhaps cast-
ing lots to see who should be the victim.
Among the people from St. Genevieve, in
1836, came one by the name of Basil Robi-
deaux. This was not the Robideaux who
formed a partnership with Papin, Chouteau
and Berthold in 1819, or who built the posts
at Rattlesnake Bluffs (now St. Joseph, Mis-
souri) or on the Gunnison, or on the Unitah,
but a humble kinsman, of a later generation.
For a number of years, Basil Robideaux led
a hard life in the wilderness. He had the
smallpox in 1838 which swept with such viru-
lence over the plains, and depopulated Indian
tribes. And at this time, the instinct of self
preservation caused his compaions to desert
him, as they thought, to die. This was on the
south bank of the river, a few miles east of
Scotts Bluff mountain.
Alone in the wilderness, sick unto death,
and among hostile tribes, Robideaux looked up
into the blue vault, thickly studded with
eternal stars and counted the hours away. In
the morning a Sioux medicine man found him,
and treated him in the crude fashion of In-
dians and he recovered. After that, he lived
among the Sioux, and whenever he met one of
the men who had left him, in his hour of sick-
ness, he gave him an unmerciful drubbing.
But with him the years went by with a suc-
cession of disasters, and he suffered incredible
hardships. His life tides ebbed low in melan-
choly and misery. He became sullen and
morose. After days of hunger he would fall
in with the fortune to kill a deer, wolf or
buffalo. All indifferent to its kind, indis-
criminate as to its quality, he would greedily
fill of its carcass bloodraw ; and striking a fire
to keep away creatures that were a little more
wild than he, he would lie down by the rem-
nants of the half eaten carcass to sleep the
fitful sleep of the jungle man ; while around
him from the wilderness dark, two by two,
burned luminous eyes of firewild hungry
beasts.
When the great tides of humankind started
on the overland trail, in the early forties, Robi-
deaux remembered his old trade as a black-
smith, and took up his abode at Ft. Laramie,
where he served the travelers by fixing their
wagons, for enormous compensations, and by
shoeing horses, mules and oxen, with hand
forged shoes at the mild figure of three dol-
lars per shoe.
By the spring of 1848, he had accumulated
enough to lay in a supply of traders goods,
and removed to "Scotts Bluff Hills." Scotts
Bluffs were originally designated in the plural,
and extended along the range, intersecting with
the main Chalk mountains to the south and
southwest.
Robideaux built a small trading station near
the springs near the head of a canyon, and
put up a blacksmith shop to continue his
trade. John Evans Brown mentions him as
"Rebedere," and says, "it was at that well
known springs in the Scotts Bluffs." The
springs referred to are those just above Wool-
ridge's place. Brown was a forty-niner. Lat-
er he moved farther from the hills apparently
to avoid danger from Arapahoe raids.
Some years later, Robideaux returned to his
native city, St. Genevieve, old, browned and
hardened, but with abundant means to put
in the rest of his life without fear of poverty.
History connects the naming of Kiowa creek
with Robideaux, in that the same raiders from
the souih who burned the trading post were
the following morning completely wiped out
on the creek.
The regular hunting ground of the Kiowas
is south of the Arkansas, and east of the Pur-
gatory. As a tribe they are more often men-
tioned as Comanches, by early writers. They
wen- very warlike and treacherous, ami often
engaged in raids upon emigrants along the
28
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Santa Fe trail. On occasions, bands would
reach the Platte, but not very frequently were
they as far as the North river.
About 1852 one of the predatory raids to
the north was made, and a band of some fifty
warriors and their families reached Indian
Springs in the hills south of Gonneville or
Pumpkin creek.
Here they loitered for a short time, and
then decided to move to the valley of the Flat
Water. They followed the well known trail
obliquely across the Gonneville valley, and up
into the "V" north of Wildcat mountain.
Emerging from the hills through Cedar can-
yon, they struck west and destroyed the aban-
doned Robideaux post.
Crossing the hills, they stopped at a spring
leading down to the northwest. Here they
rested after their pillaging of the old post.
At this time a dashing young Sioux warrior,
with a small band of young braves, came
down from the north, thinking perhaps to
meet some of their ancient enemies, the Ara-
pahoes. His spies discovering the camp of
Kiowas, and being somewhat indiscriminate
as to who should be his victims, he attacked
the Kiowa camp.
The attack was well planned, being made at
dawn, and although a much smaller number,
they made up for it in fire and youth. The
Kiowas were utterly annihilated. In the ex-
ultation of victory, the Sioux scoured the hills
for refugees. A young squaw was found
stolidly beside her dead brave, and was quick-
ly sent to the shades to join her companion,
after the manner of Indians. The leader of
this band was Red Cloud.
CHAPTER XV
THE STEAMBOAT EL PASO HERE — REULEAU, THE TRAPPER
Several persons have mentioned of having
seen in Morton's History of Nebraska, and
elsewhere, references to ruins of old adobe,
where formerly stood a city or station of con-
siderable proportions, including a blacksmith
shop, as being upon "the east slope of Scotts
Bluff," along the old Overland Trail. This
reference is no doubt to old Robideaux, as no
other such ruins exist, or is there any memory
of them among old timers. And there are
none on the line of the trail that leads through
Mitchell Gap.
The naming of several gaps in the bluffs is
clear. Robideaux station doubtless led to the
naming of the pass of that name, and the pas-
sage through the hills to the north of the old
post, toward Fort Mitchell (the pass south
of A. C. Morrison's place) was formerly call-
id Scotts Bluff Pass. After the passing of
old Robideaux, the old Mitchell Pass fell into
disuse, and in fact it was never much in use.
and except for horses and footmen, is now
entirely abandoned. Then the big gap in
Scotts Bluff, through which the daily travel
had reached hundreds, came into general con-
versation and knowledge at Mitchell Gap, or
Mitchell 1'ass, be. ,ni r hi Kurt Mitchell. .And
through this pass the streams of humankind
poured in the years which followed.
Early in June, 1852, an event of more than
passing moment came to the existence of Fort
Mitchell. The wilderness about it, and the
people at the fort, were startled by the scream
of a steam whistle, and so far, as was within
the knowledge of man here, there was no
such thing nearer than the Missouri river.
The winter previous had 'been one of con-
siderable severity and much snow had fallen in
the mountains. The spring had turned off
bright and warm, and the river presented
much the same aspect as it did in June, 1908,
when it will be remembered, it was full from
bank to bank.
From the lookout of the fort, the first and
only steamboat that was ever in the Scotts Bluff
country, could be seen ascending the river.
The El Paso, as it proved to be pulled into
the bank below the fort, where now R. S.
Hunt's stock go down to water, and made
fast for the night. The next day the El Paso
continued its journey up the Platte, and con-
tinued to the mouth of the Platte canyon,
where the current proved too strong for it to
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
29
proceed farther, and the return journey was
commenced.
The advance up the river was made at the
rate of about thirty-five miles per day, below
the junction of the rivers, and from that
point to Platte canyon the average was about
twenty-five miles. On the return the boat trav-
elled from seventy-five to ninety miles per
day.
On the trip both ways it was also found ne-
cessary at times to use green cottonwood and
ash for fuel, and to keep the fires burning re-
quired liberal quantities of rosin and tar.
The profound student, Edward Everett
Hale, published a book in 1854, on Kansas and
Nebraska, and refers to navigation of the
Platte. He speaks of the El Paso in ascend-
ing the Platte for five hundred miles, as an
achievement which was never surpassed by
a boat of its class. And that in early days,
boats distinguishing themselves as did this
craft, were entitled to wear a pair of elk's ant-
lers, until another surpassed it. There has been
none to surpass the El Paso and she still
"wears the horns."
Hale's book states that trappers occasional-
ly descended the Platte in canoes and batteaux,
but that it was exceedingly intricate and dan-
gerous. The boats frequently run aground,
and it was generally considered as a last re-
sort for the transfer of goods. Boats of elk-
hide and buffalo skin proved the most service-
able, for they yielded when striking the sand
bars, and slid over them with less difficulty,
than boats of wood.
Among the few passengers alighting at Fort
Mitchell from the El Paso was Reuleau, the
trapper, who has a history. He is first men-
tioned in 1833, when he met the lone Nez Perce
brave on his journey into the west, after the
futile visit to St. Louis. Francis Parkman
mentions him at Fort Laramie in 1847. Pre-
vious to the latter date, he had had the mis-
fortune to freeze off the fore part of both
feet, leaving but stubs. Yet he was the same
blithe, lithe spirit as before.
Reuleau had then told lightly of "two more
gone. One murdered in his cabin, and the
other shot with his own gun." "Next time it
will be one of us. I tell you it is getting too
hot for me. I am going one more season,"
said he, "My squaw wants a red dress with
the bright buttons, and a pacing pony, and
then she will be satisfied for me to settle down
and farm."
Poor Reuleau ! This was six years after,
and he was still at it. But for him the trail
was near its end. This was the last time he
ever came to light. He sleeps somewhere in
the wilderness about us, but where, no one
knows.
I am glad that my own father met him once
at Fort Mitchell in 1850, when he made his
first journey to California. For it was from
Reuleau that father learned much that was of
value regarding Indian strategy, and the dan-
gers of the trail and mountains.
One bright moonlight night at old Fort
Mitchell, when my father and party were
camped outside the Palisades, Reuleau and my
father fell to conversation, and Reuleau asked
if he had ever seen the beaver and otter play.
Father replied in the negative and Reuleau
volunteered to pilot him to a spot where he
could "watch them slide."
He took him north about two and a half
miles, where the beaver had built a dam be-
tween the shore and an island. This place is
now off the shore between the Johnny Boyle
ranch and Chris Kronberg's. Approaching
warily they hid in the brush and timber near
at hand. After a time, they saw beaver come
out upon the bank, and slide down in a manner
similar to boys at the old swimming hole.
Their number grew until there were a half
dozen or more at play, chasing each other
down the slide, and swimming away sput-
tering, and slapping as they went about it.
Then an otter appeared, and he quietly
ascended the bank, to the top of the slide. He
would take the slide in the manner that the
beaver did, but upon striking the water, would
go under and remain for a distance of forty
or fifty feet, before the ripples would show his
rising to the surface.
There are two of these slides that are known
by location to the writer. The one described,
and another mentioned by Eugene Ware, at a
point a little east of the North Platte.
Ware described the habits of the beaver and
otter in the identical manner, but he adds one
of the stories of the wild, handed down from
the red man, who was then his companion. It
appears that of a sudden the animals quit
their playing, and the Indian saw or claimed
he could see the outline of an elk in the bushes
upon the other bank of the improvised lagoon.
He said the elk had given the water animals
some warning of the near approach of men.
He claimed that there was a language of the
animal kingdom, which all animals understood
— the language of danger, by which one speci-
men could signal others. Ware said he wanted
to wait until the animals came out to play
again, but the guide said "no, they will play
no more tonight."
30
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XVI
GOVERNMENT BUYS FORT LARAMIE — FT. FONTENELLE IS BUILT
The ramifications of the American Fur Com-
pany include many subordinate institutions.
Each was an entity unto itself, like the company
organized to take over Fort Laramie, which in-
cluded Bridger and others not interested in oth-
er parts of the main institution. "Vanderburg
and Dripps" was the immediate branch that
connected up at the old fort. In 1845, when a
number of posts had been built around Fort
Laramie, cutting off the travelers before they
reached the central and larger institution, they
builded two other subsidiary posts. One was
on the north bank of the Platte opposite the
mouth of the Laramie river, that remained
there until after the gold excitement in Cali-
fornia, and the other was a little north of the
present site of Wheatland, which was placed
in charge of Bordeaux, of whom we will later
speak.
In the winter of 1843-44, Marcus Whitman,
in behalf of the people of Oregon, made a trip
through the rigorous winter of the Rocky
Mountains, and appeared in Washington. His
feet were frozen in this terrible journey, but
he appeared in the national capital and plead
for Oregon.
Upon request, he presented a written state-
ment in which he said he himself had piloted
more than two hundred families, consisting of
one thousand people, with 120 wagons, 694
oxen, and 773 loose cattle, across the moun-
tains to homes in Oregon, in the previous two
years.
He also recommended the establishment of
government posts along the route. One sug-
gested was where Fort Sedgewick was later
established (near Big Springs), and another
"on Horseshoe creek, about forty miles west
of Fort Laramie in the Black Hills." At this
time the mountains around Hartville and ex-
tending southwest, including Laramie Peak,
were called the Black Hills.
Horseshoe creek was not Horse creek, as
will be seen from the designated location, al-
though from the numerous diaries published
from time to time, many of the travelers must
have had the two confused.
John C. Fremont, who under the auspices of
the government, visited Fort Laramie, to treat
with the Indians, and to continue on a voyage
uf exploration, recommended that the govern-
ment purchase Fort Laramie, as he had been
lead to think that the American Fur Company
wished to retire and would sell at a reasonable
figure.
Negotiations followed, and, in 1846, Congress
appropriated $3,000, the agreed price for the
purchase. Bruce Husband, then in charge of
Fort Laramie, surprised the government offi-
cials by the announcement that he selected an-
other site, and he would build another fort at
Scotts Bluff.
This post was commenced at once, and its
location was upon the west bank of the Platte
just south of the west end of the bridge be-
tween the city of Scottsbluff and Mitchell val-
ley. Anyone who has visited this historic spot,
can see the advantage of location. It com-
mands an excellent view of the valley in all
directions, yet is far enough away from the
bluff to be out of range of any fire from that
eminence.
The fort was made on the usual stockade
plan, about three hundred feet square, with all
the buildings in the enclosure.
When completed, Husband named it Fort
Fontenelle, after Lucien Fontenelle, one of his
partners. The old members of the company
were frequently complimenting some other
member by naming a trading post in his honor.
Thus it happens there are several Fort Will-
iams named after William Sublette. And there
were no less than two Fort Mitchells at one
time within the confines of Nebraska, and both
were named after David D. Mitchell.
Soon after the establishment of Fort Fon-
tenelle, Bruce Husband retired, and Lucien
Fontenelle was placed in charge. This seems
strange, in consideration of the fact that sev-
eral historians had Fontenelle commit suicide
at Fort Laramie some dozen years before this
fort was built.
The report referred to did not have the
element of fact, for it is certain that Fontenelle
was alive as late as 1852, when my father met
him at Fort Mitchell.
Lucien Fontenelle had a remarkable history.
He was of direct royal lineage, and his par-
ents, Francois and Moreonise Fontenelle. came
from Marseilles. France, and Lucien and his
sister were born in the early part of the cen-
tury at New Orleans. His parents perished in
a storm, and the children were made orphans
about 1820. They lived with relatives and at
the age of fifteen, Lucien ran away.
Some six or seven years after he was sup-
posed to have committed suicide, or in 1842,
lie returned to his old home. His sister had
married well, (or wealthy), and she refused
to own the weather-beaten mountaineer, al-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
31
though he was recognized by an old nurse, who
also identified him by a birthmark.
He returned to the wilderness life and was
married by Father Peter DeSmet to a woman
of the Omaha tribe. Logan Fontenelle and
others of the name in Nebraska history are
among the descendants of the famous trapper.
Thus it transpired that Lucien Fontenelle,
having for so many years braved the dangers
of the wilderness, being a veteran of the moun-
tains, now that he had attained the age of
about forty-five years, should be relieved of
some of the activities and -stress of a hunter,
the new fort at Scotts Bluff offered the retreat.
For a time it was called Fort Fontenelle, but
the partizan's native modesty, and his friend-
ship for David D. Mitchell, caused him to
change its name.
Fontenelle, having an Indian wife, and being
well known among the Indians as a fair man,
and a man who would fight if need be, was
of great value in preventing depredations along
the trail and commanders at Fort Laramie
found that he prevented friction almost entire-
ly in the country east of one hundred miles.
For a number of years after the establish-
ment of this fort, during the months of May,
June and July, there was a ceaseless caravan
moving westward through the North Platte val-
ley. It can be stated with comparative cer-
tainty of truth that during those months of the
first five or six years of the existence of Fort
Fontenelle, or Mitchell, there were emigrants
within sight at all times. In fact, during day-
light hours an average of one emigrant wagon
passed each five minutes, for one hundred days
of each year. An almost continuous stream of
wagons stretched for five hundred miles, along
the great highways over the mountains.
Is it any wonder that the Indians who came
down to Fort Laramie with Peter DeSmet in
1852, when they looked upon the great wide
bare trail, should imagine that there must be a
great void in the east, and could not compre-
hend that this was only a small fragment of
the white race? Is it any wonder that the
Sioux bands that came for the first time to
Fort Mitchell should ask if the whole white
village was moving to the west? Is it any
wonder that they contemplated taking the back
trail of the Great White Medicine Road, with
a view of locating in the valley that they
thought must be deserted in the east? And
this travel continued and grew. It gave rise
to the pony express and the overland stage,
which modes of travel and transportation con-
tinued until the Union Pacific builded up the
Lodgepole valley and became the rapid tran-
sit across the mountains.
And now Fort Mitchell had become the ren-
dezvous for trappers, as well as a halting place
for overland travelers. It was here that trap-
ping parties disbanded and went their several
ways, and it was here they met to journey to
the white settlements.
When a number had made ready for the
trip eastward they would take boats or horses,
and with the voice of the wilderness, and with
the yodling calls of the mountains, they would
make the rocks and cliffs of old Scotts Bluff
reverberate, and then, they were away.
Upon arrival at their destination, they would
vanish from sight for two or three hours ; then
shaved, bathed, and clad in garments of civ-
ilization, they would appear in the marts of
trade.
The mystery of the wilderness was about
them, the brown of the western winds upon
their brows, and wherever they went they were
objects of consideration and interest. After a
time the sameness of the city grew tiresome,
and when another trapper outfit was preparing
for the west, the most of them would be ready
to come back to the life that was life to them.
The joy of returning to the haunts of the
mountains was theirs, and happiness beamed
from the countenances, as they danced, capered
and sang about the camp getting ready for
the journey. And here at old Fort Mitchell,
they were ready once more for the perils and
pleasures of the profession.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XVII
BRADY ISLAND TRAGEDY — FRENCH BOAT SONG— TIM BRIDGER MEETS
SIR GEORGE GORE
The men who manned the boats that navi-
gated the shallow and dangerous western wat-
ers were, like the campers, almost invariably
French-Creoles, and emotional, romantic char-
acters added to the picturesqueness of events,
making trapper history distinctive. It was an
epoch in the taming of the wilderness.
In the spring high waters, occasionally a
fleet of boats were made ready at old Fort
Mitchell, as formerly at Ft. Laramie for the
journey to the white settlements. The boats
were loaded with two or three packs of beaver
each, and usually manned by two men each.
French language was much in use by the
Americans, who in the main disdained the hap-
py-go-lucky French camp attaches. They were
frequently referred to as "Le Foux" or the
fools, but laughter and song were unyield-
ing to the shafts of ridicule, and whenever a
fleet of boats cast off from the old fort, the
splash of paddle, or the movement of poles
were to the rhythm of French boat songs with
which the air was filled. The following is giv-
en by Chittendon as one of the favorites :
"Dans mon cherin J'ai rencontre'
Trois cavalieres bien monte'es
L'on ton laridon dan'e
L'on ton laridon dai.
Trois cavalieres bein monte'es
L'une a chevel l'autre a pi ed
L'on ton laridon dan'e
L'on ton laridon dai.
And thus the buoyant, singing people would
away to civilization. One could not tell, how-
ever, which of them would reach the white
settlement, for if occasion or expediency re-
quired one of the two boatsmen would be "acci-
dentally" killed en route.
It was in 1833, so says Rufus Sage, that a
party were descending the river, and they stop-
ped upon an island some distance below the
junction of the two branches of the Platte.
A man named Brady and his French compan-
ion bad quarrelled.
Tin- others of the party had gone out to
hunt, and. upon returning they found Brady
dead. 1 lis companion said it was by accidental
discharge of his own weapon. Although the
others did not believe the story, they had no
evidence to the contrary.
Shallow water made the travelers abandon
their boats a short distance below. They di-
vided their packs, but our Frenchman held to
the portion that formerly belonged to Brady.
The night after, he was trying to light a
fire by the discharge of his pistol, the story
goes, and shot himself in the thigh. He laid
their six days and was picked up by the Paw-
nees, but he died a few days later, and before
he died, he confessed the murder of Brady.
No one has ever confessed the murder pf
the Frenchman, but it seemed that providence
had a way in dealing with murderers in the
wilderness. It is generally believed that provi-
dence used in most cases, the hand of some
friend of the murdered man.
The death of Brady gave name to Brady
Island, which name time has never effaced.
One of the most distinguished caravans to
visit the famous station of Fort Mitchell, ar-
rived in June, 1854, when the Sir George Gore,
a real lord from Sligo, Ireland, appeared.
Henry Chattillon, already famous as a guide,
had been pressed into service and had piloted
the party from St. Louis.
The outfit consisted of several wagons and
many carts, a number of yoke of oxen, and a
hundred horses, a large retinue of servants, a
lot of thoroughbred dogs, and was also equip-
ped with firearms, accessories, and provisions
for a two year's trip.
Chattillon was to guide the party to Fort
Laramie where his service was to end. At Fort
Mitchell Gore made inquiries as to the best
country for big game, and was making a pre-
liminary quest for a mountain guide. All in-
quiries of the latter nature led him to Jim
Bridger, who was at Fort Laramie at that time.
The meeting was mutually interesting to the
principals, and to the spectators. Gore was ac-
customed to command, and he had all the im-
perial instincts of his nativity. On the other
hand, Bridger cared absolutely nothing for rank
or station. In the mountains all men were to
him the same. If they could be relied upon
"they were square." and if not to be reljed
upon, "they were Blackfeet," (an unreliable
Indian).
Negotiations entered upon with diplomacy by
the Irish lord, were cut short by the moun-
taineer, who named his price, terms and con-
ditions, and wages to commence at once. This
unusual abruptness made a hit with the Irish-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
33
man, and in the two years that followed Sir
Geo. Gore and Jim Bridger were companions
inseparable.
During these years Sir George held to his
traditions. He would not rise until ten in
the morning, and then with deliberation he
had his bath and made his toilet. After break-
fast "at noon" he would hunt or travel as he
then decided. Along about ten o'clock at
night, his "dinner" must be served, and it was
full dinner dress for him.
At the evening function, he usually had
Bridger join, but no evening costume for Jim.
After dinner, he would read to Bridger from
Shakespeare or Munchausen. Of the former
Bridger "lowed it was too highfalutin fer
him, and he did not like that Pullstuff any-
way ; he thought too much of lager beer."
Munchausen's stories struck him as "a leetle
too big," but when his own stories were re-
peated to him, he said, "well, maybe they air
too big too," with a twinkle in his eye. These
and similar discussions continued while the
two remained in the mountains, and after the
two years the only genuine affection by the
lord at parting from his hunting companions,
was shown as he bade farewell to old Jim
Bridger.
The period of the trapper was passing fast.
The beaver had lost his prestige in the world
of fashion and silk had taken its place, the
prices of ermine and otter had fallen. The
big migration which at this time was pouring
through the valley of the Flat Water, changed
the habit but not the vocation of the class.
Thousands of buffalo fell before the trapper
and thousands of hides were shipped annually
to St. Louis. In one year, 1847, the American
Fur Company shipped from Fort Mitchell,
then just being established as Fort Fontenelle,
and from Fort Laramie, then soon to be trans-
ferred to the government, forty-seven thousand
buffalo robes.
Fort Mitchell was the last trading post of
the American Fur Company, and remained
their property until 1864, when it was sold to
the Northwest Fur Company, of St. Paul.
This company was organized by J. B. Hubbell
and associates.
There seems to be no record in the war de-
partment showing any establishment or occu-
pation of Fort Mitchell by the government or
any date of its abandonment, but it was used
by the government from 1865 to 1869 as a
sub-station of Fort Laramie; I have this from
the Adjutant General's office.
And with the abandonment of Fort Mitchell
the "Commerce of the Plains," in the old sense
passed away.
PART II
INDIAN WARS AND LEGENDS
CHAPTER I
INDIAN MIGRATION ACROSS THE PLATTE
Hyde tells us that from his best information
the Comanches or "Paducas" were on the
north side of the North Platte river up to
about the year 1800. Perrin de lac in his book,
1802. puts on his map "Ancient Village of
the Paducas," on the upper Niobrara near
Rawhide Buttes. Robert Harvey, when doing
some surveying in Sioux county, about forty
years ago, came upon "old ruins" northwest of
Agate. An early map of Nebraska indicates
"ancient ruins" across the river and some dis-
tance north of the present site of Bridgeport.
These were likely the former establishments
of "Paducas," and date back to about the be-
ginning of the last century.
Major Long, in 1820, says that during the
life of Chief Blackbird, about 1780 or 1790,
the Paducas came and attacked an Omaha vil-
lage on the Missouri river near the mouth of
the Niobrara.
Tradition has it among the Indians that the
Cheyennes came and drove the Comanches
from the Rawhide Butte region, and that later
the Sioux came and drove out the Cheyennes.
Major Long also stated that in 1820 the
Cheyennes, "on the Cheyenne river" secured
goods from the British -traders through the
Sioux and they would bring them to the Platte
where at "distant periods" evidently meaning
long intervals, a sort of an Indian trading fair
is held, usually on "Grand Camp creek," by the
Cheyennes. Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Coman-
ches. Tin's may have been as far up the river
as tin- present Grand Encampment, but I doubt
if any of ihe creeks had their present names so
early as that date. The Arapahoes carried on
this sort of trade before the Cheyennes took it
up, but the Arapahoes seem to have been pre-
vented by the Sioux from securing goods from
the Missouri, and the Cheyennes took up the
trade. The intertribal trade between the Indians
appears to have been of a very early origin, and
Hyde thinks that it was started by the Co-
manches when they were north of the Platte.
When they were driven south of the river, the
Kiowas took it up, and when they were
driven south the Arapahoes assumed charge of
the trade, and they in turn were compelled to
move south and it then fell into the hands of
the Cheyennes. The Sioux would have un-
doubtedly followed the business had it not
been for the interference of the white trader,
who took it over entirely.
In 1814-15 the Sioux and Kiowas were at
war, and a decisive battle was fought on Kiowa
creek in the west part of the present Scotts
Bluff county. Here the Kiowas w r ere beaten
and retired into the mountains. They later
went south and joined the Comanches and
have thoroughly amalgamated therewith. Their
last raid into the "North River" country was
when they burned the trading post in Robi-
deaux Gap.
A story going back to 1730, tells of the
Cheyennes. Originally they were far away,
west of the great lakes. In the course of their
migrations, driven ahead of the Sioux, they
built a village on the banks of the Cheyenne
river. This river rises in Wyoming and runs
eastward, skirting the south border of Black
Hills from Edgemont to the Missouri.
At this time the Cheyennes had built mud
huts and their habitations had a sense of per-
manency. Possibly they seized and occupied
the "Paduca" villages. One day, the entire
village, with the exception of one old woman
who was too old to travel, went on a buffalo
hunt. These hunts often extended for several
days, and it was during their absence that their
old enemies, the Assinaboines, whose habitat is
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
35
now in northern Montana, raided their village.
They attacked at night, and at their sudden
approach the old woman, who was grinding
bones in an improvised mortar, and had a torch
of pitch pine stuck down her back, with the
upper end alight, started to run toward the
river. The village was situated upon a bluff.
As she approached its precipitous shore with
the Assinaboines in close pursuit, she took the
torch from her back and threw it far out over
the cliff, and she herself hid by the pathway
that led down to the water. In the darkness,
the Assinaboines, thinking that she had run on,
followed the flight of the torch over the cliff,
and all perished. The Cheyennes, the story
goes, then used dogs for pack animals, hitch-
ing them between thills, and having them drag
the packs after the manner later adopted in
connection with ponies and mustangs.
In 1840-1841 the Sioux made peace with the
Cheyennes, probably the Southern tribes, for
they were at peace with the Northern Chey-
ennes long before 1840. The Southern tribe
whose habitat was on the Platte and Laramie,
had among them a very old man by the name
of Red Cloud. He was a cousin of the Sioux
Red Cloud of history. Sioux Red Cloud's
father had a brother who married a Northern
Cheyenne woman about 1820, and the Cheyenne
Red Cloud was their son. This indicates that
the Northern Cheyennes and Ogallala Sioux
were at peace and intermarrying at that time.
This Red Cloud, half Sioux and half Northern
Cheyenne, married a Southern Cheyenne wo-
man, and lived with the Southern tribe. This
would indicate peaceful and intermarrying re-
lations between the north and south branches
existed about 1840 or a little later. It might
have been after the peace of 1840-1841.
This peace was brought about by Red Arm
for the Cheyennes and Lone Horn for the
Min-ne-con-jou Sioux (or the tribe of "shoot-
ers in the mist"). The Sioux and Arapahoes
remained hostile for some time thereafter.
Among the oldest of the Cheyennes now liv-
ing there are found those who say that Lone
Horn was the first of all the Sioux to bring
his band to the Platte river, and he did not live
here. He came down to hunt, and to run the
mustangs, for wild horses abounded in the val-
ley of the North Platte river and adjoining ter-
ritory.
Volume I of Wyoming historical publica-
tions, in an article on Fort Laramie says in
1835 two men were sent to the Black Hills to
induce Bull Bear's Ogallalas to come to the
Platte to live, and that this was the first Sioux
band to come near Fort Laramie to trade.
There was no Fort Laramie then, and the
Fort William that was the antecedent of the
historic fort was builded 1835. Lone Horn's
hunting trips must have antedated that event
by at least a score of years. The Sioux were
here in numbers as early as 1815, for the battle
of Kiowa with the Kiowas, and the Battle
of Round House Rock, with the Pawnees, were
about 1815. If Lone Horn was the first of the
Sioux to reach the Platte river, he must have
been quite young at the time, or else he was
quite old at the time of the conclusion of peace
between his people and the Cheyennes.
The migrations of the several tribes across
the Platte must have been in rapid succession,
the Comanches were presumed to be north of
the river about 1800, and ten or fifteen years
thereafter the Sioux were here. In the mean-
time, came and passed, the Kiowas, the Arapa-.
hoes imd the Cheyennes. The North Platte
river was the dividing line, in the days of the
trappers, although the Sioux were sometimes
found south of the line. _i3/2386
In 1850 the scourge of cholera swept along
the trail, and spread among the Indians east
of and around Scotts Bluff, and its vital effect
drove all else out of mind for a time. Stans-
bury found five lodges full of Sioux, all dead
of cholera, at Ash Hollow, and cholera was
raging in a village of two hundred and fifty
lodges farther up the Platte.
The Sioux at that time seemed to have prac-
tically the undisputed possession of the Platte
except the challenge of authority thereover
made by white people along the Great White
Medicine Road. The river for a time had been
the dividing line between the Sioux and the
southern tribes, but the southern resistance to
the northern pressure was gradually giving
way, and soon after the Sioux took possession
of the land south to the "South River" and
some distance beyond.
Samuel Parker, the missionary, when pass-
ing through the North River land in the early
thirties, tells of a thousand Pawnees in a vil-
lage in Mitchell valley, and from 1845 to 1855
the Indians held their pow-wows in Horse
creek where Crows and Snakes met the Arap-
ahoes, Cheyennes and Sioux, and presents were
distributed among them. This was in line with
the promises of Colonel Kearney at Fort Lar-
amie in 1845, where he warned twelve hundred
Sioux that they must not try to close the Great
White Medicine Road, "for it was used by the
people who with their wives and their children
and the cattle, were moving to the other side
of the mountains, to bury their bones there,
and to never return." Colonel Kearney said
in address : "Sioux, you have enemies about
you. but the greatest of them all is whiskey. I
36
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
learn that some bad men from Taos bring it
here and sell it to you. Open your ears and
listen to me. It is contrary to the wishes of
the Great Father that . whiskey should be
brought here, and I advise you, whenever you
find it in your country, no matter in whose pos-
session, to spill it all on the ground. The
ground may drink it without injury, but you
cannot."
Tall Bull and another Sioux spoke very cor-
dially, and then presents were distributed. Tall
Bull was the principal chief present for the
Sioux.
About 1870 Tall Bull was killed by Buffalo
Bill in the Battle of Summit Springs. The kill-
ing took place in a dry run leading down to
the Platte, and the widowed squaw seemed
.quite proud of the fact that it took so dis-
tinguished a man as Colonel W. F. Cody to
kill her man and chief.
Captain Clark, who later figured conspicu-
ously in western Nebraska history, says that
Whirlwind told him that the dates of the Horse
Creek Councils marked the division of the
Cheyenne and the Sioux, but there had been
earlier troubles of which he perhaps was un-
aware.
The number four seems to run to the
Cheyennes, which perhaps some mystic may be
able to explain. They had four chiefs, four
halts before they charged into the preliminary
march of the Sun dance, four times is the
covering of the medicine sweat house raised,
four winters they starved, etc.
After the Laramie conference, Colonel
Kearney visited a village of about thirty lodges
on the Chugwater, and went on south to the
Arkansas. Dunn says that he sought to give
the Indians an impression of power or author-
ity, or to scare them, by sending up rockets,
but there seems to have been no foundation
for the story, in the official reports.
CHAPTER II
INDIAN WAR AND LEGEND — THE STORY TELLER
Years ago, on the banks of the White river,
an old Indian story teller sat by the fire, tell-
ing his midnight tales. And he said: "My
story winds as winds a river, sometimes on
one side of the valley, and sometimes on the
other side, and sometimes turning backward
for a distance, then turning again to continue
its journey onward to the Big Water." So,
while these events, and the chronicles thereof,
move steadily forward with the years, they will
occasionally hark back to earlier dates.
No matter what the hour of the night, a
story teller always has his audience huddled
around the fire ; and his stories range from ad-
venture full of action, to the wierd mythology
of the tribe. Night is the time when all man-
kind is stirred by vagaries of the dark, and
receptive brains absorb the stories heard or
read.
This story teller assured us, there in the
shadow of the pines, the glow of the campfire
illumining his face, and not so brilliantly the
faces of his listeners, that, when the moon was
full, the evil spirits began to eat it, and they
never ceased until it was entirely devoured.
Then the Great Spirit knowing it was not well
to let evil spirits run about at all times of the
night, and that they shunned the light as much
as possible, began making a new moon. This
he worked upon night after night until he had
it complete. Hanging it in the sky, he went
about his business, and then it would be again
attacked and devoured by the evil ones.
Part of the stories of Indians are supposed
to be Indian history and tradition, but they are
all about as full of child-like vagaries as the
above conception of the changing moon. There
are many Indian stories, of which I shall re-
produce a few that may relate to this particu-
lar part of the country, and shall give some
extracts of their translated songs.
An inside knowledge of Indian life yields
the information that their sentiments, their ro-
mance, their poetry, their natural human in-
clinations are not far different from those of
their white brothers. The "Indian in a man"
has been referred to in many ways — wild na-
ture, vindictiveness, treachery, and is more fre-
quently used to indicate cruel or evil charac-
teristics.
That is because the side of Indian life that
has been most dwelt upon by writers, and that
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
37
has come in contact with the advance of civili-
zation, has been the cruel and savage side. We
seldom heard of the great peace advocates of
the red race, because the more virulent advo-
cates of war kept them and us busy. The same
inspirations that provoked the flower of knight-
hood in the middle ages, were in the Indian
tribes. The young men were taught valor and
inspiration, and that honor came through the
slaughter of hereditary or other foes.
Even in peace, war songs kept alive the mili-
tant tendencies of mind and heart. Here is a
fragment of one song often sung to inspire
young braves to deeds of war and blood:
"The Eagles.
The eagles scream on high
They whet their forked beaks.
Raise — raise the battle cry,
'Tis fame your leader seeks."
This song of the Sioux stirs the red blood
just as did the recent songs on the battle fields
of the old world.
Fatalism is a part and parcel of the moun-
tain and plain, and the greater frontier, as we
well know, and we presume it is the same of
war. The belief that "a man who is born to
be hung will never be drowned," is old as the
hills. In the remote periods of ancient India,
Sanjoya sang the battle song of fatalism. But
old chief Wau-bo-jeg, who once loved and
roamed over the land of western Nebraska,
sang his songs in the middle of the night. When
the dark shadows fell over Wildcat and Sixty-
six mountains, over Crow Butttes and the
Pine ridge, he would sit by his fire, and tell
stories, and listen to others. When some story
of battle prowess stirred those about the fire,
he would sing, and this was one of his songs :
''On that day when our heroes lay
low — lay low,
On that day when our heroes lay low ;
I fought by their side.
And I thought 'ere I died,
Just for vengeance I'd take one more
foe."
There are several verses that tell of defeat
and death, and then a verse on preparedness,
that ran thus :
"Five winters in hunting we'll spend
— we'll spend
Five winters in hunting we'll spend.
When youths grown to men,
We'll to war lead again,
And our davs like our fathers' will end."
The last line indicates the fatalistic resigna-
tion.
Thus the teachings went on from one gen-
eration to another, and the glories of war were
forever dangled before the eyes of the young
braves. He who cautiously dared to plead for
peace was contemptuously dubbed a squaw.
Woman life among the nomads of the plains
has another side. Conflict was forced upon
her and not of her nature. Subdued by long
years of motherhood and slaughtered children,
her ambitions were for the more humble do-
mesticity. Like her white sister, she admired
the brave, but feared the dread consequences
of conflict. Whenever her man left home, she
knew not that he would ever return.
Captain Hobbs tells the pathetic story of his
Indian wife, "The Spotted Fawn."
When he bade her and their half-breed son
"good-by," to return to the settlements, he
promised to come back, but she feared he
would never do so. She tried every wile
known to a woman's heart to get him to give
up his intended journey, she held their little
brown baby up to be kissed, and then clung to
him pleading with him. But when she knew
that it was useless to plead longer, she hugged
her child to her bosom and ran shrieking into
the night. Their second son, soon to be, was
prematurely born, as the result of the intensity
of her emotion.
Two years later Captain Hobbs did come
back, and her joy was wonderfully manifest.
The boy was as wild as a deer, and it was a
long time before he would come near his
father.
Yet with all the wealth of affection which
many a squaw bestowed upon her husband, she
had nothing to say in the matter of selection of
a mate. All these details were arranged by the
sire, who usually traded his promising young
girls for ponies. Occasionally there were at-
tachments, which were stronger than filial man-
dates.
Along the old stage road, south of Harris-
burg, and over on the White river, there are
two rocks, similarly named, and which obtained
the name from similar circumstances. In each
case a Sioux father had sold his daughter to
a young Ogallala brave, but in each case that
Indian maiden had a sweetheart of her own.
The story of the Banner county episode is this :
The village was situated on the little table-
land where in 1885 Vance Cross homesteaded,
just south of Long Springs branch, then un-
named, and the Ogallala had brought his
ponies. On the morrow he was to claim his
bride. She secretly left her lodge and found
her sweetheart and they were making away
38
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
when discovered. Her irate father, the chief,
had her whipped and her lover was put to
death.
The next morning in the bright sunrise, she
donned her finery and went humming a song
through the village, wending her way to the
south. Young braves looked admiringly upon
her as she passed and wished that they were
so fortunate as the Ogallala. He, too, looked
in fond admiration and anticipation. She was
observed to ascend the slope of Table mount-
tain, and she paused on its eastmost extremity,
where the countless ages of wind-erosion have
made a perpendicular cliff.
Here she raised her arms towards the sun
and commenced to sing. The music, as it
came to the village, all the inhabitants of which
were now watching her, sounded weird and
sweet, but was instantly recognized as the song
of death. A dozen braves ran to save her, but
in vain.
They had almost reached her when she
threw aside her blanket and as a statue of
bronze stood for a moment in the morning sun,
then with a cry that she would meet her lover
in the Shades, she went over the cliff, and was
crushed to death at the feet of "Lover's Leap."
Hers was the song of death, but there are
other songs, songs of life and of seasons.
Among the tribes, each season has its song,
and each great event is immortalized in poetry,
and folklore tales. We all know the habits of
the frog, and how it makes its presence known
in the first wet spells of spring, yet it remained
for an Indian to give the harbinger of season,
a place in the songs of the world. "O-ka-gis,"
or the "Frog Song," or the "Frog in the
Spring," as it is generally called, runs thus :
"O-ka-gis"
"Then we shall cheerfully, praisingly sing,
O-ka-gis, (the frogs) the heralds of Spring,
First to renounce the Winter bound ball ;
Hail sunshine and verdure and gladness for
all."
And they have a "Winter Song," a song of
pleasing defiance to Par-kab-il-on-ac-ca, the
god of winter. This thing with such a dread-
ful name, had decided to drive all the people
south wiili the buffalo, so he himself could
rule the north. But he met a Tartar, who
turned the tide, anil maintained his right and
his tnlic's privilege to remain in the north.
So when old Par-K. shook the kinks out
"I boreas, and ripped and tore in mad and
Stormy glee, he found (he red people sitting
by their meagre fires on tin- Niobrara and the
Blue Water, and under the beetling crags of
Scottsbluff, Wildcat and Bighorn mountains,
cheerfuly singing "The Song of Singabiss."
"Windy god, I know your plan,
You are but my fellowman,
Blow, you may, your coldest breeze,
Sing-a-biss you cannot freeze.
"Sweep the strongest breeze you can,
Sing-a-biss is still your man ;
Heigh for life, and ho for bliss,
Who so free as Sing-a-biss."
The Indian language and poetry, when trans-
lated, seems to grip one. Their expression
seems to get at the very essence of things.
They touch the heart of that which they seek to
express, in simple language, while we stumble
through the phraseology of mythology and ages
and leave a sentiment so buried in verbiage
that it is all but lost. It must be the com-
munion and mutual understanding which is
given by living close to nature. The common
language of the birds and beasts and redmen,
where all are attuned. A little extract from
the "Song of the Falcon," will serve to illus-
trate :
"Birds, ye wild birds, whom the high gods
made,
And gifted with powers of wonderous
kind,
Why turn ye so fearfully shy and dis-
mayed,
To gaze on the heavens you're leaving be-
hind?"
Have you ever stood in the old orchard or
leafy grove, and seen the wild scurry and flut-
ter of birds to hide in the grass or the leafy
bower? The sun may be shining, and no sign
of tumult or danger anywhere, except a stam-
pede among the little feathered families. Yet,
far up in the azure blue floats in tranquil cir-
cles, one, and perhaps two, of the keen eyed
enemies of the little birds. No word picture
in the classics has so vividly described this com-
mon incident in nature.
Indians educated at Carlisle return to their
tribes and the education gives them no better
expression. Neither are they improved in arts,
their work on the canvass with the single ex-
ception of landscape work is as crude as that
of native ochre painted on the mountain sides.
Their minds for the most part are as imma-
ture as children, and the love of the recondite
runs through all their lives.
It is said that civilization touches barbarism,
and barbarism recoils like a burnt child from
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
39
the fire. So back from the schools to the blan-
ket and the tepee, spoiled as Indians, but not
capable of competing and combatting with the
whites in the busy marts of the world.
I saw some Pine Ridge boys going through
Washington, some time ago, and in their
rounds they were conducted through the som-
ber grandeur of the National Capitol building,
and the wonderful glory of the National Li-
brary. On each occasion the Babylonian splen-
dors struck them and they cried out: "Wash-
tay, lela-wash-tay, lela-wash-tay te-pee," (fine,
very fine, very fine houses) which was the
limit of their expression; but, back in their
wigwams, if unspoiled by education, they can
tell the folklore stories of their people, as won-
derful as Arabian Nights, yet in words and
symbols of simple comprehension.
The younger years of the mountains and
plains people were not devoid of their amuse-
ments, and primitive joys. Young squaws fes-
tooned their hair with wild flowers, and bucks
adorned themselves with gay feathers.
The ceremonies among the corn raisers are
similar to the Arcadian joys of country lads
and lassies in ye olden time. You will recog-
nize resemblance to the old husking bees.
When a brave found a perfect red ear he
carried it in due form to his favorite squaw,
and left it as a tribute of his affection, and
when a squaw found one, she hid it until op-
portunity permitted her to yield it to her fav-
orite brave. If discovered, any brave might
claim her as his own. Sometimes the popular
belle would pretend to find one, for the joy of
the simultaneous rush towards her by her many
admirers.
But if one found a red ear that was not well
filled, or was crooked or tapering, all would
shout with glee and sing the song "Wa-ge-nim,"
"Wa-ge-nim.
Wa-ge-nim, crooked ear,
Walker of night,
Stop, little old man.
And take not to flight.
Crooked ear, crooked ear,
Stand up strong,
Little crooked old man,
I'll give you a song."
The crooked and tapering ears were consid-
ered the image of "Old Man Thief." And here
is another of the simple symbolic expressions.
This crooked, incomplete, unfinished ear of
corn is like "Old Man Thief," because it has
taken the toil in raising, and raised the expec-
tations of the grower, and yet but partially ful-
filled them.
There is much other Indian matter, tradi-
tions and the like, that come in their turn, but
now the "river winds" to other scenes.
CHAPTER III
THE PAWNEE PILGRIMAGE — THE SPOTTED ROBE — TI-WA-RA, THE GOD
OF COURT HOUSE ROCK — BATTLE OF ASH HOLLOW
Many, many moons ago; many moons and
many winters, the Pawnees came up the river
from the ruins of Quivera.
The underground people of pre-historic Ne-
braska, and the corn raisers of hundreds of
years ago, had left their "wallows." in the
sands of the eastern part of the state, and had
joined "the innumerable caravan that moves
to the pale realm of shade," and the Pawnees,
naturally nomadic, had for a time tarried, and
were growing corn and "pompons" on the
ruins of the past.
The introduction of "pompon" among the
Indians dates back more than a century, for
there are letters of Manuel Lisa, over a hun-
dred years old, which tell of his way of win-
ning and retaining the friendship of the In-
dians, and thereby turning into the markets
so much rich fur.
I will digress sufficiently to tell a little of
Lisa, as it was my privilege to examine some
of these old letters recently. It was Lisa's
boat which Roi and Dornin traded to Robert
Stuart and party, at Great Island in the spring
of 1813. This boat had a skeleton fn.me made
of wood four feet wide, twenty feet long, and
eighteen inches deep, and it took five elk hides
to cover it.
As Lisa says : he put great activity into his
operations, and went long distances alone into
40
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the wilderness, and for long periods he was
buried in the forest, or wandered about upon
the plains. He introduced the "mammoth pom-
pon," "the large bean." "the potato," and "the
turnip." He loaned traps to the Indians, and
tools, and made his habitations the refuge of
those too old to follow the tribe.
"The Pompon," which he introduced flour-
ished in the wilderness, and sometimes grew to
the enormous size of one hundred and sixty
pounds, but in these higher and drier alti-
tudes its size was much less. The Pawnees
planted it in the valley of Gonneville creek a
hundred years ago, and the run out species are
now called "wild pumpkins." The cowmen
found them there and named the creek
"Pumpkinseed creek," which they afterward
shortened to the "Pumpkin creek, of song
and story.
One large Pawnee village had heard of the
fine buffalo ranges of western Nebraska, and
after much "fuss and feathers" it was deter-
mined to move westward into the land of the
Sioux. They knew that such a movement
would entail conflicts with their hereditary en-
emy, hence no village of small proportions
would hazard the undertaking.
In the village was one very old and neglect-
ed squaw, who, by silent consent and the cus-
tom of the tribe, was to be left behind. What
cruel purpose or tradition originated this cus-
tom, I know not, but frequently the old and
infirm, particularly squaws, were left behind,
when villages moved, and when the meagre
supply of food left them was exhausted, they
generally died of starvation.
In this case, the withered and crippled Paw-
nee squaw had a grandson who was one of
the promising young braves of the tribe.
Heeding not the names and jibes of his fellow
braves and refusing to revere the ancient and
wicked custom, he returned to the fragile lodge
of his maternal ancestor, and assisted her to
pack and follow. They plodded along behind
the main caravan, frequently living on the re-
fuse left by the well-provisioned people, and
one day they came upon a horse. It, too, was
crippled and stiff and old, was dun of color and
its back was sore, and it was very poor.
Partly because of compassion and not washing
to leave the old horse to the mercy of prowl-
ing, camp-following beasts, and partly because
Ik- wanted oik- horse, however poor, the young
brave took the half-starved animal along, and
found it of much service in carrying their
After many days they reached the base of
the eminence now known as Court House
Rock, and just east and north thereof a little
south of the present site of Bridgeport, the
Pawnee village settled down, for in the land
about them there were many signs of buffalo,
and into the village came out-runners who re-
ported a large herd of buffalo only four miles
south, and in the herd was a spotted calf.
A Spotted Robe was Big Medicine among
the Pawnees, and the chief sent a crier through
the village announcing that a charge should
be made from the village, and the brave who
brought back the spotted robe might marry
his beautiful daughter.
And the young brave mounted his old dun
horse to take part in the race, but the others
laughed at him and he drew aside. Then to
his surprise the horse turned his head and
spoke: "Take me to the stream and plaster
me with mud ; my legs, my head and my back,"
and to the creek that flowed hard by he went
and did as he was directed.
At the cry "Loo-ah" (go) they were away.
The old dun horse covered with mud seemed
rejuvenated. He sped away so fast that to
some of the others he seemed to fly, and when
the advanced portion of the charge reached
the scene where the herd had been they
found the young brave skinning the spotted
calf, and he had also killed a fine fat cow.
One by one the other braves came back to
the village, and as they came, they rode by
the lodge of the boy's grandmother to tell her
of his good fortune, but she thought they
were jesting and answered them angrily. When
the young brave came up with the old dun
horse snorting and prancing, laden with buf-
falo meat and a great robe, for her, and the
spotted robe which he retained for himself,
she could hardly believe her senses. But in the
frail tepee there was joy that night.
The rejuvenated horse again spoke to the
young brave. "The Sioux war parties are
coming; they are now near the wigwam," in-
dicating Chimney rock ; "Tomorrow they will
come, and our people will meet them about
half way. When we meet, ride me among
them and kill their chief, and return. Then
again, ride me among them and kill another
chief and return. Do this again, and again,
four times only, for if you go the fifth time,
some disaster will befall you or me."
So the next day was a great battle between
the Pawnees and Sioux at a point nearly op-
posite the opening in the hills now known as
Round House or Reddington Gap.
The young brave and the old horse were
there, and they charged into the thick of the
conflict. As he rode in among the Sioux, the
air was thick with arrows, but he found the
chief and slew him, and returned untouched.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
41
Twice, thrice, four times he rode, and four
chiefs he killed, and each time they came
back unharmed.
Still the battle raged, and the impetuous
youth disregarded his instructions, and for
the fifth time plunged into the fray. His horse
was shot from under him, and cut to pieces,
for the Sioux declared that he had more than
horse endowments, which if the Pawnee folk-
lore tales are true, cannot be denied.
The brave, with great valor, fought his way
free of his adversaries, and returned to his
own people unharmed. The battle was soon
over and the Sioux were routed. Across the
river with great tumult and splashing, they
were driven, and up one of the arroyos to the
north, and because of the many relics of the
battle found in this vicinity, that arroyo and
the water that flows down therefrom is known
today as Indian Creek.
The young brave mourned the loss of his
now famous dun horse, and after the battle, he
went out on the field and gathered up the
pieces and piled them together. Then he went
up on the rim of the overhanging rock to
mourn, nor would he return to the village to
celebrate with the others over their triumph.
Night came and still he sat and looked down
on his Armageddon.
There came a storm, a roaring mountain
storm, the lightning flashed, and there was
thunder and a deluge of rain. Two black arms
reached down from the overhanging clouds to
the field of battle. Then the storm passed and
the young brave saw something had taken
shape upon the battle field. Then came an-
other storm alike but fiercer than the first, and
when it passed he saw the form of a horse.
Then came a third storm, more terrible than
the others, and when it passed he went down
upon the field of battle and there he found
his old dun horse, sore of back, and crippled
and poor as when he had first found him. And
the brave was sad for he knew that it Was his
disobedience and impetuosity that had brought
about the disaster.
The horse did not upbraid him, but said,
"Ti-wa-ra (the god of Court House Rock) has
let me return, and for your filial devotion to
your grandmother, and for your kind treat-
ment of a crippled and worn-out horse, and
because of your sorrow, I am here ; but here-
after, do just that which I tell you, no more,
no less.
"Now lead me away through yonder gap
to the other valley and leave me there. Re-
turn alone tomorrow, and tomorrow, and for
ten tomorrows."
He followed the directions, and on the mor-
row he returned, and found his old dun horse
and a beautiful white gelding. This he took
to the village and it was better than the horses
ridden by other Pawnee braves. The next to-
morrow, he rode home a coal black steed, and
so each succeeding day he rode another horse
of another color into the village, grey, roan,
pinto, bay, etc., and each was finer than the
ponies ridden by other braves.
Now, he was rich, and the chief, reminded
of his pledge gave him his beautiful daughter,
and the young brave spread out before her, as
a tribute to his affection, the Spotted Robe.
The old dun horse was then brought to the
village, and well taken care of for the rest of
his days. And for many years the Pawnees
claimed the beautiful land.
It was about the time of the building of the
first stockades at Fort Laramie, that the Sioux
began again to crowd down upon the Pawnees
in the valley of the North Platte. And at the
same time our young brave met with the great
common sorrow of the world. Death entered
his domestic household and took therefrom his
little son, and when he laid him away, swing-
ing on the limb of a cottonwood tree, they
rolled his body in the Spotted Robe. Then
the old dun horse died, and disasters fell thick
and fast upon the Pawnees.
The Sioux made it so uncomfortable that
the Pawnees decided to retire some distance
down the river, having no particular objective,
and to cover their retreat, they left a number
of the braves to keep the Sioux engaged while
the main village was moving. And these were
attacked by the Sioux with such fierceness
of purpose that they were driven to the top of
Court House Rock for refuge.
About the base of the rock camped a number
of the Sioux, w,ith the evident intention of
starving them to come down, or to their death.
Meanwhile the main Sioux bodies hurried
on after the retreating village. This they
overtook, and engaged in the final struggle
for possession of the upper Platte river, at
Ash Hollow, in about the year 1835. It was
the fiercest of all their engagements.
The battle raged all day, beginning with the
dawn. In the early part of the conflict, the
air was filled with arrows. Then after all their
ammunition was gone, they fought on hand to
hand, with battle axes and tomahawks until
darkness settled over the land. The Sioux
were victorious in the end, but at such cost,
such frightful loss, that they were willing to
let their hereditary enemy depart without fur-
ther engagement.
Under the stars and moon forty-six Sioux
and sixty Pawnees were cold in death, and
42
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
many another nursed his wounds. The Paw-
nees were so humiliated and discouraged, that
they retired three hundred miles farther down
the river, and gave up their claim to the North
Platte valley. In the new land they have work-
ed out the fulfillment of their destiny, and their
merging into the races of civilized mankind
takes place through the medium of the school at
Genoa.
This is the only "Battle of Ash Hollow"
known in history, that really took place on the
geographical location.
Meanwhile the young chief left with the
braves to the defense of the rear were maroon-
ed on the top of Court House Rock and the
situation was very desperate. He went out
alone at night and plead with the god Ti-wa-ra
to show him some avenue of escape, and the
answer came. He went near the edge of the
rock and found one of the perforations that
extended downward into darkness. He tied
his lariat and the lariats of others together,
and fastened the upper end to a jutting rock
point, and let himself down into the hole or
"well" as it is called. At its bottom he found
an opening large enough for a man to crawl
through, and it was unguarded. He climbed
back up the rope to await the following night.
When the darkness came over the land he
called his men together, and told them of his
plan for escape, and they all crawled to the
edge where the perforation in the brule rocks
made the well. One by one they went down
the rope, and crawled out through the hole at
the bottom and away in the darkness. And the
last to go was the young chief.
If you will go to the top of Court House
Rock any night, even to this time, you can feel
the presence of Ti-wa-ra, and if you will listen
after the shadows of night have fallen, you
can hear the Sioux watchers moving about at
the base, waiting for the Pawnees to come
down, and you can hear them as they pass
one another in the darkness, whispering-whis-
pering-whispering.
CHAPTER IV
THE LEGEND OF THE WHITE HAWK — OLD BULL TAIL'S DAUGHTER
Some years ago I met Col. W. F. Cody,
"Buffalo Bill," at Washington. We were
talking of Indian mythology and he told me
this story which he said was sometimes told of
the Chadron Plains, sometimes of the valley
north and east of Scotts Bluff mountain, and
sometimes of the high divide known as the
Flowerfield Swell.
Algon, a Sioux hunter, had chased a deer
out upon the prairie, until its trail led to a
circle where all the grass was trodden down,
but from the circle never a trail led on.
While marvelling, he heard strange music,
and it seemed to come from above. Looking
up. he could see far into the sky a very small
speck, and as he looked, it seemed to grow
larger and larger until he made out that it
was something descending to the earth. He
fell hack from the circle and concealed him-
Self in the .ura-s.
Larger and larger it grew, and louder and
more distinct became tin- music. Finally it
settled down in the center of the circle, and
hi pi rceived that it was a basket and in the
basket were twelve maidens, and as the basket
came down the maidens sang. After it had
alighted they all jumped out and began to
dance in the circle and sing as they danced.
One of them was very beautiful, and it
seemed to the young brave that he must have
her for his very own. Watching as she came
to the side of the circle where he was conceal-
ed, he leapt out and tried to catch her, but
quick as he was, they were the quicker, and
all leapt into the basket singing and the basket
went up into the sky.
The young brave reached up, and shouted
his love until long after he knew that they
were out of hearing, and prehaps it was im-
agination, but he thought he saw the one head
leaning over and looking down, until it passed
from the range of his vision.
The next day he came and the next day,
and each day the basket came down and the
maidens danced, and each day he tried to
catch the one of his attachment, but in vain.
Finally he made him a covering of deer hide
with head and all, and he ran into the circle,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
43
and leaped into the basket. Immediately all
the maidens vanished and twelve deer bound-
ed over the prairie toward the pine clad hills.
After a time he left the basket, and the cir-
cle ; and the deer came running back, and they
disappeared, and twelve maidens jumped out
of the grass and into the basket and were gone.
The next day, disguised as a deer, he ran
into the circle, and throwing off the disguise,
he seized the maiden of his choice, and the
others sprang into the basket and only eleven
were wafted to the skies.
He carried his captive tenderly to his lodge,
and while she mourned and wanted to return to
the stars, she appreciated his great tenderness
and consideration.
By and by, there came a little brown boy to
add to their happiness and she seemed to have
forgotten about her home in the skies. Seem-
ed, I say, for all unknown to Algon, she worked
upon and made a wicker basket. And one
day he returned from the hunt and found she
and the baby were gone. Someone had seen
her going to the Magic Circle, on the prairie.
He hurried out, but was too late, for as he
neared the spot he heard her sing, and saw the
wicker basket going up. Her song was of
her happiness, but it was a dirge of his hopes.
Par-kab-il-on-ac-ca, the god of winter came,
and the young chief and his tribe sat sing-
ing the Song of Sing-a-biss, until the time for
"O-ka-gis, the Frogs," and then a summer
passed. And still there was no joy for him
in the chase.
And meantime his wife, in her starry home,
had almost forgotten him in the blissful en-
joyment of her environment. But her son,
true to his race, had a memory of a very brave
and fine looking father, and with these mem-
ories he told his great sire and asked if he
would ever see him again.
His entreaties won the heart of the grand-
father, who told his daughter to take her
young son, and return to the tepee of his fath-
er, and ask him to come, and to bring with
him a specimen of every bird and animal he
had ever killed in the chase.
Algon, who ever hovered near the enchanted
spot, heard her song before he could even see
a speck in the far blue. She seemed to come
so slow, but at last he had her in his arms.
And that night, while the boy slept, she gave
him the message from the stars.
Now he hunted with great activity, and of
the things he killed he kept a token, if only
a foot, a claw, a wing, or a tail, and finally
with all he had collected, with his wife and
his boy, he was taken to the starry realm, by
the magic and power of the voice of his sing-
ing wife.
Then the great chief there called his people
together for a feast. After the feast, he gave
to each a trophy of Algon's chase. A scene of
strange confusion followed. One chose a wing,
another a foot, another a tail and another a
claw, until all the guests had chosen something.
And those who chose a foot or tail became ani-
mals and ran off, those who chose a wing or
claw became birds and flew away. Algon him-
self had chosen a white hawk's feather, and his
wife and boy had done the same. Immediately
they became white hawks, and flew down upon
the earth, and from that day, the white hawk
became the boldest of birds.
After the advent of unscrupulous white
traders, who poisoned the Indian imagination
with liquor, there were no more strange and
mysterious folk-lore tales, invented or conceiv-
ed. Before the Taos traders came into the
North Platte valley, each new or startling event
was crowned with mystery, and some Indian
mystic would weave into the mythology of the
tribe. A new bird appearing, or a stranger in
the animal kingdom, in unfrequented localities,
called for an explanation, like that of the Leg-
end, The White Hawk.
Liquor created havoc in other ways :
In November, 1855, there was located on the
Chugwater an Indian village of considerable
proportions and the band had been quite suc-
cessful in gathering fur, which was being held
for better trades.
The Chugwater came by its name because
of a rock along its course, which stands ab-
ruptly out of the level valley and resembles a
chimney, and "chug" is an Indian name for
chimney. Hence Chimney creek, or Chug-
water.
The traders at Fort Laramie became impa-
tient for the fur of the Indians and sent over
with the complaint a "hollow wood" (keg) of
firewater. In the succeeding debauch a drunk-
en fight occurred, and Bull Bear, Yellow Lodge,
and six of their personal friends were killed.
The traders of the American Fur Company
became known all over the west as Long
Knives, because the ramifications of their busi-
ness extended over such an extent of country.
At the station of this company that once stood
near the mouth of Mollie's' Fork, Old Bull
Tail appeared with his beautiful daughter,
Chintzille. She was indeed an attractive Indian
maiden, but the trader observed that she had
been weeping.
Long Knife, the trader, quickly discerned
44
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
what was the matter, for Old Bull Tail com-
menced with a diplomatic suggestion that it
was not well for Long Knife to live alone.
For several days previously the old scoundrel
had been a visitor at the post, offering furs
and ponies and the beads and blankets off his
back for a hollow wood of firewater. This in-
timation that single blessedness was not well
for him, and Chintzille's nervousness had seen
what was coming.
After some sparring for an opening, which
was cleverly avoided, the old villain came out
plainly and wanted to trade his beautiful
daughter for a keg of whiskey.
"But," says Long Knife, "while Chintzille is
very beautiful, she does not want me." Old
Bull tail argued that such a condition was not
infrequent, and that Chintzille was a dutiful
daughter of her race, and would learn to
shower the wealth of her affection upon Long
Knife, and he would be proud of her.
The diplomacy of refusing the daughter of a
chief is a very difficult matter, but Long Knife
succeeded in impressing the old fellow that the
alliance Was impossible, and that he could un-
der no circumstances let him have the hollow
wood of firewater.
He left in high dudgeon.
In one of these affairs, where a trader of
less principle than Long Knife, sold some liq-
uor to the Indians about the fort, there fol-
lowed a drunken brawl and Susa-chiecha was
killed, and around the body of their chief that
night the Indians revelled in their frightful
orgies.
L T ntil Captain Bonneville went into the moun-
tains, and for some time afterward, the Chey-
ennes were totally averse to drinking, but, says
the Missionary Merrill in his diary, April 14,
1837: "A trader named Gant sweetened the
liquor and made them fond of it, and now
they are a nation of drunkards."
This reference was made no doubt to the
band of Cheyennes, that traded at Fort Lara-
mie, and mingled with a similar band of Ogal-
lalas, known as the "Laramie Loafers."
Gant was one of the unprincipled traders
from New Mexico and he had a trading post
in the Arkansas Valley, coming into the north
only on occasional trips.
CHAPTER V
BELDEN, BRIDGER AND BAKER EPISODES
INDIANS
EARLY CONFERENCES WITH
One of the more famous of western char-
acters, was James P. Belden, because he volun-
tarily went among the Indians and married a
squaw, two of them in fact, and lived with the
savages for a great many years. Yet in the
struggles that later took place between the
people of his tribe, and the people of his race,
he sometimes was on one side and sometimes
on the other. More often, his blood asserted
itself, and on many occasions where he fought
hard in a losing battle, where all his compan-
ions were killed. The Indians would single
him out and spare him, and they seemed to
understand and respect his position.
Belden was well educated, but of course lost
considerable of his polish in his long years on
the plains. About the first book of adventure
that I remember was "Belden, The White
Chief," and it I read and re-read.
i in one occasion, when Belden "met up" with
a missionary, Jim Bridger told the gentleman
that the frontiersman was a poet, which state-
ment was received with some doubt. Bridger
told Belden of the doubting Thomas and that
gentleman returned within his tent.
After a time he came out with verses he had
just written, and while long and somewhat
crude, we repeat the production here because
of its local color, and the references to dis-
tinguished characters of the west, none of
which, I think, is now living.
Ben Harding was a scout and was the sub-
ject, and his many narrow escapes, had given
him the sobriquet "Slippery Ben :"
Slippen,' Ben
Shake ! Darn my buttons, I'm mighty glad,
To meet so many old chums.
Dick and I have been lyin' round here
'Till we're gettin' tired of whiskey and beer,
And we've made up our minds to go trappin'
this year,
So we don't get on 'the hard bums.'
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
45
Bless my eyes, if there aint Jack Grey,
You darned, infernal old cuss.
I smelled you, I did, though I didn't see
You're tarnal old carcass behind that tree,
I'll bet ye a tenner you can't hide from me,
You darned old polecat, or wuss.
Where's your hoss? right there; yes, you're
right,
Tied up to a cottonwood tree.
Well, you're going along with us on this tramp,
None of your lyin' you bully old scamp,
You are. How that's said. Suppose we all
damp
To success to Jack Grey's company.
Why, dang it, it's more than a year since we
met
At the foot of old Court House Rock,
And if memory don't fail, I reckon that then
Another was with us to make up ten
That tall gawky cuss — you know — Slippery
Ben,
W 7 ho wore the long fringe on his frock.
Does anyone know what became of the boy?
You do, well let us all know.
For he gave us his word on this very day,
He'd meet us all here, by the Old Moun-
tain Way,
If nothing should happen to cause his delay,
Such as lightning, or Injuns, or snow.
Dead ! died in your house ? the devil you say !
You can't shove down any such chaff.
Now, tell us the truth — let up on the lies —
Why, what the blazes got into my eyes ?
It stings so darn bad ; it almost makes me cry,
When I said at that joke take a laugh.
Well, no more of this, you're blubberin', Grey,
A pretty frontiersman you are.
Not a man in this crowd but has his day,
Wrapped up in his blanket and laid away
Some long tried friend, and no one to say
A scriptural verse or a prayer.
But Slippery Ben, I can hardly believe
Has give life the slip in this way.
For everyone knows he was confounded tough,
With a great kind heart, though his manner
was rough,
Well, well, now, I do fell queer, sure enough,
But death, you see, must have his way.
Jack, please call the roll; see if any more's The ten names are among the characters ot
gone the old west, and Buffalo Bill. I believe, was
The way Slippery Ben has done. the last to pass over to the rendezvous of an-
Then we'll mount and away for another year, other Court House Rock.
On the prairies green, in the mountains drear,
To trap the beaver,, and hunt the deer,
From Arkansas to Yellowstone.
Jim Bridger is one, John Nelson's another,
And Gilman, he's two by himself,
And we'll count him the third ; then Dick, and
me,
Jack Jones, Jack Morrow, Jack Grey —
Jacks three,
A good poker hand, but by yonder tree,
Is a flush — Bill Cody — himself.
Nine in all — ■ only nine. Oh, how I do wish,
Slippery Ben could have bluffed death a year.
But what's done is did, we can't bring him back,
So catch us your horses, and hurry and pack,
And we'll push on ahead in the same old track
We have followed so oft without fear.
You are ready I see, Well, move on ahead,
While Dick and I stop awhile.
For something is raising a dust back behind,
And if it is Indians, we will soon make them
find
They have no business here, when we go it
blind,
And must take tother road, or strike ile.
Why there's only one — a horseman at that,
Dick, us two can get off with him,
Easy enough, can't we, be he friend or foe,
For there's no two men have better rifles,
you know.
Don't appear to you though, that he's comin'
darned slow;
That horse and his rider so slim.
Gimme your coat tail to wipe out my eyes,
For I swear I can't make out a thing;
There now, I see better ; Hello ! I say, men,
Come back here, for dang it, here's Slippery
Ben,
Or his ghost and his horse ; I knew them sure,
when
I saw those long, gawky legs swing.
Welcome, old boy, by your absence, you've
made
Many old chums' hearts to bleed.
But ghost or flesh, 'tis the same to the men,
Who have rode side by side through forest
and glen.
So again, we are ten, countin' Slippery Ben,
Ghost Ben and his shadowy steed.
46
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
One day Jim Bridger and Jim Baker were
hunting together in the wilds a little west of
here, when they came upon a mother grizzly
bear and two half grown cubs. A lucky shot
finished the old one and Baker proposed that
they waste no more ammunition. That each
take one of the cubs, and "kill and sculp them
with our butcher knives," which proposition no
real mountaineer would reject.
After a goodly fight. Baker succeeded in
getting the better of his bear, but the bear
that Bridger attacked seemed to be worsting
him. Bridger called for help, but Baker an-
swered that he "didn't want ter interfere in
another man's ba'r fight," but he finally "lit
into it," and Bridger immediately retired,
leaving him to fight alone. Baker was again
victorious, but angry at Bridger and demand-
ed an explanation. Bridger explained thus :
"Ye tarnal fool, Jim, ye got me into this
scrape, and I got myself out. I wanted to
shoot mine, but you wanted to kill and sculp
'em with butcher knives. So as the ba'r fight
were yourn, I thought I wouldn't interfere, and
let ye have it plenty."
After some reflection. Baker answered :
"Dod rot it, Jim, if ye aint right, but I'll
never fight nary another grizzly, without a
good shootin' iron in my paws."
These old, rough characters had their phil-
osophy and ideas of humor.
It would seem that before the time of Mar-
cus Whitman, and even before the trappers
built the first fort at the junction of the Lara-
mie and Platte, Col. Dodge had conferences
with the Indians with the hope when the
whites came on into the west, conflicts would
be avoided. But the Indians, even so early
as that, had doubt in the white man's pre-
tentions.
These councils occurred during the years
1832 to 1835. On June 23, 1832, there was a
Grand Council of the Chiefs of the lodge of
Angry Man. On July 5. 1835, Col. Dodge
held a council at a point about twenty miles
above the forks of the Platte, which was at-
tended by Angry Man, Two Axe, Little Chief;
Mole in the Face, Bloddy Hand, Two Bulls,
Big Head or Star. Mole in the Face was
chief spokeman, and the years of wandering
had been lean ones, so that these Indians want-
ed land to settle upon "like the Pawnees."
A treaty in 1833 provided for a Pawnee
reserve in the Loup river country.
In one of these conferences, Little Moon
spoke so self-deprecatory, that it was tinged
with irony.
"The white people are all good, there is
nothing bad about them."
Little Moon was a chieftain of much im-
portance, and his habitat was near the state
line, at the west border of Scotts Bluff coun-
ty. People of the present generation are fa-
miliar with Little Moon Lake which is a
pleasant place to spend a few days camping.
And the people of a generation ago knew of
Little Moon Post-office, at the crossing of the
Pony Express on Horse Creek, which site is
now ( 1919) owned by L. J. Wyman.
In his reports of 1835, Col. Dodge makes
no mention of travel on the trail, but ten
years later Col. Kearney tells a different story.
The latter also tells of a thousand Indians
at Fort Laramie, and he also advised the gov-
ernment against the puchase of the post.
The treaty of Fort Laramie, September 17,
1851, gave the whites the territory from the
forks of the Platte to Red Buttes. The In-
dians never ratified the treaty, but the white
people have the land.
In 1846, the Sioux were run down and dis-
couraged, and they had assembled at Fort
Laramie and were making great demonstra-
tions. These were doubtless the Indians re-
ferred to by Col. Kearney. The Whirlwind
had assembled them for war against the
Snakes. Before they departed upon their pro-
posed conquest and slaughter, the buffalo
came north, and the whole expedition turned
into a buffalo hunt. With full stomachs the
Indians relented their purpose, and settled
upon the land. The following year Fort Lara-
mie was sold to the government, and shortly
thereafter Fort Fontenelle was built at Scotts
Bluff by the fur traders.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER VI
SONGS OF PARKER AND MINTO
About the time the conferences were be-
ing held by Colonel Dodge, the Presbyterian
Church sent out Samuel Parker and his bride,
in answer to the call of the Nez Perce Indians,
and they made their "honeymoon journey" in-
to the west, which journey ended in their death
at the hands of "praying Indians." Their
melancholy fate has been laid to the door of
commercialism, and the Hudson Bay Company
was accused of instigating the massacre on
the far shores of the Columbia.
But while traversing the wilderness of west-
ern Nebraska, their hearts sang with the joys
of early married life, and they sang hymns and
read and talked to the Indians, telling of the
Promised Land "where the trail ends."
The Indians of this vicinity were very much
interested in the Parkers, and especially their
singing. It w,as so different from the wild
cries which they had learned from the coyote
and the eagle, and they came again and again,
and asked them to sing.
Parker's map, made in 1838, included every-
thing from the mouth of the Platte as Oregon.
The law of the early forties, that gave to
each emigrant, who found his way to Oregon,
a section of land, might have been legally ap-
plicable to the sand hills of Nebraska, sixty
years before the achievement of Wm. Neville
and M. P. Kinkaid was upon the statutes. The
territory of Nebraska was unorganized for
many years after the passage of the Oregon
homestead act, and in Idaho the Oregon
statute was made to apply after Idaho became
a state, because the act had not been repealed.
Parker speaks of the large quantities of
game, and says the prairies abound with "badg-
ers," probably prairie dogs. It was on the
21st of July that they arrived "opposite Court
House Rock," which he describes thus :
"It has at the distance the appearance of an
old enormous building, somewhat dilapidated ;
but still you see the standing walls, the roof,
turrets and embrasures, the dome and almost
the very windows — and a large guard house
standing some distance in front of the main
building. You unconsciously look around for
the enclosures — but they are all swept away
by the lapse of time — for the inhabitants they
have all disappeared. All is silent and soli-
tary. You are excited to know who has built
this fabric — what has become of the bygone
generations ?"
The following day they camped "opposite"
another of nature's wonders, called "The
Chimney, but I should say it ought to be
called Beacon Hill from its resemblance to
that famous land mark of Boston." "I crossed
the river to get a nearer view with one assist-
ant. When some distance from the river, we
heard and then saw the stampeding of buffalo.
We rode for the river to get out of their
line of progress. They probably would have
failed had not some horseman rounded their
left flank and slightly altered their course."
These parties proved to be Lucien Fon-
tenelle and a number of his hunters, and two
herds of buffalo, each numbering six hundred
to eight hundred were charging down the river,
when Mr. Fontenelle alarmed for their safe-
ty at first, now remained to chat with them,
as they were fresh from the settlements.
From descriptions only do we obtain that
the Parker party all crossed to the south side
of the river at this point, for the following
day, they undoubtedly passed through the gap
in Scotts Bluff mountain.
In Mitchell valley Parker found two thou-
sand Pawnees, of which he said : "Their lodges
were comfortable and easily transportable, and
they moved from place to place as occasion
dictated. They were constructed of eight or
ten poles about eighteen feet long, set circu-
lar and the small ends fastened together and
the large ends about twenty feet apart. This
frame was covered with skins of elk and buf-
falo. Fire is made in the center with the
hole at the top for smoke. The men were tall
and well proportioned, the women well formed
— ■ less pendulous than usual, well dressed and
cleanly."
On Sunday, July 26, 1835, they remained
on the Banks of the Laramie, where the "In-
dians came in numbers" to meet them, and
hear them read and sing. It was hot, very
hot, but they held almost constant service from
the forenoon until late into the night.
Then the next day, they went on towards
the end of the trail, riding in their "tepees on
wheels."
Marcus Whitman was the pilot of all to
Oregon and about 1844 was at the zenith of
his living glory. Whitman's glory will never
fade, even though the "praying Indians," cut
his living usefulness short in its splendid ca-
reer. On the journeys to Oregon he preached,
he exhorted, he enthused. He officiated at
births, weddings and deaths. A wagon would
48
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
drop out of line, and a fire would be hastily kin-
dled, and at night the wagon would come along
and join the caravan, and the cheerful face of
the doctor would tell to all the anxious matrons
who might expect a similar event before the
journey's end. that all was well, and that the
mother and child were both doing nicely. He
ministered to the failing, and said the last sad
rites over the improvised caskets, or the graves
of the departed that were left along the Over-
land.
Sometimes there were courting on the
prairies, the same as now — the same old moon
shown for the young then as it does now, and
a young Oregonian and his chosen one would
seek out the same fine old doctor, and Mar-
cus Whitman would say the words that made
them man and wife. These weddings on the
prairie were close to nature's heart, and yet,
the pranks of the young were not different
from those prevailing in the settlements. At
night when the newly-weds would retire to
their own wagon, the golden chariot that would
be forever theirs, not infrequently did the
youngsters serenade, or oftener still, run the
wagon in the ditch, or creek or river.
Among the chroniclers of events along the
old trail, occasionally one indulged in classical
poetic expression. It was John Minto, I think,
who tells of the prosaic activities of a cow-
caravan, in a way to hold interest, and it
was he who therein contributed the following
stanzas to the plodding oxen, which for the
moment felt the exultant thrill of their fore-
bears in the years when the world was
young.
"And now, your western course is led
Where grassy pampas spread and spread —
The pastures of the buffalo.
And like a sudden lash of spray,
When tropic tempest hits the sea.
The masts are stript to ward the blow.
"A ragged whirl of dust, descried
Upon the prairie's sloping side,
Protends, as swift and free, a storm.
And lo ! the herds, they come, they come,
A sweeping thunder-cloud of life,
Loud as Niagara, and grand
As they who rode with plume and brand
On Waterloo's red slope of strife,
Wild as the rush of tidal waves
That roar among the crags and caves,
The trampling besom hurls along;
A black and bounding fiery mass
That withers as with flame the grass,
Oh, terrible ! ten thousand strong.
Meanwhile, the dusty teams are stopt
The wagon tongues are deftly dropt,
The drivers, by their oxen stand
To sooth them with soft speech and hand.
And yet with horns tossed free, and eyes
Ablaze with purple depths of ire,
A thousand servile years expire,
And flashes of old nature rise,
As if a sudden spirit woke
That would not brook the chain and yoke.
"And then, the stormy pageant past,
They bow their callow necks at last,
And with a heavy stride, and slow,
The dreams of liberty forego."
There Were thousands of buffalo and much
other game on the meadows where the city of
North Platte now stands, and it was remarked
that this was the best game park in the world.
One can well believe the hail storms are
nothing new to western Nebraska, but the first
record that we have seen was on July 21, 1844,
the, Minto party were on the high divide be-
tween the Plattes, near Ash Hollow, when
there came a sudden storm, and the people and
the stock suffered from a severe pelting by
hail, "some of the hailstones being as large as
hen's eggs." In the storm the cattle drifted
and according to "Black Harris" the guide, the
party came down into the valley about twelve
miles west of Ash Hollow.
But you and I, and Minto and others by the
millions have each felt that call of the wilder-
ness, the storms of the highlands, that for the
moment invaded the storm tossed sprrit of the
plodding oxen. Out in the altitudes where
the horizon is the sky, we have each felt as
St. George Cooke felt when he reached the
summit of Robideaux Pass, when he saw
stretched out before him the wide meadows or
Horse Creek bottom, the billowy hills beyond,
the treeless plains for miles on miles, then the
mountains, "and Laramie mountain towering,
at eighty miles." This is what he said: "Let
the wide arch of the ranged empires fall. This
is my space."
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
49
CHAPTER VII
RED CLOUD AND SPOTTED TAIL — MASSACRE OF COTTONWOOD CANYON
In the account of the burning of old Fort
Robideaux mention was made of the Sioux
triumph over the Kiowas the following day,
Red Cloud was called the young chief, which
was true only by comparison.
Red Cloud ( Marpiya Luta) was born on the
Blue Water, in what is now Garden county,
in May 1821, which made him about thirty
years of age at the time of the Kiowa raid.
You were also told that the conflict then
named Kiowa creek, but I find a reference
made to another battle, about 1815, in some
notes from Geo. S. Hyde, of Omaha, in which
with Bull Bear, a Sioux chief, which resulted
in the latter moving to the Happy Hunting
Ground. Red Cloud's distinction as a leader
had already been increased by encounters with
and victories over Pawnees, Crows, Shoshones
and Kiowas from time to time. He now
became the fighting chief of the Ogallala
Sioux, and was the main leader in the wars of
1864 to 1869. It was he who planned and exe-
cuted the Fetterman massacre, in which Cap-
tain Fetterman and ninety-six of his command
were ambushed and left dead on the stark and
barren Massacre Hill, near Old Piney.
Jed Cloud's Daughter, Fort Laramie, Wyoming
he states the Sioux worsted their ancient en-
emies the Kiowas. This battle, he asserts,
gave the creek its name. No details of the
battle have I ever been able to obtain.
At sixteen years of age, the young brave
who was born on the banks of the Blue Water,
went out with a war party, and because of his
achievements in a fight where the sun shone
red upon him, he was named Red Cloud.
One can imagine the impetuous youth of six-
teen, with the love of color and action, and
indifference to consequence, riding like a
whirlwind, silhouetted against the golden red
of the sunset sky, and his sire seeing in him
the Red Cloud of Destiny, prophetically cried
out, "Marpiya Luta, Marpiya Luta." Ah!
that was a name for an Indian.
At twenty-five Red Cloud had a difficulty
Red Cloud was war chief, but Spotted Tail
was his opposite by nature.
Spotted Tail, whose Indian name was Sin-ta-
ga-las-ca, spelled variously from Sentegaleska
to Shantagolisk, came up from the ranks, and
attained the greatest distinction recorded in the
annals of red men. He was born near Fort
Laramie in 1833, or a year or so before the
first rude stockade was built.
At the age of eighteen years he engaged a
sub-chief in mortal combat, but he is said to
have no reputation for provoking conflicts.
While nominally the head of all the Sioux dur-
ing the great wars along the Trail, the ac-
tivities were largely in the hands of the war
loving members of the tribe, who with their
independent bands moved without orders from
the supreme head.
50
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
The experience of the United States at the
close of the Black Hawk wars in the valley
of the Mississippi, was so successful, that the
same plan was followed with Spotted Tail. In
1872, he was taken to Washington by our mili-
tary, and there he met General Grant, who was
then President of the United States.
He was convinced of the uselessness of com-
batting the white people, and he told his people
that they were as numerous as the sands of the
prairie, and to emphasize the comparative
strength of his people with the whites, he cast
a handful of sand into the original bank from
which it came.
In 1876, General Crook crowned him "King
of All the Sioux," which title he maintained
with dignity until 1881, when he was killed at
the Rosebud Agency, by Crow Dog, one of his
sub-chiefs.
Names in Indian life are certainly an indi-
cation of character, for one naturally expects
the assassin of a truly great Indian, to bear
some such cognomen as "Crow Dog."
While Spotted Tail was inclined to peace,
while he would rather take his people to the
hunting grounds at the head of Spotted Tail
creek, or over on the Blue Water ( Snake
creek) and there lay in a winter's supply of
jerked buffalo meat, he participated in many
conflicts and personally led in the massacre of
Cottonwood canyon, just a few miles east of
North Platte.
Cottonwood Camp has been built by
Eugene Ware in 1864, at the mouth of this
canyon of the same name, and here a com-
pany of soldiers were kept. Smallpox had
been on one of its periodical raids more deadly
than Indians along The Trail. Captain Mitch-
ell, and parties of the military named Bentz,
Anderson and Cramer, and a number of con-
valescent soldiers went up the canyon, in the
autumn of 1865 to gather wild plums. There
had been no signs of hostiles for sometime and
they felt secure. Mitchell and Anderson w T ere
the only two to carry arms.
As they started to return on that beautiful
autumn afternoon, the Indians were observed
pouring into the canyon to head them off. Mr.
Bentz, who was mounted on a fine black
horse, rode ahead with such surprising rapidi-
ty and suddenness, that he passed the closing
gap of Indians, and escaped unharmed amid
a fusilade of bullets and flying arrows.
Captain Mitchell saw that the slower moving
ambulance could not hope to escape in this
manner, and be ordered the driver to turn
sharply up the sloping bank of the canyon,
hoping to reach the tableland over its rim. and
then it would be a running fight in the open to-
wards the camp.
The horses had nearly reached the top, when
the nigh wheeler balked, and for the moment
they seemed at the mercy of the savages. Then
a yell from the Indians so frightened the horses
that they went flying up over the ridge, and
were headed for camp at the rate of ten or
twelve miles an hour.
The Indians pursued, and the driver was
shot from his seat. Anderson seized the reins
and held them until Cramer could come for-
ward, then he returned to the use of his rifle.
The horses with the heavy ambulance could
not keep pace with the light-footed Indian mus-
tangs, and it soon became evident that the In-
dians would close around them. Captain
Mitchell and Anderson Were shooting, but the
roughness of the prairie, and the shaking of the
ambulance, made the aim uncertain. The Cap-
tain finally determined to stop upon an emi-
nence ahead and fight it out, or stand off the
Indians until Bentz could return with assist-
ance.
Cramer, the driver, had lost his head ; he dis-
obeyed, and kept on lashing the horses past
the strategic point. Anderson sprang forward
to jam his foot upon the brake, but a sudden
lurch sent him rolling upon the prairie. Then
Captain Mitchell assayed to reach the driver's
seat, but another jolt sent him to the ground
and the undefended ambulance, with its wild
driver and sick soldier went lumbering on.
Mitchell rolled into a gully near where he
fell, and as he did so, saw Anderson hide in a
clump of scrub brush. The Indians im-
mediately following came to the ridge and
stopped, for it was plain that those ahead were
closing in on the luckless ambulance, and its
occupants.
One Indian dismounted and looked long and
intently on the ground. He wore a spotted
head dress of wild turkey feathers gayly col-
ored, and reaching nearly to the ground. Cap-
tain Mitchell knew him to be none other than
the famous Spotted Tail, and there he stood a
good mark, not more than thirty yards distant.
The death of this chief would have a de-
moralizing effect upon the Indians, and the
Captain later asserted that he thought would
more than compensate for the loss of twenty
captains. He. was directing his pistols in the
direction of the breast of the famous warrior,
when a shout arose, and the chief disappeared
behind the breast of jutting rock. One of
the tribesmen had detected a movement in the
brush where Anderson was hidden, and all
had found shelter.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
51
A general movement toward Anderson was
begun, and his rifle cracked. One Indian quit
moving. Another shot and another Indian
stopped, but there were now returning shots.
A sudden rush was made by a dozen or more
of the Indians, but three shots in quick suc-
cession sent them back dragging with them
three companions. That deadly aim was dis-
concerting.
Captain Mitchell says he determined it was
time for him to take a part, as he saw some
thirty Indians preparing to make a rush. It
was then he heard the voice of Anderson.
"My arm is broken. Keep quiet. Can't
work the Spencer any more."
From this it would appear that Anderson
thought it would be useless to bring Mitchell
into the fight, but I have never given Mitchell
credit for sufficient courage to enter the fray.
When I first heard the story, as it was told by
Belden, the White Chief, the thought occur-
red to me that a few shots fired from another
point, just as these thirty warriors were pre-
paring to rush, would have turned the tide of
the battle and saved brave Anderson's life. The
Indians could not have known how many might
be concealed about them, and the delay and in-
certainty would have given time and the pos-
sibility of Bentz returning with assistance.
But Mitchell remained quiet and the Indians
made the rush. Notwithstanding his disabled
condition, Anderson did work the Spencer to
the effect that four more Indians bit the dust
before they dragged him from the brush and
killed him. He was laid upon his back, and
nine slashes made across his breast, one for
each of the nine Indians he had killed.
Captain Mitchell lived and told the story to
Bentz and his party that soon arrived, but the
dead Indians told it better, and we have never
heard that the valor of the captain ever ad-
vanced him in rank among his brothers mili-
tary. If one soldier, especially an officer, could
lay quietly and see another who was making
a heroic fight, dragged out, killed, and mangled,
it is no surprise that the old time frontiersman
held the soldiers in contempt.
CHAPTER VIII
SUNSET ON THE PLATTE — THE GIBRALTER OF NEBRASKA -
SON BELLECHUG WATER
CHEYENNE
There are incidents occasionally that con-
nect the past with the present, and ties one gen-
eration to another in mysterious manner, other
than by the usual laws of consanguinity. Simi-
lar circumstances and environment will awaken
in one the same line of thought that may have
once been alive, but has been buried for gener-
ations.
It was back in 1889 that the writer, then a
budding young poet (as he thought), visited
Gering, on the Fourth of July. The party
consisted of Miss Ida Eckerson, now Mrs. A.
E. Scott of this city, Miss Minnie Shumway,
now Mae Shumway Enderly of Los Angeles,
William Wallace White of Gering, and the
writer. We crossed the old bridge that had
then but recently been built, and as we crossed
the sun went down. Miss Eckerson, knowing
of my poetical ambitions, said to me: "If I
was a poet, I would now write something to
The Sunset on Scottsbluff."
I looked, and as I looked I saw the glory of
the scene, and asked Mr. White to drive slowly.
With an envelope and scrap paper in the mov-
ing vehicle, I labored with the following result :
SUNSET ON THE PLATTE
Upon the bridge, above the flowing river,
There we admitted the fast declining day ;
Like those dark waters, moving on forever,
Each heart was borne in ecstacy, away.
The sun sank low behind the horizon.
It lighted upon the fleecy western sky ;
A symbol of the great, now dead and gone,
Who leave a brilliant lustre when they die.
The sky back of the stream, reflecting, cast
Resplendent lights of purple and of gold,
And all the rainbow colors, changing fast,
From lurid red, 'till fading grey turns cold.
But here and there, the shimmering surface
mars,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Its glossy face by interceding bars,
And where the elements each other wars
The foamed-flecked sand shone like bright
glittering stars.
A pine root clinging to some shoal here
Reached forth its various prongs and sep-
arate,
Resembling the antlers of a deer
With form beneath the stream, inanimate.
Far to the southwest rears a silent tower,
A temple wherein man has never trod ;
Erected by an Omniptent Power,
To man was given, a symbol of his God.
An intervening gap, and then another,
Great edifice, its head to Heaven doth rear,
In silent memory' of an earlier brother,
Who used it in defense of country dear.
Time's traces on its crest are visible,
The walls are slowly crumbling to decay,
Yet, grim and earlier relic, doth it tell
Its history in its own inspiring way.
But from the crag of noble grandeur leaping
Our vision falls upon the level plain,
Swift over it, the evening shadows creeping
Leaves a dull dreary waste upon the main.
Beneath the plain a wall of dingy brown,
Obscured the last faint rays of waning light.
The lark's last note sounds through the twilight
gloom
As monitory of the coming night.
Along the surface of the shining river,
A sleepy swallow skims the water's brim,
So close it makes the shimmering surface
shiver,
The light, translucent, flashing through the
dim.
One lovely islet, decked with foliage green,
Breaks this bright scene stretching from
shore to shore ;
Tranquil she reigns, an Oriental queen,
In majesty and silence wields her power.
We gaze upon the fine artistic work
By nature drawn, and painted on the sky,
On island, and on shore that's growing dark,
And on the turbid waters flowing by.
It fades ! The picture was too rare a kind,
To linger long, and gladden mortal sight.
Like every earthly pleasure, leaves behind
Dark shadows, creeping on to darker night.
Now here, new scenes on the then new
bridge, and we were the new people. Ah !
surely here was an original poem, something
of a descriptive nature that people would like,
and the like of which I felt had never before
been written.
And for over twenty years I lived in the
thought that I was the only "poet" who had
dedicated Scottsbluff in "immortal rhyme."
A few years ago, I was "looking up the
trail" of an interesting event in this country,
and I found the name of "Cooke." Who was
Cooke ? Into the index of the National Library
I went and found that St. George P. Cooke
had written a book of the west, and I went
after it. Now here is a story.
On June 9th. 1845, he met Rufus Sage, with
a fleet of boats descending the Platte river
from Fort Laramie, and the meeting was a
little below Court House Rock. Tremendous
rains had deluged the party at Chimney Rock.
The hills were like the palisades of the Hud-
son, with here and there a pilaster of silvery
white. Ascending the hills to the east the pres-
ent site of Gering, he saw Scottsbluff, "lifting
her awful form, above the clouds, and midway
leaves the storm," and some one in the party
shouted : "The Gibraltar of Nebraska."
A heavy storm was approaching from the
west, and the party went into camp on the
summit of the hill. "A thousand Sioux were
in the vast amphitheatre just east of Scotts-
bluff." They were breaking camp in great
excitement, having determined to cross the
river before the storm came upon them. The
braves were galloping about, the dogs and chil-
dren were scurrying to and fro, and the wo-
men with hurried system were packing their
belongings on the poles dragged by ponies ;
and away they went, crossing the river with
great shouting and splashing. Cooke says, as
he sits at the door of his tent :
"This Scott's Bluff is a wonderful mountain.
We are miles off, yet to the last moment of
light there was some chamaleon change of
color, and the sentinels are still standing."
The storm had passed, and Castle Rock was
described as the "Pillar of Pale Rock," and
Scottsbluff "resembled Sterling Castle." Cooke
looked back over the trail he had come, and
saw the black wreck of the receding storm
passing on to the east, and "lo ! Chimney Rock
stood alone like a pillar of fire struck by the
setting sun."
Then my eye fell upon these words :
"The sun set in the clouds ; but the glorious
day,
Parts not in gloom ; the thick veil is riven —
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
53
The river and the sky in lovely array
Are radiant now, with the light of Heaven.
"Like an aurora, or the flashing trace,
Of Angel's flight to the utmost north,
The glory shines ; unwilling to deface
The beautiful, Night hovers o'er the earth.
"Gently, the chameleon colors fade, —
Slowly ascending to the zenith's height,
'Till lingering darkness buries all in shade,
And Light and Beauty bid the world, 'good
night.' "
Thus my beautiful dream of being the only
and original poet of the Scotts Bluff country
disappeared, for out of the past, some twenty
years before I was born, and forty-four years
before the old Gering bridge was built, one had
seen it all and said it better than I. But the
poet Cooke offers beautiful philosophy to us
of the middle age, so that my disappointment is
not so keen. I really wonder if this voice of
eighteen forty-five was not reechoed from
mountain and sky, while we were driving over
the bridge in eighteen eighty-nine. At any
rate, Cooke's advice to on peevish couple on
this occasion will bear repeating now, as a
solace to any regrets that one may have.
"Now, for the love of Love, and her soft
bowers,
Let's not confound the time with confer-
ence harsh.
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure, now."
Up on the Chugwater, Cooke's party met a
party of Cheyennes and a number of the belles
of the Indian village came out to meet the
white people, for by this time nearly all the
more ambitious of the young Indian maidens
decked themselves up in wild flowers and tin-
sel to attract some white beau brummel. To
marry a white renegade was considered higher
social caste than to win the better of the Indian
braves.
When the Cheyenne belles came among them
they beheld a captain who wore glasses, and
they screamed and rushed wildly to their vil-
lage tents, nor could they be induced to come
out so long as the captain was in sight. It was
very embarrassing to him, for how could he
know that they had been told that with glasses
one could see through opaque substances and
their gayly colored calico gowns were no pro-
tection against the vision of "four eyes."
CHAPTER IX
IN THE SHADOWS-
THE FIRE FLYSONG — CACHED FURS — OLD LAND
MARKS — TRAPPER'S ROCK
Not death, but darkness. What is there
about shadows and darkness that thrills and
terrifies the young. I do not recall that any-
one ever frightened me with stories of Things
out in the dark, yet I always felt that they were
there. What, I did not know, but surely it was
some fearful menace. Coming in from the
night, I could maintain control of myself until
I opened the door, and the candle light shone
in my eyes. Then, behind me the darkness be-
came a black abyss filled with horrible Things.
The point of a terrible blade, the fangs of some
frightful beast was ever close — so close that I
would leap into the circle of candle light, bang
the door, and shiver with relief and safety.
Then at night in the low-ceilinged room with
its sloping sides, close under the shingles where
my mother put me to bed. How I did dread
to see her carry out the candle. How I hoped
she would leave the "middle room" ajar, for
the few moments respite from the dark. What
a comfort to hear her moving about, and to
know that as long as she was there the gob-
lins of the dark would not come out. But when
she had gone downstairs, the invisible, menac-
ing creatures were about me. What a thrill
when a mouse rattled in the wall, or a branch
from a maple tree would touch the roof.
You have had these experiences, and you,
and you, with slight variations.
And the little red children of the prairie had
their similar fears, and the maidens would sing
54
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
songs at night, expressing their fear of the un-
known Dwellers of the Darkness. Their Fire
Fly Song, is one of this character:
"Fire fly — fire fly — bright little thing,
Light me to bed while my songs I sing.
Give me your light as you fly o'er my head
That I may merrily go to bed.
Give me your light o'er the grass as you creep
That I may joyfully go to my sleep."
They could merrily go to bed, and joyfully
go to sleep if the little fire fly would only give
the safety of its feeble light.
The young trappers and boy scouts, if they
look, may find some evidences of the cache of
furs that the American Fur Company once had
in the bad lands at the foot of Scotts Bluff
mountain. It was during the spring freshet of
June, 1842, that fourteen trappers from Fort
Laramie left with boats laden with furs for
St. Louis.
When they reached Scotts Bluff, which they
accomplished very easily, the river spread out,
and they were compelled to unload a number of
their packs from each boat. They made a
cave of a blowout in the bad lands, and there-
in hid the furs they could no longer carry ; they
left some men to guard the cave, but these
soon wearied, and being anxious for civil-
ization they went on foot toward the land of
the rising sun.
John C. Fremont, then on his way to the
mountains, met both the boat party and the
footmen, and reported back to Fort Laramie,
the fact that the furs had been left at Scotts-
bluff. He met them about two weeks after
the unloading, and the men were in consider-
able distress as their tobacco had given out. A
limited supply was given them, to last until
they should reach the settlements.
Next to Scotts Bluff mountain Court House
Rock and Chimney Rock were the more fam-
ous land marks of the Trail in western Ne-
braska. And every chronicler had a different
name or suggestion as to the proper name for
each.
Samuel Parker said Chimney Rock looked
like Beacon Hill of Boston, and Kelly, the
Englishman says it "looks like a Wellington
Testimonial on a Danish fort." He adds that
"it is fast chipping away, and no doubt would
be gone in another fifty years." After this lapse
of seventy years he would no doubt be sur-
prised to learn thai it looks fair for another
century or two, although fragments have re-
cently fallen away ( 1919).
Kelly was on his way to California in forty-
nine, and wrote as he sat "at the country resi-
dence of Mr. Robideaux," May 25th, that he
Would not be surprised if they were traveling
over gold here. He little dreamed of the man-
ner in which the soil and the sunshine and the
vagrant river would be by the later genius of
man converted into the acres of diamonds, or
transmuted into untold riches.
In the vicinity of Chimney Rock there came
up one of the heavy rains, for which that spot
seemed famous, and for three days the down-
pour continued and thoroughly soaked the par-
ty. On the third day as they were slowly mov-
ing to the west, they ascended the hill to the
west of Creighton valley, Scotts Bluff mountain
suddenly loomed distinct and clear above the
fog that enveloped its base, and the excited pil-
grims cried : "Mount Araratt, Mount Araratt."
The "Nut brown Sioux girls" greatly in-
fatuated the langorous Englishman, and to one
he gave a small hand looking glass, which so
pleased her that she fastened a bracelet on his
wrist, and he said the touch of her hands was
very pleasing to the senses.
Of bidding farewell to her, Kelly writes:
"Maid of Athens, 'ere we part,
Give, oh, give me back my heart."
West of the Robideaux Pass they met a lone
French trapper, who was out of tobacco. This
want supplied, he went away again toward the
head of Gonneville creek.
Kelly's "vision" had pictured Fort Laramie
as a fortress, but in realization it proved "a
cracked, dilapidated adobe quadrangular en-
closure." "No wonder it was sold to the gov-
ernment." Bruce Husband was then in charge,
and Fort Fontenelle Was in course of construc-
tion or almost completed.
A short distance above Julesburg, at a point
off to Mud Springs there stands a solitary
rock which bears the name of Trapper's Rock
because of the awful tragedies of the plains.
Two men, and the sister of one of them, had
come together into the west, and after a year
one of them wanted to return. The other who
was the brother of the girl had not yet his
fill of the wilderness, although the sister wished
to return to the settlements. The men were
boyhood chums and each had absolute confi-
dence in the other. Therefore the brother took
the vow of the other that he would see the sis-
ter safely into the hands of the white people,
and let them depart. Later the companion re-
turned, and the two partners went on as before.
One day they met another who knew them,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
55
and when he had an opportunity, he told of
the sad fate of his sister. The vow of his part-
ner had been broken, and the condition of
the girl was such that she could not return
to the same circle of friends she had left. A
short time after she had died.
The brother said nothing of his horrible dis-
covery, and together they made their way
working toward the east. At the point indi-
cated, the brother set upon and tied the other
fast. He took him in this condition to the
rock, and bound him fast thereon. Then he
coolly built a fire, cooked his supper and ate it.
Then laid by the fire and slept. In the morning
he prepared his breakfast and ate it in the
same manner, and never offered a morsel to the
man upon the rock. For nine days he camped
there, cooking, eating, and sleeping, and high
overhead, up in the blue sky the buzzards sail-
ed round and round and round and looked
down and at night the wolves howled from the
hillsides. On the ninth day the man on the
rock died of starvation and was left for the
vultures or the wolves. The brother of the
girl moved on into the east, satisfied with his
fiendish revenge.
When he reached St. Louis he found that
his brother had tried to make all amends, that
he had sought and plead with the girl to marry
him, but an old aunt had persuaded her to have
nothing to do with him. Failing in that, he
made a will giving her all his property, which
was considerable, at the time of his death.
CHAPTER X
STAGE DRIVERS — ROAD AGENTS — PONY EXPRESS RIDERS— CHAS. CLIFF'S
ADVENTURES — JULES AND SLADE FEUD — CREIGHTON'S
QUICK FORTUNE
Following the discovery of gold, and insti-
tution of stage service to the golden coast, the
country filled up with road agents and white
renegades, who preyed upon the pilgrims, and
robbed the stages with great regularity. In this
country there are said to be several caches of
gold hidden by gangs that either were later
exterminated, or never came back to find them.
One of these is supposed to be on Kiowa creek,
a certain distance from a certain cedar tree
of great dimensions. And another is on the
east side of Wildcat mountains. Much soil
has been worked over with the hope of finding
something, but the direction and the distance
from the landmarks are indefinite.
The operations of the road agents became so
bad that the Overland stage traffic came near
being abandoned, soon after its institution.
The first Overland stage to California was
put in service in 1859. and shortly after the
pony express was inaugurated. The time for
mail from New York to Sacramento, by the
"Butterfield Stage Route," was twenty-one
days, and the pony express shortened it to ten
days. As early as 1851 a monthly service by
stage was put on to Salt Lake City. Letters
were written on the thinnest of paper, for it
cost five dollars for a half ounce communica-
tion to be delivered at the Golden Gate by Pony
Express.
Old Stage and Pony Express stations, be-
tween Julesburg and Fort Laramie, were Mud
Springs, Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff, Horse
Creek, Sand Hills, Bordeaux. Sometimes they
crossed the river at Horse Creek and back at
Fort Laramie. These were north side stations
used. One at Rock Bottom Ford, and another
was near the old Wyncote station. Sub-sta-
tions at intervals of about ten miles were made.
President Lincoln's inaugural address was
started from the Missouri river, March 4, 1861,
and in just seven days and seventeen hours it
was delivered at Sacramento. It then became
a regular schedule of eight days to travel the
two thousand miles, or two hundred and fifty
miles each twentv-four hours.
On April 3, 1860, the first start of the Pony
Express was made, and on the eleventh there
was a crowd waiting at each end that broke in-
to wild cheers as the rider hove in sight.
The first rider from Julesburg west, was Jim
Moore, and he rode to Scottsbluff station,
which is the old soddy later used as a ranch
by Mark M. Coad.
Jim Moore made one of the most famous
rides in the history of the Pony Express, on
56
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
June eighth, of 1860, when he rode from Mid-
why to Julesburg and return, a distance of two
hundred and forty miles, in fourteen hours and
forty-six minutes. He stopped only seven
minutes for lunch.
Colonel W. F. Cody rode the Pony Express,
and he was first hired by Jules Reni and put in
'"Bill Trotter's division." He was the youngest
rider on the entire two thousand miles of the
road. He quit the prairie and went to the
mountains in the summer, and met Joe Slade
at Horseshoe station, where he offered his
services, but Joe Slade said he was too young.
Cody then gave him a letter from Trotter, and
he was immediately employed. Slade always
told Cody when he started on a trip to "look-
out for your scalp."
One of the dare-devils of the road was
Chas. Cliff, who rode a division from Scotts-
bluff station west through to Sand Hill sta-
tion. On his return trip once he was attacked
by the Indians in Mitchell Gap, and when he
arrived at Scottsbluff station and was taken
from his horse, he had three bullets in his body
and twenty-seven through his clothes.
Joseph A. Slade was something of a green
but vicious looking fellow when he applied for
service with the Overland stage people. Mark
Twain tells that few were asked for references
or credentials in the west for this employment,
but they did ask Slade if he had ever been at
St. Louis or New Orleans, and Slade replied :
"No, I haint never been at Horleans, but
I'll tell you where I have been. I've been
mighty nigh all over three counties in Illinois."
Slade's seemed to have been a wonderful
nerve, for he drove stage through the wildest
part of the road and shot down the road agents
on sight. It was something different. Here-
tofore at the sight of desperadoes, the drivers
would whip their horses into a fury of getting
away, but now Slade would simply slow down
and the first man within range would "get his."
When H. M. Inghram was hired by Slade,
he was asked if he could drive, which of course
"I tank" could do, and Slade said: "Well, damn
ye. drive then, and if you don't, I'll kill ye."
and [nghram drove on the route between North
Platte and Denver.
Apparently he was satisfied with Inghram
for after a few trips he gave him a sawed off
double barrelled shotgun loaded with buck-
shot, and a position as guard, with instructions
to "shoot to get 'em."
Slide would always take any advantage that
cunning quick action or a quick wit would
give, and on one occasion when the gentleman
with whom he had had a dispute appeared to
he the nimblest artist, Slade quickly said that
it was useless for life to be wasted over such
a small matter, and proposed that they throw
their guns on the ground and fight it out with
their fists. The other party agreed and threw
his gun down, whereupon Slade laughed at his
simplicity, and shot him on the spot.
Such conduct made him both hated and
feared.
I am not in possession of the facts that orig-
inated the Jules-Slade feud, but it was no doubt
some trivial affair, and the enemies of each as-
sisted in keeping it alive, with the hope that
one or the other or both would be wiped off
the earth.
It was at the Rock Ranch station that Jules
finally got the drop on Slade. Jules was told
that Slade was out back and he fired thirteen
buckshot into him. Slade dropped and Jules
satisfied that he was as good as dead, told some
of the fellows to put him in a dry-goods box
and bur>' him. Slade retorted that he would
live long enough to wear one of Jules' ears on
his watch guard.
Just at that time the stage came along, and
the superintendent happened to be on board.
He ordered Jules' arrest, and they proceeded
to hang him. He was strangled until black in
the face, and then was let go on the promise
that he would forever leave this part of the
country. This promise was kept — for a time.
Slade was taken to St. Louis where seven of
the buckshot were cut out of him and the
other six remained in his body until his death.
After a time, they were both back in the
Scotts Bluff country, and each with the threat
to kill the other on sight. Slade laid the mat-
ter before the officers at Fort Laramie, and
promised to take their advice. They decided
that Jules must be captured or killed, and Slade
had four men sent to Bordeaux, then on
Chausen's ranch, the first station east of the
fort, where Jules was said to be located.
They captured him with little opposition
says Coutant, and bound him hand and foot.
When Slade reached Bordeaux, this was the
condition in which he found him. He went up
to the helpless man, deliberately shot him twice,
killing him instantly. He then returned to Fort
Laramie, and went through the farce of giving
himself up, and was discharged. This was in
1862. It is believed that there was no mutila-
tion, and that this was just an exaggeration of
partisans growing out of the threat of some
time before.
In 1860, the United States government
granted a subsidy of forty thousand dollars to
the first company that would build a telegraph
line across the continent. Ed. Creighton, for
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
57
the Western Union Company had eleven hun-
dred miles to build, and the California tele-
graph company was to build from the west and
the twb were to meet and join at Salt Lake
City. A special prize was given to the one that
first reached Salt Lake City.
Creighton built his line up the Platte to
Julesburg, then across to Mud Springs and
through Mitchell Gap on into the west. He had
the line completed to Salt Lake City on the
17th of October and on the 24th of the same
month the California company reached the
City on the Lake. Creighton had bought dur-
ing the summer one hundred thousand dollars
of Western Union stock for $18,000.00 and
when the project was completed, he was given
three shares for one. And shortly afterwards
he sold his one-third of his holdings for
$85,000.00. It took a little less than six
months to build the line, that made Creighton
over a quarter of a million dollars.
Creighton became one of the great figures of
this section and of Nebraska, and he died in
1874, at Omaha.
CHAPTER XI
SACRIFICE OF FRONTIER WOMEN — INDIAN EXECUTION AT FT. LARAMIE
Woman on the frontier has always had a
hard time of it, but like woman always, when
a crisis arises, she arises and meets it half way.
The experiences of some of the frontier wo-
men was such that it left a saddened or changed
person after the crisis, and others met heroic-
ally the test. In some cases it left no hope
and they became derelicts that lived about in
the sod shanties on the outskirts of army posts,
or ranches, like "Dirty Woman's Ranch," near
old Wellsville and Camp Clarke. Calamity Jane
became a combination of courage and vice.
Virginia Dale, attached to the notorious
character Slade, had a certain strength of per-
sonality that forced a degree of respect. Jos-
eph A. Slade never had a friend that staid
true to colors like Virginia Dale Slade, his wife.
Virginia City, Montana, was named for the
daring and pretty Mrs. Slade, and she was
the regal queen for the period of its greatest
importance. When the "Vigilantes," (and
what atrocious deeds their activities cover)
hung Slade in Montana, the yellow in him
came to the surface. He wlas not the cool,
daring assassin of his reputation, but a coward
in the face of death. He begged and bel-
lowed, but to no avail. They hung him just as
they did those of better nerve.
Mrs. Slade had been sent for by friends, but
she arrived too late, and he was dead. It
broke her heart, and she heaped curses upon
the perpetrators of the deed, and she cursed
the silent friends of Slade, many of whom had
witnessed the tragedy, demanding to know why
one of them had not shot her husband, and
saved him from the "dog's death." She told
the leaders of the vigilantes to beware, that
death was upon their trail, and that everyone
of them was marked. In the main, this proph-
esy came true, and the assassins of Slade were
met with assassination until practically extermr
inated. Slade was hung in 1863.
Hugo Koch, who whacked bulls through the
old Mitchell Pass many a time, and who now
(1919) lives at Lander, Wyoming, came to
this country in 1858, and he tells us that Slade
was about thirty years old at that time, and
was "under medium size," and of dark com-
plexion. He weighed about one hundred and
sixty pounds, and his wife was good looking
and was about the same size, age and com-
plexion, and often interfered in his business,
and was generally a trouble maker.
Virginia Dale, one of the stage stations west
of here, was named for her.
Much is said of the noted characters like
Jules and Slade, but not as much of their
wives.
A short time ago there lived in Nebraska
City, an elderly lady of French descent, by the
name of Ellen Bcckstead. Possibly she yet
lives there. She was once one of the woman
characters of the western Nebraska.
Along about 1858, when only thirteen years
of age, she and her husband Jules Beni ar-
rived at his ranch at Cottonwood, near the
forks of the Platte, and being young, and full
of the French fire of adventure, the wild life
of "Jules," appealed to her fancy. But her
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
story of the death of Jules is entirely different
from that of the record of history.
She says that Slade shot Jules while the
latter was kneeling at the "Cold Spring" near
the old Jack Morrow ranch, a little west of the
present site of North Platte. Jules was getting
a drink, when the treacherous Slade shot him.
Aiter wounding him he tied him to a post and
shot off his ears.
All stories of history, and of one of Slade's
old drivers, H. M. Inghram, now living at
Scottsbluff, indicate that Jules' demise was at
Bordeaux, (near Cold Springs) fifteen miles
east of Fort Laramie. It would seem when
Jules was killed that his friends did not cor-
rectly relate to the widow all the details of the
tragedy; they probably thought to temper the
grief and colored the story, or possibly, in the
years that have followed, she has lost track of
it, and her memory is not good. I believe
Beckstead was the fourth husband of the little
French bride of Jules Beni, and that would
indicate her grief was not deep-seated, and that
the buoyant blood of her race asserted itself
in quick revival of spirits.
In the Mormon Hand Cart expedition was
perhaps as tragic and heroic a case of fidelity
to the religious fervor, as ever struck home to
any part of the human race, and the women
were no small part of it. From the Missouri
river to Great Salt Lake, pushing all their per-
sonal effects and smaller children in hand carts,
is something of an undertaking. Often one
hears people, men and women, complaining of
the dreariness and monotony of the trip in
the Pullmans, and they chafe under the delay
of a few hours because of a wreck, or heavy
railroading. They suffer from the heat of the.
summer or the cold of winter. If they could
reconstruct that other expedition, where
mothers put their babies into carts, with their
meagre personal belongings, and pushed them
on and on, over the hundreds and hundreds of
miles of prairie, of sand, of sagebrush, up hill
and down, fording streams and traveling long
stretches without water under a superheated
sun and burnished sky. they might have a con-
ception of what sacrifice and suffering in travel
really entailed. This expedition was in 1856,
and just seventy-five per cent of those who
started, reached the Mecca, and one-fourth died
of the hardships and privations enroute.
In 1916 T. 1). Deutsch found a skull of a
woman, in excavating for Tub Springs drain-
age canal. That it was of one of the Hand
Cart Expedition, is probable.
Tlllv SKULL
This ruin once was the retreat
Of thought, and the mysterious seat
Of mind and soul of other age.
Her generation now is dead,
But one can read the silent head
Like printed page.
Within the cavern, once brain teemed
With lucid light of the redeemed.
And with the profoundest self respect,
Her natural impulses inclined
Toward the lord of humankind —
Toward her own elect.
Mysterious motherhood is there,
And love of children chastened her,
And made her life calm and serene.
For they, and not for wanderlust,
Part of "the Overland," she crossed
Before the "closing scene."
Within these caverns two, her eyes
Looked up toward her Paradise,
Or burned with earth's eternal flame.
And in the ivory cavern hung,
The marvel of a human tongue
That whispered low one name.
With lips of earth's celestial fire.
With voice and glances that inspire,
She strove, but fell beside the way. —
A shallow grave in shifting sand,
Along the tragic "Overland,"
A spirit gone away.
Another tragedy involved the Brown girls.
They were happy in the wilderness on a ranch,
and one day the scourges of the South came.
The Comanches killed their parents, and took
them away. They were recaptured, or rather
purchased by Bent in 1839. They were then
eighteen and twenty-one years of age respec-
tively, and the older was widowed. Each had
become the enforced wife of an Indian. The
younger, whose brave still lived, said a few
days later that she was going to return to the
tent, because she was no longer fit to live with
white people. Perhaps some mother can tell
us whether that was the real reason she went
back to the tribe. For back there in the wig-
wam of its father was a tiny little half-breed
son, whose mute arms stretched through the
desert night and whose wail and murmur in its
sleep was of its mother.
There is still another tragedy that came to
our very doors. When the Indian raids, in
August, 1865, struck terror among the Over-
land and Denver trails. Mr. and Mrs. Eubanks,
their four children, a visiting lady named Miss
Laura Roper, and a hired domestic were living
happily in a rude log domicile on the Little
Blue. It was always scrupulously clean, and
Mrs. Eubanks sang happily at her labor.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
59
The Indians came, and when they passed,
Eubanks was dead and horribly mutilated.
Three of the children lay where the savages
had thrown them, after having first taken them
by the heels and battering their heads against
the logs. The hired girl was stripped naked
and left dead, tied standing to a post and shot
with a dozen arrows. The cabin was in ruins
and Mrs. Eubanks and one child and her friend
Miss Roper were carried away prisoners.
The following January Two Face, with Mrs.
Eubanks and child were captured near the
present site of the Rawhide ranch, and Black-
foot with Miss Roper on Snake Creek, nearly
due north of Scottsbluff. The prisoners were
in terrible condition.
Their freshness and lustre had faded, and
the women's hair was streaked with grey, and
their backs were masses of sores from the
beatings they had received. Every indignity of
horrible consequence was theirs, and they
were nearly lunatics. A few hundred dollars
in greenbacks was found on their captors. This
was turned over to the women, and they were
given safe conduct as far as Kearney. Mrs.
Eubanks and the child faded into the obscurity
of the east, and Miss Roper to her people at
Beatrice, where she was later married.
Colonel Moonlight was at Fort Laramie at
the time, and when Two Face, Black Foot and
Black Crow boasted of their brutility, and
dared him to punish them, he gave orders to
have "their necks tied to cross beams, with
nothing to support their feet, and left sus-
pended for the crows to eat."
This summary execution brought much criti-
cism, and the easterners whose sob squad had
been after the scalp of Colonel Moonlight and
others of his strong kind, sent up a howl that
was heard as far as Washington, and one
mountaineer and trader said it would center the
Indians at Fort Laramie for revenge, and "we
will all be masscred," he declared. Colonel
Moonlight's answer was that perhaps such
would be the case, but if so, there would be
three mighty bad Indians that would not be
there to participate in the massacre.
The sentimentalists finally secured Colonel
Moonlight's scalp, but there are those who still
approve of him and his way of fighting Indians.
The methods employed by the people of the
west were ofttimes severe, and really shocking
to the senses, but the lessons were measurably
necessary to bring home a realization to the
savages. While the boasting of an Indian, as
to what he intends to do, is not meet offense
for a severe penalty, these three who boasted
to Colonel Moonlight, had a record, and it was
a record of taking children by the heels and
beating their brains out against logs and stones,
and it was a record of horrible torture to west-
ern women, and they boasted of this and said
they would do more, and dared the penalty.
I am not surprised that General Harney ob-
tained the name "squaw killer," at the battle of
Blue Water, for at that time it seemed that the
extermination of the Indian race was the best
solution of a bad problem. And it is no won-
der that Qister said, when they accused him of
throwing papooses into the South Platte river.
after he had destroyed an Indian village, "if
you kill the nits there will be no lice."
CHAPTER Nil
THE GRATTAN MASSACRE— SPOTTED TAIL'S DRAMATIC DEED
In 1851 there was a grand council of the
Ogallalas and Brules on Horse Creek in the
west part of Scotts Bluff county and across
the state line. Here all the tribes agreed to
a division of the land, and all the hunting
grounds between the Missouri and the Rocky
Mountains were divided among them. In the
treaty the United States confirmed to each
tribe the land it was to occupy.
Surveying parties, which always were viewed
with suspicion by Indians, were taken off for
the time.
All the Indians agreed that "the great Road"
along the Platte, and across the mountains
should be free and open for white people, and
the United States agreed to pay the Indians
fifty thousand dollars a year in goods, for
the use of the road through their country. The
Indians agreed not to rob or attack the white
people on this road, and the United States
agreed to keep the white people from going
elsewhere into the Indian country.
When the treaty was sent to Washington
the United States senate changed the period
60
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
of the contract from fifty years to ten years.
The Indians never agreed to this change, but
one can always expect the dear old conserva-
tive United States senate to "ball things up."
Neither Red Cloud nor Spotted Tail were
then chiefs of importance and their names are
not upon this treaty. The United States con-
tinued to use the great road, and to send an-
nually the fifty thosuand dollars in goods to
the Indians. And it was for the first annual
distribution that they were assembled near
Fort Laramie at the time of the Grattan Mas-
sacre.
The event that led to it was a trifling affair,
but dull life about the fort and idleness of the
men there and perhaps ambitions that could
not find outlet in the common routine of mili-
tary duty each contributed a part to the fright-
ful carnage of succeeding years.
The grave of Rebecca Winters, on the Bur-
lington right-of-way in the east part of Scotts-
bluff City, is one of the land marks on the
Old Overland Trails. The original mark was
only a wagon tire set half in the ground with
her name, and a few important facts chiseled
thereon. The buffalo and then the range cat-
tle found it a convenient rubbing place, and
it was always kept bright and shining by their
constant wear.
Many Mormon parties followed during the
succeeding years. According to Coutant on
the 19th of August, 1S54, one of the almost
destitute parties went into camp ten or twelve
miles from the Fort. They complained that
the day before some Indians under Chief Met-
-to-i-o-way, ( Startling Bear) had driven off
and killed a cow belonging to them.
At that time the soldiers at the fort had
little to do, and as a result had tried to liven
things up a bit by liberal quantities of liquor.
Commander Fleming was in charge of the
post, and dispatched Lieutenant Grattan with
thirty men and two mountain howitzers to
bring in the guilty men.
Grattan was a new arrival from West Point,
and was utterly unfamiliar with Indian war-
fare and character. But flushed with ambition
and perhaps firewater, he felt equal to any
task.
< Mi arrival at the Indian lodges, he demanded
of a sub-chief "Bear," the guilty parties. Bear
informed him that the chief had already gone
to the fort to apologize and make amends. Such
a tame conclusion would reflect but little glory
>" 1 a Wesl Pointer, and Grattan determined
thai the guilty man must be produced. Bear
again told him that he did not consider the
matter very serious. The cow was dead be-
fore the chief had knowledge of it. and that
many had partaken of the meat. Several mules
had been offered the Mormons to repay them,
and he would not submit to arrest. But as
they were journeying towards the fort, they
would continue in that direction with the de-
tachment of soldiers. They wanted to "bury"
the matter.
The lieutenant advanced, determined to
make a demonstration, and as the Indians
gathered around him, he ordered the soldiers
to fire, which they did, killing three Indians
and the chief. Battiste Good says the chief's
name was Mato-Wahyui, "Mato" signifying
"Bear" and "Wahyui" means to "arouse or
startle." Spotted Tail, the young warrior, then
took a prominent part, and the Indians, infuri-
ated, turned in with clubs and tomahawks, and
destroyed the entire detachment, save one, who,
though wounded, reached the fort. Richards,
a squaw man, is said to have aided in the
escape of this one, although Hugo Koch says
it was "Old Joe," a big Sioux Indian. In the
melee, the mountain howitzers were discharg-
ed, but the missies of death went over the
heads of the Indians.
For the first time in its history, the stability
of Fort Laramie was threatened. The Indians
began attacking and destroying the trading
stations thereabout, including those of Bor-
deaux and Choteau & Company, which were
under the very doors of the fort.
A messenger was sent on the dangerous
journey to Fort Kearney, and a part of the
detachment was sent to the relief. Fleming,
in the meantime, martialed all the available
men about the fort, which were maintained
strictly on the defense of the station without
any journeys or sallies out to assist the emi-
grants.
A mail stage was stopped a little west of
the Horse creek station and the driver and all
the guards murdered. This was done under
the supposed leadership of Spotted Tail. And
it was for "the murder of the mail party,"
that General Harney demanded the surrender
of the murderers.
The Indians had boldly declared they would
kill every white person they could, and would
destroy the trains of emigrants going into the
west.
This was the condition of ferment when my
father and uncle arrived at Fort Laramie with
five wagons and one hundred head of cattle.
By some miracle it seems they had been un-
molested, although at a point about fifty miles
down the river, which my father has identified
as the hill northeast of Bald Knob, they saw
a lone footman run out of the breaks toward
the river. He was pursued by Indians, and
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
61
killed in plain view of the caravan, but the
river separated them, and they were powerless
to aid him. After the murder, and some
threatening demonstrations toward my father's
party, the Indians retired in the direction of
Sixty-six mountain. The event made a power-
ful impression upon the party, especially the
women, who for the first time had witnessed
a tragedy of this sort.
I have never been able to ascertain the iden-
tity of this unfortunate party, but it was prob-
ably a lone trapper.
On arrival at the fort, they found that it
was impossible to secure an escort, such as
they had expected to go with them through
"the Black Hills" to the next garrison west.
They waited several days on the meadows
north of the river, and then as no further emi-
grants arrived, and they had seen few Indians
about, they determined to undertake the jour-
ney without escort.
The morning of the second day out they as-
cended a slight ridge and were about to de-
scend into the valley of Mollie's Fork when
immediately before them at the foot of the
hill lay about two (hundred Indian lodges,
scattered through the cottonwoods on the bank
of the spring branch.
It was crucial and an excruciating moment,
but after a brief consultation it was decided
that the only plan of action was one of cour-
age, of assurance, without evident fear, and
not in the least offensive. The event of the
Bald Knob tragedy being of so recent date,
the women became hysterical, and began to cry
and sob, but retreat meant certain disaster be-
fore they could possibly reach the fort. The
party proceeded without undue haste or hesi-
tation down the hill and through the smoky
city of tepees, and as slowly and unconcerned-
ly climbed the hill farther on. The Indians
made some demonstrations of hostility, but
never fired a gun, or shot an arrow. The dis-
play of courage may have made them think
that it was a trap into which they were ex-
pected to be inveigled, and they were not to be
thus caught. Whether they followed with
spies or not was never known, but it is assured
that the party was not molested, which, con-
sidering the state of hostilities then existing, is
a matter of sincere congratulation.
The Grattan Massacre was the beginning of
a series of bloody affairs, which with seldom a
brief respite, continued for a period of fifteen
years, with tremendous loss of property, and
probably more than a thousand lives.
The victims were buried where they fell, in
a shallow trench and covered with earth and
a pile of loose stones. This pile was about
eight miles east of the fort, and unless it has
been obliterated, is still there, the only monu-
ment that marks the spot of this, the really
first military tragedy in the North Platte val-
ley.
When General Harney demanded the sur-
render of the murderers of the Horse Creek
mail party, Spotted Tail with a number of the
other so-called murderers marched into the
fort in full war dress, singing their death songs,
and gave themselves up. It was supposed that
they would be put to death, and they were sac-
rificing themselves for their tribe.
But General Harney had them sent to Fort
Kearney, where they lived under guard until
1858. On rejoining the Brules soon after,
Spotted Tail became a popular hero, and some-
time after that he was exalted to the position
of chief of the Brules. This date is a little
indefinite, but Geo. S. Hyde tells me that one
authority dates it at the death of the old chief
Little Thunder. As Little Thunder died in
1865, perhaps Spotted Tail's ascendancy to the
chief-ship dates from that year.
Ware says that he attended two of the coun-
cils at Camp Cottonwood in 1865, or the year
following the date of Spotted Tail's leading
in the Massacre of Cottonwood Canyon.
After these councils, he moved with his band
to the head of Spotted Tail creek, and rambled
the country over for miles thereabout. He
wanted peace, but he could not hold the young
men, and when a peaceful man goes to war he
is about the worst (or best) warrior of them
all. His activities covered a wide range as
will be seen later.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XIV
BUTLER'S STORY OF THE COW WAR — HARNEY THE SQUAW KIELER— AN-
OTHER ASH HOLLOW BATTLE
A letter from D. W. Butler, of Washington,
gives a version of the Grattan Massacre, or the
beginning of the "Cow War" different from
most of the stories of history.
"The Grattan affair" was an unfortunate
one. A small matter at the beginning, it was
treated seriously by the officer in command at
Fort Laramie, who was without experience.
The attempt at arrest was made by a man who
had contempt for Indians as fighters, and knew
nothing of the characteristics of the race.
Every effort seemed to have been made by the
chief of the Brules to effect a peaceful settle-
ment of the affair. He offered a mule to Grat-
tan, as a recompense for the loss of the cow,
but Grattan effected to think that it was offered
to him personally as a bribe.
Man-afraid-of-his-horse, the chief of the
Ogallala band, was earnest in his efforts to set-
tle the matter peacefully.
The Indians were strung out along the banks
of the Platte for a distance of six miles from
Fort Laramie, awaiting the arrival of the In-
dian agent for the distribution of government
annuities, stored at Chouteau's American Fur
Company's store. The band of Ogallalas were
nearest the fort and the Brules were just be-
yond. One letter ventures to give the number
of lodges in the camp at 600, which I think is
too high. A Mormon emigrant train passed
the camp headed for the fort. A Mormon
brought up the rear driving a lame cow. The
Mormon, terribly afraid of the Indians, headed
for the fort, when the cow, frightened, ran to-
ward the Indian camp. He reported himself
fired upon and the cow captured.
A Minneconjou, "shooters of the mist," a
stranger camped among the Brules, killed the
cow, and it was eaten.
On the 19th, Grattan with his twenty-nine
men and an interpreter, (a hanger on around
forts and camps, a hard drinker, and very
boastful) with two cannon, a twelve pound
howitzer, and a mountain howitzer, arrived
aboul three I'. M. to arrest the Minneconjou.
Grattan took a position in the Brule camp
about CO yards from the lodge of the Minne-
conjou, and demanded his surrender.
The braves, estimated at one thousand fight-
ing men, crowded around between the whites
and the lodge of the Indian wanted. Tile chief
of the Brules asked him to surrender, but he
refused, saying he was ready In die and would
die in camp (very natural for one who under-
stood the Indian character and his views on
arrest).
The Brule chief renewed his offer to pay for
the cow if the officer would retire. Man-afraid-
of-his-horse went twice from the lodge of the
Minneconjou to Grattan, and begged the officer
to retire and the cow would be paid for. From
Bordeaux's testimony, Grattan felt his posi-
tion would be ridiculous if he left camp with-
out the prisoner. So he ordered his men to
fire on the lodge. One Indian was wounded.
The Indians started to rush him then, and he
fired his cannon and muskets in a volley. The
Bear and a few Indians fell, the Bear mortally
wounded.
Grattan and five men were killed around the
cannon, and the rest were all cut down within
a mile of camp. One soldier, terribly wounded,
was picked up by one of the sub-chiefs and
kept in his lodge over night, and the next day
taken to Bordeaux's trading store and later to
the fort, where he died in three or four days.
The Indians then looted Bordeaux's store,
and went to Choteau, Jr.'s American Fur Com-
pany's store and took the annuity goods. Then
they threatened to attack the fort. Soldiers
were rushed to reinforce Fort Laramie.
For the rash lieutenant the affair was at an
end, but for the unfortunate Brules it had just
commenced.
Mato-i-o-way signifies, "Bear who hunts
alone," according to some authorities. He was
at the time recognized by the government, as
the head of the Brules. Father DeSmet knew
him well, and spoke of him as a man of in-
telligence and courage.
After the looting of Bordeaux and Chouteau
trading posts, the Indians took the body of
their dead chief, and went over on the Nio-
brara, where he was wrapped in rich robes and
put in a burial tree.
Activities of Spotted Tail .and Little Thun-
der, after the Grattan Massacre, brought Gen-
eral Harney to Fort Laramie with re-inforce-
ments from Fort Kearney.
Little Thunder became the nominal chief
after the death of Mato-i-o-way, with Spotted
Tail second in command. Harney heard that
the Indians under Little Thunder were com-
mitting depreciations along the river, and while
there was some foundation for the reports, it
was also an opportunity for him to distinguish
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
63
himself. He therefore proceeded to Ash Hol-
low to settle the score.
Details of battles, of which generally only a
brief sketch is given, make them the more in-
teresting. In the battle of Ash Hollow, which
really occurred on the Blue, in Garden county,
there were Philip St. George Cooke, the inter-
esting chronicler, and Alexander Schlegel, the
surveyor, who later served in the interior de-
partment at Washington, and who but recently
returned to Lincoln where he resides (1919).
From Cooke's writings and from Schlegel per-
sonally I was told the story of the battle. D.
W. Butler of Washington, D. C, has also writ-
ten an extensive letter concerning it.
Little Thunder was in charge at the time
General Harney with his powerful force, came
into the North River country. Little Thunder
was not anxious to fight, and wished to parley.
He had with him on the Blue, forty-one lodges
of Brules (or Burnt Thighs), and eleven lodges
of Ogallalas, (or Dust Throwers). According
to regular count this would indicate 326 Brules,
of which 65 were braves, and 88 Ogallalas, of
which seventeen would be braves. Harney had
1200 troops, infantry, cavalry and some artil-
lery.
General Harney stationed his main force
under Major Cady in the low, sandy hills
near the lower end of the Blue Water valley,
and engaged the Indians in a sort of parley,
while the cavalry under St. George Cooke,
were to go up the valley and behind the In-
dians in the darkness. The parleying did not
close until after night fall, and was to be re-
sumed the following day. The cavalry pro-
ceeded up the east side of the Blue, across some
marshes, that are now a part of the hay
meadow of S. P. DeLatour, and crossing the
river two or three miles farther up, proceeded
some distance too far to the west. It was not
intended that the Indians should be allowed to
escape, and he was returning to the proper
position when a squaw, who was out picketing
a pony for her brave who was belated in arriv-
ing in camp that night, heard the sound of the
creaking saddles in the darkness and gave the
alarm. The Ogalallas rushed out of their tents
and the cavalary charged. The Indians fought
desperately, and reached the top of the flat top
butte that stands on the west side of the val-
ley. Here they made a stand until dawn, but
being driven therefrom they retreated across
the small tributary of Blue Water, then called
Beaver creek. Down the valley the cry of
alarm had gone, and through the camp of the
Brules there arose the tumult of war. The
soldiers at the lower end of the valley heard
it, and the battle was on. The retreating Brules
and Ogallalas met and joined in an effort to
escape across the stream to the northeast. Part
of the Indians had taken refuge in the rocks
on the east side of the valley, a mile or more
south of DeLatour's ranch. Into the rocks Gen-
eral Drum directed their fire. A scream arose
out of the rocks and it was the scream of a
woman.
An order was issued to cease firing, and the
Indian braves, taking advantage of the re-
spite, dodged out of the rocks and ran away
into the hills. Then to the rocks the soldiers
went, and they found that a bullet had struck
a woman sitting upon a rock. She had been
holding a papoose, with its little feet between
her legs. The bullet had passed through both
her thighs and shattered both ankles of her
baby.
They took her into camp, and it was found
necessary to amputate the feet of the child,
which died before the rising of another sun.
The mother lost consciousness while carrying
her to the valley, an unusual affair for a
«quaw, and someone remarked her regular
feaures and lack of resemblance to any Indian.
One suggested that she might be a half-breed
or quarter-blood, and General Drum said if
she were of amalgamated blood it would show
on her back bone. This did not show the ex-
pected darker color, even after washing the
spine.
She was taken to Denver and carefully cared
for and recovered. The story came out that
she was not Indian, but was a white girl cap-
tured by the Indians at the age of four years,
and had always been as one of them. Know-
ing no other life, she returned to the tribe after
her recovery and liberation.
On the battle field of the dead a cavalry-
man was riding across it when he saw an In-
dian move, and turned his horse that way.
The battle was over, and he no doubt intended
to see what could be done for the wounded
man. But the Indian raised his arm, and
with his pistol shot the cavalryman from his
horse. Another rushed up to sabre the In-
dian, but broke his sabre, both parts of which
fell near the prostrate Indian. A third horse-
man rushed, and succeeded in ending the red-
man, but not until he had taken a broken por-
tion of the sabre beside him, and severed a foot
from the horse and damaged the man.
On the succeeding days the army crossed
the river to Ash Hollow. On the bank of the
river, was built a large sod house, which was
named "Fort Grattan." This structure will
be remembered by a few of the older people
of the valley, but at the time I saw it, the
roof had been removed, and the sod walls with
64
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the square port holes were all that remained. It
was about twenty feet north and south by
forty east and west.
After this battle, and Harney had passed on
to Fort Laramie and Fort Pierre, he under-
took to show the Indians what a superior man
he was, by chloroforming a dog. He told them
that he could kill a dog, and then bring it
back to life. Accordingly he administered the
chloroform, and the dog went to sleep. Then
he undertook to revive it, but the dog was
too dead for that and the Indians had the laugh
Be that as it may, Harney obtained from the
affair the title of "squaw killer," which was
never effaced.
Among the prisoners taken were five Ogal-
lalas, the wife and four children of Chau-te-
pe-tan-ya (pronounced Changta-Petang) or
"Fire-Heart." There is little said of Fire-
Heart, as to just who he was, but the name
certainly sounds like a good Indian cognomen.
Butler says, it was after Harney left Fort
Laramie, and had gone to Pierre for a grand
council, a number of Indians obtained permis-
Camping Ground op
Hostiles. over 4000 Teepies, Dec, 1890.
on him, declaring "white man's medicine too
strong."
Doane Robinson, historian of South Da-
kota, says "though hailed as a great victory,
and an additional plume in Harney's crest of
fame, Ash Hollow was a shameful affair,
unworthy of American arms, and a disgrace
to the officer who planned and executed it. It
was a massacre as heedless and as barbarous
as any which the Dakotas have at any time
visited upon the white people." I am led to
believe, however, that the battle was precipi-
tated by the alarm of the squaw, and the hys-
teria of the Indians who imagined they were
about to be attacked, when in fact the pur-
pose may have been only to prevent escape.
sion to camp near the fort. One morning Red
Leaf and Long Chin, two brothers of Ma-to-i-
o-wa, together with Spotted Tail rode into the
fort in full war paint, and surrendered them-
selves as hostages for the killing of the Grat-
tan party, and the murder of the mail party.
Red-Plume and Spotted Elk soon followed the
example. All with their squaws were sent
to Kearney, and then to Leavenworth, but
how long they were kept is not known, or given
out.
Butler says that Spotted Tail was not a chief
until made so by the whites, but if not, he was
a leader of great influence, and functioned the
same as a chief, so wherein is the difference?
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XV
MURDER OF SPOTTED TAIL — CROW DOG'S PUNISHMENT
SCOTTSBLUFF MOUNTAIN PASS
BATTLE IN
Eastman, in the Outlook, says that Spotted
Tail was killed because he betrayed the Brules
to the whites, and Crow Dog's killing him was
the result of a pact made thirty years before
by the Brules, that Spotted Tail should die if
it were ever proved that he had played false
to his tribe. This sounds like an apology for
the murder of the great Indian, and the thought
has probably been fostered by the friends of
"the old man with a withered arm." No
doubt there are those among the Indians who
hated "the King of all the Sioux," through
all the years, and were glad when he was final-
ly assassinated.
After Spotted Tail was taken to Washing-
ton, he lost control of a good many of the
young men of the tribe who wanted war. Big
Mouth was the leader of the war party. One
day in 1873, Spotted Tail called him out of
his lodge. As he came out two of Spotted
Tail's friends grabbed his arms, and Spotted
Tail walked up to him and shot him dead.
It was eight years later that Crow Dog
started trouble among the young braves, and
some say that Spotted Tail was arranging to
shoot him as he had shot Big Mouth. Crow
Dog did not wait. In the terse language of
the West he "beat him to it," and Spotted Tail
was the one to die.
Father DeSmet speaks of Crow Dog as a
man of courage and with a withered arm.
This was forty years before Spotted Tail's
death, and disagrees with the statement of
Hyde that Crow Dog was "a young leader."
Mrs. A. R. Honnold, wife of the attorney
at Scottsbluff, tells an interesting story, that
came to her from her mother, Mrs. E. Van
Horn, who was an almost first citizen of Belle
Fourche. Crow Dog had been tried at Sidney
and sentenced to imprisonment at Deadwood.
Mrs. Van Horn, then a girl of sixteen years,
was on the stage from Sidney to Deadwood,
in which the prisoner, in charge of two officers,
was being conveyed. Crow Dog was held at
Deadwood for years ; first imprisoned, then
as a trusty. In the latter capacity he carried
slops and garbage to a few hogs that were
owned by the civil authorities. He did the
work uncomplainingly, and with not a murmur
of discontent, for many years.
One day they missed him from the work,
and they never made a search. They knew that
the wilderness had beckoned to him, that he
had heard the call of the wild solitudes, and
had gone. They let him go, to spend his few
remaining years in the old familiar fastnesses,
where his rapidly dimming eyes would soon
close forever to the changeful coloring of
the sky and land.
Leach, in his historical stories, says that
Harney had twelve hundred troops in the Bat-
tle of Min-ne-to-wap-pa, or Bluewater, which
was more than half of all the soldiers along
the Overland.
In 1855, which was the year following the
Grattan Massacre, there were only 2,000 of
the military guarding the entire line of the
Overland, but this was gradually increased,
for rebel spies and agitators were among the
Indians during the trying times of the early
sixties, and hostilities increased amazingly. At
the close of the war, many men re-enlisted for
service in the west, and they were among the
best, for their experience in guerilla warfare
well fitted them for the character of Indian
fighting.
Al. Wiker, of Alliance, with five others of
his original company were with the Harney
convoy that had a battle in Scottsbluff Moun-
tain Pass.
This convoy was in August, 1866, in charge
of freight outfits for Fort Laramie and be-
yond as far as Salt Lake City. From Wiker
I obtained the story.
They were camped at the springs some dis-
tance east of the mountain, likely on the Sow-
erwine place, and in the morning the wagons
started out a short distance ahead of the sol-
diers. With the wagons were a number of
camp tenders, and other wagons that were.
owned by travellers who took advantage of
the presumed safety of being close to the sol-
diers, and they were traveling along with them.
These wagons were moving through the
big gap when attacked. The sound of battle
reached the soldiers who were just mounting,
and they started forward at a gallop. Instead
of heading straight for the gap they rode to-
ward the point of rocks, known as Eagle Crag,
just north of the present pathway that leads
up to the mountain top from the east. At its
base the cavalry parted, and one-half swung
around to the south, skirting Engine Rock, and
the others essayed to negotiate the Bad Lands
north of the mountain.
Those coming upon the rear of the wagon
66
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
train engaged the Indians who were hidden
just over the summit of the gap. While the
others, after riding as far as they could ad-
vance with their horses, proceeded on foot.
This gave them a good advantage, for the In-
dians were lying on the west slopes of the rocks
that guard the gap, and in hidden ravines
busily engaged with the enemy to the east of
them, and did not notice the approach of the
other soldiers.
Of the causualties on the part of the whites,
five were soldiers, one a colored cook, and the
others emigrants. Three wagons were burn-
ed. Owing to having left their horses in the
Bad Lands, pursuit of the Indians was im-
possible, but the soldiers ran down across the
Pass and climbed the hill that guards it on
the south, and snipped off several of the In-
dians while they were mounting, still within
range.
The Hostii.es Coming in From the Bad Lands to Surrender.
Their first intimation of the existence of this
force was when the soldiers opened a deadly
fire upon them in their exposed positions.
Then they fled towards the southwest, while
out of one of the gulches on the prairie in
that direction came an Indian having a number
of horses. These the others mounted and
rode away towards Robideaux.
The outfit consisted of about seventy-five
wagons and had about one hundred head of
cattle. Part of the wagons were loaded with
governmenl supplies, and some belonged to
emigrants.
Tin (.nil. were being taken along the river-
side through the Bad Lands, but before they
reached there, the noise of the battle was
heard. Of the thirty-live men in charge, thirty
joined in the ride towards Eagle Crag, leav-
ing but five t<> take can- of the cattle.
The thirty-eight dead were buried a few
rods west of the west end of the gap, but a
few days later, the bodies of the whites were
exhumed and taken to Fort Mitchell for in-
terment. The remains of the Indians are yet
in obliterated graves a little west of Mitchell
Gap.
Of the five veterans of the rebellion that
participated in this battle there is only one
survivor. Two were later killed at Fort Kear-
ney, and the other two died, leaving Al Wiker
the sole living member of the five.
Mr. Wiker lives at Alliance, and is modest,
and does not want his name mentioned, but
he was over here some years ago, and with
Frank Sands and some others, went over the
ground, recalling all the stirring details of the
battle.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XVI
A BUFFALO BILL EPISODE — MORE INDIAN TROUBLES
There seems to have been little systematic
endeavor on the part of the Indians following
the Grattan trouble. Bands of hostiles, in-
dependent of others, committed depredations
here and there at widely scattered intervals.
The Plum Creek affair, the Massacre of Eu-
banks, the surveying party of the Republican
and attacks on the Overland : always there
were surprise attacks on the route from civili-
zation's advance guard to the mountains.
This condition required guards convoying
emigrants or freight wagons, and while for
days they might pass unmolested, any moment
might bring startling denouement.
Col. W. F. Cody related to me one incident,
when I asked him a few years ago to tell me
one of his adventures along the "North River,"
that I might have a close at home event to
chronicle.
Buffalo Bill and two companions had this
experience in June, 1858, just over the hill
east of Ash Hollow.
He and Simpson and Woods were detailed
as guards in connection with others for the
convoying of a train of freight wagons from
Fort Laramie to Fort Kearney, and they had
camped at Ash Hollow. The following day
one part of the wagon train had departed with
a part of the guard, and Cody Simpson and
Woods were to follow up. The other detach-
ment of wagon were to follow a day later.
The three were some distance in the rear
of the first wagons, after they had passed
over the big hill east of Ash Hollow, which,
having been gone several hours, were out of
sight. The guards were riding mules, and the
J Indians were of such superior numbers, they
concluded their only means of defense was
continued resistance until the following day,
when the second detachment would overtake
them. Even this seemed hopeless.
Cody said they shot their mules and drag-
ged them into the form of a triangle, and be-
hind this barricade kept the Indians at bay
for the entire day and night and a part of the
next day. With the butcher knives they dug
in the soil and made a pit deep enough for
them to rest comfortably and the dirt was piled
between the dead mules and over their dead
bodies.
At noon the following day, the Indians were
observed moving away to the south over the
hills from which they had come, and soon the
blessed sight of the coming wagons relieved
them from the tension that for over forty
hours had deprived them of rest and with
but little food.
The war of the Rebellion had a bad effect
upon the Indians, for in 1864 at a council at
Camp Cottonwood, one of the Indian orators
asked the embarrassing question, how the
Great Father expected the Indians to keep
peace, when he was unable to keep his own
children from quarreling. It showed they had
a pretty clear understanding of the situation.
General Mitchell was there, and it was hard
to give a satisfactory answer. But the gen-
eral knew what frightful results would fol-
low the active hostilities if all the Sioux were
to break loose. The Cheyenne and the Arapa-
hoes were then in the terrible work of endeav-
oring to exterminate the white people. There
were also predatory Sioux bands at work.
There was a great and diplomatic effort on the
part of General Mitchell to come to an un-
derstanding, so it was in May of 1864 that he
called a council of the different Sioux chiefs
at Camp Cottonwood, to make a treaty of
peace.
They smoked and talked, but came to no un-
derstanding and adjourned for fifty days. At
the second conference General Mitchell opened
with an address, in substance as follows :
"This meeting is to come to an understand-
ing and make a treaty so that each of us will
know what to do. The government will give
the Indians blankets, flour, bacon and other
supplies so that they will have plenty. That
they should live in houses and the government
will furnish them with carpenters and black-
smiths, and they should live like white people.
But they must stay out of the valley of the
Platte because it scares the women and children
who are travelling over the trail. If the In-
dians wished to cross the trail they should ask
permission of the white people, and they would
furnish an escort from the hills on one side
of the valley, to the hills on the other side.
And that they must keep out spies, and beggars
and bad Indians. If it takes more blankets
and corn and bacon, these things would be
furnished, but the Indians must be kept out
of the Platte valley."
This did not appear to please the Indians,
and Spotted Tail spoke at some length.
"The Sioux is a great people, but we do not
want to be dictated to by the whites. We do
not care about the Platte valley, there is no
(,S
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
game there, our young men, and your people
have scared it all away. But we want to come
to the Platte valley to trade and we will not
give it away. We have let the white man
pass over it, and he has gone over it so often
that he now thinks he owns it. But it is ours,
and it always has been ours. It belonged to
our fathers and their graves are along the
hills overlooking the valley from the Missouri
river to the Rocky mountains, and we will not
give it up. We are not afraid of the white
man. Of late years we have had no serious
difficulty with him, but we are not afraid to
fight him. Our troubles have been brought on
by drunk-water. Bad whites give it to bad
Indians, and it makes trouble. The things the
chief of the Brule Sioux, while O-wa-see-cha,
or Bad Wound was a chief of considerable re-
pute among the Ogallalas, and both were in-
clined to be friendly to the whites.
Some have said that Spotted Tail's daughter
was one of the potent factors that made him
incline to peace, but that is open to question.
One time for instance, the great chief was so
incensed with his daughter, because she wanted
him to get her a white general or officer for a
husband, that he upbraided her for her fool-
ishness and ambition, and knocked her down.
After the conferences, while there was no
treaty signed, Spotted Tail and Bad Wound,
and their band drew away from the bad in-
fluence of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes.
white father has given us is not enough, and
the agents cheat us. The army officers treat
us well, but the agents cheat us, and we do
not want to treat with anyone but army officers.
We will not give up the Platte valley until there
is a treaty, and we have all agreed to it. If we
give you this, then you will want another and
another. Before we agree to anything, you
must stop the surveyors who now, at this very
time, are going west on the Niobrara."
While we all know that the traders were of
a class that took advantage of the untutored
savage, we wonder if the soldiers were any
better, and we also wonder if this interpreta-
tion was not construed to mean something that
was not really said, with the view of centering
in the military the power and profit which the
government had given to civil authority. If
so. it fell short of its purpose.
This second conference broke up as did the
first, with a call for another, fifty days later,
but General Mitchell did agree to stop the
Niobrara survey.
Spotted Tail was then the most powerful
Spotted Tail said at these conferences that
if the Sioux went to war, they had over 25,-
000 warriors with which to fight. Bad Wound
is said to have punished severely some of the
young men who broke away and committed
depredations.
These councils of 1864, were the sequel of
similar events that occurred a great many years
before. Colonel Kearney had nearly twenty
years earlier addressed the Indians at Fort
Laramie in the number of 1200 braves, telling
them that he was opening a road for the white
people that were going to bury their bones
where the waters flow toward the setting sun.
Of course this road was already opened, but
like Fremont, the Pathfinder, he found paths
that had been trod for a generation of white
people and many generations by aborigines.
Colonel Kearney told the Indians that there
were many enemies about them, but that the
greatest of them was whiskey. He warned
them against its use, and advised them to con-
fiscate all that was offered them for sale, and
pour it into the ground. He told them that
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
(■<}
the great father would give them blankets and
flour and bacon, and he did distribute some
presents among them.
Tall Bull chanced to be the principal chief
present, and he made a few remarks.
"If my people will be good to the whites,
they will find that the presents they are about
to receive will often come. Father, this does
very well and pleases me. What you have told
me, I am glad of from my heart. All you have
told me is very good. I have found a father.
We will no longer think of dying, but will live.
I remember the words you have this day spok-
en to us. My people will do as I say."
The struggle to maintain peace had continued
for twenty years, but at intervals white rene-
gades, bad Indians, ambitious army men, or
hot-headed young Indians, would stir up fric-
tion. Steadily it seemed the causes were piling
up, and the break appeared to be inevitable at
some future time.
All the time the Sioux seemed to be getting
a better organization. There was better func-
tioning between the several tribes as the storm
came nearer.
In this the great genius of Spotted Tail and
Red Cloud was affiliated. They amalgamated
the Sioux into a powerful fighting army, with
systematic attacks scattered for hundreds of
miles along the Overland Trail.
CHAPTER XVII
THE BATTLE OF HORSE CREEK — COLONEL MOONLIGHT'S MISTAKE— PRES-
IDENT LINCOLN'S MESSAGE TO THE WEST
While these episodes of adventure, and the
causes of war were accumulating, there were,
during the winter of 1864-1865, in the neigh-
borhood of Fort Laramie about two thousand
Indians who professed to be friendly. They
said that the war tribes had made it dangerous
for them to pursue their usual vocation of
hunting, and under orders from Washington,
they were fed and sustained through the cold
weather. The officials at the fort had good rea-
son to believe that a number of them at least
were carrying word, and perhaps provisions,
to the war braves. Every movement of the
soldiers seemed almost instantly known by the
enemy Indians.
It was deemed advisable to remove the
friendlies from the central scene of hostilities,
and consequently, on June eleventh, a company
of one hundred and thirty-five soldiers, under
Captain Fouts, were directed to act as an escort
for about fifteen hundred Indians, including
squaws and papooses, who agreed to be remov-
ed to Fort Kearney. Charles Elston had charge
of a number of professed friendly Indians,
which he was trying to make useful to the
government as scouts. While they appeared to
be doing his bidding, he was confident that
some of them were better scouts for their na-
tive tribes. The element of integrity did not
seem at first to be requisite, according to In-
dian standards. One time, a chief of some
note among the Sioux had offered his son as
a candidate for position in a place requiring in-
tegrity, and one of the recommendations given
was that the son had single-handed stolen
twenty ponies from the Pawnees.
Captain Fouts proceeded down the south
side of the Platte river with caution, looking
out for surprise attack. There was nothing of
suspicious note, except signal fires on the hills
on both sides of the Raw Hide, and on the
west side of Sheep creek and on Signal Buttes.
"On the afternoon of the thirteenth of
June," says C. G. Coutant, in his history of
Wyoming, "the party went into camp on Horse
creek, and the indians proceeded to give a dog
feast. In the evening, three hundred and
eighty-two of the warriors congregated in se-
cret council. The officers were seriously anxi-
ous to know just what was going on, yet their
best efforts failed of finding out."
Through Butler and Hyde, comes a story,
evidently of Indian origin, that the Indians
were furious at certain white officers and sol-
diers, for taking young Indian girls into their
tents, and keeping them there all night. It
seems doubtful that there was any truth to
the story, for the reason that there were a
number of white women in the party, that were
being taken out of the danger zone and among
them were the wives and families of Captain
Fouts, and Lieutenant Triggs. It is not prob-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
able that they would permit such conduct as
that alleged.
Furthermore, there had been a recent exe-
cution of some bad Indians at Fort Laramie,
for their criminal treatment of women ; and
among those martyr women being escorted to
safety, were Mrs. Eubanks and daughter and
Miss Roper. Under these conditions it is
not likely that any soldiers, no matter how evil
might have been his reputation, would be
guilty of the alleged disreputable deeds.
On the morning of the fourteenth, the ad-
vance guard started at five o'clock, the idea
being to cover the eighteen miles to the mea-
dows near Fort Mitchell for the next camping
place. The wagons were strung out for a mile
or more, when rapid firing was begun by the
Indians upon the rear guard. Captain Fouts
had ordered that no ammunition be distributed,
fearing that some hair-trigger individual
among the soldiers might become excited and
shoot, and thus set off an unpremediated bat-
tle.
The rear guard started for the front, and
the front guard started for the rear, with am-
munition. They met about half way, and turn-
ed about to fight. Captain Fouts had crossed
Horse creek to hurry up the Indians, and had
been killed, stripped and mutilated. The In-
dians then turned and fled two or three miles
towards the river, and were making warlike
demonstrations while the squaws and papooses
were crossing the river on ponies.
Captain Wilcox assumed charge, and the
guards charged after the Indians. When near
at hand, he sent Elston forward to offer im-
munity to those who would return peacefully.
The Indians shrieked defiance, and charged
viciously.
The Indians numbered more than five hun-
dred warriors, and when at a distance of about
three hundred yards, firing was begun by them,
and answered with telling effect by the military
forces. While Indians advancing from the
front were checked by the fire from the Galla-
gher rifles, both flanks advanced as if to hedge
in and surround them. Over the hills from the
west side of Horse creek poured dozens and
hundreds of the shrieking demons, and an or-
derly retreat was taken to the wagons which in
the meantime had been drawn up in a circle,
and hastily constructed rifle pits made.
Here the Indians ceased and withdrew. Ob-
serving that they were indisposed to press the
attack while the soldiers were behind defenses,
and wishing to keep them engaged and at hand
until reinforcements came, the officer in charge
took fifty of the best mounted men and sallied
out. When out about three miles they saw a
large force of Indians coming around the hills
on the west side of Horse creek with the evi-
dent intention of cutting them off. Again the
military retired to the entrenchments.
About nine o'clock, Captain Shuman arrived
with forces from Fort Mitchell, and thus re-
inforced another attack was made upon the
Indians, but it was a little late. The squaws
and papooses had by this time all succeeded in
crossing the river, and the warriors were fol-
lowing. The military could not follow, for it
would be impracticable, and quite likely impos-
sible to cross the river in the face of the su-
perior number of Indians, at a time when the
river was high. The loss was four killed, in-
cluding Captain Fouts, and four wounded.
A messenger had been sent to Fort Laramie,
and Colonel Moonlight had also received ad-
vice by telegraph from Fort Mitchell telling of
the revolt of the Indians. He had started with
a cavalry force numbering about 240 well
mounted men, for the battleground.
About ten miles east of the fort he met the
messenger who advised him of the Indians ac-
tion iri crossing the river. Owing to its swollen
condition it was considered unsafe to cross at
this point and, returning to Fort Laramie, they
crossed and hastened rapidly down the north
side.
They pursued the Indians for two days and
on the night of the second day camped near
Dead Man's Gulch, which is now in the vicinity
of Broadwater, it being the ravine where
George Hacksby now lives (1919). At that
time there was a bend in the river with steep
banks on three sides and the camp was at the
outer neck of the Horseshoe, with horses in the
rich grass of the peninsula. Contrary to the
advice of many of the old timers, Colonel
Moonlight considered the horses safe without
hobbles.
During the night — at about ten o'clock — the
Indians swam the river, and got upon the pen-
insula. Indians to the number of 200 engaged
the soldiers from the front, while others ran
amid the thoroughly frightened horses, yelling,
shooting, and swinging their blankets.
The horses stampeded straight through the
camp and out toward the battling Indians, who,
for a moment, seemed to think the soldiers were
charging, but discovering their mistake, they
opened up and closed in behind the stampeding
steeds and ran them off into the hills.
After losing the horses there was nothing to
do but to destroy the saddles and other heavy
materials and walk back to Fort Laramie. The
distance was 120 miles and the way was not
pleasant, especially with cavalry boots, and it
was this walk as the culminating event, that
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
71
caused Colonel Moonlight to retire from mili-
tary service. An investigation by General Con-
nor found much to blame in Moonlight, but
for the most part it was his stubbornness that
caused what General Dodge succinctly de-
scribed as follows : "His administration was a
series of blunders."
Colonel Moonlight did not wish to resign,
but his mistakes were seized upon by the
eternal meddlers who were far from danger,
and knew little and cared less for the atrocities
of Indians. In civil life and Wyoming history
the Colonel lived, however. He was Governor
of the state under Grover Cleveland's national
administration.
The battle of Horse creek is one of the many
bloody encounters on the Platte, and this being
a sequel of former events, I shall use the words
of Colonel Moonlight in his report to the de-
partment.
"About the 18th (of May, 1865), instant
some Indians were discovered on the north side
of the Platte river, near the Indian village, en-
camped ten miles east of Laramie. Mr. Elston,
in charge of the Indian village, took a party of
Indian soldiers and captured what was found
to be Two Face, and having a white woman
prisoner (Mrs. Eubanks) and her daughter,
whom he purchased from the Cheyennes. Dur-
ing the same evening and the next morning
early the other Indians who were with Two
Face, and who had fled on the approach of the
Elston party, were also captured and lodged
in the guard house here. Mrs. Eubanks gave
information of the whereabout of Black Foot
and the Indian village, and a party of soldiers
started to bring them in dead or alive.
"The village was found about one hundred
miles northeast of here, on Snake Fork, and
compelled to surrender without any fight.
Black Foot and his companions were placed
in the guard house with the others, making six
men in confinement. Both of the chiefs open-
ly boasted that they had killed white men, and
that they would do it again if turned loose, so
I concluded it best to tie them up, by the neck
with a trace chain suspended from a beam of
wood, and leave them there without any foot-
hold."
The point on "Snake Fork," referred to in
the above report, is two or three miles south
of the present site of Canton, in Sioux County,
on "Snake Creek" as we now call it.
Mrs. Eubanks, who was with Two Face,
was in terrible condition. She had been cap-
tured by the Cheyennes on the Little Blue, and
after Black Foot and Two Face had purchased
her the autumn before, she was compelled to
such treatment that it was a wonder that she
had survived. Her husband had been killed
with several others. The woman had been
compelled to do the work of an ordinary squaw,
and had been dragged across the Platte river
with a rope, and she told tales of awful har-
barities.
There was some concern about the execu-
tion of these renegades, and several of the of-
ficers and men around the fort feared a general
massacre and so expressed themselves to
Colonel Moonlight. But his answer was that
if such an event was to take place, there would
be two less very bad Indians to take part in it.
Many of us remember in our young days of
reading a book entitled, "Beyond the Missis-
sippi." It was by A. D. Richardson, of the
New York Tribune. It was in the spring of
1865 that the author of this book and several
other noteable people visited Fort Laramie,
coming by way of "The Leavenworth and Fort
Laramie Military Road," as the Overland Trail
was then called. This line was along the south
side of the Platte to the Fort Sedgwick Cross-
ing (near Julesburg), thence via Wind Springs
and the south side of the North Platte to the
mouth of Horse Creek where it crossed to the
north side and continued to a point opposite
the fort.
In this distinguished party was Schuyler Col-
fax, then speaker of the house of representa-
tives, and in the west, wherever he met a body
of people, hunters, trappers, miners, or mili-
tary forces, he would deliver to them a mes-
sage from Abraham Lincoln, who, a few days
before his death, had held a conference with
Colfax, whom he had heard was about to take
a journey into the west. The words of the
martyred president seem prophetic in the light
of years. "I have been thinking of a speech I
want you to make for me. I have very large
ideas of. the mineral wealth of our nation. I
believe it is practically inexhaustible. It abounds
all over the western country, from the Rocky
Mountains to the Pacific, and its development
has scarcely commenced. During the war,
when we were adding a couple of million dol-
lars to our national debt every day, I did not
care about encouraging the increase in the vol-
ume of the precious metals. We had the coun-
try to save first. But now. that the rebellion is
overthrown and we know pretty nearly the
amount of our national debt, the more gold and
silver we mine, makes the paymenl of that debl
so much easier. Now, I am going to encourage
that in every possible way. We shall have hun-
dreds of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and
many have feared their return home in such
great numbers may paralyze industry by fur-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
nishing suddenly a greater supply of labor than
there will be a demand for. I am going to
try to attract them to the hidden wealth of the
mountain ranges, where there is room for all.
Tell the miners for me that I shall promote
their interests to the utmost of my ability, be-
cause their prosperity is the prosperity of the
nation, and we shall prove in a very few years
that we are the treasury of the world."
It may not be amiss to state here that Lin-
coln's idea, big as it was, was only a part of
the greatness of the west. He did not know
then as we do now, that the agricultural prod-
ucts of the territory would at some future time
prove of far greater value than her minerals.
While millions have been torn from the ribs of
the rock bound mountains, in the form of min-
eral wealth, there is within the radius of five
hundred miles of where I am sitting, vastly
more millions taken from the soil in the form
of farm products.
The Dreamers of national greatness, the
Dreamers of yellow gold, the Dreamers of re-
ligious fervor, who streamed through western
Nebraska, knew not of the untold wealth be-
neath their feet. Most of them were ignorant
of the magic of irrigation, or the tremendous
fertility of the soil on which they daily tread.
It is probable that the definite purpose of the
people who passed up along the "broad flat
water" impoverished many, that, had they
paused here on their journey, would have been
lords of the land.
I remember one story told that probably has
its prototype with slight variations by half a
million or a million people. Robert Weller, a
few years ago (1916) was living at Thermopo-
lis, and his experience in 1847 seems incredible.
He lived at Macomb, Illinois, and became im-
bued with the spirit of Oregon. Having little
means, he obtained a second hand light wagon
and harness and a pair of dilapidated mules.
With this outfit he began a journey of three
thousand miles through an Indian infested and
mountainous region. One of the mules had in
its young days injured one front leg, and it
lacked about three inches of being the length
of the other. To overcome this, he invented
a raised shoe — a shoe which made up the
height necessary that the mule might walk on
an even keel, so to speak. When near the state
line of Nebraska and Wyoming, Mr. Weller's
mule died. In 1900 while grading for the
Burlington railroad, Hugh Johnson and Perry
Hayes excavated the old raised shoe still at-
tached to the hoof.
This event testified to two things : one, that
men would take almost incredible chances in
those days ; and second, that this Oregon emi-
grant trailed along the north side of the river.
CHAPTR XVIII
JULESBURG BURNED— MUD SPRINGS ATTACKED— BATTLE ON CEDAR CREEK
Considerable trouble during the winter of
1864-1865 seemed to break in from the south,
particularly along the route frorq Cottonwood
to Denver, and was believed to be largely the
work of prompting of Arapahoes and Chey-
ennes, but there were some Sioux mixed up in
the affairs. It was determined to burn the
prairie south of the "South River," and thus
drive the Indians to the Arkansas for food for
their horses, as well as for game.
So, one night when there was a strong north
wind blowing, tires were set out, and for two
hundred miles a sheet of flame swept the coun-
try from the South Platte river, for a long dis-
tance to the southward. It was a magnificent
pyrotechnic display, but as war strategy, it
failed of the puqjose. It served to incense the
Indians and bring about the crises. Instead of
retiring southward, the Indians moved north-
ward across the "South River," and directly
into territory where they were the least de-
sired.
Spotted Tail was evidently south of the
Platte at the time, and it is believed that his
Indians gave out the information that there
were great stores of supplies at Julesburg, and
that a raid on that point if successful, would
supply the Indians with rations for months.
The great chief successfuly directed the at-
tack and Julesburg was burned on February
second. After taking such supplies as they
could, the war party destroyed the balance, and
crossed the river south of the mouth of the
Lodgepole. They then went up the Lodgepole
valley to the point near the present city of
Chappell, "twenty-four miles from the mouth
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
73
of the creek," and from there crossed to Mud
Springs (now Simla) which they attacked on
February 4th, driving off some horses and
mules and a lot of Ed Creighton's work cattle.
Creighton had the cattle on what was known as
"Rankin's Fork." The Indians made a rich
haul, there were twenty horses, a number of
mules, and several hundred cattle.
News of the attack was sent by wire to
Fort Mitchell and Fort Laramie. Lieutenant
Ellsworth, with re-inforcements from Fort
Mitchell made a trip to the scene at a swift
gallop, and the next day Colonel Caspar Col-
lins arrived from Fort Laramie with one hun-
dred and twenty-five men. The Indians re-
turned the following day also, with the evident
intention of taking and destroying the station,
but were surprised to see the. increased num-
bers of soldiers about it. They contented them-
selves by cutting the telegraph wires. There
were only about ten men at the station when it
was first attacked.
Around Fort Laramie, Young-Man-Afraid-
of-His-Horse, had already started activities,
and had opened 1865 with a bang. On Janu-
ary seventh he attacked a stage arriving at
Fort Laramie from the east, and escaped with
the loss of only one man and one horse.
The impudence of coming practically under
the walls of the fort, caused decisive and
prompt action on the part of the military. Cap-
tain O'Brien, with thirty-seven intrepid and
mounted men, rode out and charged a very
superior number of Indians. There was a
frightful carnage, and hand to hand encounters.
The soldiers lost half their number, and made
a fighting retreat. Fourteen of the thirty-seven
were killed. Exultantly, and maddened by
their victory, the Indians now attempted to
take the fort, but were driven back by the
artillery.
There was an insufficient force defending
Fort Laramie, so that an impression of num-
bers was made by the women dressing in
men's clothing and appearing upon the wall of
the fort, and in the morning it was found that
the Indians had retired. They had lost over
seventy killed.
On February second following, there was a
sudden and successful attack upon the stage
station below the fort (the ruins of which are
near the present Burns school house) and the
station was burned to the ground. Captain
O'Brien and an escort were bringing the stage
from the east, when they discovered the In-
dians and the smoking ruins of the station.
There were four men and one woman in
the stage and five of the escort, and they had
just overtaken two teamsters. The small caval-
cade made a show of bravery, and moved
steadily along. Captain O'Brien rode to an
eminence, gave signals, which the Indians quite
likely understood was for some invisible and
stronger party.
The redmen fled across the ice of the frozen
river, and as soon as they thought that they
could make it, the stage and wagon drivers
and escort put the whip to their horses, and
arrived safely within the walls of the fort.
Colonel Moonlight declared martial law in
all of the North River country, (as the In-
dians had grown so bold) with the intention,
no doubt, of augmenting his military forces
with trappers and emigrants, and pressing in-
to service such horses and equipment as they
might have.
The force at Fort Laramie had been in-
creased by the time that Spotted Tail and his
warriors from south of the Platte destroyed
Julesburg and attacked Mud Springs. Follow-
ing this attack, Colonel Collins determined that
it was time to strike a decisive blow at the
savages. They were flushed with victory, and
well fed with the cattle they had killed, and
the provisions stolen from Fort Sedgwick.
They were apparently well satisfied for the
time to revel in their plunder. They were in
such numbers, being several thousand, that it
would be impossible for them to subsist except
for such raids. This large band was made up
of several tribes, but for the most part, were
Sioux, Arapahoes and Ogallalas. Great quan-
tities of supplies were being forwarded with
the intention of feeding the friendly Indians,
and some of these were seized by the hostiles.
Colonel Collins sent out scouts, who returned
with the information that the Indians were
feasting on "Rush Creek" a distance of about
ten miles east, and he immediately prepared to
attack them.
Old maps show no less than three "Rush
Creeks" flowing into the Platte within a dis-
tance of about forty miles, and this particular
"Rush Creek" is now (1919) called Cedar
Creek. At that time it was the one generally
referred to as Rush Creek, while the present
Rush Creek that discharges into the Platte
some thirty-five or forty miles farther east, was
then called "Rankin's Fork."
On proceeding to Cedar Creek it was found
that the Indians had crossed the river. In
pushing forward they discovered a large war
party on the opposite bank, and were prepar-
ing to cross when they discovered that the
Indians were crossing to the south side, with
the apparent purpose of engaging the military.
A position was taken and rifle pits dug, the
howitzer that had been brought from Fort
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Laramie was placed in position to be of ser-
vice.
While outnumbered thirty to one, the sold-
iers behaved with splendid courage, and the
experienced sharp shooters of the plains, took
advanced stations and opened deadly fire upon
the boldly approaching Indians. Finding that
to approach in the open meant almost certain
death, the usual Indian tactics of advancing
under the cover of hillocks and ridges was re-
sorted to. But in this manner only a few
could come forward at a time, and as fast as
they showed a tufted knot of feathers above
the plain, they were picked off with accurate
precision by expert riflemen.
A dozen braves had congregated behind a
particular eminence some four or five hundred
yards from the improvised fort, and at a point
of advantage for dropping bullets into the
camp. Sixteen men under Lieutenant Patton
mounted and made a quick and ferocious
charge. The Indians were utterly annihilated.
Some two hundred others started after the
daring little band of soldiers, which fought its
way back with a loss of two men. The In-
dians then gave up the attack for the day. The
following morning they renewed the fight, but
not with the same heart as the day before, and
soon gave it up and retired into the hills on
the north side of the- river. The whole caval-
cade of the savage hordes, containing about
1,000 lodges, went towards the Powder river.
Collins then distributed his soldiers along
the route to protect it from further molestation,
the larger detachments being at Camp Mitchell
and Fort Laramie.
This successful battle against an overwhelm^
ing foe, which was well armed and with plenty
of horses, seems almost as miraculous as the
famous battle on the big Piney in 1867, in
which twenty-two plainsmen armed with
Henry rifles, behind a barricade of iron arm-
ored wagon boxes, whipped Red Cloud and
three thousand braves to a standstill, killing
or disabling over 1,100 Indians with their "bad
medicine guns."
One of the disheartening things about Indian
fighting was the lack of knowledge displayed
by those in charge higher up. For instance,
long after hostilities were commenced and the
Indians were congregating to resist establish-
ment of posts along the Bozeman road in the
Powder river country. General Dodge wired to
General Mitchell, who was about to leave
i imaha fur Fort Laramie, to keep him posted
as he progressed up the Platte. In his tele-
gram was the query, "Where is Powder river?
The "Rush Creek" battle ground is three or
four miles south of the river, at the forks,
where a spring branch comes in from the west.
The improvised fort was on the nose of land
between the two branches of what is now
"Cedar Creek."
An Indian telling of the battle of Cedar
Creek, says they crossed the river at its mouth,
and camped at the foot of a bluff about five
miles north of the river, "on a small stream, the
name of which I do not remember." The story
also is that Creighton's herders were at Mud
Springs when the attack occurred, which was
fortunate for them. After the battle, the hos-
tiles moved to Bear Butte in the Black Hills,
and early in March, the bands separated, Spot-
ted Tail and his Brules moving east of the
Hills, while the Arapahoes and Cheyennes,
joined the Northern Cheyennes under Red
Cloud, on Powder river.
In April, Spotted Tail, Little Thunder, and
sixty lodges of Brules, came in to Fort Laramie
and voluntarily surrendered, and according to
Hyde, he should have been with the Indians
that were being taken to Julesburg, and
Kearney, at the time of the outbreak on Horse
Creek. I do not find any part that he took in
the battle, and perhaps he was opposed to the
action, as many Indians were. Hyde also says
the Indians at first concealed their women and
children in a willow thicket back of their lodges.
I have been unable to locate the thicket. After
the last charge, says Hyde: "The soldiers gath-
ered up the mutilated bodies of Fouts and his
men, and pulled out for Camp Shuman" (Fort
Mitchell).
After over fifty years, George L. Wilcox, no
relation, that I can find, of the captain, was
employed by the government to disinter the
bodies and remove them to the government
cemetery at Cottonwood. He quite easily lo-
cated the grave of Captain Fouts and a soldier
at Fort Mitchell, and after an extended search
he found the two other soldiers, who had been
buried on the battlefield. Later,- two other
soldiers were disinterred at Fort Mitchell. All
now rest at the beautiful cemetery a few miles
east of the city of North Platte.
The date of the battle of Horse Creek as
here given has been disputed by Erastus Wil-
son, Bugler Company B, 7th Iowa Cavalary,
(now 1919), at the Soldier's Home at Grand
Island, who was in the battle; he stating that
it took place upon the 11th day of July, but I
have it from John Hunton, and from the gov-
ernment records, and at least it is officially giv-
en as occurring on the 13th day of June, 1865.
Wilson stoutly adheres to his date, and he de-
clares the three soldiers were buried upon the
battleground, their names being Phillip Alder,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
75
Dick Crozier and McMann, although only two
were found there.
General Conner, in the Spring of 1865,
moved his headquarters from Denver to Fort
Sedgwick, which was built not far from the
site of the burned Julesburg, for from this
point he could better direct operations.
Mooney says that Red Cloud was "the most
famous and powerful chief in the history of
the tribe, and rose to distinction by his own
force of character." "He was not a hereditary
chief, but a member of the band of which the
chieftainship lay with the family of Young-
Man-Afraid, the latter more conservative and
friendly to civilization."
Red Cloud's chief lieutenants in the Powder
River campaign were "Young-Man" and
"Crazy Horse." The feat of keeping the In-
dians together for the two years 1866-1868,
provisioning them, and a determined united
front to the government stamps him as a re-
markable organizer, and with great power. The
government finally gave up the attempt to open
the Bozeman Road, and this must have added
greatly to the prestige of Red Cloud.
Crazy-Horse was not an hereditary chief,
and never addressed in person any council, but
always spoke through his uncle, Little Hawk.
"Which leads me to inquire," says D. W.
Butler, "the nature of the system that prevailed
among the Sioux and Cheyennes as to the
authority and position of the acknowledged
chiefs, and the war chiefs or leaders like Red
Cloud and Crazy Horse and Roman Nose. One
might imagine there would be much conflict
of authority. But evidently not."
Crazy Horse was not much known until
after 1865, when he had a brother killed by the
whites near Fort Laramie, after which he went
on the war path with vengeance.
I am not sure as to the exact date of the lo-
cation of Red Cloud's Agency on the Platte,
but it occurred about 1870. It was on the
north side of the river near the Nebraska-Wy-
oming line. By the year 1875, the new Red
Cloud Agency was established on White river,
west of Fort Robinson. The agency on the
Platte was not abandoned until two or three
years later, although it may have been offi-
cially thrown into the discard.
Sheldon has a photo of the ruins of a sod
house on the site of the Platte River Red Cloud
Agency, that is believed to be what was left
of one of the original structures of the early
seventies. The photo was taken 1918, and
from the best information from the oldest in-
habitant, it is all that remains of one of the
first buildings erected.
CHAPTER XIX
COAD'S BATTLE ON LAWRENCE FORK — "SHORTER" COUNTY ORGANIZED
TANK FIGHTING ON THE PLATTE — BUFFALO BILL KILLS TALL BULL
Affairs like the Harney battle on Blue
Water, or worse still, that of Col. J. M. Chiv-
ington, at Fort Lyons, on the South Platte,
drove the peace loving Indians into the more
desperate of the savages. The latter was an
unprovoked attack upon a large village of
inoffensive Indians. Over the lodge of the
chief there floated the stars and stripes, yet an
hysterical, or a deliberately brutal, commander
brought about wholesale murder, with the re-
sult that many hundreds of lives were lost in
the years of hostilities that followed.
Following the disturbances of 1865, the
early part of 1866 was ushered in by an at-
tack upon Julesburg (Fort Sedgwick). About
one thousand Indians participated in the at-
tack, and the place was defended by Captain
O'Brien and thirty-seven men, with two moun-
tain howitzers. The Indians lost sixty or sev-
enty men, while Captain O'Brien lost fourteen.
But after one day of hot fighting the Indians
gave it up and moved on to the North River
country.
In 1865 J. F. Coad took the contract to fur-
nish the garrisons at Julesburg and Laramie
with wood. He was furnished an escort from
Julesburg to the "wood reserve" on "Lorron's
"fork, and there erected a small log house, called
by him the "ranch." The day following its
completion, he and three others were at work
loading some wood about three miles from the
"ranch." The thermometer was about twenty-
five degrees below zero. His party was at-
tacked by Indians, which rode clown into the
valley between them and the cabin. They fled
into the rocks, and the Indians pursued as far
76
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
as they could with their horses, then dis-
mounted and came on foot.
Soon the men found that they must discard
their heavy clothing, and in the chase they be-
came separated. One man found a crevasse
underneath a rock and crawled into it, obliter-
ating his tracks by covering them with dirt and
sand. The Indians went directly past the
mouth of his hiding place, then came back and
took counsel in front of it. Then they returned
to their horses and rode away. Coad and the
other two found a hiding place, and after the
Indians had gone built a small fire to keep from
freezing, and remained hidden until nightfall.
When the men returned to the "ranch" in
the night, they found that the men there had
been attacked, and stood the Indians off for
four hours. The savages then drove away their
horses and mules and some of their cattle, but
the latter could not travel sufficiently rapid to
suit them. The next day it was decided to
return to Julesburg, and ask that the govern-
ment furnish guards to protect them from fu-
ture similar experience. They took the oxen
and went to the tableland in the direction of
the old Water Holes, but were caught in a
frightful blizzard. It raged all night and the
thermometer was thirty below zero. A man of
experience has written, a western storm will
sometimes seem to abate, to lure one away
from fire and shelter, just to catch him in the
open with full force. A messenger had been
sent on ahead, to tell the soldiers to come out
and meet them, but the storm made it doubtful
if he would reach Julesburg. In consequence,
the next morning, Coad told the others to re-
turn to the "ranch" and he would try to go on
to the fort alone. About ten miles north of the
present site of Sidney, he came upon a de-
tachment that had already been sent out. They
said that the day before, they had had an en-
gagement with some Indians near there, and
had taken from them a number of horses,
which proved to be Goad's, and the Indians
had fled in the storm towards the south. A
few days later thirty-six men arrived at a
"ranch" on the Lodgepole, about twenty-five
miles west of Julesburg, and thirty of them
were pretty badly frozen.
Nearly all the cattle drifted into the fort in
the next week or so, and the fact of their
weathering this severe storm, and seemed little
the worse for it, brought to the mind of Mr.
Coad the idea that the prairie grasses must be
very nutritious and sustaining, even though
browned by the autumn suns and beaten by
the wintry winds; and from that thought in
his mind and the minds of Creighton, and of
others, were born the big ranches of the Pan-
handle, and followed the years "when cattle-
men were kings."
The "ranch" on the Lodgepole where these
storm-beaten fugitives found shelter, was one
of the early structures used for housing and
protection along the line of the Union Pacific,
then being projected up the Platte and Lodge-
pole.
In November, 1866, the construction of the
railroad was completed as far west as North
Platte, and on the 31st day of January, 1867,
the plat of the original town was filed. A mili-
tary post was established, and soldiers were
garrisoned there. "Shorter" county, the ante-
cedent of Lincoln county, had tried to organize
five or six years earlier, but the only officer
who had qualified was Charles McDonald,
judge, who did so in order to perform marriage
ceremonies. The county seat had been desig-
nated as Cottonwood Springs, but the county
was re-organized as Lincoln County, and the
county seat moved to North Platte, by a total
of twenty-one votes cast, on October 8, 1867.
The officers were B. I. Hinman, representative ;
W. M. Hinman, County Judge; Charles Mc-
Donald, County Clerk ; O. O. Austin, Sheriff ;
Hugh Morgan, Treasurer; and A. J. Miller,
Commissioner. Charles McDonald resided at
North Platte until 1919 and was in the bank-
ing business, until his death.
In the Indian troubles that followed, the few
settlers in that vicinity used to gather at North
Platte, and take refuge in the railroad round
house. On one occasion, the Indians captured
a freight train and after killing the crew, they
pillaged the cars, and found some bolts of cal-
ico. With this they made merry, tying one end
of a bolt to a pony's tail, one would ride out
across the prairie with a hundred yards of
brilliant calico streamers trailing in the wind.
At another time "Dutch Frank" saw the In-
dians on the track ahead of him, and feeling
sure that it meant death to stop, he opened the
throttle, plowing through them throwing them
into the air and killing many. He arrived safely
into town. This, we believe was the origin of
"tank fighting."
The Union Pacific, during the year 1867,
built on through Sidney and Cheyenne, and
Mr. Tracy, who later became another of the
cattle kings, was at Pine Bluffs, took a contract
for getting out wood and ties for the railroad.
At this point he received his inspiration for
ranching, and was long known in that business
by the early settlers.
The Fifth United States Cavalry under Gen-
eral Carr arrived in the spring of 1S69, and
eight companies were left at North Platte and
McPherson, while four were sent to Sidney and
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
four to Cheyenne. Their orders were to "clear
the country of Indians from the Union Pacific
to the Kansas Line."
It was at this time that Tall Bull, one of
the most bestial and brutal, although brave In-
dians, obtained the title of the "scourge of Kan-
sas," because of his numerous raids, culminat-
ing in the massacre of the "German Settle-
ment," and taking away two of the young wo-
men. General Carr had at hand the strategy,
of maneuvering of the best known of all the
old scouts on the pursuit of this band, none
other than Colonel W. F. Cody. The final bat-
tle occurred "at the springs in the sand hills," a
few miles south of the old Valley station on the
South Platte. Here it was that Buffalo Bill
killed Tall Bull, by shooting him from his
horse. One of the young women captives was
killed by the Indians, while the battle was on,
and two braves were about to tomahawk the
other, when the unerring markmanship of the
old plainsman ended their career. Tall Bull's
band was headed for the Niobrara and White
river country, where they could brag about
their achievements to other Indians, but it was
utterly destroyed at this battle.
The fifteen years war following the killing
of the Mormon cow was drawing to a close.
Spotted Tail had been taken to Washington,
and Red Cloud was losing prestige, for the
peaceful Indians were being fed regularly by
the whites.
CHAPTER XX
INDIAN AGENCIES ADJUSTED — SITTING BULL'S DETERMINATION — BAT-
TLE OF WAR BONNET CREEK
Then for a few years, the work of estab-
lishing agencies and locating the Indians in
places where each might better work out his
destiny, without the interference or trouble
making of another tribe was the duty of the
war department. Early in the seventies the old
Red Cloud agency was built at the Wyoming
state line, on the Platte river and in a few
years the new agency was established on White
river. Spotted Trail was located on the Da-
kota state line about north of Rushville.
In 1874, Chauncey Wiltse at the head of
twenty-five men, was sent out to survey the
state line between Nebraska and Dakota. If
there is anything that made an Indian un-
easy it is a surveying party. Either they did
not understand the mystery of the instrument
and they thought there was something uncanny
about it, or they knew that the surveying in-
strument presaged the coming of settlement,
and the end of the wilderness. One surveying
party, on the Republican, entirely disappeared.
None of the equipment nor any trace of them
was ever found.
Nothwithstanding Spotted Tail's avowed
friendship for the whites, and his expressed
opinion of the uselessness of struggling against
the white race, when Wiltse's surveying party
reached the vicinity of White Earth Creek,
one hundred and sixty-two miles west of
Keya Paha river, a number of Indian scouts
armed with Winchester rifles came to meet
them, and for a pow-wow. They said that
Spotted Tail did not want the line run.
Wiltse told them that he cared not for what
the Indian tribes wanted, he used stronger
language than that, for the great father had
told him to run it, and run it he would. And
run it he did.
The trail, or road, from Ft. Laramie to
Spotted Tail's agency, came farther down the
river than that to the Red Cloud agency. The
eastmost of the Red Cloud roads ran through
the vicinity of Agate, while that to Spotted
Tail crossed near Spotted Tail Springs, Wind
Springs, and over the Box Butte table. It will
be observed that the relays between watering
places, from starting point to destination, are
the shortest distance possible, and yet it is al-
most a direct route.
The establishing of Fort Robinson, in 1876,
was practically contemporaneous with the ad-
justment of the Indians in their different
agencies. It was nearer to Red Cloud because
the Red Cloud Indians needed watching more
than those under Spotted Tail. In 1876, Red
Cloud was deposed by the whites, and he no
longer ruled as chief. The "great red cloud" —
his warriors wore red blankets, and moved as
a cloud — ceased to be a menace of the prairie,
and his descendants now live pursuing the arts
of peace.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
The trails leading from Fort Robinson to
the Union Pacific made a veritable network at
the time, and all converged in the vicinity of
Fort Robinson, following one principal high-
way north to Deadwood.
From Cheyenne the mail road ran almost
straight to Laramie, and was a stiff bad road,
hard on oxen feet and lined with "poison
weed." It ran via Chugwater creek. The
part north of the Platte cut across the country
west of the Raw Hide and finally dropped into
that valley. The soil on this part of the road
was too light for heavy freighting, and in
places quite sandy, but it was used to some
extent.
The Freighter's road ran direct from Chey-
enne to Old Red Cloud on the Platte through
the Goshen Holes. If having business at Lar-
amie they would go up the river to Laramie
ferry or bridge, then by the mail route to
White river.
Freighters frequently forded the Platte at
Old Red Cloud, and then struck down the
Platte a number of miles, to avoid the sand
ridges that lay directly north of the agency.
From the old agency to the new, there seems
to have been several roads, and they were all
called the Freighter's road. There was a canoe
at Old Red Cloud, which was used in crossing
when the water was high.
The Sidney road was all right for horses and
mules but was not much in use by 'bull
teams" for there were two places along the
route, where the distance between water holes
caused suffering and death among the cattle.
This road was satisfactory during part of the
season, but in the hot dry summer months, two
of the watering places dried up.
The Sioux Trail from White river to the
Republican ran parallel with this route, and it
was used as late as 1876 by Brules and Ogal-
lalas. Fort Robinson and the New Red Cloud
agency on White river was where all the trails
merged into one.
The fall of Red Cloud, and the discovery of
gold in the Black Hills brought forth another
leader of the war division of the Sioux. Sitting
Bull came into the public eye ; and the depreda-
tions, and lawlessness of his bands grew more
pronounced as the whites poured into the Black
Hills after gold.
Sitting Bull obtained his name, by shooting a
buffalo bull, that fell and was attempting to
arise, when the daring young Indian leaped
from his mustang's back, squarely upon the
back of the buffalo. It struggled to rise, but
settled back upon its haunches.
The new leader was determined that he
would drive the white man out of the Black
Hills, and was doing effective work along the
line of his endeavor, when General Crook de-
cided to put an end to it. Reno and Custer
were chasing the wise old redskin over the
wilds of Wyoming, and Custer, who was in
advance, fell into an ambuscade, and his entire
force was destroyed. I have walked over the
battle ground and observed the location of the
graves, as shown by the little white stones, for
each was buried where he fell, and it tells the
story of a struggle better than all else. All who
are making a trip into the northwest, should, if
possible, stop over one day at Crow agency,
Montana, just over the Wyoming line, and
spend that day at the battle ground, and in the
woods on the Powder, where Sitting Bull pre-
tended to be unprepared although keenly upon
the alert.
Reno was some distance away, but within
sound of the battle, and has been criticised for
not making an attempt to rescue Custer. One
of the graves of a fallen soldier, was about two
miles in the direction of Reno's camp, he evi-
dently having broken through the red line of
battle, and made a great run for life.
At the Red Cloud agency there were five
thousand or more Indians, for the most part
friendly ; but about eight hundred of them, fired
by the news of Sitting Bull's achievements, left
the agency to join him in the work of driving
the whites cut of the hills.
General Sheridan ordered General Merritt,
with four hundred men of the Fifth Cavalry,
to proceed post-haste to re-enforce General
Crook on Big Goose creek. He heard of the
movement of the Indians at the agency, and
disobeyed the order of his superior, to inter-
cept them. Events justified his disobedience,
as it often did in the kaleidoscope changes in
fighting Indians. Colonel Cody, who at that
time was in the midst of a Wildwest exhibition,
at the Centennial Fair, abruptly closed his show
at tremendous loss, and volunteered his serv-
ices. He was made chief of scouts with Gen-
eral Merritt. To intercept the movements of
the Indians the cavalry moved as directed by
Buffalo Bill, seventy-five miles in twenty-four
hours, and placed themselves directly in the
path of the Indians.
The advanced portion of the Indians was
surprised, and drew up in battle line, to await
these that were coming from the rear. The
cavalry also were prepared. At this dramatic
moment, Yellow Hand, issued his famous chal-
lenge to "Long Hair" (Buffalo Bill), and with-
out waiting for orders from his superior,
Colonel Cody rode out to meet him.
Little Bat, the interpreter, conveyed to Gen-
eral Merritt, the nature of the challenge, and
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
all eyes on both sides were centered on the duel.
It was with such sudden rush and denouement,
that it was over and the battle of War Bonnet
Creek was on before it was hardly time to
realize it.
Buffalo Bill and Yellow Hand spurred their
horses straight for one another at full speed,
and when near to each other, a bullet from
Cody's rifle struck the Indian's horse squarely
in the forehead. It fell with a forward mo-
mentum, and the horse Cody was riding fell
over it. Yellow Hand and the veteran of the
plains were both afoot, and went at each other
without a moment's delay, one with his toma-
hawk, and the other with his knife. With his
left hand Cody caught the blow of the toma-
hawk, and plunged the knife into the heart of
the Indian. Falling upon him as he went down,
Buffalo Bill lifted his war bonnet, and seized
his scalp-lock.
The Indians waited no longer, but plunged
forward to avenge the death of their chief.
Cody shook in the faces his bloody scalp, and
shouted : "the first scalp for Custer." With
war bonnets streaming, and brilliantly painted
they were almost upon him, when the veteran
Fifth Cavalry in action, swept by. with their
carbines cracking. The nerve of the Chey-
ennes broke and they fled. Time after time,
they tried to recover, and make a stand ; but
before there was any organization, the soldiers
were again upon them, and finally they broke
and ran, pell mell for the agency.
There was some apprehension that when
they got among the five thousand friendlies
they would excite them to violence. It was
determined to make a show of courage, and
the troops, in solid formation, ready for any
emergency, rode straight through the agency,
to Fort Robinson.
That ended the insurrection at the agency,
and Sitting Bull, whom Custer was trying to
prevent from going north, when the massacre
occurred, got away after wiping out that por-
tion of the advance. He was pursued, but
reached the Canadian line in safety.
War Bonnet creek is a branch of Hat creek,
coming in from the east. The point of con-
vergence is in, or near the twenty-two thous-
and acre ranch of Colonel Charles Coffee, in
northern Sioux County.
CHAPTER XXI
SAND HILLS STATION ROBBERY — BIG BEAR, OR CRAZY WOMAN — THE
SOD CABIN — PRIVATIONS OF EARLY YEARS
Hugo Koch, was one of the old freighters
of the late fifties and early sixties. He is still
living at Lander, Wyoming, and is an intimate
friend of Charles Andrews of Scottsbluff, who
had charge of the feeding business at the
Scottsbluff Sugar Factory for many years. I
have a letter from Koch in which he speaks
of his connection with the Sand Hills station,
which is located a few miles over the line in
Wyoming, and he says : "eighteen miles west
of Scottsbluff." This would indicate Robi-
deaux Gap, far eighteen miles west of Mitchell
Gap would not reach the state line.
It was shortly after the Grattan Massacre
that Spotted Tail and a band of Sioux are
credited with attacking this station as a stage
from Salt Lake City was enroute east. They
killed all the employes and the driver, and car-
ried off twenty thousand dollars in gold, in
twenty dollar gold pieces, belonging to the Liv-
ingston Kinkaides Company of Salt Lake City.
General Harney made a demand for the per-
petrators of the deed, and Spotted Tail and the
party made their spectacular entry into Fort
Laramie singing their death songs.
Another point of interest is just over the
Wyoming line, near the northwest corner of
Sioux county. It is one of the many branches
of the Cheyenne river, not much more than a
creek or canyon, occasionally widening to
small hay valleys. In the early days it bore
the Indian name "Big Beard." the same obtain-
ing from the character of the grass that grew
along the bank of the stream. But for the last
generation it has held the name of "Crazy
Woman," because of incidents and adventures
I have heretofore written in a crude story of
verse under the title of "The Sod Cabin."
The beginning of the adventure was in Lake
Canyon, about thirty or forty miles south of
80
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
North Platte. Here a family of easterners,
from the Buckeye state, had settled down and
left for a time their happy, yet unhappy, sur-
roundings for the primitive life and restfulness
of the semi-mountain home.
But their persecutor, "Scar Face Ben," had
followed and in the disguise of an Indian with
a party of Indians, the home was invaded, and
an attempt made to kidnap a young lady. Her
mother, who had seen an Indian raise his toma-
hawk as she thought, to strike her daughter,
had interposed, the blow fell upon her head
and left a long ugly cut, with the temporary
loss of consciousness.
This unexpected denouement, for there had
been no intention of murder, for a moment dis-
concerted the outlaw, and in the moment the
father and the girl escaped, but were separated
in the night. The story tells of their wandering
up through the valley of the N ortn Platte, and
to the Horse creek caves. Then on through the
Rocky Gap, where their persecutor chased
the "Prairie Rose," as the heroine was called,
until she fell over a cliff and made a footprint
in the soft clay, that "after hardened into
stone and left distinct the footprint there."
During the building of the Cheyenne and
Northern. I was working in one of the camps,
near the head of Chugwater, and one Sunday
two of us boys scaled some very difficult rocks
in the Rocky Gap, and we found the footprint
which is part of the foundation of the story.
The track was that of about number four
size woman's or child's bare foot, and it was
impressed fully an inch in what had become
soft rock, during the lapse of years.
The girl's sweetheart was temporarily away
from the lodge on the Medicine, and when he
returned he found the cabin in ruins, and all
had departed, including the woman. Of
course he knew nothing of their fate, nor that
the woman had been hit by a tomahawk, and
had wandered away "a crazy woman."
Some instinct sent him on into the west,
and there is quite a long story of it, and of
how he witnessed from a distance the Custer
Massacre.
The mad mother in the course of her wan-
derings came to the valley of the Big Beard,
and here she lived for a year or more, sub-
sisting on roots and berries and bark. Mere
the father found her. and while she several
times rushed away and hid at his approach as
she did when strangers appeared, he at last
caught her, and her reason returned.
The woman's living in this section changed
ili< name of Big Beard to Crazy Woman.
As is the way with stories, this ended well,
and the daughter was found, and then the
sweetheart, and also came the knowledge that
their persecutor was dead. They then lived
for a time in a huge sod cabin, some distance
west of the Big Horn range in Wyoming, but
later left their happy mountain domicile for the
old home in Ohio.
"Sometimes when Lillie musing sits,
A dreamy mist before her flits,
And to her waking memories come
Fair visions of a mountain home.
And all her gilded marble halls
Become transformed to sodded walls,
Her frescoed ceilings fade away
To rough hewn poles and boughs and hay.
"The mists they break before her eyes,
'Twas but a dream of Paradise.
"Since then the mountain fires swept o'er
And burned the ivy round the door.
The rotting door frame stands alone,
Save idly swinging door, with moan,
Its hinges coated o'er with rust.
The walls have crumbled into dust."
There are not a great many of the old guard
of pioneers surviving, but those that are still
with us in their travels over western Nebraska,
occasionally see the ruins of a sod cabin, and
to each there come a sadness, for each sees
therein the home shrine of a once hopeful
family that came into the west.
We all had the same ambitions, and all did
our level best to make those humble places of
abode, real homes. We had no wild or ex-
travagant ideas or desires, but we wanted that
farm for ours and our children. A few, like
the dwellers in the cabin west of the Big
Horns, went back to better things (perhaps) in
the east. The most of us that have survived
are still here, where our lives are woven into
the woof and warp of the fabric of western
Nebraska.
Together, we suffered the hardships of the
lean years, and we hustled out for grub-stakes,
singly or in pairs, leaving wives and families
in the old soddies, dugouts, and log houses,
looking after home affairs while we went after
the few scattered dollars that we could pick
up at work wherever we could find it. Up
on the Cheyenne & Northern I met Harry
Watson, John Frazier, and others from the
Box Butt'e table. In the South Platte Vailey
there were Theo. Harshman, Theo. Deutsch,
William P. Young, Antoine and Wenzel
Hiersche, and I know not how many others,
picking spuds, herding sheep, or working at
railroad construction. The Cheyenne & North-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
81
era and the Sterling & Cheyenne branches of
the Burlington drew heavily from the granges
of western Nebraska for the help needed to
build them. Young and Hiersche brought in
from Colorado the few sheep that was the
nucleus of their later large herds.
Irrigation in the North Platte valley was in
its infancy. A few of the smaller ditches were
in operation, and others had been crudely sur-
veyed. There was plenty of man power, and
there were harness broken bronchos for horse
power, but there was no equipment, and no
money with which to buy it. Men would take
their payment in stocks and bonds, but these
had no fixed value. They were hocked about,
and traded and exchanged for provisions at
low figures, or swapped for anything else of
value. I furnished some tile for culverts and
outlets for the Gering canal, and had to take
my pay in bonds, at about two-thirds par.
The bonds were sometimes as low as fifty cents
on the dollar, in exchanges.
When the spud pickers were over on the
South Platte and the Cache le Poudre, they no-
ticed occasionally abandoned "slushers," or
road scrapers, of the wooden back and Mor-
mon tongued variety, lying by the road side,
and inquiry failed to locate the owners.
On returning to the North Platte valley,
they hooked up their grass-fed broncs, and re-
turned to the location of the find. We are
told that they again sought for but could not
find the owners, and as they had apparently
been abandoned for a long time, no doubt for
better equipment, the old ones were loaded in
the wagons and brought into western Nebraska.
It is yet an open question if they sought very
diligently for the owners, and also what they
would have done had they not found them for
they had no money to buy the scrapers. Be
that as it may, these scrapers were used to
good service in the North Platte irrigation
building.
Lars Olson, of Banner county, and James
Nighswonger were among the spud pickers
that went to Greeley, and there were many
others.
Over on the Chadron plains and Box Butte
table, the hardships seemed fully as acute. Of-
ten I wonder what mental processes worked
out those years, and how those who stayed,
survived, and how they managed to keep the
wolf from the door.
A few miles east of Chadron there lived a
German and his family. One day he was ob-
served sitting in a disconsolate mood on the
sidewalk, and a passing acquaintance stopped
and asked his what was the matter. He said
that there was no flour in the house, no food,
that the children cried because they were so
hungry, that he had brought a load of wood
to town to try to trade for something. No
one wanted to trade; the merchants needed
money and not fire wood, and no one else
would buy it. He only wanted a few dollars,
and he could not borrow at the banks, or get
credit at the stores. "I think I get a gun,
and end it all," he said. "But that will not stop
the hunger cries of the children," said his phil-
osophic friend. "Yes, but I cannot stand it
to hear them, and that will end my hearing
them, and maybe someone can feed them," was
the answer.
"Listen," said the friend, "you take that
wood up to my house and unload it. You go
home and buck up, and do your best to take
care of that wife, and your children," and he
handed him three silver dollars. The German
took courage, and weathered the gale, some-
how, and lived and prospered in the land.
But the friend, what of him? Those three
dollars were the last three dollars that he had
in the world. What was he to do ? He man-
aged it some way, just as many another man-
aged it, and to this day, they can look back
and say : "I do not see how it was done, or
where it came from, or what kept the wolf
away. Elijah was fed by the ravens, and I
guess the ravens must have looked after us."
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XXII
REVOLT OF DULL KNIFE — WINTER FIGHTING IN THE PINE RIDGE — END
OF INDIAN WARS — SIGN LANGUAGE
After the departure of Sitting Bull for the
Canadas, it was decided to separate the disturb-
ing element of the Indians and to remove those
who most strenuously objected to the advance-
ment of settlement in western Nebraska, to
places remote. In consequence the Northern
Cheyennes were taken to Indian Territory.
Dull Knife, Little Wolf, Wild Hog, and oth-
er chiefs with a large part of the tribe refused
to be satisfied with the new location, and insist-
ed on being returned to the north. They were
accustomed to the cool climate and the pure
water, and the feeling of dissatisfaction was in-
tensified by an epidemic of malaria, which be-
came so prevalent that two thousand were
prostrated at one time. The supply of medicine
was exhausted and it was necessary to dis-
continue its use.
On the night of September 9, 1878, eighty-
nine men and two hundred and forty-six
women and children, vanished in the darkness,
leaving their tepees standing to deceive the sol-
diers. As soon as the departure was discov-
ered, hundred of troops from a half dozen
posts, were detailed to overtake or intercept
them. Guards were placed along the Kansas
Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads to pre-
vent their crossing and engines with steam up
and ready to go, were held in waiting to be in-
stantly away, when the wires would flash the
news that they had been discovered.
In spite of all this, the desperate little band
of fugitives swept across Oklahoma and Kan-
sas, killing more than forty settlers, and burn-
ing houses, and committing other outrages. Re-
mounting on two hundred and fifty freshly
captured horses, they crossed the Kansas Pa-
cific between the patrols, and a few hours
ahead of the pursuing party. On October
tenth, after they had reached the Sand Hills of
Nebraska, the troops temporarily abandoned
the chase.
In their flight of five hundred miles, they had,
besides the damage inflicted on the settlements,
fought three engagements, each time with more
than twice their number, and with a total loss
of only fifteen Indians killed.
From prisoners taken later, it was learned
that they were trying to reach their kinsmen
in Montana, where they intended to surrender
if they would he allowed to remain in the
north. < Itherwise they were intending to push
on, and join Sitting Bull in Canada.
In the meantime, their kinsmen were on their
way south in charge of the noted scout '"Ben"
Clark, and he, with rare tact, diplomacy and
courage, avoided the track of the raiders, and
kept his own people in ignorance of what was
going on, until he had them safely landed at
Fort Reno, Oklahoma.
Clark, at the age of sixteen years, had ac-
companied General Albert Sidney Johnston
to Salt Lake City, to impress the Mormons into
a state of mind acknowledging that the domin-
ion of the United States meant Utah, as well
as other states. He was at Ash Hollow in the
summer of 1857, when the Cheyennes attacked
the wagon train and killed three of the party.
This was Clark's first experience with Indians,
but he later became a scout of great renown.
When Dull Knife's band reached the sand
hills of Nebraska, they scattered into small
bands, and the pursuit of any single band re-
sulted in that band breaking into fragments,
and if a capture was effected, it was only a
single Indian. The soldiers, weary of the long
chase, and the baffling tactics of the Indians,
went to Fort Robinson ; and after a brief re-
spite, together with re-enforcements of sol-
diers, and friendly Sioux, the pursuit was re-
sumed
On October 23d, one hundred and forty-nine,
which included Dull Knife's fragment of the
band, together with Wild Hog, were captured
by Captain Johnson. The remainder of the
fugitives, under Little Wolf, escaped in a
snow storm. These captured were taken, still
protesting to Fort Robinson, and were confined
in an empty barrack room. They declared that
they would die, rather than be taken back to
Indian Territory.
Red Cloud requested of the army officers
that the knives be taken away from the Indians,
for in event that the government should order
that they be taken again south, they would,
rather than yield to the order, take their own
lives. This request was ignored by the mili-
tary. In. the time that elapsed in getting orders
from Washington there was apparently some
laxity in vigilence, and the Indians had gotten
possession of about fifteen guns and some pis-
tols.
On the 3d day of January. 1879, the order
came to return them to Indian Territory, and
the next day Wild Hog gave an unequivocal
negative to the proposition, saying that the fol-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
83
lowing would prefer to die. There were forty-
nine men, fifty-one women, and forty-eight
children prisoners at the time, and it was un-
dertaken to starve and freeze them into sub-
mission. Water was denied them three days,
and fuel and food five days, but it was ineffec-
ual. Dull Knife was wary, and Wild Hog. af-
ter being induced to come out, was put in
irons, after stabbing a soldier.
At this, the others barricaded the doors, and
covered the windows to conceal their move-
ments. They then tore up the floors and con-
structed rifle pits in the enclosure, to command
all the windows. About ten o'clock at night,
on the night of January 9th, they killed two
sentinels, took their guns and made good their
escape. As they fled over the snow in the val-
ley of Soldier creek, the alarm was given and
hundreds of shots were exchanged with not
many casualties, after which a tense quietness
settled on the Pine Ridge hills.
There was a ranchman, named Bronson, who
had located about five miles south of the fort,
the first actual settler in the present limits of
Dawes county, and he and his man heard the
noise of battle. Knowing the danger if the
Indians had broken out, and especially if they
should happen to make their break to the
southward. Bronson and man mounted their
horses and rode toward the fort, keeping a
sharp lookout. As they topped the Pine Ridges
south of the valley, they could see it laying
white with snow under the full moon, and not
a sign of life. The fort was absolutely dark,
save for one feeble needle of light. In the si-
lence, they moved forward, and came upon
tracks in the snow, indicating, the route taken
by the fugitives. There was a dark spot upon
the snow, that as they approached proved to be
Buffalo Hump, a relative of Dull Knife, and he
was near unto death. So near, that his only
movement thereafter was a futile attempt to
kill Bronson, which effort took his last ounce
of vitality, and he fell back in the snow, dead.
There were a number of engagements in the
Pine Ridges the following several days, and of
the one hundred and forty-nine that escaped,
there were killed a total of thirty-two, and sev-
enty-one were re-captured. Of the forty-six
still at large, nineteen were warriors. After
several skirmishes and escapes these were in-
tercepted January 22, by Captain Wessells, and
twenty-three were killed and nine re-captured.
The other fourteen joined Little Wolf's band,
and on March 25th, Lieutenant Clark captured
Little Wolf on the Box Elder, and with him,
thirty-three warriors and eighty-one women
and children.
Officially Dull Knife was reported killed in
some of the skirmishes in the Pine Ridges, or
bad lands, although all information, except the
official records, is to the effect that he lived
for many years after. Bronson says that Dull
Knife was with the Ogallalas, and that his
later years were full of moroseness, and he
was a sour and surly old Indian.
Of the three hundred and thirty-five that left
Indian Territory, seventy-two were the total
number killed. Two hundred and six were re-
captured, and sixty finally made good their es-
cape. They won their fight, however, for in-
stead of sending them south, the others were
brought north from the territory. The tribe
was given a reservation in Montana, to which
many of them were taken, but a large number
remained with the Sioux, and some of them
still live on the Pine Ridge reservation.
That was practically the end of Indian fight-
ing in western Nebraska. It is true that about
1890, there was a scare that went over the
homestead territory, and the Medicine man,
Sitting Bull, the incorrigible, worked a few
of the tribe into a frenzy. "Ghost Dancing"
was initiated, and some of the younger In-
dians had a slight reversion to the blood lust
of early years. Sitting Bull was killed, and
the Battle of Wounded Knee, nearly north of
Rushville. was only a small affair compared
with early Indian fights, and that was the last
flare of the dying fire.
W. P. Clark, captain of the Second Cavalry,
followed the work of Major North in training
Indians for scouting and police work. North
had a number of Pawnees at Summit Springs
when Tall Bull's band was annihilated ; and as
they were preparing to go into battle, they dis-
carded Uncle Sam's uniforms, and wore only
breachclouts. They painted the bodies thick
with vermillion, red and black. That was their
idea of how to dress for a fight.
In 1876, when gold was discovered in the
Black Hills, it made a big rush, and with con-
sequent irritation to the Indians. Captain
Clark was established at Red Cloud Agency on
White River with three hundred Indian scouts
— • Pawnee, Shoshone, Arapahoe, Cheyenne,
Crow and Sioux. There were six tribes having
six different vocal languages, yet thev managed
to converse fluently and with ease. It was by
the common sign language, and under such
conditions it could not otherwise than impress
one with its value and beauty.
On the march, by the camp fires, at early
dawn, or just before the battle, one could see
the signs, the recognition, and the perfect un-
derstanding. The sign language extended to
the Assinoboines, Gros Ventres of the Prairie.
84
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the Bannocks, the Mandans and the Arikaries.
It was the universal language of the race.
So impressed was General Sheridan with
its importance that he detailed Captain Clark
to prepare and submit to him a work on the
silent language. This was not completed until
1881 ; too late to be of value in the wars, but
of great interest and merit. Old Indian fight-
ers and frontiersmen had, however, absorbed
much of it in the earlier years, and it was of
much use to them from time to time.
Its value lay in not only being able to com-
municate and receive impressions, but it check-
ed unreliable interpreters. Sometimes, after a
crooked interpreter would convey one impres-
sion, a silent sign from a friendly would tell
the observer the truth.
Indians can sit for hours with only an oc-
casional grunt, yet their hands are unweaving a
tale, or they are exchanging opinions. There
was a child among the Sioux, that was dumb,
but she could talk fluently with her hands.
Even the Zodiac was crudely exemplified in
the silent language of the Indians. The Trail
to the Happy Hunting Grounds was indicated
by "the sign of the milky way," for the starry
pathway across the sky was believed by the
Indians to be the "Long, long trail." Arapa-
hoes who fainted, and came to, said they had
been along the Milky Way, and had seen the
tepees and game.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE WINDING STORY— SAGES TALE OF ORGIES — THE NEW DAWN
"The story winds as winds the river," and
memory and history goes back along the Red
Cloud Trail, when it did not bear the distinc-
tion of the common translation of the name,
"Marpiya Luta." It was used, however, by
the trapper and the trader, and the country of
North Sioux county, then unorganized, was
alive with dangers similar to those that marked
the close of Indian wars. The benevolent as-
similation of all that the Indian possessed was
in progress. The red man was drugged with
the sweetened fire-water, and fought and rob-
bed and murdered to get more.
When the Indian fought the emigrants and
stages and pony express along the Great White
Medicine Road, they were fighting for their
own as they viewed it. The signal fires that
burned at night on the hills the length of the
North Platte Valley, the signal smokes that
curled upward from the hills by day, the fire-
arrows that marked lurid streaks across the
dark skies of the terrible wilderness, the silence
of the night, the sudden pandemonium- of
sound, the whirlwind of activity, leaving death
in its wake, the disappearing shadows, and
then again the silence. That was the part of
the Indian life that homeseekers, goldseekers,
and early patriots of the west found.
But brutal commercialism found another
side. Life, morality, soul, all the finer In-
stincts of man, were subordinated and sub-
merged in the one great purpose of greed. The
stories of Sage in Rock Mountain Travels, in-
clude events in the history of the Panhandle
of Nebraska. Sage went out over the route
later designated as the Red Cloud Trail, with
a party of the traders, and his is a harrowing
recital of the drama of life on the Running
Water and White River in 1845.
"Soon after arrival at White River, a man
was sent to a nearby Indian village, with a
keg of diluted rum for the purpose of trade.
The Indians wanted it "as a gift on the
prairie," which the trader refused. A fight
ensued, and the trader and two protecting sol-
diers were beaten off, the former after having
been dragged through the lodge fire three or
four times, narrowly escaped with his life.
"The Indians then attacked and took the
trading post of the American Fur Company,
and robbed it of both liquor and goods."
About the same time two traders from an-
other fur company appeared and one had liq-
uor and the other goods to trade. The Indians
were treated, and as usual, commenced to fight.
In the end they attacked the other trader. He
was compelled to flee, and through the friend-
ly assistance of squaws, he managed to escape
with his life. His goods were taken, and one
of the Indians who had defended him, was
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
85
murdered, while several others suffered
wounds.
Not long after, Choteau's man was shot at
three or four times, and one of his guards
wounded. Another, while serving liquor was
stabbed, and but for timely assistance would
have been murdered. And still another was
compelled to stand over a hot fire, nearly
roasting alive, while Indians helped themselves
to his stock. Two warriors entered a trader's
post for a blanket. They were intoxicated
and one of them was in the act of stabbing an
unsuspecting clerk, when Sage caught his
wrist. This trader was later, when sur-
rounded by all his men. shot at and narrowly
escaped death. And then, one night a party
of Indians tried to burn his store, but the logs
were too green to burn.
Sage was a partisan of the American Fur
Company, and sought to enlist the interest of
an old chief, by giving him a "soldier suit"
to wear. Bull Eagle, another chief, was in-
toxicated and laughed at him. Inflamed he
rushed to Sage's quarters, intending to kill
"Yellow Hair," as Sage was called. He was
tall, well made, and wild-eyed. Bull Eagle,
in sudden anger appeared, and made a thrust
at him with his knife, but the old chief caught
the blade and nearly severed two of his fingers.
His wife then interfered, but twenty of the
partisans fought it out, while the white people
stood around observing neutrality. Two were
killed and others hurt. Two hours later the
chief re-appeared and apologized and he and
Sage became famous friends.
Sage also tells of a grand jollification at
Fort Laramie, that "rivalled Bedlam and the
Council Chamber beyond the Styx. Yelling,
screeching, firing, shouting, fighting, swearing
and such interesting performances were kept
up without intermission, and there was no re-
pose." Liquor sold for four dollars a pint.
Men and women ran from lodge to lodge with
vessels containing liquor. Susa-ceicha fell
from his horse, while riding between Fort
Platte and Fort John, and broke his neck.
Low Bow, his son. preached a sermon, calling
on "Wakan-tunga" the Great Spirit for help.
All the Indians" cried like children, and the
whites helped prepare a burial scaffold.
After all the chaos of early years, we won-
der that there is anything left of the red men ;
but time and another generation accomplish
marvelous changes. There was a change in
the few years that followed the visit of Sage.
It was effervescing at that time.
When he and his friends built their cabin
by the curiously shaped rocks on White river,
then called "the Devil's Teapot," they encoun-
tered a nest of thirty-six torpid rattlesnakes.
They heated water and scalded them to death
in the presence of several Indians. This un-
usual proceeding struck the Indians with ap-
prehension, as they had a sort of reverence for
the serpent. For Standing Bear, the chief, it
was the slaying of the dragons. It broke the
chains of a mentality, theretofore bound down
by custom and precedent.
Sometime later, an Indian stole Sage's bed,
and while he was looking for it, the noble red
man was trading it for liquor. Standing Bear
apprehended the culprit, took his bows and
arrows. He broke and shot away the arrows
and broke and burned the bows, and then he
sent the victim, dubbed a squaw, t> his tent,
bellowing like a calf.
In the soul of Standing Bear, the "new
day" was breaking. And the highly intelli-
gent Indian, the farmer and the cattle raiser
of the Pine Ridge, may some day know that
the destruction of the serpents in White river,
started the new thought, which, when the fires
of the fourteen years of war burned out, left
his race a new people, and his tribe with new
ideals, and a destiny in common with the prog-
ress of the years.
There was another Indian born in the years
too soon. That little brown maiden who in
the early years dabbled her feet in the cool
waters of Spotted Tail springs, and played in
the nearby sands ; who looked up roguishly at
the first white men. and who wiggled her
shapely toes under the edge of her brightly
colored calico gown, when white folks stop-
ped to look at her.
Ah-ho-ap-pa (White Flower), the daughter
of the chief Spotted Tail, in her first vision
of budding womanhood, wanted to marry a
particular white man, and finding this was im-
possible she was content to be nearby. Then
she wanted her people to settle down, and live
in houses like white people. She did not
want them to be at war with the white race,
and through all the years of the last great con-
flagration she suffered, and plead for the cause
of peace.
To cure her infatuation for an officer at
Fort Laramie, Spotted Tail took her over to
the far Powder river. Here she pined away
and died, the doctors said of tuberculosis, but
the soul of White Flower has never died. "The
dawn" for the new Indian race was breaking.
and had she lived, she could have seen her
daughters graduating at Carlisle, and teaching
the younger Indians on (he Pine Ridge hills.
But how "could she know what the generations
would bring forth? She who stood almost
alone in the vears of awful strife. Could her
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
fancy paint the daughters of her tribe, in mod-
ish garments of silk and hig-heeled shoes, as
now we see them occasionally walking in the
thoroughfares of Alliance, Chadron, Crawford,
Gordon and Rushville?
She had asked to be buried at Fort Laramie,
where she would always be near the white
people, whom she idolized, and they swung her
body between two ponies, and carried it thus
two hundred miles to the river. They wrapped
her body in beautifully dressed deer skins, and
out north of the present ruin that was once the
post hospital, they erected a scaffold, for her
burying place. The soldiers helped to erect
the scaffold, they went out to meet the burial
pageant, and over her resting place they fired
the burial salute. . Her favorite white horse
was killed and its head and tail fastened to the
scaffold, that she might ride to the Happy
Hunting Grounds.
Not only in the Mists of the Hereafter does
White Flower live. The new Indian girls see
the embodiment of her far-off vision in the
present progress of her people. While In-
dian boys of the second and third generations
after the intellectual liberation of Standing
Bear, accept the standard of our civilization,
and join in the universal sentiment of 'Am-
erica, advance."
PART III
WHEN CATTLE MEN WERE KINGS
CHAPTER I
WHEN CATTLE MEN WERE KINGS
The passing of the Indian menace in west-
ern Nebraska, brought into prominence its
capacity as a range. True, before that, it had
been brought to the attention of freighters, and
"the builders" who had their herds of oxen,
commonly called "bull herds," in the land about
us.
From every source available we have thought
to make this part of the story of the develop-
ment of the high plains, complete, there being
no authentic record. Only fragmentary inci-
dents here and there, that have fiction and in-
accuracy as a basis or for filling, it gives but
little idea of the magnitude of the business.
Naturally from the broken stories — the ma-
terial at hand — this part will be broken and
rambling, like the life of the nomadic cow-
boys — here today and there tomorrow.
Some writers have said, that sometimes,
these plains and these times will furnish the
basis for a novel that will sweep popular fic-
tion like a prairie fire. A few have under-
taken to fulfill the prophecy.
Mrs. E. Joy Johnson, in "The Foreman of
J-A-Six" has brought out some of the proper
coloring, and has taken for her characters
real persons. Very naturally, those whom she
admired occupied the prominent place in her
story and the novelist idea creeps in, regard-
less of the best efforts to keep it out.
William R. Lighten in his "Billy Fortune"
series, has delineated the character of many
of the range people correctly, although his
stories were not pretended to be history. There
are others who have attempted to portray the
cowboy character, which have brought out the
grosser of exaggerated types.
I find particular objection to the stories that
picture the man of the range, on a dance floor
with his "chaps" on, or wearing a hat or spurs
or gun. When such are given, it shows the
ignorance of the writer. He never saw a cow-
boy dance, but has been at some low joint call-
ed a "dance hall" where "four-flushers" and
tinhorn gamblers congregate ; a place that
would not exist if the cowboys were the only
patrons.
The history, the incidents here related, come
to me from years of association with old set-
\r "Signal Buttes"
tiers, cowmen particularly and from the most
authentic sources available. They will come
as near to a chronicle of the facts as will prob-
ably ever be written, for I have made consider-
able effort that it be true to the epoch that
followed the Indian wars.
Among those who have contributed by let-
ter, story, word or book, to that which I in-
clude, are William A. Paxton, John A. Creigh-
ton, John A. McShane, Tohn Bratt, Major
Walker, W. F. Cody. A. B. Hall. I I. Mc-
intosh, Colin Hunter, Colonel Pratt. Mark M.
Coad, Bartlett Richards. W. I. Kelly, Henry
T. Clarke, S. J. Robb. John 'Wright'. Charles
H. McDonald, and a score of others now that
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
have taken the "long, long trail," to Other
Ranges.
And from those living, (1919), Frank and
Jess Yoder, H. V. Redington, R. U. Vantassel,
John Adams, Charles F. Coffee, John Hunton,
Granville Tinnen, Joe Wilde, Eugene A. Hall,
Perry Braziel, Robert Graham, Charles Nel-
son, Runey C. Campbell, Robert Harvey,
Colonel Joe Atkins, L. J. Wyman, Morrill Wy-
We drove our car to his very door, and as
the rain had begun to fall it was suggested that
we drive it upon his porch, which is a prodig-
ious affair. It extends three hundred and
fifty feet in length and sixteen feet wide along
the length of his "residence," and the bal-
cony floor forms the roof of the lower porch
and is itself covered, and extends the full
length and breadth of the lower porch.
'Branding Calves"
man. Ark (Henry county) Hughes, W. F.
Connoly, Tom Snow, Dan McUlvane, Tom
Powers, W. L. Wallace, Charlie Foster, Cap-
tain Cook, S. P. DeLatour, J. W. Harper, A.
S. Neuman, W. F. Gumaer, Billy King, Harry
Hynds, John Evans, Tom Hughes, and doz-
ens of other of the old guard have come the
stories of the time when the Panhandle of Ne-
braska was one vast pasture where roamed the
long horns, and where wild horses and the
bronchos ran free in the western wind.
In the new mode of travel, the motor car,
I have gone many miles to find the man or the
setting.
Some time ago we (Mrs. Shumway and I)
were at Fort Laramie to see John Hunton and
Joe Wilde, who were the early settlers. First
we called on Wilde.
We were hospitably entertained by Mr. and
Mrs. Wilde, who for over forty years lived at
Fort Laramie, and this, their dwelling, is a
purchase from the United States, it being for-
merly the soldiers' quarters. Wilde had it
worked over a little and has about half of the
lower story for his dwelling and office and
for feeding the travellers and others who may
be journeying thence and onward. In the up-
per story about fifty rooms have been fitted out
for the accommodation of the public, and the
other half of the upper story is one immense
hall with oak floors used by the people of the
country wide as a meeting and dance hall. It
is one hundred and seventy-five feet long and
twenty-four in width.
Around about this building the barren sever-
ity of soldier's quarters has been changed into
fs Resting and Playing Mumblebeg.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
89
a wilderness of green, and a bower of trees, all
planted by the busy hands of Mr. and Mrs.
Wilde, since the departure of the soldiers, and
in the foreground stood the host, his irrigation
shovel in his hand, and his wife, whose sturdy
German intelligence complemented that of her
husband in the building of this part of the
west.
Back of the home, upon a hill, there stood
a ruin of apparently medieval architecture.
Once it was the hospital, where soldier and civ-
ilian went, or were taken, in the days when
roughing it meant occasionally broken limbs
and bullet wounds. It was not uncommon in
those early days of rough men for quick retort
and challenge and resort to arms. And many a
man was buried in the cemetery with "boots
on" to lie in unmarked graves.
To the west and south of an oblong square
formerly used for parade grounds, stands what
is left of the officers quarters, which were ex-
cellent, well-built domiciles, and in the midst
of them is "Bedlam." This interesting struc-
ture obtained its name from the scenes en-
acted therein by the rough soldiery of early
years.
Two doors north of "Bedlam" now (1919)
lives John Hunton, whose word is accepted as
final in things pertaining to early history.
From him I obtained some interesting facts
concerning the beginning of the cow business
in western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming.
In the early sixties a freighter lost some of
his oxen, and he did not find them until the fol-
lowing spring. In some miraculous manner
• they had escaped the Indians, and their ex-
cellent condition awoke in the mind of many
the same thought, that cattle could be wintered
without care, and that the grasses must be
very nutritious. Then and thereafter the
freighters decided to take a chance. The larg-
er outfits, the Creightons, the Coads, and a few
others, established "ranches" or a headquart-
ers for a few caretakers, who were to look af-
ter the "bull herds," during the winter months.
Bull canyon, in western Banner county, is
one of these wintering places. Another point
was on Cedar creek and Smith's lurk, near
Mud Springs. In Carter canyon is the ruins
of another of the old camps, and there were
many others. The hazards were considerable,
but if they escaped the Indian raids, they
came through the winter in fine shape.
R. Proust, Sr.
As much of the work at that time was gov-
ernment freighting, the government eventually
made good the losses occasioned by the Indians.
Old Bordeaux, who in 1847, looked after
the business of the American Fur Company at
Fort Laramie, had accumulated a few old cows,
maybe a dozen or so, by 1866, and they were
kept about eight miles down the river at Bor-
deaux place. Nick Genice had a similar
bunch on Deer creek about four miles south
of the fort.
90
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER II
STAGE STATION RANCHES — NAMING FORT MITCHELL
ON THE NORTH PLATTE RIVER
FIRST RANCHES
Jules Beni, of early fame, once had a
"ranch," on the south side of the South Platte
about a mile from the mouth of the Lodgepole
creek, and as early as sixty-four this ranch,
which was nothing but a trading post, where
occasionally a lame ox was left to recuperate,
had (like other similar places) been abandoned.
Jock Morrow had such a place near North
Platte, and there were a number of trader sta-
tions called ranches, where the foot worn oxen
were left, and those that had rested were taken
by travellers at a good increase of price over
the amounts paid for them.
Ben Holliday, the big man of the Overland
Stage, appropriated the site of "Jules Ranch,"
and had built extensive barns. He called it
"Julesburg Station." It was several miles up
the river and on the other side, from the pres-
ent town of Julesburg. As was common, he
had the place fortified. He, Holliday, obtain-
ed his wood supply from Jack Morrow's can-
yon.
Ware tells us that there were two crossings
of the Platte at Old Julesburg, one almost op-
posite the station and curving up the stream to
a point about a half mile above the entrance,
and the other several miles farther west. Af-
ter crossing the Platte, these two routes con-
tinued up the Lodgepole on opposite sides for
a number of miles. The lower was called the
"California crossing," and the upper the
"Mormon crossing."
In the autumn of 1864, sod structures were
built one mile west of "old Julesburg" and in
the spring of 1865, Fort Sedgwick came into
being, a military post of the United States hav-
ing been established there.
General Mitchell, for whom Fort Mitchell
came to be named, Camp Shuman being chang-
ed to that name, was in charge of the western
military forces at the time, and the prairies
were unusually good for pasturage. The In-
dians took advantage of the fact and did not
go to the south as usual in the winter. Con-
sequently, General Mitchell determined to drive
them south so that they would cease their mur-
dering and depredations along the Overland
and Denver trails. On the evening of January
27, 1865, he set out prairie fires, simultaneous-
ly all the way from Fort Kearney to Denver.
There was a brisk north wind blowing, and it
"sure" was one sight to see the sheet of flame
three hundred miles long, sweeping over the
table lands to the south, leaving blackness and
desolation in its wake.
The effect of this was to drive the Indians
north of the Platte, and the Indians from the
south were soon joining them, and making life
a hazard of great interest to the people of
this section.
Early in February, they drove off some of
Creightoirs fat work cattle from the head of
Rush creek, and feasted upon them.
J. F. Coad had the contract for hauling wood
for Fort Sedgwick from the wood reserve on
Lawrence fork, and had difficulty with them
also.
These adventures with the oldest of our cat-
tlemen are related elsewhere, but it had the
effect of the establishment of the very first of
all the permanent ranches in this part of the
west ; namely, the Creighton ranch on the
Laramie Plains.
One of the oldest of the ranches to actually
engage in raising cattle as a business is the
Tracy ranch at Pine Bluffs. Mr. Tracy came
to the country as early as 1867, and he cut cord-
wood in the Pine Bluff hills which he sold to
the Union Pacific. This railroad was just then
penetrating into the western part of Nebraska
and they used, handled and sold large quan-
tities of wood. Tracy had one pile of a hun-
dred cords or more, cut in the winter of
1867, or the spring of 1868, waiting for the*
acceptance of the company. In this the gov-
ernment had an interest, and it was cut from
government land. The Indians came upon it
one day, and burned it completely. The gov-
ernment court of claims paid the loss in full
to Mr. Tracy.
Tracy graduated from wood cutting into
ranching in the late sixties, and put in a small
herd of cows and heifers, and from that de-
veloped into reasonably large proportions. He
was not so important as to size, however, as
were the Texas herds that began to arrive
about that time, or the bonanza cattle outfits
that later took over his ranch with the others.
During his life at Pine Bluffs he had many
interesting experiences and Indian troubles,
and it was one of his "herdsman" referred to
by Captain Charles King in his story of
"Trumpeter Fred'."
John Hunton is authority for the statement
that the first real cow business in the vicinity
of Fort Laramie was when Benjamin Buckley
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
91
Mills ( Buck Mills), a Kentuckian, brought two
hundred and fifty short horn cows from
southern Iowa and northern Missouri in Oc-
tober, 186S. These he located on the Laramie
river about three miles up that stream from
the position occupied by the old fort. This
initiation stirred others to activity.
Colonel Bullock, who had been a post trad-
er at the fort was early to see and follow tht
lead of Mr. Mills. He went to eastern Kansas
and western Missouri, and accumulated two
hundred and fifty good shorthorn grades in
cows, and drove them through, arriving at
Fort Laramie late in the Spring of 1869. He
picked out for his ranch location, Bordeaux
place, about ten miles down the Platte river
from Fort Laramie, and purchased the embryo
herd that Bordeaux already had upon the
ground.
John Hunton is a veteran of Fort Laramie,
the Dean is perhaps the right word, for he
is a man of wide knowledge and information.
In 1867, he came to the fort and went to work
for the Post-trader Seth E. Ward. Ward was
succeeded by G. H. and J. Collins, who retain-
ed Hunton for several years.
J, F. Coad, the government wood contract-
or" up to 1872, yielded to Hunton, the contract
for Fort Laramie, which Hunton held for ten
years.
Hunton began to see something in ranch-
ing when the larger herds commenced to ar-
rive, and he located a ranch about four miles
up the river, and began to accumulate cattle.
This he continued during the period he was
supplying wood for the fort. His ranch is a
short distance above the fort, being about two
miles up the Laramie from the crossing of
the new government canal.
The contract for wood supply was very
profitable. Dan McUlvane with five outfits
was employed by Hunton to assist. He re-
ceived five dollars per cord and could haul
twenty cords per day, making twenty dollars
per day for each man and wagon. Dan told
me a short time ago, even at the price, he
failed to lay up very much, until he went into
the cow 1 business, and the cows and increase
grew into money.
In the year 1871, Dan McUlvane, now
(1919) living in Cheyenne, and until recently
interested in the big "Hereford Ranch," at
that place, went to western Missouri and east-
ern Kansas and secured about two hundred
and fifty young shorthorn cows, which he
drove through and established his ranch, on
the Chugwater, about twenty miles southwest
of Fort Laramie. He crossed the Kaw river
on pontoon bridges and drove his herd through
the streets of Topeka, when it was but a vil-
lage.
These were among the first of the ranchers
west of the junction of the Platte rivers. This
magnificent cow country which lies west of the
forks of the Platte, and east of Fort Laramie,
soon was filled with great herds. The first
herds were gathered about the places protected
by forts, no doubt for that very reason.
Phil and Jim Dater, who helped to blaze the
Texas trail brought their cattle up from the
south in 1872, and established the 66 brand on
the north side of Sixty-six mountain. This
brand, and the location of the Sixty-six ranch,
has given rise to many mistakes in early tra-
dition. Some have said that the brand indi-
cated the year of the starting of the business
there, and others tell us that the brand is what
named the mountain. John Hunton would
not be sure about that, but he thought the
mountain was unnamed pior to the locating
of the 66 brand. However, a number of old
timers, namely: D. McUlvane, Colin Hunter,
H. M. Ingraham, and others have said that
the mountain was named before the Daters
appeared in this country. The thrilling events
that led to the naming of mountain forms an-
other chapter in the history of the west. It
was one of the strangest mysteries, and un-
written events in all the chronology of western
Nebraska.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER IV
THE CATTLE OF SIXTY-SIX .MOUNTAIN
The death of M. Goshe in his cabin on
Cherry creek, of Jacques Laramie on the Lara-
mie river, of Gonneville on Pumpkin creek, of
Hiram Scott on Scotts Bluff (mountain), of
Ruleau in the Wild Cat range, of Creel in his
famous Bull canyon, are tragedies that mark-
ed the territory around about Sixty-six moun-
tain, as one of danger and death, long before
the mountain was named. A spot upon the
map of the world when conflict and homicide
seemed inevitable and frequent. It was shun-
ned by the trappers of old, except the most
ventursome, and such as dared its reputation,
almost invariably perished in the wilderness.
The fame of the mountain does not extend
far across the wide reaches of western prairie,
except along the Texas trail, where from the
Panhandle of the Lone Star state to Assinna-
boine, the cow-punchers knew of the Daters
and the famous Sixty-six brand.
Only a few have heard of the battle of
Sixty-six mountain, and most of the early
ranchmen assume that the cattle brand brought
into use the name. Phil and Jim Dater, how-
ever, who came up the trail in 1872, and es-
tablished the ranch, adopted the brand because
the mountain already bore the name. There is
as much confusion of opinions as to the origin
of the name, as there is mystery connected with
the events that are here related.
Several years befor Ed. Stemler came into
the west, Eugene Ware made the discovery of
an abandoned wagon train, near Trapper's
rock, a score or more of miles up the Lodge-
pole, west from old Fort Sedgwick. Yet, it
remained for Ed. Stemler to clear up the mys-
tery of the wagon train, and to provide the
only story of the battle of Sixty-six mountain,
and which also gives an index to the naming of
the mountain. The mystery of it is that Ed.
connected up with these people, and that he
lived and experienced events that transpired
many years before he had come into the west.
About the silence of the wagons, and about
the solitude of Sixty-Six mountain, there is
wrapped one of the great tragedies of the west ;
and one person only can tell that story in all
its graphic details. It forms one of the most
interesting unwritten chapters of adventure,
and frightful consequence, that has ever paint-
ed red spots on the frontier.
The story begins on the banks of the Ohio,
where lived an orphan boy, a little fellow whose
father and mother were gone. He ran about
and played, and made boon companions of
trees and flowers, of dogs and cats, of bees
and butterfles. Children who have not the
things that other children have, things that
are necessary to childlife, will conjure them
from the elements at hand : — "make believe
people," identities created from the animate
and inanimate creatures about them.
The woods, the brook, the river bank with
its myriad life, became his friends. But, one
day they missed him from the familiar haunts,
and for many days thereafter. The lady slip-
per, that rare wild flower, grew unplucked be-
side the trails that he had made. The people
interested in him, his relatives, had many
children of their own ; he was as a fifth wheel
to a wagon, and they thought that he might
make a place for himself in the west. So, at
the age of fifteen or sixteen years, they sent
him out to the far wilderness of Cheyenne,
"to find work upon a ranch."
By way of Denver, he reached Cheyenne in
the middle of a dark and stormy night. He
had no money, and his sole possession aside
from the clothes he wore, was an old horse
pistol which his uncle had given him, and
who said at the time that he "might need it
to fight Indians."
He crawled underneath the wooden platform
that then served at the Union Pacific depot,
and indulged in fitful slunlber until dawn.
Then he sought for a pawn shop, that he might
get rid of his antiquated gun to furnish money
for food. He also sought at the restaurants,
and offered to leave the gun as security for
his breakfast. One of the old night women of
Cheyenne, straggling along in the grey dawn
of morning, saw him, and bought him his
breakfast. Her motherly intuition had sensed
his needs, and her ragged heart had pulsed for
the moment with the eternal sensibility of
charity. Thus even in the lowly and the sin-
ful, the spark of eternity ever shines.
A Black Hills freighter hired the tenderfoot,
being in need of a man to drive a trail wagon.
So, that freighting, and untangling a string
of obstinate miles, was his initiation into the
west ; from which interesting and engaging
pastime, he graduated into his original pur-
pose of "working upon a ranch."
That was more than two score years ago,
and the prairies north of Cheyenne, was where
he kept lonely vigils, caring for, and moving
the cattle from place to place. It was monoton-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
93
ous labor, and he longed for the woods, and
the woodland companions on the banks of the
Ohio. The bees and the butterflies were calling
him.
The lone environment, the solitude of the
prairies, are enough to try the intellects of
mature people, and there is graver danger for
the young. Out of the high tablelands, the
mirage makes everything seem so unreal.
Lakes where lakes are not, trees where the
trees have never grown, inverted cities on
the sky, mountains lifting themselves suddenly
from the plain, to sink back again at one's
approach.
No wonder lone herdsmen and lonely set-
tlers became insane ; no wonder they build
small habitations on the summits of hills or
mountains where the "desert devils" find it
difficult to reach ; no wonder that many of
the herdsmen on reaching frontier-towns stand
about and count the people, the vehicles, the
trees, and watch the wheels go around ; or else
take to drink, for the queer things of drunk-
enness are more substantial than desert things.
A "touch of the prairie," is madness incipi-
ent, and unless relief comes in some exciting di-
version, or in the rush of tears, the victim will
perish in the wilderness, or come wandering
into the edges of civilization in a sort of driv-
iling lunacy that may be permanent.
The writer remembers well his own experi-
ences in Goshe's Holes, now called Goshen
Park, where the goblins of the desert led him
from place to place, without food or water,
until he felt almost as etherial and wisplike
as the most immaterial of them. Whether it
was by accident or otherwise, Joe Wilde, the
well known veteran of Fort Laramie, found
me, and piloted me. to the safety of his home.
And I can sympathize with Ed Stemler, the
Buckeye boy, who, when alone in the wilder-
ness, would seek the highest points of land,
and look as far back east as his eyes could
reach, and where he would bawl his heart out
with a terrible, terrifying grief, with no wit-
nesses save the brassy, unresponsive sky. Ex-
cept for the clinging clay, he would tear away
through the miles of intervening space to the
hills that nourished him. When the tempest of
his homesickness passed and the frame shook
spasmodically with subsiding sobs, he would
return to the duties of the range.
By and by, the prairies began to look differ-
ent, he began to make friends with the cattle
he tended, the horses he rode, and other life
of the plains.
Nomadic red men drifted by at intervals
and he had no fear of them. Like Fiddler
Campbell, he found heartease in the music of
his violin. Astride his horse, without instruc-
tion, he learned to ply the bow with his left
hand, while with his right he held the instru-
ment upside down, its drum upon the saddle
horn, and its neck extending upwards. In the
later days, at the round-up and granger dances,
he held the inverted fiddle upon his knees and
the music was good.
A Mrs. Stickney, a writer of some note, once
visited La Grange, and later published an ac-
curate descriptive story of a round-up dance.
The stories of Emerson Hough, in which he
describes cowboys dancing in chaps and with
spurs jingling, is purely fiction, and Mrs.
Stickney did not yield to such impulses to
ranmble and exaggerate. But she did describe
the violinist as a "bow-legged, left-handed,
red-headed and freckle-faced fiddler, who play-
ed with the violin standing on its head."
If one recognizes anyone from this descrip-
tion, perhaps one best be as circumspect as
was Mrs. Stickney, and mention no name, for
though now a grizzled veteran of the prairies,
the described can clip the ears of a coyote
at a distance of one hundred yards with his
old forty-five, or a much greater distance with
his new forty-thirty.
Ed. Stemler, in his long years on the
prairies, has had his little fights and his one
great battle. In 1888, I "met up" with him at
a roundup dance, and although intimately ac-
quainted, I have never heard him relate of his
adventures, nor whisper of the great battle
of Sixty-six mountain.
Only recently did this story come to me,
in the quiet undertone of an old plainsman,
who sat in my office and related it, in the sub-
dued tone of conversation that comes of long
hours alone, when one talks much to one's
self, for the companionship of a human voice,
or in speaking soothingly to cattle when night
riding about a herd — 'so not to startle them
— for wild cattle always seem ready to stam-
pede. I had heard of it before, but had never
heard the story in its entirety until the side
partner of "Shanghai" Pierce, dropped a few
words that put me on the trail.
It was after the Union Pacific was builded,
and the old Overland trails were falling into
disuse, that Ed. Stemler came into the west,
and the summit of Sixty-six mountain knew
his homesick .grief and loneliness. Likewise
the summits of Wild Cat mountain, of Big
Horn and Bear mountains, and the High Di-
vide of Flowerfield, or the Lone Pine emi-
nence near the head of Lawrence fork.
One day he left his herds on the Flowerfield
Swell and started for Ohio. He was riding
down the Lodgepole when he came upon the
94
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
deserted wagons. The mystery of them ap-
pealed to him, and for the balance of the day,
he rummaged in the chests found in the wag-
ons. He handled the harnesses and rattled the
chains. Night came on and after dark, the
Shadows. The People came back to the wag-
ons.
He walked among them, glad to companion-
ship, and he heard their story :
They were a party of emigrants, and had
left Julesburg several days previously; the
grasses of the Lodgepole valley were so allur-
ing to them and their worn stock, that when
they reached the point where the Jules Cut-
off left the valley for the table-lands, they
were reluctant to follow the continental thor-
oughfare.
So, up the Lodgepole valley they contin-
ued for several miles. Here amidst luxurious
grasses they formed the regular corral of
their wagons by drawing them to a circle, and
the stock was turned loose to graze.
Early in the evening the wolves appeared
howling about them in great numbers, and
they wished their horses were safely within
the enclosure. The campers were unable to
determine certainly whether the cries were ac-
tually those of marauding wild beasts or In-
dians imitating them. If beasts, they should
stay to their fires, if Indians, they should take
to the shadows. A clatter of hoofs told that
the horses had stampeded to the west. The
howling continued about the camp, but in di-
minished volume until nearly dawn.
In the morning the emigrants on foot start-
ed upon the trail. The women and children,
hardy and strong, joined, rather than be left
behind, at the mercy of any nomadic band that
might come prowling about.
The trail of the runaway horses took the
emigrants to the head of "Lorren's Fork," then
to the springs in the hills bordering Gonneville
or Pumpkin creek. Now they had come back,
but were going again. Abandoning his pur-
pose of going to Ohio, the lone herdsman
hereafter journeyed with them, showing them
the way to Fort Laramie. He knew the route,
the watering places, and the passes in the
hills. They left the wagons where they stood.
At the head of Pumpkin creek valley, on
the west line of the state, a part in Nebraska,
and a larger part in Wyoming, stands an emi-
nence. Its summit is six miles long east and
west. It is five hundred feet above surround-
ing plains, and five thousand feet above the
sea. Its rugged slopes and base cover fifteen
or twenty sections of land.
When the granger came, it was called Sixty-
six mountain.
There were sixty-six emigrants, moving
along the base of this mountain, one fatal day,
when they were beset with Cheyenne Indians.
They took refuge in the hills and fought long
and hard. It was days before the remnant of
the sixty-six were overcome near a spring on
the north side of the mountain, and here it
was that Ed. Stemler fell, as the others had
fallen, fighting stubbornly.
There is a superstition among the Indians
about red hair, atid it is said this fact is all
that saved him from the shocking fate, and
the scalping meted out to the others.
How long it was after the massacre that
Ed. revived, he had no means of knowing,
and why he set about and buried the dead, and
why he went back to the herds north of Pine
Bluffs, and why no report was ever made, are
things which will give rise to lively speculation
forever. My life and experiences on the range
enable me to speculate more clearly, perhaps,
than others.
After a few weeks of solitude, an adven-
ture like this, and its miraculous finale for
the one that lived, and who knew no reason
why he had been spared, will make it all seem
like a vagrant dream. A nightmare of the
prairie, a figment that never had real sub-
stance.
Why had he left his herds? What directed
him to these people, and how came they there ?
Why had the Indians singled him out, and
avoided dealing him the fatal injury? Surely,
it must have been a dream, like, so many of
the wild things he had dreamed before, out
there in the solitude.
So he said nothing of it. And years later
he built his ranch house on the mountain side,
by the spring where the last stand had been
taken.
A long time after, he told a few, only a few,
and they with admonitions of secrecy. Secrecy
because the story of the battle of Sixty-six
mountain, if generally bandied about, would
lead someone to doubt his integrity or his
sanity. But Ed. Stemler is both sane and
honest, and the story will not harm him now.
For over forty years he has lived on the
66, sometime on one slope of the mountain and
sometimes on the other, but always with the
wraiths of the 66 emigrants that faded out of
the world over a half century ago.
He has his thousands of acres, and his thou-
sand cattle, but sometimes at night, the moon-
light calls out images from the rocks — images
of the long ago — and the shadows flee and flit
from shelter to shelter, spectrals fighting a
battle in silence, a battle which years ago in-
volved tumult and noise. The "nieht herd is
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
95
running," and Ed. knows every detail in ad-
vance, and he is sure now of what he did not
know — that the color of his hair rendered him
immunity from the scalping knife, and spared
him for the years of usefulness to come.
(This narrative is given, not as history, al-
though many believe it a true account of the
battle, but for what it is worth, and as one of
the shadowy affairs of the unwritten long
ago. Eugene Ware found the wagons in per-
fect order, and and where the wheels rested
upon the ground, the sand and dust had drifted
over the felloes, and grass was growing in
the newly made ground. The harnesses were
rotting on the wagon tongues. That Stemler
knew of these wagons, that in the solitudes
and the isolation he came in touch with People
already gone, that in some way he connected
up with Them, and Intelligence went through
Experiences and in Companionship of pos-
sibly ten years before, is an explanation satis-
factory to many old plainsmen, who have heard
Voices out of the past, when alone in the si-
lence of the prairie.)
CHAPTER V
THE RIDE OF DAN DILLON AND OTHERS— THE START OF THE TENAS TRAIL
A few years ago (1916) I met Dan Mc-
Ulvane and Colin Hunter in Cheyenne and
had a long talk with them of early ranch life.
McUlvane was pretty nearly an old timer
when he went into the cow business in 1870.
Six years before, or in 1864, he had whacked
bulls from Leavenworth to Fort Laramie, un-
der the government wagon boss, Merin Car-
lisle.
Colin Hunter, who since 1872 had a ranch at
the confluence of Little Horse creek with
Horse creek proper, recently died in Chey-
enne. He owned the old ranch at the time of
his death, and his son. Tom Hunter, still owns
it. Tom has an office in Cheyenne. Colin
Hunter was coming with a wagon train to Fort
Laramie in 1867, when, on July 4th, the sound
of guns attracted their attention. The sight
of the blue coats gave them some apprehen-
sion. When the shooting subsided, they found
the soldiers and a civilian or two, with one
dead white man in their midst.
Just what the difficulty was they could not
learn, nor did he ever learn, but the dead man
was killed by a white man's bullet, and the
shot was fired from behind the bank of the
river. This happened near Bordeaux's place.
The dead man was George Riptoe, whose ex-
periences along with others followed the mas-
sacre at Fort Phil Kearney up on the Piney,
and the rescue of that beleagured garrison.
Coutant tells a pretty story of the famous
ride of John Phillips on Colonel Carrington's
fine thoroughbred, all the way alone through
the bitter cold Christmas weather, from the
Piney to Horseshoe station. There is another
story which many old timers tell concern-
ing that message and how it was transmitted,.
that I am led to believe, after much inquiry.
Many of the older people will remember
Jim Bellamy, and his Nine Mile station, or
ranch nine miles up the Platte river from Fort
Laramie.
On the night of December 24, 1866, late in
the night, Bellamy and Daniel McUlvane, and
several others were sitting by a roaring fire
at Nine Mile station, when out of the bitter
cold and darkness appeared four horsemen,
whose names should go down in history. They
were Dan Dillon, big diffident Dan, Sam
Gregory, George Riptoe and John Phillips.
They had all ridden all the way from Fort Phil
Kearney.
Dillon was the bearer of dispatches, and
asked if they could get a wire to the Fort at
Laramie. They had previously tried to do
so from Horseshoe station farther west, but
could not. The storm of the Indians had put
the line out of commission, but as their horses
were utterly exhausted, they had to put up
for a rest.
Dan gave the dispatches to Bellamy, who
locked them in his big chest for the night. All
rested for several hours, and early the next
morning, Bellamy gave Dillon the dispatches
again, and the four journeyed on to the fort.
All who mention it tell me that Dillon and not
Phillips was the bearer of the dispatches.
96
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Old Bedlam was alive with a merry party,
which had been dancing all the night. On the
upper floors the officers had administrative
quarters, and the lower part of the building
was full of the dancers. Dillon, because of his
bashfulness, found it difficult to attract the no-
tice of any of the soldiers who were busy
dancing attention to the ladies ; and while hesi-
tating, Phillips grabbed the dispatches from his
hands, ran into the throng, and up the stairs
to the officers' quarters.
When Coutant wrote his history, these four
men were scattered to the four winds. Riptoe
had been killed, and Dillon was supposed to be
in Mexico. Gregory, who had later been chief
of police in Laramie City, had departed for
parts unknown. Coutant's story came from
Phillips and from his patriotic political friends.
The historian is now also dead, he having died
at Chinook, in the far northwest.
Dan Dillon, the bearer of the message that
reached the fort, having returned from the
south and rejoined his command, was in 1881,
given some dispatches at Fort Robinson, Ne-
braska, for delivery on the other side of the
Indian reservation, at Fort Meade, South Da-
kota. He vanished somewhere in the Chey-
enne river country. Nor has he or his remains,
.or any of his effects, horse, saddle, or accouter-
ments, ever been found. Possibly the quick-
sands of the river could tell more of faithful
Dan, but they only whisper on and on in
voices mysterious and unintelligible to us all.
From a very early date the mines about
Hartville, Wyoming, had been prospected. In
fact, the time antedates any record, and it
was believed that the white people who were
separated several hundred years ago, a frag-
ment of which were never heard from, might
have been among the early men at Hartville.
This is the purest conjecture, however, and
only the fragments of old tools give evidence
of early pilgrims of superior intelligence.
During the days of the cowmen it again be-
came quite a center of activity, and here was
one of the relaxation points of the west. Oth-
ers were Antelopeville, Cheyenne, Ogallala,
Sidney, and Camp Clarke. Alliance, the pres-
ent headquarters of the Stockmen's associa-
tion, was not then on the map. The Box Butte
table lay in all its virgin glory under the west-
ern sun.
The Texas trail was three hundred miles
wide, if you take in all its deflections and rami-
fications. From east of Ogallala to the Lara-
mie plains ran the parallel lines of trvael, some-
times crossing one another, according to the
idea of the men having a herd in charge, as
to pasturage and water.
Occasionally somewhere between the start-
ing point and the destination, a large herd
would entirely disappear, and with it the men
in charge. The general belief was that these
were gigantic thefts, but there came a story
filtering into the south country, of a mysterious
arroyo or canyon, somewhere about the vicin-
ity of the southeast corner of Colorado, where
these herds of cattle were stampeded by a
phatom steer, run over a bluff, and all killed.
I think I shall tell this story as it came to
me more than a score of years ago.
The route of the original Texas Trail was
not direct, it swung eastward across Oklahoma,
or Indian Territory, to Coffeyville ; then swung
westward up the Arkansas river valley a hun-
dred or more miles, and while such a route
had water advantages over a route more di-
rect, I had often wondered if that was the
reason for its being in such an indirect way.
The story came to me in the later eighties,
that in about 1860, a herd had been sent north
by the direct route, but that it never reached
the Arkansas river. Searching parties failed
to disclose what became of them although they
found evidences of a stampede near the south-
west corner of Kansas. The following year
another expedition was planned but it met with
the same fate. Not a trace beyond a few miles
from where they had appeared to stampede.
The next expedition was manned with a
bunch of trustworthy men, and absolutely fear-
less. It occurred to the owners that perhaps
somewhere off to the westward someone or
several were starting new ranches at the ex-
pense of the Texas owners. So after sending
out the original party, a second outfit of ten
men and a wagon were directed to follow.
Their duty was apparently to pick up the strag-
glers that were left behind, or that would
get up in the night and start back along the
trail.
One of those beautiful moonlight nights so
common to the southwest, while the cattle were
all lying down apparently at ease, they sud-
denly arose, and after a brief thunder of hoofs,
seemed to melt into the moonlight mist, and
the night riders had gone with them. When
daylight came the trail was followed a short
distance after which it became too indistinct to
follow. In the night a sudden whirl wind had
arisen and shifting sands had obliterated the
tracks. The country about was searched close-
ly for many miles, but with barren results.
The returning men to the Texas range were
so chagrined that they begged the privilege
of taking a smaller bunch, and go over the
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
97
same trail. Only two of these men returned,
and their story ended trailing cattle through
that particular section of the south for a great
many years.
They had crossed the Kansas line as usual,
and the night was one of those typical stam-
peding nights. The utmost vigilence had been
observed. The night herd had been doubled,
and they were to move about the dozing cattle,
and to keep up whistling or singing the sooth-
ing tones that only night-herders know will
tend to keep the cattle from taking alarm.
As John A Lomax says in his book : "The
Songs of The Cowboy."
"What keeps the herds from running,
Stampeding far and wide?
The cowboy's long, low whistle
And singing by their side."
Suddenly, like one, the entire herd arose,
and the silence of the night was changed to a
pandemonium of sound. The earth trembled
with the beating of hoofs, the cowboy's tran-
quil call rose to a shrill crescendo, shouts and
shots woke the startled prairie owls, and all
was feverish anxiety. The two men who re-
turned to Texas were at the camp, when the
tornado of activity awoke. They were a little
behind the others ; one was a little in advance
of the other, and both were riding to overtake
the herd.
One of the riders far in advance suddenly
disappeared, then another went down, and that
meant ground to death under the feet of the
trampling steers. One after another the head
riders fell, and there were left but the two.
One was riding into the rear, and the other shut
his eyes for a moment, for such a perform-
ance meant only one thing, and that, death.
Instantly he opened them again for in closing
his eyes he had apparently closed his ears. The
Pandemonium of sound had ceased. When
he looked forward, it was upon an empty plain,
save for the one lone horseman, that came
riding back to him.
"Did you see it?" he asked.
The other had seen nothing that could be
designated as "It."
"The Phantom Steer" said the first spokes-
man. "As sure as we live there was a big,
shadowy steer that led the bunch, and these
that came on became as he, for I rode through
them, and cut them with my rope, time after
time."
The Phantom Steer was a Thing in the
semi-mythology of the west, that always leads
herds and men "to the end of the trail." And
they say, out in that section of the land some-
where, there is an arroyo where the herds have
gone down, led by this mysterious creature,
and if you will go there at night when the
moon is full, you can see the shadows moving,
and you can hear the "moo" as of belated
cattle'.
So the Texas Trail was swung away to the
east, where the Thing did not interfere with
safe delivery on to the northern range.
CHAPTER VI
COWBOY ESCAPADES — DEATH OF TIMMEY TATE — RED PATH BILL — FRA-
TERNAL AND CLASS SENTIMENT
When the Cheyenne and Northern railroad
was built, the trail went into disuse. The cat-
tle were brought north by rail and unloaded at
Wendover, and trailed from there into the
Big Horn Basin and the British possessions.
I "skinned mules" on the head of Pole
(Xodgepole) creek, Horse creek and the Chug-
water, and I cooked for an outfit from the
river to "the basin." I had had no experience
at cooking to amount to anything, but I could
boil spuds and beans, make "sore-finger
bread," and make good coffee. The recipe for
good coffee is "a couple of hands full to a dip-
per of water." What more does a hungry
man want? Also I had the advantage over
some cooks in that I kept my dishes cleaned up
after every meal, and I was always on the job.
When the boys would pass a settlement
where there were any girls, some of the set-
tlers would be sure to have a roundup dance.
Either among the boys, or among the settlers
there were fiddlers. Among the cowboys, I
knew several: there was Runey Campbell, Ed
Stemler, Ed Wright and Ark. Hughes — all
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
alive today (1919), and still able to draw a
bow across the strings. In fact I would like
to go to one of the old fashioned dances, \Vith
the old fashioned music, and a crowd of the
old timers. To be sure, it would be nothing
like the gymnastic performances of the new
people, the dips, the trots, and the wiggles
that we are told is dancing now.
When near one of the old frontier towns,
the boys were due for a little relaxation.
Once down at Sidney, Jimmy Tate and
Johnny Frantz had gone to town, and every-
Four Old Time Cowpunchers
Left to right, standing: John Shear, Jimmey Tate,
sitting : Johnny Frantz and Frank Fitz.
body knew what that meant. Each would try
to excel the other in some prank, or deed of
daring. Riding their horses into saloons, sit-
ting on the floor of a grocery store in tests of
endurance eating cove oysters from the can by
the handful, and such other general foolish-
ness.
Late that night six rapid fire shots, and the
sharp staccato of horse's hoofs announced the
return of Johnny, and with him was Tate's
riderless horse. The boys tumbled out of
their blankets and tarpaulins, and Johnny
tumbled from his horse. He told a sort of an
incoherent, reproachful tale that Tate was
dead, hack in the road.
All were more or less concerned, for Tate
was supposed to have intentions of giving
evidence against the Bay State Company con-
cerning some of their acquisition of land from
the government, and the empty saddle looked
bad, for Jimmy was a good rider, even when
intoxicated. "Long" (Wyatt) Heard, now
(1919) and before of Uvalde county, Texas,
then headquartered on Pumpkin creek, was
telling about it. He said that the story they
got from Johnny was that Tate had fallen
from his horse and was killed.
"But how do you know that he is dead?"
was asked.
With all sincerity Frantz told them that he
had stopped, and called to Tate several times,
and received no answer, and then he had
"rode over him two or three times, and he
never moved."
Jimmy came out of it all right, but after-
wards died with his boots on, in the same old
town of Sidney, and many believed that his
revelations concerning the land matters had
something to do with his sudden and violent
death. He now lies in "Boots Graveyard," a
part of the Sidney cemetery, that was set aside
for the boys who died in the classic way of
the early west.
"Bad men" were always drifting in and out
of the early camps, and through the frontier
towns, and it was somewhat difficult to dis-
tinguish the real from the make-believe. Oc-
casionally one would make his bluff stand up
for a time, but he eventually met someone that
"called him."
In "Ole Cheyenne" it used to be the stand-
ing joke that a cowpuncher who had taken on
too much of a load, was a candidate for Hat
creek. Why Hat creek was the proposed des-
tination for a fellow that was full, is more
than I ever learned. But that stream, if it
may be called a stream, is up towards the
headwaters of White river, and was on the
line of the trail from Fort Laramie to Dead-
wood. Sending them up Hat creek became a
classic in western expression, symbolizing a
drunken cowpuncher, and it never failed to
humiliate and shame.
One time a "bad man" drifted into Chey-
enne, and his name was enough to strike
terror to tenderfeet. "Red Path Bill" was a
dread combination. "Bill" was a favorite
name in the wild first years of the west, es-
pecially if the person was a bad man; but
"Red Path" prefixed would certainly indicate
for a bad man nothing less than a trail of
human gore.
Red Path Bill was hungry — voracious for
human bones to crush in his mighty jaws, and
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
')•!
he was famishing for drink — red liquor of
the first magnitude, and mixed with human
blood. He could not be appeased. Pounds of
steak — blood raw — or such stale things as
coffee and common bar drinks, could not sat-
isfy such an appetite as he possessed.
So he rambled from place to place, until he
found the place of Harry Hynds.
Hynds came to Cheyenne in the early years,
and had joined with a man named Elliott in
the trade of blacksmithing. He had a strong
arm, and was not afraid to use it ; and he was
also a reader of human character. He quit
blacksmithing, and opened an emporium of
entertainment and refreshments. There he
had to know the science of humankind to sur-
vive.
His business developed, and at the time Red
Path Bill appeared, the place contained a ves-
tibule, with cigars and the like ; and behind
swinging doors of mahogany was a mahogany
bar and crystal glass, and then a third room
separated from the second by swinging doors
of green. In this latter room were the choice
of any number of tame amusements : the faro
box, the roulette wheel, monte, twenty-one,
craps, poker, and sometimes keno.
These interested, amused and entertained,
and sometimes broke and hurried a man up
Hat creek.
Gambling was a quiet vice and the besetting
sin of the cowboy was activity — great activ-
ity — and noise. He was tired of the mighty
reaches of the prairie, and was glad to be
where he could bump into something. He had
wearied of the silent solitudes, and he wanted
the reverberation of sound. So the gun —
that six gun — its roar within the confines of
a room, was different from the futile little
pops out on the open range. The jingling
glass, and his pride of marksmanship that
often plunged a room in darkness, was the
transcendant glory of the new free west. Es-
pecially was this true, when an unwilling and
half wild mustang had been coaxed, rowled,
jabbed and coerced, rearing over threshholds
into unaccustomed haunts. Furthermore the
boys did enjoy seeing the gamblers duck for
cover under the tables or behind the bar.
Red Path Bill, with moccasined feet, came
silently in. His deep voice called for the
strongest at the bar, and then, to the swinging
doors of the inner room. Suddenly he was
electrified. A heavy fist smote simultaneously
each door, and they swung wide. With spec-
tacular effect he had made an entrance. No
one seemed to notice him, and he was offended.
"I'm Red Path Bill," he roared, and glared
about to see if anyone dared dispute it. None
did. Instead, the man at the wheel droned :
"Double OO in the green," and the rumble of
"Deuce-Nine," or "a natural," or "an alsa,"
came from different parts of the room. These
expressions may have been a reference to his
entrance, or they may have referred to the
plays at the different tables. Smiles here and
there would have indicated the former. The
games and the players went on as usual. Red
Path Bill was offended. Somebody had killed
his act in the vaudeville of life. He went
about annoying the players, who tolerated him
with rare good nature, until he trod upon the
toes of a bystander.
Fred Ashford was working in the Union
Pacific shops at the time. He had for several
years whacked bulls on the Black Hills route
for Billy Hecht. Fred was a man r f medium
stature and prodigious strength. He quit
freighting in 1882 and joined a cow outfit,
and then later went into the shops.
To step upon a man's toes in the west was
an affront and a challenge, and when Red Path
Bill picked Ashford for the offense, he did not
know his man. Fred's right arm swung once.
The rest were better told by a humbled and
contrite spirit.
"I am what remains of Red Path Bill. They
took a caseknife and tried to scrape me off
the wall where I had been splattered, but they
could not get enough to do much good."
Each of the classes that inhabited the early
west held the other in contempt. That is : the
soldier aKvays treated the cowboys as "herds-
men," and the cowboys returned the sentiment
with vigor. The gamblers respected the men
of the range for their money, for the game
way they took a loss, but generally with utter
contempt for their skill at cards. Occasionally
they miscalculated. Sandy Ingraham caught a
fellow "out on a limb" once in the Capitol
saloon of Cheyenne. After a delay of careful
deliberation of fifty minutes, he called the
gambler's bet of seven hundred dollars, and
won with "two deuces."
Captain Chas. King, who wrote Trumpeter
Fred, and other tales of local color, always
used the offensive appellation "herdsman."
Thus the whipping of a drunken or saucy sol-'
dier by a cowboy or freighter was always con-
sidered legitimate sport.
Occasionally the cow outfits would sweep
down on old Fort Fetterman, or some other
camp or sub-station in the Fort Laramie dis-
trict, and would rope the mountain howitzers,
and antiquated brass cannon, jerking them
from their positions, would drag them about
the fort. Soldiers knew better than to inter-
100
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
fere with such pranks, for when the sport was
over, the boys would make amends.
When there came real Indian troubles, the
civilian was a valuable asset. An average
freighter or cowman was much better skilled
in the tactics of Indian warfare, and were
needed when trouble arose.
CHAPTER VII
COAD'S RANCH AT SCOTTSBLUFF STATION — SHEEDY'S SEVEN-U RANCH ■
ANECDOTES ABOUT THEM
About 1870, the Coad Brothers took posses-
sion of the old Stage station, "Scotts Bluffs,"
and put in a herd of cows. This they devel-
oped to colossal proportions. The younger
Coads still have the ranch north of Cheyenne
at which Mark M. Coad was killed a few
years ago by a Mexican. At the early date,
however, the principal ranch was just a little
west of the present site of Melbeta, and their
range took in all of the south part of the
North Platte valley, from Court House rock
to and including Mitchell valley. The part-
ners were J. F. and Mark M. Coad. They had
10,000 cattle and their brands best known were
FF-Bar and C-12. The "Wisconsin Ranch"
previously operated by Coad, near Julesburg,
was for caring for bull herds and was the
scene of bloody Indian conflicts.
From Perry Braziel, who "met up" with
"Shanghai" Pierce at Coffeyville, and drifted
up the Texas Trail in 1880, and who went to
work for the Coads in 1882, and who still
lives in the splendid country south of Henry,
and from R. C. Campbell and from other old
timers, I have been able to get a fairly accur-
ate description of the old buildings at the
Scotts Bluff Station, which became the Coad
ranch house.
It faced the south, and was 20 by 50 feet,
its walls were thirty inches thick and the sod
were eight or ten inches in thickness. It had
red cedar cross logs and ridge poles, and poles
and dirt were used for the roof. A row of
posts through the center supported the center
ridge log. The building contained two rooms,
the smaller being about 12 by 20, was used for
the kitchen. A large sod fireplace added cheer
to the larger room.
It was in and around this old building that
"Baldy" Kelly, and "Iron Leg Bill" DeCamp
had their bout over who should win the af-
fections of their enamorita. I never learned
her name, but the stories first gave Baldy an
advantage, and then Bill's Winchester took
part, and the last of Kelly was a fading fog
in the direction of Cheyenne, with a pocket
full of Yorick Nichol's money.
The younger generations of Coads are now
here frequently, and are interested in develop-
ing the feeding industry in the land where
their fathers ran the big range herds.
The Powers brothers came into the Scotts-
bluff country in 1870 or 1871, and they built
a ranch on the north side of the river, within
a mile of the present site of the north end of
the Bayard state aid bridge. They were Tex-
ans and run from 4,000 to 5,000 cattle. Den-
nis Sheedy bought this outfit sometime after,
and here was the famous Seven-U (7U)
brand. He increased the herd to large pro-
portions. Sheedy accumulated a fortune and
has been busy for years in the commercial af-
fairs of Denver, being president of the Den-
ver Dry Goods Company only a short time
ago, and now (1919) vice-president of Colo-
rado National Bank. It is to be ventured that
his active brain is still working in lines for
which it was splendidly equipped.
Around the Seven-U clusters a number of
old anecdotes which extended down to the ad-
vent of the granger. The cowboys used to
sing a song, "The Famous Seven-U Brand,"
when I first came into the west. It was more
of a slam than a song, and one time years
after, when Sheedy stopped at Tusler's, the
lady, who had an old melodian, thought to re-
vive a pleasing memory by singing it, but it
made Mr. Sheedy indignant.
James O'Hallern was in charge at the time
I first visited this ranch, and he was a char-
acter all to himself. He liked company and
had many festive occasions at the old sod
ranch house, where the people came for one
hundred miles to dance.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
101
Tim Montrose was the cook, and a good one
he was, albeit that he "was not much larger
than a drink of water," as the cowboys used to
say. Tim was particularly tired of one fellow
in the olden days who settled down near the
ranch and made it his general source of prov-
ender. Almost; daily he would sojourn from
his squatter's cabin to the ranch to visit Tim-
my, and incidentally "get his fill of grub."
One day Tim pulled out of the capacious
oven a particularly delightful roast of great
dimension. The visitor's nose soon led him to
it. He gorged himself outrageously and had
some internal pains as a result. Yet he felt
called upon to compliment the cook. Tim
asked him if he knew how to make roast beef
tender in the cooking. Receiving the negative
response, he told him to put a little strychnine
upon it — not too much, as a little too much
might be fatal, but that he always put some on
his own cooking. This suggestion, and the in-
ternal agonies increasing, so frightened his
visitor that he never bothered Tim any further.
Montrose made regular trips to Chicago, to
his old home ward, and he invariably came
back with the scars of battle, for he loved a
fight.
One time in a cow outfit, a big bully tried
to "run a whizzer" on Timmy. For a little
time those who knew Montrose were surprised
to see the stranger apparently "getting by with
it." Suddenly the battle fire in the little Irish-
man blazed up, and after a short but terrific
battle, the bully turned and ran.
James O'Hallern liked a good time, and he
frequently called the scattered people of the
country together in the big buildings at the
Seven-U, where they would dance all night
and into the next day.
One time when they had gathered for one
hundred miles to trip the light fantastic, the
cook, Montrose, found access to too many
flasks, which the boys had hidden in the barn.
Tim had found the cache and his condition
was such that O'Hallern had to deny him the
joy of the dance floor. He was tremendously
humiliated, to hear him tell it, and likewise
angry in a maudlin way. He planned deeply
and from his pondering a scheme of revenge
was formed, that lacked only one little essen-
tial element of successful strategy.
He saddled his pony, from the woodpile he
selected a club. Ordinarily he was a good man
with his fists, but this time he was taking no
chances. He took his station at the door from
which he had been ejected. Soon one of the
boys stepped out to take the air, and Mont-
rose very politely asked him to tell O'Hallern
that there was a gentleman at the door who
wanted to speak to him. As the foreman
crossed the threshhold, 'the blow fell, and it
was well aimed and effective. O'Hallern fell
across the doorstep, and was insensible
for several hours. With a whoop of exultant
victory and defiance at the whole world, Tim
Montrose leaped into his saddle and rode away
across the yard toward the Camp Clarke trail.
Here came the disastrous detail he had over-
looked. The clothesline was hung at a proper
height to lift him from the saddle, and the im-
pact upon the earth was sufficiently hard to
leave him in an insensible condition until the
next day. But scratches and bruises were
common in those days, and after a brief delay
to ascertain how serious were the casualties,
the gay party went on with the dance until
after sunrise.
At the Seven-U there are four graves —
two of which were emigrants and two are old
cowboys that died with their boots on and
were so buried. One of the latter was a
brother of Henry Bradford, who was with the
English boys later, and the other a Texan con-
cerning whom later reference is made.
The surviving Bradford had become pos-
sessed of a large acreage north of Camp
Clarke, which was called the Bradford ranch,
and which was operated by a man named El-
liott. Bradford had some income therefrom,
and he spent part of his time at the Seven-U
until his brother was killed.
One day they were discussing a certain out-
law horse that had been run into the corral
with great difficulty. The discussion was
mixed with sundry libations. At a certain
stage "Brad" offered to bet twenty-five dollars
that he could saddle and bridle the animal un-
assisted. The bet was covered and he repaired
to the corral. After much difficulty he man-
aged to get a rope over its head and this he
looped about a log in the barn. Gradually he
worked the animal nearer and finally he got
it into the barn and snubbed up to the manger.
Here he proceeded to blind it with a gunny
sack, and then saddle and bridle it. One sud-
den upward swing of the head at an unexpect-
ed moment took "Brad," who was leaning over
the partition from an adjoining stall, squarely
in the face, and he lost all the teeth of his
upper jaw on the left side. Occasionally af-
terwards, he would point out and display the
gold teeth with which they were replaced, and
say: "Well, I won the twenty-five, but it
cost me a hundred."
When the granger came, the Seven-U was
occupied by Ed Burnett, who was one of the
old families about Bayard. Ed one night had
a very vivid dream about the grave of one of
102
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the emigrants who was buried at the Seven-U.
He awoke the next morning convinced that the
grave was a cache for hidden gold, and he pro-
ceeded to put his faith in dreams into his
works. But when he reached the proper depth
he found a crude decayed coffin and the re-
mains of a little girl. After that. Burnett
lost all faith in dreams, and such foolish
things.
CHAPTER VIII
SURVEYOR SCHLEICxEL'S TEAMSTER HUNG AT SIDNEY — THE BOSLER
RANGE — THE VB BRAND — MINNIE MONTGOMERY HONEY-
MOON—THE HOUSE OF LA GRANGE
Contemporaneously with the establishment
of the Powers ranch (about 1871), Bosler
Brothers & Company built their home ranch
on the lower Blue, near the present site of
Lewellen, and extended their business to in-
clude several ranches up and down the North
Platte river on the north side, but they always
maintained the principal quarters on the Blue.
They ran 15,000 to 20,000 cattle and were one
of the big firms of the time. B-Bar and
others were their brands.
About 1872 E. E. Cunningham, surveyor
general with headquarters at Plattsmouth, sent
Alex. Schleigel to survey a part of the Platte
river country between North Platte and Camp
Clarke bridge. I met Mr. Schleigel a few
years ago in Washington, D. C. He was then
a draughtsman in the Interior Department, but
now lives at Lincoln, Nebraska. He is an old
soldier (being under Lt. Beecher in the Battle
of Beecher Island), and has been in many In-
dian battles, and he is an intimate friend of
Robert Harvey, our state surveyor, and of
John E. Evans of North Platte.
This territory he was to invade was gener-
ally known as the Bosler range, although it
was occupied by Boyd brothers, of which Ex-
Governor James E. Boyd was one ; and the
other ranches of less importance in relation to
size. Schleigel had been at the work two or
three weeks, when he took two men and teams
and crossed the country to Sidney for supplies.
He bought his provisions at the old C. A.
Moore supply depot, then a big concern of the
frontier town.
The Boslers and other big cattle men did
not approve of the survey, for it meant the
final settlement of the land by homesteaders.
After the wagons were loaded, one of the
drivers of the party failed to show up. When
they were ready to depart they made a search
for him,, and in a cottonwood tree that stood
in the vicinity of the garrison at Sidney, they
found the teamster hanging to the limb, dead,
and on his body was pinned a placard, "Horse
Thief."
SchleigeFs party believed the dead man had
stolen no horses, but that cattlemen thought so
little of human life, they had hung an innocent
man, in order to scare them into giving up the
survey.
There was no evidence that it was the work
of the Boslers or any clue as to the identity of
the parties who committed the deed, and per-
haps the man had stolen a horse some time and
the vigilantes had just caught him.
However, a general impression prevailed as
to who it was and why it had been done. If
so, Alex. Schleigel was built of different stuff
than they had calculated. He, the old soldier,
continued his work and finished the survey in
due time.
Mark Bouton arrived over the Texas Trail
in 1873. He decided that Bear creek, about
fifty miles northeast of Cheyenne, looked good
to him, and here he went into the cow busi-
ness. On his way to the north, Mark had
taken a side trip into Denver, and there he
met his affinity. After settling down on Bear
creek he returned to Denver and sought out
his "Virginia," and brought her with him to
the ranch. The romance of Virginia Bouton,
placed upon the range the old and familiar
name. "VB" brand.
One born to the range, cannot change his
habits instantly, and while anchored on BeaT
creek, Mark Bouton traveled much. Mrs.
Bouton frequently accompanied him, and at
such times he gave way to the passion of
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
103
jealously, for his wife was prepossessing, at-
tractive and fond of company.
One time they were in Cheyenne, and he be-
came obsessed of a fear that she intended to
leave him, or to go back to the old wilderness
of passion in which he had first met her. He
warned her not to leave the hotel, under pen-
alty of death. Sometime after dinner she was
gone. Mad with affection and fear, he sought
in all the probable places, but failed to find her.
In the evening, two ladies were approaching
the hotel, when from behind a pile of lumber
on the west side of Eddy street, a pistol shot
rang out. One lady fell dead, and she had
much the same graceful carriage as Mrs. Bou-
ton, but proved to be another and an entirely
innocent girl. Her companion was Minnie
Montgomery, the daughter of John Montgom-
ery, who owned the log stage station on the
Black Hills route, at the north end of the Fort
Laramie bridge.
Miss Montgomery did not see the assailant,
and whoever he was, he made good his escape.
No one knows who fired the shot, but all old
timers had their suspicions.
Bouton finally sold his ranch to Seberry &
Gardner, who built a big stone house, and went
into the business of raising hurdle ponies, for
cross-country riding, and other fancy purposes.
Leaving the ranch, Bouton and his wife
went to Deadwood, and by and by there drift-
ed back along the route a rumor that he had
found his wife talking to a mining man of
considerable prominence, and had started a
row, in which he had come off second best.
They said he was buried in Boots graveyard
at Deadwood.
Young Gardner, of the new firm, was the
trainer for the ranch, and his tiny saddles were
the jokes of the country wide. Once, when a
number of prospective buyers were at the
ranch, young Gardner proposed to give them a
demonstration. He had a series of hurdles of
various kinds over a given run and he mounted
one of his well broken ponies and rode away.
The first hurdle, which was an insignificant
affair, proved too much for his thoroughbred,
and they went down in a heap. A great shout
of laughter went up from the assembled ladies
and gentlemen, which provoked young Gard-
ner into a torrent of language so inelegant, al-
beit so expressive of his sentiments, that the
party beat a hasty retreat.
John Montgomery, the father of Minnie
Montgomery, who was with the unfortunate
young lady who was murdered at Cheyenne,
after the passing of the Black Hills stage,
sold his location and buildings to Whipple &
Hay, who put some cattle on the range, and
established the 4J brand. The same brand is
now (1919) owned by Ed Covington, whose
range is in the Pine Ridge and Hartville
mountains.
One of the brands acquired by the Bay
State Land and Cattle Company, was the 4J,
but it was of another herd, and of less import-
ance. Just east of Wild Cat mountain, in the
northern part of Banner county, is a spring
that adds its flow to that of Pumpkin creek.
This was located by a man named Brown, and
the forty acres on which it was situated was
sold to the Bay State. This spring is known
as the "Four- Jay-Spring."
Ed Bouton, a brother of Mark Bouton, of
the VB, followed from Texas soon after the
location of the VB ranch on Bear creek. He
also had a temper and an inclination to homi-
cide. A sister arrived and in due time was
married to one of the early men, Ed Bryant.
Bryant had a house in Cheyenne on. Sixth
street, but he was out at the ranch considerable
of the time, while his wife lived in the city.
One day Bryant had an altercation with Ed
Bouton, and came off second best.
It was thought best to send the body to the
widow, and it was accordingly placed in a
spring wagon, and a Teutonic employee was
tojd to drive with it to Cheyenne. Two cow-
punchers were delegated to ride along, and see
the safe delivery of the remains.
Reaching the city late one evening, the
punchers went into an emporium for a bracer,
before going to break the news. The Dutch-
man waited some time, and being thirsty, and
also rightly sensing the boys were taking sev-
eral before returning, he decided to make the
delivery alone. Mrs. Bryant heard the knock
on the door, and answered the summons. The
Dutchman said simply :
"Mrs. Bryant, Ed is here."
"Ed who ?" asked Mrs. Bryant, not knowing
if he meant husband or brother.
"Why, Ed Bryant," was the answer.
"Well, why don't he come in?" she asked.
"Why, damn it, he's dead," was the gentle
way he finally broke the news to her.
But the sudden and melancholy end of men,
and the sudden widows of the early west, had
no discouraging effect upon matrimonial events
and ventures.
I have mentioned John Montgomery, the
keeper of the stage station at the north end of
the Fort Laramie bridge. Montgomery had a
daughter — most everyone has a daughter for
that matter — and Miss Minnie Montgomery
was like other daughters of the early west.
She liked to ride, and frequently met the
"birds of passage," the early cowboys, and the
104
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
other cowmen that settled down and anchored
themselves to the soil.
Among her admirers was a foreman of the
P. F. ranch. This foreman used to make peri-
odical visits to Deadwood, taking from the
ranch some of the fat cattle for Deadwood
markets. The P. F. people were not receiving
the liberal returns that they had been led to
believe was in the ranching business, and grew
suspicious of their foreman. An examination
of the books seemed to give an impression
that all the cattle sold in Deadwood were not
accounted for, and they had a warrant out for
their foreman. Officers went to the ranch in
search of the alleged criminal, but not finding
him, were returning to Cheyenne. As they
reached Horse creek crossing they met him in
company with John Montgomery's daughter,
Minnie. They had been married in Cheyenne
the day before, and were on their return home.
The. Bride's Day may have been fair and
clear, but it was "dark in the east and west"
for the groom. I never learned what came of
the trial, or of the principals in the little ro-
mance, but I hope big John Montgomery took
a hand, and that they lived happy ever after.
We lack interest in history and the older
events, frequently because we have no inti-
mate relationship. Yet, to know that this new
land of ours had its loves and romance fifty
or more years ago, attunes our hearts to the
reception of stories of the days so long past.
We travel about and find places named ; and
they are of mountain or plain, or city or valley,
and we seldom stop to think what it was that
named it. For instance, a mark has been left
on Horse creek in the name of LaGrange.
Yet, it has no significance to the ordinary set-
tler, tourist or individual. There are perhaps
a few dozen living people, that a reference to
LaGrange will interest. With them a recita-
tion of the little intimacies, and memories of
experience, or a word of the personnel of the
old times, will arouse a train of memories that
will trail by with their pleasant recollections
for a number of hours. And it might interest
some of the newer people of the community.
All the cowboys of the time knew Kale La-
Grange, as a "squaw man" along with Hi
Kelly. Nick Genice, and Frank Vallet. It was
over a score of years ago that LaGrange quit
the western range and went back to his old
home in Iowa, and afterwards married a white
woman.
Kale's mother, old timers all remember
"Aunt Delia," was a much married woman. I
think she had buried a round half dozen hus-
bands, before she met Tommy Chanavierre
(Shunover) and in the late eighties Tommy
was her spouse — the one we knew. Tommy
was the one whose pride of ancestry runs
back to the time when Marchioness La Pom-
padour was spreading the French Empire over
the western world, but to us he was merely a
jolly old Frenchman, who liked to talk with
his hands, his shoulders and otherwise, and
who, merely for the love of activity and so-
ciety, went visiting about the country in "dat
old buckboard," with "dem old plug." "Shun-
over" died in Iowa. I am not advised if
"Aunt Delia" survived to marry again.
CHAPTER IX
CREIGHTON'S — THE FIRST RANCH OF ALL — DEATH OF CREEL IN BULL
CANYON — TOM KANE'S ADVENTURE — A COWBOY WEDDING
After the loss of his cattle on Rush creek in
1865, John A. Creighton decided to get out of
the lines of the regular raids of Indians. It
seemed that their north and south line of
travel centered in the territory east of Court
I [ouse rock.
It will be observed also that this line was
the path of the buffalo at an earlier date, and
it later became the route of the travelers into
the gold field of the Black Hills, where Henry
T. Clarke's steel lined stages went over the old
toll bridge. Now the travel is by motor, or
over the Burlington.
Creighton went west up Gonneville or
Pumpkin creek. Then over to Horse creek,
and up to the Laramie Plains. Here he built
a substantial set of ranch buildings, securing
the materials from the Laramie mountains.
From this beginning in 1867, originally for
the protection of his bull herds, the great
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Creighton ranch was born. He was first in the
work of tying the east and west with wires
and electric communication, so was he first in
all Wyoming and western Nebraska to go into
the cow business. The Creighton ranch opera-
tions extended and establishments were built
on Horse creek and Pumpkin creek, and his
ten or twelve thousand cattle roamed the
ranges of the east half of Wyoming and the
western part of Nebraska. The half-circle-
bar brand, of the very early days, developed
into the quarter-circle-block, generally called
"circle-block" in the later years.
Pumpkin creek ranch became the "Home
Ranch" after its acquisition by the Bay State,
and the name Pumpkin creek, in place of
Gonneville creek, rose in usage, as the wild
vegetable which provoked it gradually disap-
peared. The range cattle were very fond of
the product, and the vine, and the very roots
of the vine, were stamped out by the cattle
trying to get more of the tasty verbiage.
The "Home Ranch" is woven into song and
story by cowboys. It can be made to apply to
any Home Ranch anywhere in the universe,
and there was a song that had the run on the
ranges when I came into the west which was
entitled "Pumpkin Creek's My Home."
Bull Canyon is an arroyo that leads down
from the Flowerfield Swell to the lower tables
at the head of Pumpkin creek, and it was once
the rendezvous of freighters' bulls used on the
Black Hills route.
These animals were not always enduring,
and they required periods of rest. A man
named Creel decided he would make a busi-
ness of handling the tired cattle until they
should be able to resume the burden of the
yoke.
Bull canyon was unnamed and unappro-
priated, and there was an abundance of water,
and the nearness of the range to Cheyenne
made it a desirable spot for the purpose. So
Creel built his crude cabin and rode about
looking after the herd of bulls.
The Good Book says something about it not
being good for man to dwell alone, but I do
not think that had anything to do with the fact
that Creel, on one of his visits to Cheyenne,
brought back with him a woman.
This woman had no thought of remaining
alone in the solitudes. The sight of the great
herd of cattle, and the isolation put into her
head the thought of independence sudden and
swift. She pointed out to Creel that it would
be easy to get away with the cattle and out of
the country long before the probability of be-
ing discovered. The plan failed, and Creel
was killed, and Bull Canyon became only a
name and a memory.
Tom Kane used to run the ranges of the
Pumpkin creek country. Kane was known in
Sidney in the early days. One day he had a
brush with the Indians, and escaped into the
rushes on the creek bank ten miles east of
Wild Cat mountain, where he lay three days
caring for his wound before he managed to
get away.
And from that fact, occurring about 1874,
the point of rock that extends into the valley
just west of Wright's Gap became known as
Kane's Point. This part of the Wild Cat
range is one of the beauty spots of nature,
and the long wall of windworn rocks that ex-
tends from Kane's Point to the northwest, in
back of Kelly's ranch, resembles the ruins of a
Frowning City built by hands.
John Wright came to Pumpkin creek from
Horse creek in 1877; he earlier resided in
Colorado. Finding some rich, unappropriated
natural meadows in the vicinity of Kane's
Point, he settled down and proceeded to ac-
cumulate cattle. It was adjoining the Wright
ranch that I located a homestead in the mid-
dle eighties, and I remember meeting John
Wright shortly after.
He was driving by, and stopped to watch me
turn over the sod with my grasshopper break-
er. , In the course of our conversation I said
that it would be a mighty good thing if the
grangers and the cowmen could dwell together
in harmony. John exclaimed that I was the
first granger that he had ever heard say such
a thing, and asked me why I thought so. I
told him that I thought the cowmen would fur-
nish a home market for the product of the
granger, to which he agreed.
We were marked for good friends, Wright
and I, and we always were glad to meet each
other. I am sure that it was a sincere friend-
ship.
About the first event of any consequence that
occurred after my coming into the west was a
cowboy wedding.
Miss Alice (Dude) Wright was John
Wright's oldest daughter. Ed A. Boots was
with a cow outfit for the Bay State, and he
and Miss Wright were married at the home of
the Wrights, on Pumpkin creek. The event
brought friends for five hundred miles.
Elder Stephens was then located at Sidney,
and he was retained to perform the ceremony.
"Retained" is probably a legal expression, but
when you bring a minister sixty or seventy
miles into a country, I take it that it is proper
to "retain" him.
The Wrights had some homemade rhubarb
106
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
wine, and in the early prodigal way of the
west, a dish pan full of this was set out on the
table for use of any who desired to partake.
It was said that they even insisted that the
Elder take some, and that he did touch it to
his lips. This was taken as evidence that he
did not hold himself above his associations,
and there were few boys on the range that
would not swear by Elder Stephens. He was
a powerful influence for good in the early west.
The wine was a little light for some of them,
and they surreptitiously emptied their flasks
into the beverage. The result was that it grew
stronger as the evening waned.
W. J. Kelly, who recently died in Denver,
and who was the oldest actual resident of Ban-
ner county at the time of his death, was there,
and he took Jim Pogue into the kitchen for
refreshment. He had Jim to put his lips to
the edge of the pan, while he tipped it, and
Jim let the mixed beverage run down his
throat in considerable quantity. As Pogue
straightened up, he wiped the tears from his
eyes, and said: "Bill, I always did have a
good time when I was with you."
The groom was a bit nervous, and the boys
would urge him to "take a bracer and buck
up. It ain't as bad as it seems," and otherwise
"jolly" him. Boots usually was a very brave
man, but the boys' tormenting got on his
nerves, and he wept during the ceremony,
which filled the boys with glee.
After a while someone missed Kelly and Al
Stringfellow. They went outside and found
these two worthies playing "andy over" the
haystack with their six shooters. This was the
regular pastime for these two after that,
whenever they met, and were in the proper
frame of mind.
The dance continued until morning, and
when some of them were departing, one made
a misstep as he meant to swing into the sad-
dle. The horse swung away, and there he was
with one foot fastened in the stirrup. The
wild bronc made a quick swerve, and the man
swung out clear of him and the ground while
it ran in a short circle. The quick wit of some
other cowboy, and his skill, saved the man.
He dropped a rope over the animal's head,
and brought it up, head end to the man on the
ground.
"Swing your pardners," shouted that worthy,
as he jumped to his feet. The near tragedies
of old times were so lightly held and affairs
that ended well were experiences worth while,
and compensated fully for the danger involved.
I often attended the dances given in the old
Wright school house, and was also at a double
wedding at Wright's when Ed Wright and
Miss Elizabeth Osborne, and Henry Heard of
Texas and Miss Ono Wright were married.
The country had changed by that time, and it
was more on the order of weddings usual in
older communities. Boots now resides at
Thermopolis, Ed Wright at Morrill, and Henry
Heard at Long Beach, California. Thus the
tides of life separate and distribute the peoples
of the world.
CHAPTER X
FIRST RANCH IN NEBRASKA WEST OF NORTH PLATTE, KEITH & BARTON
H. V. REDINGTON'S RANCH — NERUD'S CORNER — LATER
SNAKE CREEK RANCHES
The first to actually engage in ranching in
western Nebraska, that is west of North Platte,
was Keith & Barton. Morrill C. Keith was
grandfather of Ex-Governor Keith Neville,
and Guy C. Barton was well known in Omaha
business and club circles for many years. The
location of their ranch was at O'Fallon's Bluff,
and about eighteen miles west of North Platte.
Guy Barton was the originator of the ranch, in
which Keith soon joined. After Keith and
Barton, it was owned and operated by Barton
& Dillon.
The year that Creighton built his ranch near
Wyoming station on the Laramie Plains
(1867), Barton embarked in the sheep busi-
ness at O'Fallons. In 1868, when Robert
Harvey was with a surveying party in that
vicinity, the ranch was not much of an affair.
But it was the nucleus, and on the site was
builded the big stone house that still stands.
John Bratt, later for many years around
North Platte, came up the Texas Trail in
1866, and the following year, he built the sec-
ond ranch in Wyoming on the Laramie Plains,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
107
but the altitude, and the better grasses in the
vicinity of North Platte, made a change in his
plans and he was almost as early in that vicin-
ity as Keith & Barton. His first ranch there,
however, was south of the river and east of
North Platte city, and the high posts a little
east of the state experiment farm, indicate the
gateway of the original ranch. He later
moved to the Birdwood, twenty miles north-
west of North Platte, on the north side of the
"North river."
Next in the order of seniority, but in fact
the first ranching in the Panhandle of western
Nebraska, was started by H. V. Redington, in
1870.
Mr. Redington still lives at Sidney (1919).
In 1870 he landed at Sidney, and he located
his ranch on "Lorren's" fork, about a mile
from its junction with Gonneville or Pumpkin
creek. This ranch was not far distant from
the identical spot where Gonneville, the French
trapper, lost his life years before.
The nearest ranch to the westward at that
time was Creighton's Horse creek ranch —
over sixty miles. The nearest to the south was
Iliff's ranch on the South Platte river — sev-
enty-five miles. And the nearest ranch to the
east was Keith & Barton's at O'Fallon's — one
hundred miles. And the whole country to the
north was Indian land.
His ranch dates the same year that Coad
Brothers took over Scottsbluff Stage station
for their cattle operations, but earlier in the
year.
The country along the Platte was a year or
two later than Mr. Redington in the matter of
seniority of ranch locations. But north of the
river into the Black Hills remained Indian
domain until some years after when gold dis-
coveries in the Hills brought about a transfor-
mation. Stage routes from Sidney and Chey-
enne, and the tremendous freight transporta-
tion opened up this new country in 1876, and
later.
On the south side of the Platte, just a short
distance below Bridgeport, are some ditches
that look like rifle pits of the Indian days.
These are all that remains of the original Hart
ranch in western Nebraska. The trenches
were made around hay stacks in the place of
fences, and were to keep range cattle away
from them, which it did very successfully.
The later location of the Hart ranch, on Snake
creek, was about one and one-half miles up
the creek from the Sidney crossing. This
ranch branched into mercantile business and
had a post-office.
This location later became known as Nerud's
corner, and the four corners were occupied by
different branches of business. A timely wag
immortalized them in verse that ran as fol-
lows :
Nerud's corner,
Baxter Street,
Foster's restaurant,
And nothing to eat.
Joe Nerud had long since become the owner
of a valuable place on Snake creek. He had
the blacksmith's shop at the Corners in the
early days.
Old Joe frequently comes to Scottsbluff to
trade, but an indiscreet joker has made his
visits less frequent than of yore. His country
is naturally tributary to Scottsbluff, and his
son, Young Joe, married one of the Scotts-
bluff's charming girls, Matilda Montz.
Old Joe was here a number of years ago,
and at the time the bootlegger, Bill Bowen,
was doing business. Like most old timers, Ne-
rud likes a nip now and then, and if the
weather is just right he may take two. Bill
had the goods, and it just so happened that the
chief of police was hot on his trail, and had
him pulled for a "vag."
Bill was a pitiful object of humanity and
Nerud's sympathies were aroused. He told
the officers of the law that he would take Bill
out to the ranch, if they would let him off.
The humor of the situation was too great to
be resisted, and he was put into the wagon
alongside of Joe. and sent out to Snake creek.
I cannot say what brought about the trans-
formation in Nerud's sentiment, but the fact
is, that a day or two later, Bill Bowen arrived
on the Burlington with a paid in advance
passage from Angora, and he did not have a
cent when he left Scottsbluff.
A man is not to be censured if he changes
his mind. Wise men have that privilege —
and no one would blame any man, who in an
impulse of sympathy or sentiment should pick
up a bug, if he should decide, when he came to
an analytical study of the insect, that he had
no further use for it. A kind heart only would
take the trouble of returning it to the spot
from which he had taken it.
Pearson's ranch was one of the later places
on Snake creek, and he needed more range and
came into the hills about three miles north of
the west end of Lake Alice, where he estab-
lished a camp — as a sub-station for the
ranch. These sub-stations consist usually of a
well and windmill and a set of watering tanks.
Sometimes a small shack and corral is added.
This sub-station of the Pearson ranch was the
only watering place between Snake creek and
the' North Platte river.
108
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
When Pearson sold to Billy Haynes, he re-
served this sub-station for his own use.
Pearson had two daughters, and the oldest,
Alma, married Joe Maycock and they went to
Lusk to live. She did not live very long —
only a couple years, I believe, and then Joe
married the younger daughter, Mamie.
A few years ago they removed to Canada,
where Joe has since died.
The 'Maycock brothers were among the cow-
boys when the grangers began to arrive. For
when the contingent that settled old Tabor
(now Minatar'e) landed in the valley, John
Maycock was the first to greet them. He at once
"spread the alarm" up and down the valley
for manv miles.
Virgil' Grout and Captain W. R. Akers were
building their first irrigation ditch over the
Wyoming line, when they saw John coming,
riding like the wind, and when he got in hear-
ing distance he commenced to shout the news :
"There is a whole colony settling on the river
down below Scottsbluff, and they have brought
along everything, even a postoffice." This lat-
ter was, of course, an invention or imagina-
tion, but all who knew John Maycock are not
surprised at this — in fact it was moderation.
Some years later John Maycock dropped dead
from his horse in the sage brush of central
Wyoming, and there was another on the Final
Roundup.
Mike Elmore's ranch was down Snake creek
a few miles from the old Sidney crossing.
This well known place has passed into the
hands of the big grading outfit, Kilpatrick
Brothers, who use it for wintering horses.
They built a large reservoir on the creek run-
ning sheet piling down into the substrata to
raise the underflow for a supply for irrigation.
The experiment was only partly successful.
They did increase the supply a small amount,
but not nearly so much as they had expected.
Mike Elmore was recently ' (1919) killed at
Sheridan, Wyoming, by being struck with a
passing automobile.
Wilbur L. Wallace went to Snake creek in
1S87, and located near the old Hart ranch. He
also needed more range than was obtainable
near there and he came into the Lake Alice
country, and established a sub-station about a
mile northwest of the Pearson wells, Wallace's
wells then became a watering place for many
travelers. In due time. Wallace's business took
him to Scottsbluff, and he and his family have
resided in that city for about all the life of the
municipality. He is now a heavy dealer in
livestock for range or feeding purposes and
in banking business at Henry (1919).
John Caddis located on Snake creek at the
same time that Wallace went there, and his
daughter Nellie, who later became Mrs. Wal-
lace, and together they have followed the trail
of human events, and shared the joys and re-
sponsibilities for over a quarter. of a century.
Turner Harris come into the Snake creek
country in 1888, and went over to Mud Springs
for his selection. This place also developed
and became a postoffice. Were it not for this,
the postoffice department and the Burlington
railroad would be asked to change the name of
meaningless "Simla" to "Mud Springs." As
that railroad station south of Bridgeport is the
location of the famous Mud Springs of his-
tory.
The Mud Springs in Sioux county soon
passed to the hands of the Schoonovers, and
they in turn sold it to Ed Eastman. Eastman
used to live at Minatare, and was identified
in the story of Jimmy Moore, related else-
where.
Eastman wanted more land, and Mrs. East-
man secured a divorce on very good grounds
of periodical intoxication. She then took a
claim near his land, and in due time made final
proof. Then Mr. and Mrs. Eastman secured a
license and went before a magistrate to re-
marry.
The judge noticed that the names were both
Eastman, and he asked some question about it.
Mrs. Eastman told him that they had been
previously married, and he wanted to know
why they had been divorced. She told him,
honestly, that she had secured a divorce on the
grounds of drunkenness. The humor of the
affair was that at the time of the second wed-
ding, she might have had ample grounds for a
second divorce on the same complaint.
John Maycock bought out Eastman after a
few years, and the place finally went to Joe
Schramek, who sold it to Chas. Loucomer, the
present owner.
Below the Elmore ranch on Snake creek,
Billy Haines was known to many of the later
people. He had bought out Frank Harris, Will
Benn, Iperhope and some others, and made
quite a ranch. After Billy's death, Mrs. Haines
sold the ranch to Wilson brothers. Doc. Wil-
son was quite active for a time, but the ranch
finally went to Scotty Henderson. Scotty has
been in the Snake creek for a third of a cen-
tury, and is the present owner of the valuable
ranch, the history of which runs back to al-
most the beginning of the cow business in this
part of the west.
Jim McKinney was also upon this creek
some distance below the Elmore ranch. Mc-
Kinney sold out and went into the creamery
business at Alliance.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XI
COLONEL CHARLES COFFEE OF CREIGHTON'S, BOX ELDER, ROCK RANCH,
HAT CREEK AND CHADRON — EMMET & BREWSTER — ARREST
OF FLY SPECK BILL — FIRST GARDENS IN SIOUX COUNTY
The Texas trail has brought many a good
man into the western range country, and it
did not depart from the custom when Colonel
Charles Coffee arrived in 1873, at the Creigh-
ton ranch on Horse creek. Charlie was quite a
fellow to "play his own hand," so he soon
went over on the Box Elder in the Goshen
Holes and built his initial ranch on the north-
ern range.
The following year he went to the river, for
hay and grasses of the Goshen Holes then
made rather short picking for the stock in win-
ter. Around the Rock ranch location, then
as now, there were some excellent meadows.
The summer range around there was good,
and the valley produced good hay for winter.
This brought about the building of the ranch
at that point about 1877.
The earlier years had witnessed activity in
the same vicinity. Carleton Clinton tells us
that the original name was Stone ranch, from
the fact that a southerner first located it, that
his name was Stone, and that he brought
north with him a number of slaves, and lived
there for a time. Clinton has not given us his
authority, and we have been unable to con-
vince ourselves that slavery has ever existed in
the North Platte valley. None of the chron-
iclers of events along the Overland trail has
mentioned it, and the trail fell into disuse
about the time or shortly after slavery was
abolished.
The overland stage and the pony express
had a stopping place near the present ranch,
and the meadows were used for supplying
feed for their stock. But I am conviced that
Rock ranch as a ranch- came into existence,
almost simultaneously with the abandonment
of the old Red Cloud agency. Stealing stock,
particularly horses, by the Indians was com-
mon at that time.
The horses of Charles Coffee were so stolen,
except a few of the most useless, and the
work of building the original rock house on
this ranch was principally by hand. The
rocks were torn out of the hills close at hand
and wheeled by hand to the site, where they
were laid up in alkali gumbo. The barn, pre-
viously built, was west of the house, the house
was provided with port-holes commanding a
view of the barn, for the purpose of prevent-
ing the success of any further Indian raids
upon the stock. The original building is
the north part of the present Rock house, and
the port-holes are filled in with masonry.
Sometime before the building of this ranch,
or about 1876, Coffee was at Ogallala, and in
company with a man named Gordon, who is
the father of the Gordon in the Gordon Con-
. struction Company. They had what was call-
ed, "The Wild West Exchange" at Ogallala
at this time, and here the boys challanged one
another for feats of doing or daring char-
acteristic of the Wild West. Someone had
captured a young buffalo, and had it properly
confined. While generally the talk was of
horses, and Gordon was expostulating concern-
ing the merit of his horse, as a racer, Coffee
told him his horse was not so much, that he
could beat it and ride the buffalo. That na-
turally led to an expression of doubt as to
whether the young Texan could stick to the
animal.
Gordon and Coffee met only a few days
ago, and when Gordon sprung the old incident,
Charlie said: "The boys told me that I had
a pretty good time at that affair, and looking
myself over in the grey light of the morning
after, I am confident that they were right."
He had ridden the buffalo, but there were a
few indications that the buffalo might have
stepped on Charlie sometime during the per-
formance.
At the time they were at Ogallala, a noted
character named "Fly Speck Bill." his face
being well spotted with freckles that had the
appearance of fly specks, had been appre-
hended and placed in the city jail. But the
jail was a flimsy affair, and failed to hold him
for long. A day or two later, as Coffee was
leaving Sidney for the north on the stage, Bill
was found to be one of the passengers. At
Camp Clarke they separated, and Charlie did
not see him again until the following year.
He had then just stolen John Durbin's horse
at Cheyenne and was making his get-away.
Here he obtained a good look at the man and
sensed his identity, although he did not make
himself known.
Sometime later, when in Cheyenne, Coffee
met Billy Likens, the redoubtable man that run
down Doc. Middleton about the same time,
and Likens asked if he knew "Fly Speck Bill."
Being assured, he asked Coffee if he would
110
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
point him out, as he had reason to believe the
horsethief was in town.
They went into the Tivola saloon, then on
the corner west of the old Inter-Ocean hotel,
and the man was sitting at one of the tables.
Likens pressed a gun muzzle against the back
of his neck and said : "Fly Speck Bill, you are
my meat." The arrest proved a tame affair,
for the man merely glanced at the officer, and
threw up his hands, saying: "Oh, all right!"
By this time the Coads had laid claim to
about all of the North Platte valley, east of
Scottsbluff mountain. They had put fences
in the gaps in the hills, and had some pole
bars in Mitchell Gap.
Among early ranchmen, a custom had sprung
up to respect the calves belonging to another,
and if a cow and calf were found in a herd,
off of their proper range, it was customary to
put on the calf the brand of the real owner.
Coad early refused to follow the custom, and
the calves of other fellows found in his herds
were left unbranded.
One time a calf belonging to the Coads
crawled through the bars, into Mitchell val-
ley, and was found by a bunch of fellows from
higher up the river. That Coads might under-
stand the custom, they singed the hair on one
side of the calf with big letters "M-A-R-K"
and on the other side "C-O-A-D," Coad did
not like it, but he took the hint.
By 1879 the North Platte valley had become
' too tame for Colonel Coffee, he determined to
try the wilderness once more. Near the pres-
ent site of Ardmore, on Hat creek, he found
Hugh Jackson. He told Hugh that he was
looking for a new location, and with the
courtesy of the first cowmen, he asked Jack-
son if he would like a neighbor. Being assured
that he would be welcome, Coffee went up Hat
creek, looking for a suitable place. He esti-
mated his speed, and took note of the time by
his watch, until he had reached, as he thought,
about fifteen miles — that being a neighborly
distance.
There he and his wife and boys, Charles T.
Jr., the youngest was only six months old, set-
tled down in a cabin on what proved to be sec-
tion fourteen, township thirty-three, range fifty-
five. There the O-Ten-Bar brand and ranch
was born. Coffee still has the place, and twen-
ty-two thousand acres around it, vast herds of
cattle, a bank in Chadron, and various other
matters to occupy his attention.
Granville Tinnin is the hero in the pretty
story, "The Foreman of the JAC. This ranch
is on the Rawhide, and is partly owned by
Coffee, who has often told Mrs. E. Joy John-
son, the writer, that she made a hero out of
the wrong partner. I presume Tinnin would
take issue with his producer on this matter.
About the same time that the Hat creek
ranch was located, Emmet & Brewster estab-
lished the S-Bar-E brand twelve miles farther
west. Two of the hangers on about the
S-Bar-E ranch were "Whitney Jim," and
"Trapper Tom," and they built an independent
cabin on a branch of Hat creek, where they
could follow their own inclinations wittiout in-
terference. Jim had an inclination, or pro-
pensity, for strong drink, and a pronounced
aversion to cleanliness. In season he would
gather a wagon box full of wild plums, take
them to Fort Laramie, and come back amply
provided with booze, which Tom would help
him to consume. They had interesting times
trying to put each other to bed, when in this
maudlin state, both maintaining with the dig-
nity of intoxication that the other was drunk.
Tom captured hundreds of beaver, and sold
the pelts for one dollar each, which supplied
all that was necessary during the winter peri-
ods. The pair originated farming into the
northwestern corner of the state — they raised
gardens and potatoes usually sufficient for their
needs.
The different branches of Hat creek and
White river began to take on the euphoneous
names of early days, such as "Dirty Jim
Creek," "Sow-belly Creek," "Tom Creek,"
"War Bonnet Creek," and the like, and Cof-
fee's ranch, after he had removed to Chadron
and the kangaroo rats made merry around the
place, was nick-named "Lickit ranch." While
the place was abandoned part of the time, it
was kept well provisioned. Sometimes those
who were there for a day or two, left without
washing the dishes, and one time, when some
others had stopped and found the dirty plates,
one complained and another said : "Why don't
you 'lick it', if you don't like it." Thus orig-
inated the name that endures.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
111
CHAPTER XII
JOHN ADAMS JOINS REDINGTON IN FIRST RANCH OF THE PANHANDLE-
THE RUSTLERS — ORIGIN OF RANCHES ON CEDAR CREEK— SMITH'S
FORK OR RUSH CREEK — VANTASSEL'S TIE CONTRACT
In 1874, John M. Adams, allured by the big
profits then apparent in the cattle business, the
Indian depredations having practically ceased,
came to Sidney, and formed a partnership with
H. V. Redington, under the name of Adams,
Redington & Company, at the ranch near the
junction of "Gonneville" creek and Lorren's
fork, about a mile south of the present location
of Redington. Their range included the lower
Pumpkin creek country and Lawrence fork.
Adams in a recent letter tells of it, and em-
phasizes the name "Lorren's fork," explaining
its original significance. "Lorren's," of French
derivation, indicates robbers, and the rocks
about the head of this stream were once the
rendezvous of a band of robbers, who preyed
upon the unprotected stragglers along the
Overland. Adams, Redington & Company ran
4,000 to 6,000 cattle, and their principal and
best known brand was H-Bar.
The Greenwood ranch of Tusler Brothers
was one of the well known spots along the
Sidney trail. Merchant & Wheeler built this
about 1872, and it was operated as a horse
ranch when I first knew of it.
I was then new to the ways of the west.
Clark Streeter, who had been ranging cattle
on Medicine creek, south of North Platte until
the grangers came into that territory, and I,
were riding to the North river country, when
we arrived at the Tusler ranch a little after
noon. We dropped our bridle reins over the
heads of our tired beasts, and walked to the
door and asked if we could get dinner. A lady
told us "No, we never feed travelers," and
she no doubt meant it. The travel along the
route was doubtless quite extensive and they
had adopted the system. We asked how far it
was to the next ranch, and she stepped outside
to show us the road. Seeing our horses and
accoutrements, she exclaimed : "Oh, you are
cowboys, are you ? Well, come right in, and
we will find a bite for you."
I was not then a cowboy, but I was young
and hungry, and Streeter was audacious and
hungry, and we went "right in." While we
were eating, the lady asked us a question that
would have floored me, but Clark had been a
little longer in the west. She asked : "What
outfit do you belong to?"
"We are working independent," answered
Clark promptly. "We are looking for cows
branded 'L,' on the left shoulder, and some
Oregon mares that got away and started back
along the trail."
I told you Streeter was audacious, but he
went it stronger than I could have imagined.
I was later informed that there was this much
truth to his reply: The cows he used to run
were branded "L" on the left shoulder; also
several years before his father had bought a
bunch of Oregon mares, and some of them
had gotten away, and never came back.
C. C. Nelson and Dr. Geo. C. Keenan bought
this ranch, and I think they own it now
(1919). Keenan was a brother of Mrs. Tus-
ler.
A letter from Adams tells of the hospiltality
of the early ranchers, but we are inclined, from
our first experience, to think that this hospi-
tality had its limitations to the ranch class ;
that the only way to reach this hearty hospita-
ble nature, was to bear "some of the earmarks
of a range critter."
Adam's letter says : "at these ranches, the
truest and freest of hospitalities prevailed, and
the way-farers and weary travelers were al-
ways welcome to any and all comforts and nec-
essities that the abode could furnish for man
or beast. In fact each ranch was supplied with
the necessities of life in abundance and the
way-farer was welcome to help himself with-
out awaiting the presence of, or asking the
consent of the owner or his representative. This
practice was continued until the county settled
up more thickly, and the abuses of such gen-
erous courtesies caused the stockmen to discon-
tinue their liberalities to some extent.
"The ranchmen learned to have in their out-
laying ranches, only such things as they could
have locked up, nailed down, or otherwise
guarded from petty pilferers, and malicious and
unseemly jokers."
Tusler ran about two thousand cattle and
one thousand horses, and the ranch brand was
Sixty-six on the left side, and cow animals were
also marked with dewlaps on the brisket.
In 1885, Elijah Tusler was riding in a pri-
vate car of an official of the Union Pacific,
when it arrived at Sidney. Yielding to the
importunities of "the bunch" on board, Tus-
ler remained on the car after it left for the
west. Before it arrived at Potter, he stepped
out on the rear platform, and not returning as
11.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
quickly as the party thought he should, an-
other opened the door, and on the platform
lay the form of Tusler. He was quite dead,
apparently from heart disease, and was taken
back to Sidney, from which point the fact was
communciated to the widow at the ranch.
"Ark" or "Henry County" Hughes was
working for the Tusler people at the time.
Hughes had come up from the mines of Colo-
rado in 18S0. He went to work on the Tus-
ler ranch in 1883, and remained there for four
years. In the meantime he had "picked out"
a place on Horse Creek, where he established
his own ranch and range.
The Tusler cattle were sold to the Ogallala
company, and the Greenwood ranch continued
in the horse business a number of years.
Charlie Nelson, a veteran of the other years,
still operates it (1919), and it is worth while
to start him reminiscensing, and hear story
after story follow as he leads out like a hound
upon a trail.
On Cedar creek, which the earlier maps
designate as Rush creek, C. A. Moore built a
ranch in the early seventies. The Shiedley
Brothers bought this place for their North
river operations. Mac Radcliff now owns it.
The first convention that I ever attended in
western Nebraska, was at Sidney, and Mac
Radcliff was the nominee of the democratic
party for county commissioner of old Cheyenne
county.
The Rush creek shown on the maps today,
was originally called Smith's Fork. Moore had
from one thousand to two thousand cattle and
his range extended from the mouth of Smith's
Fork to the ranch.
When the Shiedley Brothers acquired this
ranch, Moore went into the mercantile busi-
ness. He established a big supply depot at
Sidney for ranch supplies and Black Hills out-
fitting. And at one time the sod emporium at
the north end of the Camp Clarke bridge was
owned by Moore.
Just at what time, and how it came about,
that Rush creek was changed Cedar creek, and
Smith's Fork was changed to Rush creek, I
do not know, but this explanation has served
to clear up some of the foggy ideas concern-
ing locations of Indian battles and other early
historic events. Modern maps give these
streams the later designations.
On the head of Smith's Fork, Lambert Jen-
kins of Sidney, began building his ranch struc-
tures in 1873. The widow of Jim Moore, the
pony express rider, having some means, ac-
quired an interest in this ranch, which she
sold at the time of her moving to Cheyenne to
become Mrs. VanTassel. Tom Kane purchased
her interests, and Henry Newman also took a
part in the ranch's destinies. Then a number
of railroad men organized a company, and
bought the entire outfit, and put George Green
in charge. They were succeeded by Reuben
Lisco, and the late Thos. Wells of Chicago.
Under the latter ownership the Rush Creek
Land & Cattle Company has remained under
the direct charge of Mr. Lisco until the pres-
ent time.
This ranch was owned by many and differ-
ent firms, but I am not advised that the own-
ership was always satisfactory to the owners.
I will venture the opinion that when Lambert
Jenkins sold it, he did so at a profit ; and that
under the present ownership it has been well
managed and is one of the solid affairs of the
kind.
R. S. VanTassel, of Cheyenne, who married
Mrs. Jim Moore, was, and still is, for that
matter, one of the most lively wires that evel
came into the west. He started in the territory
of Wyoming, and it has ever since been his
home. He was unlike Post and some others
that "Cut quite a swath" for a time and then
went on to other fields. His field has always
been Wyoming, although at the time this ii
written (1916) he is in a hospital in Denver,
attended by his present faithful and charming
wife. I say "present" for the reason that he
has been married four times. Once before
his uniting with Mrs. Moore, and twice since.
The first two died, and the third, who was an
excellent woman and the daughter of Big Alex
Swan, is divorced because of incompatibility of
temperament.
Mr. VanTassel came with the Union Pacific,
and he took a contract to supply that company
with a million and a quarter ties at a million
and a quarter dollars, in 1867. These ties were
to be taken from the land grant and govern-
ment lands in the Medicine Bow mountains,
and delivered at a station called Medicine Bow.
to be located on the railroad near the edge of
the Laramie Plains.
During the winter large camps of wood
choppers were maintained, and they piled up
the ties along the gulches and frozen streams
to await the spring freshets. Then came the
work of "booming ties," one of the perilous,
daring and strength-testing undertakings in the
west. Men were detailed to keep the ties from
jamming, and to break jams should they occur.
At Medicine Bow, a string of ties fastened to-
gether stretched across the stream, and work-
men pulled the floating ties ashore and piled
them up in great ricks as fast as they came
down to this obstruction. A man was here de-
tailed to mark them and two men kept tally of
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
113
the marked ties. The marks were made by a
hammer on one end of which was the letter
"S" for identification in the wood. The other
end of the hammer was smooth. The two
score keepers were selected, one by the Union
Pacific and the owner by Mr. VanTassel.
One of these chanced to be John Snodgrass,
later identified with the Bay State Company. A
wily little Irishman was detailed to use the
hammer and as the strokes resounded, the
score-keepers would record — one — two — three
— four — tally, etc., etc. It developed that about
every other tap that the Irishman made, was
with the smooth end of the hammer on a tie
already marked or next to be marked. So that
for a while the Union Pacific was receiving
only about half the ties that they paid for. I
did not learn whether the Irishman got fired or
promoted, but he "sure" was making money for
R. U. VanTassel while it lasted.
CHAPTER XIII
JIM KIDD'S TRAINING GROUND — Y-CROSS AND CHERRY CREEK RANCHES
— HENHY COUNTY HUGHES — LITTLE MOON POST-OFFICE —
OELRICH'S WILD ESCAPADES
About four miles north of La Grange for-
merly was the old Y-Cross ranch. It is one
of the oldest places in the country. It was
built by the Daters early in the seventies, not
long after those Texans had established the
Sixty-six. Ben Morrison ran the ranch for
the Daters, and it was under him that Jim
Kidd became a wonderful rider. So wonder-
ful indeed was his skill in the saddle that he
traveled with Buffalo Bill's wild west show
around the world, and finally he married one
of the women riders of that aggregation. Lowe
bought the place from Daters, and Hi Kelly
once owned it. In 1888 it was a sort of a
road house, where mighty poor meals were
served for "six bits a throw." About 1900 it
was bought by the Yoders, and is now the
ranch of Yoder and Marsh.
I was then bound for the Big Horn Basin.
When I crossed the Goshen Holes it was one
of those queer mirage days, when everything
was a shimmer, and everything unreal. I
passed within a mile or so of the Cherry Creek
ranch, originated by Coffee in 1874, owned by
Doty in 1888, and now belonging to the Clays.
I am sure that the solid ground on which the
ranch stands then appeared to be one vast in-
land sea, and boats floating upside down.
Charles Coffee built the first structures of this
ranch, Doty & Chamberlain enlarged it, and in
1886 they had a splitup. Chamberlain closed
out his interests and went to Douglas, from
which city he was elected to the State Senate.
He made a lot of money in the sheep busi-
ness later. Doty held to the place for twelve
years, when he sold to the Two-Bar people.
Both Doty and Chamberlain are now with the
Final Roundup over the Great Divide.
The ranch is still owned by the Clays, and
Curtis Templeton is the genial local manager.
"Henry County" Hughes has his ranch in
this section of the country, although he lives at
Scottsbluff much of the time. "Henry Coun-
ty" quit the Tuslers about 1887 and went to
work for the Bay State. He was in Chris
Streeks' outfit for a season or two.
Hughes is like Runey Campbell and Ed.
Stemler in the respect that he likes to play the
fiddle, and he is like J. S. Robb, in that he
was one of the best story-tellers of the western
range ; and he is like Wyatt Heard, and J. W.
Hoke, and Auctioneer Hollingsworth or E. von
Forell, that he is stall and spare, and like
Mark Twain that his humor is droll and full
of subtle elements.
Around cow outfits, at night he loved to
get strung out with his yarns, and get the "boys
agoing." But the foreman always settled
matters when his stories reached too far into
the night. He would roll up in his "tarp,"
and if "Henry County" failed to take the hint,
he would say : "Ark, you better catch a horse,
and go on night herd tonight," and that meant
an order, and it also meant no more stories
for that night.
On lower Horse Creek, at the crossing of
the Overland Trail, there was an old sod struc-
ture used by the hurrying pony express riders.
It was just northwest of this station, that John
Sparks, in 1872, built a sod house for his men.
114
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
About the same time he built a similar place on
the Lodgepole near Potter.
This Horse Creek ranch house, from de-
scriptions given by many old timers, and par-
ticularly by L. J. Wyman, who made it his
headquarters for years and who owned the
land until 1919, cannot fail to be of interest
and historic value.
It was twenty-four by twenty-six feet in-
side, and the walls were thirty inches thick. It
had three windows and a door. The door was
made of plank, and the windows had shutters
made of plank, which were hauled from a saw-
mill located in the Laramie mountains. This
was the same mill that supplied much of the
material used in the buildings at Fort Laramie.
The floor and roof board were double, and on
the roof was placed several inches of dirt.
Four port-holes were in the walls, one on
each of the four sides, made in the manner
of an hour glass placed in a horizontal posi-
tion, to give a wide range of territory in case
of an Indian attack. We have no record that
it was ever attacked. The Red Cloud agency
was then on the spot where the Lower PF now
stands, but it was moved fifty miles or more
to the north in 1876.
In this soddy there was a post-office estab-
lished, the first in Scotts Bluff county territory,
and William Lancaster was the first post-
master. It was called "Little Moon," after a
noted Indian chief. When the post-office was
established, the soddy was enlarged to make
room for it, although it did not take much
room. It must have been abandoned about
1874, for Lancaster resigned and returned to
the eastern part of the state, and went into
the drug business.
The house faced the southeast. In addition
Mr. Sparks had about two acres, enclosed by
a sod wall, three feet thick and five feet high.
He also fenced a meadow of about one hun-
dred and sixty acres, and some of the posts are
still in use after nearly fifty years. This ranch
was sold to W. C. Lane and Thomas Sturgis
in 1876. Mr. Sparks moved to Nevada, where
he later became governor. While he was here
he owned a valuable riding horse which he
kept for his wife, for prior to her death she
loved to ride the great prairies. After his de-
parture the horse was in charge of Jim Shaw,
"Fiddler" Campbell's buddy, and was kept at
the Circle Arrow east of Antelopville, now
called Kimball, and at the Circle Block at
the head of Pumpkin Creek.
Once S. J. Robb, (the father of Mrs. Frank
McCreary of Scottsbluff,) who was then fore-
man at the Circle Block, and who recently died
in Arizona, was riding "Old Fox," as the
horse was called, when he came upon a bunch
of wild horses. Old Fox so quickly overtook
them that Robb did not have time to get his
lariat into action. He seized one of them by
the tail, and threw her off her step, and so de-
layed her progress, that another cowman on
a slower horse, roped and captured a pretty
young mare.
A little before, and during the trouble of
Jim Shaw over the Collins shooting affair at
Camp Clarke bridge, the horse was taken care
of by Chris Streeks, the veteran "line rider,"
and Old Fox was the favorite riding horse
of the young lady who later became the wife
of the writer of this history. The horse was
Kentucky bred, and was of such fine spirit
that after getting settled in Nevada, Mr.
Sparks had him shipped to that state.
L. J. Wyman, went to work for Sturgis &
Lane in 1882, and he made his home in the
famous old soddy for years. He owned the
place until this year (1919) and has the dis-
tinction of being very nearly the first perma-
nent settler in Scotts Bluff county. Charley
Foster contests with him this honor, and he
may have a short time the best of it.
Sturgis & Lane organized the Union Cattle
Company, and Mr. Goodell was one of the big
stockholders. The Bridle-Bit brand was
theirs, and it was one familiar to the early
grangers. This company is credited with hir-
ing men from the Union Pacific shops at
Cheyenne, and the women of the wild district,
as well as cowboys, to file upon lands. Be
that as it may, it secured a vast acreage, much
of which will come under the Fort Laramie
government canal for irrigation.
About five thousand acres of this land was
on lower Horse Creek in Nebraska, and a
"Lincoln Land Company," of Minnesota was
negotiating for its purchase in 1907, when the
news came that the "Lincoln Land Company"
of Nebraska, had purchased the stock of the
corporation, thereby acquiring the enormous
acreage in this state, as well as in Wyoming.
Nearly opposite this ranch, on the other side
of the North Platte river, was Oelrich's
ranch. When the Scotchmen were becoming
excited over the bonanza ranching in the high
plains region, the Oelrich brothers, Harry and
Charlie, came out from Cheyenne, and acquired
a small holding of hay meadows, on the north
side of the river in the vicinity of the present
site of Morrill. This they fenced like the
Sturgis & Lane hay meadows were fenced, with
native cedar and pitch pine posts, and barbed
wire.
There was no bridge at this point, but the
river was generally in good condition to ford,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
115
and there was a ford here that was used for a
great many years. Land seekers looking for
claims north of the river on the now famous
Dutch Flats, generally crossed at Oelrich's
ranch.
The brothers were of the wild sort of fel-
lows, and had no conception of the value, or
the endurance, of horseflesh. Often they
would make the drive from the ranch to Chey-
enne in less time than they should, and would
ruin a good horse or two in the operation.
Driving out they observed about the same judg-
ment. They were inclined to indulge in the
flowing bowl more than discretion would ap-
prove, and that was perhaps one of the rea-
sons for their rapid driving.
This ranch was located about the time the
Union Cattle Company was inaugurating its
campaign for separating Uncle Sam of many
valuable acres of land. The Union Company,
had a large number of filings made by men who
were to work in the railroad shops, and by
women, some of whom it was said had not
the best of reputations. Some of these claims
were desert claims where a pretence of devel-
oping irrigation was possible, and there are
yet the marks of the old ditches that run up
and down the hills along Horse Creek, in Wy-
oming, that were used to make Desert "proof
of irrigation" to secure patent to the land.
On the Nebraska sice of the state line, the
desert land laws did not apply, and the men
and women filed pre-emptions, expecting to
make proof after six months alleged residence.
Some pretense of residence was necessary,
and the parties would absent themselves from
their usual haunts at Cheyenne, for a week or
two. perhaps twice during the six months of
"residence" on these claims, and they found
Oelrich's one of the free and easy places, where
they assembled, when presumed to be residing
upon their respective clairrs just across the
river.
One time Oelrichs had 1 illed a horse in the
hard ride from Cheyenne, and they were strand-
ed at the ranch. Hank Ingraham had just been
up to Fort Laramie, and bought a team of con-
demned United States horses, and had paid
thirty-seven dollars for the team. This was
about 1883.
Charlie Oelrich ran across Hank on his
way down the river to the feeding meadows
in Mitchell Valley, and wanted to buy the team.
Hank said : "They will cost you four hundred
dollars." Charlie never hesitated ; he wrote
him a check and took the team.
We are told that the men and women, who
were a little behind their expected schedule,
and consequently a little short on a few of the
things that go to make life a merry jest, start-
ed for Cheyenne with the team going at a rapid
pace. At the Big Willows on Horse Creek, in
the Goshen Holes, there was a deep pool, and
some one suggested that the party stop for a
swim. This appealed to the popular fancy of
the party, and the horses were sent forward at
breakneck speed. On arriving there, those of
the party were in such haste for the cool, in-
viting waters of the pool, that they forgot to tie
the team, with the result that in a smashup that
followed, one of the horses was killed. The
other was ridden back to the ranch for a mate,
while the crowd had abundance of time for
bathing, and waiting for the return.
Charlie's wife was an actress, of whom it is
said that she enjoyed the wild life of the old
frontier, even though moral standards were
frequently shattered by her associates.
The Oelrichs also had a ranch a few miles
north of Cheyenne, where Talaho rides were
among the pleasures and pastimes.
Harry Oelrichs, as manager of the Anglo-
American Cattle Company, as it was sometimes
called, received a salary of $25,000.00 a year,
yet he always started the year about $10,000 00
in debt.
Charlie went into the brokerage and commis-
sion business in New York, and Harry had a
stroke of paralysis.
James Gordon Bennett took care of him af-
ter that, and for eight years before his death
he was utterly helpless.
One of the old Two-Bar men tells me that
Harry, who though not married, was infatu-
ated with a theatrical celebrity, who frequently
visited the Oelrich ranches ; namely, Lillian
Langtry, well known on the stage a generation
ago.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XIV
AROUND CAMP WAGONS — A HORSE TRADE WITH DOC. MIDDLETON —
ARBUCKLE'S BREAK POST— SCOTCHMEN BUY BIG RANCHES
— TOHN CLAY AND THE TWO-BAR
Merry making around the camp wagons of
the round-ups, and in the frontier towns was
of the cruder sort, if you measure by the stan-
dards of the effete east. But wags, and there
are wags everywhere, and humor, uses the in-
struments at hand. If it does not appeal to
cultivated taste, it is due to the setting.
Stories are told of the old "desert rats"
whose passion for gambling took every con-
ceivable turn, and used every excuse to make a
wager. It was the monotonous life of the des-
ert which made them seek diversion in gamb-
ling. The life of the early cowboy was a
gamble ; a fair-paid hazard whether one would
return from the round-up, whole or in pieces,
or at all.
One of the old time boys, much of whose
life had been spent in the saddle, was Chris
Streeks. He was here in the days when the
Likens-Middleton contest, or feud, or man
hunt, was stirring to partisanship every dwel-
ler or transient between Colorado and the Da-
kotas. Yet old as he was to the ways of the
round-up, he, in an unguarded instant, let a
wild horse at the end of his lariat catch the
horse he was riding with the taut rope in a side-
wise position. Anyone versed in the work of
the range knows that to meet the jerk at the
end of a rope it to have the horse end to, with
the front end towards the careening animal.
Chris' horse went down, and he was in-
sensible so long that it was a gamble if he
would ever "come back." This happened
somewhere in the vicinity of the J-Pens, on
Horse Creek, and Chris was taken to Fort
Laramie, put in the post hospital and attended
by the doctor of the fort.
Such incidents are in the nature of
"scratches" to the boys of the prairie, and
there is always a reluctance in getting word to
the injured man's people, for the chances are
that, if he don't die, he will be about again
shortly, and possibly gone on about his busi-
ness before word could be gotten a hundred to
five hundred miles and the folks get back to the
scene.
But the news of the accident to Streeks fil-
tered through the Goshen Holes, across Horse
creek and down Pumpkin creek and finally
reached Streeks's wife, who lived then just
southeasl of the present Airdale ranch.
Mrs. Streeks and her sister took a wagon
and started to run down the rumor and try-
to find Chris, for betime the story had reached
them it was merely a rumor that he had been
hurt, and the location of the accident was very
vague. They made Horse creek the first day,
and stayed at a ranch where most of the peo-
ple were transient, and knew nothing of the
accident.
It was rather daring on their part, and the
night was one long to be remembered, for the
men were quarreling, and they seemed to have
some grudge against a young fellow, and each
seemed to take a turn to pick at him. They
could not make out the cause of the trouble,
but it wore away without any fights or gun
play; and in the morning the ladies renewed
their search for something tangible about the
accident. They struck a fresh trail at the Y-
cross ranch and finally landed at Fort Laramie.
Mrs. Streeks later, after Chris had recovered
sufficiently, returned for him and they made
him a bed in the wagon box and started for
home.
In the Scotts Bluff mountains, about ten
miles southwest of Gering, they passed the
home of a "nestor," or one of the "sooners"
that have exhausted all their land rights, yet
move ahead of settlement, squatting on tracts
which they think will become desirable, and
for which they will be able to obtain a few
dollars for a "squatter's right." The woman,
a large lady of Irish antecedents, ran out at
approach of the wagon and seeing the form of
a man covered up in the back part of the
wagon, requested the privilege of looking upon
"the pretty corpse."
I have often heard the pleasantry of allu-
sion to Chris with his six feet three, and two
hundred and twenty-five pounds as the "mak-
ings" of a "pretty corpse."
Chris Streeks has gone now to the "Home
Ranch across the Great Divide," and quit
line-riding between the states of Nebraska and
Wyoming, which work was necessary because
Wyoming had free range and Nebraska a herd
law.
And Mrs. Streeks has also gone. I wonder
if she rides in a golden chariot there, or if she
drives the keen spirited mustangs of the earlier
days. Are there golden streets, or is it the
winding trail over beautiful fresh prairies that
are like these were when the west was new?
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
117
One time in the early eighties, when Doc.
Middleton "went wrong," (or shall we say
that what he did was wrong?) Chris Streeks
was riding in the usual duties of the range,
when a tall spare man with keen eyes, came
"fogging up the trail" from the direction of
Sidney.
Chris had never met him prior to that time,
but this was the redoubtable Doc.
"Fine horse you got, let's trade," said he.
The horse the doctor was riding was pretty
well winded and did not show up well with
the fresh animal that Chris was riding.
"How much boot?" asked Chris, "about a
hundred ?"
"Strip off your saddle," answered Doc, "I
just killed a couple soldiers down at Sidney,
and they are after me."
Streeks made no further reference to the
boot. To dispute under such circumstances
would have been useless, and possibly fatal for
some one. A few weeks later a rider came
past the ranch and left a package for Chris.
"Tell him Doc. Middleton sent it," he said.
When Streeks opened the package he found it
contained one hundred dollars. That was a
big price for the common horse of the range
in those days.
That is the way Doc. Middleton did things.
And while he was an outlaw according to the
statutes, there were extenuating circumstances,
and the civilians of the west generally assisted
him in his efforts to keep out of the clutches
of that tiresome tyrant called "law."
The killing of the soldiers was the result of
a brawl. They had all been drinking together,
and two of the soldiers imagined they were
offended at something the doctor had said, or
failed to say, as is the way with drunken men.
They attacked him, and had him down on the
bar-room floor, pummeling him in good order.
He warned them to quit, but they kept at it, and
he shot them both from where he lay. Had
they been civilians, it would have been self-de-
fense, but being Uncle Sam's soldiers, it became
a crime. This was the final thing that made
Doc. Middleton an outlaw, in the real sense
of the word.
In those days — the days of the Texas Trail
— Ogallala, Camp Clarke, Hartville. Sidney,
Antelopeville (now Kimball) and Cheyenne
were the regular cowtowns. Those were the
halcyon days of the cow business. Big com-
panies were being organized, and absorbing the
ranches, and buying — book value — 'the local
institutions.
Post sold out to the Arbuckles, and several
were absorbed by the big Bay State Land and
Cattle Company. The Swans had Scotch mil-
lions behind them. Big Alex Swan would buy
ten thousand cattle, while the most of us were
quibbling over the price.
The Swans organized a big company of Edin-
burgh, Scotland, men and passed their holdings
to the new company, retaining an interest in
the company themselves. The new company
was taking over herds at book value as a rule,
but the canny Scotch decided on requiring ac-
tual count. Thus it occurred that certain cows
found their way through the counting chutes
more than once to make up the number. The
Scotchmen "smelled a mouse," and required
another count. This time each animal that
passed was to be daubed with paint, so that a
second count of the same animal would be
impossible.
There is a peculiar quirk of psychology in
the old boys of the plains. They were true to
a fault in their fidelity to their old masters
and associates, although when a new outfit
bought a brand it was assumed that the boys
were to continue with the new outfit.
When Arbuckle broke Post and his Chey-
enne bank, it took the saving of nearly all the
boys, that were at all frugal, for Post's bank
was their depository. Yet few of them would
blame Post. They were firm in the faith that
his grand-stand play in Cheyenne, when his
wife allowed him to sell her jewels, and the
house over her head, to put the proceeds into
the assets of the wreck, that it was all on the
square. Some of us wonder if the machinery
through which it passed was not well oiled.
Certain it is, that Mrs. Post continued to live
in the house until her removal to Salt Lake.
And Post either had ability or finance to get
him on his feet rather suddenly in their new
home.
When the showdown of the Scotch was re-
quired, the old boys felt in duty bound to assist
in making the count correspond as nearly as
possible, with the book value. Counting thou-
sands of cattle is no easy matter, and it took
both speed and time. As they were crowded
through the chutes, the marker would call off,
and the men with the tally sheets would mark
it down. Two men were detailed to mark the
cattle with the paint brush. They were Davy
Morris, who now lives at Squaw Mountain
south of Laramie Peak, and Jim Hubbard,
who once homesteaded the farm in Mitchell
Valley that was owned by Harry Thornton for
many years.
That these men were experts with the paint
brush goes without saving, for some of the
eye witnesses of the affair tell me that about
every other number that they called was an
animal invisible to the naked eve. Thev would
118
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
daub one and call, and then make a pass
through the air and call another, and the men
with the tally sheets were kept too busy to
see what was going on. Thus, with all their
care, the Scotchmen failed to get nearly so
many cattle as they thought they were getting.
Is it any wonder, with a handicap of forty or
fifty per cent., and after the disaster of the
Big Spring storm of 1886, with prevailing low
prices at that time, that the company became
embarrassed?
I am not surprised that John Clay came
out and took over the ranch and holdings of
the Swan Land & Cattle Company in 1886. but
I am surprised that he could make anything
out of the wreck. Under his management,
however, the Two-Bar is a most substantial in-
stitution. Clay says: "Still sticking by the
ship. I found many of the faithful old cow-
boys of better days. There was Billy Hooker,
and Al Bowie, and Harry Haig, and Duncan
Grant, and Dave Morris, and Rufe Rhodes,
and Frank Shiek, and Ed. Banks."
"Bleaching bones littered many a trail, and
told the story of disaster."
Book value where livestock should have been,
and dead cattle, where originally were live
ones. What was there to do but make the best
of a tremendously bad situation. John Clay
has done that in a manner that few others could
have done.
The Swans went the way of other big com-
panies. A few held their herds together and
went to other ranges, one or two other, particu-
larly the Bay State and the Union Land &
Cattle Company, acquired landed possessions
that eventually pulled them out of the hole.
The Ogallala was one that went into Wyom-
ing with the herds, and Paxton pulled that
company through in due time, and good shape.
CHAPTER XV
FREWEN'S RANCH EXPERIENCE — HANGING OF BILLY NURSE BY VIGI-
LANTES—HOLDING UP DOC. M1DDLETON — DEATH OF
THE FAMOUS CHARACTER
About the time that Mills and Bullock and
others, were putting in their herds a few hun-
dred cows around Fort Laramie, the big herds
began to arrive from Texas.
Westward from the eastern border of Wy-
oming much of the prairie and inter-mountain
country was not good range for cattle. There
were bad lands, sage brush lands, and grease-
wood lands galore, but occasionally were
patches of natural meadows. The Laramie
Plains was one of these green pastures of na-
ture, and it was soon located by the cowmen
looking for places to run their herds. The
Texas herds ran into thousands.
As John Bratt says : "from 1867 the business
kept changing. From the date that they drove
their first herds from Texas to the Laramie
Plains, for ten years, ten thousand head was
considered a large herd. But in the next ten
years, or until about 1886, twenty thousand
was not considered a big herd, and some book
accounts ran as high as forty thousand."
It was in the early eighties that the Swans
were buying herds in great quantities. A
ten word telegram would buy ten thousand.
Those were sunny cattle days.
Frewen brothers came from London with
quantities of money to invest in ranches. Dick
Frewen of the Powder River Cattle Company
was on the ground early, and he learned too
late that many thousand cattle were counted
twice over and paid for twice, out of the
money that he had to invest.
When the ten days' storm in the spring of
1886 had passed and when every creek and
gully was full of dead cattle, when about the
only live cattle in this section were found in
protected places, there was little left of the
Frewen holdings.
The brothers have returned to London, long
ago, and when someone asks them about going
into ranch business, they whisper low: "Don't
say 'ranch' — say 'farm.' "
Many of the first "cowpunchers" were from
Texas where the cow business had been devel-
oped for a number of years. But the cooks
and wagon men, and occasionally a northern
born "puncher" were among the outfits. I
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
119
don't know whether it was something a little
wrong in the upper story, or whether it was
a touch of the prairie that made so many
cooks just a wee bit "oft."
Wagon men and cooks seemed to have ir-
rational attributes oftener than the men who
rode. The diversion of the riding, and the
business of looking after cattle, served to oc-
cupy more fully their attention, and they were
tired at night. But the monotony of the camp
life, and the continual round of pots, dishes
and pans, and baking bread, or cooking beans
and meat, were the things that sent some of
them "out of their heads."
It was in the early seventies, before J. S.
Robb had gone back to Texas, that he was
with an outfit that had just turned loose a
big Texas herd at Creighton's Horse Creek
ranch. The boys were away, in pairs, look-
ing after and getting the cattle acquainted with
their new range, when one of the queer spells
seized Billy Nurse, the cook. This one was,
unfortunately, a drug eater before he went
with the outfit.
At supper that night, the first boy down at
mess picked up a biscuit and bit into it. There
was a bitterness that he did not like and he
failed to eat the part bitten off and threw the
biscuit to a dog. The dog ate it, and in a
moment of two was taken sick, and died
very shortly afterwards. The whole pan of
biscuits went into the fire, and the boys were
chary about what they ate that night. The
cook went about as normal, but perhaps a
little more morose, but the boys all sensed
that there was something wrong.
The next day at evening, Robb and a man
named Parks were returning, when a shot
came out of the bushes, and the bullet whistled
uncomfortably near. They rushed to the cover
of brush but found no one. That night, while
Parks was writing a letter in the old soddy,
the cook shot him in the back, killing him in-
stantly. Before he could get any further ac-
tion with his six-shooter, the boys overpowered
him. He was taken to Pine Bluffs, then to
Cheyenne, and turned over to the authorities,
and in due time was convicted and sentenced to
imprisonment for life.
It was brought out in the trial that he had
shot at Robb and Parks earlier in the evening
of the murder, and that he had tried to kill
the whole outfit by poison so that he could
take and get away with the thousands of cat-
tle. Failing in the poison effort, he had de-
cided to kill them two by two, or singly, as
they returned from their work. His marks-
manship being poor, he had then started in
with the intention of killing the outfit single
handed, and wholesale robbery as his objective.
There was no pentitentiary in Wyoming at
the time, and the custom of taking care of pris-
oners of this character, was to take them to
the prisons of other states, the state of Wy-
oming paying the state which furnished the ac-
commodation a stipulated fee.
The cook, Nurse, was accordingly taken to
Joliet, Illinois, to serve his sentence. For
some cause or other he obtained a parole, and
as is frequent in such cases, the criminal char-
acter of the man reasoned that having es-
caped with light punishment, there was a little
danger in the field of criminals, and there
were chances of great gain. He went to South
Dakota.
Here he proved more successful than on
Horse Creek. He killed four perfectly good
men, before the vigilantes took a hand in the
matter, and Mr. Nurse was very properly
hung.
Such events added zest and spice to the life
of the range, just as Robb's little event com-
ing from Denver at one time produced a thrill.
J. S. had been south, and was returning by
train over the Union Pacific out of Denver to
the north.
At that time gambling for mild stakes was
but a frivolous pastime and was permitted on
the trains running through the western coun-
try. Robb and a number of others were pass-
ing away the time with a little game of "twen-
ty-five cent limit," and were having consider-
able amusement.
Some one called Robb's attention to a herd
of cattle that was passing, and when he turned
his attention again to the game, he picked up
120
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
a hand with four kings. He said: "If the
limit was off, 1 would bet five dollars on this
hand."
One of the players, a tall spare fellow with
sharp, black eyes, looked his hand over, and
answered: "If you did, I would raise you ten."
They got to bandying words about the merits
of their respective hands, and finally made a
bet of fifteen dollars. The other fellow had
four aces.
Robb got to mulling the incident over in his
mind, and decided that when his attention was
directed outside the car window, there had
been some juggling of the cards.
"My friend," he said, and there was that
tense thrill and the quiet that always followed
certain tones of expression in the west, "My
friend, I guess I will have to trouble you to
hand me back that money. I am too old a
stager for that kind of work," and his six-
shooter was there ready to help argue the mat-
ter.
"Oh !" said the stranger, "alright, alright."
He passed the money over, and the game went
on.
The stranger was known to some of those
present, and to Robb afterwards. He was
Doc. Middleton. Rob had held up the great
western desperado, and the event was often
thereafter related as one of the anecdotes of
western adventure. Robb never boasted of
it, he was not a boaster, and then Doc. might
have considered it bad taste. He had sensi-
tive notions on such matters, and a very deli-
cate trigger finger.
When driven to it, Doc. Middleton became
an outlaw that made his a name that ranks
high in importance. He knew the location of
more good horses than any man on the west-
ern ranee, and he could take them from the
South Platte to Cheyenne river in less time
than any other. The organization of the cat-
tlemen's association of Wyoming and western
Nebraska, was brought into active use in bring-
ing him to justice. This was co-operated in
by the United States Government.
John Bratt wrote me sometime before his
death, that he was one of the ten men who
put in one hundred dollars each, to hire Billy-
Likens to bring him in, dead or alive. Billy
went after him, and had several brushes in
western Nebraska, and one in particular on
the Niobrara, where both were clipped in the
gun melee. But Likens finally landed his man,
alive, and he served a term for his misdeeds.
After that he returned to the old range and
spent his declining years at Ardmore, in the
drug business. Doc. would close his store
any day that a bunch of horses came to town,
and go out and size them up. He loved a
horse.
Some years ago, when Jim Dahlman was
candidate for governor, and I was looking fu-
tilely towards the seat of Moses Kincaid in
congress, we met the old grizzled wolf, Mid-
dleton, at Crawford, and he rode with us to
Chadron. I looked out at the pine ridges that
are visible to the south from this highway,
and thought of the old days when Middleton
knew every canyon and gulch, and where were
the best hiding places for horses. In my
blithesome way, I suggested that if the auto
played out Middleton might know where there
were horses to pull us in. In some way, I re-
ceived an impression that the pleasantry was
not appreciated, but there was no serious aver-
sion to it.
Doc. liked excitement, and became the vic-
tim when John Barleycorn went out of busi-
ness. He was arrested in some connection with
a bootlegging deal, but no one who knows Doc.
Middleton will accuse him of being in a petty
sneaking affair. He might drink, and he might
help a friend get a drink, which probably was
just what got him involved.
He died in jail at Douglas in 1918, for his
old frame could not endure the racking and
hardships of younger years.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XVI
PERRY YEAST'S SUCCESS — JUDGE GASLIN, WHO WROTE "THE LAW OF
THE WEST - '— TOM RYAN'S DEFIANCE
Along the line of the Union Pacific, between
the towns of Lewellen and Keystone, there is a
sand hill ridge that runs down from its asso-
ciates almost to the railroad track.
This section up which it is situated contains
just about enough level ground for the location
of a house and ranch buildings, and the build-
ings are there.
This was once the humble home of Perry
Yeast, who now lives in his palatial home in
Lincoln, and is worth a million or so.
When Perry settled there, it was ranches
all around him. the Ogallala Company and
John Bratt & Company in particular. Perry
was an adept at the work of discovering un-
branded stock on the range. He built him a
rack, or pen on wheels, with which he used
to roam about the country, and unidentified
stock of the range would soon wear his brand.
He simply took to himself the same rights
that the cattle associations assumed they pos-
sessed. The Ogallala people thought it might
be best to keep him occupied in other pursuits,
and gave him a contract for putting up the
hay on their North river meadows one year.
He cleared up several thousand dollars in the
deal.
When the Burlington built through the Sand
Hills he contracted to furnish meat for the
construction gangs and he did furnish it in
such quantity that Bratt & Company thought
he could not be supplying it entirely from his
own herd. An investigation and search of
the Sand Hills disclosed a secluded spot with
the fragments of about a hundred hides, all
of which were once worn by Bratt cattle.
Yeast was arrested, but he sprung a sur-
prise with a bill of sale from some Omaha
firm, of cattle which Bratt & Company had
marketed there, and which later had been sold
to Yeast. Bringing Bratt cattle with Bratt's
brand on to the Bratt. range, yet in the legiti-
mate ownership of Mr. Yeast, made any suc-
cessful prosecution impossible, and was em-
barrassing to the Bratt Company.
For eighteen months before the election of
Harrison as President in 1888. the Burlington
building operations stood still. Yeast sold
some beef, but in very diminished quantity. He
went over into Sand Hills north of the new
line, and located on Swan Lake.
Here he built a ranch on more prodigai pro-
portions, and had a nice hay valley all his own.
The section homestead act went into effect,
and he was one of the men who saw its pos-
sibilities under the older lax methods of the
land office department, and a number of men
who settled around him were supposed to have
contracts to deed him the land after acquiring
title. He was indicted on the federal charge of
conspiracy to defraud the government, at the
same time that Bartlett Richards and others
were in the same trouble.
The case against him was finally dismissed,
and he continued to enjoy the fruits of suc-
cessful ranching, alternating between the Bur-
lington and the Northwestern for an outlet
for his product.
We are told now, that Mr. Yeast lives in
splendid manner in Lincoln, while he also has
a magnificent ranch in the far northwest, the
newer country of Alaska.
Yeast came at the time that cattle kings
were losing their scepters, and the ranges
were breaking up into smaller fragments, and
the smaller the unit the greater respect for law.
This theory will hold good in any of the walks
of life, or the industry of our country. The
old cattlemen were not dishonest, but the
very nature of their business made them adopt
rules concerning "mavericks," and other rules
that in effect took the property of others.
There came a time when all of this changed
in western Nebraska, and also a time when
courts reached out. There was a judge who
wrote the law on the sunset sky, who by
sheer courage compelled the wild west to lift
its sombrero to the majesty of legal jurispru-
dence. Courage alone would not have done
it, but integrity and justice took the place of
mouldy statute, and silly precedent or decision.
Judge Gaslin was the man.
The supreme court often overruled his de-
cisions, when ''Appeals in Error" were made.
Those cases made "vigilantes," and as the
judge succinctly remarked when he saw a
horse thief hanging at Camp Clarke bridge:
"There is one conviction that the Supreme
Court will not reverse."
The main Texas Trail used to cross at Ogal-
lala and Ash Hollow, and the Texas ranch was
just below Ash Hollow. It was the annual
rendezvous of the cowboys that came up from
the Lone Star State. Its' nearness to Ogallala,
made it handy for the boys who liked the wild
life of the old cow town.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
One of the many reminiscences of Judge
Gaslin has to do with that city. The judge
had a name as a dispenser of justice that struck
terror to evil doers, and echoed all the way
from Texas to Assiniboine, for the nomads
that went north in the spring and south in the
fall, knew that Judge Gaslin was in western
Nebraska.
One stormy night, the men of the trail were
in the old hotel that used to stand just oppo-
site the depot at Ogallala, and as the night
was stormy, so were the natures of many gath-
ered there.
The landlord became alarmed at homicidal
indications, and besought Judge Gaslin, who
was in his room, to come down, and just show
himself for a few moments in the lobby and
bar. He at first demurred, but finally consent-
ed. The time was propitious, for just as he
stepped into the room, a fight had started and
one man had been knocked down.
As he appeared, someone shouted above the
pandemonium that prevailed: "Judge Gaslin,
boys ! the judge !"
A silence followed and all stood still. Final-
ly one of the originators of the quarrel stepped
sheepishly forward and extended his hand to
the judge, mumbling something about being a
little excited over a political argument.
"Yes," said the judge in answer, "and if I
had not arrived just as I did, I suppose I would
have had you up before me for trial the next
time I came up this way."
"No, God forbid!" exclaimed the man, im-
pulsively, "that is judge, I hope I may never
have to be tried in your court."
This compliment was taken as intended, and
after a few moments the judge again retired.
You never saw a more peacefully inclined lot
of rangers in your life. Drinking and games
continued, but all was quiet and orderly.
Another incident happened at Sidney, when
Gaslin held court there, which was a character-
istic of the judge. A young fellow had been
accused of horse stealing; he had taken without
leave another man's horse and ridden it many
miles, but turned it loose. It seemed to the
jury there was some ground for leniency, so
they brought in a verdict of guilty, with recom-
mendation of a light sentence. The judge took
the recommendation as a transgression of the
prerogatives of the court, and said: "Alright,
we will say — well, fifteen years."
The jury was angry, and so fast as cases
come up they returned verdicts of not guilty.
At the close of the term, the judge called
for the young man who had been sentenced to
fifteen years. lie was brought up, trembling
in anticipation of something more severe, but
the judge delivered to him something like the
following :
"Young man, the honorable jury of Chey-
enne County has seen fit to turn loose every
other damned rascal in the county, and I don't
see any reason why you should not also go.
Your sentence is indefinitely suspended."
In general, Judge Gaslin had the rough,
western element "buffaloed," but there was
one occasion, and one man in the Panhandle
that upset the general rule. Two men named
McCauley and Clarke had been incarcerated in
Cheyenne county jail on a felonious charge,
and big Tom Ryan appeared before the judge
at Sidney to arrange for their release.
The court was sitting, and as usual, hitting
the evil-doers hard, and Clarke and McCauley
were getting their share of the roast. To as-
sail one's friend is to offend the man, and
Tom Ryan took serious offense. He knocked
the judge off the Bench, literally and figura-
tively.
It was such an unusual affair that no one
thought of interfering, while Tom Ryan walk-
ed like a victorious gladiator from the room.
He then went to the jail and broke it open,
liberating his friends. To each he gave a gun
and a pint of whiskey, and they rode over to
Greenwood ranch together.
Mose Howard, now (1919) to be found
around the Stock Exchange building in South
Omaha, was sheriff of Cheyenne County at
the time. It took but little thought on his
part to know that he must arrest Tom Ryan
and his friends, or attempt to apprehend them,
and to do so probably meant some very brisk
gun fire, with three determined men ; or that he
should resign as sheriff. "He resigned.
Sam Fowler was appointed to succeed him,
and Sam started for the Greenwood ranch, but
on reaching the destination, he did not even
hesitate. In the next few days, he rode past
the ranch two or three times, but each time he
"played his hunch" to ride on. One day, Ryan
met a friend of Fowler's, and told him to tell
Sam, that he had seen him ride by the ranch
several time lately, and. to say to him, that he
(Ryan) knew what Sam was looking for.
"You also tell Sam that he played his hunch
right each time when he failed to stop. And
tell him for me," Ryan continued, "that I will
give him another hunch. Not to waste any
more time on me: for if he does, I will kill
him." Sam played the hunch.
Mose Howard was with Robb on the Creigh-
ton ranches, for a while after that, but of late
years, he has been around the Stock Exchange
and Stock Yards of South Omaha.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA 1
CHAPTER XVII
NEWMAN'S RANCH ON THE RUNNING WATER— BARTLETT RICHARDS
COMPANY — THE SCOURGE OF THE LAND INQUISITION —CATTLE
RUSTLERS — HALL & EVANS — EVAN'S BATTLE FOR RIGHT
— FIRST DAIRY HERD
E. S. Newman established the largest ranch
on the Niobrara or Running Water, and it was
the first in point of time, in this part of the
sand hills. It was there as early as 1878 or
earlier. He ran as high as twenty thousand
cattle at one time, and ranged them all the
way from Hat Creek, and over the Wyoming
and Dakota lines to the northwest, as far east
as Valentine. The ranch was located in the
western part of Cherry county, at the mouth
of the Antelope Creek, and the original site
has now been abandoned. The land is occu-
Loxc Horn's !■'
pied by new people. Newer ranch buildings
were built about a quarter of a mile from the
old site, and it is (1919) known as Fagin's
ranch. It has been variously called Mayberry,
or Circle, or Boiling Springs ranch. George
Morehead of Omaha had a brother killed near
there by Cheyenne Indians.
Jim Dahlman, range rider from Texas, later
sheriff of Dawes county, and mayor of Omaha
for many years, worked for E. S. Newman
after his arrival on the northern range. Other
old time punchers on this ranch were James
Ouigley of Valentine, Charles Hoyt of Whit-
man, Robert Miller of Burwell, and Henry
and John Stitler.
Newman ranch was followed by Newman &
Hunter's, and later Newman retired. Hunter
& Evans had a ranch at the confluence of Pine
Creek with the Niobrara in the western part
of Sheridan county as early as 1878. Among
the many brands well known in this territory
at an early date were Z-Bar and Lazy-33.
When the granger came, the big herd was driv-
en to Milk River, Montana, where the com-
pany continued business for a time.
Bartlett Richards & Company, which had
been organized farther west, and which held
their stock on the Belle Fourche and Donkey
Creek, looked upon the sand hill territory aban-
doned by Hunter & Evans as an open field, and
moved into and occupied it. The Standard
Cattle Company and the Spade ranch was but
a part of their activities, although they ran
about twenty thousand head of cattle. Numer-
ous "locations" were made in the hay meadows
between Lakeside and Ellsworth on the pres-
ent line of the Burlington, and Rushville and
Gordon on the Northwestern. Bar-O, Spade,
and O-Bar were among their well known
brands.
They were accused of attempting to follow
the precedent established by the Bay State, the
Bridle Bit, Sturgis & Lane, and others, and
sought to acquire title to a vast acreage of
government land, through the then prevail-
ing loose land office methods.
L. C. Baldwin, of Council Bluffs, who had
several thousand cattle ranging on the Lodge-
pole in the vicinity of Pine Bluffs, and on
Crow Creek, was accused of following the
same methods of acquiring land. The best
known brands of Mr. Baldwin were F-H-C
and 3-3-3.
All the west knows the spasm of virtue that
swept over the United States Land Department
when the dominating influence of Gifford Pin-
chot was high under the Roosevelt regime.
The most of us thought that the land ac-
quired was not of sufficient value to make
much trouble over, much less make criminals
out of men who had done only the same deeds
that had been followed for generations.
Bartlett Richards, W. G. Comstock, L. C.
Baldwin. Charles Tulleys, J. H. Edmiston. C.
C. Jamieson, Perry Yeast, and others suffered
the federal inquistion, and LI. S. Marshall Mat-
thews lost his official head as a result. Some
parts of the west were seared as by a prairie
fire, and finally came President Taft and Sec-
retary Ballinger. Pinchot sunk into the ob-
livion that his ill-advised activities deserved.
When a man attempts to climb over the wrecks
of others he has ruined, natural laws of com-
pensation will prevail.
124
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
The Standard Cattle Company, with head-
quarters at Cheyenne, ranged fifteen to twenty
thousand cattle over the headwaters of Horse
Creek and the Chugwater, in the later days of
the cow business.
Earlier the cowmen had organized associa-
tions for their mutual protection, and for co-
operation. They developed the round-up to a
system. They hired fearless men for detectives,
and trailed fugitives from justice into far
countries. The ramifications of this ann of
the cow business was necessary, albeit some-
times unjust.
Vigilantes hung thieves without stint or con-
science and occasionally a transgressing ranch-
man very nearly met that melancholy fate.
Horse thieves and cattle thieves were trailed
into the Britich Provinces, and southward to
and through Mexico into the South American
Republics, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
John Bratt was one of the live members
of the old executive committee of the Chey-
enne Stock Growers' Association, which he
helped to organize, and was on the Executive
Board for several years.
One of the rules adopted by this organiza-
tion was that all unbranded cattle found by
the roundups were to be taken to the final ren-
dezvous, and there sold to the highest bidder,
the proceeds to go into the treasury of the asso-
ciation. This was obviously about the only
thing they could do, but should the roundup
catch the lone cow of an early settler, if she
chanced to be unbranded, it was appropriating
property that did not belong to the association.
I think there was one or two decisions that
gave the cow back even after being branded,
where the ownership was proven.
Early grangers found considerable fault with
this scheme and there is no doubt that this
practice or system brought in the mind of
many a settler, and even some cowboys, justi-
fication for rustling calves, and killing for
beef.
This rustling in western Nebraska, became
almost a joke in the years of 1887 and 1888.
Men increased their herds at a rapid rate.
Many cows raised "twins" and on one occa-
sion, a steer was credited with raising seven-
teen calves in one season. The smaller ranches
were as busy as the grangers in this work.
That is they did as much or more of it, but
they held aloof from any entangling alliances.
The cowboys learned the trick, and located
unbranded stuff in the herds driven ahead with
the roundup. At some likely place, in some
manner, one of the men would manage to
single out the cow, or heifer, or steer without
a brand, and it would break away from the
herd. He would ride furiously after it, and
suddenly his horse would become unmanage-
able, and run between it and the rest of the
bunch. All the time it was running farther
away, and finally would disappear with the
rider in full pursuit, over a ridge or down a
gulch. After a bit the rider would return,
but the animal never. And the next roundup
would find it with the private brand of the
cowboy who had chased it into the distance.
"Bay State Beef" and "Bridle Bit Beef" and
"Ogallala Beef," became a sort of a standard
food in the early days. Nearly everyone ate
it, however, few would acknowledge it. Yet
it became a subject of humor and common jest.
One of the early missionaries sent out by the
Presbyterians into Banner county, complained
to his hosts that he was tired of Bay State
Beef, and hungry for chicken.
On one occasion, I was coming through the
Wildcat Range on my way to Gering, and
stopped at a settler's place near Rifle Gap, for
the night. The man of the place and I were
talking when a roly poly boy came to his
father's knee. The father fondly patted his
round form, and said : "My son, what makes
you so fat?" The little imp looked up and
grinned as he answered: "Bay State Beef."
The father laughed, and I joined, being quite
sure the boy had told the truth.
In the winter of 1887-88, and also the win-
ter following, small herds drifted across the
state line of Wyoming, in the storms when
the "line riders" could not carefully guard
the entire distance. These cattle seldom re-
turned. The men who were sent after them
would see hanging to ridge logs, or on the
corners of houses, nice fresh quarters of beef,
and in hidden places they might find the waste
materials of slaughtered cattle.
In the winter of 1885-86, I was working
for Hall & Evans, whose ranch was estab-
lished in 1871 on White Horse Creek, about
two miles northeast of North Platte. They
had about two hundred and fifty head of cattle,
and forty or fifty horses. They put up sev-
eral hundred tons of hay along the river bot-
toms, and they milked from thirty to fifty
cows.
Mr. Evans was in the County Clerk's office
at North Platte, and Mr. and Mrs. Hall, whose
only daughter was Mrs. Evans, lived upon the
ranch. They made butter, and kept several
hundred hens, and had private customers for
the product.
Prior to their settlement upon this acreage,
which was about 1867, Major L. Walker own-
ed the place and the LW brand. His one
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
125
thousand to two thousand cattle ranged the
sand hills northward, and along White Horse
Creek and the North Platte river. Settlement
had begun to make a change at the time I was
there. In fact, the spring following there was
almost a ceaseless caravan of covered wagons
moving on into the west. I wondered that it
could hold so many, and yet leave any land un-
occupied.
"Grandpa" and "Grandma" Hall are gone
to their rewards, both being devout Methodists.
John E. Evans, his wife, and son Everett, are
still at North Platte, and John E., as usual,
is doing official duty.
He served in the legislature at the time Mill-
ard and Diederick were elected United States
senators, after the all winter deadlock. It will
be remembered that D. E. Thompson of Lin-
coln desired one of the places, and his rail-
road influences were hard at work. Tohn £.
Evans was one of the "Lily White" Republi-
cans that refused to be led into the railroad
camp. And for that little band of courageous
Republicans, withstanding the castigation of
the party whip, there will be some day a suit-
able testimonial in the hall of fame. There
will come a time when the descendants of such
people will be proud of their ancestry, as the
world will be proud of its truly great and cour-
ageous men.
Let us give a word of credit to a living wom-
an, Mrs. W. C. Ritner, now living at North
Platte, (1919) for her faith in the dairy of
western Nebraska. This resource is yet in its
infancy, but thirty-five years ago, Mrs. Helen
Randall, widow of Ex-Governor Randall, now
Mrs. Ritner, had about five hundred head of
cattle, principally dairy stock, upon her ranch,
on the north side of the North Platte river,
between White Horse creek and the Birdwood.
CHAPTER XVII
BIG RANCHES ROUND ABOUT — FIRST DRY FARMING AT BIG SPRINGS —
OTHER RANCHES ON LODGEPOLE — NEWMAN LEADS THE TURKS —
THROUGH "JERUSALEM" — WALRATH, FROM OX TEAM
TO AEROPLANE
One of the peerless cowmen of early years
was David Rankin. Years ago he ran his ten
thousand cattle on North and Middle Loup
rivers, and at Seneca, in the midst of the ma-
jestic Sand Hills, he had his home ranch and
range. His brands were Bar-7 and others.
This is a little out of the territory covered
by my narrative, but so is Bent & Evans, later
Nichols & Son, of the 96 brands, who ranged
their six thousand cattle east of Fort McPher-
son and west of Plum Creek, and so is Biff's
F L ranch on the South Platte river, where the
pony express rider, Jim Moore, met his death.
Iliff was called the Cattle King in his time.
Burke Brothers, with the flat iron brand on
three or four thousand cattle between North
Platte and Fort McPherson, were not in the
Panhandle ; nor was C. W. Wright, now to
be found about the Denver Club, who ranged
his two or three thousand cattle branded D D
on Brigadier creek, Bad Water and Poison
Spider in Wyoming. All of these had scat-
tering cattle in western Nebraska and they had
representatives with the annual roundup, to
accumulate these and return them to their
own respective ranges.
One of the big ranches on the South Platte
country, located at Big Springs, in the pres-
ent borders of Deuel county, was Shiedley
Brothers & Company, with its O S O brands,
and its ten thousand cattle. This firm had
Kansas City offices, and supplied many of
the smaller concerns, people with five hundred
to two thousand head, with cattle or finance.
126
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
There came the time when W. A. Paxton
quit "wacking bulls" and went into the cow
business. He located at Keystone with the
Keystone brand. Later he organized the big
Ogallala Company that amalgamated several of
the largest herds on the range. What the Bay
State accomplished at Kimball and north, and
Tom Swan in Wyoming, the Ogallala com-
pany did at Alkali, now Paxton, Nebraska, and
north and west.
This company put ten or twelve thousand
cattle into the business at the home ranch, and
then bought the Shiedley outfit with its many
thousands, Sheedy's Seven U, Boyd Brothers'
herd. Sharp's ranch, the Tusler cattle, and sev-
eral of the other herds of five hundred to two
thousand.
The Shiedley ranch was the location of the
first dry farming in that part of Nebraska. In
1881, Otto Baumgarten went out on an island
in the South Platte, and plowed some ground,
and planted a diversity of crops, mostly garden
stuff. His success was a surprise and revela-
tion to the cowmen, who had no idea that
anything would grow without irrigation in this
semi-arid, or as then called "arid" west. Even
after this demonstration, the ranchmen did not
take to farming, but left that achievement for
other times and other people. Nor was garden-
ing undertaken. Everything was purchased,
even to butter, although the ranch might have
ten thousand cows.
West of Sidney on the Lodgepole were sev-
eral ranches as early as 1874. John M. Adams
and H. V. Redington were among the first.
Adams and Redington had organized a com-
pany to take over the ranch at the mouth of
"Lorren's" fork. Sidney was the accessible
trading point, and there was more or less social
life there on account of the fort. It was de-
termined that a ranch nearer Sidney would also
have its advantages, especially at shipping time.
Cattle could be moved to the railroad and al-
lowed to rest on the fine pasturage and hay
meadows, then shipped with little or no shrink-
age. The best available spot for the use of
Adams & Redington was found near the pres-
ert site of Potter. This ranch is still owned by
Adams, who also has a southern home at
Augusta, Georgia, called "The Hill." The
Adams ranch is one of the beauty spots along
the Lodgepole. This firm ran four thousand
to six thousand cattle and their principal brand
was H-Bar.
Just below their Potter location, near the
station of Bronson, Callahan & Mursheid had
a ranch, which about the time of establishing
the Adams-Redington ranch, went to the own-
ership nf Thos. Kane.
Henry Newman, who once had an interest in
the holdings that finally came under the master-
hand of Reuben Lisco, located in 1873 a ranch
near the present site of Sunol. The structures
were all of discarded railroad ties set on end,
making rude but comfortable stockades.
After the building of the Union Pacific, for
many years there were parties of emigrants
crossing the continental divide in the old way.
There were parties of different nationalities
occasionally, and one time forty or fifty Turks
were making their way up the Lodgepole valley.
True to their faith and custom, they wore the
picturesque costumes of their native land. As
they neared Newman ranch, Henry was out
with his saddle horse to see what was coming.
Noticing that the Turks were a bit exercised
at his approach, he thought to give them ample
justice for the apprehension. He discharged
his six shooter with rapid successive shots,
and then dropped his rope over the man who
appeared to be their leader. A dozen other
Turks ran to the rescue, and grabbed hold of
the rope, but the sturdy bronco had turned
about, and Newman had taken a hitch around
the saddle horn. They started moving steadily
along with the Turks tugging vigorously to
stop them or release their leader.
Another cowman came along at this time
and hailed Neuman.
"What's the game, old timer?" he asked.
"Nothing," answered Neuman L "only I'm
leading these d — d Turks through" New Jeru-
salem."
Having had his little escapade, he let them
proceed.
Down at Big Springs, besides the Shiedley
ranch, were the Walraths, whose ranch dates
back to 1873. The Walrath ranch was owned
by A. J. and Baggage Walrath. Their herd
was a comparatively small one at the time,
but it later grew to large proportions. Bag-
gage Walrath has gone on, to the Final Round-
up, but A. J. still lives in the land where he
has seen the transition. The veteran of the
plains can be found at Julesburg, and has a
rich fund of reminiscence.
A. J. Walrath, when he first saw the South
Platte and the Lodgepole, drove an ox team.
From whacking bulls he has seen the coming
of the mule teams, the railroad, the automobile,
truck and tractor, and recently (1919) there
passed overhead thirty flying- machines in one
dav. This, all in the span of one life.
The Stone ranch, with its six thousand
cattle branded C on the left hip. quite fully
occupied the territory east of Ogallala, but
Russell Watts built a ranch near there which
was retained as headquarters, although his
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
127
herds of three or four thousand cattle were to
be found principally on Snake Creek and the
Niobrara, where the brand WW on the left
hip and side were held during the summer
seasons. In the winter he brought them to the
ranges nearer to the home ranch.
Sparks and Timmon, who had ten or twelve
thousand cattle on the ranges of Gooseberry
creek, Nevada, maintained offices at Cheyenne,
and part of the time had cattle on the same
range occupied by Watts, in Nebraska, on
the Running water and Snake creek. Their
herds used to mingle in the early days, but
the territory was later left to others. The Hart
ranch had occupied the Snake creek country,
and as conditions were changing, smaller herds
began to come, and ranches of only a few hun-
dred head became quite common.
On Chadron creek and White river the Half-
Diamond E owned by Price & Jenkins, of
Chadron, was one of the well known early
brands.
J. H. Jewett, who owned the JHJ brand,
and ranged his cattle near Sidney, was not of
the very oldest. He came at the date when
the big ranches were passing into the hands
of the Bay State, Swan and Ogallala concerns,
and smaller ranches were sandwiching in
wherever they could find watering places, and
a little hay bottom.
The larger concerns had visions as broad
as the western horizon, but the smaller men had
a more correct interpretation of the trend of
the times. Westward the tide of empire
was wending and it soon moved into western
Nebraska, driving before it the Big Stampede.
The men of lesser means mingled with the
grangers, and stuck to the land. Many are
still to be found, grizzled pioneers, and the
vanguard of the present land of activity and
progress.
CHAPTER NIN
CREIGHTON EXPANDS — SNODGRASS AND McSHANE — McINTOSH FOUNDS
"THE CIRCLE ARROW" — SIMPSON ORGANIZES THE
BAY STATE COMPANY
Two or three years after Creighton located
on the Laramie Plains, he built a ranch on
Horse creek. It was in 1875 before he built the
"Pumpkin Creek Ranch," which became the
home ranch of the Bay State Company.
Creighton's Point, in the north part of Banner
county, became the permanent name of the
outpost of Wildcat Mountain.
A few miles down the Laramie river from
Creighton's ranch on the Laramie Plains, John
Bratt, in 1867, built the second ranch located in
Wyoming. This location antedated the ac-
tivities of Bratt at North Platte, but a short
time.
The Circle Arrow ranch, which is on Lodge-
pole creek a few miles east of Kimball, was
established by J. J. Mcintosh in 1872. Griffin
& Harken bought it and later sold it to John
Sparks, who had the ranch on lower Horse
creek. This was one of the ranches acquired
by the Bay State Land & Cattle Company.
H. H. Robinson was manager of the Bay
State when I came into the west and he lived
at Kimball, which was the new name of An-
telopeville.
Johnny Peters, the cowboys called him
"Pete," found his first work in western Ne-
braska, at the Circle Arrow, digging a cellar,
the autumn of 1882. Peters and "Big Nose
George" (that is the only name I ever heard
for him,) were at work shoveling out the dirt.
Peters had been up to the tie camps at Medicine
Bow, and his muscles w r ere hard from hewing
ties, but "Big Nose George" was totally unused
to work. He was a gambler of some repute,
but had had a streak of bad luck, which his
skill could not overcome. Being on his uppers,
he had to do something, and fell in with Peters
on this job. His lily white hands were a mass
of cruel blisters, but he possessed the ability
of sticking to the job.
In the evenings he entertained Johnny with
his card skill, and found Peters quite an adept
pupil. In witness whereof ask most any of
the old boys of the range that knew him during
the next three or four years.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Creighton's Horse Creek ranch was just
below the point where the Pine Bluffs branch
connects with the creek. This branch has some
springs in it, and is partly dry most of the
time. He had here the Circle Bar brand which
was later converted into the half circle block.
The J. H. D.. which was owned by Mead,
Evans & Company, was twenty-five miles west
of Creighton's. Billy Likens was once the
foreman. Likens, after serving a term as sher-
iff of Laramie county, became the cattle de-
tective of the Wyoming Livestock Associa-
tion. He had many nervy and dare-devil ex-
periences.
G. W. Simpson came out from Boston, and
organized the Bay State Land & Cattle Com-
pany in 1882, and he was its president. He
managed to get Evans interested, and Evans
held the startegic real estate of the J. H. D.
Simpson bought it and then he undertook to
make terms with O. W. Mead, the senior and
remaining principal stockholder of the old con-
cern. Mead refused to capitulate. He moved
the cattle farther up Horse creek, and put
the Four K brand upon the range. In 1886
he sold this ranch and went to Nevada.
"Four-K Ed" was one of the employees of
Mead that stayed with him, and finally went
to the newer west with him. He was a wiry
little Irishman, full of mother wit, and with a
fondness for strong drink, which one can hard-
ly believe of an Irishman.
Count John A. Creighton, John Snodgrass,
and John A. McShane had in the meantime be-
come the owners of the Circle Arrow at Kim-
ball. The Bay State negotiated with them, and
acquired this valuable ranch, along with other
Creighton possessions. The sum paid was said
to be around seven hundred thousand dollars.
John Snodgrass was made general manager.
The Bay State Company bought the Circle
Arrow in the Spring of 1883, and Creighton
sold to the Company in the autumn of the
same year his entire ranch possessions, includ-
ing Pumpkin creek, Horse creek, and Laramie
Plains ranches.
In 1883, the Bay State Company branded
all their cattle with the "Circle Block," which
correctly speaking is only a "quarter circle-
block," and that remained their standard brand
until they drove their herds into the northwest,
four or five years later.
John A. McShane became quite active on
the range then, but he was something of a ten-
derfoot.
When a big herd was brought in from Texas
and turned loose in this country, it was neces-
sary for tin- boys to herd them for a while, until
tiny became familiar with the country. So two
by two they would set forth in the mornings
and would go about the wild herds that were
inclined to run their foolish legs off, to hold
them in check, and move them about until they
became familiar with the springs and watering
places.
One day, as the earliest of the men were
dropping back to the ranch at the head of
Pumpkin creek, after the cattle had been prop-
erly rounded in, they found McShane cooking
dinner for several lazy, fat buck Indians.
These Indians were perfectly harmless, but
McShane did not know it. They had been
visiting somewhere down south and were re-
turning to the Red Cloud Agency on White
river.
They could not resist the temptation to
throw a little scare into people as they went
along. At the Circle Arrow they shot off
their rifles and left some stones lying in peculiar
positions, which old Bill Gaw, the trapper,
told the people at the ranch, were "war signs."
They were not without a sense of humor,
and when they found John A. alone at the
ranch, and observed his fear of them, they
made "hunger signs," and McShane, not know-
ing if they were friendly or untamed, had set
about getting them a good dinner.
McShane later went to Omaha, where he
was elected to Congress in a race with Thos.
J. Majors, Edward Rosewater's opposition to
Majors, assisted materially in the result.
This little event on Pumpkin creek did not
put McShane among the class of irrational
cooks. There were many exceptions to that
rule
There was Muldoon, the best cook that
ever dipped a pail of water from the creek.
It is said that once one of the boys of Mul-
doon's outfit had an aversion to rice. Rice
was a staple food on the roundup, and Mul-
doon told him that he just had to eat it. He
came in hungry one night, and the dinner had
a pudding that met nicely his taste. He said
it was fine and asked of what it was made.
"It is made of that rice that you don't like,"
answered Muldoon.
There was Jim Raley, the beau brummel of
all the countrywide. Aside from being an ex-
cellent cook, Raley was one of the best look-
ing fellows on the range. Large, well built,
fine dark eyes and mustache. He was a good
entertainer, and the girls all liked him, and he
was as fine as they thought he was, which
was "going some." The only thing the boys
had against Jim was that he could almost any
time he wanted to, take their girls away from
them.
And in addition to McShane, and Muldoon
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
129
and Raley, the writer officiated over the pots apples, dried currants, rice, and occasionally the
and kettles once, and cannot find the heart to luxury of prunes. These with coffee. A cook
say that it was not a first-class profession, es- who cannot satisfy a hungry man with varia-
pecially where dominated by a first-class man. lions of those staples of diet, was not a cook
Sore-finger bread, sow-bellv, beans, dried for a cow outfit.
CHAPTER XN
EARLY SUB-IRRIGATION — BAY STATE BUYS COAD'S NORTH RIVER RANCH
— J. S. ROBB, FOREMAN — MARY ROSE'S GRAVE — THE GROUT
HOUSE — I- H. D. RANCH — ROUND-UP AT CIRCLE
ARROW — DEATH OF "SKY PILOT" AT
PINE BLUFFS
While Simpson was managing the affairs at
the J. H. D., big Jim Boyd and Runey Camp-
bell were working at the ranch. And just be-
low the ranch house in the creek are still some
rocks that were piled there in the indifferent
but substantial manner of lazy cowboys, to
form a sort of a dam for raising the water level
in the creek, and causing it to percolate back
into the hay bottoms belonging to that ranch.
The theory of sub-irrigation was here promul-
gated.
The spring of 1884 witnessed further changes
in the Bay State developments. Three quarters
of a million dollars had already been spent in
acquiring Creighton's and other ranch possess-
ions. Now the company reached over to the
North River and bought out the Coads, paying
therefor seven hundred and fifty thousand dol-
lars. The Bay State people ran over fifteen
thousand cattle by actual count, although
when they bought, they obtained a book value
of about twelve thousand from Creighton's and
about ten'thousand from Coads.
Coads had a nice bunch of horses that went
with their possessions, and as the Creighton
horses were not very good, the co.wpunchers
of the Bay State were pleased when the Coad
horses came into Bay State ownership.
This put the ranch at the head of Pumpkin
creek about the center of operations, and it
consequently became the Home ranch of (he
company.
The new organization was G. W. Simpson,
of Boston, president and general financier;
John A. McShane. of Omaha, was interested,
for the Omaha people had taken some stock in
the new concern. H. H. Robinson now (1919)
living in Denver, became the range manager.
John Snodgrass had built a large dwelling on
the north side of the railroad track, east of
the Pumpkin Creek Trail at Antelopeville.
This he made his headquarters. Kimball, who
was one of the big eastern investors, spent a
great deal of his time at the different ranches
of the company, getting in touch with the
business first hand. It was in his honor that
the Union Pacific and the post-office depart-
ment, changed the name of Antelopeville to
Kimball.
J. S. Robb had been here at an earlier date,
but he had gone back to his old home in Uvalde
county, Texas, and served a term as sheriff
there. Returning to this county a short time
before the date of the organization of the Bay
State, he had been put in charge as foreman
on the Pumpkin creek ranch by Creighton.
Johnny Peters was sent over from the Circle
Arrow and plied his skill with a broad ax,
hewing the logs that were builded into the
one and one-half story log house, which Robb
used for a dwelling at the head of Pumpkin
creek. He then built the stone spring house,
which was delightfully cool, there being a
large cold spring therein.
Mrs. Robb was not much in love with the
solitudes. She often had visiting with her, one
of the women of the ranch proprietors, or what
she really enjoyed more, were the visits of
the girls that were just then beginning to come
into the valley.
In the summer of 1S87. Mary Rose, whose
father was a soldier in Sidney and whose moth-
er was dead, came out to visit the Livingstons,
who had cared for her during her childhood,
and were like parents to her. Livingston's
grout house stood about six miles east of
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Wildcat mountain and in addition contained a
postoffice, and was quite a place of social en-
joyment. In 1888, while Alary Rose was up
at the head of the creek visiting Mrs. Robb
she was taken ill. and a little later died. She
was buried at Livingston. The grout dwelling
is now crumled into dust, and in a neglected
wire enclosure, overgrown with weeds, sweet
clover and wild roses, there is now the little
mound where one of the charming "first girls"
was laid to rest.
"Wild roses grow on Mary Rose's grave."
Robb had one of the best memories, and if
one could get him started on reminiscence, he
could string out interesting stories by the hour,
and his experiences would fill a book.
Before Runey Campbell knew that Robb
was a foreman, he and J. S. fell in together,
and were traveling up the Horse creek country
going to the J. H. D. ranch. At this branch
there was a queer old pair of people, such as
sometimes drift into out-of-the-way-places and
stick.
Jule Kransky was a weazened old Dutchman
who would not weigh over a hundred and
twenty-five pounds, and his wife, just as
shrivelled, and dried up, would weigh about
ninety. Runey told Robb he would introduce
him as belonging to Creighton's. and he added,
"maybe the old cuss will treat us half-way
civil." Kransky evidently believed him one
of the high officials, for 'he killed a chicken
and gave them a fine dinner.
Jule and his wife talked in high squeeky
voices, and they often had altercations and
sometimes these developed into fights. In the
latter, however. Mrs. Kranskv was no match
for her formidable husband, but she could run
the faster, so the bouts usually ended in a foot
race.
Once, however, when she was racing ahead
of him around the house, crying back in her
shrill staccato accents: "Jule, Jule, Jule," he
gave up the chase. She kept on running still
thinking he was in pursuit. As she rounded
a corner of the house she met him face to
face and it was too late to escape. That time
he caught her and gave her the whipping which
he thought she needed. Perhaps it was from
that event, came the old saying: "I whipped
a woman once fifty years old, and I believe
T could have whipped her had she been a hun-
dred."
Below the Circle Arrow at Kimball was one
of the bivouacing places of the roundup. It
was on the hank of the Lodgepole. below the
lower ranch fence. Here the outfits always
paused in passing, and from here the boys
could go t<> \.ntelopeville fur recreation. One
time, they left at the camp a big bully of a
Dutch butcher who was acting in the capacity
of cook and a young fat kid about seventeen or
eighteen years old.
Almost invariably there is a kid on the
round-up, or with the trail wagon, or, for that
matter, anywhere else in the early west, and
he is usually the object of a great many rough
jokes and ill-temper. This kid, being fat, was
no exception.
On this occasion, as the boys returned, singly
or in pairs, at eventide, they found the kid
strutting about the camp in high feather. He
told them that he had been boss for the day.
It appeared that the bully had begun to work
off his ugly feelings, by abusing the kid, final-
ly daring him to fight, and offering to let
him tie his hands behind him, and start in.
The kid did tie his hands securely, and then
jumping on his horse he threw a rope over
the cook, and dragged him into the creek,
and up and down the creek a number of times,
nearly drowning him. Finally he had cried
enough, and the kid untied him. after which
he was going to give the boy a thrashing, but
the boy "threw down" on him. made him throw
up his hands, and promise to be good. For
the day the fat boy had ruled the camp with an
iron hand.
Here is was that Buddy Crocket, Al Harris,
Ad Carthage, Al Stringfellow, Jimmy Tate,
Johnny Frantz, E. L. Harrison, Henry-
Heard, and a host of the other old time boys
of the range used to camp, and go to Ante-
lopeville for their pay checks and a good time.
One night there had been quite a storm and
the boys were returning to the outfit, where a
number had remained. As they approached
they observed the big tent was lying flat, and
there was no one stirring about it. They dis-
mounted and proceeded to put the tent up,
when they discovered under it a number of men
who were asleep.
It occurred that the wind had blown it down,
and the boys finding by calling to one another
that no one was hurt, and being sleepy and
perfectly' dry and comfortable, they went on
with their slumber without putting up the tent.
The Tracy ranch was one of the early places
acquired by the Bay State. The brand was the
T F Circle, and the location near Pine Bluffs.
The old trails used to lead from Pine Bluffs
northward over the fine tables now called Gold-
en Prairie, and down the branch of Horse
creek to Creighton's Horse creek ranch. South-
ward the trails led to Crow creek ranges and
beyond.
Pine Bluffs was not a large town, but any
sort of a place in those days had a saloon, and
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
131
someone about the place could entertain at
poker.
Sometimes the churches of the east would
send out missionaries who would endeavor to
turn the unregenerate saddle boys into the
paths of duty. But those paths were not well
defined, although the boys back in their minds
had a respect for the teachings of their moth-
ers, many, many years ago. The trail of the
wicked are broad, and easy to follow even out
on the wide prairies.
One of these "sky pilots" landed at Pine
Bluffs, and the boys rigged up the hall over
the saloon, which generally served as a place
to dance, and the saloon was closed for an
hour or two that all might hear the sermon.
After the missionary had told the old, old
story, and sang a few hymns, they again went
down stairs. There seemed few ways to show
the hospitality of the west, and one of the
boys, just to be friendly, asked the missionary
to join with others at the bar.
Everybody lined up, and ordered their pref-
erence, expecting the man of cloth might ask
for a soda. Imagine their surprise when he
ordered Scotch. This was the beginning.
Everybody had to set 'em up and every time
the minister took his strong decoction.
The affair turned into a sort of an orgy,
and one of the boisterous fellows, old Carthage,
I believe it was, swapped his sombrero for
the man's plug hat. After while a team was
hitched up and the preacher loaded with a
well jagged driver to make the trip to Ante-
lopeville, whe.re he was next due.
In the night he drove up in front of the
Lynch hotel, and observing a light in the office
called to men there to come out and help him
"unload a dead man." During the journey,
the preacher had slumped over against the driv-
er, and he believed him to be in a drunken
stupor. He called him a dead man in attempted
jocular manner, but imagine his surprise, when
they came out and carried him into the hotel,
to find that he was actually dead.
It created quite a sensation, and while each
of them felt in a measure guilty of wrong do-
ing, there was really nothing that could fix any
guilt, or even guilt on any of them.
Six or eight months later. Carthage was
down at Sterling, when he received an express
package. He opened it and it was the plug hat
which he had left at Pine Bluffs. When he
saw what it was, he went white, and several
days were required to steady his nerves to nor-
mal condition.
The event served to sober down all those
present. After that they were less inclined
to "turn themselves loose," when the unexpect-
ed happened. Each felt the message : "Am I
my brother's keeper." with new force.
CHAPTER XXI
PAXTON'S OGALLALA COMPANY — HALL'S FAMOUS DRIVE TO PINE RIDGE
DICK BEAN'S DEATH — GUN MEN AND FRANTZ'S COMICAL EPISODE
The organization of the Ogallala Cattle
Company, was contemporaneous with that
of the Two-Bar and the Bay State, and while
Alex Swan was buying the big herds of Wy-
oming, and G. W. Simpson, at Antelopeville,
W. A. Paxton was buying those from Sidney
to Ogallala. Among his lieutenants in Ne-
braska were Eugene A. Hall, Mac. Radcliffe,
and Dick Bean.
Paxton's Keystone ranch was the first, and
the nucleus of the Ogallala company's hold-
ings. Shortly after the Shiedley ranches were
acquired, and then began negotiations for the
much desired Bosler herds ; George Bosler, the
leading spirit in that organization knew that
the brothers' many cattle had suffered less loss
during the preceding winters, and that there
was a large number of marketable steers. Pax-
ton knew this also, but was not able .o make a
satisfactory offer to the Boslers.
He then took up negotiations with Dennis
Sheedy, who had bought the Seven-U from
Powers Brothers a few years before. Mr.
Sheedy's books showed that he had thirty-five
thousand cattle, but the Ogallala boys had been
over the range and had found large quantities
of dead cattle of that brand. 'Gene Hall esti-
mated the survivors at not to exceed one-half
of the book number. Paxton made two offers
on this basis : one at twenty-eight dollars per
132
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
head on actual count, or about half that amount
if accepted on book account.
Jerry Drummer had been foreman of the
Seven-U for about twelve years, and he ad-
vised Sheedy to take the offer of twenty-eight
dollars per head. Hall, with ten expert cow-
men, besides the wagon men, was detailed to
receive, and to prevent any possible errors in
count, each animal received, was to be branded
"S". Paxton evidently believed that an ef-
fort would be made to swamp the receiving
outfit, and confuse the count ; perhaps expect-
ing that a number would get away, and be
rushed through the counting chutes the second
time. To prevent any such complication, he
sent two other outfits of equal dimension, un-
der Radcliffe and Bean, to assist.
On the first day of August, 1884, six thou-
sand cattle were rounded up out of Nine Mile
canyon, now in Scotts Bluff county, and deliv-
ered at the Seven-U ranch. The thirty men had
them about half branded with the receiving
brand, when four thousand more were deliver-
ed from the Winter creek round-up, which was
a few miles farther up the rive. The cattle
were mostly of the long-horn Mexican type.
"Now," sand 'Gene, "Mr. Sheedy has shot
his wad." And so it proved. About five
thousand more were delivered in smaller
bunches that fall, and about five hundred the
following spring. That concluded the delivery.
Had Sheedy accepted Mr. Paxton's alternate
offer, he would have been ahead, and the fact
that his foreman, Drummer, had wrongly ad-
vised, caused some friction between Sheedy
and Drummer in the days that followed.
George Bosler died shortly after the Seven-U
transfer, and Paxton in 1885 struck a deal
with the other brother for the entire Bosler
outfit, for one million dollars. The 3oslers
had ranches on the Blue, on Brown creek, on
Coldwater and Lost creek. It was a great
stroke of business for the Ogallala, for big
dividends of the company followed the ship-
ment of beef cattle the three following years,
and these beef cattle came very largely from
the Bosler herds. Ten thousand beeves were
shipped in the autumn of 1885, practically all
Bosler cattle, and the company paid seventeen
per cent, dividends. The following year ten
thousand more, principally Bosler steers, went
on the market, and another big dividend was
declared.
'The Jews," and others of the east began to
take notice and nibble at the capital stock of
the Ogallala company, but Paxton held them
off. The big storm of the spring of 1886,
destroyed many thousand cattle, and drove
Swan and his Two-Bar outfit on the rocks,
and John Clay took the helm. But Paxton's
outfit was stronger, and weathered the storm
with little loss. The big shipment of 1886,
were followed by shipments in 1887 that ex-
ceeded all expectations and drove investors
towards the Ogallala company, clammering for
a chance to invest in the capital stock. Seven-
teen thousand beeves were shipped, and of
those about ten thousand came from the Bosler
herds.
The granger settlements made it advisable
to move the remainder of the cattle to Wyom-
ing, and the home ranch was to be on Little
Wind river, about sixty-five miles northwest
of Fort Fetterman, or Douglas. Paxton had
bought the Boyd herds which were on the
lower North river, and in all he had about
probably fifteen thousand head to move, be-
sides several thousand calves. One of the
Boyds (James E.) later became governor.
Boyds sold to the Ogallala company about three
thousand cattle.
Herds were divided into four lots, and
'Gene Hall broke the trail with thirty-six hun-
dred cattle and one thousand calves. One of
the other herds was under Bill Hanger, and
another was in charge of Bud Chambers.
On August first, Hall started from Camp
Lake, which is the present site of the Hall &
Graham ranch, in south Box Butte county.
1888, being the tenth years for Hall upon the
range, he determined that it should be his last,
except in business for himself. W. C. Irvine
had been made general manager for the Ogal-
lala company, and the company was passing in-
to the hands of new people. Irvine had ideas
of economy that meant reduced wages, and
one was to cut 'Gene's salary from one hundred
dollars to seventy-five dollars per month.
'Gene said "nothing doing," so he remained
out the . season at the old figure, for Paxton
had told Irvine that he had better keep him at
that. Knowing that Hall intended to quit at
the end of the season, he thought he would
give him a job that would break his headiness,
and keep him on the range, for he was a good
cowman.
Fie gave him three thousand and thirty
steers by actual count for delivery at the Rose-
bud agency. The trip was a trying one, over
a dry country, but it was made so carefully
that it ended with a full count, and all in good
condition. The feat caused considerable fa-
vorable comment at the time.
The habit of the steer is to get lonesome,
or homesick for the native range, and once in
a while after bedding down at night, a single
steer will get up and start back along the
trail in the darkness. When perhaps a hundred
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
133
feet away from the herd, he will begin a low
moo, or call; and sometimes another, or sev-
eral others will get up and follow. In the
morning, a few out of a herd of thousands
are seldom missed.
To avoid this loss, after the cattle were
bedded down and the boys had turned in, Hall
would go back along the trail three or four
hundred yards, and tethering his broncho to
his wrist, would crawl into his tarpaulin. The
lowing of a straying steer never failed to awak-
en him, and he would rise and turn it back into
the herd. Eight or ten other steers were picked
up along the way, and they made up any loss
that did occur, for in spite of the best of
care, occasionally one will drop by the wayside.
Hall's old partner, Bean, had rounded up a
smaller bunch on the North river, and had
driven them from Camp Clarke to the Rose-
bud, and he was there when Hall arrived.
Mort Eberly, who was Hall's right hand
man on the trip, later became inspector for
the Wyoming Stock Association, and was sta-
tioned at Sheridan, from which place, in 1893,
he went "the long trail."
William A. Paxton, whose family is now
extinct, stood pre-eminent among Cattle Kings
of all the early years. He would stand by his
friends, even though it entailed personal losses
through their weakness. He was unfaltering
in fidelity. In some ways he was most diffi-
dent. I once witnessed a meeting between
the Cow-premier and Roosevelt. Paxton was
timid, and appeared ill at ease in the presence
of Theodore, evidently looking up at the po-
sition of President, and had a consciousness of
his own inferior position. Yet, I am sure there
are others who join with me in the thought
that in many ways Paxton was the greater of
the two. And that takes nothing from the
glory of Teddy Roosevelt.
Among Paxton's "pets" was John String-
fellow, who went to work for him on the
Keystone ranch in 1873. He had met him the
year before, but went back to Texas, only to
return the following year, to hunt up and seek
employment of "the man with the big black
whiskers."
Stringfellow drank furiously on occasion,
and played Monte whenever he could find a
game. This kept him indebted to Paxton, who
several times wiped out a score of fifteen hun-
dred dollars debt, just because John was a
good cowman, and sometimes went to pieces
when he contemplated the amount that he
owed. Old cowmen and associates said that
he was "a whirlwind of hell, when drunk,"
whatever that may mean.
Paxton once promised him a hundred steers
if he would remain sober for one year. He
held out from September until the following
July, when a visit to Ogallala, and the meet-
ing of some old friends, ended in a spree of
unusual dimension'.
John was a brother of Al Stringfellow, who
was with the late Bay State round-ups in west-
ern Nebraska. Al was the fellow who, with
Bill Kelly, at the wedding of Ed. A. Boots
and "Dude" Wright on Pumkin creek, were
found in the grey dawn playing "andy over"
the hay stack with their six-shooters.
Dick Bean was another of Paxton's "favor-
ites," who while one of the finest fellows on
the range, and one of the best cowmen in the
Ogallala outfits, also had a weakness for strong
drink. Bean could single out a steer and drive
it through fire and water, and he could stick
to the back of a horse, but he could not drive
a team. It would always ramble about at will.
Most of the teams were gentle cow-ponies
broken to harness, and they would rather take
to the prairies than follow the road. This in-
ability to drive caused his death in 1894 under
a load o+ lumber, which he was hauling to
the North river to build a house for himself
and wife on a small ranch that he had picked
out for their future home.
Charles Stepp had a little affair with Bean
that illustrates his peculiar characteristics.
Stepp had charge of a bunch of cattle that
had to cross the river a little below Camp
Clarke and Bean was to assist. The river was
high, and the cattle turned down stream when
they reached the deep water, and commenced
to swim. Bean was looking after the lead
cattle to keep them from turning about, and
start a mid-stream mill — or circling move-
ment. Stepp became excited, and shouted to
Bean to head them off and turn them to the
other shore. Bean was a better cowman than
Stepp, and shouting directions in a cow out-
fit, is a violation of the ethics of the range.
Bean was tempted to pull in shore, and let
them go as they willed, but they were Ogal-
lala cattle, and he was working for the Ogal-
lala Cattle Company.
He swam his horse beside the lead steers
for one hundred and fifty yards down the
stream, in order to let Stepp do some worrying,
and then turned his horse close to the leaders,
and with his hand slapped a little water on the
side of their heads nearest to him. They were
turned easily, and quietly, and swam straight
for the other shore, as desired.
Stepp realized that he had made a bad break,
and that night and for several days, he tried
to show favoritism for Bean, but he was too
dignified to acknowledge that he had broken
134
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
cow-camp ethics, or to apologize. Not long
thereafter, Bean quit the outfit and went to
Cheyenne. Paxton heard of his departure, and
also heard of the episode.
"Charlie," he said, "you done it. Now, you
go to Cheyenne and bring him back. Do
whatever is necessary to bring him back. See ?"
Stepp evidently "observed," for he went to
Cheyenne, and Bean came back with him, and
they were apparently the best of friends. The
stockmen's convention was on at that time ;
the Hart outfit had found Bean unattached,
and had hired him, but Stepp had done "what
was necessary" to secure his release.
A short time before Bean's marriage, 'Gene
Hall went to Ogallala, where he found Bean,
with John Hewitt, Charlie Gifford and Jim
McMahon in a high state of hilarity. They
were wearing long linen dusters and straw
hats, as burlesque new-comers. Bean went
over to the store, and soon returned with a
straw hat, and dragging a new linen duster by
the sleeve. They insisted that 'Gene join them
in the celebration, but Hall said the country
was settling up with civilized folks, and that
he did not aprove of the "rough stuff" they
were pulling off, and that he told them as much.
Which little lecture on proper etiquette was
received with much merriment by the four hi-
larious men.
In the Texas Panhandle, and along the Texas
trail as far north as Dodge City, the gun
man was much more in evidence, than in the
northern ranges. In the south range country,
feuds sprang up that sometimes wiped out an
entire outfit. There were many gun fights,
and homicide whenever there was the slightest
provocation. The northern ranches tried to
evade the mistakes of the fire-brand, hair-
trigger south.
If a sure-enough bad man became affiliated
with an outfit, he was the first one to be let out
by the management. Hunter & Evans were
not so vigilant as Shiedleys, Daters, Boslers,
Coad, Swan, Creighton, Paxton and many oth-
ers, in keeping out the undesirables, but all
had their troubles.
Floyd Grey was a "Bosler terrier" one sea-
son, but was let out at its close, as many an-
other was let out for the same reason. Grey
was a very angry man, and said if he ever
met George Bosler, he would knock his teeth
down his throat with his six-shooter. George
died a short time after, so that if the threat
was ever put into execution, it was on Another
Range.
Occasionally some one would come up the
trail looking for the man who had killed his
friend. Justification for killing the man, would
lay in the fact that the proposed victim had
taken unfair advantage of the friend and sent
him away on the "long, long trail."
In some of the worst killing towns, it be-
came the habit of the authorities to disarm the
boys that went on a spree. Truly that took
away a lot of the fun, but it lessened the
danger. Not that the boys cared to avoid the
dangers, but the Cattle-premiers did not want
to lose their valuable men.
John Frantz was one of the boys that kept
a gun just for the fun of hearing it pop. He
was not a bad man, and had no homicidal
traits of character. One day he arrived off
the range at Kimball, and stopped at Ham
Lilly's front street livery barn, which then stood
next to the alley at the rear of the present
Wheatgrowers hotel. Between the barn and
the corner west, was Gassman's grocery store,
and the few who could play horns, had gather-
ed out in front of the store, practicing as
"the Kimball Cornet Band." Johnny stepped
into the alley beside the livery- stable, and espied
a big sow, peacefully rooting into the stable
debris. A good rider, wiry, and quick as a
cat, Johnny leaped upon the back of the sow,
who let out a series of grunts of disapproval,
and plunged out of the alley, scattering the
members of the band, as Johnny firing his
six-shooter into the earth or sky, rode the
frightened hog along the street. Without the
gun, this escapade would have lost some of its
joy for Johnny. He landed safely, "forked end
down," after riding the protesting animal a few
rods beyond the scattered but laughing musi-
cians. The "practice" was off for the night,
but Lew Schaefer did a thriving business in
cove oysters that evening, and Billy Day and
Mike Lynch were busy in their place of busi-
ness. When Johnny landed in town, he always
"touched it off."
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRAi
135
CHAPTER XXII
A. HALL AND ROBERT GRAHAM'S OLD TIME RANCH — OGALLALA MEN
AND EVENTS — INDIANS GET SOUTHERS — BARGAIN SALES
OF RANCH LOCATIONS — HARPER'S DEAL
Gene Hall, the foreman of the Blue River
ranch, was but a kid of eighteen years, when he
"drove drags," up the Texas trail in 1878.
The older men of the outfit made him "eat
dust," which consisted of picking up the strag-
glers in the rear of the herds.
Young as lie was, 'Gene saw the great grass
ranges of western Nebraska, and mentally vow-
ed to come back some day, and have a ranch
of his own. How well he has succeeded, one
can see by a visit to Camp Lake, where Hall
and Graham have one of the finest ranches and
range in the west. It is modelled after the
old ranches ; foreman's or main ranch dwell-
ing, mess house, bunk house, and stockade cor-
ral. A little of the "modern" has crept in,
birds have come with the groves, blue grass
and clover have come with the birds, and in
this age of concrete, no one could escape a
little cement. But it has kept "the identity" of
the ranches of forty years ago.
In the spring of seventy-nine, Hall returned
and arrived in Sidney "broke flat." He stopped
at the "Miner's Hotel," which was in the south-
west corner of the block in which you will now
find Hon. W. P. Miles, and the Hons. Joseph
and Robert Oberfelder. three of the old timers
of Sidney. In the days of the middle eighties
this block contained the emporium of Mike
Tobin and Harry Winters, and the Metropoli-
tan held the position on Front Street. Nearly
all the old timers stopped at the Miner's hotel
in 1879, and the landlord took 'Gene in and
let him stay without pay, until he secured work.
Stopping at the hotel was John Graham, with
whom Hall visited and talked.
Graham had drifted up the trail to Ogallala
a year or two before, and while there, two of
his friends, Billy Brewdon and another were
killed in an affair with four other fellows.
The four were said to be a rough lot, but one
of them was Jack Southers, then deputy sheriff.
The others were Joe Hughes, Billy Thompson
and Bill Phebeus. Billy Thompson had the
reputation of a really bad man, he having said
to have killed the sheriff of Ellsworth, Kansas,
about 1873. Phebeus was later hung by vigil-
antes at Pueblo, Colorado, for stealing cattle.
After the episode, Graham quit the range
and took up his old trade of blacksmithing at
Ogallala, waiting for the opportunity to pay
them back in their own coin. He wanted to
get the four together and "clean the whole out-
fit" at one time. Once he had the affair almost
in hand, when Frank King, who recently died
at Broadwater, and who was then an officer
of the law at Ogallala, got "a whiff of the
wind," and took Graham's guns away from
him.
Graham stayed there all summer, then came
to Sidney, for the four were now drifted their
several ways. Graham complained bitterly,
saying it "was ad — d shame that he never
got satisfaction for the murdering of his
friends." Graham went to work for the H-
Three-Bar, or Hunter & Evans.
The deputy sheriff in the Ogallala affair
drifted up on the Niobrara and White river
ranges also, and the story came down the Sid-
ney Trail that the Indians had killed him.
Years afterwards, the story comes out, of a
meeting between Bill Nagles. of Hunter &
Evans' outfit, and E. A. Hall of the Ogallala,
which took place on Box Butte creek, north of
Alliance. Nagles was in charge of a bunch
of horses when they met.
"Get down, 'Gene, and let's visit," says Bill.
And they did, sitting cross-legged on the prairie
for a long time. Finally the conversation turn-
ed to the death of Southers, and Hall said:
"Billy, do you reallv think the Indians killed
him?" '
Bill looked at 'Gene in apparently owl-eyed
astonishment, but each had sensed the other's
though without the words. Then Nagles
said: "I could put my hand on a horse in this
bunch that could tell, if he could talk : and John
Graham was riding that horse at the time
Southers was killed."
So Graham had got one of the four, the
vigilantes another, and of the other two there
is no report. Graham was later shot and killed
by a Missourian. Bill Nagles a little later
went to Oklahoma and accumulated wealth,
and now they call him William Nagles.
This unwritten law "to get the man who gets
your friend" is responsible for one ol the
graves at the Seven-U. When Powers Broth-
ers were still at the helm, in 1879. two Texans
drew their pay and started for their old range,
and both had considerable money. The mother
of one of them lived there. A week or two
later one of them returned and said that he
had changed his mind, and came back to work,
136
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
but that his pard, the one whose mother was
in Texas, had "gone on down the trail.*'
Shortly afterwards a cow outfit was coming
north, and they found in the brush along the
Frenchman, the body of a dead man. There
was another young Texan at the Seven-U who
heard the story, and made some inquiry which
satisfied him that it was the man who had start-
ed to go to his mother in Texas. Subsequent
correspondence from the mother said that her
son had never reached home. The dead man
had been shot and robbed.
One day the Texan who had returned, said
he guessed he would go to Camp Clarke, and
the young man said : "I guess I'll ride along."
Some of those about the old ranch said they
felt that vibrant tenseness of the old west,
that presaged "an event." But it was not the
policy of one man to interfere with the "affairs"
of another.
The young man came back alone, and they
buried the Texan with his boots on near the
old ranch. Thus ended another matter where
one fellow looked after the fellow who killed
his friend. The grief of the mother was per-
haps softened by the thought that her dead boy,
had a living friend of such purpose, in the far
North Platte valley.
A few of the others connected with the
Ogallala Company, and of the times are here
briefly referred to :
Frank King, who recently died at Broad-
water, bought the Brown Creek ranch of the
Ogallala Company after they took their cattle
to Wyoming. He paid six hundred dollars
for the land, buildings and equipment at the
place. He was sheriff of Keith county at one
time.
Tom Fanning, who lives near Mitchell, came
from Saint Louis in 1877, and went to work
for Paxton & Wier on the Keystone ranch,
which was on Clearwater creek.' Tom Lawr-
ence was foreman. He was afterwards with
Wier at Ogallala. when Wier was range man-
ager of the Ogallala company, which he, and
Paxton had organized, with headquarters in
that city.
W. A. Paxton, the originator of the com-
pany, came from Missouri in 1867. He there
learned the art of "whacking bulls." He had
two yoke and a wooden axle sulky plow for
breaking sod. It had a larger wheel for the
furrow side, and no apparatus for levelling
it up when on level ground. He took up
freighting on arriving, which was considerable
of an enterprise in western Nebraska, even
after the Union Pacific was built.
One M. R. Jacket and Louis Auftcngardner
were interested in the cattle company. The
latter still lives at Ogallala, and when the
herd was taken to the northwest, Jacket parted
with his interests, and located a ranch in Spring
Canyon, just south of Lewellen, where I be-
lieve he still lives (1919).
Jacket's men captured a pair of young buf-
falo over on the Stinking water, in the south
part of Keith county, now Perkins county, in
1885. He kept them with his herd until 1891,
when he sold them to a butcher in Ogallala,
who shipped them to Omaha. Cattle were
low priced then, and when these buffalo
brought one hundred dollars each, it was con-
sidered an excellent price.
E. M. Searle, afterwards state auditor, was
station agent at Ogallala, then the greatest cat-
tle shipping point west of Omaha. George
Halligan, a brother of Attorney John Halligan
at North Platte, was marshal, and being
marshal of Ogallala required nerve, and good
judgment. Mart DePreist was sheriff of
Keith county about that time, which was also
a job of responsibility in those earlier days.
DePreist is now chief of police at Ogallala,
(1919).
Charlie McCune, who lives at Scottsbluff,
is one of the boys that worked for the Ogal-
lala outfit in its later days, when they were
gathering the herds for the Wyoming drive.
The several locations of ranches that had
come into the possession of the Ogallala con-
cern were sold on about the same basis of that
sold to Frank King — a few dollars each. The
values of such places were not considered of
much consequence. Watering places had been
early appropriated, and usually some cow
puncher would make a government filing, and
after making final proof, he would sell to the
outfit for a few hundred extra dollars.
Among these first locations of different
cow companies were a lot of springs in the vi-
cinity of Camp Clarke, which seemed to be
quite a center of business, and well watered.
Pumpkin creek and Lawrence Fork are to
the southwest, with springs in many of the
canyons. There were also Camp Creek springs,
Deep Holes, Mud Springs, Rush and Cedar
creeks to the southeast. Coldwater Canyon,
Pussy Springs, Lower Dugout, Finguard
creek, and Brown Creek springs were down the
river and mostly on the north side.
While these places had little commercial
value to the bonanza cowmen who were tak-
ing their -herds out of the country, they have
been acquired and ard the foundations of
many of the new ranches. There is Rems-
burg's ranch at Pussy Springs, Lisco ranch
on Cedar and Rush creeks, Beerline's ranch
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
137
at the mouth of Brown creek ; Wagner's ranch,
a little below it on the river; Slater's ranch
in the Tar valley section ; Richardson's ranch,
south of Horse Lake ; and there is J. W.
Rodger's ranch, Hibler's ranch, Peer's ranch,
Hubble's ranch, Smith's ranch, Johnson's
ranch, Club ranch, DD ranch, Margesson's
ranch. Hill's ranch, Hague's ranch, and many
others.
Illustrative of the value placed upon them,
is the consideration of Adams, Redington
ranch in Morrill county, which was probably
as good a location as any of them.
J. W. Harper came to Sidney, in September,
1884, and homesteaded on the tableland, a
few miles southwest of the old "Water Holes."
In 1893, he bought Berry Brothers' quarter of
land on Lawrence Fork, and shortly after
acquired the Redington quarter and the Adams
quarter. Adjoining the Berry land was four
hundred and eighty acres belonging to Sam
Fowler, and used as a horse ranch. Harper's
water for irrigating his hay meadow came off
the Fowler land, and he wanted to buy it.
Fowler asked $1,400.00 for the whole acreage,
which Harper thought was too much.
But Fowler sold it to an Iowa man by the
name of Battleax, I believe, and he immediate-
ly offered to sell it for $2,200.00. Harper
again refused to buy it, and Battleax sold to
Bickel, another Iowa man. Bickel again tilted
the price, and Harper, as he relates it, says :
"I was afraid to take any more chances on
Iowa men, and so negotiated its purchase for
$3,200.00, and a new wagon."
When Redington was attacked by the ''sell-
ing fever," he offered his one hundred and
sixty acres which contained some beautiful
timber and about a mile of the creek, for
$800.00. It also contained some valuable hay
ground. Harper made him an alternate offer
which he accepted. Harper was to put twenty
cows on the place and Redington was to care
for them. At the end of three years, all the
increase of the herd was to belong to Reding-
ton and the land to belong to Harper; and
Harper was to make up the calf shortage each
year, so that Redington was to have the full
number of calves to start. Redington made
some money by the transaction and Harper
made more in the long run. About five years
ago he sold the land to Neihus brothers for
$19,250.00
CHAPTER XXIII
AN INDIAN WAGON RACE — BUILDING CAMP CLARKE BRIDGE — ROUND-UP
WILD WEST SHOWS — TOM HORN'S OUTLAW HORSE — SIX
THOUSAND CATTLE MILLING IN THE RIVER
The gold seekers going into the Black Hills
had three routes : One was by way of the
Northwestern as far as the line was completed,
somewhere in the Valentine country. From
there the route was overland. The establish-
ment of the Red Cloud agency on White river,
and the attempt to domesticate the Indian,
brought some freight to the agency by the
same route. Indians were engaged to haul it.
They were fitted out with a number of new
wagons, which were loaded with provisions
for regular distribution. They had an accom-
paniment of a detachment of cavalry. All
went well until they were well out of the Sand
Hills, and in the vicinity of Gordon or Rush-
ville. Here they were strung out for a num-
ber of miles, and the notion seems to permeate
each of the drivers at the same time, that he
would like to be the first to arrive at the agency
and show his new wagon. There was a grad-
ual speeding up of the teams, in spite of the
efforts of the cavalry to hold them down. By
the time they reached the vicinity of Chadron
they were going at a swift trot. In the mean-
time the drivers, who had been clad in over-
alls or jeans for the first time had become un-
comfortable from the heat, and they had cut
out the seats of their pantaloons to add to their
comfort.
When within twenty-five or thirty miles of
the agency, the horses were warming up also,
and to make it easier on them, the Indians be-
gan to throw out sacks of flour, and slabs of
bacon. They reached Red Cloud agency in a
whirlwind of dust and going at top speed, and
the road for miles back was lined with the pro-
138
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
visions that were intended for regular distri-
bution. There were no serious losses except
for time, for the provender was gathered up,
and the tough little horses of the range stood
the race fairly well.
Another route to the Black Hills was by
Cheyenne, where the trail had been well broken
to the North Platte river, and fairly well de-
fined as far as Red Cloud, on White river.
The third route was more of importance to
western Nebraska. It was from Sidney, north,
and was known as the Sidney trail. Its dis-
advantages were that during the early part
of the season, the North Platte river was high
and dangerous to cross. Fort Laramie had a
cantilever bridge, which is still in use (1919),
and which had been hauled by wagons from
Fort Leavenworth more than a decade earlier,
in 1867, and erected at a cost of about $70,-
000.00 by the government.
During the dry season when the river cross-
ing north of Sidney was easy to ford, there
were two or three other places where water
was scarce.
Henry T. Clarke became the man of the
hour. He went to the Union Pacific officials
and secured their co-operation and they ship-
ped the materials for the bridge , free of
freight. Fie then secured the co-operation of
the freighters, who each hauled a load or two
to the river, free of expense, and some of them
volunteered a part of the work.
Camp Clarke came into existence, and with
it the toll bridge. Tolls were charged the
men who had donated work, and while they
objected,, they paid the price, because they
could not stop to palaver about it. Camp
Clarke became the most important place of
crossing the North Platte river, and it was on
the center line of the Texas Trail. In the days
of the cowmen it became a place of tremend-
ous significance.
According to stories of the early days the
bridge also served other purposes than for
crossing the river. A white desperado was
found hanging there one time, with a placard
rudely daubed pinned to him, which read :
"In some ways he was a bad man, and in
others a damnsite wuss."
Here the round-ups of Nebraska and Wy-
oming met and the Nebraska chuck wagons,
many of them turned back, sending only repre-
sentatives farther west to collect scattering
strays.
Some times thirty or forty outfits would as-
semble at the "Sidney bridge." as the cow
men called it. And, talk of your Wild Wot
die iw ! There has been nothing like it in his-
tory. There was nothing artificial in the buck-
ing bronchos, or the roping, branding, or other
hardy adventures incident of the round-up.
Five hundred cowpunchers of the real sort
gathered here in the early eighties, and they
made a show of such marvelous dexterity and
horsemanship that the trained athletes of Buf-
falo Bill's and Frontier Aggregations seem like
fading images on the sky-line of a glorious
past.
Camp Clark was situated on the south bank
of the river, and the fort and a trading post,
afterwards named Wellsville, were at the north
end of the bridge. Here also was the famous
old sod saloon.
In the unwritten history of the cow men
are many adventures, thrilling games, and oc-
casionally a shooting-up of the old "soddy,"
and some of these events lap over the advent
of the granger into western Nebraska.
Some forty outfits and five hundred cow-
punchers were there in eighty-four. It was
a wet time and there had been a steady down-
pour for two days, checking the progress of the
work.
"Swede Pete," a well-known character, was
going into the old soddy to warm up, when
he found his singing pardner who had taken
on too much, was leaning in an attitude of de-
jection, with both hands gripping into the rain-
softened sod walls. His insecure handhold
gave way, and he crumbled down in the alkali
mud in a sorry heap. Just then he noticed
"Pete," he said mournfully, " 'taint because 1
don't like it. but I just can't keep it," — and he
justified the statement.
Then this man who had ridden a runaway
"loco" over a sixty foot bluff, killing the horse,
he himself coming up unhurt ; and who had
ridden before stampedes on stormy nights,
perhaps felt closer to the summit of the Great
Divide than ever before ; or perhaps it was
in humorous impulse, for he moaned dismally
from the old cowboy song. "Oh. bury me not
on the lone prairieee— ee."
Mrs. E. Joy Johnson of Lusk, Wyoming,
writes charmingly of these round-ups in "The
Foreman of J. A. 6." when Laughlin, Cham-
berlain, St. Claire, Woody, Snyder, DeHart,
Robb, Sanely Ingraham. Flomer Welker, Perry
Braziel, Johnny Minser, Johnny Frantz, Harry
Haig, Ed. Wright, and others, many of whom
still reside in western Nebraska were among
the cowpunchers of the gatherings of eighty-
four, and she also relates many amusing in-
cidents.
One of her stories is of Tom Horn's adven-
tures with an outlaw horse.
The picturesqueness of American frontiers-
men would lose some of its attractiveness, — it
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
139
would be less of an accurate figure of history,
— 'if it lost the classical language of the cow-
men. The profanity of a cowpuncher never
seemed quite so profane as that of other men.
It lacked the grossness of old-time sea captains
and longshoremen. It seemed to have the justi-
fication of being the effect of a cause. For
instance, the picturesque name of Tom Horn's
outlaw horse was "Damned-if-I-Do,"' which
obtained from its peculiar characteristic never
to carry a rider across a stream. Horn's ex-
perience was none different from others. He
was thrown in midstream and came near
drowning. Perhaps, in view of his later
achievements and death from the hangman's
noose at Cheyenne a few years ago, it would
have been better had they let him perish. This
seems to emphasize the old saying that a man
who is born to be hung, will never drown.
In 1885 the "greasers" arrived in large num-
bers, in charge of cattle from the south, which
were being taken to Big Horn Basin and Mon-
tana for summer range. ( )ne herd of six or
seven thousand cattle, in charge of Mexicans,
had been held on the south side of the river,
just below Clarke's bridge, for a number of
days, because of the swollen condition of the
stream.
The Mexican is not a daredevil fatalist like
the American cowpuncher, and the hazard of
crossing the river was "a plenty" to inspire him
to indolence and waiting. The foreman was J. S.
Robb, well-known as a good cowman, who was
worried by the delay. He finally obtained the
assistance of Johnny Peters and Runey Camp-
bell. The former "went the Long-long Trail"
a number of years ago, being a resident of
Scotlsbluff at the time, and the latter now lives
near Gering. Robb has also taken the "Long
Trail."
The cattle, after much effort were forced
over the river bank, and away they went,
swimming steadily, until about half-way across.
when the leaders turned an arc downstream
and started to return. Peters, Campbell and
the foreman plunged their horses in to turn
them back, but in the turning they continued
the arc, and in a few moments six thousand
cattle were milling in midstream where the
water was six or eight feet deep.
A fortune. $100,000.00 or more, was threat-
ened with complete destruction. Three Ameri-
can cowboys' reputations were in the scales
(it destiny. Six thousand cattle were circling
in the vortex of a whirlpool. Waves radiated
out, waves ten or twelve feet high, and the
"troughs" between them bared the sand of the
river bed.
On horse between the waves, the shores were
hidden by walls of water, and then a ten foot
wave would slap horse and rider in the face
and roll over their heads, like a comber on
the beach. The flaring cow-ponies met the
succeeding waves head end. In the troughs be-
tween two waves their hoofs braced in the
yielding sand, their ears back, and the waves
often lifted them backward a few feet.
Emerging the alert ears flipped the water off,
and the riders quickly getting their bearings
the horses moved rapidly as indicated by knee
pressure and bridle rein. Steadily they worked
round, not daring to turn side to the milling
steers, — for a wave to strike them sideways
contained fearful menace.
Peters reached the opposite side of the herd
first. The opportunity was soon presented
to turn the heads of a few to the northern
shore and the wheeling thousands slowly un-
wound as the thread of swimming steers strung
out towards the grassy flats on the north side.
The herd had been saved and tin- cowboys had
justified the reputation of courage and daring
which was the boast of the fraternity. The
Mexicans crossed the Camp Clarke bridge, and
took the cattle on into the north.
140
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XXIV
THE FARQUERERS AND CROSS COUNTRY RIDING — HUNTING GEESE ON
HUGHES ISLAND — FUN OF THE FRONTIER — JIMMY
MOORE'S LONG WALK
About the time of the coming of the grang-
ers, Farquerer Brothers arrived, and located
in the canyons between Redington Gap and
Chimney Rock. They were also picturesque
Englishmen, like Geo. Laing. Henry Brad-
ford who stayed at the Seven-U much of the
time, went about with the Farquerers and
Laing.
Bradford had a penchant for exaggeration
and a vivid imagination. As the Hon. T. C.
Osborne, elected members of the new constitu-
tional convention, (1919) says: "Bradford was
a constitutional pervaricator," an opinion once
quite general among the old timers.
At that, he was an entertainer of the first
class, and when it came to good yarn, "Old
Brad," as he was called, was an inexhaustible
supply. He was an interesting character, and
full of droll humor.
One time Brad was with a party doing the
sights of early Sidney, when his exchequer
ran low. He politely told the others of his
intention to retire. When hard pressed he
told the reason that he had no further funds
to draw upon. The others, with true west-
ern spirit, told him that they did not care
for his money, but that they wanted his society.
He said: "Alright, boys, if it is my intellect
that you want, I am with you, but I am out
of cash."
These English boys used to keep good
hounds and guns, and horses, and rode their
English postage-stamp saddles straight up and
many was the time that they rode to hounds,
chasing wolves and coyotes, and antelope.
John M. Adams, now of Georgia ; £. V. S.
Pomeroy, now of California ; J. J. Mcintosh,
late of Sidney ; and others, joined with them
in these rides.
The bridge north of McGrew in the east
part of Scotts Bluff county, crosses what is
known as Hughes Island, and in the early
days wild geese nested upon this island, and
hatched their young.
The English sportsmen and their guests
would take their hounds and horses, when the
young geese were big enough to swim, but not
old enough to fly, and they would drive a brood
into the water, and try to ride them down, or
catch them with the dogs. There was a great
splashing and shouting, and the dogs entered
into i'h full spirit of the chase. Occasionally
a horse would strike a honey-comb place in
the sand and go down, the rider taking a full
dive into the water over the animal's head.
The young geese would try to swim away
from their pursuers, but when nearly overtaken
they would dive, coming up hundreds of feet
away, and then hunters and hounds would go
after them again. It was great sport for the
sportsmen, but a little hard on the young geese ;
and there is no more nesting on Hughes
Island.
Only a few days ago, someone speaking of
the "English boys," mentioned Margeson
Brothers. The Margesons came at a later date,
and they, along with good old Dan Callahan,
lived at the head of Creighton canyon. The
Farquerers were earlier, and differently iden-
tified. Cheighton canyon was named after the
Creightons acquired Coad's ranch at old Scotts
Bluff stage station.
There were three of the Margesons, who
later went into the country east of Camp
Clarke, then they separated and went their sev-
eral ways. One is quite wealthy in the ranch
business near Pueblo, Colorado ; another went
to Australia, and prospered in the sheep busi-
ness. Hal, the younger, was educated for the
cloth, and returned to England, where he took
up the work of the ministry.
1887 and 1888 witnessed the last round-ups
in Nebraska, where I assisted in driving the
Circle-Block cattle across the state line into
Wyoming. In 1888 a considerable party of
North river folks had gone to Sidney to make
final proof on pre-emptions, crossing the river
at Clarke's bridge. A number, including Jim-
my Moore, (not the Pony Express rider,)
were from Minatare. They had been together
on the trip, and were a trifle the worse for
wear, when they stopped at W'ellsville over-
night on their return.
The driver, Ed. Eastman, had charge of a
pony of whiskey, which, he alleged, was for
a neighbor, and he had just reason to fear its
safety. He hid it under "Extract" Smith's bed,
which was not exercising the best of judgment.
"Extract" Smith was custodian of the old
sod saloon, and the first part of his monicker
obtained of his consecration to the cause of
absorbing lemon extract.
It is needless to say that Ed.'s strategy did
nut avail, and early in the evening a number
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
141
of the party, including Jimmy, found way
to the pony. After several visits into the inner
sanctuary of the sod cabin, Jimmy startled his
friends by emerging in the open, hugging the
pony in his arms, and declaring himself the
reincarnation of the Pony Express rider, and
that in the hereafter he would carry the pony
as a penance" for the pony's previous experience
in carrying him. Only a part of this volun-
tary acceptance of Karmic law, came to his
friends in the crude classics of mortals, and
much was derived by inference and deduction.
Before long Jimmy was carefully tucked
away, outside the building, his couch the terra
firma, his canopy the sky, while his friends
continued the night revels. In the early morn-
ing, he awoke, thoroughly chilled, and loud
were his lamentations ; so continuously loud
that other sleepers were disturbed. So when
the belated stars were vanishing, Jimmy's out-
fit took up its journey on to Minatare, twenty
miles away. In some manner Jimmy's de-
parture was delayed. He departed about one
hundred yards behind the wagon.
It was thoughtful of the boys to relieve
Jimmy of a part of his load if he were com-
pelled to walk twenty miles. His six guns,
weighing several pounds, had been thought-
fully transferred to the wagon before starting.
While Jimmy lacked a bit the night before
in ability to stay by his friends, today he gave
evidence of his splendid qualities. And for the
twenty miles he followed the wagon at a maxi-
mum distance of about one hundred yards.
When he ran the wagon rattled along a little
faster, and when he walked the wagon slowed
down, and there were opportunities for social
chatter.
Sometimes the conversation waxed warm, as
Jimmy vehemently expressed pronounced opin-
ions on sociology, genealogy and evolution,
specifically referring to the men in the wagon
as examples. 'The classic outbursts were un-
fortunately forever lost in an atmosphere of
constantly increasing temperature, and on
and appreciative but delirious audience ahead.
The wagon arrived at Minatare at exactly
12:10 P. M., mountain time, Jimmy at 12:12,
and at intervals of about fifteen minutes, for
sometime thereafter, other wagons followed
Jimmy into town. These were driven by Win-
field Evans, A. W. Mills, Ab. Malloy, and
others, who were at times almost within hail-
ing distance, and plain in view for the greater
part of the twenty miles.
They had witnessed a splendid triumph of
mind over matter. The obsession of Jimmy's
intellect in the one determination to ride in the
one particular wagon, and intense interest in
the lines of conversation, obscured the slight-
est flash of reasoning that by waiting a few
moments at the roadside, one of the succeeding
wagons could overtake him.
CHAPTER XXV
THE FIRST GRANGERS — MURDER OF COLLINS AT CAMP CLARKE — SHERIFF
CAMPBELL GETS DOC. ROMINE — BEGINNING OF MINATARE
About five miles east of Scotts Bluff moun-
tain, and two or three miles northeast of the
Overland stage and pony express stopping
place, which in the younger years was called
"Scotts Bluff Station," there is a log house.
This house is a commodious one-story building,
the logs being hewn from the native pines,
which in earlier days crowned the hills, en-
circling round to the south, and from which the
sturdy energy of pioneers made their habita-
tions.
In the turbulent years of the Overland
Trail, Howard Stansbury wrote of the great
dead forest of red cedar, fallen as if destroyed
by a storm, and young pines were growing in
the midst thereof.
These pines had reached the proportions of
sizeable house-logs when the pioneers of a gen-
eration ago availed themselves of the gift of
nature, to build homes, barns, sheds, corrals,
and they took the dead cedars and dry pitch
pine logs for fence posts and fuel.
In the dwelling mentioned, the first rooms
of which were builded over thirty-five years
ago, lives one of the first permanent settlers of
the present Scotts Bluff country.
"Fiddler Campbell," the cowboys used to call
him. and far and wide Runey Campbell and his
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
old violin travelled to attend the round-up
dances, and hops of the early grangers.
Years ago, this editor found "the gem of the
prairie" under the shadow of Wildcat moun-
tain ; and when we were married, Runey
Campbell and Wellington Clark brought their
violins twenty-five miles to play at our wed-
ding party. Clark had a dulcinier or lap-organ,
also, with which he varied the music.
And "with heart and fiddle still in tune,"
Campbell and his fine family reside happy in
their rugged, comfortable bungalow, and sur-
rounded by the broad fertile acres of alfalfa,
which, like a carpet of green stretches away
towards the hills and to the river.
Runey Campbell, is a distant relative of
Robert Campbell, who erected the first rude
stockade on Jacques Laramie's Fork, which
was destined to become the historic Fort Lara-
mie. He, himself, came into western Nebras-
ka country before the famous Bay State Land
& Cattle Company began their extensive opera-
tions in the west.
At that time, the territory embraced in,
Scotts Bluff county contained not a permanent
settler, and no white woman had ever trod
the turf, or gathered wild flowers here, except
the transient" pilgrims of the tragic Overland
Trail.
Kimball, then called Antelopeville, was a
small station on the Union Pacific, consisting
of a little box depot, a section house, and two
stockade dwellings, made of railroad ties on
end, with dirt for roof and floor.
Jim Kinney, the veteran ranchman and at-
torney of Kimball county, lived in one, and in
the other dwelt Will Gaws, the hunter and
trapper, surrounded by his simple wants —
his traps, his guns, his few handy untensils,
and the skins of animals slain.
Campbell secured employment with the Cir-
cle-Arrow ranch, then operated by Mead,
Evans & Company. Jim Shaw was foreman.
Shaw and Campbell became intimate friends,
and when Shaw was arrested for the murder
of Collins, the bartender of the sod saloon at
the north end of Camp Clarke bridge, Camp-
bell firmly believed and maintained that he
was wrongfully accused.
The events which led to the killing are
partly lost in the shadows of the past, but
there was a witness to the tragedy, who told
the following story.
Shaw, Campbell and others engaged in the
drive, bad gathered at the famous crossing of
the river, and according to regular custom,
Shaw was engaged in a social game of poker,
with four or five others, including a gambler
b\ the name of G illins.
Of those present, few knew of any hard
feelings existing between Collins, the gambler,
and Collins, the bartender, yet there are those
who maintain that such an enmity existed.
Shaw had had a few words, not at all violent,
with Collins the bartender, but that had passed
with no lingering sulkiness.
The game had proceeded with • the regular
grind, without premonition of trouble. Shaw
sat facing the bar, with Collins, the gambler,
directly opposite. Collins, the bartender, came
along and stood behind Collins the gambler,
when the latter, with deliberation took his
sombrero from his head, and with a downward
sweep, extinguished the lamp. There followed
a flash and report. My informant believes
that Collins the gambler swung his left arm
backwards and discharged the weapon.
Collins the bartender was instantly killed,
and Jim Shaw arrested, but after an expensive
delay and trial at Sidney, he was liberated for
want of evidence.
Campbell's nearest neighbors were ten miles
away, and they were ranchmen, but that was
not for long. A. W. Mills was soon putting
up his soddy just across the river, and Joe
Smith was building at Tabor (now Minatare).
George W. Fairfield, Wellington Clark, Theo-
dore Harshman, and others builded in the same
vicinity. Josh Stevens builded his humble
home in Cedar Valley, and Charley Smith in
the Creighton flat near the present site of
Melbeta. Captain W. R. Akers, the veteran
irrigator built near Collins (now Morrill) the
famous "sod house that covered seven Akers,"
as the old settlers used to tell the tenderfeet.
Wild horses were plentiful then, while black-
tail deer and droves of antelope were com-
mon, and mountain sheep sported in the rocks
of Scotts Bluff and Castle Rock.
Campbell has always been direct in his deal-
ings with his fellow men, and true to the ways
of the untrammeled west, the fine little tech-
nicalities so common in law bothered him not
one whit when later he was chosen sheriff of
the new county of Scotts Bluff.
When Romine wrecked the finances of the
mercantile establishments at new Mitchell and
Bridgeport, he fled to Boston. Sheriff Camp-
bell, armed with a warrant for his arrest fol-
lowed. A Massachusetts official held Romine,
waiting Campbell's arrival, told Runey to get
a requisition from the governor and take the
prisoner.
"What do I need of anything like that?"
asked Campbell, "I came after him, didn't I?
Well, I can take him home without bothering
the governor." which he did, for Romine came
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
back with Campbell and was turned over to
the courts here for trial.
A. W. Mills and Joe Smith were the first
to build houses on the north side of the river
in the present limits of Scotts Bluff county.
Mills started his first and Smith finished his
the first. The first pump was driven by Well-
ington Clark on the place of Mr. Purdy, and
while a man was on the way to the river to get
some water to prime the pump, a cow was
milked and the pump was primed with milk.
One evening, while Mills and Smith were
working on Mills's soddy, they had reached the
top of the walls, the sods seemed so heavy to
them that they improvised a slide with the
endgate from the wagon to the top of the
wall, and were working them up in the slow
and laborious way. George Baltes came along
afoot. He had walked all the way from Sid-
ney. They told him when they finished un-
loading they would go to camp, and get sup-
per, and he had better tarry with them for the
night. George accepted, and notwithstanding
his long walk and weariness, he picked up the
sod and planted them on the top of the wall
without slide or help. George was a powerful
young man and he keeps much of his strength
rnd vigor after thirty-five yea r s.
CHAPTER XXVI
PERRY BRAZIEL ARRIVES ON THE TEXAS TRAIL — TRAILING CATTLE
TUDITH BASIN — SUNDERLING'S ELK-SKIN TROUSERS — THE
DRIVE TO PINE RIDGE — TWO GIRLS OF THE PRAIRIE
TO
Along about 1879, Perry Braziel "met up"
with "Shanghai" Pierce, at Coffeyville, Kan-
sas, and from there to the North Platte val-
ley was only a short drive according to old
ways of thinking. Colonel Braziel said that
the country looked good enough to stay in a
while, and he went to work for Coad, by whom
he was employed for two or three years. Then
the cow business went through a transforma-
tion.
In 1878 the range loss had been enormous,
estimated by the men on the ground at fifty
percent, owing to the severity of the winter.
In 1884 history repeated itself in this respect,
although not quite to the same proportion.
The old timers had gotten enough of the
cow business. As the romance of ranching
was appealing to eastern investors and ad-
venturers, the westerners thought it a good
time to sell out. The ranchers kept book ac-
counts, of the stock supposed to belong
to them out on the range. This was done by
adding a reasonable percentage for increase of
calves. For each one thousand cows put
upon a given range, say in the spring of
1875, by "the spring of 1878. there should be
about six thousand head of mixed cattle.
There ought to be eight hundred or more old
cows ready for the market.
With a fifty percent loss, the proceeds from
the ranches purchased would show up consid-
erably less than anticipated from an examina-
tion of the books. Sixteen hundred market-
able cattle, which would more than pay the
original investment, were cut down to eight
hundred by actual roundup count. It was
better business tactics not to sell the actual
cattle, but to sell the ranches and the num-
bers shown on the books. This could not
be done to old timers at face value, and the
new crowd needed some one of local standing
to tie to, in their transactions. That is what
brought into existence the vast spreading ac-
tivities of Creighton, Paxton and Swan.
In 1886 Braziel had charge of one of the
big herds, about seven thousand head, bound
for the Judith Basin in Montana. In the out-
fit were a number of those whose names were
familiar in western Nebraska ; among which
were George W. Sunderling, and "Gunny
Sack" Pete, and there was a long lean Mexi-
can in the bunch. George W. had one crown-
ing virtue that gave him the respect of all his
associates, although some of the boy> treated
him lightly. He was loyal and indulgent to
his mothers and sisters. The mother was one
who aspired for a more aristocratic life than
their humble circumstances would permit, and
had a considerable degree of intellectual at-
tainment, and Grace and Bessie shared in the
ambition. George W. would impoverish him-
self to secure for them all the comfort possible
on the old place on Pumpkin creek.
When he started with Braziel on this trip.
144
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
he was not clad in an overplus of garment.
In fact, by the time they had reached Big
Horn Basin, George was very nearly "out of
pants."
In one of the tall cottonwoods along the
river bank, high up in the branches, the Mexi-
can discovered the burial place of a Cheyenne
Indian. He threw his rope up and got hold
of the limb and shook the corpse to the ground.
He then unrolled the body and took therefrom
a fine pair of elkskin trousers. With them he
returned to camp and sold them to Sunderling
for ten dollars on time. It was sometime later,
before George W. learned of the place where
he had secured them, but as he really needed
them, and had experienced no ill effects from
their use, he continued to wear them. They
were of excellent material for they lasted him
three or four years.
The last heard of George Sunderling he was
sheep inspector for the state of Montana, and
wore a Prince Albert coat with a top hat.
His brother Lee, or better known as "Spud,"
was also in Montana.
The coming on of settlers, the filling up of
vacant lands in the valleys and on the high
plains of western Nebraska crowded the
Texas trail steadily farther west, and the
last of its use was at the crossing of the North
Platte river near the mouth of Rawhide creek.
It scarcely touched the soil of Nebraska, ex-
cept such herds as were driven to Red Cloud
and Spotted Tail agencies. These were taken
generally up the Rawhide past "Texas Toms"
Snow's place, and near the Patrick ranch, to
the head waters of Running Water or White
river, depending upon which agency they were
destined.
In the spring of 1888, Colonel Braziel trail-
ed his last large herd, which were fat cattle
from Mitchell valley, and were taken to the
Pine Ridge, or Spotted Tail agency. They
were routed down the river through the grang-
er settlements to Camp Clarke, and from there
through the sandhills into Sheridan county.
After that year the roundup ceased to be an
institution of great importance in this state,
and those of farther west were never of the
magnitude of these that swept across the vast
pastures of western Nebraska.
In the middle eighties Doc. Middleton was a
respectable cowpuncher working for Powers,
on the Kingen ranch near the present site of
Mitchell. But about that time he visited Sid-
ney, and in a fight with two soldiers and John
Barleycorn, there was a little case of homi-
cide which started him, and it took Billy Likens
and the majesty of the law to bring him back.
Leonard Harrison, late of the Driftwood and
now of Gering valley; Hank Wise, the one-
eyed cowpuncher; Al Stringfellow, Ad Carth-
age, and many of the other old boys were here ;
and a larger number of them have gone "trail-
ing on the Other Ranges."
In 1885 and 1886 the grangers came up the
North river in long caravans. Among the
earliest to arrive were the Rayburns, who set-
tled in Horseshoe Bend, and the Ashfords,
who located on Pumpkin creek near Wild-
cat mountain. Ida Rayburn and Gertrude
Ashford were about the first eastern young
ladies to arrive, and they became great chums,
often visiting one another. That is how I
first met Colonel Braziel. He had taken to
heart the words written in those days, which
ran as follows : :
As settlement moves to the west,
The cowmen have receded ;
They're "branded" with the dim, dim past,
To other lands "stampeded."
The grangers scar the virgin sod
With breaking plow and harrow,
They mar the fields of golden rod
For harvests of tomorrow.
We gladly bid you stay through life
Come with us and be a granger ;
Come, settle down and take a wife,
And cease to be a ranger.
For thirty years these girl chums have
shared with Perry and me all the joys and re-
grets of the growing west. I often wonder how
they were so unwise, but as Waldo Winter-
steen of Fremont, once said, we were "sure
enough romancers."
The moonlight is beautiful on Wildcat
mountain and on the castles in the hills of
Horse Shoe Bend. There were:
"The wild goose haunts on the willowed isles,
And mad, mad rides for a dozen miles.'
These were elements that diverted analytic
minds. They fell in love with the prairie and
the mountains, and we were entities thereof,
which was our good fortune. Signal Buttes
stand sentinels above the broad irrigated acres
of Colonel Braziel and family, in the west
edge of Scotts Bluff county, while the Baby-
lonian facades of Scotts Bluff mountain stand
like collosal ruins frowning across the river
at the citv in which we dwell.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
145
CHAPTER XXVI
LAING'S RANCH — THE WATER HOLES — DEATH OF WHEELER — FIRST HOGS
ON NORTH RIVER — FIRST HOGS ON PUMPKIN CREEK —
KILLING RATTLESNAKES
When the grangers began to come into this
country, along about 1885, they found a num-
ber of ranches, that were not of the really
early ones. Sim. Laing had a ranch on "Lor-
rens ' Fork, where that fine creek pours out
of the canyons, and this creek crossing, with its
cooling little grove of mountain ash, was a
stopping place after the long hard, hot drive,
over the tablelands from Sidney.
The Sidney-Black Hills trail struck the val-
ley of the North Platte at Greenwood, coming
down from the divide at Tuslers. But a branch
trail used by ranchmen and early travellers,
left the Black Hills Road sixteen miles north-
west of Sidney, at what was known as the
"Water Holes." These holes are located about
six or seven miles south and the same distance
west of the present site of Dalton. This was
the branch generally used by early grangers,
and there 'was a drive of about twenty miles to
"Lorren's" Fork and Laing's ranch. Sim had
a brother, Guy, who was in business in North
Platte, and who had an interest in the ranch.
Besides stocking the ranch with horses and
cattle, they stocked the creek with brook trout
which have flourished excellently, and they
brought in and turned loose a pair of quails.
From that beginning, are many little coveys of
quail here and there all through the hills, and
on the islands along the river. Most people
have been very considerate, and have refrained
from shooting them, but those on the islands
west of Scottsbluff were nearly exterminated
by the Japanese before they knew what value
local people place upon the cheerful "Bob
Whites."
Laing was one of the best of fellows, ordi-
narily, but he would go to Sidney frequently,
and drink was about the easiest thing attain-
able in those days. When Sim got a full load
of the fire water, he, who had done so much
to make his ranch like the old homes back east,
would imagine himself a very bad cattle king
and with lots of hard feelings for the grangers.
The Water Holes referred to consisted of a
pond in a depression of the prairie, and two
shallow wells from which there was a never
failing supply.
J. F. Raymond of Scottsbluff, and H. J.
Raymond of Sidney were two of the early
grangers of the table north of Sidney. They
hauled water twelve miles from the Water
Holes to their claims, until they had a well
put down. The water at the "Holes" was so
distasteful, a number of grangers decided on
cleaning the wells. They met at an appointed
date, and found their opinions justified. A
number of dead skunks and jack rabbits were
removed, and the wells thoroughly cleaned.
Just as they were finishing the work Sim
Laing arrived from Sidney with "plenty on
board." He also had picked up an old human
derelict at Sidney, in an impulse of sentiment,
and was taking him out to the ranch. Laing
swung into the Water Holes with a whoop,
drove his mustangs across the depression and
up the slope and nearly into one of the un-
covered wells.
Frank Raymond ran forward to turn them
aside and prevent a catastrophe, whereby Sim
felt himself very much offended, and advised
the whole listening world that he had been
there before any of the d — d grangers, and
that he did not need to be directed about by
any of them. And to show that he knew what
he was talking about he whipped up his horses
so suddenly that the seat toppled over back-
wards out of the rig, carrying him and his
ancient pickup into the dust. The horses were
sensible and waited events.
"Old man," said Laing, penitently to his
derelict friend, "I am used to this kind of a
thing, but I am sorry if I hurt you."
The Water Holes, at that time, had a road-
house on the slope north of the depression, and
it was run by Wheeler & Son. Ordinarily the
grangers would take along their "grub," but oc-
casionally they would drop in for meals. There
were unsophisticated strangers who occasional-
ly stopped there for provender and who did
not get much to eat but paid seventy-five cents
for a meal.
As young Wheeler put it: "We are fixed
for them all. When a granger conies along we
give him his twenty-five cent meals, but when
a traveling-man or tourist drops in, we give
him a six-bit meal. We put prunes on the
table for him."
Some years later, the elder Wheeler was bit-
ten by a dog, and he literally went to pieces.
He became a nervous wreck and died. The
incident occurred at the ranch of Widow Smith
at the head of Rush creek. All who knew
Wheeler will remember that he was a nervous
I4(>
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
sort of a person, and it is probable that he
kicked or struck at the dog, before it attacked
him. Wheeler, however, started a suit for
damages, but it was never finished.
Just below Laing's ranch on "Lorren*s" Fork.
about half way to the ranch of Adams &
Redington, Sam Fowler, well known in the
Democratic politics of old Cheyenne county,
had his location, where he ran a bunch of
horses.
There are not many prettier sights within
my recollection; along after noon on a hot
<la\. than a bunch of sleek, fat horses, that have
been out on attractive but dry feeding places,
head for the watering gaps, springs or creeks.
As they draw near, they begin to feel more
thirsty, and one will break into a trot ; an-
other will go it one better and gallop, and then,
before long, they all are racing wild and free
with heads up and plumes flying down the long
slopes to the water. It is a grand sight that has
passed forever.
Situated about two miles up the Platte river
from Bridgeport, on the south side of the river,
is a cottonwood grove. It was once the ranch
of George Laing, a young Englishman who
came out here for the love of adventure, and
the alluring profits in raising cattle. His ranch
cannot be classed as one of the early loca-
tions, but it was ahead of the grangers, and
that puts it back about thirty-five or forty
years ago.
The virile English are flesh-eaters, and Laing
liked variety. He brought in a few hogs. They
were not for profit, but merely that he might
have pork as well as beef, and not rely on the
old "sow-belly" of the early market houses.
In 1885, he made a trip up Pumpkin creek
and stopped at Chris Streeks's place, south of
Rifle Gap. He stayed all night, and sometime
during the conversation, mentioned his pigs.
Chris asked him where he could get a hog,
that he wanted to get one for a change. George
told him that the "blawsted 'awgs are increasing
so fawst that they are about to run us off the
place, and if you will come down and get them,
you can 'ave a pair."
Laing was then a candidate for sheriff,
and it is possible that his generous feelings
were partly inspired by that good brotherhood
spirit that gets into a man's blood when he
is running for office. Laing was defeated, and
still he made good cheerfully on his proffer, so
that we must say that he was a thoroughbred
sport.
Nelson Ashford, with his son William and
family, and daughter Gertrude arrived the
autumn of 1885, Mrs. Nelson Ashford arriv-
ing the following spring.
Will Ashford was a live wire and he believed
in living as he journeyed through life. As he
was coming down Long Springs hill, he got a
glimpse of the beautiful virgin valley where
Harrisburg was later planted, and at the bot-
tom of the hill was a creek, and the tops of
green trees were to be seen. Will let out
a bray, like a homecoming mule, and startled
the silent watches of the wilderness. Out of
the canyon there scurried in all directions wild
animals that had been down to drink. There
were wild horses, deer and antelope.
Being Grangers, the Ashfords wanted pigs as
well as cattle, and there were none. Then it
occurred to Mrs. Streeks, (also a daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Ashford) that Laing
had told them of his hogs. It was a long ways
to Laing's ranch, the nearest source of supply,
but not so very far comparatively with the
overland journey from beyond the Missouri.
One day Mrs. Ashford and her younger
daughter hitched up the team to the wagon and
started out for Laing's. That night they had
negotiated the hills through Wright's gap, and
reached Charley Smith's in Creighton Flat.
Here they stayed all night. The next day they
drove on down to Laing's, passing Chimney
Rock, and Court House Rock on the way. The
country between those landmarks was alive
with rattlesnakes. At first they stopped and
killed them, but there were so many, after they
had killed fourteen or fifteen, they gave up
the work of extermination, and passed a great
many, which rattled saucily at them.
Laing had many of the charming character-
istics of his native land, his accent was delight-
ful and perfect, and he was a good entertainer.
He fixed up a crate, and loaded the two
pigs for the women folks, and they returned.
Laing's were the first hogs on the North Platte
river, and Ash ford's were the first on Pump-
kin creek or into the territory later embraced
bv the boundaries of Banner county.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE VIRGINIAN — ARBUCKLE'S RANCH — ROMANCE OF PARENTS OF MADE-
LINE FORCE-LINGLE OF VALLEY VIEW — CONNOLYS OF THE "PF"
— NEW RANCHES — HANK INGHRAM'S NARROW ESCAPE
A few years ago, a book called "the Vir-
ginian" had quite a run in the western country.
Many of the incidents contained therein were
from experiences in the Panhandle of Ne-
braska, and eastern Wyoming. One of the
stories told was that of the pranks of two cow
punchers at a dance. While the mothers of
a number of sleeping infants were dancing, the
boys changed the wraps which the babies wore
and changed their positions, to the end that
when the dance broke up, most of the parents
started home with the wrong baby. As the dis-
coveries were not made until the parents were
at home, in some cases twenty miles from the
scene, it took considerable time to straighten
out the tangle of who was who in Babyland.
This incident, or its prototype, occurred at
Alex Perry's on Little Horse creek, and the
two miscreants, some of the mothers called
them criminals, were Chris. Mitchell and Tom
McShane.
Molly Woods, who taught school on Beaver
creek, was one of the central characters in
the story, and she married the Virginian.-
The book was quite true to the life of the
west, twenty-five to forty years ago, and while
the author selected his characters in this vi-
cinity, they had their prototypes in many local-
ities. The loves, the hates, the combats, the
mischief makers, and all that went to make
up life in the cow country, was found here,
and elsewhere, wherever the range cattle
roamed.
One of the old favorite poems, one which
Abraham Lincoln often repeated was "we
tread the same paths that our fathers have
trod."
This sometimes runs so literally true that one
thinks the writer thereof had lived long years.
Take the story of the family of Astors, for il-
lustration. In 1812 and 1813 Robert Stuart
and his party of Astorians wintered a little
north of Scottsbluff. and since then four gen-
erations of the Astors have had some calling
back to the land of western Nebraska and
eastern Wyoming, although their interests here
seemed to have terminated long ago.
One of the pretty romances of the great
prairies came about in the early eighties, and
it involves well known characters locally, as
well as in high finance.
When Tonv Kennedy arrived from Ireland
with James Baxter, they landed at Pittsburg.
Both were strapped and both wanted a job.
One took one side of the street and one the
other and both landed jobs in stores almost
opposite each other. Kennedy went to work
for Arbuckle, who later became one of the
Arbuckle Brothers, whose coffee was all over
the country a generation ago. Baxter and
Kennedy came on to western Nebraska in 1886.
The Arbuckles made money, and contracted
the ranch fever. They came to Cheyenne, and
bought the A. M. Post horse ranch on "Pole"
creek, sixteen miles north of that city. They
built a large two story ranch house, with mod-
ern conveniences on each floor, and otherwise
improved the place to make it coincide with
their views of what a ranch should be ; and
they had saddles and talahoes, and servants and
all that added to comfort.
Post sold the ranch with a book value of
five thousand mares, and they wanted a count.
The old game of running the mares around
a hill, and delivering the same lot two or
three times was pulled off successfully here,
and the Arbuckles received about two thousand
instead of five. Naturally, they made the dis-
covery in due time, but entered no protest.
One day their private car was set off at Chey-
enne and Post was invited to be their guest.
They told him that a man of his attain-
ments ought to be in the big game field of the
east, so the story goes, and he "fell for it." So
in due time he was dabbling in stocks, which
they advised him were good. He made money
by a number of transactions, and then they
advised the big plunge as a rare opportunity.
It broke him and his Cheyenne Bank, and
with it went the savings of the frugal cow-
punchers.
William A. Force was put in charge of the
ranch of Pole creek, and among the young
fellows who went to work for him was Fred
Wolt, for many years a well known resident
and business man of Gering, and now ( 1920)
President of the Chamber of Commerce at
Norfolk, Nebraska.
Among the New York visitors at the ranch
was Lillian Force, a sister of the foreman,
and her chum, Kate Talmadge.
The freedom of the ranch, the glorious
talaho rides in the rarified western air, the
white light of moonlit nights, the stars that
148
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
seem so close to the earth, and the attentions
of the dashing foreman of the big ranch, all
had a part in the result that Kate Talmadge
became Mrs. William A. Force. From this
union Madeline Force was born, Madeline
Force who became Mrs. John Jacob Astor.
He, the grandson of John Jacob Astor the first,
went down on the Titanic a few years ago,
when that great vessel sank in the Atlantic
on its maiden trip, and but for the romance of
the high plains here related, Madeline Force
would never have been born, and he would
likely not have been on the fatal trip.
The horses from Arbuckle's ranch often
were brought to the "North River" to winter.
Robert F. Neeley took charge of winter feeding
the first winter, and then John R. Stilts built
some large sod barns and sheds and for several
winters attended to the business. Fred Wolt
came over to the valley, and remained. He
married one of the valley's young ladies, Lill-
ian Brashear, and went into mercantile busi-
ness at Gering. Fred had the distinguishing
characteristics of the Bostonian, which was
different from the ways of the west. Some of
the boys called him "dudish," but he got along
well with them, and has made a splendid suc-
cess in a business way. First in general mer-
chandise, then specializing in furniture, hard-
ware and undertaking, in which he is now en-
Valley View ranch came into existence at
a later date with Hiram D. Lingle as the
master mind. This was located in the valley
of the Rawhide, and when the Burlington built
the North River branch, they named a town
near his several thousand acres of fine al-
luvial land in honor of his genius and enter-
prise. He bonded the whole acreage with sev-
eral thousand additional under the Carey Act
and built an irrigation system. About this time
the government irrigation act was passed, and
the North Platte project thereof found that
"Lucky Valley," occupied by Lingle's Colon-
ization Canal, was the only practical route
through the barrier of sand hills between Raw-
hide and Sheep creek. Lingle sold his ditch
to the government, and has since divided his
lands into small farms and sold all to settlers
except the home place of two hundred and
forty acres, which he retains for a summer
home. Mr. and Mrs. Lingle reside in Chicago
the balance of the year.
The well known PF ranch in the vicinity of
old Red Cloud agency came into existence af-
h r iIk departure of the Indians for their new
quarters en White river. The two locations
known to the present generations are at Lingle,
Wyoming and Henry, Nebraska.
Al. S. Connoly was the foreman for a num-
ber of years, and was a remarkable man, hav-
ing a grasp upon the details of all the several
locations that was almost uncanny. What hap-
pened to him never came out clearly, but it
may have been the weariness of the grind. At
any rate, he quit the ranch work and made
quite an extended search of Wyoming, with
the hope of locating a bed of "coking coal."
Had he been successful, Guernsey would have
been the great foundry center that the inhabi-
tants thereof have long hoped it would be.
Owing to the lack of that kind of coal, it
has been found expedient to ship the iron ore
from Sunrise mines to Pueblo, Colorado, near
the fields where this variety of coal is found.
In some way Connoly ran at cross-pur-
poses to Senator Francis E. Warren, and for
a number of years he was tireless in his at-
tempts to make that respected statesman an-
swer for some of the land frauds of eastern
Wyoming and western Nebraska, particularly
on Horse creek, where thousands of acres of
Uncle Sam's domain went to private ownership
by means that have often been criticized.
Connoly is now in Washington, at some
work in the Interior Department.
In 18S4, Ferris was in charge of the State
Line ranch, which later went to Colonel Pratt.
Al. Smith, in the early days designated "Swear-
ing" Smith, to distinguish him from "Extract"
Smith and "Whispering" Smith, had charge
of the ranch later, and now I believe his son is
managing the place or owns it. Sheldon has
a picture of one of the partly dismantled sod
houses on this place that was erected at or
about the time the ranch occupied the old Red
Cloud site.
The upper PF ranch went to Field & Leiter
of Chicago, and later to the Leiter estate, in
which it still remains. Except that part which
has been sold to business men and other people
in the town of Lingle.
W. P. (Billy) Connoly, brother of the form-
er manager of the ranches for Pratt & Ferris,
is now local manager of the Leiter properties,
as well as the wide ramifications of his own
activities. "Billy" is in banking, mercantile,
farming, ranching and road contracting work,
and attends them all equally well. In addi-
tion to this he sells real estate for the Leiter
people, as the town of Lingle is rapidly de-
veloping into a city.
When Connoly took charge of the Leiter
local affairs, Billy Ashby, an Englishman, was
foreman of the Bridle Bit ranch, but he left
soon after and went to Douglas. While on the
cow ranch, he hated sheep "like skunks," but
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
149
not long after he was in the sheep business and
accumulated wealth.
"Texas Tom" Snow is one of the characters
of this vicinity, arriving in the North Platte
valley in the day of the Texas trail, and he
has established himself on the Rawhide at
"Snow's Point," which is one of the land-
marks north of Lingle. Drilling for oil will
start in this vicinity sometime during the com-
ing spring (1920).
About the time of the coming of the granger,
a number of new men arrived with ranching
instead of grangering instincts, and these be-
came the "ranchmen" best known for the last
quarter of a century. Many of them accumu-
lated large herds and an empire of fertile
land.
Joe Sanford, who is north of Mitchell, is a
notable example. He has about a township
of land, or over twenty-thousand acres. Dr.
Miller, who acquired extensive ranch posses-
sions north of Morrill about fifteen miles, has
"gone to another range," but the excellent
property is owned and managed by his son,
True Miller. Chas. Loucomer has the old
Wind Springs ranch. E. von Forrell has late-
ly acquired a large acreage north of Lake Alice
in Sioux county, where Forrell and son run
their fine Herefords. On the Harry Haig
ranch in Mitchell valley lives (1919) one of
the characters of the old west, H. M. In-
ghram. He drove stage for Gilman & Sals-
bury, who owned the "Black Hills route" from
Cheyenne in its. earliest years.
"Stuttering" Brown had charge of the di-
vision between Cheyenne and Fort Laramie.
"Hank" Inghram had an adventure and nar-
row escape in the north part of Sioux county
about this time. He was coming down from
Deadwood with one of the Cheyenne stages,
and fell in with two Irishmen. He drove the
stage to Custer, and "deadheaded" to Indian
creek. Here they were attacked by Indians
with needle guns and Marlin rifles. They were
pursued down the old road for eighteen or
twenty miles when the horses played out. The
men left them, and ran into a burnt over wild
cherry thicket, and down a ravine.
It was after sundown, twilight settled quick-
ly, and the party became separated, but all
headed in the general direction of Soldier
creek, making their several ways by moon-
light. They were chased for a part of the
distance, and one Irishman who arrived safely
at dawn declared that he had been pursued all
night. The others arrived at an earlier hour,
and Inghram had his pants cut with bullets
twice. One bullet cut through the cloth and
underwear, and just burnt the skin.
The papers at Cheyenne and Omaha reported
he had been killed, but he has lived many years
since and still retains the trousers, or a part
of the cloth thereof, as a memento of the nar-
row escape. Among the reminiscences of H.
M. Inghram is that of a big dance in 1876.
Nick Genice gave it at his place on Bordeaux,
and the people came for many miles. They
danced without ceasing for three days and
nights.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SHIFTING SANDS — THE STORM OF 78— FIRST SETTLERS ON PUMPKIN
CREEK — FIRST COW T IN WESTERN NEBRASKA — MENTAL GIANTS
OF THE BIG COW DAYS
When the west was young, who would have
selected W. F. Cody for the historic char-
acter of the "Wild West?" Who could have
guessed the destiny of Paxton. or Creighton,
or Bratt, or Van Tassel, or McShane. or Cof-
fee, or Swan? The other men of the west
shifted and strayed abroad, or settled on their
local acres, or the acres of some other state
or land.
We find Frank Brainard, who held horses
on the table north of Scottsbluff, in the winter
of 1879, now stock inspector at the' stock yards
of Chicago. That winter, he tells us. a half
dozen Indians had their dugout on the bank of
the river near the bad lands.
We find Ben Graham, the brother of Joe
Graham of Mollie's Fork, in the same busi-
ness at Sioux City. Hugh McFee is inspec-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
tor al Denver. He is the brother of Earl Mc-
Pee, who hunt,' himself near the 1'F ranch,
because of a love affair.
Earl had ridden his horse underneath a
limb of a big Cottonwood, and attached his
lariat thereto, and around bis neck. He then
kicked the broncho and it ran away, leaving
him suspended. When found he was quite
dead. Some of the boys were removing his
boots preparatory for burial, when Smith, the
foreman of the outfit, accused them of trying
to steal a dead man's boots. The others were
thinking only of the newer methods of burial,
but Smith insisted on the old order being car-
ried out. McFee was therefore buried with
his boots on, at Fort Laramie.
Charlie Talbot, another old timer, is in-
spector in Omaha. Mose Howard was to
be found about the stock yards for years, but
he died recently. Wyatt Heard is in Texas.
Henry Heard at Long Beach, California, E. A.
Moots is at Lander and Thermopolis. Wyom-
ing, Johnny Minser died on his farm near
Fort Laramie, in 1918. One could go on nam-
ing the boys and their many destinies, but they
were almost as numerous as the sands of the
Great Sand Hills. A great many have gone
on the "long, long trail." And out of these great
stretches of waste or pasturage, have come a
number of the stronger characters of Nebras-
ka.
In the winter of 187S came one of the worst
storms that had ever visited the western plains.
It wrecked the finances of some of the cattle
companies. But few of them were prepared
for ,-i storm of such severity. It commenced
on the seventh of March and lasted until the
tenth.
The storm caught Tommy Chaunavierre
( Shunover), Bob Cavalier, and "Scotty," hunt-
ing mountain sheep. The)- had killed one on
Wildcat mountain, before the storm struck,
n headed for Dicky Brown's place at
Kane' Point! Shunover was the one of the
three to reach shelter. The other two hardy
frontiersmen perished in the drifts on the
way. After the storm, Cavalier was found
near Sand Hill south of the Sunderling place,
which is now (1919) owned by Theo. John-
son. "Scotty" reached the Will Kelly place
he lore he went down. The son-in-law of Nick
Genice was caught in this storm and went
"tin long trail." ('has. I leek had twelve teams,
fourteen yoke to the team, completely wiped
i in by the blizzard.
In 1879, while watching cattle near Kane's
' nt. I larve Beeson was killed by Indians,
wlii i crawled up in the rushes and shot him.
II'' either was afraid to crawl to the cabin.
or could not do so, for when found he had lain
for two days, and had stuffed his shirt into the
wound to stop the blood. This occurred about
three hundred yards up the stream from the
point where Wright's ranch house was erected.
WTight came down the valley from Horse
creek and he found Dicky Brown near Kane's
Point. Dicky sold out to Wright a short
time afterwards. His brother, Jonathan
Brown, built the cabin at the Four-J spring,
east of Wildcat, and he made final proof on
the land.
John Wright's ranch became the center of
affairs for a number of years on the valley of
the Pumpkin. Will Kelly located near him,
and then came Earley, and Livingstons, who
secured a postofhce and built a story and a
half grout house, where the first settlers en-
joyed many a social evening. Wrights and
Livingstons led all the rest when it came to
roundup dances and social festivities, before
the grangers came and submerged the older
order of things.
Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs.
Dicky Brown, which were the first wdiite chil-
dren born in that section. They both died early
and are buried on the home claim. Bess
Kelly was the first white child born on Pump-
kin creek that lived to maturity. She is now-
dead. Her brother, Ted, still has the old place
where he was born.
The cow business had its run for about twen-
ty years. But the first domestic cow in west-
ern Nebraska, was that which William Sub-
lette trailed after his wagon in the trapper days,
when he drove the first wagons into the moun-
tains. When he met Fitzpatrick, and neces-
sity required more speed than they were regu-
larly making, they turned the cow loose, near
the present site of Morrill, and she became
the first range cow in the Panhandle of the
state. That was before Fort William, the
antecedent of Fort Laramie, was built.
The next cows were ten years later, being
taken through to Oregon. Then for about a
quarter of a century, plodding oxen were the
cattle that trailed across the land. During that
period the buffalo w^ere nearly exterminated,
and the prairies grew luxuriant grasses, only
to be burned, or to feed mustangs and wild
horses, and work oxen. After that the real
run of cattle affairs for a score of years, be-
fore the granger came.
Permanent settlement began in the vicinity
of Scottsbluff in 1884. Before that date, for
a number of years, there were cowpunchers
working up and down the North river coun-
try, who later became permanent fixtures.
Charlie Foster and L. J. Wyman were the
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
151
earliest in point of time. They were in a
measure fixed here several years before any
of the others, but it was in the capacity of
rangers looking after cattle. They settled
down and took land in the early eighties.
■ Runey C. Campbell, who still resides upon
his homestead (1919), George Marsh, lately
removed to the newer land of Montana, and
W. E. Ingraham, who was killed by a colt on
his farm in Mitchell valley, were the next to
build permanent domiciles in the vicinity. They
located about ten miles apart, that being in
their judgment a good neighborly distance.
Campbell was near the old Coad ranch in
what later became Gering Valley. Ingraham
was in Mitchell Valley northwest of the old
fort a few miles, and Marsh on Kiowa and
Horse creek. Wyman and Foster were nearer
neighbors for Marsh. These houses were all
on the south side of the siver, and were made
of logs, with poles and sod for roofs and
dirt floors.
In the spring of 1885, "Sailor Joe" Hanson
built a log cabin in Mitchell Valley, and lived
there for a number of years. One day his
boy got his foot tangled in a lariat rope, the
other end of which was attached to a wild sad-
dle horse. The animal promptly ran away,
and dragged the boy to his death, after which
Hanson sold out, and left the country.
Perry Braziel, who had been here off and
on since 1882, took some land adjoining the
old Bay State ranch in Mitchell Valley, about
this time. Perry had been at the ranch con-
siderable of his time for three or four years,
working on the roundups and feeding stock in
the winter.
Working for the bonanza cattle outfits, the
men upon the ground saw the trend of the
times. This land could not always remain free
range, and so the hay meadows were taken up
by the boys who wanted to make this their
permanent abiding place. They may have even
thought that the mental giants did not have
their ears to the ground, but Paxton and
Creighton visualized the future. They saw
the advancing line of settlement, and they heard
the tread of coming thousands. Their amalga-
mations were but the shrewder instincts "Get-
ting from under" as they felt bonanza ranching
tottering and trembling to its fall. They could
see that soon the free range would be no more.
When I think of their achievements, I am
proud of the people of the west. Much may
justly be said of later people, but I am to
speak of them in their turn and place.
I refer now to the men of old. Of Creigh-
ton, and Paxton, and Swan, and McShane. and
Bratt. and Sheedy, and Van Tassel, and Cof-
fee. Of the men who pioneered in their line.
Who were unafraid of Indians or personal
dangers, and bad men, and roughed it with the
roughest.
It was an achievement to string the first
wires from the Missouri to Salt Lake City,
placing the east and the west in instantan-
eous communication. These men drove their
own oxen and conducted their own trail wag-
ons east, west, north, south, criss-crossing west-
ern Nebraska with the marks of their wagon
wheels. They helped to drive the buffalo from
the western range, and filled the wide pastures
of the plains with domestic cattle. They organ-
ized and amalgamated mighty herds, and trail-
ed them from the Rio Grande to the Yellow-
stone.
By and by they took up other vocations, and
their dominant genius built the pillars of cities.
Firm and enduring were the foundations of
their fortunes. And so much of their great
work was after they had attained middle age.
Paxton told me once that some men have
youthful minds until they are forty of fifty
years of age. He himself was thirty-nine be-
fore he had accumulated a thousand dollars.
But all the earlier years he had been learning
at the University of Nature, the School of
Abraham Lincoln and other mental giants of
the world.
Whacking bulls, night-herding- the nervous
herds, stringing telegraph wires through an
Indian wilderness, building great ranches, con-
structing giant packing plants, and pillars of
masonry, endowing schools, moulding the des-
tinies of a state, handling fortunes in a clay,
these men stand out examples of western en-
terprise and energy. Life whirled them from
one vocation to another, but in each environ-
ment, there shone the fire of individual iden-
tity. Each was a human dynamo, with coils
of experience, and the name of any one of
them is a symbol of tremendous power. They
met all manner of dragons, and were victorious
over all save death. And some of them bid
fair to hold him off for many years to come.
1 1 [STORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XXX
VIGI] WTFS II \XG REED AT SIDNEY — THE GREAT BULLION ROBBERY
WHISPERING SMITH GETS TWO
The cowman's period of taming the wilder-
ness also included the period of Black Hills
gold discoveries, which had a tendency of con-
centrating rough elements at the terminals of
the trails to and from the gold fields. Thus
Sidney became a storm center of deadly activ-
ity in the Panhandle of Nebraska.
In 1879, Sidney was a pretty rough f ren-
der town. The gold excitement had run for
about three years, and this landing place for
those who had been successful and were re-
turning east, attracted a lot of good business
men who supplied the prosperous miner with
new outfits suitable for the old home back
east. Merchantmen also outfitted those who
were going into the hills.
There was another class that sought by all
sorts of intrigue to separate the miner from
his money, and then, they presumed that the
loss of fortune would send the men back to
dig more gold. Gamblers and saloon men of
the time always justified any act necessary to
get the money, with the following philosophy :
"These men are naturally spenders, booze
fighter.-, and otherwise dissolute. When they
have money, they lay around the towns, drink,
and make themselves generally disgusting and
disagreeable. Therefore take the money from
them as quickly as any device can be arranged.
It stops their ruinous notions and sends them
into the healthy life of the open, to be 'pro-
ducers.' "
This logic is about as reasonable as that of
profiteers born of the late world war.
Sidney had its large bunch of self-appointed
guardian-- of ihis class. So it was that one
Saturday morning the town woke up + o the
effect that one of its best men, Henry Locmis,
had been shot by a gambler named Charles
Reed, Loomis was taken to the United States
hospital at the Sidney army post, where it
was found that the thigh bone was shattered,
and an amputation was necessary. He died at
live o'clock in the afternoon of May 10, 1879.
Reed had lied to the rocks north of Sidney,
bul was taken by Sheriff Zweifel and a posse,
and incarcerated in jail. About eleven o'clock
in the night four hundred masked men arrived
ai lb. jail, overpowered the guards, and took
Reed to a telegraph pole on the south side of
the track opposite the Union Pacific depot. A
ladder was procured, and a rope thrown over
tin' cross-bar of the pole, one end of which
was looped around Reed's neck. He was asked
if he had anything to say.
"Only, good-bye, gentlemen," was his an-
swer, and he was swung aloft. A few shots
were fired into the body, and there were ex-
pressions here and there that "Loomis is
avenged." The crowd dispersed quietly, with
but few words.
The body swung in the air all during the
next day, and thrilled and shocked the passen-
gers going through Sidney on the overland
trains.
The rougher element was quiet for a time,
but soon again were going strong. A year or
Hanging Reed by Vigilantes Committee
two later it culminated in an eighty thousand
dollar robbery of gold bullion in broad daylight.
This was believed to have been planned some
days in advance, and with the co-operation of
rbe stage driver and the Sidney express agent.
On the day mentioned the stage arrived too
late to catch the east bound train. C. K. Allen,
a fine-looking man, was express agent. He
took four gold bars, valued at twenty thousand
dollars each, and several thousand in currency
and put them in the freight room. He locked
the door and went to lunch.
On returning he found that a hole had been
sawed through the floor, and the gold bars and
currency were gone. A tunnel, which must
have required the work of several days, led
to and under another building, and the robbers
were gone.
Albert Sorenson tells of the following events
in this way, in a recent issue of the Omaha
Bee :
"General Superintendent Morsman of fhe
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Pacific Express company and John M. Thurs-
ton, then assistant general attorney of the
Union Pacific, upon arriving at Sidney to in-
vestigate the robbery, found Robert Law, su-
perintendent of the mountain division, already
on the ground. Law had brought with him
James H. Smith, known as "Whispering
Smith." the railroad detective, whose head-
quarters were at Cheyenne.
After carefully looking over the situation
and weighing all the circumstances, it was
concluded by the railroad officials that the rob-
bery was committed by four men ; that the
leader was a man named McCarthy, who had
served as sheriff in 1876 and 1877, and at
this time was conducting the Capitol saloon and
gambling house. He was a man of consider-
able political influence and had for his warm-
est friends the entire tough element which
ran the town to suit themselves.
The other suspects were Patsy, one of Mc-
Carthy's bartenders, a barber named Flanna-
gan and C. K. Allen, the station agent, ( for
some reason the stage driver was not included).
McCarthy's influence was so strong that he
at first prevented an indictment from being
found by the grand jury, but the district at-
torney made a motion before Judge Gaslin that
Thurston be appointed special assistant in order
to permit him to go before the grand jury.
"The judge granted the order and Thurston,
after great difficulty and in spite of numerous
obstacles, put in his way by McCarthy, final-
ly convinced the requisite number of jurors
that they would be justified in voting for an
indictment.
"When the case came up for trial Thurston
appeared as prosecutor. In relating the story
of this affair to me, in the summer of 1916, ex-
Senator Thurston told some interesting inci-
dents regarding Whispering Smith, who was
assisting him in the case. They occupied Su-
perintendent Law's private car and every night
Smith asked Thurston to take a walk up the
track to a lonely spot and there in a low tone —
hardly above a whisper — would discuss the
events of the day's proceedings.
One night he said: "Judge Thurston, you're
not a-goin' to get those fellows. They-ve set
the pins against you in this county. McCarthy
is the ringleader, and I can settle this whole
thing for you if you just let me go down and
take McCarthy out, and bring him up here and
hang him to a telegraph pole."
Smith night after night tried to persuade
Thurston to let him carry out this plan, and
the detective seemed very much disappointed
at the attorney's refusal to take any steps that
were not in accordance with law and order.
"Well, you are going to get left," said Smith,
"that jury is set against you."
That evening, just as Thurston was about to
leave for Omaha, Smith took him behind the
station and whispered to him : "I told you so,
but Pm a-goin' to stay here a day or two, and
I think Pll get one or two of 'em."
At midnight "Long" Kelly, the train con-
ductor, woke Thurston and handed him this
dispatch from Superintendent Law : "Jim got
Patsy." At noon the next day Thurston re-
ceived another dispatch from Law. It was :
"Jim got the barber."
Some time later, Law met Thurston and re-
lated the details of Smith's two "gettings." "I
went down to the Capitol saloon," said Smith
to Superintendent Law, "and waited for Mc-
Carthy to show up, but I guess he heard I was
there and didn't appear. Bob, I got tired a-wait-
in', and goin' up to the bar I called Patsy, the
barkeeper, a damned unhung robber. Patsy
pulls his gun and shoots at me but misses. I
.guess he was a little nervous like. I pulled and
let go, and when they look Patsy over they'll
find a hole just about two inches to the left
of his lower vest button. Bob, I pulled for the
button but I sighted a little off. Somebody
knocked out the lights and I emptied my gun
over the heads of the other people and then
came away."
Patsy was badly wounded, and was a long
time in recovering. His wound was at the
very place that Smith said the hole would be
found. Smith was arrested but was discharged
the next morning on the ground of self-defense.
A few minutes later as he was approaching
the Lockwood house, barber Flanagan said:
"That murderous whelp shot Patsy; this is a
hell of a country for law and order."
Smith replied with a vile epithet, and asked
the barber what he had to do with the matter.
The barber pulled a revolver and fired at Smith
but missed him. The next instant the barber
was a dead man, a shot from Smith's gun hav-
ing hit him in a vital spot. Smith was again
arrested and again released on the ground of
self-defense.
Excitement now ran high in Sidney. A vi-
gilance committee arrested McCarthy and
lodged him in jail. That night the prisoner
was informed that he was to be hanged in the
morning and a friendly informant told him
that the best thing he could do was to mount
a saddled horse standing outside the jail and
leave the country. He took the hint, the jail
door being opened for his exit. He was prob-
ably allowed to escape by the sheriff with the
consent of the vigilantes.
McCarthy never returned to Sidney, and it
154
HISTORY ( )I ; WESTERN NEBRASKA
was thought for a long time that Whispering
Smith had trailed him and ended his career.
This belief was due to the fact that Smith dis-
apeared from Sidney the same night that .Mc-
Carthy made his getaway and was mysteriously
absent for two days.
The fourth gold brick was found under Mc-
Carthy's saloon several years after his depar-
ture. The find was made by workmen who
were excavating for the foundation of a new
bank building. McCarthy, who fled to Mon-
tana, was said to have been a "Molly Maguire"
who escaped from Pennsylvania, after the
great "Molly Maguire" excitement, in which he
was a leader in the coal fields against law and
order.
Col. A. B. Persinger, owner of Hardscrabble
ranch near Lodgepo'.e, was a resident of Sid-
ney at the time of the "great bullion robbery,"
as it was called, and while in Omaha last week,
related several interesting incidents connected
with the sensational affair. When station agent
Allen was arrested his bond of $10,000 was
signed within a few minutes by the best citi-
zens of Sidney.
No one for a moment believed him guilty, as
he was held in the highest esteem by every-
body in the community. After his acquittal,
the firm of Persinger & Whitney, wholesale
and retail grocers, employed him as bookkeeper
and confidential cashier. Prior to becoming
station agent Allen had served as county clerk
and treasurer, and had the entire confidence
of the people. Upon leaving Sidney, Allen lo-
cated in Pueblo. Colorado, where he became
paymaster of a large coal company.
Colonel Persinger does not class Smith as
a hero, such, as he is made to appear in a novel
bearing the title of "Whispering Smith," writ-
ten some years ago by Frank H. Spearman.
He knew Smith very well, and regarded him
more as an outlaw.
Whispering Smith was a dead shot ; a man
of nerve ; cold-blooded, calculating and fear-
less ; and a man who would cunningly and
tauntingly provoke an enemy to commit the
first overt act, thus giving Smith ground for
self-defense. That was Smith's game. Such
is Colonel Persinger's iconoclastic estimate of
the hero of Spearman's novel, in which the
"great bullion robbery" is not even remotely
referred to.
Julius Thoelecke, who resided at Sidney at
the time, does not share with Colonel Persinger
in his high esteem of agent Allen.
Mr. Persinger and his "Hardscabble Ranch"
are both interesting. His is a personality and
his ranch a landmark on Lodgepole creek, near
the town of Lodgepole. He established the
ranch about 1878, or ten years after the coming
of the Union Pacific.
CHAPTER XXXI
OBERFELDERS DEMONSTRATE HOG AND ALFALFA COMBINATION — LATER
RANCHERS N I '.AROSHKOSH — POOR'S RANCH, WHERE SHELDON HIT
Tlllv WEST — COWBOYS MARKING GRAVES — THE MIDNIGHT
RIDE OF WILD HORSE HARRIS
\ great many people passing along that val-
ley, on the < )verland trains, or the Lincoln
1 lighway, have admired a green oasis near the
pretty village of Lodgepole, which is the Ober-
felder ranch. < >berfelder Brothers are pioneer
merchants al Sidney, and this ranch was a
side issue. I [ere was where a demonstration of
what hogs would do, if properly handled in al-
falfa fields, proved of great value to the own-
ers, a- well as to western Nebraska at large.
id "Bob" l >berfelder have done splen-
didly their part in western development.
Permanent ranching at the mouth of the
Blue Water and west along the North Platte
valley is marked by the names of old timers
in the present limits of Garden county. Here
we find foremost among them several persons
still living, and of distinguished interest.
Reuben Lisco still holds the famous ranch
heretofore mentioned in detail.
Samuel P. DeLatour still has a ranch in
"Cheyenne Canyon" on the Blue, which he
established before 1885.
H. C. Gumaer came up from Howard county
and permanently settled here about 1885, with
headquarters in section thirty-five. Township
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
seventeen, north of Range forty-four west. He
organized the Oshkosh Land & Cattle Company.
D. C. Hooper arrived and went into ranching
about the same time. Previously, Knowles-
Baldwin Company, the Ogallala Company,,
Adams, Redington & Company, and the LJsco
ranch were in practical control of the range,
the Ogallala having taken over many of the _
other ranches. This company had a "camp"
at the mouth of the Blue, when the latter day
ranchmen began to arrive.
About 1878, on the north side of the Nio-
brara, west of Valentine, some English people
financed and builded what became known as
Poor's ranch. The place was about due north
of Nenzel, although there were neither Nenzel
or Valentine at that time, and it grew to the
proportions, then necessary to be called a ranch,
namely: the number of cattle ran upward of a
thousand. The range extended westward twen-
ty or more miles and north to the Dakota line.
Two cowboys were killed by Indians there
in its early years.
This ranch was where Addison E. Sheldon,
present secretary of the State Historical So-
ciety, stopped for a time on his first journey
into northwest Nebraska. With the coming of
the granger the ranch was abandoned.
Earnest Brothers, who located on the Nio-
brara in Sioux county, in 1882, held the ranch
for twenty years or more. Wilse Earnest
moved to Scottsblufr about 1900, but Jim was
ranching some years later. Both are now dead.
Mr. Meeks, who located on the Niobrara,
about 1878, fifteen miles up the river from
Agate, was at the crossing of the old Ft. Lara T
mie-Ft. Robinson Military road.
Lusk became quite a cowtown in the
eighties. The cemetery there would no doubt
show a few evidences of the hilarious chival-
ry of cowdays. It became a custom then, when
anyone died with "boots on," to put him in a
vehicle that answered the purpose of a hearse,
and haul it to the cemetery with lariats at-
tached to the saddle horns of cow ponies.
After the burial, a strong board was set up
at the head of the grave, and to properly iden-
tify it as the burial place of one of the west-
ern bunch, it was shot full of holes.
Some of these boards marked the graves of
departed ones for years, and no doubt some
of them are still to be found. Occasionally,
to let their sleeping comrades know that those
"still on top of the turf," were keeping alive
the spirit of the west and its traditions, a party
of passing cow-punchers would re-decorate
these crude wooden markers with a battery
of fresh bullet holes.
Recently I rambled through the somewhat
neglected Boot Hill graveyard at Sidney. The
soldiers who were buried there have been
taken to Cottonwood or Fort McPherson na-
tional cemetery, but many of the old wooden
markers are- still at the graves. Generally all
signs of identification are gone, except the sub-
stantial evidence of "six-guns." The story of
only occasionally one of the one hundred and
fifty or two hundred that were buried there is
here related. In fact, the stories of the others
are generally unknown. In the rush of fif-
teen hundred a day that passed through Sid-
ney, if one fell by the wayside, even though
suddenly and violently, it left no lasting im-
pression.
Only the passing of someone who was iden-
tified with the community, as townsmen or
herdsmen, occasioned any extensive remark.
Men like Loomis, or Tate, or the Pinkstons, or
perhaps those who went at the hands of vigil-
antes.
In one of those graves lies "Fritzie," who,
while he perished with less ostentation and
dramatic suddenness than some of the others,
was given that type of burial because his •
friends thought he might prefer it.
The misfortunes of Fritzie were not en-
tirely due to himself, and none of his old time
acquaintances that I have met could tell me
his other name. Concerning him, "The Mid-
night Ride of Wild Horse Harris" eclipsed
many of the dramatic riders in history, which
are chronicled in prose, poetry and song. Har-
ris rode, not for the liberation of a nation, but
for the relief of a suffering friend.
Many old timers knew Fritzie as the one-
legged cowpuncher who, for a time, ran Min-
er's hotel in Sidney. Fritzie's infirmity was
caused by the intoxication, carelessness, and
magnified sense of humor possessed by his
buddy. Said buddy arrived home late one
night, after an hilarious time in Sidney. Fritzie
was sleeping when his buddy entered, and
buddy decided it would be funny to shoot into
the bed near enough to make his partner
jump. He did, the partner jumped, his leg
was shattered by the bullet, and later ampu-
tated.
After that Fritzie had paralytic spells. They
came on suddenly and left almost as quickly.
He was at Kane's ranch near Bronson once
when attacked. Two wild horse trailers had
captured a band and had them in Kane's big
pine pole corral. The trailers were Jerry
McGahon and Walter Harris, called "Wild
Horse Jerry," and "Wild Horse Harris."
They were excited over Fritzie's paralytic
attack, and Harris was going to Sidney for
the doctor. Their own horses were rambling
156
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
out on the prairie somewhere, and Harris said
he would ride a wild one. Jerry held the
lantern and Harris threw a rope at random
into the corral. He caught a wild-eyed mare.
They snubbed her up to the fence, saddled
her,' and Harris mounted in the saddle. In
the lantern light she reared, knocked out the
light and disappeared in blackness. Jerry
struck a match, and saw Harris aholding the
animal down.
"Open the gate," he said.
This was done, and the dark form of horse
and rider shot into the night. That ride to
Sidney, over prairies full of badger and
prairie dog holes, buffalo wallows, and the
like, on a wild, never-before-ridden horse, in
the night, was accomplished in short order.
Harris kept the animal headed east and
generally between the railroad and the creek,
by slapping the side of its head, this side and
then the other, with rope, and hat and hand.
After the first frenzied effort to roll him off,
its one purpose seemed to be to wish to run
away from its tormentor, but he stuck like
a leach.
The doctor arrived before daylight.
Later Fritzie went entirely to the bad and
died in the poor-house. The boys liked him,
but he wasted whatever they liberally bestow-
ed upon him, and in useless dissipation.
chapter xxxii
Mcdonald hung by vigilantes at sidney— sheriff trognitz's toke
— practical tokes of old timers
By 1881, the gun men of Sidney were again
making themselves so generally obnoxious,
that a drastic and a lawless exhibition became
necessary to show them that it must end. The
slow process of courts would not have the im-
mediate effects which conditions urged, and
which the vigilantes hoped to accomplish.
In the passing of the frontier communities,
heroic measures are frequently necessary. The
hanging of Reed in 1879 toned down the wild
gang for a time, but in a year or two, the shift-
ing of bad men from place to place, again made
Sidney the temporary abode of a tough gang
of thieves and gamblers. The getaway of the
bullion robbers added to their general reck-
lessness.
McCarthy's saloon was the Capitol, which
later was owned by Harry Winters. Mike
Tobin ran the corner saloon on Second street
from the railroad. Zig Gudfruend had his
emporium on Front street, and there were
nlllcl's.
Thi soldiers stationed at Fort Sidney were
not "t" the lily white variety. An Irishman
named John Mathews and his wife ran a
joint some distance east of the present site
of tin- American Stale Bank, and they got
mixed up in an embroglio with a bunch of
soldiers. Early in the morning those who had
retired, I Sidney was then a town where sa-
le open day and night) wen- awak-
ened b) hots, and the few who
were stationed where they could witness the
affair, said that the Irishman and his wife
stood in the door side by side, and each emptied
a six-shooter at the soldiers, some six or
seven of whom were wounded. Then they
went inside and barred the door, and im-
mediately dropped flat upon the floor. The
soldiers riddled the front of the building with
bullets, but all were too high to hit the re-
cumbent occupants. This was only an inci-
dent of the life'there.
Julius Thoelecke ran a jewelry store and
watch repairing establishment on Second
street about a half block east of the American
State Bank corner, in 1881, and he resided in
the same building. He had a living room at
the rear of the store, and a kitchen to the
rear of that. West of the living room was the
bedroom, and in front of that was another
room occupied by a milinery store and living
room, which was owned by a Mrs. Ferguson.
Thoelecke had a brothe'r at North Platte,
who occasionally shipped hay to Sidney, and
Julius attended to the distribution. Sam Fow-
ler was then sheriff, he having succeeded Mose
Howard who had resigned. He had a deputy
named "Cottontail" Strater, a fearless man
possessed of a desire to see a little more law
enforced. On the morning in mind he visited
Thoelecke's place for the purpose of nego-
tiating regarding some hay.
Fowler and "Cottontail" had "stirred up
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
157
the animals," as the saying went, and the
gamblers vowed vengeance. By some arrange-
ment the duty fell upon one named McDonald
to get rid of "Cottontail," and on that morning
he entered the store after Strater, and. pulled
his gun. Strater had just time to duck, and he
clucked into the living-room of the Thoeleckes.
Getting a grip on his gun he started for the
front room again, when Mrs. Thoelecke took
a hand. She was a strong woman weighing
about one hundred and eighty pounds and she
seized the diminutive deputy sheriff and forced
him into a chair. She then opened the door,
and McDonald, thinking it was the returning
deputy, dropped his gun upon her. She was
absolutely fearless, and he discovered his er-
ror in time to prevent homicide. Still bent
upon his purpose, he turned out of the door
and ran around the millinery store towards a
side door of the kitchen. But here Mrs.
Thoelecke again met him, and demanded that
he leave the place "like a gentleman." The
story of the event spread like a prairie fire.
The gamblers gathered in force on the corner
in front of Tobin's saloon, and condemned Mc-
Donald for his fiasco ending of the affair.
Fowler and Strater went about deputizing
men to take the gang. Occasionally one who
stood in with the rough element or did not
court any trouble with them, would refuse to
be deputized, until they saw the muzzle of a
gun, and the determined faces, then he would
join, sometimes with a humorous remark, that
after all he "guessed he would go too."
How they got away with it without a shot
being fired and a number of killed and wound-
ed, was only a miracle. But Fowler went into
the saloon and brought out McDonald. He and
Hugh Bean, "the gentleman gambler," Dan
Sullivan, Frank Anderson, and some half a
dozen others were disarmed, marched to the
old Sidney jail, and locked in.
Sometime in the night a number of men,
some of whom still reside in the new and bet-
ter Sidney, got their heads together. In the
morning McDonald was found near the court
house hung to a pole, and the other gambler
prisoners, had all "vamoosed" for healthier
climates. One of the scattered clan recently
died in Pocatello, Idaho, and what became
of the others is of little consequence.
The deputy sheriff very likely owed his life
to the activities of Mrs.' Thoelecke, although
he may have proven the quicker had he been
permitted to return to the store, and McDonald
been the victim of a gun fight instead of at
the hands of vigilantes. Had he chosen his
fate, that would probably have been the alter-
native. The staging of the affair in a jewelry
store, instead of the usual haunts,, indicated
a yellow start, and the hope to catch his pro-
posed victim unprepared.
This was the last hanging by vigilantes in
the Panhandle, but occasionally the cow-punch-
ers, to give travelers on the Union Pacific a
thrill, would pull off a stunt by hanging a dum-
my to a pole near the railroad, and shoot it full
of holes, as a train pulled into town.
In the middle eighties, Charley Trognitz was
sheriff of Cheyenne county, and he had a bill
disallowed by the commissioners, which he
himself considered was an error upon their
part. The board then consisted of A. Frame,
J. W. Harper and Joe Atkins.
In the routine of county business there
came a time when they must inspect the coun-
ty jail. Trognitz let them all get well inside,
and locked them in. Rattling the big keys
upon the bars, he asked. "Now will you allow
the bill." They capitulated. Charley said he
knew he could not hold them to it, but they
also knew that he knew enough about them
to keep them there for life, and a little touch
of it would bring it home to them.
"The trouble." said Charley, "was that I
could not tell on them, for I was in it when it
happened. But they allowed the bill of a man
whom they thought was desperate."
One time J. W. Harper was in Omaha, and
he met Colonel Charles Coffee of Chadron and
a number of other old timers. They had stop-
ped for lunch at the Millard cafe, and one of
the fellows more bibulous than the others, had
lingered long over his chops. The others grew
tired of waiting and wandered up town. Af-
ter a time their absent friend joined them and
told them of a wonderful work of art, the por-
trait of a woman in the cafe of the Millard,
which the others had failed to note.
So enthusiastic was his endorsement of the
work, that they were finally sufficiently inter-
ested to return and look at it. The picture
proved to be a commonplace portait of a wom-
an, and none could see the cause for such
enthusiasm. The amateur art critic made each
one of them stand in front of the picture, then
to each side, then in the far corners, and each
time look at the woman's eyes. Still they were
unmoved and demanded that he point out the
particular features of art that appealed to him.
"Why, can't you see?" he said with appar-
ent earnestness, "that wherever in this room
you stand, her eyes are fixed upon you. It is
wonderful. You over there and me over here,
and she is looking squarely at both of us at the
same time."
The fellows looked at each other, ami Cof-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
fee broke the silence. "Come on, boys, I'll
buy."
The coming of prohibition will forever end
certain of the rough pranks and jollity of
men. Much of the good fellowship and humor
of the west was where the spirits were en-
livened by frequent and sundry libations. Not
all of the early men drank, but those who
did not, frequented the places where those bent
on revelry were inclined to congregate. Com-
ical incidents that were common in the bar
room, would be inappropriate in a soda parlor
or a grocery store. Valentine King and
Charley Nelson, initiating a newcomer into
the glories of the west, would be out of place
in a candy kitchen.
These old time gentlemen had a tenderfoot
in Zig. Gudfreund's saloon at Sidney, and their
conversation drifted into the mysterious power
of mind. Nelson declared he was a mind
reader and the stranger, as expected, disputed
the existence of such power. A small wager
was put up, and Nelson retired. The stranger
was to hide some article, selected after Charley,
had left the room, and Nelson was to find it
upon his return.
The stranger was looking for some suitable
article to hide, when King innocently suggested
an egg, there being a number in a dish behind
the bar. The unusual article Valentine sug-
gested could be hid in the stranger's cap, which
would be an unlikely place to look for it.
Charley was then called in, and he experienc-
ed some difficulty in getting his mental ap-
paratus in working order. He maneuverated
about, and reached up his arms, for a while,
and finally, when it was in the right position,
he said : "Well, whatever it is, I have a feel-
ing that it is right here." His hand went
down with a slap upon the tenderfoot's head
and smashed the egg. The smeared and in-
dignant man, was finally coaxed into good
humor, with the perfect understanding that he
was now a full-fledged westerner, and at lib-
erty to practice on any stranger that might
happen along.
King and Nelson have both left this land,
the former on the "long, long trail." and Nelson
to Cuba, which has not yet adopted the single
standard of water, with nothing above two and
one-half per cent alcohol. He says it is ask-
ing too much of one of the old boys who used
to take it straight, to drink forty gallons of
water to get one of "licker." His stay in
Cuba will not be permanent, for Nelson has
been too long in western Nebraska to part
with it forever.
CHAPTER XXXIII
GORDON'S AND WHITEHEAD'S RANCHES — YODER'S BEGINNING AND EX-
PANSION — NEW DEVELOPMENT IN GOSHEN HOLES — BE-
GINNING OF ALFALFA AND SUGAR BEETS
On our first trip up Horse creek in the
eighties, we stopped at the Gordon ranch, in
company with George Whitehead. Gordon
was .'in active Scotchman and had built an irri-
gation plant. He, in one place, had made a
tunnel through a hill, as I remember it quite
a long distance, and large enough to work a
team in.
The house was modern and had "uphol-
stered" furniture. The night we were there,
we were entertained in the parlor, along with
a couple of "punchers" from the south. These
were decidedly ill at ease sitting on the sofa,
until they got their feet drawn up under
them, (in the "plush" upholstery. Gordon tried
Iiin l.i'si to In unconcerned aboul using his style
furniture as a boot mat, but he occasionally
grunted ; "that must be comfortable."
The Gordon ranch later became a part of
the Colen Hunter ranch, and I believe it so
remains. The building and improving of the
ranch involved Gordon in heavy obligations
which he was unable to meet in the later
money-pinch. He built an ideal, but was un-
able to retain it. like so many of the ideals
which dreamers build. Someone else absorbed
the benefits of his genius and industry, because
he built on borrowed money.
I do not know the present ownership of the
old Whitehead ranch, although, as I recall,
it was quite a place then.
In 1881, P. T. Yoder and his son H. F.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBR \SK \
159
(Frank) came from Aft. Pleasant, Iowa, and
located on Bear creek, about ten miles west
of the present site of Meridian. This ranch
started with thirty-seven heifers and a dozen
horses. Mr. Goodman, a squawman, lived not
far from where they settled.
Homer Z. Yoder, no relative of the original
family, has a ranch at this time, three or
four miles down the creek from the first Yoder
ranch.
There was a school house on Bear creek
at the time — said to be the one in which Molly
Woods, heroine of "The Virginian" once
taught school.
Frank Yoder. attended school here in the
winter of 1881 and 1882, being the only white
pupil in attendance. Five daughters of Good-
man attended this school, they being beady-
eyed half-breeds of varying ages.
At the tap of the bell for intermission, noon
or night, these girls would move silently to
the door, but as soon as in the clear, they would
scatter and run for the brush like scared rab-
bits. Then at the call bell they would silent-
ly re-emerge and file shyly into their seats.
Jess Yoder, a brother of H. F., arrived in
1882. The humble beginning developed and
at sometime or another these Yoder boys have
owned a lot of the ranches thereabout.
The Dollar ranch, on Bear creek ; the Grease-
wood ranch in the Goshen Holes, and several
others, were owned at one time or another.
The Yoder-Marsh Company, consisting of
Jess Yoder and a brother-in-law named Marsh,
now own the old Y-cross ranch, which they
bought nearly twenty years ago. The}' run
three to four thousand cattle at this time.
H. F. Yoder, about five years ago, acquired
the fine old Brown ranch near La Grange.
This place had 3,160 acres of excellent land.
Here Frank keeps in the neighborhood of one
thousand cattle.
The Yoder boys are active in banking and
finance in the Citizen's National Bank of Chey-
enne, the Torrington National Bank at Tor-
rinsrton, and elsewhere.
The Hawk Springs Development Company
was of their conception, and from its reservoir
it supplies water for several thousand acres of
excellent farms in the heart of the Goshen
Holes.
In this same section of the Goshen Hole
country, the Springers — •Henry and John —
have their reservoir and private lands and ca-
nals covering a thousand acres of their own.
They also supply water for Lon Merchant.
the McHenrys. Airs. Armitage, Security Land
Company and others.
Also here is built the "Bump-Sullivan" ditch
now owned by "Goshen Ditch Company." This
company also has a storage reservoir and is
jointly owned by Tom, Charlie (Pit) and
Jack Lacy, the Sullivans,- Paul Woods, Ethel
Rowell, Airs. Perry Sullivan, the Selbys and
Wm. Hingelfelt. In this vicinity is destined to
be a city of considerable importance when the
Union Pacific extends its line up the North
Platte Valley, as is contemplated in 1921.
Some excellent alfalfa fields are in this part
of the valley, and a sugar factory is one of the
early anticipations after the advent of the rail-
road. It takes a long time to realize dreams,
but the west was built by dreams.
There are living and active in business in the
state capital, Lincoln, Nebraska, men who sat
in the shadow of sod houses, and dreamed that
some day there would be a railroad builded to
the Salt Basin, and Lancaster Hill, now the
city of Lincoln. It was then inland, and reach-
ed by trail wagons and stage.
Fifty years ago there lived in North Platte
a dreamer by the name of J. B. Park. In 1870,
he advocated through the columns of the Lin-
coln County Adventurer, the planting of sugar
beets and lucerne. From France he imported
some sugar beet seed which was the beginning
of that crop which now runs to ten million dol-
lars a year, in western Nebraska alone.
He also imported several bags of Chilian
clover seed, thus planting the first alfalfa in
Nebraska. In that day it was known as Lucerne,
Chilan clover, or California clover, the name
alfalfa coming into general use later on. It
is difficult to estimate the value which Colonel
Parks initiation has been to our community
and commonwealth.
During the campaign of 1920, the output
from the four sugar mills at Scottsbluff, Ger-
ing, Bayard and Mitchell will be approximately
one thousand pounds of refined sugar every
minute of the day and night, a total of some
one hundred and fifty million pounds.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER XXXIV
SAND HILL RANCHES OF TODAY — DANGERS OF THE STAMPEDE — ORIGIN
OF SOME WESTERN EXPRESSIONS — PRANKS OF EARLY DAYS
The Sand Hill regions of Sheridan, Sioux
and Garden counties, are more extensive than
others of the Panhandle, though not having
the area of Cherry county, which lies further
east, or not having the percentage of grazing
land that a number of the small counties in
the Sand Hills contain.
These Sand Hill regions are now the home
of many great ranches that have come since
the old cattle baron went over the Great Divide.
In early granger days, and while the sand hills
were passing to title under the section home-
stead act, we heard stories of feudal despots
known as "cattle barons." But always these
bold, bad buccaneers were "over the hill,"
somewhere. They were elusive, and no one
ever quite "met up" with one.
A few half insane bachelors like John
Krause, added a touch of realism to the stories
told. But the real ranchers of the sand hills
were fellows like Charles Tulleys, Festus
Carothers, Everett Eldred, Ed Meyers, John
Batchelor, Avery Brothers, L. E. Ballinger,
George Richardson, Smith Brothers and scores
of others that could be named.
A number of the younger ranchmen obtained
their start from such men as Festus Carothers.
Some very successful young men have been
"put upon their feet" by this enterprising and
splendid old man of the Hills, more than once,
before they succeeded in getting a grip upon
themselves.
Some of the Sand Hill ranches are landed
empires.
Eldred's ranch in northern Garden county
contains about four townships. He runs vast
herds — probably more than 10,000 cattle and
1000 horses. In the big storm of March, 1913,
fifteen hundred cattle were lost by their drift-
ing into Swan lake.
The Avery ranches are also large. Charles
has a ranch covering two townships, and well
stocked. Sam also has a fine ranch. Fine
hay meadows, and a hunting lodge on one of
the Avery lakes, built for the accommodation
of friends and visitors, is the way Avery
Brothers do things.
Boyd and Rice own Crescent ranch which
covers about three townships, and is well stock-
' d George Richardson has more than a town-
i E Ballinger twenty thousand acres.
R. M. Hampton's ten thousand acre ranch
in the northern part of Morrill county, has
been merged into the thirty-five thousand acre
ranch of Hall and Graham. This ranch cuts
thousands of tons of hay annually, and suf-
fered a great hay loss by fire in 1920. They
have from three thousand to four thousand
cattle.
All these ranches are under the new order,
as the old free range has passed away. The
big roundups are no more, except perhaps in
remote regions of Argentine, or on the Ama-
zon, in South America.
Neither do we have the stampedes that used
to wither the grass as the trampling feet of
wild-eyed cattle passed. Those were days when
"The Phantom Steer" led herds to perdition.
To quote from verse written in the running
style of the running cattle:
"For at my side with a flaming nose,
And eyes that glowed as foxfire glows,
With a body of quivering, pulsing mist
My rope cut through as it, whirling, hissed.
Was a Thing that sped with the speed of deer :
I was neck and neck with "The Phantom
Steer;"
The Thing that never was known to miss
A bottomless bog, or a precipice ;
The Thing that leads both herds and men
To where they never come back again."
The old familiar and effective way to stop a
stampede, was to ride well in the lead, and turn
the leaders into an ever narrowing circle, until
they were into a slowly revolving wheel with
those in the center hardly moving out of their
tracks. This contained its perils, for the rid-
ing at night is nearly always on strange ground.
If a horse should fall it was almost sure death.
Thus the use of the word "mill" or "milling,"
took on additional meaning. A crowd moving
about was "milling around." Dancing the old
"round dances" were sometimes called "mill-
ing." Occasionally dancers and dancing were
referred to as "the night herd is a-running,"
or "the herd, it got to milling when the fiddle
got in tune."
Wyatt ( Long) Heard, of Uvalde county,
Texas, drifted through Banner county, on the
last roundup. He liked the social early times,
but had the fault of getting seriously in earnest
with the girls he liked best. Those early girls
liked a good time, but none of them cared any-
thing about "a solid fellow."
HISTORY <>]• WHSTKRX XKBKASKA
One with whom Wyatt had gone several
times, when asked by him to attend another
party, plead a previous engagement. She ap-
peared at the party with Grant Mills.
Homer Welker, a wag of the range, knew of
the affair and when he got the proper surround-
ings he said : "The only way to stop a "Heard"
is to get it to "Mill." Then he snorted. Every
body but Heard appreciated the joke.
There were a lot of pranks pulled off at
parties and dances, and where some "puncher's"
horse, or buggy team was tied at the gate or
corral of a place where one of the first girls
were known to reside. I found my broncho un-
tied late one night when I was starting for
home. The "fool critter" traveled ahead of me
in the moonlight from fifty to one hundred
yards distant, all the way. It was a nice seven
mile walk. I never knew who did the untying.
I have participated in changing a fellow's
buggy wheels, putting the small wheels on the
rear, so that the occupants would drive home
"up hill most of the way."
Another time, a "hitch rope" was taken from
one of the horses, and the hind wheels tied
together. The effect was, when the fellow
started home with the girl, the first revolution
of the wheels brought the rope across the back
of the buggy box, and then the wheels slid. He
worried about the sagging buggy box, and
thought a spring must be broken. Also, the
ponies failed to pick up any speed, and seemed
to be pulling hard on the light rig. Xext morn-
ing he discovered the cause.
One of the jokes of the ranchmen in north
Garden county, whenever visiting Omaha or
other markets, was to pose as the "Mayor of
Mumper." Mumper was a postoffice at a
ranch in the Sand Hill country, and while
"Mayor of Mumper" was impressive among
distant strangers, at home it had about as much
significance as mayor of a hill of sand.
CHAPTER XXXV
FIRST RAXCH IN DAWES COUNTY — GRAHAM AND SNYDER ON NIOBRARA
RIVER — OTHER RANCHES XEAR FORT ROBINSON — STAM-
PEDIN' ON THE OLD TRAIL
After the establishment of Fort Robinson,
soldiers of fortune and others began building
ranches within the radius of its protection.
The first to enter ranching activities in the
territory now embraced in Dawes county, was
Edgar Beecher Bronson, on Dead Man's creek,
a few miles southwest of the present site of
Crawford. The Sioux name for this creek was
Ghost creek. Bronson located there about 1878,
and about the same time Dr. E. B. Graham and
R. Snyder established themselves on the Nio-
brara, at Agate, which has later become famous
as the home of Captain James H. Cook.
Bronson moved to the Niobrara in 1879, and
located about twelve miles east of Graham and
Snyder. He became a writer of considerable
note, publishing a book of western adventure.
Captain Cook is also a well known character
in western Nebraska early life when Indians
were a menace. At the Agate ranch has been
unearthed and developed one of the most fam-
ous fossil beds of the world. Mr. Cook, though
long before in the west, purchased the Graham
ranch about 1887.
Jack Carpenter was one of the first near
Fort Robinson. He initiated his work about
1879, on White river a few miles west of the
fort.
About the same time, Captain Hamilton, an
officer at the fort, started on Soldier creek. I
believe he took the location which Bronson
abandoned on going to the Niobrara.
Powers Brothers of the Seven-U put in a
sub-station on Bordeaux creek.
Six miles east of the fort, a Mr. Russell, who
represented and was backed by the Diiector of
the Port of New York, built the Ox-Yoke
ranch. Russell was a brother-in-law of the
Director. These ranches were not of large
proportion, and did not endure for long.
Carpenter's boy — Willie — arrived in the
winter of 1879-1880 and was snow-bound in
Sidney for three or four weeks. He was a nice
kind of a kid and stayed in Oberfelder's store.
Some years later a big, wiskered man with a
deep voice came into the store and asked for
Bob. When Bob appeared he said: "I want
your father," but after a bit he discovered it
was the same Bob of old. He asked if Bob re-
membered Jack Carpenter. Bob answered :
162
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
"< if course I do, and also his son Willie."'
"Well," said the visitor, "by I am Willie."
He had developed into a powerful man men-
tally and physically, and had removed to Idaho,
where he had become very wealthy.
From 1893 to 1910, the Union Cattle Com-
pany leased its Goshen Hole lands, west of
Wyoming line to the Two-Bar or Swan outfit.
Will Sturgis had a number of tests made,
looking for coal, oil and gas. Some five wells
were put down, ranging from 500 to 1000 feet.
At one time, making some assessment work,
he employed Howard Thomas, who was sub-
ject to epileptic fits. He had a shaft down
about six feet, when one of these fits rendered
him helpless. He drowned in less than a foot
of water.
Tom Sturgis had Whispering Smith em-
ployed in the eighties to keep Cheyenne county
from going for the herd law. He failed in
his efforts for the grangers were strong for it.
McGinley and Stover located three miles
west of Agate in 1882, and Earnest Brothers
located three miles farther up the river about
the same time.
"Hank" Clifford ran the station at the Nio-
brara crossing about 1878 or 1879. The same
time, or thereabouts, Mr. Meeks located his
ranch fifteen miles northwest of Agate, where
the Ft. Laramie-Ft. Robinson Military road
crossed the river.
A third nf a century ago, the granger broke
into the open range, and the cowmen scattered,
or stampeded, or settled down to the new order.
Every little while we now hear of one who has
gone "stampedin' on the Old Trail." Yet, to-
day, we find a few anchored to the soil of the
wonderful land, which they have helped to tame
from the wilderness of old, to the present
wilderness of green, done in seventeen shades
of glory and productivity.
Recently there seems to be a Stampede of
the old boys, heading for the Home Ranch
Across the Great Divide, and it is fitting that
we should close this history of an epoch in the
taming f (he west, with a few lines dedicated
to the brave and true spirits who wrought the
transformation :
Stampedin j ox the Old Trail
The 1>ovs are leavin' this old range,
Where once they liked to ride;
And hittin' for the Home Ranch,
\< TO ■ ilu- I ,rcat Divide.
We .-ill were goin' sometime
P.n! never had agreed
1,1 quil the flats in bunches —
A regular stampede.
From Circle Arrow ranch the first
To drift or fade away,
Were Jimmy Tate at Sidney,
And" Kimball Billy Day.
He's put in Boot Hill Graveyard,
With boots on, as he died,
W 7 hen Jimmy quit the Lodgepole
And hit the Great Divide.
And then to take the High Roau
Was our old Captain Jenks ;
He went with the Rough Riders
When shuffling off the kinks.
Then Chris Streeks of a sudden
Snuffed out the light, and died —
He swung into the saddle
For the Long and Lonely Ride.
Old Baldy Kelly hit The Road
From Little Moon lakeshore,
For Iron Leg Bill was spittin' fire
From out the cabin door.
Now. Baldy 's way of queerin' Bill
Was coarse, as coarse could be.
He ought a hung with old Tom Horn
Or swung with Earl McFee.
O'Hallern with his boots on
Done quit the Seven-U :
And Charley Moore, of Wellsville,
Said he'd go Trailin', too.
They left the old sod shanty
At the north end of the bridge,
And the last was seen of either.
He was trailin' o'er The Ridge.
The Maycock brothers, John and Joe,
Each passed along The Way.
John dropped in from the sagebrush,
And Joe from Canada.
And boys, a waitin', millin' 'round.
For calls to come up higher.
Saw Colonel Pratt fade up The Trail
A settin' her afire.
Then from the Runnin' Water
Went the Earnests — Jim and Wilse,
And from the Mitchell valley
Went a ridin' John R. Stilts,
Peg Wiggins went from Torrington,
And Extract Smith, be blowed
With Gunnysack Pete, thru the dusk
A burnin' up The Road.
Then Wright, who lived on "Pumpkin Cieek'
We always called him "John,"
Said, "Boys, I guess it's quittin' time
And I'll be movin' on."
And Sandy Ingraham spread his hand
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
163
And guessed he'd quit the game,
While Peters cashed his checks in,
And said he'd do the same.
They saw a shadow foggin'
And a fannin' up The Vale
"It's Johnny Boyle," they shouted,
"That's the way he hits The Trail."
Then Haig, he quits the Two-bar,
To travel on The Road,
A lookin' for old Snodgrass,
McShane and Mark M. Coad.
He'll find them sittin' in the game
In good old fashioned style,
And, maybe, lookin' on, he'll find
His neighbor, Milton Byal.
There's Tusler, and~Sam Fowler,
And Laing, who lived upon
The "Lorren's Fork" a plavin'
With old Doc Middletom
It sure is quite an outfit
Of saddle boys that goes.
Jim Brantner, of White river,
And little Tim Montrose.
And they have caught Lew Saunders
A trailin' o'er The Hills :
And Grangers of the Frontier —
There's Dad, A. W. Mills.
Raymond, Rayburn, Thornton,
Ashford — ■ pioneers
Are plowin' up the turf There
As here, in early years.
But that won't make them worry
They won't have long to wait,
'Til someone after that Long Ride
Will say, "Let's irrigate."
There's H. M. Springer — drivin' fast •
Along the Dusty Trail
There's P. J. Yoder leavin'
The Bear creek — Fox Creek Vale.
And Colin Hunter from Horse creek —
He crossed the Cheyenne Plain
Where Gordon had gone on before,
Along with Doc. Tremaine.
Sam Lawyer — arms a flappin'
And floppin' like a sail
Went foggin' and a fannin' up
The Dim and Dusty Trail
I faintly hear an anvil,
And ringin' blacksmith tools :
I wonder if Jack Hilton's there
A shoein' Spanish mules.
Bronson left the Deadman's\ creek
A "Ghost" upon the Wind.
Doc Graham went from Agate
A followin' close behind.
Bill Kelly went from Pumpkin creek
A trailin' old Tom Kane
And Newman's quit the Lodgepole
To lead the Turks again.
Dick Bean could drive a herd of steers
Across the river Styx.
But drivin' harnessed bronchos
Got him in a regular fix.
When horses, harness, wagon,
They had all begun to "mill,"
Why Dick, he up and leaves them
On the Old Ash Hollow Hill.
With old association gone
Bratt didn't care a hoot
'Bout things along the Birdwood,
So they run him through the Chute
With Keith and Barton on One Range
And maybe A. B. Hall,
Or Chas. McDonald on another
Wouldn't do at all.
So Bratt, he said, no Bogy
Could scare one of his stamp,
If he had men like Cody
Or Likens, in his camp.
He'd hunt the scattered Dogies
And as he found his pals,
He'd round 'em up and drive 'em in
To his Home Ranch Corrals.
I wonder if the old boys.
Join in the "round up mill :"
I wonder if the bronchos
Are linin' the corral:
And girls with merry laughter.
And boys with shouts of glee,
Swing "a-la-man" at Livingston
To the tune of Fiddler Lee.
The old grout house is crumbled,
And soddies of the west,
Where gatherings were welcome
When roundup outfits passed,
Are gone ; and gone the fiddler
Who played the prancin' tune.
When "the night herd was runnin' "
'Til the settin' of the moon.
I wonder if the mess house
Is like it used to be ;
I wonder if the bunk house
Is calling you and me.
I wonder if the old boys
Arc plavin' seven up.
164
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
And callin' Collins, bring 'em in
An overbrimmin' cup.
D'ye reckon that is why they
Are tearin' down The Slope.
Like rippin' into Sidney,
Or down on Antelope.
D'ye reckon there's a Camp Clarke,
A Hartville or Cheyenne,
A waitin' for us yonder where
The other boys have gone.
Is Jim Moore there a playin'
A game of solitaire,
Or is he ridin' "the Express,"
And fannin' through the air?
For many a long gone year he's been
A waitin' for The Run
He knew was sure a comin' when
The Stampede was begun.
We'll meet with old Count Creighton,
He'll be there without fail,
And we'll find Billy Paxton,
A freightin' up The Trail.
I feel like tightening the cinch,
To quit the sorry grange,
And join one of the outfits
Headed for the Other Range.
I wonder if the fordin's good?
If not, I'll have to fix
With H. T. Clarke, and cross his toll-
Bridge o'er the River Styx.
Dear old Dad White will be there
A holdin' out his hand,
To take the final tribute,
E're we reach the Promised Land.
CHEYENNE COUNTY
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY
Nothing in history exceeds in romantic in-
terest the discovery and settlement of the New
World, of which Nebraska and Cheyenne coun-
ty are a part. The history of Nebraska begins
with the Spanish Invasion of Mexico, and set-
tlements at Santa Fe and Taos. Then later
with the voyage of La Salle when he took New
France, now Canada, and the region of the
Great Lakes and the territory of Louisiana, in
the name of Louis the Great, King of France.
Spain followed by France thus became the first
owners of the territory now comprised in Ne-
braska ; in 1763, Louisiana Territory was*
ceded back to Spain, and what is now Cheyenne
county, though unmarked and unnamed was in
this territory. In 1802, Spain again ceded the
territory to France, which prepared the way
for Thomas Jefferson, President of the United
States, to negotiate the Louisiana purchase by
which Louisiana Territory became a part of
the young Republic in 1803. Cheyenne coun-
ty was a part of it.
This section of the country was inhabited
only by the roving bands of Indians at that
time and little was known of the country this
far west. May 30, 1854, Nebraska Territory
was created by an act of Congress, and in
1866 the question of the admission of Ne-
braska as a state was raised. All conditions
required by Congress were complied with and
on March 1, 1867, the territory ceased to be,
and the great state of Nebraska came into
existence.
Cheyenne county was created by act of
the first state legislature in 1867, and at that
time contained the territory since erected into
Banner, Deuel, Garden, Kimball, Morrill and
Scotts Bluff counties. At the present time the
county lies in the Panhandle section of Ne-
braska, in the second tier from the western
boundary and the south tier north of the Colo-
rado-Nebraska boundary. Cheyenne county is
bounded on the north by Morrill county ; on
the east bv Garden and Deuel counties, on the
south by Colorado, and on the west by Kim-
ball and Banner counties.
The general topography of the country may
be described as high rolling plains, ranging
from broken cliffs along the Lodgepole to the
level lands of tableland and valleys. The land
is composed mostly of rich sand loam, occa-
sionally traversed by deep canyons showing
some rock out cropping. Profitable farming is
extensively carried on in the county. Where
much was given over to stock-raising by using
the native grasses for forage, and pasture, in
early days, it is now secondary- in point of im-
portance.
The Lodgepole creek valley leads all the
valley in the county in size. It enters the
county at the west line south of the center
north and south, is several miles wide and
runs east entirely across the country in an al-
most direct east and west direction. In addi-
tion to this major stream, the Lodgepole val-
ley has a south branch running northeast from
the western line and smaller valleys, many
unnamed. Lodgepole valley is generally "level,
deep soiled and well watered and in an early
day was attractive to the homeseekers. The
lands were the first lands to be settled and
today are the sites of the oldest ranches and
farms. In the early days the stream was
wooded along its banks with trees native to
this locality, while the bluffs bordering the .
valley contained scattering Cedar 'and Pine.
Cheyenne County Weather
No detailed description of climatic condi-
tions in Cheyenne county is necessary. The
climate is much the same as in all parts of the
western highlands of the state and the middle
west, and is admirably adapted to stock-rais-
ing and agriculture. It is a very healthful
climate.
Early Settlement
Contemporaneous with ami following the
166
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
building of the Union Pacific, the cattlemen
came into the country. All was government
and railroad land, and the stockmen came to
use the ranges. Originally they described
their brands and range, thereby indicating a
claim for so many miles of prairie that assured
plenty of territory. Ranges seldom overlap-
ped, but the cattle became mixed and the
round up instituted. After Gates demonstrated
efficacy of barbwire some began to build
fences. In 1869 and 1870, cattle were wintered
in the country now' comprised in Cheyenne
county though the ranges had been used before
that time for oxen. For a number of years
no taxes were levied against the cattle, no in-
vestments in real estate were necessary and
the profits were large. Later the cattlemen and
ranchers had to pay their taxes to the organ-
ized counties adjacent. They had no benefit
from them and no enforcement of the laws and
in order to accomplish this it was evident that
county organization should be established.
County organization began to be talked over
when the Union Pacific began building west
through what is now Cheyenne county and the
history of the county, and the town of Sidney,
are so closely associated that they will be
written together.
Sidney and Cheyenne County
The story of Cheyenne county and Sidney
begins in 1867 when the Union Pacific Rail-
road reached the site of the present city.
On December 13, 1867, the United States
established Sidney Barracks, a sub-post of Fort
Sedgewick, Colorado Territory.
On November 28, 1870, it became an inde-
pendent post.
The first purpose of the soldiers at Fort Sid-
ney was to protect the builders of the rail-
road; four troops of the Third and Fifth
United States Cavalry were stationed there
and a portion of the Third Infantry for a
time but they were later sent to another post.
General Dudley was in command of Sidney
Post and remained two years before being re-
lieved by Genera] Merritt. A companv of
soldiers was stationed at or near the present
site of the town of Lodgepole and another
twenty miles west, where Potter is now located.
In the middle eighties troops from Vancouver
and other Pacific coast garrisons were sent
tO these posts for a time.
Politics, even at this early day, entered into
he lifi mi Cheyenne county, as George W. E.
member of Congress from the Third
Nebraska District, which extended a;
a- Fremont, his Ik. me. used the threat or
scare regularly to have Fort Sidney abandoned,
as an excuse to be returned to Congress. He
succeeded in being elected until the farmers'
revolution resulted in the election of Omer M.
Kem. Four years after he was first elected,
or in 1894, the post was abandoned and the
government property later sold to the Bur-
lington railroad and used as the site for the
present station grounds.
The Union Pacific railroad was built on to
the west from Sidney in 1868, and with it went
a large part of the population of the town
when it was the end of the road. There was a
large, nomadic, rough element in the country
at the time, which always followed the rail
head where it could prey on the laborers. The
post was reduced to the mere needs of pro-
tection from Indians, which grew less and less
each year.
For a period there was little life in the
town and county, after the road reached farth-
er west, bur, in 1870, things began to liven up,
and the people began to consider organization.
A partial set of officers were named and plans
made for a regular election. This took place
October 8, 1871, when Sidney's pioneer attor-
ney, George W. Heist, was elected probate
judge, but refused to qualify. He was later
appointed and did qualify. George Cook was
elected sheriff, but was removed and John
Ellis was appointed in his place. James Moore
was elected treasurer of the county but was
unable to give the county commissioners a
satisfactory bond and Thomas Kane was ap-
pointed for that office, and D. Cowigan was
commissioner, but later resigned. L. Connell,
elected county clerk, served. Even at this
early day there were indications that a political
ring had been formed in Cheyenne county and
unless a man was favored by the members he
did not succeed in public life.
The Cattee Business
The stagnation of the town and county con-
tinued through the next five years. The trail
herds passing through the town and county en-
livened life occasionally, when cattle werei
driven from Texas into the country north of
Sidney. The cattle business was becoming im-
portant in the Nebraska Panhandle where
abundant pasture was available. A report of
Thomas Kane, secretary of the Cattle Asso-
ciation, made August 5, 1876, indicates that
the growth of this industry in Cheyenne county
was considerable. The report gives only the
cattle actually in the county, though some of
the companies or ranchmen had large herds
in other counties of the state, and in Colorado
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
167
and Wyoming. Some of the most important
companies and ranchmen with their holdings
are as follows : Adams, Redington & Co., six
thousand head ; Codd Brothers, five thousand
head ; Creighton Herd, three thousand head ;
Tusler Brothers, thirty-five hundred head;
Pratt & Ferris, three thousand head ; Bostler
& Irwin, twenty-five hundred head ; Bostler &
Lawrence, two thousand head ; other men who
had large numbers were Maybury, C. A.
Moore, Harkinson & Griffin ; Thomas Kane. D.
B. Lynch, H. Newman, Callihan & Murshied,
C. McCarty, Walrath Brothers, Robert How-
ard, Jesse Montgomery, Merchant & Wheeler.
First Events of Interest
The first white child born in Cheyenne coun-
ty was Fanny Fisher, the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Joseph Fisher of Sidney. She was
born in 1869, as her parents had come to the
county some time previously.
The first cemetery was started when it was
found necessary to bury a white man killed by
the Indians.
A log hut served as the first store building in
Sidney and was built by a man called "French
Louis." It was located about four miles south
of the present town site, but when a station was
established at Sidney on the railroad, he moved
the store to the town. Most of the stock of
goods at that day consisted of necessary sup-
plies and whiskey.
In 1868, Charles Moore built a frame hotel,
store and saloon, and about the same time
Thomas Kane built the second frame store
building and became the first postmaster of
Sidney.
The name of Tom Kane stands out con-
spicuously in the development of Sidney and
Cheyenne county, as he was naturally a builder
and pioneer developer, taking an active part in
all public affairs. He was not only the first
postmaster, but also the first treasurer of the
county. He was instrumental in the movement
to have the county organized. Mr. Kane was
a prominent ranchman of this district, located
near Bronson where he made good improve-
ments, being among the first to erect a good
stone dwelling house. As an early attorney
of Cheyenne county, Mr. Kane was naturally
a leader in many movements for the develop-
ment of the country. He became secretary of
the Cattle Association of Western Nebraska
when it was formed, taking part in the settle-
ment of many of the cattle disputes and diffi-
A Fine Residence of Sidney
culties of the early days. When the railroad
tried to evade paying taxes Mr. Kane siezed an
engine on the track. First he order the deputy
sheriff, A. Solomonson, to stand in front of the
engine ; then the engineer started the engine
and Solomonson yelled to Kane, who replied,
"Stand where you are." "But they will run
the engine over me," replied Solomonson.
"If they do I will make them pay dearly for
it," Kane replied. Solomonson stood in the
track and was not hurt as Kane had attached
a log chain to the engine and track and the
engine did not move until the taxes were paid.
Mr. Kane never ran a saloon in the new coun-
try and never was prominent in the roystering
life of the frontier. Characteristic of his high
spirits, he named his three boys. Tom, Dick
and Harry.
The first saloon was built and started in the
new town of Sidney, by Dennis Carrigan. Sid-
ney one time had twenty-three saloons in one
block between First and Second streets west of
Rose street, now Center street. Now there
is none. The business died of its own ex-
cesses and vice. Carrigan went into other busi-
ness and became one of the progressive citizens,
in later years. Saloon business in a "cow
town" was vastly different from the same busi-
ness in the mining rush. The people to deal
with were of different type and character.
1(,S
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
In 1,876, Sidney suddenly found itself the
nearest town of consequence to the Black Hills
at the time of the gold rush. Cheyenne entered
into a spirited contest for the business which
grew with leaps and bounds from the many
men rushing in and requiring outfits ; Kearney
the head, "Why argue with a man who has no
brain?" The satire and sarcasm of the early
day newspapers was at its best between Sid-
ney and Cheyenne.
By September, 1876, Sidney had a popula-
tion of a thousand inhabitants, and the matter
Clarke's Centennial Express to the Black Hills.
Custer Cily. am
. route may 3U,ip
\|pad flt Sidney,
Care_6f.H._T._CLARKE,
Sidney, Neb. ;
-ac-sStl^of. js.vvKU.PE fsjiD I-', Tii
I^viV^ESS_DC5rNt;SS.
pill
lilt
SIDNBY SHOR'Ii ROXFtW
THI BLACK BXLXil
ISKOW OPEN FOR TRAVEL. AND, WITH THS ROAD.lS " .
Guarded £y the United ^States Troops'! v
ONLY 167 MILES TO CUSTER CITf
, TOOa THE BSIOll PACIFIC BAIUOAD. _
la'.y. aEd^Ctmp Olarto^liU* KlvwBrt'ds
B RlWr,-ri,nn.n K through to R*d Cloi
; L * i»n lutnlsh [rsoiporuiloo for
Sidney to Custer City, i»<ir; I roc
nwa 1
HRVUISl. OF EN\
FASBEHGEK RAT3S - Omabi to Ouster CUT. lit cUii fit.' 3d cUUi |3t
Xicteifor sale of £rn{ou Paiifia Railroad andr/ri*cii7al,Ilaitroad_TickttJ.
Short Route to Black Hills
also opened a route to the Hills across the
sand hills of central Nebraska. Kearney soon
dropped out of the running, but Cheyenne kept
up for years, though Sidney held its own. Dr.
George L. Miller ran the Omaha Herald at the
time and made mention of the advantages of
Sidney : a spirited fighl followed in the columns
of the Cheyenne papers though it could not be
denied that Sidney was sixty miles nearer
od than Cheyenne. The Sidney Tele-
graph quoted extensively from the paper's under
of city government and a permanently platted
city engaged much attention, although gold was
the item of paramount interest to everyone. It
was not until May 1, 1877, that a plat of the
town was filed.
In 1876 and 1877, there arrived and departed
from Sidney about fifteen hundred people
daily in the rush to the Black Hills for gold.
People were going to and from the Black
Hills, except for a few who stopped in Sidney
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
169
a few days farther west, also itinerant gamblers
and the following of every gold rush.
Growth of Business
Business grew and was well represented in
Sidney in 1876 and 1877, but of the men then
engaged in retail trade only two merchants
remain in business today, namely : the Ober-
felder Brothers, clothiers. During the rush
through this section P. J. Cohn & Company,
ture store, Kelley & Cameron and G. H. and
J. S. Collins carried harness and saddles.
"Regular outfitting stores were owned by C. A.
Moore, R. S. Van Tassel and the Oberfelders.
At the latter the office of the Stevenson stage
line was maintained with an all night service.
The only jewelry store was owned by B. M. L.
Thoelecke ; C. E. Borquist was the pioneer
druggist of Sidney, establishing his store in
1871, and in 1876 C. F. Goodman opened the
second drug house.
MOORE' H'lTEL
cJLl
operated the Star Clothing House which for
a time rivalled the Oberfelder store. P. J.
Cohn was the original senior member. His
nephews operated the store. Louis and Mike
Cohn were cousins and Louis later became sole
owner. Mike sold his interest for $40,000, took
it to Chicago, and lost it. William France had
a hardware store here in 1876, and among the
grocers were Henry Gantz & Son, wholesale
merchants ; W. I. McDonald, G. W. Dudley and
H. T. Clarke. C. A. Morian and Dennis Car-
rigan each ran a combined dry goods and gro-
cery store while an exclusive dry goods house
was owned by Stevens & Wilcox and another
by A. S. Brown. Dewey & Stone ran a furni-
The first doctor to locate in Sidney who
served the town and a large part of Chey-
enne county, was Dr. Boggs, and Dr. J. G.
Ivy, physician and surgeon, came in the au-
tumn of 1876. The only dental office in the
town was run by the Urmy Brothers.
N. Grant and John Carrier were the first
men to run barber shops, the called "fashion-
able barbers," soon followed by J. H. Surles
and Charles M. Rouse.
Pratt and Ferris, well known as the "P F"
were the early freighters, doing an extensive
business in Cheyenne county and the Black
Hills, while G. W. Dudley advertised "Dear's
Stage Line to the Black Hills." The main
170
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
stage line was run by Stevenson and the Dears
line was not long in operation.
Half a dozen hotels and as many restaur-
ants were built and operated to accommodate
the rush of travelers, the best known being
the Lockwood House, the Germania, the Gilt
Edge, the Southern, the Delmonico, the Min-
ers, the American and H. M. McFadden's, not
one of which is in business today, having
passed with the transient life of that day. All
the men who operated them have gone but
Mr. McFadden who still maintains his home in
Sidney though retired from business. It should
be stated that H. M. McFadden advertised in
a way that stood out like an island in a tem-
pestuous sea. "No gambling tables connected
with this house."
In April, 1876, the only resident lawyers
in Sidney were George W. Heist and George
R Ballou, though by the spring of 1877 V.
Bierbower, A. M. Stevenson, Guy Barnum,
Jr., and Tom Kane were also established in
law practice.
Mail Route
In 1876, the United States established a
mail mute between Sidney, Nebraska, and
Greeley, Colorado. Sidney Probst was the
driver from 1876 to 1878, and his many ex-
periences of those early days are interesting
and instructive, telling of the life of the van-
guard of civilization. Probst died a few years
ago in Colorado. This route did not com-
pare in peril with that to the north on the
Black Hills' route, for that line ran through
hostile Indian country, and the stages were
lined with steel foi the protection of the pas-
sengers. Major North, with his Pawnee
scouts, and the Crows, with an hereditary en-
mity for the Sioux, were valuable assets to the
while in subduing the Indian troubles north
of the North I Made river.
Rivalry Between Towns
Kearney's ambition to compete with Sidney
and Cheyenne for the Black Hills' business
resulted in the establishment of a road, stage
line and pony express through the sand hills
north into Dakota. This line crossed the Nio-
brara river at the Newman ranch near the
mouth of Antelope creek. It was a longer and
Overland Mail on the "Old Trails" Route por
San Francisco
more dangerous line. Charles Fordyce, one
of the pony express riders, was killed by In-
dians a little north of that station.
In 1877, a white man who had been selling
or trying to sell trees in the Hills drove into
the Newman station. It was snowing and
the Newman outfit tried to persuade him to
stay until the storm was over but he pressed
on. Later appeared an advertisement asking
Pony Express and Overland Mail Of
Fort Kearney
the whereabouts of a tree man, saying last
seen on Cheyenne river traveling south. The
following spring Hunter & Evans outfit found
him. Fie had perished in the snow.
The Kearney route was given up about Janu-
ary, 1878, and the route through Sidney be-
came the main traveled one to the gold fields.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
171
Idians Attack Surveyors
Indians were hostile to all white advances,
especially to surveyors and when I. W. La-
Munyon was surveying on Pumpkin creek in
1872, a detachment of soldiers were sent to
guard the surveying party. There had been
no sign of Indians and one day the soldiers
rode out a considerable distance from the
surveyors at work and the camp. The Indians
then seemed to rise out of the prairie and the
surveyors "dug in" making a hole about eight
feet square into which they put the provisions
and water, then crawled in themselves. The
Indians circled about on ponies, swinging over
their sides and shooting under the animals
necks; but the soldiers heard the firing, re-
turned in haste, and the Indians fled. No one
was hurt although a number of Indian ponies
were shot by the surveyors.
First Newspapers
The Sidney Telegraph came into existence
in May, 1873, and in 1874 was published by
Joseph B. Gossage. George G. Darrow join-
ed the force in the spring of 1875. Darrow
later went to Denver and Gossage to the Black
Hills, and in 1920, was publishing the Journal
at Rapid City, South Dakota. The Telegraph
was not only the first newspaper published in
Cheyenne county, but first in the Nebraska
Panhandle.
Toll Bridge axd Death Toll
When Plenry T. Clarke decided to build a
toll bridge across the North Platte river at
"Camp Clarke," he sent a number of choppers
into the Pumpkin creek hills to cut suitable
logs for the piles and necessary timbers for
the bridge. It was dangerous work as is testi-
fied by the killing of a man named Brocklay,
and later Webber, in 1876, near the Tusler
ranch, by Indians. The bridge was built, how-
ever, and was used by the people passing north
and south.
CHAPTER II
SIDNEY'S WILDEST DAYS
Sidney had by this time become a boiling
caldron of humanity, some serious and hur-
ried, others serene, methodical and unruffled,
all with the one object, gold. The town was
wide open, and day and night business houses,
saloons, dance halls and theatres were thronged
with people. It has been claimed that Sidney
introduced to the world, the all-night theatre,
with continuous performances.
The Telegraph of 1876 refers to the float-
ing population as "freighters, teamsters, herd-
ers, 'cowboys,' Mexicans, half-breeds, gambl-
ers, and 'Nymphs du pave.' " The name "cow-
boy" was apparently just coming into use. In
subsequent years the term "herdsman" was
made to apply only to those who attended
flocks of sheep.
The character of Sidney's Wildest Days, be-
fore the vigilantes hung Reed, and partially
subdued the town, was such that the Union
Pacific railroad issued orders refusing to al-
low through passengers to get off their trains
at the station. This came as a result of com-
plaints of tourists, who were held up or mis-
treated on the station platform. The men com-
mitting these offenses were "Three-finger
Jack," "Hold-'em-up Johnny" and others of
their kind. Jack made a tactical blunder in
a storm and held up a citizen of the town, fol-
lowing which he and some of the worst citi-
zens "dusted," as a result of public sentiment.
A number of incidents, some tragic, and
others nearly so, and some of boisterous hum-
or, are here chronicled, which indicate the life
of the time and place with historic accuracy.
"Squire" Newman's Narrow Kscape
All kinds of life had its zest because of the
danger involved. Henry Newman had been
elected Justice of the Peace, and thereby was
called "Squire" or "Jedge" as occasion prompt-
ed, but that is not the story.
There were several men engaged in the
work of capturing wild horses, and breaking
them for domestic uses. Murshied and Pa-
shon, two of the old-timers, had roped a wild
horse near Callahan & Murshied's ranch, and
had him in a corral. A number were looking
him over, this being an especially fine animal,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
but of the fighting kind. Newman was nearby
in the corral on a horse when the wild animal
attacked him, knocking horse and rider down.
It then reared, and was on the point of setting
his forefeet down on the prostrate man and
stamping him to death, when R. S. Van Tassell
seized the rope which was trailing from the
wild horse's neck, and '"set on it," swerving it
from its objective by a few feet. Quick ac-
tion saved a tragedy.
The Schaefer Massacre
One of the tragedies of the period occurred
in 1878. The Schaefer family came from
Plattsmouth and went to work at Tusler's
ranch. The man was employed as cook at
the mess house, while the family resided in
\\ Old "Prairie Schooner"
an independent house near the other ranch
building. When Lone Wolf's band went on
a rampage, part of them journeyed near here.
The incorrigible Sioux passed on, but when
they passed this man, his wife, and three chil-
dren were no more.
Three Die at a Dance
About the time of Sidney's last lynching
episode, that of McDonald'in 1881.' fright-
ful orgies were common at a road house some
dist iiiii' north of town, at one of the spring
creeks leading down to the Platte river. One
night, a dance and carouse was going full
'•win- when a soldier accidentally shot himself
dead. The others deposited the body in a
corner of the room and ordered the music to
proceed. After a time a fellow named Jack
Page and another had a little altercation, Jack's
adversary, dead, was placed into the corner
villi the soldier, and the dance went wildly on.
Later in the night a third man was killed,
and ibis broke up the dance. The lights were
shol -in Daylight found some sleeping off
their drunken stupor and others gone. The
three dead were taken to Boot Hill Graveyard.
Killing of Wild Bill
Forty hours after the killing of Wild Bill
(W. J. Hickok) by John McCall, at Dead-
wood, which event occurred in a gambling
joint, August 2, 1876, the news reached Sid-
ney. It created a profound sensation that a
thoroughly established king of gunmen should
be taken off by a mere kid.
A hastily selected jury heard the boy's story
that Wild Bill had killed his brother in Kansas
the year before. He was found "not guilty,"
according to the code of the times, but was
told to get out of the Black Hills. Before the
event, Wild Bill had heard that a kid was
looking for him, and he had said, "a kid look-
ing for me, is the only kind I am afraid of : he
may get me."
A Yellow Affair
Appearing in the Telegraph of August 4,
1S77, was the following notice, affording a
basis for some range of the imagination:
"Calamity Jane No. 2 has arrived from
the Black Hills. She received promotion on
the road as assistant wagon boss. She be-
came so powerful as to lead to the discharge of
a number of hands. She has now gone west
with a bull-whacker to learn the trade. Her
husband is not a violent mourner. She is a
stubby customer, American, and cus-sed. If
she has any conscience, she took it with her,
and if she had any virtue, her husband didn't
know it. Her child is now in good hands, and
the painter is happy.
Evidently the painter was unhappy, and took
an unkindly departing shot at his neglectful
spouse. According to codes then prevalent,
either the Black Hills wagon boss or the
painter would have tarried permanently some-
where beside the Trail. One or the other failed
to measure up to the standard required by the
red-blooded men of the period. True, it was
probably better thus, for none of them was
the worse, and the "child is now in good
hands." which is an objective worthy a tem-
pi irary humanity.
The Pinkston Murder
James and A. J. Pinkston, father and son,
located on Middle creek in 1885, and em-
ployed a man named Reynolds to help build
a log house. They lived in a tent meanwhile,
and cooked and ate their meals in the open,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
having an improvised table in front of the
tent.
On the night of September 16, from the
story toldy over a very trifling affair, the
Pinkstons were killed and Reynolds later hung.
According to Reynold's story it started at
the supper table over a difference of five dol-
lars in wages, whether the amount due was
seven dollars or twelve dollars. He said the
Pinkstons attacked him with clubs and he
used the axe in self defense.
His first story, however, told at Trognitz
barn, which then occupied the present site of
tht U. S. A. Theatre at Sidney, was that a
stranger came along, and killed the Pinkstons
in a fight, and had compelled him to help
bury them. This story not being satisfactory
to the officers, he was arrested, and later con-
fessed.
Of the numerous hangings in Cheyenne-
county, this was conspicuously the only legal
execution within its borders.
An Imaginary Calf
It must not be understood that the recita-
tion of these gruesome and sorrowful events
indicates all the early history of Sidney and
Cheyenne county were of such color. There
were lively affairs that possessed only suffi-
cient danger to quicken the pulses, and a modi-
cum of humor to justify the hazard.
There were attempts by swindlers and
crooks that sometimes went well, but generally
ended in disaster.
There were "Happy Jacks," carefree as the
western wind, always with ingenious methods
evolved of necessity, when an unlucky chance
stripped them of all they possessed. Never
discouraged by adverse circumstances, for the
darkness of the night meant to them the sun
was soon to rise. "Whitie" was one of these
genial souls.
"Whitie" had a run of luck that put him
"down upon his uppers," and conceived a
scheme for a moderate stake. He invented a
calf and valued it at ten dollars. He told
three companies he had such a calf, and if they
would give him two and a half dollars each,
he would sit in a game of "freezeout" to see
who should own the calf. They "fell for it,"
and a local man won. Then it was played for
again and another won. A dozen times that
night the imaginary calf changed hands. This
calf was introduced into Sidney in 1876 ; in
1879 men were still playing for it, always at
a value of ten dollars ; and no one ever saw
the calf.
The Lockwood House Gang
Dropping off of the Black Hills travel, due
to railroad extension, emptied some of the
hotels in Sidney, the Lockwood House being
one. This was rented to Wm. Godfrey, his wife
and another man. They were a trio of crude
swindlers with a unique scheme. They selected
the names of several hundred people in all parts
of the United States, and wrote letters on
"Lockwood House" stationery, of similar im-
port to each. These were to the effect that
someone had died in the hotel owing a little
bill. Upon examination of his effects they were
led to the opinion that the deceased was a rela-
tive of the one addressed, that the deceased had
left some personal effects ranging in value from
six hundred to one thousand dollars, and con-
sisting of bank deposit slips, diamond rings
and watches.
The letter continued that the hotel had given
the body a decent burial, which cost with
the hotel bill, care, and the like, amounted to
one hundred, eight dollars or an approxi-
mate sum. If the addressed cared to send
this amount, the effects would be sent to them ;
otherwise they would be sold to pay the bill.
They reasoned that the recipients of the let-
ters would send the money to get the goods,
even though not expecting any legacy, and
not having any relation, who would likely be
in Sidney to die. They were not mistaken in
the weakness of their fellow men. The money
came by check, draft and money order.
After they had accumulated about forty
thousand dollars. Postmaster Fred Clary be-
came suspicious and reported the facts so far
as he knew them to the Federal authorities. The
trio were arrested, and Judge Dundy sentenced
them to Federal prison. The woman broke
down and died in Sidney Jail, the others being
taken to Leavenworth.
Clary, who came to Sidney as a telegraph
operator, served a term as postmaster and then
returned to the Western LInion. He is now
general superintendent of the eastern district.
A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Reverend Benton, a Methodist minister, came
to Kimball about 1890, and satisfied people
there and at Sidney with his credentials.
Shortly after the Morgan & Johnson bank
blew up and Morgan committed suicide, Benton
tried to cash an eight thousand dollar draft at
Cheyenne. He wanted three thousand cash im-
mediately, and would leave the other five thou-
sand on deposit. There was little cash available
174
HISTORY < >F WESTERN NEBRASKA
and the bank did not accept the proffer. Henry
St. Rayner and Mr. Donaldson, were at Chey-
enne at the time, and when they returned to
Sidney, told the local bankers of "the preacher
with the eight thousand dollar draft." As ex-
pected, Benton came to Sidney, this time willing
to take two thousand dollars in cash.
L. W. Bickel, banker at Kimball, had loaned
Benton twenty-five dollars, and said he guessed
he had "kissed it good by," when he learned
that Benton was peddling a big draft. He told
Officer Trognitz to get the twenty-five if he
could.
Benton was stopping with a Methodist
brother named Whitney, although leaving his
bag at a hotel. Trognitz got a warrant and
searched the bag, finding it contained old
clothes, a characteristic tramp's outfit. Then
he arrested Benton at the Whitney home. The
good people could hardly believe Benton was
really a bad character. However, Trognitz
found four of the Bickel five dollar bills in the
end of his spectacle case, and some silver in
his pockets.
The papers headlined a story of "cowboy
Sheriff arrests a preacher." Two days later
Cashier Stone of Sioux City Savings Bank, ar-
rived and identified Benton, as a swindler
named Simpson. His method was to get part
cash on a large draft, drop his c!ergyman"s at-
tire, and don the garb of a tramp until well
out of the community. He was also wanted at
Central City. Sheriff Trognitz received one
thousand dollars reward.
First Celebration of the Fourth
The first Fourth of July celebration held at
Sidney in 1877, was at the same time the first
event of the kind held in the Panhandle of Ne-
braska. An extensive and interesting story of
this affair, which lacked the hampering espio-
nage customary in older communities, is told
by the Sidney Telegraph of July 7, 1877.
American humor was a part and parcel of the
young west, as evidenced by high lights of the
narrative.
"The National salute of one hundred and
one guns was fired by Sidney's battery at sun-
rise. Let it be stated, for once, that more than
a hundred shots were fired in Sidney without
in a< ' ident."
"Fitzpatrick was ruled out of the greased-
pole climbing contest because of his great
length. He was too near the top of the "pole
:ii the start."
"C K. Allen came within an ace of plucking
immon, but just as he was reaching
for the nugget, when as luck would have it,
some buttons attaching his suspenders to his
trousers in the rear, gave way, and Mr. Allen
retired as gracefully as the circumstances
would permit."
"Smithy played a 'stopless' organ, and for
aught we know he is playing it still."
There was a greased pig, cortests of all
sorts, and a race between "bulls" and "mules"
attached to freight wagons. "A lot of money
changed hands on this affair, for the 'bulls'
won by ten feet."
The Affair at Zobel's
In 1877, John Zobel ran a restaurant with a
bar on the west side of Rose street. It was
typical of the time and usually full of custom-
ers.
A friend of the Oberfelders from New York
had come to Sidney, and Bob, while showing
him around, dropped in Zobel's place. At one
table sat three distinguished characters ; Hank
Clifford, from the Stage station on the Nio-
brara river ; Ben Tibbets, beef killer and squaw-
man from Red Cloud agency, and "Arkansas
John" Wyseckler. Their bibulous feast had
reached a stage of mellowness where they were
shampooing one another with tomato ketchup.
One of them reached for the pepper sauce bot-
tle, and Bob and his guest "beat it."
One of the celebrating three let out a yell
like a Sioux Indian, and the shooting began.
When the smoke cleared, all the lights were
out of commission, and the front of the build-
ing was a total wreck. No one was killed.
Cattle Rustlers
In the few years of change, where ranges
gave way to grangers, cattle rustling became
common. Early in this period, Doc Middleton
committed the offense of killing two dissolute
soldiers, and thereby became an outlaw. Con-
temporaneously others made it a business, us-
ing the settler as a "Smoke screen." As often
as possible they made the granger an accom-
plice, giving him meat for domestic needs,
which needs were frequently sufficient. Occa-
sionally cowboys and near cowboys became cat-
tle detectives, and sometimes outside detectives
were empolyed.
Jack Crittendon's services were presumed to
be on the side of cattlemen, but he evidently
"played both ends." When Tom Kane was
preparing some cases against offenders of
cowmen's ethics, Jack became alarmed that he
might not be on the winning side. He sought
Kane to give assurance of his dependability.
Kane was busy making out some papers and
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
told Jack to wait, but being nervous and ex-
cited he would occasionally interrupt with "I
can swear to" this or that. Kane told him to
wait "until 1 finish this," and he continued,
"then 1 will tell you what you have got to
swear to." A faithful chronicle of the event
is that Jack waited.
The people on lower Pumpkin creek were
disturbed during this period by the arrest of
Lee Nunn by Detective Talbert. Talbert ap-
parently decided to join in homing making, and
as brought out at Nunn's trial, he made the
suggestion and induced Nunn to' join him in
killing a range beef. There was no dispute as
to fact, but the question of the value would
settle the sentence, whether a fine or the peni-
tentiary. Talbert was the expert witness for
the cattlemen who wanted the accused "sent
over the road." Judge Isaac Woolf, tangled
the detective's testimony, who in fact, was not
an expert, but Woolf was. To the general sat-
isfaction of grangers, Nunn was released.
Bonanza Days
The bonanza days and big profits in Sidney
occurred during the Black Hills rush. Then
Colt's revolvers sold for forty dollars and
everything else in proportion. Freighters who
figured loads at two tons per mule or ox, cursed
picks and shovels as "bulky freight." There
was not room on a wagon to put the customary
ten tons. Two wagons trailing behind ten
mules were supposed to carry twenty tons — two
tons to the mule.
Back to Normal
The lean years of the early nineties, broke
many cattlemen, and the grangers were "not
yet upon their feet." Intense privation and
heart-aches covered the broad acres of Chey-
enne county. The prices of merchandise drop-
ped very low in Sidney and elsewhere. Bril-
liant financiers and politicians call it back to
normal, and helpless mortals echo the apology
for the crime of financial depression, from time
to time.
The New Order
Raising of wheat has changed the business
of the county which has been settled by far-
mers and small ranchers and Cheyenne county
is today one of the productive areas of the
state.
Sidney now has twenty-eight wholesale dis-
tribution branches of farm machinery and the
like. The city also contains some hundred and
twenty-five business houses which handle all
kinds of merchandise, including the stocks of
autos, trucks, tractors, and all sorts of imple-
ments required by the farmer. Her stone quar-
ries and gravel pits have been used extensively
in local building and these products are shipped
into other parts of the state. While wheat and
cattle stand out as the great resources of Chey-
enne county, her other agricultural products
are many and valuable.
At the present time interest is taken in the
Lodgepole valley in oil and natural gas. A de-
formation, or structure points to oil land, and
an old surveyor's report shows oil seeps east of
Sidney but up to the present no well has been
brought in.
United States Land Office
The United States Land Office was estab-
lished in Sidney in July, 1887, with the first
officers as follows: John M. Adams, register
and G. B. Blakely, receiver ; G. B. Blanchard,
register and L. M. Neeves, receiver, succeeded
them. They in turn were succeeded by John
M. Adams, register and P. G. Griffith, receiver ;
George W. Heist, register and R. D. Harris,
receiver. Judge Heist died in office after which
R. D. Harris was made register with Matt
Daugherty receiver. R. D. Harris was reap-
pointed register and J. L. Mcintosh receiver,
following which these two officials reversed po-
sitions which they held until the office was
abandoned in March, 1906.
176
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER III
ORGANIZATION OF CHEYENNE COUNTY
Before Cheyenne county came into existence,
the western part of Nebraska was divided by
an arbitrary act into counties. Two of these,
Lyons and Taylor counties, and a part of Mon-
roe county comprised the territory which in
1867, was made into Cheyenne county. These
counties had no organization and no govern-
ment was needed. Between 1867 and 1870,
Cheyenne county was attached to Lincoln coun-
ty for all revenue, administrative and judicial
purposes. In 1870, Thomas Kane went to Lin-
coln, the state capital, to prevail upon Governor
David Butler, to call an election for choosing
officers for Cheyenne county, which was done
by a proclamation in August, 1870. The fol-
lowing officers were chosen: Thomas Kane,
treasurer; John Ellis, sheriff; C. A. Moore,
Fred Glover, and H. L. Ellsworth, commis-
sioners, and H. A. Dygart, clerk. The latter
served but a short time and D. A. Martin was
appointed to succeed him. October 8, 1871,
occurred the first regular general election in
the county when the following officials were
elected: "George W. Heist, probate judge;
George C. Cooke, sheriff; L. Connell, clerk;
James H. Moore, treasurer; D. Cowigan, com-
missioner, but he resigned. George Cooke was
removed and John Ellis was appointed in his
place. George Heist refused to qualify but
was later appointed and did qualify. James
Moore's bond was not acceptable and Thomas
Kane was appointed and qualified. The com-
missioners elected were : Henry Newman and
Joseph Cleburne. The coroner was P. Bailey,
who refused to qualify. The superintendent of
schools was George R. Ballou ; county survey-
or, John Griffin, who refused to qualify; while
the justices of the peace were Thomas Kane
and Frederick Glover.
The early records of the county are very
meagre. Some of the early officers performed
very little service. Salaries were small, some
officers serving without any recompense. The
offices were not as attractive as they are now
and not sought. A list of the officers of the
county down to 1918, follows: 1872, the com-
missioners were Henry Newman, and Joseph
Cleburne; Judge, G. W. Heist; sheriff, J. J.
Ellis; coroner. P, Bailey (refused to qualify) ;
treasurer, Thomas Kane; superintendent of
schools, George R. Ballou; surveyor, John
Griffin i refused to qualify): Justice of the
Peace, Thomas Kane and Frederick Glover.
] time the Cheyenne county judges
have been as follows : D. Carrigan, George
Darrow, C. D. Essig, Julius Neubauer, A.
Pease, Robert Shuman, Leroy Martin, F. H.
DeCastro, A. A. Ricker, M. J. Saunders, James
Tucker, Henry E. Gapen and C. P. Chambers.
Succeeding Moore, Glover, Ellsworth, New-
man and Cleburne, commissioners serving have
been as follows : J. J. Mcintosh, H. V. Red-
ington, James Callahan, Henry Newman, R. S.
Van Tassel, Henry Tusler, J. F. Simpson, A.
J. Walrath, Henry Snyder, J. W. Haas, T. H.
Lawrence, Moritz Urbach, John Snodgrass, J.
B. Stetson, August Newman, Frank L. Smith,
Morris Davis, P. C. Johnson, A. H. Frame, E.
S. Crigler, J. W. Vanderhoof, A. W. Atkins,
W. R. Wood, J. W. Harper, Frank A. Rowan,
Fred Lindburg, Robert Emanuelson, W. C.
Dugger, Jerome B. Haiston, Louis R. Bareaw,
J. B. Haiston, Lewis Brott, L. R. Barlow,
Frank X. Rihn, N. H. Troelstoup, W'illiam
Codings and J. L. Reed.
County Treasurers
A complete roster of the county officers has
been hard to obtain. Some of the offices have
been created since the organization of the
county but the persons who have been trusted
with the public funds are as follows : Thomas
Kane. Henry Snyder, C. K. Allen, Carl E.
Borgquist, James Sutherland. C. D. Essig,
Adam Ickes, James L. Mcintosh, A. Pease,
Fred Lehmkuhl, A. K. Greenlee, J. S. Hagerty,
W. R. Wood, Simon Fishman, Mabel Lan-
caster. The latter is the first woman to occu-
py this important position, and regrets have
been expressed that her efficiency cannot be
rewarded by more than two terms under the
statute.
County Clerks
II. A. Dygart was the first clerk to serve in
the county, being named by the governor's
proclamation in August, 1870. He has been
followed by L. Connell, C. K. Allen, J. J.
Mcintosh, L. B. Cary. Dan McAleese. C. J.
Osborn, William C. Bullock, Tames Burns,
Robert E. Barrett, Henry T. Doran, F. N.
Slawson, who splendidly assisted in the com-
pilation of this data.
G irxrv Superintendents
The office of superintendent of public in-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
177
struction dates from the organization of the
county and first election October 8, 1872. The
first superintendent was George R. Ballou, be-
ing succeeded in September, 1874, by I_. Jen-
kins, then in 1875, by L. H. Bordwell. Since
that time the following men have filled that
office: Daniel Hirlihy, E. M. Day, Joseph
Oberfelder, Leslie Stevens, Mrs. Julia Shelton,
Mrs. E. O. Lee, Mattie McGee, C. P. Cham-
bers, Otis D. Lyon, Mrs. A. B. Knox, Minnie
E. Chase, William Ritchie, Jr., Edith H. Mor-
rison, and Anna McFadden. The records of
the superintendent's office, and Mrs. McFadden
assisted excellently in this work.
Other County Officers
J. J. Ellis was the first sheriff of Cheyenne
county ; he was first appointed, then elected
October 8, 1872, being followed in office by C.
McCarty, John Zweilfel, F. R. Curran, Robert
(Xn Court, Sheriff's Residence
C. Howard, S. O. Fowler. W. T. Eubank,
Charles Trognitz, John Daugherty. Daniel Mc-
Aleese, Frank King, S. H. Babb, J. W. Lee, J.
W. McDaniel, Adam D. Waggy, and then J.
W. McDaniel, the present incumbent, returned
to duty.
In 1873, precincts for the first time took on
importance and elected officers and from this
time have continued to elect the necessary offi-
cers from time to time.
The first county surveyor was elected in
1872, being John Griffin who refused to qual-
ify; Joseph Callihan was elected in 1873, and
refused to qualify, since which time the sur-
veyors elected have served. The first coroner
was P. Bailey, who refused to qualify and was
followed the next year by George Williams who
also refused to qualify, but since that time the
men elected have generally served.
In 1881. occurs the first mention of a county
attorney, when V. Bierbower's name is given
at the returns of the November elections. He
has been followed by W. C. Reilly, E. O. Lee,
William P. Miles, Henry Gapen, Mark Span-
ogle, Henry Gapen, Lerov Martin, Robert W.
Devoe, C. S. Radcliffe.
Judicial
William Gaslin, Jr., was the first district
judge to sit in Sidney and Cheyenne county,
and was the man who made much of western
Nebraska bow to the law. He served from
1876 to 1880. Samuel Savage next sat upon
the bench but his were not the years of stress
that preceded or followed as he held office
from 1880 to 1884.
From 1884 to 1888, Francis G. Hamer, after-
wards a member of the Nebraska supreme
court, served in this district. His record is
written in the hearts of the people whose homes
he saved by delay of process of law in the in-
terests of justice. In the end everyone was
served well.
From 1888 to 1892, A. H. Church was the
judge presiding in the western end of the tenth
district of Nebraska. Conditions in this sec-
tion of the state were changing and he had dif-
ficulty in meeting the many new demands.
William Neville, one of the best and most
able judges that ever sat on a bench, presided
over the destinies of Cheyenne county and
those counties afterward carved from old Chey-
enne, from 1892 to 1896. He then went to
Congress.
For fifteen years H. M. Grimes sat in this
district, which was divided about ten years ago.
By the creation of the new district, R. W.
Hobart was appointed and took over the
northern counties that had been carved from
Cheyenne. Judge Grimes still presides when
court meets in Cheyenne, Deuel, or Kimball
counties. He starts now upon his twenty-fifth
year as judge of the district in which Cheyenne
county is located, which is evidence of a satis-
fied people.
From 1868 to 1885, the statutes provided for
the election of district attorneys. During those
years one name stands alone to the credit of
the Panhandle of Nebraska, that of Vic Bier-
bower, of Sidney, who was elected in 1S80 and
served one term.
Cheyenne County Court House No. 1
The present Cheyenne County Court House,
is of Doric simplicity and is a constant source
of pleasure to the eye and satisfaction to
the people. It is a little more than a decade
old, as $50,000 worth of bonds were voted for
the erection of a court house March 21, 1911.
On April 15, of the same year the contract
178
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
for the new structure was let to C. F. Good-
hand of Ord.
The 'building is sixty by eighty-four feet,
exclusive of the portico and is built of white
stone. The interior is finished in oak where
wood is used and the walls are natural sand
finish. The main entrance and rotunda are
tiled. The stairway is of steel and slate with
banisters of steel and brass. There are three
full stories including the basement which is
light and airy and contains the jail, the fur-
nace room, and two convenient rest rooms for
the public.
eel with it is an office for the judge. On this
floor are jury rooms, counsel chambers and the
caretaker's apartments. The old county build-
ings were sold and wrecked when the new court
house was placed in use so the grounds today
are beautifully laid out in lawns, making the
court house yard a real park for Sidney.
Section Homestead Bill Goes Into Effect
As a result of the Congressional measure
known as the Section Homestead Bill, passed
in 1S94, more than two million acres of land
were thrown open to homesteaders under pro-
vision by which an entryman was entitled to
ClIEYF.XXK Coixty Court House. Sir
The rest room in the northwest corner of
the basement, maintained by the Women's
Club, is cozy, comfortable and convenient and
is free to all the women of the county. The
rest room for men practically duplicates this.
A fine heating plant is in the basement so that
every part of the building is well heated and
also well lighted with electricity. All the
county offices an- located on the first floor and
are equipped with every convenience includ-
ing vaults for the records and county treas-
urer's papers. The offices include those of
thi il-il. superintendent, assessor, commiss-
ioners, surveyor and county judge, which
includes an office and court room. The third
floor or second story houses the district court
ii h i- large and convenient. Connect-
six hundred and forty acres, and to such home-
steaders under the old law, who had vacant
lands adjoining, they could increase their acre-
age to a section. A thirty day preference was
allowed in which to make filing. All the rest
was open to the entrymen first coming. This
caused a land rush into western Nebraska as
hundreds of people wanted to make entries un-
der the new law, Sidney displayed considerable
activity some days prior to June 28, when the
homestead law took effect. Many new set-
tlers thus came into Cheyenne county who be-
came permanent residents and aided in the
further settlement of this section. The en-
larged homestead was first introduced by Con-
gressman Wm. Neville for two sections, the
fruitful suggestion of Judge Homer Sullivan
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
179
of Broken Bow. Congressman M. P. Kincaid,
followed and reduced the acreage to one sec-
tion. The law was then confined to Nebraska,
but now includes all the western states.
Cheyenne; County Schools
District No. 1, was organized in 1871, with
C. E. Borgquist, moderator; D. Carrigan, di-
rector, and Joseph Cleburne, treasurer. It
included Cheyenne county as it then existed,
and unorganized Sioux county which then
extended eastward to the present line of Holt
county. In a period of less than fifty years
twenty-three counties have been formed in this
first school district, which originally included
all northwestern Nebraska.
The first teacher in this district was Irene
Sherwood, who taught the school of twelve
pupils at her home in Sidney, during the win-
ter of 1871-1872. Ten years later there
were four school districts in all this territory,
located at Sidney, Big Springs, Antelopeville
(now Kimball) and Lodgepole. Sidney re-
ported one hundred and fifty pupils with a
two room school. J. M. Brenton was prin-
cipal and Mrs. N. L. Shelton, assistant.
By 1884, nine districts lined the Union Pa-
cific Railroad from Big Springs to Cheyenne
and one district had been created in the still
unorganized territory of Sioux county, near
Fort Robinson on White river. Miss Mary
Delahunty was the teacher, and Daniel Klein,
director. The next year two more districts
were organized in Cheyenne county ; one on
Pumpkin creek and the other on the North
Platte river. Districts Nos. 2 and 3 were organ-
ized in Sioux county with John Tucker and
W. V. Pennington directors of the two dis-
tricts, in the order named.
There seems to have been no county super-
intendent in Cheyenne county until January,
1871, when George Ballou assumed the duties
of that office. He was the first county super-
intendent of a territory covering nearly a
third of the state. On the first Saturday in
February, 1873, he held the first teacher's ex-
amination at which Rose C. Michael and Mrs.
L. M. Ballou were the only applicants and
were granted certificates numbered one and
two. School moneys available were appro-
priated for the use of district No. 1, there
being only the one district. The board of di-
rectors then consisted of Thomas Kane,
George W. Heist and John Ellis.
L. Jenkins, the second superintendent, was
elected September 1, 1874. and granted a sec-
cond grade certificate to Miss Mollie A. Press-
ley, for one year. All moneys again went to
the first district. On September 14, 1875, a
second grade certificate was granted to Miss
Delia A. Sharpless, and district No. 1 had all
the school funds. February 19, 1878, County
Superintendent L. H. Bordwell created dis-
trict No. 2, at Big Springs and sent notice of
its organization to John McCann. Election
was held February 26, 1878, to elect school
officers who were as follows : G. W. Banhart.
moderator; R. A. J. Walrath, director; a man
named Green was treasurer, but the district
was abandoned as no school was held. On
August 4, 1879. a petition for reorganization
of district No. 2, was filed and asked that the
following officers be named : R. J. Coerdon,
moderator; E. W. Ormsby, director; A. J.
Walrath, treasurer. No. 2 district was cre-
ated by E. M. Day, superintendent, who had
been appointed to fill a vacancy July 8, 1879.
District No. 3. at Antelopeville, now Kim-
ball, was created August 8, 1879, with J. J.
Kinney, moderator; John J. Mcintosh, direc-
tor and William Gaw, treasurer. There was
a contest of "School" and "No School," and it
would seem that the "No School" faction had
the best of it and had its board appointed.
The first election overturned this and, in 1S80,
Thomas B. Evans, to which "taxable inhabi-
tant" the notice of the district's organization
had been sent, and James Lynch and Walter
Derrig were elected members of the school
board.
The first school was held in a building made
of railroad ties set on end, and had a dirt
roof and dirt floor. Soon afterward a frame
building was bought ; it had formerly been
used by J. J. Mcintosh as a saloon. This
served until the school grew and required more
room and better quarters, which were pro-
vided. The old frame structure was sold to
the Swedish Lutheran church and in 1920, was
still used for church purposes though remodel-
ed and with additions.
District No. 4, was organized at Lodgepole,
August 19, 1879, by E. M. Day. county super-
intendent. H. Barrett, was moderator ; A. C.
Drake, director ; and James Green, treasurer.
S. V. Livingston became county superin-
tepdent in 1880, and no new districts were
formed while he was in office. Only six cer-
tificates were issued during his term.
Jos. Oberfelder was then elected superinten-
dent, and assumed office in 1882. Eleven cer-
tificates were issued by him, and district No.
5, at Potter, came into existence September S,
1883, when John O'Leary was selected as mod-
erator ; James Evans, director ; and Adam Gun-
derson, treasurer.
Leslie Stevens, who served as superintendent
180
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
after 1884, discontinued the record of ser-
tificates issued, except for the entry of the
number, names and address.
District No. 6, at Bushnell, was organized
September 26, 1884. with A. Tracy, Walter
Derrig and S. A. Pierce the members of the
board. .March 7, 1885. district No. 7, was
formed at Chappell, with Messrs. Johnson,
Newman and McLoskey making up the board.
Districts Nos. 8 and 9, were "formed on the
railroad at Bronson and Colton. District No.
10, the first organized away from the railroad,
in Cheyenne county, was on Pumpkin creek
at the old Wright ranch, while Leslie Stevens
was superintendent. It came into existence in
March, 1885, and the district comprised prac-
tically all the territory now embraced in Ban-
ner county, and all south of the North Platte
river in the present Scotts Bluff county. The
taxable property consisted of some railroad
land and ranch cattle.
Lora Sirpless was the first teacher; Tohn
Wright was director, and. in 1887 L. D. Living-
ston and Hugh Milhollin became members of
the board. A local contest appeared here, and
the following years Mrs. Ellen Streeks. S. B.
Shumway and Jacob Keleton were elected to
the school board. The first school house in
the district was made of logs with dirt floor
and roof, but. in 1887. a frame building about
sixteen by tweney-four feet was erected and
Clara Shumway was selected teacher in 1888.
Camp Clark district, No. 11, was organized
the same month as district 10, being the sec-
ond away from the railroad. After this
schools were organized thick and fast as the
county was settling up and by the autumn of
1888 there were a hundred and thirty-two dis-
tricts in Cheyenne county. Julia Shelton was
superintendent during this period of expansion.
I he first district organized and holding school
in the present Scotts Bluff county was at Ta-
bor, now Minatare. in August, 1886. Basil
Decker, Theodore Harshman and Wellington
Clark constituted the board. Horseshoe Bend
had the first school in the North Platte val-
ley. It was held in an old claim shack, with
Gertrude Ashford as teacher. The district
was organized March 7. 1886, with George
Williams as director. Cheyenne county has
since been divided and retains only a small part
oi it- original territory but the schools have
maintained a high standard of efficiency in
tional work.
'I'l'<- firsl school in unorganized territory
later Sioux county, and now Sheridan county
Wished by fas. i Iberfelder in 1882 It
was located near Fori Robinson and Red Cloud
Agency, and all the pupils NVL > re h a ]f i, reed
Indians. There were forty-two of them, prin-
cipally the children of Sioux women and white
"squaw" men. We are told that the famous
chief Red Cloud had descendants in this school.
The children of Nick Janis and his Crow In-
dian wife were among them. Mary Dela-
hunty was the courageous teacher to go into
this wilderness to teach.
New High School, Sidney
Cheyenne county as it now exists has sev-
enty districts, which include several that are
partly in Cheyenne, and partly in adjoining
counties. According to the school census of
1920, there are two thousand seven hundred
and forty-eight pupils in the county, ranging
in age from five to twenty-one years. There
are four accredited city and town high schools
as follows. Sidney, with twenty-three teach-
ers ; Lodgepole, with nine ; Potter, with seven ;
and 'Dalton with seven. There are consoli-
dated schools at Sunol and Gurley, the first
having five teachers and twelve grades, while
Gurley has seven teachers and eleven grades.
The rural schools, sixty-five in number do,
not seem to be following the extreme consoli-
dation plans of some other counties, it being
the general opinion in Cheyenne county that
schools of two or three rooms and a teacher's
cottage are best. That teaching well all sub-
jects up to the eighth and tenth grades meets
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the most demands with highest efficiency and
economy in administration.
There are four parochial schools in the coun-
ty : The Catholic Academy at Sidney, and
three others which are Lutheran : one at Sid-
ney, one south of Sidney and the third at
Gurley. Each of these three has but one
teacher. There has been some friction to get
them to qualify under the Simon law but not
as much as in other counties. The main diffi-
culty has been to get these schools to supply
the required text books. Miss Anna McFad-
den is the present superintendent of Chey-
enne county, and takes much interest in her
work.
Municipal Enterprises
Sidney possesses as good and cheap a water
system as can be found in the state. The water
is obtained from a well on the north side.
This well goes down to second water and
never lowers a foot. Its quality is of the pur-
est. It is pumped to the reservoir on the hill
and from there distributed to the town by a
fall of a hundred and twenty feet. The reser-
voir will hold a hundred and twenty-five thou-
sand gallons. The system is owned by the
city and was put in at a cost of $25,500. Con-
sumers get a water rate that is very reasonable.
A sewer system has been a badly needed in-
novation and has improved sanitary conditions.
This is also owned by the town. The lighting,
heating and power plant, known as the Sidney
Birdseye View, Sidney
Electric Service Company, is maintained as
a private enterprise and its functions are as
indicated. The entire town receives the light
and power if desiring to and the business sec-
tion is furnished heat also. The service is ex-
cellent in each branch. Rose street is lighted
by electroliers.
This plant has a contract for pumping the
city water and furnishes lights for the rail-
road yards and shops and power for the turn
table. The Nebraska Telephone Company is
located in the Cleburne Block and enjoys a
large patronage. More than four hundred sub-
scribers are served and have connections with
about any place in the world. Four girls are
busy throughout the twenty- four hours.
Sidney has more than sixteen miles of ce-
ment sidewalks, much of it twelve feet wide.
These lead to all the better portions of the town
town and take the pedestrian past houses that
are a credit to any city.
Fire protection is as yet quite adequate with
two volunteer fire companies, the Citizens and
the Railroad Boys. Fire plugs are placed at
frequent intervals over the town, the water
supply is unlimited and the pressure great.
The town has been remarkably free from fires
and to the rare cases the firemen have given
the highest degree of service. They are with-
out a suitable home and in conjunction with
the Village Board are planning to build a city
hall with a fire department. They already have
a considerable fund toward that end.
Railroad Importance
As has been stated Sidney has railroads, the
Burlington lying north and south and the
Union Pacific traversing her length east and
west. The; Burlington has four passenger
trains a day and two local freight carrying pass-
engers. The U. P. has a division at this point
and employs upward of three hundred men.
The payroll for the current months has amount-
ed monthly to $15,000. The round house, car
department and coal heavers received $5,800,
monthly, while the roadmaster's office and the
five sections within the county total $2,0^7.07.
There are thirteen passenger trains on this
road each day and at this point two local
freights carrying passengers. An attractive
depot of stone, steam-heated and with every
convenience for travelers, is so exquisitely
kept that strangers are often heard to remark
182
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
upon its unusual neatness. The windows look
out upon a pretty and well-kept park.
In truth, the whole of the railroad property
is so orderly and neat that the house-keepers
could learn lessons by inspection of the build-
ings and yards, where conditions are so ad-
verse to neatness. It will be readily understood
that the Union Pacific railroad is a large part
of Sidney.
First Irrigation in Western Nebraska
The first irrigation in western Nebraska was
in the Lodgepole valley, and was practiced by
the soldiers under the command of General
Dudley of Sidney in 1871. A dam was built
across the creek and the waters thus impounded
were used to irrigate the tracts of land alloted
to the companies. Rivalry existed between the
companies is growing the best gardens. Let
it be known to the credit of this early tillage
that the soldiers raised nice gardens, but the
grasshoppers discouraged their efforts. The
first produce was intended to supply two hun-
dred and fifty enlisted men and their officers
and finally ended in the addition of several hun-
dred dollars worth of produce being sold in
town.
When the fort was abandoned in 1894, trees
two or three feet in diameter were flourishing.
After the valley was settled more densely,
ditches were constructed until irrigation was
practiced extensively along the borders of the
entire creek. The dams averaged from three
to ten feet in height and seventy-five to one
hundred feet in length, and were located from
a half to three-quarters of a mile apart along
the course of the stream. The discharge of
Lodgepole Creek is small in comparison with
many other streams thus utilized in Nebraska.
This is explained by the fact that the stream
is fed from numerous springs along its en-
tire course and also by the fact of the valley
being from one to three miles in width. The
irrigation of such land thus being very close
proximity to the stream that water reappears
promptly, after being spread over the border-
ing land. It has been observed frequently that
when all the flow was being diverted at one
point the stream a half mile further down
would flow again the same as if no water had
been diverted above.
CHAPTER IV
LODGEPOLE
The town of Lodgepole is the second oldest
town in Cheyenne county. It had the first
newspaper, the first bank, first business house,
and first postoffice in the county outside of Sid-
ney. School district No. 4 was located there,
which is the second district organized within
the present limits of the county. Its high
character of morality, and its religious and edu-
cational institutions appeal to people who are
looking for a permanent abiding place.
There are now resident there some excel-
lent people who came and located when the
cattlemen occupied the wide domain. They
have adopted the newer standards of an own-
ership of acreage, instead of the open range.
There arc the first grangers also, who came
and remained through the years of stress, a
number of which are ye< residents after the
lap e of a third of a century. Here was horn
the first white boy in thai part of the county;
Guy C. Newman. Here also is Col. V B.
■ and his I tardscrabble ranch. Here
two of the names that mean much to early his-
tory of the region were recently united in mar-
riage. Not the younger generation, but the
principals who were in the drama of early
years. A. B. Persinger. aforesaid, was a
ranchman of the seventies, while Mrs. G. H.
Jewett, the bride, was the widow of the first
state senator from the Panhandle of Nebraska.
He it was who built the first bridge across the
South Platte river at Big Springs in the early
eighties.
At Lodgepole also is the veteran editor, J.
V. Wolfe, who for so long, directed the des-
tinies of the Express, recently retiring in favor
of Claude Grisham, who is keeping a standard
of excellence. This paper was established
about 1884.
Lodgepole also had to its credit one of the
state's best members of the legislature in 1917-
1919, and who in 1921 became regent of the
State University, William L. Bates.
Fred Lehmkuhl is another Lodgepole name
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
183
that runs steadily through the progress of town,
county, and community welfare, from the very
beginning. J. R. Young is still another long
familiar name, a pioneer in merchandising, and
always forefront for the good of the town.
F. H. Wolf, cashier of the Cheyenne County
Bank, can tell you stories of forty years ago,
when he and his brother Ed, were two of the
four pupils attending the first school (a private
school) held in the old wreck of a depot at
Chappell where John O'Neil, the station
master, gave him his first lesson.
Lodgepole is located on the Union Pacific
railroad near the east line of Cheyenne county.
It is beautifully located, surrounded by many
the main crop Lodgepole has prospered. Ir-
rigation has led to the growing of potatoes
and other produce which has given the sur-
rounding country an impetus which is re-
flected in the town. After its incorporation
and the good years of plenty, sidewalks were
laid. Miles of concrete walks were laid, and
an electric light plant and water system were
established that render excellent service and
give Lodgepole a metropolitan aspect. The
electric plant and water works are housed in
the same building. Lodgepole has a modern
school house of cut stone and it is rated one
of the best in the county. Lumber and coal
vards have been established, elevators to handle
natural meadows in which are many lakes
made by darning Lodgepole creek. This lo-
cality is popular with hunters from the east-
ern part of the state. The town lies in the
valley which has a gentle rise to the north and
south. It has a park which was established
by the railroad, is well kept and has a band
stand. A statue of Lincoln marks the spot
where Lodgepole's first school house stood,
now the center of the park.
The station was first established when the
railroad built through the county. At first
it was very small, just a section house and
improvised depot. Not until 1882 or 1883 was
there any town. A school was established in
1S79. Merchandising came later when the
country began to settle up with permanent
farmers. Year by year more homes have been
erected and since the introduction of wheat as
the grain, hardware and implement houses
have been started and furnished the country
side with all machinery and articles needed by
the farmers. The leading mercantile house
was started in 1888 by a Mr. Young and a
large fine building was erected to house the
store in 1892. It is an establishment of which
Lodgepole may well be proud. A furniture
store was one of the early business houses,
established by E. Fenske, also handling hard-
ware, harness and monuments and for years
he operated the elevator. Lodgepole was es-
tablished as a postoffice some years after the
railroad was built and for years I.. R. Barlow,
one of the early settlers was postmaster. To-
day Lodgepole is one of the attractive and
prosperous towns of the Panhandle and with
its rich surrounding country has thrived and
184
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
grown into one of the good shipping and trad-
ing points on the Union Pacific.
Lodgepole's shipment of wheat in 1920 total-
led three hundred and fortv-four cars, approxi-
mating a value of $600,000. Last year ( 1919)
the value of wheat shipments was around
$800,000.
Potter
Potter, situated in the western part of Chey-
enne county, midway north and south, is lo-
cated on the Union Pacific railroad, not far
stands and also built the building first used
for the postoffice after it was removed from
the station. William and Andrew McAdam
built on the corner where the James Lumber
Company now has an office. They were en-
gaged in the furniture business. The Mc-
Adams also built the old school house which
stood for years on school house hill, whkh
was later remodeled and used for a hotel on
Main street. This old school was built about
1887 or 1888, but after being removed from
the station the first school was held in a small
from the western boundary. It owes its ex-
istence and early establishment to the railroad.
The station house of the railroad, built in 1870,
was the only building in Potter for a number
of years and was at one time, station, postof-
fice. and school room as the first school was
held in this building with a teacher from
Omaha. The country around the Potter sta-
tion was used first by the cattlemen but gradu-
ally some settlers came. Among the men
prominent in .settling up this locality was the
Reverend Charles Anderson, who lived at Sid-
ney but was active in locating people in the
Potter district. Another family prominent in
the promotion of the town was the Brotts,
(Andrew and Lewis.) and their families.
They established the first hardware store on
m r where the Citizens' State Rank now
frame building where the Thornburg house
was built later. The teacher then was Miss
Alary O. Strong. By this time Potter had
quite a few houses and was becoming a village.
One of the first postmasters was Fred Nelson.
The old livery barn was built by Frank Hyde
and was one of the oldest buildings in Potter
outside the section house and depot. He dug
a well, the first in Potter and put up a tank
and windmill, and even went so far as to pipe
water to some of the buildings and houses,
installing the first water system in the town,
though it is primitive, and of simple con-
struction.
Civic advancement began in real earnest in
1885, when the first hotel was built just west
of Thornburg's building, O. L. Erickson be-
ing the proprietor. By 1889 Potter was thriv-
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
185
ing, it had two grocery stores, two hardware
stores, a newspaper called the Potter Press,
one hotel, one restaurant, one blacksmith shop,
a furniture store and a feed store. About this
time the Lutheran church was built in practic-
ally its present form except for the tower and
some interior changes. Mr. D. Shultz was
one of the prominent men in its organization.
The Potter Press was short lived and within a
couple of years Potter was without a paper.
Later the Potter Review was started but was
likewise abandoned. A third attempt was
made when H. Stevens was hired by some en-
terprising men to reestablish the Review and
has been published ever since under that name.
By 1890 the farmers who had settled around
Potter began to raise grains, mostly wheat
and oats and as 1892 was a good year,
Potter had to build grain storage houses but
not of the type used today. Everything seem-
ed bright for the young village of Potter but
the droughts of 1893 to 1895 made great
changes. Many settlers left the country and
the small country towns suffered from the
migration and hard times. Some better years
followed but made little change in Potter. Af-
ter the section homestead bill was passed Pot-
ter began to look up a little and, in 1907,
the first bank was organized, before which the
people of Potter had to bank at Sidney. The
next few years saw great changes in Potter,
new stores were erected, the Gunderson hotel
was built. Dr. Ames put up a building and
the Potter State Bank, after organization,
was located in a new building.
In the meantime Potter was incorporated
and began to put in sidewalks. Bonds were
voted and municipal light and water systems
were established. The Union Pacific railroad
built a new station and tank, while the farm-
ers organized and put up a large grain eleva-
tor; later they also erected a flour mill. Mr.
Seyfang projected a theatre building and hall
for the growing town. New additions were
laid out while many fine homes were construct-
ed. Farming was prosperous and was re-
flected in the growth and development of the
town, so that today it is one of the prosperous
young towns of the Panhandle with great
opportunities for bigger and still better ex-
pansion.
The Lutheran church is of stone with fur-
nace heat. It has a large membership with a
resident pastor. The Methodist church also
has a large membership with resident minis-
ter and both organizations have societies for
church work.
Potter's school has developed from the old
station where it was organized by Joseph Ober-
felder, when count}- superintendent in 1883,
to two rooms in the late eighties and about
1915 to four rooms well equipped, in a brick
structure with basement, gymnasium, domes-
tic science and clay molding.
In the winter of 1886-1887 the grangers to
the north used to bring in red cedar posts
and trade for groceries.
During that winter I was in Potter a num-
ber of times on that mission. The first time
was with George Hendricks. I believe we
broke the road just about as it now stands. I
am sure our little pony team was the first to
go up that hill with a wagon out of Big Horn
canyon on the east side of the place where
the principal road now runs. We crossed
Lawrence Fork at the same point this road
now occupies. We were unable to sell or
trade the posts in Potter and drove to Sidney,
where we made the necessary exchange with
A. Pease, then in business there. On the way
in I shot and wounded an antelope, but had
only the one cartridge and could not complete
the job, for it could still travel.
In someway while there Hendricks managed
to get a pair of soldier blankets and a United
States rifle, inveigling them out of some dis-
solute soldier. Soldiers were forbidden to
sell them but occasionally they needed the
money and risked doing so.
Another time in Potter with Martin Draper,
we were in a store, and there was a little
kitten playing on the counter. Unless one
has been used to the domestic animal life
of older communities, and has been transplant-
ed into a wilderness where only wild life exists
one cannot understand the yearning and home-
sickness for old associates, when reminded of
them.
This feeling proved too strong for Draper
and he surreptitiously slipped the kitten into
his overcoat pocket. It was taken out to
Pumpkin creek, the first domestic cat in the
present Banner county limits.
The Potter Review calls that town the "big-
gest little city in Nebraska," which is em-
phasized by the character of its numerous busi-
ness houses of today. Among these are Farm-
ers Union Trading Company, Johnson-Cords
Company, Thornburg & Hager, Housen-Sey-
fang Mercantile Company, Potter Lumber
Company, Johnson's Implement & Feed Store,
Potter Grain Company, Jones Furniture Store,
Central Market, Potter Bakery, Gunderson's
Hotel, Seyfang Theatre. The City Garage,
Hite's Transfer, and numerous others.
The two banks have substantially aided in
the progress of the community, furnishing
credit for the rapid expansion of agriculture
HISTORY OF-WESTERN NEBRASKA
and the development of the raw prairie into
magnificient fields of wheat.
At one time in the county division agitation
a "Potter county" was proposed. This pro-
posal which left Sidney on the edge of two
counties had much to do with Sidney's sudden
change of heart in 1888, and brought that city
to support the five-county plan, which carried.
In 1920 Potter shipped 375 cars of wheat,
of a value of approximately $700,000. a drop of
probably one-third from last year's total cash,
but twenty-five percent of the wheat is yet in
the fanners' bins.
Dalton
The high divide north of Sidney was trav-
ersed by the overland stage, pony express, and
western bound emigrants, before Sidney exist-
ed. The Jules Cut-off from the South Platte
valley at Fort Sedgewick (now Julesburg)
went up Lodgepole creek to near the present
site of the town of Lodgepole. Here it cross-
ed the divide to Mud Springs (now Simla)
then up the North Platte river on the other
old trails.
After the coming into existence of the town
of Sidney cattlemen locating in the "North
River" county opened new roads across the
empire of buffalo grass. Then the Black
Hill's trade made one of them of high im-
portance.
A handicap to this territory from the set-
tlement point of view was lack of water.
"The Water Holes" offered the one spot where
it was possible to obtain shallow water. The
freighters and stage routers had located this
spot and put down some wells.
So the first locating on the divide aside from
timber claims, was in this vicinity, that they
could haul water until such a time as they
could dig a well. As water was two hundred
to three hundred feet below the surface, well-
digging was no small undertaking.
These "Water Holes" were some distance
southwest of the present town of Daiton.
Eventually such beaut ful lands were destined
to become homes ; they were settled upon by
homesteaders, many of whom are yet to be
found in the prosperous community. At first
wells were dug at rare intervals', but later
the drill, the windmill, and the gasoline engine
have solved the water problem.
The Burlington in 1920 projected its line
south from Uliance to the North Platte river,
establishing Bridgeport, then up the North
Guemse} It connected Bridgeport
1 lenver by way of Sidney. Th
on the divide were Dalton, Gurley and Hunts-
man.
Dalton led off in progress and enterprise,
and was a town of growing importance in pro-
portion to the acreage of buffalo grass that
was plowed up, and the acres of wheat sown.
Dalton is located on one of the high points
in the county and commands a beautiful view.
Twenty -five years ago this site was a field of
grass ; a wagon road leading from the river
country wound through this territory, and the
location was visited by a party of eastern
men. as they passed over the divide in a freight-
er's wagon, for Sidney was then the first town
south of Alliance. On reaching the "high-
est point," where Dalton, "Queen of the
Prairie," today lifts her head, the men stood
up and asked why the country was not fanned
better and why better stock was not raised
Blind Cannon Xear Poixt of Rocks
and the driver responded that farming did not
pay. Great has been the change from that
day to this for Dalton is now surrounded by
a rich, productive agricultural district. Only
three years after the travelers passed the Bur-
lington railroad was built through Cheyenne
county and a side track and section house were
established on the top of the notch of the di-
vide and named Dalton. Shortly afterward a
man put up a store and scales and the scat-
tered people who lived in the district began to
come in for supplies saving the longer trip to
Sidney. Then settlers east of Dalton told that
they had been raising enough wheat and grain
for their use. Other farmers questioned why
large fields would not yield as well as small
ones. Macaroni wheat was introduced, which
had drouth resisting qualities. Farmers re-
membered the years of 1893 and 1895, which
were well nigh rainless. The pioneer mer-
chant. W. S. Woolsey, became busy and pros-
perous and another man ventured into the sta-
tion town to establish the Clough store. Dur-
ing this period farms grew closer to the vil-
lage and a small school was established. From
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
187
this time the town grew ; gradually more build-
ings of good and permanent character were
built for commercial purposes. Livery and feed
barns sprang up to accommodate the farm-
ers ; the postoffice was established in the Wool-
sey store; J. A. Walford and C. B. Shanks ran
a grocery and meat market ; the Bridgeport
Lumber Company established a lumber yard
under the management of Jesse Ewing, and
J. C. Franden opened a drug store, while Dr.
A. E. Hedlund was the early physician to open
an office, and enjoyed a good practice. Not
long after, when farm lands began to sell. H.
C. Anderson opened a real estate office. The
busy blacksmith shop was conducted by Her-
man Martin and a hardware and furniture
store by Charles Veith ; a confectionery store
by H. C. Christensen and a livery and im-
plement house by C. W. Handley. J. B.
Hire managed a restaurant while A. P. Gustin
operated a pool hall and barber shop. The
garage of Dalton was opened by Ben Carter,
while his wife was in charge of the telephone
exchange. Steve Davis, the well driller, was
a busy man.
Dalton supports four lodges, all of which
are thriving; they are the Workmen, the
Woodmen, the Yeomen and the Royal Neigh-
bors. Since the town was incorporated many
cement sidewalks have been laid which makes
the business and residence property most at-
tractive. The Bridgeport Lumber Company
established a plumbing and tinware depart-
ment, always busy and a number of carpenters
are active building the new residences with the
increase of population.
With the increase in agricultural products
it was necessary to have means to handle the
immense quantities of grain shipped from Dal-
ton and three of its four elevators were built
more than ten years ago ; the Central which
was then conducted by Ray Clough ; the Farm-
ers Co-operative, managed by H. Harmuch,
and the Foster Milling Company conducted by
James Morrison.
D. R. Jones & Company are large realty
dealers of Dalton ; they have handled several
hundred families in farms and also deal in
city property. Due to the growing business
Mr. Jones took into partnership in 1913, A.
J. Jorgenson, who had been the local man-
ager of the McNish Land Company. The
Western Realty Company was organized in
1906 with W. E. Swartzlander as president.
This company always has a large list of farm
properties for sale or rent with automobiles
ready to take the prospective buyer to look at
land.
Today Dalton is well represented in church
work and civic improvement institutions. It
is remarkable the growth the town has had
within such a short period, and as it serves
an agricultural community all its business is
necessarily such as supplies the wants of the
farms and the progressive owners who trade
in Dalton. Its main business street has many
good and attractive business houses ; the stores
are up-to-date in stock equipment and service
and all are doing a fine business.
A traveler arriving by train sees the two-
story hotel just across the street from the sta-
tu m. It is enjoying a fine trade and already
is growing small for the accommodation of
the traveling public. This house was con-
ducted by W. N. Foster who also kept a ranch
ten miles from town.
Dalton now has a population of about three
hundred and fifty, two excellent banks, and
four elevators. Its mercantile interests are
well represented. The Farmers and Merchants
Bank, and the Dalton State Bank look after
financial affairs, which is an undertaking in a
wheat town where elevators of the capacity of
those at Dalton are in evidence. Three hun-
dred and forty-one cars of wheat were ship-
ped from Dalton of the 1920 crop to the close
of the year. In 1919 the shipments were tour
hundred and twenty-one cars. The value last
year was about $1,000,000, but this year's
wheat shipments fell off in value as well as
quantity, being probably $600,000. About
thirty percent of the crop remains unsold.
Gurley
Gurley, the next town of importance in the
progress of Cheyenne county, is five or six
miles south of Dalton. It has two banks and
is otherwise represented in a business way.
Gurley shipped two hundred and fifty-two cars
of wheat in 1920.
There was a drop in production in 1920,
but owing to the lack of cars there was also
a short shipment. This year's crop is only
seventy percent marketed, thirty percent being
in local elevators and farmers' bins.
The character of the country about Gurley
is a continuation of the Dalton community.
Huntsman
I [untsman lies still further south on this
tableland, and nearer to Sidney. The town
has a bank and mercantile facilities. There
being no station agent the grain shipments and
other products are billed from and included in
the report of the Burlington at Sidney.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Lorenzo
Lorenzo is near the Colorado line south of
Sidney on the "South Table" as it is called,
but is of little commercial interest, except as
a shipping station. Its freight business is like-
wise handled by the Burlington agent at Sid-
ney. The "South Table" did not come into
importance until after the "North Table" had
been settled. The first homesteaders were
attracted north on account of the pine and
cedar forests that covered the rough lands,
supplying fuel and building materials for
the first important needs.
Along the lodgepole valley on the Union
Pacific railway, aside from Sidney, Lodgepole
and Potter, there are in Cheyenne county a
number of shipping points. Colton and Bron-
son are cared for by the agent at Sidney.
Sunol
Sunol has an individual identity, and its
quota in the shipment of wheat in 1920 was
one hundred and six cars, valued at about
$250,000. It has a bank, stores and garage,
being on the Lincoln Highway-
Government statistics put the total wheat
product of Cheyenne county at 2,900,000
bushels for 1920. Shipments, however, were
in excess of that amount. Conservative figures
show a total of 2,111 cars of wheat shipped
out, or about 3,100,000 bushels, and that rep-
resents but seventy percent of the crop. The
other thirty percent on hand will bring a grand
total yield in 1920 of around four and one-
half million bushels. Sidney and the stations
handled from there, shipped 693 cars.
Of the 2,111 cars shipped, 1,197 went over
the Union Pacific, and 914 over the Burling-
ton, the difference being due to better rail-
road and car service.
The Lincoln Highway traverses the county
east and west, paralleling the Union Pacific
railway, and a highway from Denver and
Sterling north, passes through Sidney. Its
connections are with the North Platte Valley
Road, Yellowstone Road, and the Black Hills.
Important community centers in Cheyenne
county were established and postofnces lo-
cated, but generally these have given way to
rural routes from railroad stations, and the
automobile has shortened the time between the
railroad and the interior communities.
CHAPTER V
STATE OFFICIALS
The territory of Lyons, Taylor and Monroe
counties later erected into Cheyenne county
and the "Beavais Terres" to the north, was
included in the district represented by V.
Krummer, of Columbus, in 1866, or the last
territory legislature. This district included all
of western Nebraska. The representative dis-
trict was limited in 1873, to all territory west
of Hastings and Grand Island, while the east-
ern boundary of the senatorial district was
Norfolk, Columbus and Seward. Guy C. Bar-
ton of North Platte, was senator in 1873 and
in 1875. He was the pioneer ranchman of
Nebraska, west of North Platte.
Platte, Colfax, Butler, Merrick, Hall, Buffa-
lo, Lincoln, Dawson, Howard, Sherman, Val-
ley, Greeley, Boon. Antelope, and Cheyenne
counties, were by the Act of March 3, 1872,
included in this senatorial district. The rep-
ive district comprises Lincoln, Daw-
son, Buffalo, Sherman, Valley, Franklin, and
Cheyenne counties. Prior to that the man to
represent this district was Wells Brewer in
1869-1870. Cheyenne county has never had
a state official except in the house and senate.
The time set by law for convening court in
Cheyenne county was the third Monday of
June, each year. The law at the time re-
quired a petition of two hundred of whom ten
must be "taxable inhabitants," to organize a
county. Sioux county, then unorganized, was
attached to Cheyenne for administrative, ju-
dicial and taxation purposes.
In the Senate and Legislature
G. H. lewett, of Sidney was state senator
in 1879 ; G. W. Heist, of Sidney, in 1883 ; D.
Carrigan, of Sidnev, was representative in
1881 ; V. Bierbauer, 'in 1883; J. M. Adams in
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
189
1885, and George C. Lingenfelter in 1893. All
were from Sidney. In 1913, Lewis Brott, or
Sextrop, Cheyenne county, was elected and
was followed by William L. Bates, of Lodge-
pole. Bates served two terms in 1917 and
1918, and was then elected regent of the State
University in 1920. He had removed to Kim-
ball county before being elected to this office.
State Fish Commission
Robert Oberfelder was appointed State Fish
Commissioner by Governor A. H. Holcomb
about 1896. He served for six years, proving
an efficient and conscientious official. His wide
information as to streams and lakes of west-
ern Nebraska, enabled the planting of the
right kind of fish in the right place. That
trout now abound in many western streams is
due to his initiation.
Banking and Finance
In 1876, there was but one bank in the
Panhandle of Nebraska. It was located at
Sidney. A private bank, the first in this part
of the state, was established by Raynolds and
Wallace and was called the Cheyenne Coun-
ty Bank." A. H. Raynolds was from Canton,
Ohio, and was a relation of President McKin-
ley. William Wallace was for years connect-
ed with the Omaha National Bank, and a fig-
ure of prominence in the financial world. Af-
ter establishing and operating their bank for a
time Raynolds and Wallace sold to Saxton
Brothers, who were also from Ohio, and also
related to McKinley. That bank continued to
operate and was known as the Exchange Bank.
It went to the wall in latter financial depres-
sions, and the assets were taken over by Mor-
gan and Johnson, who ran it for a number of
years. About 1889, Mr. Morgan shot him-
self and the bank became financially em-
barrassed. The county treasurer, Adam Ickes,
had county funds in it and he went broke try-
ing to make good the county losses, turning
over all his private funds and property in an
effort to save his bondsmen.
The American Bank, which had just been
established, took over what was left of the
wrecked Exchange Bank and J. J. Mcintosh,
president of the American Bank, was made
receiver of the Exchange. Edwin M. Man-
court, of Terre Haute, Indiana, a proficient
banker, established the Merchants Bank. He
was more conservative than had been his pre-
decessors in Sidney's banking circles. After
a few years he liquidated and went east, being
a large banker in Detroit, Michigan, today,
and also vice-president of the consolidated
coal companies. The third bank in Sidney was
established by Milton Ahrends, but it was later
merged with the First National Bank.
The fourth bank was called the Sidney
State Bank. After operating two years it
was taken over and merged with the Ameri-
can Bank, the present officers of the latter in-
stitution being: T. C. McNish, president; M.
C. Dinnery, G. E. Taylor and G. R. Buckner,
vice-presidents; E. D. McAllister, cashier; J.
L. McCarthy, assistant cashier. When this
bank was organized, A. S. Raymond, now of
Raymond Brothers & Clarke, wholesale gro-
cers of Lincoln and Scottsbluff, was president;
J. J. Mcintosh, vice-president ; and George E.
Taylor, the present active vice-president was
then cashier. S. H. Burnham, now of the
First National Bank, of Lincoln, succeeded
Raymond as president and he was succeeded
by J. J. Mcintosh, July 4, 1894. Mr. Mc-
Nish became president in 1918. The present
capital and surplus amounts to $145,000.
The First National Bank came into exist-
ance in 1902. It has a capital and surplus of
$75,800, and its present officers are: W. E,
Swartzlander, president ; A. K. Greenlee, vice-
president ; Leslie Neubauer, cashier ; Charles
L- Mann and Lena L. Jensen, assistant cash-
iers. The men who were influential in its
organization were B. A. Jones, J. W. Harper,
Charles Callihan, Milton Ahrends, A. K.
Greenlee, C. D. Essig, Daniel Bergman, M. H.
Tobin and A. Pease. The original capital was
$25,000.
For fifteen years the two banks stood the
test of Sidney's growth in commercial import-
ance. Wheat then began to be a factor of Chey-
enne county, and bank accounts, credits and
deposits began to swell. The Nebraska State
Bank was organized in 1917; with F. M.
Wooldbridge, president ; and M. L. Woold-
bridge, cashier. It has grown steadily and is
firmly established. In 1920, the officers were:
F. M. Wooldridge, president; F. D. Woold-
ridge and J. A. Simones, vice-presidents ; M.
L. Wooldridge, cashier; and Helen Woold-
ridge and C. E. Wooldridge, assistant cash-
iers. The bank has a capital and surplus of
$54,670. The Liberty State Bank came into
existence in 1919, with F. N. Slawson, presi-
dent ; H. R. Fuller, vice-president ; R. A. Bar-
low, cashier; and Marius Christenson, assist-
ant cashier. It has prospered since organiza-
tion and today has a capital and surplus of
$33,000.
The oldest bank in Cheyenne county, outside
of Sidney, was established at Lodgepole in
1889, and was called the First State Bank. It
1-1,1
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
has a capital and surplus of $32,200. The
present officers are: W. G. Milton, president;
J. W. Rogers, vice-president and W. J. Chase,
cashier.
The Cheyenne County Bank, of Lodgepole,
was organized in 1915. It has a capital and
surplus of $31,540, and the officials are as fol-
lows : Ray Isenberger. president ; Fred Lehm-
kuhl. vice-president; F. H. Wolf, cashier and
W. J. Barrett, assistant cashier.
Potter has two banks, the Potter State Bank
being established in 1911. It has a capital
and surplus of $31,500. J. A. Woten is
president ; C. W. Johnson and P. Jensen, vice-
presidents and Thomas Cowger, cashier. A
small bank organized in 1907 was the ante-
cedent of this strong organization.
The Citizens State Bank, began business in
1917. It has a capital and surplus of $18,000,
with the following officers : G. A. Roberts,
president ; Clarence Johnson, vice-president ;
R. A. Babcock, cashier and D. F. Enevoldsen,
assistant cashier.
Dalton has two banks, both established in
1908. The Dalton State Bank has $33,800
capital and surplus, with W. J. Ewing, presi-
dent ; H. A. Fecht, vice-president ; J. L. Willis,
cashier and R. Buchanan, assistant cashier.
The Farmers State Bank has a capital and
surplus of $27,640 and the following officers:
J. H. Foster, president ; P. T. Higgins, vice-
president ; and Leslie C. Opper, cashier.
The Gurley State Bank, which began busi-
ness in 1915, has a capital and surplus of $32,-
480. C. E. Wyerts is president ; A. E. Leclair,
vice-president; and S. P. Johnson, cashier.
The Fanners State Bank of Gurley began
business in 1917, has a capital and surplus of
$18,500 and the following officers : S. J. Han-
son, president; and C. W. Smith, vice-presi-
dent.
The Farmers State Bank of Sunol, was or-
ganized in 1914, and has a capital and surplus
of $24,930, and the following officers : T. W.
Rogers, president ; W. G. Nielton, vice-presi-
dent and G. W. Barlow, cashier.
The Huntsman State Bank, six miles north
of Sidney began business in 1919, and now has
a surplus of $4,500 and a capital of $10,000.
Its officers are : W. A. Sparks, president ; J.
A. Chaon, vice-president, and W. E. Cunning-
ham, cashier.
This concludes the list of financial insti-
tutions past and present of Cheyenne county
and shows a remarkable history. The first
flush of the gold years, the bonanza cattle
days, the lean years of the droughts, and now
the agricultural years of plenty. The great
wide wheat fields with their wealth of grain
in this county, is reflected in the volume of
business shown in the fourteen banks. The
only discordant note in the financial history of
Cheyenne county in a quarter of a century has
been the attempts of the older banks to keep
new ones out. The new banks were needed
by the growth of business in Sidney and the
surrounding country.
The Farmers State Bank of Sunol was rob-
bed July 28, 1916 at noon. The robbery was
supposedly planned by R. G. Lukins and Frank
Connell, the former acting as lookout while
Connell took the money. He locked C. W.
Smith, the cashier in the vault and started
away with the loot, but two men were in the
road. He shot through the windshield and
killed them both. Others headed him off, and
he ran his car into a corn field. Lukins was
arrested in the town and Connel was cap-
tured in the willows near Tobin's ranch. He
confessed, and both men were sent to the peni-
tentiary.
Two other concerns handle money in the
county though they are not bankers. Ober-
felder Brothers handle hundred of thousands
of dollars annually, discounting warrants. Dr.
Eichner discounts farm paper and other obli-
gations in large amounts.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER VI
THE PRESS
There has been no agency employed that is
entitled to more credit for the development and
advancement of Cheyenne county from its
organization than its newspapers. During the
first years of the county's history there was
not a newspaper published within its bound-
aries. The Sidney Telegraph clearly has the
field in priority of journalism, in Cheyenne
county and the Nebraska Panhandle. It was
first issued in May, 1873, in style being more
like a pamphlet than the news sheet of today.
It had four pages with four columns to the
page. L. Connell was the publisher at its
initiation. It was then bought by Joseph B.
Gossage in the autumn of 1874, and the next
year George C. Darrow became a partner in
the ownership. The Telegraph was then pub-
lished under the firm name of Joseph B. Gos-
sage & Company. In 1878, a rival newspaper
appeared, the Plaindcaler, which was started
by W. H. Michael. In 1881, this paper was
sold to A. C. Drake who consolidated it with
the Telegraph which he then owned. This
gave the Telcgraph-Plaindcaler a clear field
for some time. J. C. Bush bought it, and
then Charles Callahan was the controlling spir-
it of the Telegraph for a number of years,
"Plaindealer" being dropped from the name.
For a long time now, H. E. Gapen has been
the able editoi. He is a good politician as
well as an efficient newspaper man and the
combination has led to the Telegraph taking
the leading place in the local newspaper world.
Mr. Gapen has served as county attorney five
times and was later county judge.
The files of the old Telegraph have contrib-
uted materially to the history of the county as
herein recorded.
J. F. Wellington ran the Sidney Democrat
for a period about 1886-1887, but owing to a
change of administration it ceased to exist.
The Sidney Journal came into existence in
1888. It was supported by some politicians
who were dissatisfied because the Telegraph
sold space to the Democrats. They declared
that the Telegraph, which was then managed
by Charles Callahan, "had sold its birthright
for a mess of pottage." The new paper won
official patronage during 1890-1891, but its
owner sold out. The paper was not successful
and its publication ceased. The farmers rise
in political prominence in 1890, brought new
interest and a paper was started by L. C.
Stockwell, but it too faded away in the hard
years of 1894 and 1895.
The Sidney Enterprise began its fourth year
as a newspaper January 6, 1921. Its publish-
ers, Perry and Caroline Coler, came from Kan-
sas. They have a well equipped plant and pub-
lish an up-to-date paper. Mrs. Coler is a
writer of prose and poetry. She has been
known for many fine poems ; the Sidney Wo-
man's Club has accepted some of her work
and the Choral Society has set some of her
poems to music. Sidney with its population of
over three thousand is thus well served with
newspapers.
Honorable Charles H. Randall, now a mem-
ber of Congress from southern California,
started the Western Nebraska Observer, at
Antelopeville, now Kimball, in 1885. The
paper is now known as the Kimball Observer,
and was the second newspaper to appear in the
Panhandle and Cheyenne county outside of
Sidney, for a number of years. Randall later
published the "Centropolis World" which be-
came "The World," then "The Early Day." It
was consolidated by C. L. Burgess, with "The
Advocate," and is now the Banner County
News, issued at Harrisburg, Nebraska. In
1884 the Lodgepole Express was established.
It was a small affair, started with donations
and insufficient capital, and more than a quar-
ter of a century ago passed into the efficient
hands of James C. Wolfe. The town plat had
been filed July 10, 1884, shortly before the
Express was started. James Wolfe was a
pioneer of this region as he homesteaded north
of Lodgepole in 1885, and is familiar with all
the trials and hardships of life here at an early
day, also the failures and discouragements of
the drought years. He published the Express
for more than twenty-five years, and only re-
cently sold it to Claude E. Grisham, the pres-
ent efficient owner and editor. Mr. Grisham
was formerly of Scottsbluff, a member of the
staff of the Star-Herald and later on the Re-
publican. In 1920. Lodgepole had a popula-
tion of five hundred.
The Potter Review was started in 1912, al-
though prior to that date, years ago, there was
a newspaper published there from about 1888
to 1891, called the Press. The first paper had
quite a patronage at the time of final proof
of claims for homeseekers but after that dis-
continued publication. When wheat became
192
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the great agricultural crop in Cheyenne county
there was a desire for a local paper for news
around Potter and the Review was established.
For a time it suspended but was revived. The
present editor, H. Stevens, also owns the paper.
The town plat of Potter was filed May 14,
1885, and today Potter has a population of over
five hundred inhabitants. About 1913, J. W.
and L. C. Thomas started the Dalton Herald.
The original name is changed, the first owners
gone. Tom Laley succeeded the Thomases.
The localitv is now served by the Dalton Dele-
gate published by Don Fey Ermand. The
paper was first established in 1914, and has a
good circulation, being in fact the successor
to the Herald. Dalton itself came into exist-
ence with the building of the Burlington rail-
road in 1901, and the town plat was filed April
4, 1906, and today Dalton has a population of
three hundred and' fifty people. This completes
the roster of the newspapers of Cheyenne
county which is well and efficiently served by
newsy, well edited papers.
CHAPTER VII
FRATERNAL ORDERS AND CLUBS
The first fraternal organization in Cheyenne
county was created bv the Masons December
26, 1877. It was the Frank Welsh Lodge No.
75, A. F. & A. M. The charter was granted
June 25, 1879, with the following men as char-
ter members : John A. Carley, Master ; George
W. Russell, Senior Warden ; Julius Neubauer,
Junior Warden; Norman F. Hazen, Peter
Smith, John W. Griffin, Robert G. Howard,
Dennis Carrigan, Henry Snyder, Henry Cro-
hurst, Alfred Johnson, Robert S. Oberfelder,
John Glickauf, Albert G. Persinger, Edward
S. Ebbs and A. C. Drake. Only three of these
original members were still alive in 1920;
Messrs. Carrigan, Oberfelder and Persinger.
The officers of the lodge at the present time
are: Frank M. Wooldridge, Master; George
Brewer, Senior Warden ; John W. Johnson,
Junior Warden ; Leslie Neubauer, secretary
and Leon Fine, treasurer.
In 1908, the building at the corner of Rose
street, now Center avenue, and Third street,
was erected by the Masonic order and used for
all meetings. The lodge is now contemplating
the erection of a fine new temple to take the
place of the first building. There are sixty
Shriners in Sidney and they have a Shrine
Cluli organized which has arranged social
events that are attractive, pleasant and in-
structive. Following the organization of the
Masonic lodge, an Order of the Eastern Star
came into existence and has had a consistent
growth with the Masonic body and in 1920,
was an active organization, with the following
Mrs, < "live Agnew, Worthy Matron;
Leon Fine, Worthy Patron ; Mrs. C. P. Grant,
Associate Matron; Mrs. Grace Simondynes,
Conductress; Mrs. D. Saxon, Associate Con-
ductress; Miss Esther Devine, secretary; Mrs.
Tulia Mann, treasurer; Mrs. Grace E. King,
Ada; Mrs. A. E. Ahrends, Ruth; Mrs. C. C.
Jones, Esther; Miss Katheryn Greenlee, Mar-
tha ; Mrs. J. J. Mcintosh, Electa ; Mrs. James
Worden, chaplain ; Mrs. C. L. Mann, organist ;
Mrs. Anna Osborn, warden ; Mrs. A. J. Jor-
genson, marshal, and Herman Schroeder, sen-
tinel.
The Modern Woodmen of America organ-
ized in Sidney in 1887, with twenty-two mem-
bers. The lodge now has a hundred and six
members. The Oberfelder brothers were active
in establishing the Modern Woodmen in Chey-
enne county and Joseph Oberfelder was state
consul in 1917. The Woodmen have had a
consistent growth from the start and are one
of the strong organizations in the county today.
The present officers are: Joseph Oberfelder,
vice-consul ; V. F. Kucero, adviser ; F. D.
Wooldridge, banker ; F. M. Wooldridge, clerk ;
and C. M. Wright, O. R. Owens and Hugh D.
Moore, trustees.
Valiant Lodge No. 98, Knights of Pythias,
was organized May 19, 1888, by the Grand
Chancellor, O. L. Green of Kearney, with the
following charter members : W. C. Reillv, C.
S. Ickes, M. L. Tobin, Zig Gutfriend, T. Neu-
bauer, Robert Shuman, T. C. Bush, T- F. Well-
ington, H. S. Kelter, R. J. Wallace, L. B.
Cary, George W. Heist, Morris Davis, H. E.
Gapin, J. E. Trinnier, Dr. C. H. Fields, J. W.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
193
Norval. T. B. Dawson, J. W. Vanderhoof, J.
E. Van Olinda, W. F. Bassett, Robert S. Ober-
felder, J. W. Meyers, W. H. Adams, W. P.
Miles, H. D. Meyers, George W. Jenner, T.
St. Rayner, P. R. Borgquist, I. J- Mcintosh,
E. O. Lee, J. A Carlev, J. Z." Denton and J.
T. Thoelecke. The Knights of Pythias has
been a strong organization from the first with
most of the prominent men among its mem-
bers ; many of the charter members are still
alive and are today active in its councils.
Sidney Lodge No. 196, Ancient Order of
United Workmen was started in 1891, with
thirty-five members and the following officers :
Joseph Oberfelder, past master workman;
George F. Blanchard, master workman ;
Charles Peterson, foreman ; James R. Williams,
overseer and Albert Armstrong, secretary. The
officers in 1920 were : Carl Muller. master
workman ; Everett Foster, foreman ; John
Daugherty, overseer ; Herman Schroeder,
treasurer; Joseph Oberfelder, financial secre-
tary and Everett Foster, A. S. Ayle and W. J.
Shoemaker, trustees. Today the Woodmen
have a hundred and seventy-six members in
Sidney.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was
established by the activities of Joseph Ober-
felder, Joseph Taylor and J. G. Tate, (now of
Portland, Oregon). Joseph Oberfelder has
been a member of the State Finance Commit-
tee of the Odd Fellows since 1908. The pres-
ent officers of the Sidney Lodge No. 91 are:
Oscar Hatcher, noble grand ; J. C. Hatcher,
vice grand ; C. S. Chambers, past grand, and
Mr. Jones, secretary. C. M. Wright is treas-
urer with N. W. Olson, O. M. Harris and C.
P. Chambers, trustees. Charles Couch is dis-
trict deputy grand master. The Odd Fellows
is a very live organization living up to the
tradition for charity for which it is noted. Nat-
urally the Daughters of Rebekah are as ac-
tive and have the usual social affairs in which
the brother Odd Fellows .participate, especial-
ly the popular suppers.
The Degree of Honor has two lodge organi-
zations in Sidney. Degree of Honor No. 122
is headed by Mrs. Anna Minshall as chief of
honor; the other officers for 1921 are: Goldie
Sweet, lady of honor; Catherine Reiners, chief
of ceremonies; Margaret Roth, usher; Minnie
Leege, associate usher ; Mayme Davis, treasur-
er; Ella Williams, recording financier; Lizzie
Burkhardt, inside watch and V. Kucera, out-
side watch.
Dora Lodge, Degree of Honor is headed by
Mrs. Herman Schroeder, as chief of honor.
The Macabees are also represented in Sid-
ney.
The Knights of Columbus are active in Sid-
ney as large classes are regularly initiated and
the Catholic ladies serve fine banquets in St.
Patrick's auditorium at such times.
In Sidney the Sidney Community Associa-
tion looks after all public enterprises and new
industries and has a remarkable record for
the good done for the city. President Buckner
and Secretary Keppler have for the past year
set an example of proficiency which the new
officers say they are going to excel for the up-
building of the community. The following
men are to make the attempt : M. Dimery,
president ; E. L. Uptagrove, vice-president ;
Leon Fine, treasurer, with the following men
on the board of directors : C. W. Hornaday,
W. P. Miles, Frank Whitelock, W. H. Hod-
kin, W. E. Swartzlander and G. R. Buckner.
Sidney has an active gun club organized on
January 9. 1920, which is booked for ten con-
tests in 1921 with Fort Lupton, Greeley, Long-
mont, Pueblo, Wray, Yuma, Colorado Springs,
Denver and Douglas, Wyoming. Scottsbluff
or Alliance may be taken for the one vacant
date on the schedule.
All of the fraternal organizations of Chey-
enne county have taken an active part in pub-
lic and municipal affairs and the members are
always on the lookout to assist in the develop-
ment of the county and their own communities
which shows the true western and progressive
spirit. Twenty-two nights out of each month
are lodge nights in Sidney.
I'M
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER VIII
THE CHURCH, THE BAR, THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
The story of the church in Cheyenne county
is a romance of life in this section of the
country. For the first few years after the
building of the railroad, there were no towns
and Sidney was small. The lack of perman-
ent settlers made church activities of necessity
supported almost entirely by outside contribu-
tions, and there were not many of these from
1869 to 1875. The "Panic of 73" and the
difficulties of obtaining funds are still clearly
remembered by the oldest settlers.
It was about 1876 or 1877 that signs of
a larger and permanent town became notice-
able in Sidney. Elder T. B. Lemon of the
Methodist Episcopal church brought a fearless
minister of rather erratic tendencies into what
was then considered the wilderness of sin of
Cheyenne county and in the language of the
time, "turned him loose." There was a man
in Sidney at the time, a former judge, who
said that if a church was established in the
town he would move out. The minister heard
of the remark and accepted the challenge. He
began his work among the lowly and unfortu-
nate but he was so earnest that people went
to hear him. He gained in popularity, and
within two years had raised funds among the
people to buy a building in the wildest dis-
trict. The house which was a dance hall to
that date, was renovated and remodeled, and
the firsl Methodist church was established by
1879. By this work this abode of sin and
crime, became consecrated ground. As he had
promised, the judge left Sidney after the
church was founded and went to the Black
Hills; later he became a changed man and a
pillar of tin* Methodist church in the home he
adopted. Rev. Turner was minister in 1881.
A little later Leslie Stevens tilled the pulpit.
Stevens later, after service as county superin-
tendent, went to China where he died.
The beautiful new Methodist church of to-
day, is built upon the identical spot where the
fearless minister established his congregation
forty-two years ago. The old building was
torn down in 1884, and a larger one erected.
L. D. Livingston, later of Pumpkin creek, was
one of the men who helped in the building. A
parsonage was built in 1889, and, in 1907, the
church was remodeled. It served well until the
congregation outgrew the building and mem-
bers desired a newer and larger home. In 1918,
the new edifice was built at an approximate
cost of seventy thousand dollars and was dedi-
cated April "13, 1919, by Bishop Matt S.
Hughes. It is one of the finest church build-
ings in the Panhandle and, in 1921, there are
three hundred members, while the Sunday
School has an enrollment of over four hun-
dred. Reverend T. Porter Bennett, the pres-
ent pastor, is a man of unusual vitality and
progressive spirit, and his usefulness is empha-
sized by a large growth in the membership.
The Episcopalian church was the second es-
tablished in Cheyenne county and Sidney. Rev-
erend William Page Chase came here in 1879,
and held services regularly from September,
to May, 1880. After he left there were only
occasional services held by missionaries of the
Episcopal church. On May 2, 1880, Bishop
Clarkson confirmed seven persons and then
visited Sidney occasionally, holding services
until 1884. Reverend John H. Babcock of
North Platte, held services in March, 1886.
Bishop Worthington, accompanied by Rever-
end Babcock made one visit in April, 1886, and
baptised four children whose parents were
members of the church. The Bishop organized
a mission by the name of "Christ Mission,"
and appointed the following officers : Colonel
E. W. Stone, warden ; Andrew Haskell, treas-
urer ; Fred H. DcCostro, clerk and Lieutenant
Daniel Carnman, superintendent of the Sunday
School. Colonel Stone was also made lay
reader. At this time eighteen persons partook
of the Holy Communion and it was estimated
that twenty families were connected with the
church. Sixty dollars a month was pledged for
a minister and the Masonic Order volunteered
the use of its hall for church purposes. A
church guild was organized with Mrs. Fred E.
H. Ebstein. president; Mrs. Douglas, treasurer
and Airs. Morgan, secretary. At the request
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
l'»5
of the Bishop, Mr. Babcock took charge May
26, 1886, and more than four hundred dollars
was raised for church funds at a bazaar held
at the Post Theatre in June of that year. A
lot was donated by J. Thorn Clarkson and two
more adjoining were purchased for three hun-
dred and fifty dollars. Bishop Worthington
gave three hundred dollars and the Guild the
other fifty for the purchase price. These lots
were deeded to the Cathedral Chapter of the
Diocese of Nebraska in trust for the use of
the church.
During the fall of 1886, a small building
fund was raised. F. M. Ellis of Omaha, drew
plans for a church building and Thomas W.
Walsh in November was awarded a contract
for putting in a foundation. The corner stone
was laid by the Masonic Order and Bjshop
Worthington, on November 23, 1886. A. Pease
built the church which was completed and con-
secrated July 28, 1889. Reverend Callaghan
McCarthy succeeded Mr. Babcock and Rever-
end Thomas W. Barry, chaplain of the United
States army at Sidney Post, and Reverend
Robert G. Osborn followed in turn. In 1920,
Reverend Henry Ives has charge and is Dean
of western Nebraska, including Kimball and
Scottsbluff. He is faithful and unfailing in
his stewardship of the trust which has been'
well rewarded with the results in church work.
Right Reverend A. R. Graves and Bishop
George A. Beacher. were contemporaneous
with this period, men of vast influence and
service to the church.
The Presbyterian church was established in
this section at a later day. Today the work of
this denomination is in the capable hands of
Reverend Samuel Light. The church is grow-
ing and is representative of Sidney and Chev-
enne county.
Reverend L. L. Holmes, of the Christian
church is building substantial foundations of
his denomination and his church is one of the
newer ones that has had a fine growth in Sid-
ney, as well as the county.
The Catholic church, usually a pioneer, was
among the first to become established in Sid-
ney. Father Conway used to come here from
North Platte, and occasionally a priest from
Cheyenne came both before and after 1880.
Father Conway had the rectory built in 1883
and Vallie Williams says that there was a
small frame church built here a few years
earlier, about 1880. Father M. J. Barrett was
the first resident priest, coming to Sidney in
1883. The parish then included Paxton and
Ogallala, and later was made to include Osh-
kosh, Lisco. Bridgeport, Scottsbluff, and Dal-
ton. Reverend Waldron was put in charge of
the parish in 1888, being followed by Reverend
St. Lawrence in 1891, Reverend J. R. McGrath
in 1893; Reverend J. F. McCarthy in 1895,
Reverend J. J. Flood in 1899, who died and
was buried in Sidney Catholic cemetery in
1902, Rev. J. P. DeVane was placed in
charge after the death of Father Flood and
was succeeded by Reverend T. D. Sullivan in
1904 ; Reverend James Dobson in 1907, who re-
mained until 1912. That year the Diocese of
Omaha was divided and the Diocese of Kear-
ney created with James M. Duffle, of Chey-
enne, Wyoming, as Bishop. Father Dobson
left for the east and his first assistant. Rev-
erend Campman was in charge until June, 1913,
when Father Anton Link, the present efficient
priest was placed in charge, and Chappel.
Lodgepole, Kimball and Angora were added
to the parish.
In August, 1912, the new stone church was
commenced, the corner stone laid in October
following, and it was completed and dedicated
November 18, 1914. That year the old parish
house was wrecked and a new modern parson-
age erected. The church cost about thirty-five
thousand dollars which was quite an under-
taking for the members of the church.
In 1915, a small frame school house was
built and school began January 10, 1916. The
beginning of the academy was undertaken re-
luctantly but the building was soon crowded.
Five sisters of the Ursuline Community, of
Louisville, Kentucky, arrived in December,
1915, to take charge of the school and by the
spring of 1916, it was necessary to enlarge the
school. The first part of the academy cost
twenty-five thousand dollars, and, in 1920 it
was enlarged by an addition costing a hundred
thousand dollars. This was dedicated Janu-
ary 7, 1921. Fifteen sisters are now members
of the teaching force of the school and there
is an attendance of a hundred and seventy-five
day scholars and a hundred and twenty-five
boarders who live at a distance.
Sidney has two Lutheran churches. The
English Evangelical Lutheran, presided over
by Reverend Kahl, who also has Gurley charge
of Reverend Karl Fenske, and the Trinity
Lutheran church is under the guidance of E.
Borgmeyer and is called Southeast Trinity.
The Methodist Episcopal church at Lodge-
pole recently dedicated a new church building,
Bishop Homer C. Stuntz, officiating, as-
sisted by District Superintendent Dr. M. E.
Gilbert and Reverend Henry F. .Martens, who
was appointed to this charge in 1918. The
consecration ceremonies occurred in December,
1920. This church was established in the Union
Pacific depot January 1. 189S. A stone church
196
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
was dedicated the following year with Rever-
end Dr. Shank, the editor of the Omaha
Christian Advocate, as master of ceremonies.
It took nearly ten years to pay off the debt and
mortgage on the building. J. R. Young, Fred
Lehmkuhl, Lewis A. Ganson, Charles N.
Coates and John F. Ganson were the members
of the building committee of the old stone
church. The building committee of the new
church were R. O. Bond, H. L. Lucke. F. H.
Wolf, B. J. Watson, W. T. Hafer, and Fred
Lehmkuhl. The last named, served on both
building committees. The comer stone of the
new building was laid July 2, 1920, by Grand
Master Joseph B. Fradenburg, of the Masonic
order of Nebraska. The edifice cost thirty-five
thousand dollars. Reverend A. W. Amsbury
held the first quarterly conference here Janu-
ary 21, 1893. and the constitution of the church
was drafted by J. F. Ganson and Charles N.
Coates.
Gurley has a live Methodist Episcopal or-
ganization and church with Reverend Coffman
in charge.
Potter has three churches, and as has been
usual in this county, the Methodist church was
pioneer, and is most active. Reverend Chas.
O. Troy is pastor.
Trinity Lutheran and Catholic churches each
are here provided.
Although not a church organization, the Wo-
men's Christian Temperance Union is associ-
ated with its work in many particulars. The
organization has been in existence in Cheyenne
county for many years. The local institution
at Potter is particularly virile, and has done
much excellent work. Mrs. A. J. Woten is the
present executive head and is ably directing it
for civic and communal good.
In addition to the churches mentioned and
those in the interior of the county rural dis-
tricts, a tribute should be paid to the congrega-
tions that assembled in sod houses, log huts and
dug outs in the days when the grangers were
spreading over the western prairies and before
churches were built. Services and Sunday
schools were held in every neighborhood and
volunteer laymen were everywhere doing their
part in religious work.
Bar Banquet 1887
Shortly after the re-election of Judge Fran-
cis (',. I lamer as district judge of the enormous
district then comprising the greater portion of
the western end of the state, a complimentary
banquet was tendered him at the old Railroad
eating house at Sidney on December 14, 1887.
mention ni the time and the place
would prove that in modern parlance, "some
time" was had by all those who were fortu-
nate enough to be present. A roster of those
who were present will serve to awaken many
memories and it will also serve as a pretty
complete directory of those who took a promi-
nent part in the local and district governmental
affairs of the large territory then embraced in
Cheyenne county. Naturally there were not
very many resident lawyers in that vicinity at
that date, so in this list will be found the men-
tion of numerous other attorneys who used to
journey to Sidney when court was in session
there. Surviving members of this list have as-
sured the compilor that this occasion was one
that had not been forgotten in the thirty-three
years since it took place, and that they had ex-
perienced no social occasion that could come up
to this one.
Those recorded as being present were : Hon.
Geo. W. Heist, toastmaster ; F. G. Hamer,
guest of honor; General H. A. Morrow; Major
J. J. Mcintosh ; Attorneys J. J. Halligan, E. M.
Day, of Ogallala; Judge Lacey, of Cheyenne;
J. E. Alexander ; J. W. Bartholemew, of Grand
Island; J. W. Brewster, Court Reporter; J.
M. Adams, Register of United States Land
! >fnce ; C. B. Blakeley, Receiver of United
States Land Office; Major George Laing, C.
D. Esseg, Judge J. J. Neubauer ; City Council-
man M. T. Tobin, C. Trognitz, Joseph Ober-
felder ; County Judge A. Pease, Postmaster A.
J. Brennan, L. B. Cary, County Clerk elect.
F. L. Smith, County Commissioner. W. P.
Miles, ludge Shuman, Tudge J. W. Norvell,
W. C. Reilley, Thos. Kane. City Marshal;
Judge W. S. Beall; Henry St. Rayner; E. O.
Lee ; T- F. Wellington, of the Democrat, and
J. C. Bush of the Telegram.
Cheyenne County Bar
The Bar of Cheyenne county has been rep-
resented by men of ability and sound judgment
since the courts were stablished. The first law-
yers to practice in Sidney and Cheyenne coun-
ty were Messrs. Heist, Bierbower, Kane and
Norval. Many other lawyers have been men-
tioned on other pages of this history where
their many activities in the interests of the
county have been recounted. The 'present
members of the Cheyenne County Bar are: W.
P. Miles, the oldest member and dean; H. E.
Gapen, J. L. Mcintosh, Joseph Oberfelder, A.
Warren. Paul Martin. C. S. Radcliffe. W. H.
Hodgkin, Thomas Powell and J. L. Tewell.
Many hard and difficult cases have been fought,
won and lost in the county by the well known
lawyers and at all times their integrity and
HISTORY OF WKSTERX NEBRASKA
high standards have been maintained. As a
rule, the community now is not involved ex-
tensively in litigation.
The Medical Profession
In the early days there were few physicians
in Cheyenne county, but with the gradual set-
tlement, doctors came into this wild, newly set-
tled country and here became established to aid
and succor the people. The first physician was
Dr. Boggs, who served a large part of the
county around Sidney. He was followed by
Dr. J. G. Ivy in the" fall of 1878. The first
dentists in this section were the Urmy broth-
ers. With the passing years well known pro-
fessional men have opened offices and today the
medical fraternity is well represented by the
following: Doctors Mantor, Eichner, Roche,
Taylor, Simons, Schwartzlander, regular phy-
sicians ; Doctors Donahoe, Pettibone, Webster
and Witham, dentists ; Dr. Montgomery, opti-
cian and Dr. Barger, osteopath. Dr. A. J.
James is the physician at Potter.
CHAPTER IX
THE WORLD WAR
Immediately upon the entrance of the United
States into the World War, Cheyenne county
organized for practical co-operation, determin-
ed to help the government in every way. The
prominent business men and bankers of the
different towns formed a county council of de-
fense. The different bond drives were organ-
ized and successfully carried out and all went
over to the top. The people in every commun-
ity assembled in their halls, churches and school
rooms and the interest manifested by them was
remarkable. The complete list of the men who
served in the army and navy from Cheyenne
county has been sent to Xational Headquar-
ters but the First Xational Bank of Sidney
compiled as complete a list as it is possible
to obtain at this time, which is as follows :
Anderson, Royal; Andrews. Glenn M. ;
Anderson, Emery Evert; Aldrich, J.; Arm-
strong, Raymond William ; Anderson, Emil ;
Anderson, Edward Christian ; Ahlm, Sexton
David V. ; Bangert, Harry Fred ; Brott, John
Peter ; Bassett, Kenneth ; Blackwell, Wesley ;
Bryan, Ilyod McKinley ; Bartholamew, Leo A. ;
Bentley, Charlton B. ; Bolm, William A. ; Burk-
land, Edgar ; Borquist, Carl August ; Baum-
bach, Herman R. ; Brachtenbach, John ; Ben-
nett, Geo. Elmer ; Baker, George ; Baker,
Harry B. ; Bixby, Harry L. ; Bates, Glen ;
Bennett, John Wesley; Baliff, Lee M. ; Cook,
Funston ; Costello, John ; Collins, John Era ;
Coons, John Willet ; Carey. George Howard ;
Cheeney, Walter Aney; Coder, Ralph; Clark,
Robert Glenwood ; Christensen, Andrew ; Clos-
man, Esbon Tohn ; Couch, Asa Thomas ; Coates,
Roy ; Calwell, Fred ; Couch, James Clarence ;
Copeman, Andrew C. ; Cook, Simmons W. ;
dishing, Fred A. ; Clinton, Ray Lawrence ;
Chambers, Allen; Chambers, Guy ; Clark, Carl ;
Cook, Delbert; Davis, James; Davis, Walter
F. ; Daniel, Lee Marion ; Durnell, Lennie ; Ded-
rick, Russell Franklin; Dedrick, Guy Clayton;
DiMarks, Joe; Dowing, Oliver Holden; Doofe,
Henry; Dunbar, Charles T. ; Dennv, Alva H.;
Durnell, Rov Forest; Durnell, Fail; Evans,
William; Edner. Alfred; Ells, David; Ehmke,
Herman; Farr, Charles; Fenske, Oscar E. ;
Fuller, James Hubert ; Francis. Clarence ; Fine,
Samuel"; Flora. Floyd F. ; Fine, Joseph; Green-
lee, Rov C. ; Greenlee, Albert David; Gould.
Ernest 'P. ; Grabill. Blaine Chester; Gregory,
Harry Edward; Gross, Charley: Gundel, Fred
E. ; Grabill, Isaac Elmer. Jr. ; Grant. Lawrence
C; Gould. Henry; Could. William; Griffith,
198
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Ferl ; Green, Albert ; Heinzman, Paul ; Harper,
John \Y. ; Hargens, William; Hajek, Alonis ;
Hatcher, Grover; Herbert, Francis James;
Heise, Paul; Henrickson, William August;
Harmsen, August; Hite, Guy Victor; Hutch-
inson, Carl Henry ; Hahler, Frank ; Henke,
Peter; Hopkins, Oliver Lee ; Hornby, Paul D. ;
Hink, Otto P.; Haiston, Frank E. ; Hedges,
Roy ; Hornby, Paul ; Hedges, Allen ; Hulsland-
er, C. A. ; Johnson, Henry Iven ; Johnson, Os-
car N. ; Judd, Soloman ; Johnson, Bastian J. ;
Johnson, John ; Johnson, Ralph Palmer ; Jones,
Henry C. ; Jones, Hugh T. ; Jackson, Glenn ;
Johnson. Albert ; Kluck, Rudolph ; Kucera,
Joseph T. ; Kottwitz, Henry Chas. ; Konlrou-
lis, Mike ; Knudson. Knud Olaf ; Greuger,
Elmer Jay ; Kelley, Emerson W. ; King, F. A. ;
Kucera, James ; Kretz, Winfield ; Lawson,
Charles A. ; Loval, William Carl ; Lingwall,
John Albert ; Ledbetter, Carl ; Lampros, Alex ;
Lorimore, Kenneth Claire ; Langhram, James
Arthur ; Lauritsen, William ; Lindberg, Oscar
R.R ; Lund, Leonard F. ; Lewis, David G.
Livoni, Max ; Ledbetter, Frank ; McGrane
James M. ; McDaniel, James Willis ; McKin
ney, Fred Alvin ; McMillan, Clyde Harold
McKean, Elroy; McFadden, John; Mills, R
C. ; Meier, Marhew ; Mauero, Angelo ; Mahlke :
Ernest; Martin, Llewellyn; Mead, George
Wesley ; Moore, Sidney Allen ; Marvin, Ern-
est; Mickley, William; Mariotte, Lewis; Ma-
son, Clarence Lewis ; Miller, Lawrence Wil-
liam ; Martin, Paul L. ; Miller, Don Leo;
Mann, C. L. ; Mohatt, James; Millett, C. P.;
Melroes, Harry ; Mitchell. James ; Mikkelson,
Bert ; Neilson, Christian Emil ; Neil, Fred Lee ;
Neilson, Jens ; Otten, Oakley ; Osborne, Jess ;
Oberfelder, Irving T. ; Pavlat, Frank ; Pappis,
George ; Peetz, John ; Price, Milo Earl ; Pin-
dell, Isaac Lee : Panabaker, Earling F. ; Parks,
John Clayton ; Perry, Clarence Harvey ; Parks,
Charles Fred ; Pierce, Wm. E. ; Perry, Charles ;
Robinson, Henry Andrew ; Roberts, Russell C. ;
Raddatz. Alfred John ; Russell. Verne Wesley;
Runge, Frederick ; Runge, Edward ; Reisdorff,
Jake: Ruttner, Edward; Roche, R. E. ;
Spearow, Herschel ; Spearow, Lynn ; Simo-
dynes, Joseph ; Sauer, Hughlen O. ; Schimpy,
Frederick C. ; Shoemaker, Edward Joseph ;
Stikal, Joe J.; Straight, Albert Peter; Sulli-
van. John Lawrence; Semoian, Naazov;
Sparks, Harry; Stratta. James: Shea. Thomas
Lawrence; Schroeder, Frank Rudolph; Stow-
ell, David: Schwartz, Harry Benjamine;
Schroeder, Sidney .Albert ; Straight, Walter F. ;
Spitler, Roy C. ; Swanson, Lynn Theodore;
Slawson, Hugh; Studt, Fred; Schwartz, Fran-
- i : Troidl, Michael; Tewell, James Leonard;
i. Thomas V.; Vacik, Jerry C. ;
Vaughn, Fred W. ; Venturelli, Antonio ; Walsh,
William Stephen ; Wilburn, John Ernest ; Wills,
Pearl; Wright, Charles Thomas; Wise, Earl;
Wills, Grover Cleveland; Wilson, Alva Wil-
liams ; Wooldridge, Clark ; White, Arthur C. ;
Willis, Wm.; Wright, Elmer; Wright, Clar-
ence ; Wright, Milton ; Wallace, Gerald ; Wal-
lace, Cyril; Witters, John.
The Legion of Honor was organized at Sid-
ney by the returned soldiers, also at Lodge-
pole and Potter. The Sidney organization has
about a third of the returned veterans of
Cheyenne county on its rolls. The organiza-
tion at Potter was established in January, 1921,
that at Lodgepole was earlier. Attorney Mar-
tin was the head of the Legion in Sidney last
year and the present officers are: Morley
Pearson, commander; I. L. Pindell, vice-com-
mander; Frank Schroeder, financier; Roy
Greenlee, Adjutant and Charles Marsh, ser-
geant-at-arms.
The Red Cross
Soon after the outbreak of hostilities of the
World War a chapter of the American Red
Cross was established in Cheyenne county and
did valiant service throughout the war, and is
now engaged in splendid work of relief at
home. Mrs. C. W. West was head of the Sid-
ney organization and proved an excellent ex-
ecutive. Leon Fine, the retiring treasurer of
the Sidney Red Cross Society turned over to
successor ten thousand, two hundred and seven-
ty-seven dollars, which testifies to the growth
and stability of the organization at the present
time.
Conclusion
In all the history of the Panhandle, Chey-
enne county and Sidney will hold their places
in the progress and development of the section.
From Sidney has radiated that civilization and
progressive spirit that has changed the Pan-
handle from a wilderness to the homes of a
rich farming and agricultural community, to-
day a wide reach of land that is rich and fer-
tile. The start was made by the building of
the Union Pacific railroad ; the building of the
Burlington has given Cheyenne county a stra-
getic position, as it has also Sidney, which will
become a distributing center for the two lines
of railroad. Though Cheyenne county is much
reduced in size from the "old Cheyenne" coun-
ty, it has retained rich land of great fertility.
A large proportion of the county is suitable
for cultivation. There is little waste land and
only a small part is rough. Cheyenne bids well
to become one of the richest counties in the
Panhandle.
BOX BUTTE COUNTY
CHAPTER I
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY
Box Butte county had its first inception in
the minds of its citizens during the summer
months of 1886. The one thousand and eighty
square miles now comprising Box Butte coun-
ty was at that time the southern half of Dawes
county. The reason of this was the great dis-
tance from Chadron, the county seat. The av-
erage distance was sixty miles, which the peo-
ple were compelled to travel, by team or on
horseback, in order to pay their taxes, serve on
juries, and attend to their legal matters. The
population of this territory had grown to be
about three thousand people, which was prob-
ably as great a number as lived in the northern
half of the county.
A convention was held during the summer of
1886, and at that convention it was decided that
steps be taken to secure a division of Dawes
county and that the new county erected in the
south half, if division succeeded, should be
called Box Butte county. Committees were ap-
pointed, petitions were circulated and unani-
mously signed, asking the County Commission-
ers of Dawes county to submit the question of
county division to a vote of the people at the
general election to be held in November of that
year. The Commissioners granted the request,
and at the November election a majority of the
votes were cast in favor of division. The gov-
ernor of Nebraska, Honorable John M. Thayer,
issued a proclamation designating a special
election, at which election the people of the
new county were to choose a location for their
county seat, and elect a complete set of county
officers.
Of the one thousand or more voters partici-
pating in that election held thirty-four years
ago, but few are still residents of the county.
Among those recalled are E. I. Gregg, who
with his good wife were very industrious in
circulating the petition asking for county divi-
sion. Other residents of Alliance who partici-
pated in that, election are R. M. Hampton, F.
M. Knight, Robert Garrett, John O'Keefe, Si
Coker, Moses Wright, C. H. Underwood,
Julius Atz, Jack Mettlen, Henry Clayton,
George Gadshy, and possibly a few others.
Prior to this special election, political conven-
tions were held when Democrats and Republi-
cans each nominated a complete ticket of candi-
dates for the county offices. The country being
rather thinly settled and no rapid means of
communication, people were unable to become
personally or intimately acquainted with the re-
spective candidates, and apparently went to the
polls and voted their party tickets. This re-
sulted in the election of the entire Republican
ticket.
There were two candidates for the location
of county seat: Nonpareil and Hemingford.
They were two cross-road villages of about
equal size, each having a couple of stores,
blacksmith shop, bank, law and locater's of-
fices, and Nonpareil had a newspaper and
Hemingford had two. Nonpareil received a
majority of votes and was declared the county
seat of the new county.
The county officers were as follows : County
Clerk, George W. Clark ; Treasurer, Eli Ger-
ber; Sheriff, Fred A Shonquist ; County At-
torney, James H. Danskin ; Surveyor, Charles
A. Barney; County Superintendent, N. S.
Simpson ; Coroner, Doctor John Blood ; County
Commissioners, James Barry, Louis C. De-
Coudress, and a Delbert S. Reed.
When the result of the election became
known, Judge-elect Field drove to Chadron and
there took the oath of office as County Judge,
returned to Nonpareil and administered the
oath of office to his associate officers. He ap-
proved the bonds of the county commissioners,
who immediately met in special session and
commenced to plan to launch the new county
upon its career as a struggling commonwealth.
The first set of officers elected proved to be
careful, able and painstaking officers. The
county did not have a dollar in its treasury,
200
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
not a dollar of tax had been levied, and its
credit had yet to be established.
Nonpareil, the County Skat
The people of Nonpareil, as an inducement
or bribe to the voters, had made a pre-election
promise that in case Nonpareil was chosen as
the county capital, that they, the people of
Nonpareil would, at their own expense, erect
a frame courthouse suitable to house the coun-
iv officers and in which to transact the coun-
ty's business. This promise they fulfiLled by
erecting a flimsy frame structure, twenty by
thirty feet in dimensions, one and a half stories
in height. This building was not plastered,
neither did it have a chimney, the floors were
all rough boards, counters, tables and other
furniture was manufactured out of rough
sawn Pine Ridge lumber by local carpenters.
A large fire proof safe, costing one thousand
dollars was bought on long time payments,
which the commissioners promised to pay
when funds were derived from taxation. This
was completed .in May or June of 1887. A
small jail, containing two cells, built of two
by four scantling securely spiked together and
covered with a rought board roof was also
erected.
The first duty of County Clerk Clark was to
take an assistant and go to Chadron and tran-
scribe the records of the county which per-
tained to the few tracts of deeded land, mort-
gages, and other legal records, which were ne-
cessary, and the basis of the present county
records. There were verv few duties for the
new county officers to discharge, outside of
those of the Countv Clerk. Clerk of the Dis-
trict Court, and the County Judge. There
were no taxes collected during that year, and
the County Treasurer spent a few days only
of his time at the new county seat.
This set of county officers were elected to
serve for the remainder of the year 1887, a
period of about nine months, and their suc-
cessors were elected at the election held No-
vember 4. 1S87. After a very warm political
battle staged between the Republican and
Democratic parties, with the Prohibitionists
casting aboul thirty votes in the county, a
ticket composed of both Democrats and 'Re-
publicans was elected. The Pepublicans elect-
ed Fred V Shonquist, Sheriff; A. L. Field,
County Judee; Doctor W. II. Smith, Coroner;
while the Democrats elected John O'Keefe,
County Treasurer; [olm Leith, County Su-
perintendenl : C. V Burlew, County Clerk ; and
Thomas L. Irvine. Robert R. Ralls. Charles
Nichols, Countv Commissioners.
The upper story of the courthouse was fitted
up as a court room, and the first term of Dis-
trict Court for the new county was held in June,
1887, with Honorable M. P. Kinkaid, our pres-
ent congressman, as Judge, with A. L. Warrick
official reporter. There were not many cases
of importance tried at this term of court.
Nonpareil continued to be the seat of coun-
ty government until the first day of January,
1891, a period of three and one-half years.
The Burlington railroad having been built
diagonally through the county during the
spring and summer of 1889, passing through
the new town of Alliance which had sprung
up in the meantime, and the village of Hem-
How the Court Hocse in Alliance, Nebraska,
WAS MOVED TO HemINGFORII, THE NEW COUNTY
Seat of Boy Butte County, by the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Railroad
ingford, and missing the county seat by a dis-
tance of five miles, a movement was started
seeking to locate the county seat on the rail-
road. Petitions were circulated and largely
signed, asking the County Commissioners to
submit the question of re-location at a special
election. This special election on the question
of re-locating the countv seat was called for
Tuesday, the 7th day of March, 1890. Three
places were voted for at this election, namely :
Alliance, Hemingford and Nonpareil. Neither
of these places received the necessary three-
fifths vote required for removal, so it was ne-
cessary to call a second special election, which
was done by the Commissioners, and the elec-
tion held on Tuesday, the 8th day of April,
1890. This election was also indecisive, al-
though Nonpareil failing to receive the neces-
sary two-fifths vote which would enable it to
retain the county seat, dropped out as a can-
didate, and, under the law, the decisive elec-
tion went over until the general election in
November.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
201
Hemingford, Seat of Government
At this election, Alliance and Hemingford
were the opposing candidates and it was only
necessary for one or the other to receive a
bare majority of the votes cast to become the
county seat on the first day of January fol-
lowing. This election was the most bitterly
fought contest that ever occurred in the coun-
ty
Following a tacit agreement or understand-
ing, which had been entered into between the
officials of the Burlington
The people of Alliance were sorely disap-
pointed and felt very bitter at the opposition,
especially the action of the railroad company,
and were at first disposed to not abide by the
decision of the voters. Their first plan was to
seize the county records from the flimsy court-
house at Nonpareil, convey them to Alliance
by force of arms, contest the election in the
hope that by showing that fraudulent votes
had been cast they might eventually reverse
the decision rendered at the polls by appeal
to the courts. This plan was not put into op-
ration because they learned that the Burling-
County Court House. Alliance.
sidary corporation, the Lincoln Land Com-
pany, parties of the first part, and the respec-
tive citizens of Alliance, parties of the sec-
ond part, it was agreed and understood that
the new town of Alliance should be made a di-
vision point and shops established, which fac-
tors would be the foundation for a thriving
city, and that Hemingford should be given the
county seat, which would make of it a thriv-
ing town ; and this arrangement would enable
the Lincoln Land Company to make a market
for its town lots in both towns, of which it
was the owner. This agreement the railroad
officials kept to the best of their ability, and
as a result there were one hundred and twenty-
six votes cast in Alliance in favor of Heming-
ford for the county seat. This enabled Hem-
ingford to win by a majority of sixteen votes.
ton officials had an engine fired up and a coach
attached, loaded with Burlington detectives,
special agents, and other employees, which
they intended using upon evidence that the
mob had left Alliance. This special train was
to have been run to Hemingford and the posse
coin-eyed by team, a distance of five miles, to
Nonpareil, and would be there to defend the
seizure of the records upon the arrival of the
raiding party. However, the then county of-
ficials, of whom the author was one, supported
by the sheriff. Eugene Hall, armed with Win-
chesters guarded the records and had the raid-
ers appeared they would have met a very warm
reception.
The county seat was moved from Nonpareil
to Flemingford on January 1st. 1891. The
county officials occupied temporary quarters
202
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
from then until the May following, when the
commodious courthouse which had been prom-
ised by the people of Hemingford, backed by
the Lincoln Land Company, was erected.
Hemingford remained the county seat from
the latter date until the month of March, 1899,
when by a large majority vote of the people,
cast at a special election held previously, it
was moved to Alliance, where the officials oc-
cupied temporary quarters in the Phelan Opera
Block until the following July.
Alliance, the County Seat
In the meantime, the county commissioners
purchased of the Lincoln Land Company, to
whom it had reverted, the Hemingford court-
house, at a price of fifteen hundred dollars.
This was moved to the present court house site.
at Alliance on the Burlington railroad, and
was considered a great engineering feat. The
building was forty-five by fifty-four feet with
trussed roof forty feet in height. E. W. Bell,
yet a resident of Alliance, superintended the
removal. This court house was used for coun-
ty purposes until November, 1914, when the
present magnificent court house was completed
and occupied.
Towns and Villages of the County
The first village in the county was old Non-
pareil, first called Buchanan because many of
the settlers in the immediate vicinity came
from the town of Buchanan, Michigan, and
desired that the new town be called after their
old home town. This name was later changed
to Nonpareil, at the instigation of Gene Heath,
eidtor and publisher of its sole newspaper
called "Gene Heath's Grip," in imitation of
those frontier publications, "Bill Barlow's
Budget" and "Bill Nye's Boomerang." Mr.
Heath being a printer, the word Nonpareil
which is the name of printers' type appealed to
him as more euphonious than that of Buchan-
an. He being a Democrat and influential with
the then Democratic Administration, he was in-
fluential enough to have the postoffice named
in accordance with his wishes- — -Nonpareil.
This village, at the time the county seat was
located there, consisted of two general stores,
a blacksmith shop, two livery barns, one bank,
one newspaper, two hardware stores, a harness
shop, one law office, one feed store, lumber
yard and agricultural implement depot com-
bined. Nonpareil ceased to exist soon after
ili'- removal of tin- county seat to Hemingford
in 1891, There is nothing left to mark its site
frame school house which yet stands
five miles south and one mile west of Heming-
ford.
The village of Hemingford was founded and
was named by several natives of Canada,
among whom were R. McLeod, J. W. Roberts,
J. S. Paradis, J. K. Green, Joseph Hare and
others. The name Hemingford was adopted
because of old associations with a town of that
name in Canada. The postoffice was called
Carlyle, and was located four miles due east
of the present site of Hemingford, and F. W.
Milek was the first postmaster. This post-
office, with the consent of the postal depart-
ment, was transferred to Hemingford, but
still retained its name Carlyle for a year af-^
terward.
There was another yillage and postoffice
fourteen miles due east of Hemingford, called
Box Butte postoffice, but it never boasted but
one store, postoffice, a blacksmith shop, a no-
tary public, and real estate office. Like most
villages, it had what was then well known as
a Locator's office, a term now obsolete. The
business of this functionary was to secure gov-
ernment plats from the land office of the dis-
trict in which he was located, showing the gov-
trnment land unfiled upon, and which for a
fee of ten to twenty-five dollars he would show
to the prospective homesteader, prepare his
filing papers and locate him upon the vacant
quarter section which he selected.
Another village was thirteen miles west
and one mile north of Hemingford, which was
called Lawn. It had a postoffice and store
combined.
The city of Alliance was unknown or un-
heard of at the organization of the county. It
really had its inception on the 27th day of
May, 1887. On this date the department of
public lands of the state of Nebraska, through
its commissioner, advertised in the public press
that all school lands in Box Butte county,
which consisted of sections sixteen and thirty-
six in each township would be offered for
sale to the highest bidder on the following
terms :
No land would be sold for less than
seven dollars per acre.
If a bid of seven dollars was received
and no higher bid made, it would be sold
to the bidder on payment of one-tenth of
the purchase price down, and the balance
in twenty-one years at six percent interest.
If not sold, it would be offered for lease
at its appraised value, the lessee to pay
six percent per annum on that appraise-
ment which ranged from one dollar and a
quarter to four dollars per acre.
This auction was held in front of the Bank
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
203
of Nonpareil, the court house not yet having
been completed. Deputy- Land Commissioner,
J. S. Scott, was in charge of this sale, but little
of the land offered found buyers until section
thirty-six, township twenty-five, range forty-
eight, the present site of Alliance, was reached
in its order. This brought on spirited bidding.
J. B. Weston, representing the Lincoln Land
Company, bid seven dollars per acre on the
first forty acre tract offered for sale. This
bid was immediately raised by J. H. Sigafoos,
and the land was bid up and finally sold to J.
B. Weston for forty-three dollars per acre.
Bidding on other forty acre tracts was just as
spirited, being sold to the same purchaser for
prices ranging from thirty-three to forty dol-
lars per acre. Finally the last forty acre tract,
it being where South Alliance is now located,
was dropped to Mr. Sigafoos at a price of
thirty-eight dollars per acre.
The high price which this land brought was
convincing proof to the people of western Ne-
braska that upon the arrival of the Burlington
railroad then building westward, this would
be made an important division point with shops
and other things calculated to make a large
and thriving city, all of which expectations
have been realized.
The purchase of this school section at the
land sale deeded it to the Lincoln Land Com-
pany. In the hope of counting on the building
of the city, people came from different parts
of Nebraska and surrounding states to the em-
bryo town, but the Lincoln Land Company re-
fused to plat a town site and offer the lots
for sale until after the arrival of the railroad.
These people congregated into a mushroom
town or community on the deeded land of
Samuel A. Smith, just east of the present town,
where the dump ground and pest house are
now located. This was named Grand Lake,
and during the late summer of 1887 it became
a typical western village of probably a thou-
sand people. It had four banks, two news-
papers, several general merchandise stores,
livery stable, hotels, a blacksmith shop, and
residences, all housed in rude structures built
of rough Pine Ridge lumber, supplemented
by canvas.
The railroad grade of the Burlington which
had been rapidly pushed westward during the
spring and summer of this year from Anselmo,
closely followed by the laying of rails, reached
Alliance about January 1st, 1888. A station
was opened and named Alliance, the company
refusing to recognize the name Grand Lake
because of its similarity to that of Grand Is-
land, which it was claimed would result in a
confusion in train orders. F. M. Phelps, a
resident of Alliance, was the first agent.
Following this the town site was platted, re-
corded and widely advertised throughout the
east, and a sale of town lots in the coming me-
tropolis of Alliance was held on the 25th day
of February, 1888. To assist in bringing peo-
ple to the new city, the Burlington railroad,
through posters and the press advertised that
they would run an excursion train from all
Missouri river points to Alliance and return,
and the fare for the rcmd trip would be five
dollars. This brought a train load of pros-
pective citizens, mechanics, artisans, merchants,
hotel men, and included all the elements that
generally rush to a new mining discovery or
a new town. The little village of Grand Lake
was overrun and was unable to adequately
shelter or feed the train load of excursionists.
Many men came already prepared to go into
business, their stocks of goods were bought,
lumber was in cars on sidetracks with which to
erect buildings, there was an abundance of
carpenters, plasterers and other workmen who
had come with their tool boxes all prepared
to build a city.
At the lot sale, the first lot offered was the
one where the First National Bank now stands.
It brought fourteen hundred and fifty dollars,
and was purchased by Porter Eihlers & Com-
pany. This firm had been in the banking busi-
ness in a temporary structure in the town of
Grand Lake, and they immediately proceeded
to erect on this lot a frame building of the same
size as the present bank building. In this they
opened the State Bank known as Porter Eihlers
& Company.
The next lot sold was directly opposite,
where the Alliance National Bank now stands,
and this was purchased by the Bank of Alli-
ance, which later merged into the Alliance
National Bank, and of which F. M. Knight
was then cashier, and has remained in the
hands of the original purchasers since that
time. This lot was sold for one thousand and
fifty dollars.
The prices from these corners extending
back were graded down where the lot upon
which the present Chinese laundry is located
sold for six hundred dollars. Some residence
lots were sold in the vicinity of Sixth and
Cheyenne Avenues at prices ranging from two
hundred to three hundred dollars.
The building of a town immediately com-
menced, there being an abundance of lumber,
nails, hardware, lime and other building ma-
terials on hand with a large supply of skilled
workmen. The first eight business blocks
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
from the depot northward were rapidly chang-
ed from raw prairie into a bustling town. More
than one hundred buildings were under con-
struction at the same time. As soon as they
were roofed over the people from Grand Lake
began moving into them so that by the Fourth
of July of that year Alliance probably had
a population of two thousand people.
At this time Alliance had no form of civil
government, but it realized that this was neces-
sary. After a lapse of a few months a mass
meeting was held and it was decided to incor-
porate as a village under the laws of the state.
A petition was presented to the county com-
missioners asking that it be incorporated under
the name of the village of Alliance and that
five village trustees be appointed to serve until
the following April when a regular election
would be held and regular trustees elected
thereat. The first board of trustees consisted
of F. M. Sands, J. C. Weeter. C. F. Grant,
W. (',. Simonson, and F. YV. Markham.
Alliance continued under the village form
of government until 1891 when it changed to a
city of the second class with a mayor and
four councilmen. It was divided into two
wards. The first ward comprised the territory
lying west of Box Butte Avenue, and the sec-
ond all that lying east of Box Butte Avenue.
Frank H. Smith was Alliance's first mayor.
Mr. Smith was chief clerk to the division su-
perintendent of the Burlington, J. R. Phelan.
He was succeeded by R. M. Hampton as may-
or, who filled that position during the instal-
lation of the city's svstem of waterworks in
1892.
Alliance remained a terminus of the Burling-
ton railroad from January, 1888, until the
track was laid northwestward in September,
1889. During this year and a half, being the
rail head, it was a very lively place. All ma-
terial for the building of Belmont tunnel, cul-
vert pipe, machinery for the Newcastle coa
mines and supplies for the grading camps from
Alliance to Newcastle was freighted by team
from Alliance out along the right of way.
Hundreds of men were shipped out from east-
ern centers to work on the grade and Alliance
with its six saloons did a thriving business
with hoboes. However, it was fairly orderly,
considering the character of its floating popu-
lation, only one or two murders being com-
mitted during that time.
Alliance continued to grow and thrive until
the panic and hard limes of 1893 and 1894,
when for a few years it seemed to conic to a
standstill — neither increased nor decreased in
. n new life in the spring
'Inn the Burlington commenced to
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
205
build southward when the Platte Valley line
was built and later in the summer extended
on southward to Denver. Since that time it
has had a steady and healthy growth, until at
the present time it has become a leading city
in western Nebraska, with a population of over
five thousand people.
Agricultural and Live Stock Industries
This is primarily an agricultural country,
ninety-five percent of its total area is tillable.
Only about sixty percent of this is in actual
hogs during the summer season and the corn
to finish them in the fall. Hog cholera is
unknown.
Dairy products are of much importance.
The county has one large creamery, which
uses a large percent of the native product, but
considerable is shipped to outside factories.
The Snake Creek valley, having an average
width of five miles and a length of thirty miles,
produces a great deal of w r ild hay. On the
table lands straw, corn fodder, alfalfa and
kaffir corn are used for rough feed. Many
farmers have adopted the silo method of pre-
High School, Alliance
cultivation, the remainder being unbroken
prairie used for pasture when used at all. The
soil is rich, porous and very productive. It-
contains potash, sufficient for renewal and fer-
tilization, and is consequently inexhaustible.
Land farmed continuously for thirty years
produced greater crops the last year than the
first. The soil is especially adapted to the pro-
duction of potatoes, it being sufficiently sandy
and loose to enable them to reach enormous
growth, and being raised without irrigation,
they are of splendid quality and keep well into
the following year.
The next largest crop is of small grain —
wheat, oats, rye and barley all making satis-
factory yields. Corn is a secondary crop, but
the yield is continuously increased so that
many more hogs are raised than formerly.
Alfalfa is increasing in acreage and importance
every year. This crop is used to pasture the
serving ensilage. The soil is very easily cul-
tivated and the surface being very nearly level,
farm labor is very light compared with that
of eastern states.
Cattle, horses, and hogs are raised. The
cattle industry is of considerable importance.
The cattle grow rapidly on the nutritious feed
produced and are sigularly free from all di-
seases.
Manufacturing and Industrial Plants
Owing to the great distance from the coal
fields, the county has hut little manufacturing.
Harness, saddle, tinware, water tanks, ice
cream and butter are manufactured in suffi-
cient quantities to supply the adjacent terri-
tory.
Railroads
Box Butte county has hut one railroad. The
Burlington traverses it from southeast to
21V,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
northwest, havinga mileageof forty-two miles,
with a branch line connecting with the Platte
Valley branch and Denver connections with a
total mileage of fourteen miles. It main-
tains a division station with a division superin-
tendent, also offices of a general superinten-
dent having supervision over four other divi-
sions, large roundhouse with shops for the re-
pair of its rolling stock. About eight hundred
employes in normal times are on the pay-
tion of their children. These pioneer schools
first were conducted in a small room of a
private house, in a dugout, or any other shel-
ter that was available until school houses could
be erected. As the county grew, these primi-
tive school houses gave way to modern frame
school houses equipped with the best appliances
for teaching, and all school books are provided
for the pupils at public expense. There are
now two graded high schools in the county,
School, Alliance
roll, which averages one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars per month, and is one of the
county's principal resources.
Public Institutions
There are no state of public institutions lo-
cated in this county.
• Schools
The people of Box Butte county have al-
ways been deeply interested in having the best
schools that their means could afford. The
very earliesl settlers considered the school of
sufficient importance that among their first
public act- was to organize school districts, tax
and provide schools for the educa-
the one at Hemingford occupying two build-
ings and employing five teachers. The public
schools of Alliance occupy three large com-
modious buildings with a superintendent and a
corps of thirty teachers. More than one thou-
sand pupils are enrolled.
The great interest which the people of the
county take in their schools, and the import-
ance with which they are considered, is shown
by the fact that more than one-half of the
money raised by taxation in the county is used
for the support of its schools.
In addition to the public schools there is
located at Alliance St. Agnes' Academy, a
parochial school, which is graded and has the
same course of instruction as the high school,
with an average attendance of two hundred
and twenty-five pupils.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
207
CHAPTER II
CHURCHES — THE PRESS — THE
PROFESSIONS AND BUSINESSES
Practically all of the leading church de-
nominations have organizations and church
buildings in the county. The Catholics have
churches in Alliance and Hemingford and
Lawn. The Methodists have churches at Al-
liance, Hemingford, and at Fairview, twelve
miles northeast of Alliance. The Baptists,
Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Seventh Day
Adventists, and Lutherans each maintain a
church in Alliance. The Congregationalists
have a church in Hemingford.
The people are sufficiently interested in re-
ligious matters to support their ministers, as
well or better than in other communities of
much larger population.
The Salvation Army maintains a corps at
Alliance, being one of only five in the entire
state of Nebraska.
Press
The press has played an important part in
the development of the county, and has had
many ups and downs, the number of papers
published varying at different times.
At the organization of the county in 1887,
there were three papers published, which is
the same number as at present. At Heming-
ford was published "The Gleaner," with Jo-
seph Hare as editor and Publisher. The "Box
Butte Rustler" was published by Charles A.
Burlew, while "Gene Heath's Grip" flourished
at Nonpareil. Soon after this "The Gleaner"
was purchased by Gilman Brothers, moved to
Nonpareil, and its name changed to that of
"Box Butte County Republican:" It survived
one year when it gave up the ghost.
During the summer of 1887 the "Northwest-
ern Times" was established at Nonpareil by
H. B. Fetz and W. E. Hitchcock. After two
months publication it was moved to Grand
Lake and its name changed to "Grand Lake
Times." In the spring of 1888 it was again
moved to the present town of Alliance and the
name changed to "Alliance Times," and con-
tinued under the same ownership and manage-
ment until 1892 when it was purchased by
H. J. Ellis, and continued under his ownership
and management for a number of years. Dur-
ing this time it was made a semi-weekly and
by Mr. Ellis sold to the present owner, Ben
J. Sallows. It has continuously increased in
influence and importance for a period of thirty-
four years.
The "Box Butte Rustler" ceased to exist
about 1890, and its printing machinery was
moved to Berea, and Mr. and Mrs. B. W. Ray-
mond established the "Berea Tribune" which.
after a dozen issues, also ceased to exist.
The original Nonpareil newspaper, "Gene
Heath's Grip" was moved to Alliance in 1890,
purchased by F. M. Broome, and its name
changed to the "Pioneer Grip." It continued
being published until about 1902 when this
business was taken over by its rivals and the
printing outfit sold to Crawford parties.
"The Guide" was established by J. S. Para-
dise at Hemingford in 1889 and its publication
continued there until the spring of 1898, when
it was moved to Alliance where it was pub-
lished for one year and was then absorbed by
its rivals.
Hemingford was without a newspaper about
a year when the "Hemingford Herald" was
established by T. J. O'Keefe. This was moved
to Alliance in 1901 and the name changed to
the "Alliance Herald." Mr. O'Keefe later, sold
it to J. W. and L. C. Thomas, who continued
its publication until 1920, when it passed,
into the hands of the present owners, Edwin
M. and George L. Burr, who publish it as the
"Alliance Semi-Weekly Herald."
There is one paper now published at Hem-
ingford known as the "Hemingford Ledger"
which is owned and published by A. M. Vance.
Other publications in the county with a brief
existence were the "Alliance Argus" and the
"Alliance Nezvs."
Bench and Bar
The bar of Box Butte county had its or-
ganization in 1887, and consisted of four law-
years. James H. Danskin and C. W. Gilman
were located at Hemingford, wdiile W. G.
Simonson and A. L. Field practiced at Non-
pareil. During the year 1887 their numbers
were increased by admission to practice of
R. M. Hampton, W. J. McCandless. J. V.
Parker and Smith P. Tuttle. Among the law-
yers arriving in the county and engaging in
practice during the next two years were B. F.
Gilman, J. P. Arnott, R. C. Noleman, Charles
T. Jenkins and William Mitchell. Mr. Mitch-
ell has been in continuous and successful prac-
tice for more than a third of a century, and is
at present the Dean of the Box Butte County
Bar.
The present bar consists of the law firms of
Boyd, Metz and Meyer, Mitchell and ('..-mi/.
;, |8
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Burton and Reddish, with L. A. Berry. F. A.
Bald, E. C. Barker. B. E. Romig and Lee
Basye as single practitioners.
Box Butte county was originally a part of
the twelfth judicial district which was created
by the legislature of 18S7. when the Honorable
Moses 1'. Kinkaid was appointed by the gover-
nor as first judge of the new- district. He
continued in this capacity until 1892 when the
district was given an additional judge, and the
Honorable Alfred Bartow, of Chadron was
made the colleague of Judge Kinkaid. This
district was about three hundred miles in
length, extending from the east line of Holt
county to the Wyoming state line. Judge
Bartow was succeeded by Honorable W. H.
Westover in 1896, who lias held the office
and is still judge of this district. Judge West-
over had for his colleague, after the election
of fudge Kinkaid to Congress, Judge J. J.
Harrington of O'Neill, Nebraska. Later the
district was divided. Judge Harrington pre-
siding over the new district created from the
eastern half, and Judge Westover presiding
over the new district created from the western
half.
In the county court, the first judge was A.
L. Field, who served two terms. Me was
succeeded by Judge D. K. Spacht, who served
two terms, followed by James H. H. Hewitt,
win i served two terms and was succeeded by
Bruce Wilcox, who served one term and was
succeeded by D. K. Spacht. who served one
term, followed by Abel Hill, who died after
a few months service and was succeeded by B.
F. Gilman, who served his unexpired term,
followed by L. A. Berry, who filled
the position for eleven years. Uwing to ill
health, Judge Berry retired January 1st, 1917,
and was succeeded by Ira F. Tash, the pres-
ent incumbent.
Medic \i. Profession
The medical profession at the organization
of the county was represented by Dr. John
Blood, practicing at Hemingford, Dr. W. H.
Smith looking after the physical ills of the
people of Nonpareil and vicinity. Dr. Blood
was a middle age man, wore a silk hat and full
beard, drove a fasl stepping team and made
quite a dignified appearance, and it was gen-
erally understood thai hi- knowledge of the
horse far exceeded his knowledge of the human
anatomy. Dr. Smith was a young practitioner
just mil of schooli whose principal claim of
distinction was a splendid nerve.
The first amputation performed in the coun-
ty wa< by Dr. Smith, who amputated the arm
of one Albert Nelson who was the victim of a
hunting accident. The doctor was not sup-
plied with up-to-date surgical instruments and
his kit was especially deficient in saws, so he
called upon a local carpenter, Mr. D. J. Lahr,
who consented to file one of his fine carpenter
saws to such a state that the doctor used it in
amputating Nelson's arm. Nelson being of
strong physique survived the operation.
During the summer of 1887, Dr. H. B.
Miller joined the profession and opened an
office at Nonpareil. The next amputation was
performed by Doctors Smith and Miller, who
amputated the limb of William Morton, a
victim of a gun shot wound, and as they con-
sumed most of a forenoon Morton did not sur-
vive the shock and died that night.
Dr. F. M. Knight was a regularly accredited
practitioner, but being engaged in the more
remunerative business of banking, practiced
but very little ; and, as he used homeopathic
remedies, he never was accused of doing any
harm, though he may not have done any good.
Dr. W. H. Smith is practicing in Los An-
geles, California, while Dr. H. B. Miller is
practicing in Lincoln Nebraska, and Dr. John
Blood is dead. The oldest practitioner now
practicing in the county is Dr. Luther W. Bow-
man, who came to Alliance in 1888 and has
been in continual practice since that time. An-
other of the pioneer doctors now retired was
Dr. W. K. Miller, yet living, who had an ex-
tensive practice and served the county in the
capacity of coroner for several terms.
There are now eleven members of the med-
ical profession in active practice, all of whom
seem to be quite busy, and with the facilities
afforded by St. Joseph's Hospital, which has a
capacity sufficient to care for fifty patients, the
health of the community is well cared for.
Banking and Finance
\\ hen the county was organized there were
three hanking institutions in operation within
its borders. These were the Box Butte Bank.
of which C. A. Burlew was president and
manager; The Farmers' & Merchants' Bank,
of which B. F. Jones was president and E. A.
Coates was cashier, both located at Heming-
ford. Nebraska; and the Bank of Nonpareil,
located at Nonpareil, with F. M. Sands, presi-
dent. II. C. Hashoff. cashier, and F. M. Knight.
assistant cashier. Each of these three banks
was capitalized at five thousand dollars. The
two former went into voluntary liquidation.
The Bank of Nonpareil, when Nonpareil
ceased to exist, hecame the Bank of Grand
I. .ike. later the Bank of Alliance, which was
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
209
merged into the Alliance National Bank and is
still operated with F. M. Knight as president,
who has been connected with it since its organi-
zation in 1886, and is therefore the dean of
banking circles in the county.
The next oldest bank in existence was started
in Alliance and called the American Bank, op-
erated under a state charter, which later ab-
sorbed the Citizens' Bank, and also took over
the business of Porter, Eihlers & Company,
and was continued under this name until the
fall of 1889, when it was reorganized with the
same officers and became the First National
Bank of Alliance. Its first president was O.
M. Carter, with R. M. Hampton, cashier and
D. M. Forgan, assistant cashier. Mr. Hamp-
ton is now president of the institution and has
been in the banking business continuously since
1888.
Among the other banks of the county was
the Bank of Hemingford, which was establish-
ed in 1888 and failed in 1895, and the Box
Butte Banking Company of Alliance, which
was founded in 1888 and failed in 1896. These
were the only two bank failures in the county
since its organization. The financial interests
of the county are now cared for by seven
banks : The Alliance National Bank, the First
National Bank, First State Bank and Guardian
State Bank, all of Alliance; the First State
Bank, First National Bank, and Farmers' State
Bank, of Hemingford.
Social and Fraternal Organizations
The first fraternal organization to organize
in the county was the Knights of Pythias, who
instituted Clarion Lodge No. 88 in the second
story of the courthouse at Nonpareil in Sep-
tember, 1888. This lodge was later moved to
Alliance, but after some years was discon-
tinued.
The next fraternal organization was that
of the Masons. A preliminary meeting was
held in November of that year, in the second
story of the wooden building on the north side
of west Third Street in Alliance, which is now
used as a cream station. Word was sent out
and about all the Masons living in Box Butte
county assembled in this small hall and selected
a committee to secure a dispensation from the
Grand Lodge of the state. This petition was
signed by the requisite number of Master Ma-
sons in good standing. Reverend Henry J.
Brown, a Presbyterian minister hitched his
two horse tandem to a high wheeled cart, and
he and Thomas Shurtz drove to Hay Springs
and secured the approval of that lodge. This
petition was presented to the Grand Lodge and
a dispensation issued in January, 1889, author-
izing Alliance Lodge to confer degrees.
The first officers were : Henry J Brown,
Worshipful Master; John Carman, Senior
Warden ; David Peters, Junior Warden ; J. W.
Phillips, Secretary; and H. W. Axtell, Treas-
urer.
In July, 1889, a charter was granted and the
name of Alliance Lodge No. 183, A. F. & A.
M., assigned, which has had a continuous ex-
istence since that time, and has grown to a
membership of over three hundred and fifty,
owns and occupies a fine three story temple at
the corner of Laramie Avenue and Third
Street in Alliance, which is also used by Sheba
Chapter No. 54, Royal Arch Masons, Bnena
Commandery No. 26, Knights Templar, Aloy-
ah Chapter No. 185, Order of the Eastern
Star, and Adoniram Lodge No. 6, Scottish
Rite Masons, with the institution of a consis-
tory and the order of the Mystic Shrine in the
near future.
The next oldest fraternal order was that of
the Independent ( Irder of Odd Fellows Lodge
No. 168 being established in Alliance, with
another lodge of the same order at Heming-
ford. The Odd Fellows also own their own
hall on West Third Street in Alliance.
The most recent fraternal organization to
organize in Alliance is that of the Knights of
Columbus, who have a large and growing mem-
bership with their hall located on Box Butte
Avenue between Third and Fourth.
The Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks
was organized in 1904 with William Mitchell
as its first Exalted Ruler. It has had a pros-
perous existence and continuous growth and
is numbered 961. It now has a membership of
over six hundred and owns a handsome build-
ing located on Box Butte Avenue between
Fourth and Fifth Streets.
Other fraternal orders which have had more
or less precarious existences are the Modern
Woodmen, Woodmen of the World. Ancient
Order of United Workmen, Highlanders,
Eagles, Owls, Modern Brotherhood of Ameri-
ca, as well as other fraternal labor organiza-
tions.
Among the social organizations are The
Rotary Club, Tost M., Travelers' Protective
Association, Lions Club, Country Club. Wom-
ans Club, P. E. O., while all of the churches
have their guilds and aid societies.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER III
MILITARY HISTORY
I >wing to its isolation, the county has never
taken any important part in the wars which
have occurred since its organization. The
first military unit formed in the county was
a troop of cavalry organized at Nonpareil dur-
ing the summer of 1888 and named in honor of
the then governor of the state, John M. Thay-
er. This consisted of forty-two members.
Temporary organization was formed by elect-
ing A. L. Field Captain ; F. M. Sands, First
Lieutenant ; Fred A. Shonquist, Second Lieu-
tenant ; and Michael Shindler, Third Lieu-
tenant. There was really no place for third
lieutenant, but as Mike was the only man in
the company who had any cavalry experience,
this honorary position was created in order to
give him authority. After a sergeant major
and other sergeants numbering up to the
eighth, with a corresponding number of cor-
porals, musicians, saddlers, and farriers were
appointed, there were just two left as privates.
These were James H. Danskin and Ira E. Tash,
who, because they could not have any office,
refused to be sworn into service. This broke
up the company, as the officers did not have
anyone to command, but all of the members
retained their sabers and several of them still
have them as souvenirs of their first experi-
ence as warriors.
The Spanish-American war of 1898-99 did
not effect the county as there was no company
formed and no one from the county enlisted
for service in that conflict. Since then a num-
ber of those who participated in that war have
become residents of the county and maintain
a Spanish-American war veterans organiza-
tion or camp in Alliance.
Indian Scare
The nearest Box Butte county ever came to
war was in the winter of 1890-91, when the
Sioux Indians on the Pine Ridge Reservation,
seve,nty-five miles north became crazed over
what the) believed to be the coming of a
Messiah, whom they thought would, with their
help, drive all the white settlers from the west-
ern county, bring back the buffalo and the
game, .mil organized for a general massacre of
the white settlers in the surrounding country.
Fortunately there was a deep snow at this
time win.]] delayed their movements until the
United States Army, commanded by General
Nelson A. Miles, could throw a cordon of
troops around the reservation, and after the
battle of Wounded Knee, fought between the
Seventh United States Cavalry and a band of
Indians commanded by Chief Big Foot, in
which one hundred and fifty Indians and about
twenty officers and soldiers of the cavalry were
killed, the uprising was ended. The Nebras-
ka militia was called to arms and patrolled the
state border north of Hay Springs, Rushville
and Gordon. At Hemingford a company for
protection was organized, armed with Win-
chester repeating rifles and held themselves in
readiness to defend the inhabitants of the coun-
ty from threatened extermination at the hands
of the blood-thirsty Sioux Indians.
Box Butte County's Part in the
World War
This county did its full share in furnishing
men and the sinews of war for the World
War of 1917-18-19. A volunteer company
was formed at Alliance, known as Company
"G" of the Fourth Nebraska National Guard
which entered the federal service and became
later Battery "D" of the 127th United States
Field Artillery. This organization spent nearly
a year at Camp Cody, New Mexico, and was
a part of the 34th or Sandstorm Division
which reached France in September, 1918, but.
as an organization, they did not participate
in active fighting. However, many of its mem-
bers, by being assigned to other divisions,
took part in the closing months of the fight-
ing in the Argonne Forest and on other fronts ;
the companv returning to Alliance in the spring
of 1919. This company was commanded by
Captain John B. Miller."
There were seven hundred and ninety-five
young men of the county, between the ages of
twenty-one and thirty-one, enrolled in the
selective draft. Of this number over three hun-
dred were actually called into service, while
there were many enlistments from this county,
of which there is no record. No roster of the
soldiers from Box Butte county, who were
in the service of their country, has as yet been
compiled.
Four Box Butte county boys are known to
have given up their lives for their countrv while
serving in France. They were W. C. Herman,
Charles Martin, Richard Haugh, who were
killed on the field of battle, while Dean Harris
died of injuries received in the service.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
The young men who served from Box Butte
county, upon their return, immediately organ-
ized a Post of the American Legion, which is
No. 7 in the state. It is quite active and has
a membership of about two hundred. Its first
commander was Earl L. Meyer, who was suc-
ceeded by J. B. Miller, and upon his removal
from the city was succeeded by Joseph J.
Dixon, its present commander.
The people of Box Butte county were very
patriotic during the period of the war. They
oversubscribed their quota of every liberty
loan, practically doubled the quota for the Red
Cross, Y. M. C. A., Knights of Columbus,
Salvation Army, and finally in the combination
drive for funds. They maintained a local
chapter of the American Red Cross and an
active and efficient County Council of Defense,
a Home Guard of uniformed and armed men,
strictly enforced the food regulations, and as
a whole rendered valuable services to the
country.
Early Settlers
The first white men, other than the French
trappers and traders to see Box Butte county,
was that great flood of gold seekers who, in
1878 to 1880, traversed its extreme width
from south to north over the old Sidney trail
from Sidney, Nebraska, to Deadwood, South
Dakota, following the discovery of gold there
in 1876. These men told the story of the level
plains which they crossed between the Platte
River on the south, and the Niobrara river on
the north. These stories attracted the atten-
tion of the owners of the great range herds
farther to the eastward.
The next people to visit it were the big cattle
owners, their foremen and cowboys. They
used the Box Butte plains as a summer range
for the cattle which fattened on the nutritious
grass with which the plains were thickly cov-
ered.
The federal government surveyed the lands
in 1879 and 1880, after which they were
thrown open to settlement. A few of the earli-
est settlers came in over the Union Pacific as
far as Sidney and then traveled overland fol-
lowing the Sidney trail, and took up home-
steads in the southwestern part of the county.
On the completion of the Northwestern rail-
road to Chadron in 1885, the railroad company
advertised the rich lands tributary to it
throughout the east, and there was a great in-
rush of settlers, most of whom came over the
railroad to Hay Springs, which was the near-
est railroad point.
The first filing made in Box Butte countv
was in 1881 by A. H. McLaughlin, who filed
on a preemption and tree claim on tin: Nio-
brara river about four miles west of Marsland.
Mr. McLaughlin has the distinction of being
the oldest living settler of this county. During
the time of his residence on this place, which
he still owns, he was a resident of Sioux coun-
ty, unorganized, which comprised the north
half of the Panhandle of Nebraska, and Mr.
McLaughlin transacted his official business at
Sidney, the county seat of Cheyenne county, to
which Sioux county was attached for adminis-
trative and judicial purposes. The line be-
tween Sioux and Cheyenne counties running
Oscar O'Bannon and S. Avery, (right) was one
of the Old Time Trappers in North-
western Nebraska
east and west is the south line of the present
Box Butte county. Later, Sioux county was
divided into three equal portions — the west-
ern part named Sioux, the central part Dawes,
and the eastern third Sheridan county. Sheri-
dan and Sioux still retain their original boun-
daries. Mr. McLaughlin, without changing
his residence, then became a citizen of Dawes
county and served as one of its county com-
missioners. Chadron was the county seat.
Upon the division of Dawes county into Dawes
and Box Butte county, he then became a resi-
dent of Box Butte county, without changing
his residence.
The early settlers of the county were mostly
of American birth, with a sprinkling of near-
ly all the principal nationalities. The Bohem-
ians apparently were clannish and located in
large numbers and were the dominant factor in
Running Water, Lawn and Liberty precincts.
There were a great many of German birth
scattered over the county, without there being
sufficient number to be called a German set-
tlement in any one particular place. This was
!12
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
true of the [rish, excepl that a number of fam-
ilies—the Collins. Mahoneys, Shays, ' >'Maras
and Silks settled in one neighborhood in Box
Butte precinct. There was quite a settlement
of Norwegians east of Hemingford. There
were five "families of Danes congregated to-
gether a few miles west of Nonpareil. Four
of these families are still residents of the
county and with the increase in the families
can buast of being the only nationality which
now has more representatives than they had
at the time the county was organized.
The pioneers probably endured more hard-
ships than fell to the lot of their brothers who
settled the middle and eastern states. While
they had no forests to clear or stones to re-
move in order to make a home they had but
little to build that home with. Ninety-seven
percent of the houses which sheltered the first
settlers were erected out of native sod. The
typical settler usually arrived in a covered
wagon, with a crate of chickens tied on be-
hind, leading a cow, together with a breaking
plow, a spade, axe and a few primitive tools.
Upon arriving at the place he had selected for
his homestead, he usually unloaded his wagon,
removed the wagon box, left the wife and
children to get along as best they could there
while he, with the running gears of the wagon,
went to the Pine Ridge, fifty miles away, to
secure ridge poles, some rough boards and
fire wood. Accompanied by one or two neigh-
bors who assisted in loading the logs and
doubling teams up steep hills, they returned
after a few days. Then, hitching on the break-
ing plow he turned a quantity of sod which
he cut into three foot lengths with the spade,
carried and erected the walls of their future
habitation, placing the ridge poles upon this,
covi red with a layer of boards or poles, upon
which he placed a layer of sod with the grass
side down, thus forming a rude shelter from
the elements. The same process was followed
in a sod stable erected to shelter the team and
cow. lie usually had to travel several miles
ring or neighboring stream and haul
water in a barrel for household use until such
time as a well could be put down.
Practically all of the supplies had to be haul-
ed from Hay Springs. Of course, the first
year no crops could be produced, except a
small amount of sod corn; but later the first
settlers were able to earn some money by
breaking out. tending and planting tree claims
for non-residents and erecting houses for those
who happened to have more money than
led to depend whol-
ly for their supply of fresh meal U]
1 jack- rabbits, which were abundant,
with now and then a deer ; but fresh pork was
an unknown quantity, there being no corn or
other fattening food produced upon which
hogs could be raised. There was also a scarc-
ity of material with which to make enclosures
for the hogs. One settler tried the expedient
of building a pig pen out of sod, but on leav-
ing home one Sunday for a call upon a neigh-
bor some miles distant and returning after
dark, found that the family pig had rooted a
hole through the sod, invaded the house and
crawled into the family bed.
The settlers managed to find some social
enjoyment by being mutually helpful to each
other, organizing Sunday schools, holding
prayer meetings, and sometimes religious serv-
ices with a sermon delivered by an itinerant
minister, and in the more thickly populated
settlements by having dances and parties dur-
ing the long winter evenings.
Notwithstanding the hardships, the health
of the early settlers was very good — very few
deaths occurred from diseases and not many
from accidents. Among the accidents of the
early days, which were singularly free from
fatalities, was that which occurred at the home
of Charles Schilling, northeast of Heming-
ford. He with his large family lived in quite
a large sod house with a leanto kitchen in the
rear, back of which was a cave cellar. An
eighteen hundred pound horse belonging to
his neighbor, Frank Porter, got out of his stall
one Sunday night, wandering over to Neighbor
Schilling's, first walked on the cave cellar and
from that to the leanto and from there to the
main part of the house. His weight was too
much for the ridge pole, which broke, and pre-
cipitated him bottom side up down among the
soundly sleeping Schilling family. The kick-
ings and squealings of the horse led the rude-
ly awakened family to believe that the world
had come to an end. Air. Schilling finally suc-
ceeded in getting the horse onto his feet, led
him out of the front door, and lighting the lamp
discovered that the damage was one hole in
the roof, the complete wreck of two bed steads,
two partitions knocked out, and one boy with
a scalp wound and a skinned heel. The neigh-
bors turned out the next day and put a new
sod roof on the house, and Mr. Potter paid the
doctor for coming out and attending to the
boy's wound-, and the incident was soon for-
gotten.
Another accident which resulted fatally oc-
curred at the home of Allan Bearss, in the
western part of the county. While the family
were surrounding the breakfast table one morn-
ing, the ridge pole of their house, which was
not of sufficient diameter to support the weight
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
213
of the sod roof, suddenly snapped asunder, pre-
cipitating tons of sod and roof boards down
onto the family. Their little five year old
girl was instantly killed.
Another accident occurred when two Bo-
hemians of unpronounceable names had taken
a contract to dig a well on the homestead of
William Wilmot, six miles west of Heming-
ford. They had reached a depth of about
sixty feet, were hoisting the earth out with a
horse and rope which passed over a pulley,
this pulley supported by three poles forming
a triangle. The horse backed up and tumbled
down the well on top of the digger, but as the
horse filled the capacity of the well quite com-
pletely, did not descend very rapidly and the
digger was enabled to take advantage of what
space the horse did not take up and escaped
with his life. He was brought to the surface
and the neighbors gathered to rescue the horse
from the well. The fall had not killed him. so
a strong rope was secured. Mr. Wilmot owned
a large gray team. A rope was placed about
the horse, the team attached to the other end,
and he was hoisted to the surface ; but, through
some miscalculation, he did not get into the
clear. The gray team commenced to back up
when Mrs. Wilmot, thinking they would be
drawn into the well, and being one of their
most valued possessions, seized a sharp butcher
knife, rushed out and drew its edge across the
taut rope, severing it, which precipitated the
old horse to the bottom of the well a second
time. This was his finish. The injured man
raised himself on his elbow and said, "Dot
was a horse on me."
Another and fatal accident occurred in put-
ting down a well northeast of Hemingford,
when a colored man named Lewis, while plac-
ing some curbing in a strata of sand at a depth
of about a hundred feet, the curbing gave way,
precipitating him to the bottom of the well,
a further distance of fifty feet, with tons of
the caving earth burying him there. It was too
dangerous to attempt the rescue of the body,
so the surviving wife mortgaged the home-
stead for about four hundred dollars, made a
contract with some experienced well diggers,
who sank a new well some ten feet away from
the old well, tunneled from the new to the old,
rescued the body, brought it to the surface,
and it was given decent interment.
Box Butte
The county derives its name from a large
butte, located in the east central part of the
county, which rudely resembles a box. The
early French trappers named this Box Butte,
pronounced "bute." butte being French for
hill or elevation. The early cattle men called
the country contiguous thereto the Box Butte
country, to distinguish it from the White Clay
country, and similarly named localities. It
naturally followed that this should be selected
as the name of the new county.
There is no record of any battle ever having
been fought in the county between the In-
dians and United States troops, the nearest be-
ing when a band of Indians left their reserva-
tion in Colorado and started to return to the
country from which they had been taken in
the Dakotas. They were followed up by a
company of soldiers under the command of
Major Thornburg, who followed the trail to
Bronco Lake near Alliance : and the trail seem-
ing to scatter there, the command left their
wagons, camp equipage, etc., while they scouted
the sand hills to the south, believing the In-
dians were hidden in some of the canyons.
Upon their return to camp, they found the In-
dians had visited it. carried off what provi-
sions they could, and burned the remainder,
together with the wagons, tents, and the rest
of the outfit. This band was under the leader-
ship of Chief Little Hog. They were later cap-
tured and imprisoned in a stockade at Ft.
Robinson, sixty miles to the northwest. The
soldiers got tired of guarding them and one
night left the gate to the stockade open and the
Indians started to escape during the night, when
the soldiers opened fire with their carbines and
practically exterminated the entire band.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER IV
CIVIL WAR VETERANS
A roster of Civil War veterans officially pre-
pared in the year 1891, showed the names of
eighty-one men residing in the county, who
wore the blue uniform of their country during
the '60s. and now that a generation has passed
this number has been lessened to barely a doz-
en survivors. The ranks have been reduced
principally by death, there being fifty-two
graves of Civil War soldiers in Greenwood cem-
etery at Alliance, and twenty-one at Heming-
ford. A few have moved to other states, and
those still remaining in the county in 1921 are:
Albert Wiker, 11th Iowa Infantry, Alliance;
Robert Garrett, 24th Iowa Infantry, Alliance ;
Aaron Pool, 89th Illinois Infantry, Alliance ;
Joseph B. Denton, 139th Pennsylvania In-
fantry, Alliance ; James Dickey, 98th New
York Infantry, Alliance; Elsa Vaughn, 8th
Iowa Cavalry, Alliance ; Cal. H. Underwood,
8th Missouri Infantry, Alliance; Fred Abley,
6th Michigan Infantry, Hemingford ; Alvin M.
Miller, 76th Illinois Infantry, Hemingford;
Robert Anderson, 127th U. S. Colored In-
fantry. Hemingford ; Augustin H. McLaugh-
lin, 18th Iowa Infantry, Marsland ; Ambrose
Hadley, 3d Rhode Island Infantry, Alliance ;
Lewis R. Corbin, 83d Pennsylvania Infantry,
Alliance.
Concerning the boys in service in the great
World War, a list has come to the editor in
chief which is added to the splendid story of
Ira L. Tash, the county editor. This list may
not be complete, but is presumed to be. There
were three ways open to entrance in the ser-
vice for the government army : enlistment, vol-
untary induction, and induction in the draft.
There were seventy-two enlistments as fol-
lows :
Earl E. Acord, Harold W. Berg, Henry L.
Coker, Albert A. Duncan, Matison P. Gaste-
neau, Leon C. Ives, John Martin King, Clarence
E. Levere, Norman A. McCorkle, Russell C.
Miller, George J. Moscrip, Elmer F. Noe,
George E. Ormsby, Ray Vernon Reddish,
Horace H. Anderson, Don Brenaman, Donald
Cooper, Daniel Elliott, William H. Hammond,
John Henry Kane, John Spencer Knight, Frank
Lyman Lewis. Ervin J. Macken, Ronald
Moore, Robert W. Murphey, Martin J. Nolan,
Wilbur F. Patterson, Clarence H. Reed. Elza
I Barger, IVIerritt L. Chaffee. William 1''..
Davis, Louis l\. Federlin, Claude Hersch,
E. Katon, Wincel Lackey, Glen Dale
Locke, Leo Roscoe May, William Moravek,
Archie E. Nickerson, Everett B. O'Keef, John
Priess, Harry Roberts, Harvey Benjamin, John
Tyler Claver, Floyd R. Donovan, John T. Fitz-
gerald, Howard Oliver, Frederick A. King, Joe
Lando, Roy A. McCluskey, Herbert E. Milan,
Harrv A. Morrisey, Leo M. Nicolai, William
L. O'Keefe, Gaylord H. Pry, Clifford T. Rob-
erts, Howard Rucker, Charles F. Schafer,
James H. Tally, Rex Truman, James E.
Rundle, Guy E. Speaker, Lloyd Thomas, Wal-
ter H. Voight, Frank M. Schmidt, George C.
StoII, Chester M. Thompson, Chester Z. Wells,
Pete Sciora, Dick W. Strong, Francis Town-
send, Corbin V. Witty.
In addition there were voluntary inductions
numbering nineteen as given here :
Howard H. Bennett, George A. Hielman,
Carl Theo. Koester, George Dening Read,
Walter W. Anderson, Lester G. Brittan, Le-
land Bane Hirst, Roy E. Mendenhall, Chester
H. Shreve, Raymond L. Bartlett, Gilbert Day-
ton, John Albert Johnson, Norman M. New-
berry, Donald W. Spencer, Abram E. Bennett,
John E. Diesberger, Chester C. Johnson, Carl
H. Powell, James E. Wiley.
Those who were inducted through the reg-
ular order of the draft are as follows :
Alexander Barrv, Dwight L. Bennett, Leo
Brandle, Charles A. Barlew, Alex C. Cahill.
Harry Chester, Charles A. Conley, Petenon
Domenico, William M. Ellis, Mike Abas, John
P. Bayer, Conrad Blume, William J. Brandon,
Floyd' S. Barnes, Peter F. Callahan, Hans P.
Christensen, Louis E. Cottrell, Emil H. Dry-
son, Ruben E. Elquist, William G. Bailey,
Perley J. Beach, Malcolm M. Bogar, Archie
Brown, Robert W. Burns, John Thomas Capps,
Fred W. Cloud, Frederick E. Cutts, Robert
Duchon, Jacob H. Elsea, Clarence O. Baldwin,
Fred A. Beckenbach, John S. Bostrom, Fred-
erick R. Brown, William H. Butler, William
M. Casey, Harold I. Cochrane, Harrison H.
Derric, James Earl Eaton, Henry G. Emde,
X'eal W. Erskine, Martin L. Fitzgerald, Joe
B. Frohnapfel, Harry Gavelick, Eddie W.
Green, lames Theo. Halev, George A. Harry,
< >rla I [awley, Cecil R. Henry, James G. Hib-
bert, Vern Fred Hucke. John Jiackas, Adrian
J. Kean, Joe Kelly, Charles E. Kincade, Fred
Krebs, Loyd Langford, Edward P. Lewis,
Paul Glenn Lundin, Peter L. Manewal. Charles
E. Martin. William J. Eversall. David E. Flem-
ing. James E. Ford, Thos. A. Golshannon, Wal-
ler k. Griffith, Albert Hare. Richard Haugh,
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
Hugh L. Hawkins, Clarence R. Herbison,
George Hoke, Ira Irby, Henning M. Johnson,
Milton J. Keegan, Charles G. Keough, Ulyssess
Kirk, Frank Kriz, junior, Forrest A. Lape,
Joe Lopaze, Ernest D. McCarty, John J. Man-
ion, Clay R. Melick, Jess G. Fairchild, Eugene
S. Flickinger, Tom Ford, John E. Glass, Wil-
bur L. Haggerty, George E. Hare, Roy Haugh,
William F. Head, William C. Herman. Roy
Holton, James R. Jacobs, Samuel Lee Johnson,
Benjamin C. Keeler, Bedford Keown, Moritz
Kittleman, Anthony M. Kuhn, Solomon H.
Lazerus, Lyle W. Lore, Archie E. McNeill,
Warren O. Marcy, Clarence E. Meek, Ponde
S. Fileff, Wilard J. Freshla, Thomas W.
Gahagan, Royce L. Glass, Leslie A. Hall, Obe
Harris, Cyril Havalik, George R. Heckman,
John H. Hessler, Fred Homan, Thomas A.
Jewell, Gilbert F. Kays, James E. Keenan, Al-
bert Kibler, Robert Klase, Olaf David Kuhn,
Armond J. LeSage, Adam Jay Lortz, Arthur
Macken, Fred L. Marsh, Chester A. Melvin,
Fred J. Meyer. Jr., Martin Nelson, Ranson
Herby Parks, ]ohn Peltz, Leslie L. Poole,
Floyd Ratleff, Elvis James Rhein, William K.
Robertson, Frank A. Rumer, Oakley D. Seeley,
Irving E. Smith, John Ames Stastny, Fred
Birdsell Sweeney, Jay H. Vance, Benjamin F.
Ward, Joseph Williams, James J. Moore, John
Earl Nolan, George H. Parsons, Montague H.
Pendleton, Carl H. Powell, Wayne L. Redding-
ton, Alonzo Rice, Jacob Rohrbouck, William
M. Schoenmann, Tohn A. Shay, Charles A.
Spacht, Alva P. Stockdale, William S. Tad-
lock, Benjamin F. Vanderlas, Ralph M. Weid-
hamer, Thomas E. Yeager, Carl Moscrip, Paul
J. Norton, Edward R. Paul, Leslie Perry,
Charlie A. Powell, Hans P. Renswold, Arthur
Rice, John Rosendorfer, John Schwaderer,
George H. Shaffner, Charles L. Squibbs,
George F. Stockfleth, Charles Calvin Tash,
Walter Walker, Alvah G. Whaley, Dwight F.
Zediker, Max Moscrip. Frank E. O'Banion,
Johnnie Payne. Archie T. Phillips, Charles W.
Rathburn. LeRoy D. Reynolds, Lawrence E.
Richardson. George C. Roth. Herman Seidler,
Harrv W. Smith, Thomas L. Squibbs, John E.
Sullivan, Leo J. Toohey, William F. Walker,
George E. Whalev, Noble F. Zerbie.
There were thirteen rejections and dis-
charges from physical disability, and a service
flag in Box Butte county should have five
known gold stars, and perhaps there are others.
Box Butte county contingent contained five
colored men, one of whom died of injuries.
The organization of a company at Alliance
early in the war gave to Box Butte county vol-
unteers, a number from outside the county lim-
its, principally in close-by counties.
Siege of Nonpareil
The local Box Butte county historian tells
of the affair of November, 1890, when there
was a meeting in Alliance of the indignant citi-
zens over the Burlington attitude on the county
seat question. He also tells of the defense of
the records as proposed by the county officials.
A story has come to the editor-in-chief, which
he will relate for what it is worth, and for
the amusement of the old-timers who were in
the conflict. I am sure that no one will accuse
the writer of any unkind motives when the
joke is upon his two especially good friends,
Ira Tash and Eugene Hall. These men are
referred to as guarding the county records in
the anticipated siege of Nonpareil.
When the meeting was held in Alliance, Su-
perintendent Phelan of the Burlington had pres-
ent, as he usually had at any gathering, a man
who would report to him what "was doing."
The man in this case "fanned it" to headquar-
ters that the crowd was organized to go out
and take the records, and as stated Phelan had
the engine ready. Also the wires conveyed the
information to Hemingford. The people of that
town, quite a number of them, took shot guns
and bulldog revolvers, and any other weapon
handy and the "flimsy structure" known as the
court house at Nonpareil was filled with the
defenders, had the enemy appeared. But there
had been a change of heart in the Alliance
crowd, and the affair had been called off.
After waiting until late at night part of the
defenders at Nonpareil started home. When
some distance away from the building, so the
story goes, one who had started south to his
home decided to try out his gun. At that
someone in the court house yelled, "Alliance
is coming," and the effect was said to be about
the same as the effect upon the German west
front, when the sound of "the Yanks are
coming" came over the battlefield. Over and
under each other they went, finding exits where
they could. Several brave boys jammed in
the doorway and tore out the side of the build-
ing, others smashed the windows, carrying the
sash away with them. In fact, it is said, that
the north side of the building was a wreck,
this side being in the direction of Hemingford.
I have no doubt that Hall and Tash stood the
test all right, but of the rank and file, one party
reports at least four of them went down in one
pile just outside the building, but they soon
recovered their feet, and faded into the moon-
light.
What 'Gene Heath Meant
As told in the local historian's chronicle of
early events, 'Gene Heath succeeded in having
216
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
the name of Buchanan changed to Nonpareil.
'Gene, being a democrat could not quite recon-
cile himself to the constant reminder of a
wholly unsatisfactory democratic president of
that name, who was the last in the antibellum
days. 'Gene also believed in consistency, and
Nonpareil was a small place. Nonpareil type
is the smallest type known that will do for legal
and official printing. To this idea the town
was about as small as it could be, and yet be
the legal municipal center of the county of
Box Butte.
Cattle Rustlers, Holliday and Cochran
Fred Shonquist, the first sheriff of Box
Butte county, was a prince of good fellows,
but occasionally he undertook to put the dis-
tillers out of business, by drinking everything
in sight. At such times, instead of being a
guardian of the law, he would shatter about all
the statutes that had anything to do with good
government. The Republicans renominated him,
however, in 1890, but the Democrats had the
good judgment to place in nomination Eugene
A. Hall. Mall was elected and two times re-
elected, serving six years. During that time,
he was successful in breaking up the cattle
rustling that had been carried on before and in
assisting in the arrest of the murderer of young
Ross at the state line south of Kimball.
Two men named Holliday and Cochran had
worked out a plan for rustling cattle over the
state lines of Colorado, Wyoming and South
Dakota, bringing them to western Box Butte
county, and so mutilating the brands that they
had few points to identify them as the original
marks. There was a local man in Hemingford
and another just over the line in Sioux county.
who in some way stood in with the rustlers, al-
though they had never been implicated in the
transactions, so far as known. In 1891, a
bunch of cattle were brought in from Colorado,
and when they came out of the Holliday-Coch-
ran branding pens it was with different brands.
Jack Elliott, who was agent for the cattle
association, located the cattle, and he and a
banker named Sterling came up from Colo-
rado to replevin them. Cochran and Holliday
were both in Kimball, and the cattle were in
charge of George Zimmerman, and two other
nun. and were just over the line in Sioux
county. It took a bit of maneuvering to get
tin' cattle nver the line into Box Butte county,
but it was accomplished in time, and then
Sheriff Hall served the necessary writ, and
Sterling and Elliott started for Hemingford
with the cattle. It was nearly dark and they
night cm the prairie. To their sur-
prise in the morning Cochran and Holliday
were on hand. It later developed that their
friend in Hemingford had been advised, and he
in turn had sent a wire to Holliday at Kimball.
Cochran and Holliday had ridden the nearly
one hundred miles from Kimball during the
night.
Sheriff Hall had gone home, but he came
back in the morning, to find that the rustlers
were trying to prevent the movement of the
cattle towards the railroad. When he arrived
they rode away, but followed along at a dis-
tance of a mile or so, keeping on the ridges,
evidently debating what to do. They finally
evolved a plan, of having their friend Webb
replevin the cattle in turn. "Bob" Noleman of
Alliance was secured, and the Colorado crowd
had secured the services of Tuttle and Tash.
Tuttle directed the legal process, and Noleman
had Webb, who had been very busy condemn-
ing the procedure, ask for the writ. Tuttle had
wisely anticipated that this would be done, and
had put the name of Webb in the original pro-
cess. Sheriff Hall told him that he was one of
the parties defendant, and there was no way
by which a defendant could counter with an
alternate writ. Noleman stormed at what he
considered the high-handed procedure, and he
secured constables Gavin and Reed who served
the papers. They did not take the cattle how-
ever, for they were in process of being loaded
on the cars. Sterling had a Winchester, and
Elliott had a big-looking gun, and while these
never spoke, they seemed to be very effective
arguments in favor of letting the loading pro-
ceed.
Holliday and Cochran put up a stiff legal
fight for the cattle, and had some of them re-
turned, but the lawyer's bills took the most of
what was saved, for when the affair was over
they were pretty well cleaned of livestock.
The Ross Murder
Cochran determined to make another raise,
and turned his attention to northern Colorado.
Near the state line, almost directly south of
Kimball, lived an elderly couple named Ross,
and their son, who had accumulated a nice
bunch of cattle, and on these fell the covetous
eyes of Cochran.
( )ne mi •ruing they were missing from their
usual haunts, and Willie Ross, the young man,
went out to look for them. He did not come
back and neither horse, rider, or cattle could be
found.
Again Jim Elliott was called to action. He
found the trail, followed north across the
Union Pacific railroad near Dix, and across
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
_'i;
Pumpkin creek at Indian Springs and Wright's
Gap, then across the Platte and Snake. He
found Cochran and the cattle in Coyote can-
yon. Cochran did not recognize him and when
within a few feet he pulled his gun, and made
Cochran put up his hands. While disarming
and hand-cuffing him, Cochran was protesting
his innocence, and asked him to look at "the
paper," a bill-of-sale. He said he had bought
the cattle of young Ross, who had told him
that he was going away. As the horse and
saddle were gone, the story looked plausible.
Sheriff Hall participated in the proceedings at-
tendant and following the arrest.
The parents of young Ross, when they heard
this, stoutly declared that it could not be so,
and that it was "not like Willie" to do a thing
like that. An extensive search brought about
the discovery that the body had been buried
in a sand draw, and also the horse and saddle.
Cochran, it appeared, had gone to a nearby
house and borrowed a spade, and when he re-
turned it there was no one at home. He had
entered the house, secured some writing ma-
terials, and made several attempts at writing
a bill-of-sale before he had succeeded in getting
one in proper shape to suit him. He had at-
tempted to destroy the unsatisfactory efforts by
burning them, but there were some fragments
left, which were secured. He had then taken
the herd, and milled it about on the sand, where
he had buried the man, horse and saddle. A
subsequent rain had also further obliterated
the place, and washed out many of the tracks.
There was a question as to whether the
murder had been in Colorado or Nebraska, and
the surveyors had to be called out, to definitely
locate the line. From their reports, and the
evidence at hand it was determined that the
crime had been committed in Colorado, and the
body dragged some distance, and buried in
Nebraska. This surveyor party was at work
when some of Scotts Bluff county people were
on their way to Colorado to pick spuds, among
whom were William P. Young and Antoine
Hiersche.
Cochran was never tried for the murder. He
was tried for cattle stealing, convicted and giv-
en forty-five years in the penitentiary at Can-
yon City. After about twenty years penal
servitude, he was paroled on account of being
tubercular, and if yet living, is still at large.
County Officers
When the county was organized in 1887, the
first officers elected were only for the comple-
tion of that year. On November 4, 1887, the
regular election was held and at this time offi-
cers were chosen for the following regular
terms. A roster of such officers is as follows:
Judges: The first county judge was A.
L. Field. He was followed by 1). K. Spacht,
who was succeeded by James H. H. Hewitt.
Bruce Wilcox then served one term, he being
followed by D. K. Spacht who was returned
to the office. Abel Hill next followed, and he
died in office, after a few months' service. B.
F. Oilman completed the term, after which L.
A. Berry assumed the judicial ermine and held
the office for eleven consecutive years, retiring
January, 1917. Ira L. Tash then assumed the
office, and has held it since.
Clerks : The office of county clerk was also
ex-officio clerk of the district court, and of the
board of county commissioners, when the coun-
ty was organized. The first clerk who served
for the nine months of 1887, was Geo. W.
Clark. At the regular election following Charles
A. Burlew was elected, and he was follwed by
Ira L. Tash. Mr. Tash was clerk at the time
the county seat was moved from Nonpareil to
Hemingford. Next following was Joseph K.
Neal, then Fred M. Phelps. Sam M. Smvser
then was elected, and he was followed by D.
K. Spacht. W. C. Mounts was then elected,
and M. S. Hargraves followed. Mounts again
returned to the office, and now Miss Avis M.
Joder is the efficient incumbent of the office.
Treasurers : The first county treasurer, who
served for the short term of 1887, was Eli Ger-
ber. John < CKeefe, Sr., became the next
treasurer, and he was succeeded by John
O'Keefe, Jr. Then Samuel B. Libby was
chosen, and he was succeeded by Alvin M.
Miller, and A. S. Reel followed. 'Alex Muir-
head was next in order, and then Charles W.
Brennan. Fred W. Mollring next looked after
the county finances, and he was followed by
Edgar M. Martin. Frank W. Irish, the pres-
ent excellent treasurer completes the list of
treasurers of Box Butte county.
Sheriffs : Fred A. Shonquist was the first
sheriff of Box Butte county, serving the short
term of 1887. and then one full term. At the
election of 1889, Eugene A. Hall was elected,
serving three terms. Then came Edwin P.
Sweeney, then Ira C. Reed. Albert Wiker was
the next sheriff, and he was followed by Cal-
vin M. Cox, and James W. Miller in turn, the
latter being the present popular head of the
law enforcement division of the county gov-
ernment.
Superintendents: The educational depart-
ment of the countv is always its most import-
ant function, for it deals with the children of
the future. Box Butte county has been for-
tunate in the class of educators that it has had
>18
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
for its county educational head: Those who
have served in that capacity are : First, Nathan
S. Simpson, then Burton F. Gilman, John
Leith, H. F. Fillmore, Anna E. Neeland, John
W. Baumgardner, Leora Rustin, Ora E. Phil-
lips, Delia M. Reed, and Opal Russell, the
present incumbent.
Attorneys : The county prosecutors have a
large duty to perform, for a small compensa-
tion. So poorly paid has this office been con-
sidered, that it is always difficult to get the best
talent to consider the sacrifices that it involves.
Excellent lawyers are sometimes found in these
offices, but it is usually with a view to the ac-
quaintanceship they thereby secure. The first
county attorney of Box Butte county was
James H. Danskin, who served the short term
when the county was organized, and was re-
elected. In June, 1890, he resigned to accept
the office of Receiver in the United States Land
Office at Alliance. William M. Iodence was
appointed and filled out the unexpired term.
Robert C. Noleman next served for one term
and then Burton F. Gilman for two terms.
Iodence was then returned, in 1896, for one
term. He was succeeded by Smith P. Tuttle.
William Mitchell was elected in 1900, and serv-
ed four years, after which Eugene Burton
served three terms. Lee Basye the present in-
cumbent, is serving his third term in the office.
Surveyors: Barring the original work of
surveying or locating the settlers the office of
county surveyor in a new county is not one of
much compensation. Box Butte county -has
had the following occupants of the surveyors
office: Charles A. Barney. H. H. Burnette,
Daniel W. Hughes, John P. Hazard, and Reub-
en E. Knight, the latter being the present offi-
cial.
Coroner: This office was in the new coun-
ties of western Nebraska, and not much sought
for. but nevertheless it was a very important
position, and was filled by the medical fra-
ternity of capableness and high order. The
following doctors of Box Butte county have
held the position: Tohn Blood, W. H. 'Smith,
W. W. Hamilton, W. K. Miller, L E. Moore,
G. W. Mitchell and Chas. E. Slagle.
Commissioners : The first county commis-
sioners, who served for the nine months of
1887 were James Barry. Louis C. De Coud-
ress and Thos. L. Irvine. On these fell the
first duties of the new countv's organization.
Ai ill.- first regular election R. R. Ralls and
Charles Nichols took the place of the first two
named. Other commissioners who followed
wen Vlex Burr, Leonard Sampy, Fdgar
rames Hollinrake, Ceo. W.Duncan,
Geo W. Loer, James Barry, (second election),
John Meintz, L- F. Smith, Frank Caha, Joseph
M. Wanek, and Anton Uhrig (second elec-
tion). Calvin L. Hashman, Geo. W. Duncan
and George Carrell are the present incumbents.
District Clerk : This office was established
in January, 1921, or separated from the office
of county clerk. W. C. Mounts was elected
first clerk, now serving in that position.
County Assessor : This office is of compara-
tively recent origin and has been filled in turn
by A. S. Reed, E. P. Sweeney, John Jelinek,
J. A. Keegan and John Pilkington, the last
named being the present incumbent.
Box Butte county can well be proud of those
who have served it in an official capacity. The
offices have been quite equally distributed be-
tween the political parties, and there has never
been a shortage, an arrest, a scandal, or indict-
ment attaching to a single public official.
State Officials
Box Butte county has never had a state offi-
cial outside of the legislative branch of state
government. In 1901, J. H. Van Boskirk was
a member of the state senate, being the first
in that capacity from the county. Earl D. Mal-
lery served in the same capacity, in the session
of 1915, he being the second and last state sen-
ator from the county to date.
L. W. Gilchrist was the first member of the
legislature, in 1889. Then in 1913, Earl D.
Mallery was a member. Frank M. Broome was
chosen for that post in 1915, and was later ap-
pointed Receiver of the United States Land
Office at Valentine. In 1917 Lloyd C. 'Thomas
was chosen. Thomas was one of the members
joining in the introduction of the Nebraska
mineral statute, which was passed at an extra-
ordinary session of the legislature in 1918. He
volunteered for the world war, but was not
inducted into service owing to its abrupt end.
John W. Thomas w;as deputy state land com-
missioner during the administration of G L.
Shumwav as chief of that office, during 1917
and 1918.
William L. O'Keefe was assistant in the of-
fice of Chas. W. Pool, secretary of state, at
the beginning of the war, but resigned and
went into the service in the World War.
Each of these have performed well the duties
assigned to them, and no word of reproach can
be truthfully said concerning any of Box Butte
county's contingent in the duties of the state as-
signed to them.
U. S. Land Officers
The United States Land Office was estab-
lished at Alliance on July 1, 1890. Fred M.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
:l''
Dorrington, of Chadron, was appointed Regis-
ter, and James H. Danskin, Receiver. They
served until the change of administration in
1893, when they were succeeded by John W.
Wehn of Wilber, Nebraska, as Register, and
F. M. Broome, of Alliance, as Receiver. Fol-
lowing another change of administration in
1897, Fred M. Dorrington was appointed Reg-
ister and William R. Akers, as Receiver. Dor-
rington died in office in January, 1903, and was
succeeded by Bruce Wilcox. Akers and Wil-
cox administered the office for four years, and
were replaced by W. W. Wood of Rushville
as Register and H. J. Ellis of Alliance as Re-
ceiver. Upon the election of Woodrow Wilson
as president in 1912, J. C. Morrow, of Scotts-
bluff, became Register, with T. J. O'Keefe. of
Alliance, as Receiver, and they continue to
draw the salary and perquisites pertaining to
the office.
Ira E. Tash
County Judge of Box Butte county, was born
in Clarke county, Iowa, February 13, 1862,
and remained there until he was 25 years of
age, with his parents, who were farmers. He
taught school during the winter and worked
at railroad construction work during the sum-
mer months. He received his education in the
country schools. In March, 1S87, he came to
what is the extinct Nonpareil and engaged in
real estate and farm loan business until Janu-
ary 1, 1890, when he was elected County Clerk.
He conducted that office for one year, then the
office was moved to Hemingford, the county
seat, and after four years, in 1894, he formed
the law firm of Tuttle & Tash. which continued
there until 1900, when the firm moved its of-
fices to Alliance. In 1895 he was appointed re-
ceiver of the Bank of Hemingford and settled
its affairs. While living at Hemingford he
served on the school board and city council. In
1901 he engaged in the clerical work for the
contractors rebuilding the Union Pacific : in
1902 was associate editor of the Alliance
'rimes; in 1903 was appointed postmaster of
Alliance, serving in that capacity for twelve
years, and in 1916, was elected county judge,
re-elected in 1918 without opposition, and is
thus serving the people of his county at this
time.
The public service of Ira E. Tash has always
been of the best. Box Butte county has cause
for congratulation in the fact that Mr. Tash
became a citizen of the county at a very early
date and has been continually one of the bearers
of the county's escutcheon through all the years.
Never has he faltered, and but for him the
record of the county achievements, and of its
people would be incomplete. His experiences,
his memory, his ability to state the occurrences
with precision, and withal his splendid fund of
good humor, have made the Box Butte County
History a splendid narrative. — Editor-in-Chief.
DEUEL COUNTY
CHAPTER I
ORGANIZATION OF DEUEL COUNTY
Deuel county, one of the smallest in the state
and the most southeasterly county in the Pan-
handle of Nebraska, lies in the most southerly
tier of counties and in the third east from the
western boundary of Nebraska. At the pres-
ent time it is bounded on the north by Garden
county, on the east by Keith county, on the
south by Colorado and on the west by Cheyenne
county. Like all the rest of Nebraska, the
early inhabitants of this county were the rov-
ing bands of Indians that inhabited the plains
before the white man came and before the ter-
ritory in which Deuel county lies was known to
the whites who settled the continent. Like the
rest of Nebraska this land belonged to Spain,
France, and then became a part of the United
States.
For a number of years after Nebraska Ter-
ritory was created, and the western part of the
state laid out in counties, called Lyon. Taylor,
and Monroe. Deuel county territory was then
principally in Lyon county. After Nebraska
became a state, Deuel county was comprised in
old Cheyenne county, and much of the early
history of that county is a part of Deuel coun-
ty's history. Many of the early events of Deuel
county are to be found in the history of "Old
Cheyenne." By the election of 1888, the east-
ern third of Cheyenne county was erected as
Deuel county and later the northern portion of
Deuel county became Garden county. In the
early history and general treatment of the Pan-
handle, will be found stories of Deuel county,
long before Nebraska became a state. Also
reference will be found to the ranch life in this
section when the cowman held it as a range.
The county was named after a man who was
connected with the building of the Union Pa-
cific railroad.
The general topography of Deuel county is
high rolling or undulating plains, ranging from
precipitious cliffs along the streams to the
level land of tables and valleys. The high pla-
teaus have been called tables and received va-
rious names. Along the tables go the valleys,
and the county is noted for the tablelands used
for grazing also for the fertile valleys. The
Lodgepole valley is the longest in the county ;
it enters at about the center of the western
boundary, flows southeast and a little west of
the center of the southern boundary passes out
into Colorado. The Platte valley crosses the
southeastern corner of the county and while
not so long as the Lodgepole, is wider. In
addition to these major valleys there are smaller
valleys. Lodgepole creek and the Platte river
are the streams and it is from them that the
water is secured for the irrigation carried on in
Deuel countv.
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
CHAPTER II
FIRST SETTLERS
Like a large section of the Panhandle, the
earliest whites in Deuel county were the cattle-
men, who came here with their great herds
of cattle, a few of whom became permanent
settlers, and after the building of the Union
Pacific railroad, a little real settlement began.
Before the railroad came the distances were
so great that few people ventured so far from
a source of supply. A few adventurous spirits
ventured in and many went by over the fam-
ous Oregon, California, and Colorado trails.
Settlers came in slowly at first and their com-
ing was not encouraged by the cattlemen, who
saw that the homesteader would sooner or
later absorb their range and supplant stock-
raising and grazing with farming and stock-
raising on a farmer's scale. The bitter feeling
existing between the early settlers and the
cowmen was not much manifest in Deuel county
but the cowmen were obliged to give way to
the grangers. After the coming of the rail-
road, there were increasing numbers of home-
steaders and in time they counted by the
hundred to the cattlemen's one. The south-
eastern and southwestern parts of Deuel coun-
ty settled first as the railroad crossed the south-
eastern corner of the county, ran to Julesburg,
Colorado, then turned across the southern
boundary of the county a little west of the
center and ran northwest, leaving a little north
of the center of the western boundary. The
first towns and stations for supplies were on
the railroad and the settlers naturally located
within the area where they could obtain neces-
sities, though this was not always true and
many settlers scattered throughout what is
now Garden county as well, for there was
water to be had there.
Early Trials and Bitter Years
From 1884 to 1887, the tablelands of Deuel
county filled up, and many and varied are the
stories of pioneer hardships of the people who
came here at that time. For a time the far-
mers or permanent settlers managed to live
and a few made a little money. However in
the later eighties most of the grangers went
broke ; in fact it may be stated without excep-
tion that the high plains went broke all to-
gether, and of the aristocratic grangers not
one remained in the western part of the state
of Nebraska. Among the settlers there was
practically no money and all business was car-
ried on by barter. Posts, wood, or the bones
of dead animals were traded for groceries and
supplies, as the merchants of the early days
took anything for which they could find a
market. Out on the north divide, there were
hundreds of people in the same condition,
among them Herman Kuehnn, Anton Hatter-
man, August Fonnarder, Syver Johnson, John
Elmquist, Peter Soderquist, Frank Johnson,
and many, many others. They had to haul
water from ten to eighteen miles, from Big
Springs, or Ash Hollow, for family use and
stock because they did not have the money for
a well or equipment after they had one; the
water supply on the tables being two hundred
or more feet clown in the ground.
Jim Pindell had a well drill but he could not
operate without money and though willing to
work for the people who needed water could
not do it for nothing. However, occasionally a
settler would trade around or "jockey" and
finally get a well, and when this was done the
owner would try and make up for the cost by
charging for the water. However, water for
domestic uses was rarely denied if a person
did not have the pay for it, but stock water
was sometimes as high as seventy-five cents a
barrel. One time Adam Zimmerman went to
Colorado to work to earn some money and
in a month had earned twenty dollars, but his
expenses going and coming cost seventeen dol-
lars so he was not much better off. Another
time a neighbor hired him for a day and gave
him a rooster for pay, which died on the way
home.
George Richardson tells of plowing tree
claims for non-residents, who sometimes for-
got to send the money for the work and Peter
Jensen tells of the old sod schoolhouse where
they had a few cracked boxes for desks and
piled up sod for benches for the scholars. W.
W. Waterman at Day postoffice could tell how
"cancellations" fell off, because the people
could not possibly spare the money for stamps
and write to relatives and friends. But the
people lived through the years of trial and
have seen the later years of triumph come to
pay them for the hardships and privations.
Carl Pigeon, who had no use for his threshing
machine outfit in the early nineties, has had
plenty of work for it during the later years
and has had a fine business, which shows the
development and prosperity of the wheat and
grain industry in Deuel county for some time
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
past. John Steward, who early saw what ir-
rigation would do when water was applied to
the fertile soil of the valleys changed to irri-
gated land and now has a fine farm and breeds
Belgian horses, Hereford cattle, and Poland
China hogs. So we could go on telling of the
transition and prosperity of many of the early
settlers who managed to stay through the hard
years. In the early days the vision of the
future here was in every mind. All were look-
ing forward ; now they sometimes look back or
at the scars of battle left upon hand and brow,
and say, "Oh well, gold needs fire to bum
away the dross. It's not pure until it passes
the crucible." There seemed to have been
happy times occasionally and many laugh over
the ridiculous escapes by which the tribulation
was temporarily submerged. Agnew Rayburn
occasionally will chuckle over the time when
Chappell cast three thousand votes and Big
Springs cast over five thousand at the county
seat election. Others do likewise as there
were not that many people in the county. Riley
Ford laughs over the time the roundup took
him to Julesburg and "shot up" the town. A
hearty laugh in that early day served to en-
liven the pulses and break the tenseness of con-
ditions and save many a man and woman from
"going crazy." Hard times parties were held
where old clothes were worn as though it were
a joke although it was no joke but the truth.
Old clothes, packed away safe from moths,
vintages of foregone years, were brought out
j.nd given place of honor on festal occasions.
, But best of all, there were hearts, dear hearts,
that saw beyond the clouds of adversity into
the sunshine of a happy land and happy times
in the future. Imagination pictured the years
of plenty; or perhaps they glimpsed the pur-
pose for which mankind must suffer such heavy
years. Today those who are left see that this
faith has been justified and many are now en-
joying the later years of life in comfort and
prosperity.
CHAPTER III
COUNTY ORGANIZATIO N AND DEVELOPMENT
By the election of November, 1888, Cheyenne
county was divided and practically the eastern
third was erected as Deuel county, which came
into existence at that time. Later the northern
portion of Deuel was cut from Deuel and be-
came Garden county, greatly reducing the size
of Deuel county. In January, 1889, Deuel
county was organized. The first meeting of the
county board is recorded on January 21, 1889,
with the following officers : George P. Smith,
judge ; Ed. Herrington, clerk ; W. H. Sigler,
treasurer, and B. G. Hoover, H. G. Gumaer
and Willis Lee, commissioners. The next day,
January 22, the following officers qualified : J.
L. Robson, treasurer, Reuben Lisco, sheriff,
and Dr. W. H. Babcock, coroner. On Feb-
ruary 2, F. W. Starks qualified as superintend-
ent of schools.
The first act of the commissioners was to
elect B. G. Hoover chairman, and the second
ad was by two votes fur Chappell and one for
Froid, to declare Chappell the temporary coun-
ty -rat. Some official bonds were approved
and the clerk instructed to ask for bids for
supplies. Thus ended the first day of Deuel
county's official life.
The Chappell Register was designated the
official paper on January 26, and the county
attorney's salary was fixed at five hundred
dollars. On this day a brand committee was
created by the board of commissioners who
named G. E. Thompson and John Robinson its
first members.
On January 15, 1889, a county seat election
was declared to have made no choice. The
county then contained eleven precincts as fol-
lows : Alkali, Lisco, Lost Creek, Blue Creek,
Park, Sughrue. Rush Creek, Green, Chappell,
Swan and Big Springs.
In their order road districts one to eleven
were created of the same name and size as
the precincts. The first bills allowed by the
commissioners were for election services, viz :
C. G. Jones, A. T. Stewart, J. H. Roudebush,
Frank Isenberger, Floyd Jones, E. E. Catron,
Simon Hopper, R. D. Root, W. T. Bowers,
George Northrup, E. F. Clayton, Ed. Coumbe,
and Reuben Lisco.
By order of the board, all territory of Deuel
county then north of the North Platte river
was designated as commissoner district num-
ber one. District number two was the west
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
223
half of that part of the county south of the
river and district number three was the east
half. April 3, 1889, E. Fish was appointed
deputy for Ed. Herrington, clerk, as Mr. Her-
rington was in Sidney much of the time tran-
scribing the records for the new county.
Two petitions for bonding the county, one
for one bridge and another for two bridges,
across the North Platte river, were filed April
22, but both were rejected. On May 21, an-
other petition for eighteen thousand dollars in
bonds and two bridges was approved but was
lost on the election.
The board of commissioners, sitting as a
board of equalization, on June 19, 1889, found
the following assessable property in Deuel
county: personal, $93,345.79; real estate,
$443,558.50; Union Pacific railway, $303,-
503.20; Western Union Telegraph Company,
83,448.90, a total of $848,856.39. The first
levy for taxes was: for roads three and a half
mills ; bridges, one mill ; sinking fund, one and
a half mills. The Big Springs Precinct Bridge
Bond was for three mills. Another attempt
was made for a "North River" bridge by a pe-
tition of October 9, 1889, when ten thousand
dollars worth of bonds was asked, but was lost
at the subsequent election.
In the spring of 1890, a bridge was built
across the Blue river, the first bridge built by
Deuel county. In 1890, L. B. Cary and some
other men were working out the details of the
Belmont canal as irrigation was already be-
coming an important factor in the industrial
life of the county. J. B. Anderson, called
"Swede" Anderson, conceived the idea of ex-
tending the Belmont canal to the great tables
between the north river and the Lodgepole.
For raising funds he proposed bonding the pre-
cincts. This idea went so far as to call elec-
tions in several precincts. The company which
was to handle the project was known as the
Belmont and Froid Canal and Reservoir Com-
pany. One hundred and seven persons of
Union precinct asked for an election to vote
fifteen thousand dollars in subsidizing bonds;
one hundred and eighteen petitioners proposed
twenty thousand dollars of bonds as the quota
of Froid precinct; fifty-one persons in Green
precinct wanted to vote on twenty-five thou-
sand dollars of bonds ; all for the same purpose
and elections were called for August 5, 1890.
In the meantime some of the old settlers
had been stung by subsidization bonds for rail-
roads back east, as the railroads were never
built or had ceased to operate and the rails
were torn up after the bond had been secured.
These men set about making an independent
examination of the project, with the result that
it was found that the elevation of the Froid
tableland proved to be from seventy-five to
ninety feet too high to get water to it through
the Belmont intake from the river. Mass meet-
ings were called and Anderson was asked to
explain. The versatile Anderson said that an
hydraulic power station on Rush creek would
lift the water and at the same time an electric
generating plant could be added. However,
the seed of doubt had been planted in the minds
of the people, and the scheme failed. The elec-
tions were re-called.
The writer was then publishing the Ashford
Advocate, and from Banner county watched
the progress and ultimate failure of the idea.
Scotts Bluff county was then just beginning
to promote irrigation projects, and the ques-
tion was how to raise money to build ditches.
"Swede" Anderson's idea suggested the scheme
of irrigation districts and the writer discussed
it with W. W. White, and mentioned it to A.
B. Wood. Mr. White thought several pre-
cincts might be combined into a district. Into
the writer's mind came the sense of injustice,
taxing the land not served for the benefit of
that which was served. Mr. Wood was non-
committal on the subject at the time but later
said that there was so little basic value to the
land, therefore no foundation for a bond is-
sue of consequence.
In 1893, Tim T. Kelliher and I were at Lin-
coln during the legislature. Tim was chief
bookkeeper in the Senate and I was chief en-
grossing clerk in the House. Kelliher met R.
B. Howell, whom he introduced. Howell, Sen-
ator J. H. Danner and I framed an irrigation
district bill which was introduced by Darner.
The complete story of its development is told
in Scotts Bluff County History, but it was sug-
gested to the writer for the first time through
the efforts of J. B. Anderson in Deuel county.
In February, 1891, there were sonn- read-
justments of precinct lines in Deuel county,
and consolidations in which the precincts of
Park, Big Springs and Blue Creek were to
support a bond for a bridge near the location
of Lewellen. Then Chappell and Sughrue pre-
cincts proposed a like plan for a bridge near
the site of Oshkosh. The vote for the east
bridge carried about four to one and that of
the west by about six to one. These bridges
were built in 1891 by the St. Joseph Bridge
and Boiler Company.
In the meantime Chappell held the temporary
county seat. In the election of January 15,
1889. Froid cast an apparently honest vote of
less than three hundred, but Chappell heard of
an enormous vote being cast at Big Springs,
and the printing of extra ballots by thousands
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
was begun. Toward nightfall of election day
it appeared to be a contest of endurance of the
presses and supply of paper for ballots. The
news came up the valley that the Big Springs
vote had reached three thousand. Chappell
beat it by a few and quit. Big Springs had a
few thousand extra ballots printed at Ogallala,
"enough to fill the ballot box," as told by one
of the partisans, with a final total of five thous-
and six hundred and twenty-six votes. Chappell
was overvoted but not beaten. The courts
were appealed to, and for years the charge of
illegal voting kept the temporary county seat
there. Finally the slow process of law resulted
in an order for a new election for June 23,
1894. No place received a majority and on
July 21 following, another election was held,
which gave Chappell a clear majority, and by
action of the county board August 11, 1894,
Chappell became the permanent seat of justice
of Deuel countv.
CHAPTER IV
IRRIGATION IN DEUEL COUNTY
In 1895, the Nebraska legislature passed the
Irrigation District Law. In 1896, the first
Deuel county petition under that law for a
district was presented by Mr. Van Newkirk and
other men. but was rejected because "doubtful
if desired by the majority of the voters," and
"doubtful if it could be watered by one sys-
tem." In July, 1898, George F. Clark, and a
number of other men petitioned to organize
an irrigation district on Blue creek and an
election was called for July 30, which resulted
in five votes for and six against the petition,
so it was lost. October 20, 1898. Ira Paisley
and others petitioned for an irrigation district
taking in a smaller tract on Blue creek. The
election to decide upon it was called for
November 12, with the result that there were
five votes for the project and none against and
the irrigation of this tract became assured. The
officers elected were: division No. 1, N. Berg-
eson, five votes ; No. 2, I. M. Paisley, five votes ;
No. 3, Clarence Hewett, five votes ; as direc-
tors ; A. F. Ramsey, five votes for treasurer,
and A. F. Ramsey, five votes as assessor. Thus
was the first irrigation district in Deuel coun-
ty organized. It came into existence by this
election and the declaration of the county board
November 21, 1898. This first important move-
ment for irrigation was in the northern part
of the county which later became Garden coun-
ty, fur when the new county was organized it
took nearly all the irrigated land in Deuel coun-
ty. The county still has a vital interest in the
Western Irrigation District which waters an
excellent body of land near Julesburg. This,
however, is a newer enterprise but of much
commercial importance to Deuel county as it
affords water for the southeastern part along
the Platte river valley.
Blue Creek Irrigation District was organized
April 3, 1905, and the first officers were : Divi-
sion No. 1, Richard Clark, director by a vote
of thirteen to four for A. S. Ross ; division No.
2, Henry Black, director by eleven votes with
no opposition ; division No. 3, James Orr, di-
rector, by sixteen votes with no opposition;
George McCormick was elected treasurer by
sixteen votes without opposition, and George
Gilliard, assessor, by sixteen votes with one
cast for James Caslin. The total vote cast was
twenty of which eighteen were for the organi-
zation of the district and two opposed. Today
the irrigation in Deuel county is of much im-
portance in raising certain crops on the watered
land that could not be raised before, and in con-
sequence different agricultural products are
becoming of importance in these districts where
any crop planted never fails. The farmers on
the irrigated farms are becoming prosperous
and the country is richer as a result, which is
reflected in the growth of the market towns. So
it is to be seen that while a large part of the
original irrigated district was taken away,
enough was left Deuel to make it a county
which is introducing more irrigation as it is
found feasible and profitable.
Humor and Incidents of Deuel History
The pages of history and record are often
enlivened by humor which takes away the dull-
ness of mere facts. Simon Hopper, who was
reelected commissioner in 1S C >7. was on Janu-
ary 6, 1898, on the convening of the new board
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
of commissioners, made the object of an amus-
ing moment for the other members, M. P.
Clary and J. H. Roudebush, as will be shown
by the following official record : "It was moved
and carried that the commissioner residing at
the county seat buy the county supplies for
the ensuing year." Hopper was the victim, for
Roudebush and Clary were the out of town
members of the board. It does not follow that
Hopper bought the supplies. If he did, the
county paid for them.
merit proceedings were instigated against
Sheriff Kennison but were withdrawn when he
resigned and W. H. McEldowney, his deputy,
was appointed sheriff in his place. E. S. Kenni-
son some years later shot and killed Sam D.
Cox, of Minatare, who was an implacable foe
of liquor, and today Kennison is an inmate
of the state penitentiary.
Garden County Created
The next high light in the history of Deuel
Court House. Chappeel
In 1900, occurred in Deuel county one of
the unfortunate affairs of politics that had a
violent climax in Scotts Bluff county, and its
echoes still reverberate. E. S. Kennison was
elected Sheriff in 1899, taking office the follow-
ing January. At that time he was a likable
man, but had a weakness for drink. His offi-
cial capacity brought to his side all the lawless
element who worked upon his weakness. He
was frequently intoxicated and was said to be
"a devil when under the influence of liquor."
His friends and bondsmen tried to get him
away from these evil influences, but to no
avail. His bondsmen then asked to be re-
leased. The county commissioners met August
22, 1900, to require a new bond. Impeach-
county occurred when Charles Tomppert and
five or six hundred petitioners asked on July
26, 1909, for an election to divide the county
and of the northern portion create a new
county of Garden. A protest was riled by
John R. Wertz and Nicholas E. Zehr. "in be-
half of ourselves and four hundred tax pay-
ers." Wilcox and Halligan of North Platte
were present to argue the case for the protest-
ants. The county board heard the matter and
by unanimous action called an election to decide
the question for November 2, 1909. The com-
missioners at the time were A. G. Newman,
Albert S. Ross, and D. F. Fickes. The election
carried and the history of Garden county com-
pletes the story. Fickes and Ross were both
226
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
residents of the portion of Deuel county which
became Garden, resigned as commissioners of
Deuel county, and Ed. C. Wolf and George
Kalb succeeded them.
County Court House
For many years Deuel county rented quarters
for the transaction of the county's business.
The old frame school house that was built in
the early eighties, and in which was taught the
first legally constituted public school in Chap-
pell, stood on the southwest corner of the pres-
ent court house grounds. It was used as the
office of the county clerk for many years. The
school is now situated a block north of the
old site. Economical administration and the
danger of fire to records, together with the
growing prosperity of Deuel county, led to the
building of a suitable court house which would
be representative of the county and its people.
In 1915, such a structure was erected. The
corner stone was laid by the Master Workmen
of the Grand Lodge, Ancient Free and Ac-
cepted Masons of Nebraska, May 15, 1915, A.
L. 1915, Thomas M. Davis, Grand Master.
The board of county commissioners at that
time consisted of : Simon Hopper, chairman,
George Kalb, and James Brown; their names
being cut in the corner stone with those of J.
J. Huddart, architect, and M. J. Kenney,
builder. The cost of the building at that time
was about half what such a fine building would
have come to later. In the new structure the
county offices were suitably and well housed
with every modern convenience to facilitate
county work and Deuel may well be proud of
her court house.
In 1919, an effort was made to build a
$100,000 county high school at Chappell and
an election called for May 13, of that year,
but on May 28, the election was reordered for
July 8. The vote when counted stood five hun-
dred and sixty-three for and four hundred
forty-two against the building of the school,
and there was not the necessary two-thirds ma-
jority to carry. A protest was made against
counting the vote of Big Springs, as it was
mostly adverse as that town already had a high
school. The county commissioners overruled
the protest and declared the election lost. On
July 28, 1919, a committee was appointed for
redisricting the county according to the new
law with the following people as its members :
Retta F. Brown, H. R. Busse, and J. R. Hol-
combe.
In 1918. J. W. Sjogren was the agricultural
agent, the first to hold that office in the county
and since that time the county agent has taken
an active part in farming industries. He has
been influential in introducing new methods,
to make the most of the soil and has been of
great aid and benefit to the people of Deuel
county. The Deuel County Farm Bureau was
organized December 17, 1917, with G. B.
Brown, president ; Fred E. Smith, secretary,
and Sam Robb, treasurer. These men with
William Mack, of Big Springs, Emil Olson,
of Swan precinct, and O. C. Brestel, of Chap-
pell, constituted the board. The meeting of
January, 1921, indicates that added interest is
being taken in the agricultural development of
the county which is of general benefit to all.
The bureau is doing excellent work throughout
the county and the farmers are cooperating
with it in an effort to increase production and
raise the standard of farm life.
CHAPTER V
COUNTY OFFICERS
. The first judge of Deuel county was George
P. Smith, who took office in 1889 and served
two terms, ending January 1. 1892. Isaac
Woolf was then elected and reelected four
times, serving ten years on the bench. John
O'Neil assumed the office in 1902, being reelect-
ed in 1904, but shortly after that resigned.
Isaac Woolf was appointed for the unexpired
term and served sixteen years, being reelected
seven times. H. R. Busse was elected to the
bench in 1919, and reelected for 1921. In his
legal profession he became interested as at-
torney in cases now before the county judge
and to meet the situation, the county commis-
sioners appointed Isaac W'oolf a special acting
judge to hear and dispose of those matters.
Mr. Woolf's total service to the county now
aggregates some twenty-eight years ; a long
HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA
period for one man, whose efficiency has been
marked.
The first county clerk of Deuel county was
Ed. Herrington, who was twice reelected and
served in that capacity five years. He has been
followed in office by Kirk A. McCall, for
four years; Jackson Gyger, for four years;
Robert A. Day, for four years ; Eugene De-
Latour. for four years ; Jack McCormick, for
two years ; Cyrus O. Brown, who served for
three years and then resigned ; H. D. Betts was
appointed to fill the vacancy and then was
elected.
J. L. Robson was the first man to fill the
office of county treasurer of Deuel county, tak-
ing office in 1889 for one year; he was follow-
ed by A. H. Nichols, for four years ; Abel Carl-
son, for four years ; Fred Sudman, for four
years ; John Wertz, for four years ; William E.
Roudebush, for four years ; Henry C. Peter-
son for six years ; Hezekiah Epperson, for two
years; and J. G. McCormick, who was elected
in 1919 and is still serving.
The first man to serve as county attorney for
Deuel county was W. H. Sigler, elected in 1889,
was reelected but resigned, to be followed by
S. P. DeLatour, who was appointed to finish
the term. Jacob Keifer followed, serving three
years before he resigned. George C. McAllis-
ter was elected in 1897, served until 1906, when
he was succeeded by L. ( ). Pfeiffer, who is still
the attorney starting upon his eighth term in
office.
Reuben Lisco was the first sheriff of Deuel