HISTORY
PIONEER DAYS
January-March, 1921
Number 1
CONTENTS
Editorial Notes
1-3
History of Louisiana
4-7
The Old Settlers' View
8
The Lillie Com Husker
Historical Society Library
Historical Society Museum _
—9-11
12
13-14
First Hat Factory in Nebraska
Wyuka Cemetery— Origin of the Name
James Murie and the Skidi Pawnee
14
15
16
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE NEBRASKA
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
STATE
LINCOLN
Application made at Lincoln, Nebraska for admission to
second class matter— under act of July 16, 1804.
mall as
GENEALOGY DEFT.
OCT 20 m
AHmCooityftiMeLihwy
* ***** WW* k****
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Founded September 25, 1878
The Nebraska State Historical Society was founded Sep-
tember 25, 1878, at a public meeting held in the Commercial
Hotel at Lincoln. About thirty well known citizens of the
State were present. Robert W. Furnas was chosen president
and Professor Samuel Aughey, secretary. Previous to this
date, on August 26, 1867, the State Historical and Library
Association was incorporated in order to receive from the
State the gift of the block of ground, now known as Haymarket
Square. This original Historical Association held no meet-
ings. It was superseded by the present State Historical
Society.
Present Governing Board
Executive Board — Officers and Elected Members
President, Robert Harvey, Lincoln
1st V- President, Hamilton B. Lowry, Lincoln
2nd V-President, Nathan P. Dodge Jr., Omaha
Secretary, Addison E. Sheldon, Lincoln
Treasurer, Philip L. Hall, Lincoln
Rev. Michael A. Shine, Plattsmouth
Don L. Love, Lincoln
Samuel C. Bassett, Gibbon
John F. Cordeal, McCook
Novia Z. Snell, Lincoln
William E. Hardy, Lincoln
Ex Officio Members
Samuel R. McKelvie, Governor of Nebraska
Samuel Avery, Chancellor of University of Nebraska
Geor,ge C. Snow, Chadron, President of Nebraska Press Association
Howard W. Caldwell, Professor of American History, University
of Nebraska
Andrew M. Morrissey, Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Nebraska
Clarence A. Davis, Attorney General of Nebraska
NEBRASKA fi^ HISTORY
PIONEER DAYS
Published Quarterly by the Nebraska State Historical Society
Addison E. Sheldon, Editor
Subscription, $2.00 per year
Vol. IV January-March, 1921 Number 1
Lend this issue to your friend. After he has read it ask
him how he likes it. Then secure his membership in the Ne-
braska State Historical Society.
Volume XX of our bound and illustrated reports is in the
hands of the printer. The page proof has been read. Editor
Albert Watkins is completing the index. It is an important
and interesting volume — filled with fascinating "stories" of
Nebraska which you have never seen in print.
A sample recent day's mail to the Historical Society
brought letters asking historical information from points as
far away as New York City, Akron, Ohio, Tacoma, Denver and
Beaumont, Texas, while letters from Nebraska came from
points as separate as Omaha, Benkleman, Pawnee City and
Alliance.
The Nebraska State Historical Society issues three dis-
tinct types of publications. First, the bound volumes of state
reports, begun in 1885 ; Second, special pamphlets and volumes
on single topics; Third, the quarterly magazine. All three
publications will continue. All current publications are sent
to sustaining members.
2 NEBRASKA HISTORY
With this number the Historical Society begins the pub-
lication of its quarterly in regular magazine form. This form
has long been planned for its permanent publication. It is
believed the plan will now succeed. The magazine will be
larger — and better — as the months go by. There is interest
in its subject. There is demand for its information. There
is needed only the financial means to pay for expert office help,
printing and illustrations.
"Saunders County in the World War" is a handsome bound
volume of 200 pages which reflects great credit on the Wahoo
Democrat, publisher, and W. W. Chreiman, compiler. It has
hundreds of pictures of scenes and persons showing how
Saunders county sustained her part in the great conflict — at
home and abroad. The story is well told. Volumes such as
these will be cherished and studied through the centuries to
come. Each county in Nebraska needs such a book.
L. T. Brodstone of Superior is a genius. No one can read
a letter he writes, but he prints the most wonderful, successful,
magazine in Nebraska — the Philatelic WTest. It is the organ
of collectors and hobby riders. It circulates all over the
world. Its advertising columns are a gold mine. It tells
all about the rare coins, stamps, weapons, implements, relics.
It is a great popular lecturer on human history for no one can
be a "bug" collector without becoming a student of history.
From the latest issue we glean that one can now buy World
War shrapnel for $4 each ; German helmets, $3.00, French and
German shell cases, 85 cents, German gas mask $2.50 and war
currency at any price you please.
From Dale P. Stough, of Grand Island, the Society ac-
knowledges the gift of two volumes of the History of Hamilton
and Clay counties and two volumes of the History of Dodge
and Washington counties. Mr. Stough is editor of the Clay
and Hamilton volumes and has done a good piece of work con-
densing a narrative of important points in State history.
There is need of a good county history for each county in
Nebraska. The work ought to be done by someone familiar
with the story, knowing the people, having training and love
For the work and not chiefly concerned in getting paid bio-
graphies and illustrations.
EDITORIAL NOTES 3
John A. Rea, Tacoma, is now president of the board of
regents of Washington State University. Fifty years ago he
was a newspaper reporter in Lincoln and Omaha. His recol-
lections of that period are original and vivid, and he is now
engaged in making a picturesque story of them. During the
past few weeks he has kept the Nebraska State Historical
Society busy supplying his demand for original documents.
From Victor Rosewater, Omaha, comes a pamphlet, "A
Curious Chapter in Constitution Changing" — reprint of an
article by him in the Political Science Quarterly. It is a brief
review of the efforts to make the Nebraska Constitution of
1875 amendable. Especially condemned is the device enacted
in 1901 for counting straight party ballots for such amend-
ments. Mr. Rosewater points out that by inadvertence the
constitutional convention of 1920 left the open use of the circle
ballot on propositions for calling new constitutional conven-
tions. He might add that another inadvertence left in our
constitution the 1875 provision for preference vote on candi-
dates for U. S. Senate — now nullified by adoption of the six-
teenth amendment to the federal constitution.
The 35th annual report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology (Part 1) has just reached the Historical Society
library. It contains most interesting material on the custom
and folk lore of the Kwakiutl Indians who inhabit British
Columbia. Their culture is kindred to that of tribes in the
Puget Sound region. A most fascinating part of the book is
the detailed account of how these people solved the problems
of food and shelter, including recipes for preparing many
dishes which ought to be good reading for teachers of domestic
science.
The American Commission Report on Conditions in Ire-
land comes as a gift of the commission. This is the com-
mittee of one hundred appointed by the New York Nation.
Senator Norris of this State is a member. The investigation
was held in America; witnesses came from Ireland. The
British government declined to have part in its work. As the
report says the viewpoint of Ulster unionists and British of-
ficials in Ireland is not represented. The report is therefore
one-sided. It is bad enough at any rate as a disclosure of
conditions on the island.
NEBRASKA HISTORY
HISTOIRE
i> E LA
ILOUIStANE,
Wk Contcr.int la Decouvcrte dc ce vafle Pays; HB
1 Mocurs , CoCitumes 6c Religion des Nam- ' B
r dans ie Nord du nouveau Mexique, dont
i un jtifqu'a la Mer du Sud ; ornec de deux
Carres & de'40 Planches en Taillc douce.
TOME PREMJERF^^ "\ j
4- ^sy I
A PARIS,
: ro« Bom, MM, forfe Qua| «, A^rtttfj
\.Um%Ki, .rue de h Commie- Pr.n^oije. 9
■ M,ocCiLvni^ -: _: 1
8i55"io - 1
of Nebraska State Historical Society
Histoire de la Louisiar
copy of Le Page du Pratz
OLD BOOKS OF WESTERN HISTORY
In the library of the Nebraska State Historical Society are
many quaint and curious old volumes of western history. Some
of these are in Spanish, some in German, some in American
Indian tongues, many in French, the bulk in English. Special
students and research scholars delve in these volumes. From
such books are gleaned the material for plays, poems, novels,
sketches, histories. The great general public knows these
writings only in the form given them by present day writers.
Hundreds of themes and stories in this early literature are yet
untouched by modern interpretation. Some of them are not
found in English translation.
OLD BOOKS OF WESTERN HISTORY 5
The editor of this magazine plans a series of articles with
the purpose of making this literature more generally known
and enjoyed. Further — to encourage study of the volumes
and the production of an inspiring popular literature from
these sources.
The first work presented is one printed at Paris in 1758 —
History of Louisiana by LePage du Pratz, in three volumes.
It is the original French edition. Translations have been made
into English. The original French carries an "atmosphere"
which the translations lack. Bound in solid leather, with two
maps, forty wood cuts and the quaint-faced type used at Paris
two hundred years ago, these volumes are just the handy size
to slip into a coat pocket, and the wide outer margins are a
challenge for making copious notes.
The work is a description as well as a history of Louisiana
— which then included the Nebraska region. The motive of
the author and the time of its publication summon instantly
before the mind scenes in the great world drama still on the
stage — the struggle for world domination and control by the
English speaking people.
In 1758 the war between England and France for the
possession of North America was in its fourth year. The
tide of success which ran in favor of France for the first three
years had turned. Popular opinion in France depreciated the
vast resources of the great province of the Mississippi basin.
The first purpose of M. du Pratz was to correct false impres-
sions and to give the intelligent French public a true view of
the great fertile valley of the New World.
In his preface the author says he lived sixteen years in
Louisiana, that he made long voyages into its interior, that he
interviewed many French and Indians who knew points he had
not seen, that he had made a study of its plants and animals
and a collection of three hundred medicinal plants from the
region and that he would give a truthful account of the riches
of this vast region. All of this for the glory of France and
the King.
A learned French author, M. des Lands, about that period
had written in a history of phibsophy that Louisiana was a
sterile land with subterranean lakes inhabited by poisonous
fish. M. du Pratz warmly rejoins that forty years' residence
of French colonists proved that in fertility and climate Louis-
6 NEBRASKA HISTORY
iana excelled the most favored parts of Europe and that no
one there ever heard of the poisonous fish.
The chapters on agriculture in this work are among- the
best early descriptions of this region. The author's vision
sees the products of the land enter into world commerce, bring-
ing wealth and happiness to those who cultivate the land and
new satisfactions to consumers in Europe and elsewhere.
He describes the bread grains grown in this region thus :
Maiz, which in France is called Turkey-corn, is the natural product
of this country. The kinds are flour corn, homony corn (white, yellow,
red and blue) and small corn, called so because of its size. Maiz grows
on a stalk six to eight feet high and each stalk bears sometimes six or
seven ears.
Wheat, rye, barley and oats grow extremely well in Louisiana.
Wheat, when sown by itself, grows wonderfully, but when in flower a
great number of drops of red water may be observed on the stalk about
six inches from the ground which collect there during the night and dis-
appear at sunrise. This water is of such an acid nature that in a short
time it consumes the stalk and the ear falls before the grain is formed.
To prevent this, which is due to the richness of the soil, the method I
have used is to mix some rye and dry mould with the seed wheat in such
proportion that the mould shall be equal to the rye and wheat together.
Is this the first description of wheat rust in the Mississippi
valley ?
Illustration from Le Page du Pratz Rowing Indians of Northern Louisiana
(Nebraska region) going on their winder hunt. Note absence of horses-
dogs used for conveyance.
Full of interest to the scientist as well as historian are the
pictures of trees, plants and animals of Louisiana from draw-
MORMONS IN NEBRASKA 7
ings by M. du Pratz. In this article there is space only for a
few sentences on the Nebraska-Kansas region. He writes :
The Cansez is the largest known river flowing into the Missouri.
It flows for two hundred leagues through the most beautiful land. The
Missouri brings down cloudy water for it flows through a land rich and
fat where there are no stones.
M. du Pratz' map of Louisiana is fairly accurate as far as
the present site of Kansas City. Beyond that he roughly in-
dicates the "Pays des Panis" or Pawnee Country, with the Mis-
souri river turning westward as though the Platte or Niobrara
were its main stream. He says "It will be ages before we ex-
plore the northern part of Louisiana."
This brief review can scarcely convey the charm of these
volumes. No history of agriculture in the Mississippi valley
can ever be complete without careful study of them. They
give detailed directions for the planting and cultivation of all
kinds of crops grown here. How little could the author guess
that the very region he so fondly describes trying to awaken
France to realize its riches would within two centuries feed
the French and English nations fighting side by side against
the invader from beyond the Rhine.
Mormons and the Mormon church have had important part
in Nebraska history. The Mormon camps on our border, the
picturesque trains of Mormons crossing our plains, the Mor-
mon settlers who scattered in various unnoticed nooks of Ne-
braska in the great migration period — all have an interest
quite out of proportion to their total number. Only a few
Nebraskans know that there are twenty Mormon churches with
1,973 members in our state. These are the Reorganized
Church, which repudiates Brigham Young, but adheres to
Joseph Smith and his descendants. This branch publishes a
Journal of History at Independence, Missouri, which is just
now printing the record of the separation of the Reorganizers
from the Salt Lake branch and a very interesting story of
human affairs it makes. Very few people have read the Book
of Mormon. It cannot be called easy reading. It purports —
among other things — to give an account of the early migration
of a branch of the Jewish people across the Atlantic to Ameri-
ca, of their growth into a powerful people, of their destruction
in war wherein more than two millions perished. After twice
reading the book the editor's opinion of it as an historical
narrative remains unchanged. Yet the establishment and
NEBRASKA HISTORY
growth of the Mormon church remains one of the remarkable
social and religious phenomena of the past century.
THE OLD SETTLERS' VIEW
We talked about the dugout days
The other night around a blaze
Of chunks chopped from Nebraska trees
We planted back in sixty-eight; —
The twisted hay fire's smoky tease,
The dirt floor rug beneath our feet,
The shingled sod, the worn tin plate,
Came back their story to repeat
When we set out to build the state.
A pioneer rose up and said:
"Jest skelp fur me my old gray head
"Ef I'd a-ever held my claim
"Except fur my Almiry Jane;
"She kep' the county taxes paid,—
"She held the fort that Injin raid, —
"She argid in the days of drouth
"That luck would turn as sure as Fate,
"That God would fill His children's mouths
"And give us help to build the state."
A homesteader (his eyes were wet,)
Spoke next: "I never shall forget
"The hard times that we struggled through,
"The sickness and the mortgage, too; —
"Nor, when the welcome children came
"And played about our sod house claim
"Who fought for our first district school,
"And held her own in joint debate
"Till neighbors said, 'That them should rule
" 'As raised the children for the State.' "
So first one, then the other 'greed
That women folks had done the deed;
Had held the homestead on the plains
Through years of drouth and years of rains;
Had given men the grit to stay
When they would rather run away;
Had planted church and public school,
Had raised the children, strong and straight;
So we're all headed fur Home Rule:
Let the women vote who build the State!
There was a Fort Atkinson in Wisconsin, one in New Mexico, one
in northeastern Iowa, and one in Nebraska. The Nebraska Fort Atkin-
son has by far the most important place in the history of the west. It
was for seven years the farthest western post of the United States army.
More important events connected with the early exploration of the west
centered at the Nebi'aska Fort Atkinson than at any other point. An
article in the Palimpsest, published by the Iowa Historical Society, tells
the story of the Iowa Fort Atkinson which has now been made a State
Historical Park. There are ten important reasons why the Nebraska
Fort Atkinson site should be made a permanent historical park to one
for any other Fort Atkinson.
THE LILLIE CORN HUSKER
W. P. Lillie demonstrating use of his corn husker— from cut used in his
advertising literature.
THE LILLIE CORN HUSKER
By Samuel C Bassett
Homesteaders in Nebraska had many new wrinkles to
learn in methods in agriculture, few more important than
growing- and harvesting corn.
In the eastern states, from whence came most of the
homesteaders, corn was not the important crop that it has
always been in Nebraska.
On an average farm in New York, for illustration, only
from three to five acres were devoted to corn production. The
corn was cut and shocked in advance of frost and later husked
and thrown on the floor in the com crib where it was sorted,
the soft corn separated from the mature, every husk and all
silk removed in order to prevent the corn from moldmg and
rotting while drying in the crib. As the corn was husked the
corn fodder was bound in bundles and stored in the barn for
fodder.
In Nebraska, from the beginning to the present t;me. the
value of the corn crop, each year, has evceeded the total value
of all wheat, oats, rve and barley raised on our farms. In
the early years, and largelv even at the present, corn matures
on the standing stalks and when dry is husked and stored in
10 NEBRASKA HISTORY
cribs, in many instances piled on the ground, often remaining
in such piles during the entire winter or until shelled for
market. In Nebraska it is the exception and not the rule that
all husks and all silk are removed from corn when being
husked. In New York, for illustration, a farmer would
average to husk twenty shocks of corn, yielding twenty baskets
of ears, (ten bushels of shelled corn) in a day.
A homesteader who settled in Nebraska in 1871 made a
visit to his old home in New York. It was in the fall of the
year, in the early 80's, and eastern farmers were busy husking
their corn.
Traveling east from Buffalo, the homesteader visited with
a group of farmer people on the train and naturally boasted of
conditions in Nebraska. He stated that in Nebraska no corn
was cut and shocked. That corn was husked from the stand-
ing stalks and the ears thrown directly into a wagon box. That
a good husker would husk and crib an acre of corn a day, and
that it made little difference whether the corn yielded fifteen
or seventy-five bushels per acre. That it made no difference
whether all husks and all silks were removed from the corn
or not, and that corn would keep all winter on the stalks in the
field, or in piles on the ground.
When the homesteader had finished his "spiel," a New
York farmer, one of the group, took off his hat and tendered it
to the homesteader remarking, "take the hat, it is yours and
welcome. I have heard a good many yarns about the west but
yours is the biggest lie of all !"
When more than one-half of the cultivated land was, and
is, devoted to corn production, as in Nebraska, it will be seen
that corn husking, one ear at a time, with cracked and bleed-
ing hands, is a well nigh never ending and unpleasant task in
the late fall and winter months.
The first invention used to assist in corn husking was the
husking peg, described briefly as a small, round piece of hard
wood sharpened at one end, some six inches in length, held in
the hollow of the right hand. Attached to the husking peg
was a loop of buckskin or other soft leather, the loop passing
over the middle finger, holding the husking peg in place. The
sharpened end of the peg was thrusted thru the husks at the
tip end of the ear, enabling the operator to husk the ear quick-
ly and easily and the husking peg at once came into universal
use.
In the year 1890 was invented the Lill;e corn husker, or corn
hook as it is often called, by W. F. Lillie of Rockford. Nebraska,
the invention being: brought about in a manner described by
Edgar Rothrock of Holmesville, Nebraska, as follows :
THE LILLIE CORN HUSKER
George F. Richards, (father-in-law of Mr. Lillie) lost his right thumb
at the second joint in 1886 and lamented that he could no longer husk
corn. To help him out Mr. Lillie cut from an old scoop shovel his first
corn husker or corn hook. Mr. Richards found with its use he could
husk com as well as ever. Mr. Lillie then realized the value of his con-
trivance and cut out many more (corn hooks) of different shapes, from
old shovels. Mr. Lillie secured his first patent on this invention Septem-
ber 26, 1893. Mr. Lillie owned only foity acres of land and had a large
family to support. He spent a great deal of time in working on his
corn husker and getting it ready for market. His means were very
limited and he sacrificed nearly everything he owned. The invention
made him no money and he always claimed he was beaten out of his
rights by designing partners, and old settlers think so too.
Mr. Lillie traveled widely thru Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa
introducing his invention. He gave many demonstrations. His son,
H. D. Lillie, who accompanied him part of the time tells of one method:
Two men would hold a newspaper above Mr. Lillie's head. A third
would hold an ear of husked corn under the paper while Mr. Lillie held
in his left hand an ear of snapped corn. At a given signal Mr. Lillie
would begin to husk the ear and the man to drop the ear of husked corn,
held under the newspaper. Mr. Lillie would husk his ear (the operation
passing it, of course, to his right hand), and catch the dropped ear as it
reached the level of his hand and hold the ears side by side in his right
hand.
William F. Lillie evolved his perfected corn husker (corn hook) after
much thought, labor and expense. A poor man, he attempted to manu-
facture them and create a market under great difficulties. He suc-
ceeded in every way excpt financially. A grateful posterity will see
that he is given the credit he deserves.
The Lillie corn husker, invented and placed on the market
in the early 90's is still in use. A Nebraska hardware dealer
in business in the early 70's, states that he placed his first order
for Lillie corn huskers, September 22, 1893. His successor
in the same line of business, continues to handle them and
states that he sells ten times as many Lillie corn huskers as
of husking pegs.
The Hand tha
12 NEBRASKA HISTORY
Editor's Note: An important question is this: How much has the
invention of the husking hook increased the efficiency of the com husker ?
Mr. J. C. Morford, of Beaver Crossing, Seward County, successfully
farms 320 acres of Blue river bottom. His three sons and himself are
all expert huskers. They agree that the modern husking hook with
cot and p'ate doubles the husker's production as compared with the old
fashioned husking peg. Two motions strip the ear. The editor would
be glad to have the estimate of other experts.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY
The following items are a few of the titles recently acquired by this
library by gift, exchange or purchase. Most of the genealogical books
wp"'e obtained by exchange for the Nebraska Historical Collections and
ofhe- duplicates from Mr. F^ank J. Wilder of Somerville, Mass. Mr.
Wilder is a life member of this Society.
Ma Tower Descendants in Cape May County, New Jersey
O'd Famines of Salisbury and Amesbury, Mass.
Srituate Second Church Records
FarTy Connecticut Marriages, 7 volumes
Memorial History of Hartford, Conn.
Commodore Barney
Colonia1 Records of Rh'xle Island
Collections of Rhode Island
Proceedings of Rhode Island
American Indians, Chained and Unchained
The Great American Desert
The World War, Saunders County
Records of the World War, Field Orders
Land Evidences in Rhode Island
The Blanket Indian
Hud's History of New Hampshire
Hu- d's History of Ef sex County, Mass.
History of Framingham, Mass.
History of Middlesex County, Mass.
History of Milford, Mass.
History of Norfolk County, Mass.
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM
Curator E. E. Blackman furnishes the following notes upon recent
additions to our museum:
As the years go bj' the public appreciates more and more the im-
portance of preserving the evidences of our rapidly changing conditions
of lifo. So our museum grows. The pressing problem is where to
place the constant valuable gifts.
The tractor is now turning over the sod on our western plains, and
where once grew the curly buffalo grass, now are seen whole sections of
ripening golden grain. The tractor has ceased to be a curiosity — but
the l"ttle "grasshopper" breaking plow is a thing of the past. You need
not be very old to remember when this "square cut, rod plow" was found
on every homestead, you can remember when it was a curiosity because
it was new and simple in construction. Now it is a curiosity because
it is ancient. Mr. Jack Hurst of Trenton has presented a genuine
"grasshopper." Grandchildren of the present day will look with wonder
on this imp^ment.
Before the days of the victrola, was occasionally seen a "Swiss
mus'c box." You wound up a spring which rendered a number of tunes
by the action of a brass cylinder set with steel pins. In 1885 D. E.
Thompson, former minister to Mexico and Brazil, purchased a Swiss
music box for $1,000 and presented it to his sister, Miss Eva Thompson
of Lincoln. This music box is an elaborate instrument. It has six
cylinders and each cylinder carries six tunes, with the organ accompani-
HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM 13
ment and a bell ringing attachment. Miss Eva Thompson has presented
this Swiss music box to the museum, where it will teach coming genera-
tions the process of mechanical music before the days of the victrola.
She also presented a Mexican mill, a water jar and a huge key from
Mexico.
Mr. Thurlow Lieurance presented to the museum a Chinese harp made
in a crude way by stretching shark skin over a wooden frame. Cords
are attached and it resembles a huge banjo.
Possibly the most interesting addition to the photograph department
is the work of Arthur L. Anderson of Wahoo. It consists of three
huge albums containing the full and complete World War activities of
Saunders county in photographs, fully named and described. Mr. An-
derson has produced a work of great artistic merit as well as a very
valuable historical record, which should be seen to be appreciated.
Small donations, each of which is interesting and instructive, have
been received from time to time; a wooden "brace" used by carpenters
when Nebraska was being built, by J. C. Hurst, of Trenton, a facsimile
of the Seal of Nebraska by Hodge White of Beaumont, Texas, a watch
from the Chicago fire by George Klein of Lincoln; a scabbard from
Custer battlefield by A. N. Keith of Kaycee, Wyoming; an Indian bow
from the McKenzie battlefield, Wyoming; a unique wooden saddle found
on the plains and other specimens by Mr. Keith. A complete set of
Lillie corn husker hooks from Rev. Edgar Rothrock of Holmesville; a
number of documents and bills from the Castetter bank at Blair.
While at Decatur, Miss Martha Turner secured for the museum an
Omaha "Medicine Man's Cap." This cap was placed as a loan by Mrs.
Theresa T. Milton, daughter of Mrs. Mary Fontenelle Tyndall. This
head dress was the property of "Hetheneka" who was a Medicine Man
in the Omaha tribe. He died in 1888. It was the property of his
forefathers, having passed to the eldest son from generation to genera-
tion. Henry Milton inherited it on the death of Hetheneka in 1888, but
he has no sons, so it is placed in the Historical Society for safe keeping.
There is no better friend of historic research in the Nebraska region
than George J. Remsburg, now of California. Not a month goes by
that he does not send some interesting item of early days in the Ne-
braska region to our Society. Among the latest is a story of an in-
cident in Richardson county in the fall of 1860. It was called "Steal-
ing a Grist Mill" and is unique in Nebraska history. The story con-
densed is that early in 1860 A. M. Hamby who was running a saw mill
at Falls City induced W. C. Foster of Kansas to go into partnership.
Mr. Foster had a grist mill consisting of a run of bearings, the frame
supporting them and the necessary cog-wheels to run it. These he re-
moved to Falls City and attached to Hamby's saw mill. Differences
arose between the partners and Mr. Foster finding himself at a disad-
vantage in a Nebraska law suit resolved to help himself to his own
property. At night with two heavy lumber-wagons and four good
horses his forces gathered in Falls City. After spying out the land,
about midnight they moved into the mill yard and began action. The
frame of the mill was bolted firmly to the sills of the building. A
heavy wrench had been brought along and as the nut turned on the
rusty bolt the creaking sounded like filing a saw, and caused all to start
with the fear that they would be discovered. Industriously they worked
and in a few minutes it was carefully lifted from its resting place and
laid upon the saw dust. A span of horses was soon brought up and
hitched to the mill. It was dragged over the soft ground a quarter of
a mile or more to where the wagons had been left. In a few minutes
it was carefully taken apart and placed in the wagons and the party
were as anxious to get out of Nebraska as they were a few hours before
to get in. Quietly they pursued their journey until just as the day was
dawning, they came in sight of the timber near Mr. Foster's Kansas
14 NEBRASKA HISTORY
home. Then the five good singers who were in the party struck up with
one accord, "Home, Sweet Home," and never was it sung with a more
hearty good will.
FIRST HAT FACTORY IN NEBRASKA
We are indebted to Mr. Fred E. Bodie of Blair, for several
recent important contributions to Nebraska territorial history.
These contributions have come from examination of old docu-
ments in the possession of the Castetter Bank of Blair. This
bank and the business which preceded it go back to the be-
ginnings oi Washington county. As receiver in charge Mr.
Bodie has had occasion to go over these early documents and
had discernment to recognize their historical value.
The document which follows is the first record thus far
found of a hat factory in Nebraska. The city of Desoto had
then a population of more than 1,000 people, two newspapers,
steamboats tying up at its river front to discharge cargo, en-
terprising business men, real estate promoters. To-day it is
a horse pasture, three miles from Blair. The Missouri river
has deserted its former channel and wandered away a mile or
more eastward. And now after more than a half century,
comes to light these ancient articles of co-partnership with
their most interesting figures on the cost of hats, printed ac-
cording to copy as follows :
Article of agreement made and entered into this 3rd day of January
A. D. 1862 by and between Joel Ruly of the City of De Soto County of
Washington and Territory of Nebraska and John H. Hoskinson of the
Same place the above named parties to this article mutually agree with
each other and by these presents do Enter into a co-partnership for the
purpose of manufacturing Hats in the City of De Soto County Washing-
ton & Territory of Nebraska and we the above named Joel Ruly and
John H. Hoskinson do further agree and Bind ourselves by these pre-
sents to Each Share alike the expences of furnishing the tools necessary
to Manufacture Hats. And it is further agreed between us that the
material out of which the Hats are made to be furnished by us and that
each one of us is to pay an equal proportion for the same but in the event
that either one of the within named parties should furnish more stock
than the other that the said party so furnishing shall be allowed to draw
the amount of money so furnished out of the capital stock of the firm
before any division shall be made & after the same shall be taken out
by the respective party entitled to the same that the balance shall be
then equally divid between the Parties to this instrument after first
paying for the Making of Said Hats and we further agree by and be-
tween ourselves to each furnish an equal proportion all the material
necessary to carry on a regular Hattery business Stock included and that
John H. Hoskinson, one of the within firm is to manufacture Said Hats
in a good workmanlike manner out of the material so furnished and for
such prices as is laid down in a Schedule or Bill of prices hereto attached
marked A and in consideration for said Labor each of us the parties
herein name viz Joel Ruly and John H. Hoskinson are to pay and equal
proportion of said Labor which pay is to be taken out of the Hats so
manufactured before any division Shall be made or any disposition made
of it other than is heretofore expressed.
WYUKA— ORIGIN OF NAME 15
In Witness Whereof we have hereunto set our hand and Seal this
3rd day of January A. D. 1862.
Joel Ruly Seal
John H. Hoskinson Seal
In Presence of ]
Charles D. Davis j-
P. W. Lecombe J
A
Making Caster bodies each
napping Caster bodies with beaver, otter, or muskrat each
making rabbit hats each
making wool bodies each
napping wool bodies each
making wool hat each
Finishing caster hats each
Finishing rabbit hats each
Finishing wool Bodies napped each
coloring each hat napped
blocking and washing out after coloring
pulling and cutting coon skin
pulling and cutting muskrat skin
trimming caster hats each
trimming wool bodies napped each
trimming rabbit hats each
trimming wool hats each
scraping and cuting rabbit each
Making roram bodies each
The wool is to be carded equal by both parties pulling cutting
Beaver skin each
otter do.
wolf do.
Making smoth caster hat
50
cts
50
cts
50
cts
35
cts
37%
cts
37%
cts
18%
cts
12%
cts
12.%
cts
12%
cts
5
cts
4
cts
3
cts
12%
cts
10
cts
10
cts
5
cts
3
cts
40
cts
25
cts
25
els
20
cts
75
WYUKA CEMETERY— ORIGIN OF THE NAME
The secretary of the Wyuka cemetery calls up to ask the
origin of the cemetery name. This inquiry has frequently
been made of the Historical Society. It may be well to put
in printed form information upon this subject.
In the Dakota or Sioux language the intransitive verb
wanka means to rest, to lie down. To recline, kun-iwanka.
The name of a couch is owanka. The pronunciation of wanka
is very much as though it were spelled wong-kah.
In the Dakota or Sioux language pronouns are incorpor-
ated with the verb, but for the third person singular no in-
corporate pronoun is used. In order then, to find the simplest
form of the verb in Sioux we look to the third person singular
instead of to the infinitive as in English. Therefore wanka
exactly means in Dakota, he rests or he lies down.
The Nebraska legislature in 1869 passed the act providing
that eighty acres of land belonging to the state of Nebraska,
not more than three miles distant from the state capitol build-
ing, should be selected by a board of trustees and approved by
16 NEBRASKA HISTORY
the governor as a state cemetery. The act does not name the
cemetery. The name was given after the site had been lo-
cated and the tradition associated with the name is that it was
"Indian" for resting place. This is approximately correct.
Lincoln and Wyuka cemetery are located in what was Otoe
territory. The Otoe language is a dialect of the Dakota or
Sioux language. The Omaha and Ponca languages are like-
wise dialects of the Dakota. The conversion of the Otoe
word "wong-kah" into Wyuka is easily understood. Very
commonly Indian words are mispronounced, due to the fact
that the white man's ear does not correctly catch the exact
pronunciation of the Indian tongue. There yet remains to
be determined who of the early pioneers of Lincoln found and
bestowed the name Wyuka on the state cemetery.
JAMES MURIE AND THE SKIDI PAWNEE
Murie is a familiar name to students of the Pawnee tribe
and Indian wars on the Nebraska border. Captain James
Murie commanded a company of Pawnee scouts during the
Sioux-Cheyenne war. He was married to a Pawnee woman.
In his later years he lived in the Grand Island Soldiers' Home
where he died. He was a brave and efficient soldier, recog-
nized by a special resolution of the Nebraska legislature in
1870.
James Murie, son of Captain Murie and a Pawnee mother,
has been for many years a valuable helper in the work of col-
lecting the history and folk lore of his tribe for publication.
He is a graduate of Carlisle, speaks English well, knows the
tribal traditions and is passionately devoted to their preserva-
tion. The editor of this magazine is indebted to Mr. Murie
for assistance in visits to the Pawnee at their home in Okla-
homa.
The 35th Bureau of American Ethnology report has this
reference to Mr. Murie's present work:
Mr. James Murie, as opportunity offered and the limita-
tions of a small allotment made by the bureau for these studies
allowed, continued his observations on the ceremonial organi-
zation and rites of the Pawnee tribe, of which he is a member.
The product of Mr. Murie's investigation of the year, which
was practically finished but not received in manuscript form
at the close of June, is a circumstantial account of \The Going
After the Mother Cedar Tree by the Bear Society," an impor-
tant ceremony which has been performed only by the Skidf
band during the last decade.
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Made a State Institution February 27, 1883.
An act of the Nebraska legislature, recommended by Governor
James W. Dawes in his inaugural and signed by him, made the State
Historical Society a State institution in the following:
Be it Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska:
Section 1. That the "Nebraska State Historical Society," an or-
ganization now in existence — Robt. W. Furnas, President; James M.
Woolworth and Elmer S. Dundy, Vice-Presidents; Samuel Aughey,
Secretary, and W. W. Wilson, Treasurer, their associates and successors —
be, and the same is hereby recognized as a state institution.
Section 2. That it shall be the duty of the President and Secretary
of said institution to make annually reports to the governor, as required
by other state institutions. Said report to embrace the transactions and
expenditures of the organization, together with all historical addresses,
which have been or may hereafter be read before the Society or furnished
it as historical matter, data of the state or adjacent western regions of
country.
Section 3. That said reports, addresses, and papers shall be pub-
lished at the expense of the state, and distributed as other similar official
reports, a reasonable number, to be decided by the state and Society, to
be furnished said Society for its use and distribution.
Property and Equipment
The present State Historical Society owns in fee simple title as
trustee of the State the half block of land opposite and east of the State
House with the basement thereon. It occupies for offices and working
quarters basement rooms in the University Library building at 11th and
R streets. The basement building at 16th and H is crowded with the
collections of the Historical Society which it can not exhibit, including
some 15,000 volumes of Nebraska newspapers and a large part of its
museum. Its rooms in the University Library building are likewise
crowded with library and museum material. The annual inventory of
its property returned to the State Auditor for the year 1920 is as follows:
Value of Land, % block 16th and H $75,000
Value of Buildings and permanent improvements 35,000
Value of Furniture and Furnishings 5,000
Value of Special Equipment, including Apparatus,
Machinery and Tools 1,000
Educational Specimens (Art, Museum, or other) 74,800
Library (Books and Publications) 75,000
Newspaper Collection 52,395
Total Resources $318,195
Much of this property is priceless, being the only articles of their
kind and impossible to duplicate.
NEBRASKA
AJMD RECORD OF
HISTORY
PIONEER DAYS
April-June, 1921
Number 2
CONTENTS
Editorial Notes ____17-18
The Major Day Military Papers. 19-20
Further Note on Walker's Ranch ^ 20-21
Dripping Fork Cave of the Platte 1__ 22-23
Nebraska History Publications 24-29
Recollections of Judge Grimison ___■ 30
Diary of William Dunn, Freighter- 31
Fort Atkinson Park _32
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE NEBRASKA STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
LINCOLN
Application made at Lincoln. Nebraska for admission to mail a*
second class matter— under act of July 16, 1894.
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Founded September 25, 1878
The Nebraska State Historical Society was founded Sep-
tember 25, 1878, at a public meeting held in the Commercial
Hotel at Lincoln. About thirty well known citizens of the
State were present. Robert W. P'urnas was chosen president
and Professor Samuel Aughey, secretary. Previous to this
date, on August 26, 1867, the State Historical and Library
Association was incorporated in order to receive from the
State the gift of the block of ground, now known as Haymarket
Square. This original Historical Association held no meet-
ings. It was superseded by the present State Historical
Society.
Present Governing Board
Executive Board — Officers and Elected Members
President, Robert Harvey, Lincoln
1st V-President, Hamilton B. Lowry, Lincoln
2nd V-President, Nathan P. Dodge Jr., Omaha
Secretary, Addison E. Sheldon, Lincoln
Treasurer, Philip L. Hall, Lincoln
Rev. Michael A. Shine, Plattsmouth 1
Don L. Love, Lincoln
Samuel C. Bassett, Gibbon
John F. Cordeal, McCook
Novia Z. Snell, Lincoln
William E. Hardy, Lincoln
Ex Officio Members
Samuel R. McKelvie, Governor of Nebraska
Samuel Avery, Chancellor of University of Nebraska
George C. Snow, Chadron, President of Nebraska Press Association
Howard W. Caldwell, Professor of American History, University
of Nebraska
Andrew M. Morrissey, Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Nebraska
Clarence A. Davis, Attorney General of Nebraska
NEBRASKA f?> 4- HISTORY
AND RECORD OF ,> > PIONEER DAYS
Published Quarterly by the Nebraska State Historical Society
Addison E. Sheldon, Editor
Subscription, $2.00 per year
Vol. IV April-June, 1921 Number 2
A. M. Brooking of Hastings, was a A'alued visitor at the Historical
Society rooms recently. We have the promise of an early historical
article from him on Indian sites.
From Miss Sarka B. Hrbkova in New York City the Nebraska Histor-
ical Society has received a number of valuable historical documents re-
lating to the history of the Bohemians or Checho-Slovaks in America.
Nebraska is one of the most important centers of Checho-Slovak settle-
ment and has a large place in the history of that people.
"Papers of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851" is
the title of a volume of 900 pages published by the Academy of Pacific
Coast History at Barkery, California. It is a most valuable and inter-
esting document upon the time when law and order were taken into the
hands of committees rather than legal officers. Nebraska has consider-
able history of that kind herself.
A. letter from Henry Wyman of Omaha says: In the summer of
1919 I graded off the top of the ridge of the lot, which is now known as
Lot 7 in Florence Heights,and which comprised a part of the original
Block 147 of the City of Florence, now included in the City of Omaha.
The bones sent you were plowed up at a depth of about one foot below
the surface, and, from their lay, the skeletons were buried in a northerly
and southerly direction. A farmer, who used the land some twenty years
ago told me that he had plowed up bones and pottery, but, I am inclined
to think, he mistook parts of skulls for pottery, although pieces of pottery
have been unearthed in that vicinity.
From Mr. W. R. McGeachin we have received copy of a speech de-
livered by Judge Gaslin at Alma, April 14, 1880. The speech contains
a great deal of early history of the Republican valley. No one was
better qualified to give this than Judge Gaslin, who was one of the most
original personalities in the pioneer period. The secretary of the His-
torical Society would be glad to receive true stories concerning Judge
Gaslin by those who knew him. He will add some of his own, for some
of the most enjoyable hours of his life have been passed in the company
of Judge Gaslin. A collection of Gaslin stories would make a valuable
printed addition to our pioneer history.
18 NEBRASKA HISTORY
Phil R. Landon (Parson Bob) writes from Sterling: I am taking
good care of the old Indian trail on north acre and will erect a monument
soon for its preservation.
Among Nebraska's historical characters Thomas H.
Tibbies has a place which cannot be taken by anyone else. His
range of activities covers those of frontier preacher, "editor
of a Nebraska farm," editor, lecturer on Indians, newspaper
correspondent, populist candidate for vice-president and many
others. Mr. Tibbies has written so many books and pamphlets
in his eighty years that he cannot give their titles. One of
them printed in 1881 has just been added to the Historical
Society library. It's title is "Hidden Power, a Secret History
of the Indian Ring." In it are discussed in story form some
of the wrongs of trans-Missouri Indians as Mr. Tibbies saw
them at that date. The names (with exception of two or
three) are fictitious, but the scene is laid in the Nebraska re-
gion and the very evident purpose is to describe living charac-
ters under donated names. Mr. Tibbies will be asked to furnish
a key to this book for the benefit of future historians. The
first sentence of the book contains an historical error which
was very common forty years ago and still lingers in some
places. It reads thus :
When Lewis and Clark made their voyage up the Missouri river in
1803, after toiling for many clays against the rugged current of that
turbid stream they landed at a place on the eastern shore and held a
council with the Indians. They named the place Council Bluffs and it
is so called to this day.
The truth that Lewis and Clark came up the Missouri
in 1804 and that the Council Bluff where they met the Indians
is in Nebraska, not Iowa; that it adjoins the present site of
the charming village of Fort Calhoun, sixteen miles north of
Omaha and that Council Bluffs, Iowa, simply appropriated the
name about the year 1853 — as a good advertising medium— in
gradually gaining general acceptance. It is a shock to find
the old untruth set down in the first sentence of Mr. Tibbies'
book.
There is no desire for more bank failures in Nebraska by
the State Historical Society. But if others come there is the
hope that the persons in charge may have sense of historical
values such as that shown by Mr. Fred E. Bodie at Blair.
Probably all the older banks, real estate and lawyer's offices
in the state have important documents of early days thrust
away in pigeon holes and forgotten.
MAJOR DAY PAPERS 19
THE MAJOR DAY MILITARY PAPERS
A recent letter from Carson City, Nevada, reads in part
as follows:
I have found among the papers belonging to my father, the
late Major Hannibal Day, U. S. A., certain papers relating to
the early history of the then territory of Nebraska. I am
forwarding them to you.
S. H. DAY.
The documents transmitted with the letter are four in
number, two printed and two in manuscript. They are briefly
described as follows ;
1. Map of Wagon Road from Platte river to Omaha Reserve,
Dakota City and Runningwater. George L. Sites, Supt., 1858.
This map contains names and locations of the following
places no longer found on the map of Nebraska: Excelsior,
Iron Bluffs, Saunte, Saline, Fairview, Eldorado, Farmer City,
Golden Gate, Cuming City, Central Bluffs, Omadi, Logan, Wa-
capana, Secret Grove.
2. Map of Fort Ridgely and South Pass Road. This road
ran from Fort Ridgely in Minnesota southwest across the Da-
kota region to a point near the junction of the White river
with the Missouri. Presumably it was to be extended up the
White river toward the South Pass where the Oregon Trail
crossed the Rocky Mountains. 1858.
3. (Manuscript) Pen and Ink sketch map showing road
between Fort Laramie and Fort Randall traveled by the 2nd
Infantry and 4th Artillery in the years 1859-60.
This original military map is a most valuable document.
It shows the road, the camping places, the chief topographic
features of the route used in the early marches across the then
nearly unknown Niobrara region. The route crossed the
North Platte on a ferry near Fort Laramie, angled northeast
by Rawhide creek to the Niobrara near Agate Springs, followed
the Niobrara to a point south of the present town of Cody in
Cherry county, then crossed to the lakes near the head of Min-
nechadusa creek, thence northeast to the head of the Keya
Paha and down that stream and its divide to Fort Randall. The
total distance as measured was 3651/t, miles. Twenty camps
are marked on the route. This was one of the routes (approx-
imate) advocated for the Pacific railroad at that time.
4. (Manuscript). Military journal of the march of bat-
20 NEBRASKA HISTORY
talion of 2nd Infantry from Fort Laramie to Fort Randall
under command of Major H. Day — May 15 — June 3, 1860.
This record contains notes of the journey, each day's
march, incidents, weather, Indians, characteristics of the
country, with pen and ink pictures of some points.
The manuscript map and journal show at least three
thing's hitherto unknown to the editor:
a. Eden Springs was the early military name for the
famous Boiling Springs about eight miles southwest of Cody,
Nebraska.
b. The map shows Minnechadusa creek flowing northeast
into the Keya Paha river instead of into the Niobrara below
Valentine.
c. Military names of creeks along the route have changed
in later years. Bead Root Creek is now Bear Creek. Mar-
row Bone Creek is now probably Spring Creek. There are
several other similar cases. Antelope Creek is named and
placed where it is today.
It is the fortune of the editor to have homesteaded in
1887 in the country crossed by this military march and to have
ridden horseback over the entire region. He confesses to
regret that the early and appropriate name of Eden Springs
did not stick to the remarkable body of clear water which
bursts from the foot of the high sand bluff on the Niobrara,
where is now Boiling Springs Ranch. After a hard trip over hot
sand hills the beautiful wooded flat with its extraordinary
springs throwing up columns of clear water is quite enough
to earn the title of Eden from the traveler.
FURTHER NOTE ON WALKER'S RANCH
Hastings, Nebraska, October 20, 1921.
Having just received a copy of the "Nebraska History and
Records of Pioneer Days," I have read it with much pleasure
and especially the article entitled "The Adventure at Walker's
Ranch." But in this article I notice some few errors that I
believe should be corrected. In the first place Walker's Ranch
is better located by referring to it as three miles northeast of
Wilcox, in Kearney County, Nebraska, this being its nearest
town. Second, the name of Mr. Ball was Daniel B. Ball and
not David B. Ball.
There are also some particulars of the matter in which
WALKER'S RANCH 21
Ball captured the two desperadoes at the ranch that vary ma-
terially from Ball's story. Mr. Ball has told this story over
and over again to the writer and I am very familiar with his
version of that capture. Mr. Bengston has followed Mr. Ball's
version of the matter and agrees fairly well with him except-
ing how he decoyed Smith's partner into the barn and there
captured him first.
Ball with his assistant had come up from the south, as
told by Mr. Bengston, where a few hundred yards from the
ranch-house was located some haystacks. He had left his
posse secreted behind these haystacks and when he had reach-
ed the barn and unhitched his horses, as detailed by Mr.
Bengston, he busied himself about the buggy until Smithes
partner came out. He greeted him in a friendly manner,
asked to have his horses put in the bam and gave the des-
perado one horse to lead in. He followed close behind this
horse chatt'ng all the time and directed his assistant to bring
in the other horse. When Ball and the desperado had reached
the stall the desperado removed the bridle, put on a halter,
and was about to tie the horse to the manger when Ball threw
himself upon the desperado and by his weight threw him to
the ground and sought to put the hand-cuffs on him.
The fellow was yelling at the top of his voice. Ball knew
tli at he had but a few seconds to complete hand-cuffing the
man cr Smith would get both him and his assistant. He called
to his assistant and as Ball said, "It seemed as though he
would never get there." But soon the desperado was hand-
cuffed and Ball sprang to his feet and drew his gun on Smith
just as Smith entered the barn door. Ball having the advan-
tage by being behind the partition in the stall, Smith threw up
his hands and the capture was complete before the posse was
called from behind their haystacks.
It seems to me that this version of the capture is more
of a credit to the wonderful old frontiersman, Daniel B. Ball.
It showed what risks he would take, his indomitable courage,
his quick mind and strong will.
I might add that one of Mr. Ball's daughters still resides
on the old ranch. A new house has been built and the old
ranch house in which the murder was committed is fast falling
to decay.
F. L. CARRICO.
22 NEBRASKA HISTORY
Of this issue of Nebraska History 1,800 copies are printed.
Our mailing list includes 576 annual sustaining members, 14
life, 14 honorary, 19 corresponding, 134 historical and scientific
societies and 558 newspaper exchanges. We plan to have
1,000 sustaining members before the close of 1922.
DRIPPING FORK CAVE OF THE PLATTE
A letter to the editor from W. M. Caldwell of the Federal
Land Bank of Houston, Texas, raises an interesting historical
question. The letter cites the following extract from a rare
book commonly called Hunter's Narrative, copy of which is in
the Nebraska Historical Society library:
We passed the summer in hunting and roving ; and in the
fall, ascended the La Platte several hundred miles, with a view
more particularly to take furs. Near the place where we
fixed our camp, which was on the Teel-te-nah, or Dripping
Fork', a few miles above its entrance into the La Platte, is an
extensive cave, which we visited on several occasions, and al-
ways with great reverence and dread.
This cave is remarkable as having been the cemetery of
some people, who must have inhabited this neighborhood, at a
remote period of time, as the Indians who now occasionally
traverse this district, bury their dead in a manner altogether
different.
The entrance to this cavern was rather above the ground,
and though narrow, of easy access. The floor was generally
rocky, and much broken; though in some places, particularly
in the ante-parts, strips of soil appeared, covered with animal
ordure. Parts of the roof were at very unequal distances
from the floor, in some places it appeared supported by large,
singularly variegated, and beautiful columns ; and at others it
supported formations resembling huge icicles, which I now
suppose to be stalactites.
Lighted up by our birch-bark flambeaux, the cave ex-
hibited an astonishing and wonderful appearance; while the
loud and distant rumbling or roar of waters through their sub-
terranean channels filled our minds with apprehension and awe.
We discovered two human bodies partly denuded, probably by
the casual movements of the animals which frequent this
abode of darkness; we inhumed and placed large stones over
them, and then made good our retreat, half inclined to believe
the tradition which prevails among some of the tribes, and
which represents this cavern as the aperture through which
the first Indian ascended from the bowels of the earth, and
settled on its surface.
Our camps were fixed on a high piece of ground near the
DRIPPING FORK CAVE 23
cave, in the vicinity of the Dripping Fork, a name which this
stream takes from the great number of rills that drip into it
from its rocky and abrupt banks. Near this place is a salt
lick, to which various herds of the grazing kind resort in great
numbers. The buffalo, deer and elk have made extraordinary
deep and wide excavations in the banks surrounding it, where
we used often to secrete ourselves, sometimes merely to ob-
serve the playful gambols of the collected herds, and terrible
conflicts of the buffaloes ; but more frequently do destroy such
of them as were necessary to supply our wants. The beaver,
otter, and muskrat, which find safe retreats in the cavernous
banks of this stream, were very abundant, and our hunt was
attended with great success.
John D. Hunter's book entitled ''Manners and Customs of
Several Indian Tribes located West of the Mississippi," was
published in Philadelphia in 1823. The story of its author, as
given by himself, is that he was captured by the Kickapoo
tribe of Illinois when a very small child, carried away by them
and lived with them until a young man. He learned Indian
languages and was unable to speak English until his escape
from them. He was, for a time, in the service of Manuel Lisa
the noted Indian fur trader in the Nebraska country. So far
as known neither the Dripping Fork of the Platte referred to
by him nor the cave mentioned have been identified. From
the description given by him they are rather more likely to be
found in Colorado head waters of the La Platte than in Ne-
braska. They may, indeed, be the gift of his imagination to
posterity. We know that alleged travels in the Nebraska
region, such as La Hontan's, are pure fabrications.
A still later letter from Mr. Caldwell answering the reply
made his first letter, says :
After a very careful examination I have been unable to
find where any of the other pathfinders of the West had men-
tioned such a cave as that visited by Hunter, and beginning
to feel as some historians have already branded him, — an im-
poster. Your letter would indicate that they were not far
wrong.
John Dum Hunter figured in early Texas history and was
assassinated here, his death being instigated by Chief Bowles
of the Cherokees — or so claimed by the enemies of Bowles.
Once a year the Pioneer Historical Society of South
Omaha holds its reunion. The meeting held December 4, 1921.
was a fine example. Five hundred people were present
crowding Eagle Hall. South Omaha is a cosmopolitan city —
24 NEBRASKA HISTORY
hence a large part of the program was in the form of enter-
tainment by the young people of high school age. There were
Highland Scotch with bagpipes, Polish national dances in cos-
tume with Polish music, plenty of Irish reminders and old
time quadrille dancing by the real old timers. President J. J.
Breen and Secretary Emma Talbot produced a wonderful
printed program with gems of poetry from the best English
poets on every page. There were present many of the first
South Omahans who saw the city rise from a corn field. The
annual reunions of this society are, in fact, great Americaniza-
tion mixers — and not a word is said about Americanization.
All the people are there and have a part.
Shelf of Nebraska Histo
Publications 1885-191
NEBRASKA HISTORY PUBLICATIONS
Interest in Nebraska history and demand for information
in that field grows continually. From 50 to 100 specific in-
quiries per week come to the State Historical Society. These
range all the way from data on prehistoric man in Nebraska to
origin of local place names.
The publications under auspices of the Nebraska State
Historical Society now include nineteen bound volumes, five
pamphlets, and three years' issues of its historical magazine —
"Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days."
The publications began in 1885. The first series includes
five volumes, closing with the volume published in 1893. The
second series began in 1894 with a change in title and number-
NEBRASKA HISTORY PUBLICATIONS 25
ing of the volumes. In 1911 the distinction between the first
and second series was abolished, and the volumes are now
numbered consecutively from the first one issued in 1885. The
list of publications with table of contents follows :
Transactions and Reports of the Nebraska State Historical So-
ciety. Vol. I, 1885. 8 vo. clo., 233 pp., $1.25; paper in 4 pts., $0.75. Edi-
tor, Robert W. Furnas.
Proceedings of the Society from January, 1879, to January, 1883;
list of histories of counties; Historical Recollections in and about Otoe
County; Historical Letters from Father De Smet; First White Child
Born in Nebraska; origin of the name of Omaha; Some Historical Data
about Washington County; relics in possession of the Society; First
Female Suffragist Movement in Nebraska; Autobiography of Rev.
William Hamilton; Indian names and their meaning; History of the
Omaha Indians; Anecdotes of White Cow; fifty-seven pages of biography;
Death of Governor Francis Burt; Annual Address of President Robt.
W. Furnas, 1880; The Philosophy of Emigration; Admission of Ne-
braska into the Union; Gold at Pike's Peak — Rush for; The Discovery
of Nebraska; The Place of History in Modern Education; The Organic
Act of the Society; constitution, by-laws and roster of the Society.
Vol. II, 1887. 8 vo. clo., 383 pp., $1.25; paper in 4 pts., $0.75. Edi-
tor, George E. Howard.
The Relation of History to the Study and Practice of Law; Sketches
from Territorial History — In the Beginning, Wildcat Banks, Sectional
Politics, Politics Proper, Pioneer Journalism; The Capital Question in Ne-
braska; How the Kansas-Nebraska Line was Established; Slavery in
Nebraska; John Brown in Richardson County; A Visit to Nebraska in
1662; Forty Years among tht Indians and on the Eastern Borders of
Nebraska; Notes on the Early Military History of Nebraska; History of
the Powder River Expedition of 1865; histories of Cass, Dodge, Wash-
ington and Sarpy counties; Sketch of the First Congregational Church in
Fremont, Nebraska; Early Fremont; Historical and Political Science
Association of the University of Nebraska; The Discovery of Gold in
Colorado; On the Establishment of an Arboreal Bureau; twenty-seven
pages of biographies; annual meetings of the Society, 1885, 1886.
Vol. Ill, 1892. 8 vo. clo., 342 pp., very rare, $3.00. Editor, Howard
Caldwell.
American State Legislatures; Political Science in American State
Universities; History and Art; Salem Witchcraft; History of Education
in Omaha; The Christening of the Platte; Development of the Free Soil
Idea in the United States; The Beginning of Lincoln and Lancaster Coun-
ty; Early Times and Pioneers; The Fort Pierre Expedition; The Military
Camp on the Big Sioux River in 1855; Reminiscences of a Teacher among
the Nebraska Indians, 1843-55; The Sioux Indian War of 1890-91; Early
Settlers En Route; An Introduction to the History of Higher Education
in Nebraska and a Brief account of the University of Nebraska; Asso-
ciational Sermon; Congregational College History in Nebraska; Thirty-
three Years Ago; The Pawnee Indian War, 1859; Early Days in Nebraska;
Reminiscences of Early Days in Nebraska; miscellaneous correspondence;
official proceedings of the Society, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890.
Vol. IV, 1892. 8 vo. clo., 336 pp., $3.00. Editor. Howard W. Cald-
well.
From Nebraska City to Salt Creek in 1855; Old Fort Atkinson; The
Indian Troubles and the Battle of Wounded Knee; biographies; Remi-
niscences of Early Days in Nebraska- I he Fontenelle
ly of St. Louis; Old Fort Calhoun; Arbor Day; What Causes Indian
First Postmaster of Omaha; Supreme Judges of Nebraska;
• ■ Library; Judge Lynch's Court in Nebraska; Stormy Times
in Nebraska; County Names; Lieut. Samuel A. Cherry; Origin of the
Name Omaha; Omaha's Early Days; Early Days in Nebraska; Personal
26 NEBRASKA HISTORY
Sketch of Rev. Moses Merrill; Extracts from the Diary of Rev. Moses
Merrill, Missionary to the Otoe Indians from 1832 to 1840; Some Incidents
in Our Early School Days in Illinois; Papers Read on the Laying of the
Corner Stone of the Lancaster County Courthouse; Hardy Pioneers of
Dixon County; Nebraska's First Newspaper; biographies, pp. 215-271;
History of Butler County; Tribute to the Mothers and Wives of the
Pioneers; annual meeting of the Society 1891; constitution and by-laws
of the Society.
Vol. V, 1893. 8 vo. clo., 295 pp., very rare, $5.00. Editor, Howard
W. Caldwell.
Records and Their Conservation; The Lincoln Public Library; The
Arikara Conquest of 1823; Some Frenchmen of Early Days on the Mis-
souri River; Reminiscences of Early Days in Nebraska; Admission of
Nebraska as a State; Nebraska Silver Anniversary; Early Life in Ne-
braska; The Political and Constitutional Development of Nebraska; A
Brief History of the Settlement of Kearney County and Southwestern
Nebraska; annual meecing 1892; treasurer's reports for the years ending
January 13, 1891, and January 11, 1893; List of Members.
Proceedings and Collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
Second series, vol. I, 1894-95. 8 vo. clo., 264 pp., $1.25. Editor,
Howard W. Caldwell.
Part of the Making of a State; The Life of Governor Burt; Reminis-
cences of Early Days; Freighting in 1866; Early Nebraska Currency and
Per Capita Circulation; Municipal Government in Nebraska; The Soldiers
Free Homestead Colony; The Effect of Early Legislation upon the Courts
of Nebraska; notes on the Society; Wanagi Olowan Kin; Reminiscences
of the Third Judicial District; Freighting Across the Plains in 1856;
necrology and notes on the Society; Some Financial Fallacies among the
Pioneers of Nebraska; Proceedings of the Society 1893-1895; list of
members; officers of the Society 1878 to 1896; constitution and by-laws;
appropriations 1883-1895; list of donations.
Second series, vol. II, 1898. 8 vo. clo., 307 pp., $1.25. Editor, Howard
W. Caldwell.
The Poncas; A Brief Sketch of the Life of Captain P. S. Real; Belle-
vue, Its Past and Present; Edward Morin; Travelers in Nebraska in
1866; The Cost of Local Government — Then and Now; Underground
Railroad in Nebraska; Biographical Sketch of Major W. W. Dennison;
President's Communication 1897; The First Territorial Legislature of
Nebraska; sundry reminiscences, pp. 88-161; Nebraska Women in 1855;
The True Story of the Death of Sitting Bull; annual meetings, 1896, 1897;
Papers and Proceedings of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences.
Second series, vol. Ill, 1899 — The Provisional Government of Ne-
braska Territory and The Journals of William Walker Provisional Gov-
ernor of Nebraska Territory, 8 vo. clo., 423 pp., $3.00. Editor, William
E. Connelley.
The Wyandots; The Walker Family; The Provisional Government of
Nebraska Territory; Documents Relating to the Provisional Government
of Nebraska Territory; A Brief Sketch of Abelard Guthrie; The Journals
of William Walker, First Book; The Journals of William Walker, Second
Book.
Second series, vol. IV, 1902 — Forty Years of Nebraska at Home and
in Congress, 8 vo. clo., 570 pp., $2.00. By Thomas W. Tipton, (former
U. S. Senator from Nebraska). Editor, Howard W. Caldwell.
Territorial Governors; Territorial Delegates; The State Governors;
Nebraska in the United States Senate; Members of U. S. House of Re-
presentatives.
Second series, vol. V, 1902. 8 vo. clo., 381 pp., $1.50. Editor,
Howard W. Caldwell.
Territorial Journalism; Newspapers and Newspaper Men of the
Territorial Period; Pioneer Journalism; Communication of Hadley D.
Johnson; Joseph L. Sharp; A. J. Hanscom; Reminiscences of Territorial
NEBRASKA HISTORY PUBLICATIONS 27
Days; My First Trip to Omaha; Judge Elmer S. Dundy; The Nebraska
Constitution; History of the Incarceration of the Lincoln City Council;
A Nebraska Episode of the Wyoming: Cattle War; Recollections of
Omaha; Death of Logan Fontenelle; Reminiscences of the Crusade in
Nebraska; Along the Overland Trail in Nebraska in 1852; Thomas Weston
Tipton; Algernon Sidney Paddock; The Farmers Alliance in Nebraska;
Reminiscences; History of the First State Capitol; Early History of
Jefferson County Overland Route; The Indian Massacre of 1866; Bull-
whacking Days; The Pawnee War of 1859; Early Days in the Indian
Country; Freighting to Denver; Freighting and Staging in Early Days;
Freighting in the '60's; The Plains War in 1865; Overland Freighting from
Nebraska City; From Meridian to Fort Kearny; Freighting Reminis-
cences; Mary Elizabeth Furnas; Freighting — Denver and Black Hills;
Early Freighting and Claims Club Days in Nebraska; The Building of
the First Capitol and Insane Hospital at Lincoln — Removal of Archives;
Underground Railroad in Nebraska; minutes annual meetings, 1898-1900;
minutes executive board meetings; list of members.
Nebraska Constitutional Conventions. Three volumes.
This series of publications was planned as a four-volume series.
The first two volumes were issued under the editorship of Addison E.
Sheldon. The plan of publication was then changed and the third
volume was issued under the editorship of Albert Watkins. The fourth
volume as planned was combined with the third volume. Therefore
there is a gap in the numbering of the volumes of the second series,
volume IX not being issued.
Second series, vol. VI, 1906. 8 vo. clo., 582. pp., $1.50. Editor, Addi-
son E. Sheldon. Official Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the
Nebraska Constitutional Convention, 1871.
Second series, vol. VII, 1907. 8 vo. clo., 628 pp., $1.50. Editor, Addi-
son E. Sheldon. Official Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the
Nebraska Constitutional Convention, 1871.
Second series, vol. VIII, 1913. 8vo. clo., 676 pp., $1.50. Editor, Al-
bert Watkins. Official Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the
Nebraska Constitutional Convention, 1871, concluded; Address — to voters
on the submission of the constitution of 1871; The Constitution of the
State of Nebraska — 1871; Incipient Convention of 1860; Enabling Act of
1864; The Convention of 1864; Constitution of 1866; Convention of 1871—
history of; The Constitutional Convention of 1875 — minutes of; note; the
vote, by counties, on the adoption of the constitution and on the separate
article relating to the seat of the government.
Second series, vol. X, 1907. 8 vo. clo., 422 pp., $1.50. Editor, C. S.
Paine.
The Mormon Settlements in the Missouri Valley; The Great Rail-
road Migration into Northern Nebraska; Nebraska Politics and Ne-
braska Railroads; Territorial Pioneer Days; Campaigning Against Crazy
Horse; Personal Recollections of Early Days in Decatur, Nebraska;
History of the. Lincoln Salt Basin; Early Days at the Salt Basin; Judicial
Grafts; My Very First Visit to the Pawnee Village in 1855; Early Days
on the Little Blue; Early Annals of Nebraska City; biographies; Railroad
Taxation in Nebraska; The Work of the Union Pacific in Nebraska; Early
Dreams of Coal in Nebraska; Unveiling of the Thayer Monument, Wyuka
Cemetery; Proceedings of the Nebraska State Historical Society — annual
meetings of 1901 to 1907, inclusive; museum catalogue; newspapers re-
ceived by the Society, January 1, 1908; legislative acts affecting the
Society; constitution and by-laws; publications of the Society.
Collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
Vol. XVI, 1911. 8 vo. clo., 296 pp., $2.00. Editor, Albert Watkins.
Dedication of the Astorian Monument at Bellevue; Early Days in
and About Bellevue; Kansas-Nebraska Boundary Line; Nebraska and
Minnesota Territorial Boundary; Territorial Evolution of Nebraska; Re-
mininiscences of the Indian Fight at Ash Hollow, 1855; The Battle Ground
28 NEBRASKA HISTORY
of Ash Hollow; The Last Battle of the Pawnee with the Sioux; The
Indian Ghcst Dance; Some Side Lights on the Character of Sitting Bull;
The Early Settlements of the Platte Valley; The First Catholic Bishop in
Nebraska; Birth of Lincoln, Nebraska; English Settlement in Palmyra;
History of Fort Kearny; Missionary Life Among the Pawnee.
Vol. XVII, 1913. 8 vo. clo., 382 pp., $2.00. Editor, Albert Watkins.
The Work of the Historical Society; Historical Sketch of South-
western Nebraska; Nebraska, Mother of States; Nebraska Territorial
Acquisition; Ackh'esses by James Mooney — Life Among the Indian
Tribes of the Plains — The Indian Woman; Systematic Nebraska Ethno-
logic Investigation; A Tragedy of the Oregon Trail; The Oregon Recruit
Expedition; Influence of Overland Travel on the Early Settlement of
Nebraska; Incidents of the Early Settlement of Nuckolls County; First
Steamboat Trial Trip up the Missouri; Origin of Olatha, Nebraska; The
Semi-Precious Stones of Webster, Nuckolls and Franklin Counties, Ne-
braska; Historical Sketch of Cheyenne County, Nebraska; Organization
of the Counties of Kearney, Franklin,. Harlan and Phelps; Annual Ad-
dress of John Lee Webster, President, 1913; Adventures on the Plains,
1865-67; An Indian Raid of 1867; How Shall the Indian Be Treated His-
torically; Importance of the Study of Local History; History; The Path-
finders, the Historic Background of Western Civilization; An Interesting
Historical Document; Memorabilia — Gen. G. M. Dodge; A Study in the
Ethnobotany of the Omaha Indians; Some Native Nebraska Plants With
Their Uses by the Dakota.
Vol. XVIII, 1917. 8vo. clo., 449 pp., $2.00. Editor, Albert Watkins.
In Memoriam — Clarence Sumner Paine; proceedings of the Society,
1908-1916; biography — James B. Kitchen, Jefferson H. Broady, Lorenzo
Crounse; historical papers; Acknowledging God in Constitutions, Ne-
braska Reminiscences, The Rural Carrier of 1849, Eastern Nebraska as
an Archeological Field, Trailing Texas Long-horn Cattle Through Ne-
braska. Special historical papers: Neapolis — Near-Capital, Controversy
in the Senate Over the Admission of Nebraska, How Nebraska Wai
Brought Into the Union.
Vol. XIX. 1919. 8 vo. clo., 357 pp., $2.00. Editor, Albert Watkins.
Incidents of the Indian Outbreak of 1864; The Beginning of Red
Willow County; The True Logan Fontenelle; At Bellevue in the Thirties;
Swedes in Nebraska; Clan Organization of the Winnebago; Women of
Territorial Nebraska; First Settlement of the Scotts Bluff Country; The
Omaha Indians Forty Years Ago; Earliest Settlers in Richardson County;
Some Indian Place Names in Nebraska; Bohemians in Nebraska; Incident
in the Impeachment of Governor Butler; The Mescal Society Among the
Omaha Indians; Reminiscences of William Augustus Gwyer; Nebraska in
the Fifties; Contested Elections in Nebraska; Proceedings of the Society,
1917.
Vol. XX. (In press) 8 vo. clo., pp., illustrated, $2.00. Editor,
Albert Watkins.
A contemporaneous, continuous history of the Nebraska Region from
1808 to 1862; an original outline of Nebraska events taken from -the early
newspaper file^ of St. Louis and other original sources. With many
editorial notes. Includes such topics as Fur Trade, Missionaries, Mili-
tary. Indians, Oregon Trail, Mormons, Politics, Trade, Agriculture,
Social and Industrial Conditions. Very much of this material is new
contribution to our knowledge of the period, answering questions hitherto
unsatisfied.
PAMPHLETS
Outline of Nebraska History, 1910. 8 vo. paper, 45 pp., Albert
Watkins.
A comprehensive bibliography of Nebraska history, and a "Summary
of Nebraska History" condensed within 22 pages. 50 cents.
The Exercise of the Veto Power in Nebraska, 1917. 8 vo. paper,
104 pp. Knute Emil Carlson. (Bulletin No. 12 Nebraska History and
NEBRASKA HISTORY PUBLICATIONS
Political Science Series) contains complete list of Governor's vetoes, a
discussion and summary. 50 cents.
Nebraska Constitutions of 1866, 1871 and 1875 and Proposed Amend-
ments submitted to the People September 21, 1921. Arranged in parallel
columns with critical notes and comparisons with Constitutions of other
States, 1920. 8 vo. paper, 214 pp. Addison Erwin Sheldon. 75 cents.
Genealogy of the Mohler-Garber Family. 8 vo. paper, 63 pp. with
charts and illustrations. 1921. Published by the author, Cora Garber
Dunning, under auspices of Nebraska Historical Society. Contains
historical material relating to Silas Garber, Governor of Nebraska
(1875-79) and Joseph Garber, Nebraska pioneer and member of Ne-
braska Constitutional Convention of 1875; $2.00.
Tuberculosis Among the Nebraska Winnebago. A Social study on
an Indian Reservation, 1921. 8 vo. paper, 60 pp. with charts, maps and
illustrations. Margaret W. Koenig, M. D. Contains historical sketch
of the tribe with valuable information hitherto u published on social and
industrial conditions. 50 cents.
Historical Magazine (illustrated)
"Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days" — Addison E. Shel-
don, Editor, (Titles of leading articles ordy.)
Vol. I. 1918.
The First war on the Nebraska Frontier; A Hero of the Nebraska
Frontier; The Sources of Nebraska People; Old For , Kearny; The Union
Club in Nemaha County, 1863; The Historical Society in France; Ne-
braska in 1864-67; Early French in Nebraska; Holt County's First Safe;
Fort Mitchell Cemetery- $1.00.
Vol. II. 1919.
Editor's Visit to European Battlefields; Nebraska's Dead in the
World War; Base Hospital 49; Ancient Pi ..vhee Medal Found; The Fort
Atkinson Centennial Celebration; First Nebraska University Regents;
Three Military Heroes of Nebraska; The Nebraska Food Administration
in the World War. $1.00.
Vol. III. 1920.
Genesis of the Great Seal of Nebraska; Nebraska State Seal and
Flag; George Bird Grinnell's Letter on Pawnees; The Founding of Fort
Atkinson; The April Blizzard of 1873; Nebraska Society Daughters of
American Revolution; The Winnebago Tribe; Walker's Ranch; Historic
Spot in Hamilton County. $1.00.
30 NEBRASKA HISTORY
SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF JUDGE GRIMISON
From a letter from Judge James A. Grimison, formerly of
Schuyler, now of Lincoln, the following interesting extracts
are taken :
Volume XIX of the Historical Society Collections is to me
a veritable "Old Settlers' Picnic." Prof. Hrbkova's Chapter
on "Bohemians in Nebraska" seems to be a good and full ac-
count. I knew all, or nearly all, of the first Bohemian settlers
in Colfax county and in Butler county.
I have known James Green, whose story opens the book,
and his brother Simeon Green, for nearly fifty years and their
homestead near Edholm. Quite a bunch of interesting people
settled near the Greens and the south landing of Shinn's ferry
in the sixties. Among them William and Reuben Butler (no
relation to Gov. David Butler) John France and Judge Matt
Miller, now of David City. Reuben Butler was a great lawyer
and powerful, an all-around fighter in any court. He moved
across the river to Schuyler in 1870, to Fremont in 1875, then
back to Ohio. Shinn's ferry was in operation when I arrived
there. It was the only crossing place for a long distance up
and down the Platte River. Colfax County built a bridge a
little east of it in 1871.
The chapter by David M. Johnson on "Nebraska in the
fifties" is a real "hummer," — especially, of that first session of
the territorial legislature as told by one of the performers, who
knew how to tell it in an amusing and interesting way. The
old Douglas House, which at that time lodged about all the
dignitaries of the Territory, with its big cotton wood trees in
front, was still standing in all its primitive glory when I reach-
ed Nebraska.
May I be pardoned for harboring a suspicion that the con-
tested election case between Estabrook and Dailey for delegate
in Congress occupies a space out of proportion to its impor-
tance. It certainly exhibits a ragged line of morality in its
entirety ; but it must be admitted that elections were not in
those days very sacred performances. I personally knew a
case where an affirmative vote on an $85,000 bond issue was
obtained by the simple device of placing the ballot box at an
open window — not well guarded, and was not greatly sur-
prised at finding out later that the two leading merchants of
the town, whom their neighbor could safely trust in a business
deal, got $1000 each of those bonds — while several good, honest
lawyers got from $1000 to $3000 each.
I have long held that Experience Estabrook was really one
of the most intellectual and forcible men among the terri-
torial pioneers. He called himself a liberal thinker, but he
was more than that. He was big and broad in all directions
and a very convincing public speaker when warmed up to the
WILLIAM DUNN'S DIARY 31
point of shedding his coat, which was usual. But he was an
extreme radical in word and action which frightened so many
timid souls that he was never very popular. Of course you
know that he compiled the so-called "Revised Statutes of
1867," with which the state began business.
DIARY OF WILLIAM DUNN, FREIGHTER
From Mrs. William Dunn of Syracuse the Society has a
valuable manuscript. It is a diary of her husband who was
a freighter between Nebraska City and Denver in 1865. The
freight he carried on this trip was chiefly pork sausage packed
in cans, holding about twenty-five pounds each. This was
"home made'' sausage — product of Nebraska pigs. The
freight train started from Nebraska City, February 18, 1865.
Incidents on the trip include a long delay at the Blue River
crossing in Seward county caused by high water. At Walnut
Creek ranch (three miles east of present Beaver Crossing),
one of the drivers got drunk and drew his gun. W. J. Thomp-
son, the ranch keeper, took the gun away from him and he
was discharged by the train boss. At the crossing of Beaver
Creek, in what is now York county, the wagons got stuck in
the mud and had to be entirely unloaded. At Millspaugh's
ranch on the head of Beaver Creek Mr. Dunn's wagon tipped
over on a slippery side hill, a narrow escape for the driver.
The train arrived at Fort Kearny March 5, 19 days from Ne-
braska City and found part of the First Nebraska and the 11th
Kansas regiments there. At Plum Creek station March 14,
another company of the First Nebraska was found. At Jules-
burg March 28, Indians were making attacks. A dead Indian
was found lying in the sage brush near the road. April 12,
the train arrived at Denver, 56 days from Nebraska City. On
April 17 the news of President Lincoln's death was received.
This is an abridgment of Mr. Dunn's record which de-
serves publication in full. It may be added that nearly all the
freighters of that early period were steady, sober young men
who later settled down in Nebraska and became its most sub-
stantial and prosperous citizens.
Editor's Note: The Nebraska City-Fort Kearny cut-off to the Oregon
Trail was the principal freighting route to the mountains and beyond after
1861, for the reason that it was shorter and better than the routes from
any other Missouri river point.*** W. J. Thompson, located Walnut Creek
Ranch in 1862. He was the father of Mrs. Addison E. Sheldon. No liquor
was ever sold at Walnut Ranch. :: * :: Isaac N. Millspaugh was one of
32 NEBRASKA HISTORY
the "Characters" of the freighting days, tall, gaunt, inveterate whittler
and story teller. He moved in the 70's from the head of Beaver Creek
to a log house near Beaver Crossing where he whittled and related
frontier stories until his death.
FORT ATKINSON PARK
Curator E. E. Blackmail visited Fort Calhoun in Novem-
ber for the State Historical Society. He found the statue of
the Indian on horseback, placed there at the time of the Fort
Atkinson centennial celebration filling a prominent place in the
village park. This statue is one of remarkable beauty, the
work of one of America's great artists. It is made of staff
on a wooden frame and is suffering from exposure to weather.
The citizens of Fort Calhoun promised to take steps for its
preservation. The panorama picture used in the Fort Atkin-
son pageant is kept in the City Hall. It shows the first steam
boats coming up the Missouri with the military. It was
agreed that this should be transmitted to the Historical Society
for safe keeping. Historian W. H. Woods, the guardian and
defender of Fort Atkinson site, reports that the row of cellars
on the Lewis and Clark Council Bluff are being obliterated by
cultivation of the land. Each cellar marks the site of an im-
portant building in Fort Atkinson. In these cellars are still
many brick and presumably other relics of a century ago.
There remains about nine hundred dollars from the centennial
celebration fund of 1919. An association will be incorporated
to receive this fund and provide for its expenditure. One of
the proposed uses is for the erection of a museum to preserve
relics of the old fort. The most important action which can
be taken at the present time is that of acquiring a few acres
of land on the Council Bluff for a historic park. Citizens of
Fort Calhoun would find such a park, with a building to con-
tain relics and historical accounts of the old Fort, the best
investment that could possibly be made for the prosperity of
their village. Hundreds of tourists would visit Old Fort
Atkinson if its history were made known and its site preserved.
Rev. Michael A. Shine of the Historical Society executive board
has had his research work in western history sadly broken by several
months' severe illness. The secretary found him the other day in St.
Catherine's hospital at Omaha, sitting up in bed and looking fondly out
the window where a long vista of the Missouri river i-ewarded his gaze.
A fine historic setting for an historical scholar. Father Shine is loved
by both Protestant and Catholic who pray for his early recovery and
many years of labor in the fields which he has illuminated.
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Made a State Institution February 27, 1883.
An act of the Nebraska legislature, recommended by Governor
James W. Dawes in his inaugural and signed by him, made the State
Historical Society a State institution in the following:
Be it Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska:
Section 1. That the "Nebraska State Historical Society," an or-
ganization now in existence — Robt. W. Furnas, President; James M.
Woolworth and Elmer S. Dundy, Vice-Presidents; Samuel Aughey,
Secretary, and W. W. Wilson, Treasurer, their associates and successors —
be, and the same is hereby recognized as a state institution.
Section 2. That it shall be the duty of the President and Secretary
of said institution to make annually reports to the governor, as required
by other state institutions. Said report to embrace the transactions and
expenditures of the organization, together with all historical addresses,
which have been or may hereafter be read before the Society or furnished
it as historical matter, data of the state or adjacent western regions of
country.
Section 3. That said reports, addresses, and papers shall be pub-
lished at the expense of the state, and distributed as other similar official
reports, a reasonable number, to be decided by the state and Society, to
be furnished said Society for its use and distribution.
Property and Equipment
The present State Historical Society owns in fee simple title as
trustee of the State the half block of land opposite and east of the State
House with the basement thereon. It occupies for offices and working
quarters basement rooms in the University Library building at 11th and
R streets. The basement building at 16th and H is crowded with the
collections of the Historical Society which it can not exhibit, including
some 15,000 volumes of Nebraska newspapers and a large part of its
museum. Its rooms in the University Library building are likewise
crowded with library and museum material. The annual inventory of
its property returned to the State Auditor for the year 1920 is as follows:
Value of Land, % block 16th and H $76,000
Value of Buildings and permanent improvements 35,000
Value of Furniture and Furnishings 6,000
Value of Special Equipment, including Apparatus,
Machinery and Tools 1,000
Educational Specimens (Art, Museum, or other) 74,800
Library (Books and Publications) 75,000
Newspaper Collection 52.895
Total Resources $318,195
Much of this property is priceless, being the only articles of their
kind and impossible to duplicate.
HI5TORV
Vol. IV
July-September, 1921
No. Ill
CONTENTS
Editorial Notes , 33
Early Days in Sioux County_. 34-37
Ancient Nebraska House Sites 37-39
Women Editors of Nebraska 39-40
World War Records 40-41
"Trails of Yesterday" 42-43
Judge Gaslin Stories 43-45
Old Time "Carrier's Address" 46-47
How Long Ago Were Men in Nebraska 48
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE NEBRASKA STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
LINCOLN
Entered as second class matter February 4, 191S, at the Post Office,
Lincoln, Nebraska, under Act August 24, 1912.
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Founded September 25, 1878
The Nebraska State Historical Society was founded Sep-
tember 25, 1878, at a public meeting held in the Commercial
Hotel at Lincoln. About thirty well known citizens of the
State were present. Robert W. Furnas was chosen president
and Professor Samuel Aughey, secretary. Previous to this date,
on August 26, 1867, the State Historical Society and Library
Association was incorporated in order to receive from the State
the gift of the block of ground, now known as Haymarket
Square. This original Historical Association held no meet-
ings. It was superseded by the present State Historical
Society.
Present Governing Board
Executive Board — Officers and Elected Members
President, Robert Harvey, Lincoln
1st V- President, Hamilton B. Lowry, Lincoln
2nd V-President, Nathan P. Dodge Jr., Omaha
Secretary, Addison E. Sheldon, Lincoln
Treasurer, Philip L. Hall, Lincoln
Rev. Machael A. Shine, Plattsmouth
Don L. Love, Lincoln
Samuel C. Bassett, Gibbon
John F. Cordeal, McCook
Novia Z. Snell, Lincoln
William E. Hardy, Lincoln
Ex Officio Members
Samuel R. McKelvie, Governor of Nebraska
Samuel Avery, Chancellor of University of Nebraska
George C. Snow, Chadron, President of Nebraska Press Association
Howard W. Caldwell, Professor of American History, University of
Nebraska
Andrew M. Morrissey, Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Nebraska
Clarence A. Davis, Attorney General of Nebraska
NEBRASKA
AND RECORD OF
HISTORY
|.A PIONEER DAYS
p
Liblish
ed Quar
erly by the Nebraska
State Histor
ca
Soceity
Addison E. Sheldon,
Editor
Subscription, $2.00
per year
All s
.\V1
ning
a ska
members
History
of the Nebraska S
and other publication
ate Historic
3 without fur
he
Society rec
■ payment.
eive
Vol.
IV
July-September
1921
No.
III
Miss Rose Rosicky of Omaha visited the Historical Society
rooms, recently bringing with her a most valuable contribution
to the historical manuscripts of this society. It is a series
of translations made by Miss Rosicky from the Bohemian week-
ly newspaper, Osveta Amerika, published by her company at
Omaha. Reading these manuscripts has been a fascination.
They are first hand accounts by a number of the earliest Bo-
hemian settlers in the State, including Mr. Joseph P. Sedivy
of Verdigre, Mrs. Frank Jelinek of Crete, Frank Karnik of
Dodge and many others. These stories are among the best of
the pioneer stories written in Nebraska. They tell in a simple
direct way the most extraordinary experiences which came to
the settlers in a new land far from the countries of their birth
in the formation period of Nebraska settlement. They de-
serve a wide reading not only as records of the Bohemian
people in Nebraska, but as real contributions to the social
history of the early decades. We hope soon to publish selec-
tions from them.
A good many Women'.-- Cubs and similar societies are making the
history of Nebraska their leading subject in the programs of the coming
year. * The State Historical Society is glad to help with loan material.
34 NEBRASKA HISTORY
EARLY DAYS IN SIOUX COUNTY
Among the strong characters remembered by the editor
from his eight years' residence at Chadron (1888-96) is Mrs. S.
C. D. Bassett of Harrison. At the beginning of that time the
conflict between the free range cattlemen, whose herds had run
on the splendid open range for a decade, and the "Grangers,"
as the homesteading settlers were called, was at its height. In
vain the experienced ranchers told the land-hungry home-
steaders that Sioux County was "no farming country." There
stretched the splendid smooth sections of gramma grass. There
was the Pine Ridge covered with pine trees for log cabins.
There were the canyons and valleys with gushing springs and
clear flowing streams. And there was Uncle Sam offering a
free homestead for five years' residence.
Nothing could stop the homesteader. He went for that
land. And to crown his courage kindly Providence in 1889
sent rains the summer long. Such crops of wheat and corn
and vegetables were harvested by the homesteaders where the
ranch men told them it never rained after the Fourth of July.
So the homesteaders captured the county government from the
ranchmen and drove the cattle from the free range. And then
came the Drouth !
In this period the fame of Mrs. Bassett, the missionary
merchant of Harrison, traveled far in the northwest. A letter
written to secure certain early papers belonging to her hus-
band's freighting experience brings the following letter from
31 East 22nd Street, Portland, Oregon:
I am the daughter of a Baptist minister, Rev. Gershom
Buckley Day, who settled in Sturgis, Michigan, in the fall of
1836, doing pioneer missionary work.
Everybody was poor and a great deal of sickness made it
impossible for the people to give needed aid to the missionary.
My mother was heir according to English law, of Sir Francis
Drake through his senior brother Joseph. She with her
needle supported the family for 13 years except the pittance
contributed by the people. In 1849 gold was discovered in
California. At that time there was no machinery and only
placer digging could be engaged in. Father said he could do
as much good preaching to the miners as anywhere and could
prospect for gold during the week. He decided to go to Cali-
fornia in order to make money enough to support his family
EARLY DAYS IN SIOUX COUNTY 35
and educate his two daughters. There were no church build-
ings and the California Indians saw the congregations who
gathered in the open to hear him preach, thought him a white
chief talking against them so they planned to watch when they
might find him alone and killed him in 1852.
W. H. Bassett and I were married in 1867. In 1884 he
contracted tuberculosis and died in 1886. His life was of
much interest as he was engaged in freighting for the govern-
ment for many years between Nebraska City and Pacific coast
points. His diaries were burned with all his effects in -Ne-
braska City, thus losing the records of an eventful life. Though
not converted until after our marriage he was a moral man
and in hiring his men required them to sign a contract not to
use vulgar language or profanity, nor to abuse their animals
under penalty of discharge, which at that time would have
been serious on the uninhabited prairie.
Mr. Alexander Majors, of the firm, Majors, Russell and
Waddell, with whom he was associated in the freighting busi-
ness came to see him just before he died and the meeting was
a touching scene like the meeting of a father and son. The
streuous physical and nervous strain of his illness of twenty-
three months impaired my health so that I was having night
sweats and every indication of a permanent decline, when an
estimable woman friend, Mrs. E. B. Graham, invited me to
come to Nebraska and make my home with them at their ranch.
Nebraska offered good opportunities for loaning money
and a friend in Sturgis, Michigan, wished me to loan a thousand
dollars for her. I deposited it in the bank at Harrison until
a favorable opportunity offered. The bank became involved,
so the only way I could save the deposit was to buy the store
with wh:'ch it was connected. I secured two excellent helpers
of ability and integrity, Mr. Conrad Lindeman and E. A. Weir,
the latter a young man about nineteen.
In this new town when some of the cattlemen would re-
turn from having sold their stock in Omaha and have a spree
they were determined that every man in town should join them.
Those who did not drink were obliged to hide. One hid under
the steps of the depot, another ran into my store through the
back room, jumped out through the window and escaped
through the darkness out on the broad prairie. If discovered
they would be dragged to the saloon and compelled to drink.
The store was quite large and had living rooms at the
back which I occupied. The clerks slept in the store when all
was quiet. But the 4th of July, or any public day, was al-
ways an occasion for a spree. My clerks gladly consented on
such occasions to my suggestion to sleep in my apartment and
36 NEBRASKA HISTORY
I would don a wrapper and sleep under the counter in the
store.
Whenever I think of the early Harrison days, two pictures
persist in presenting themselves. One 5th of July morning
one of the carousers got the hotel dinner bell and came ringing
it vigorously to the store for my men. After he had per-
sistently rattled the front for some time I got up and went to
the door. When he saw me he ran as if an evil demon was
trying to catch him. On another occasion some one came to
the west door. The store was on a corner and had two en-
trances. I was sleeping near the south door. I stepped out
to inquire what was wanted. I went to the corner of the
building and was surprised to find a man in his night attire.
He. too, ran when he heard a woman's voice. The bitter feel-
ing of the liquor element expressed itself in threats, so my
friends told me never to step out doors after dark alone, that
I was in danger of bodily harm on account of my temperance
principles. This was in the early days of free range when
there were no fences and cattle roamed at will over the public
land.
A short time prior to this a young school teacher was
married and came to western Nebraska stopping for a little
while at Hay Springs before settling in Harrison. Hay
Springs if possible was then more wild than Harrison. At
Harrison they took a claim and lived in a shack made of lum-
ber with cracks that one could stick their fingers through,
which was all right in nice weather.
A little daughter came to this house and the mother en-
dured much suffering with bealed breasts. No milk could be
secured for the baby who died of starvation. There was no
cemetery and the little one was buried on the claim near Har-
rison. W7hen an effort was made later to have the remains
removed to the cemetery no trace of them could be found.
Thus the little body rests beneath the wild flowers awaiting
the awakening trump of the resurrection morn. There was
no doctor at Harrison at this time. Water was hauled in
barrels for family use. A rancher from over twenty miles
away saw the house, called for a drink and found the woman
in this pitiful condition. He told her he had a brother who
was a doctor and he would send him to her. The doctor re-
lieved her greatly and a year ago the lady told me she thought
Dr. E. B. Graham saved her life at that time.
Having been a Bible class teacher in Michigan I organized
a class in Harrison and conducted religious services from time
to time in the hall. At the close of one of these services the
only cyclone that has ever been known in Harrison seemed to
EARLY DAYS IN SIOUX COUNTY 37
start just west of the town. It consisted ot two columns each
about as large as a barrel, which moved slowly eastward until
it came to Main street, when it turned south and followed the
fleeing citizens who were running from it at a right angle from
where they first saw it. Afterwards one of the men said:
"I glanced back and the thing was just following us." In its
path stood a small house made of lumber. It was torn into
splinters. The cook stove was carried nearly half a mile and
the stove pipe, table and chairs, broken and carried farther.
The chickens were killed, their feathers picked off and
scattered.
I had just concluded a religious service in the hall which
was up stairs at the four corners of the town. There came a
little dash of rain with large drops so I waited to see if there
was going to be more rain. Everybody else had gone. I
stood looking out of the west window when I saw it start and
watched it progress and demolish the building above re-
ferred to, I said to myself, "The Lord can take care of me here
just as well as anywhere." I watched it approach, there was
every indication that the building I was in would be wrecked.
Then it turned south. I did not experience fear. I seemed
to have the assurance that the Lord would take care of me
even if the building was razed.
Many exciting incidents occured from time to time while
the town was so new, viz. : When* savage Indians were re-
ported on their way to Harrison. This was a night of terror
everybody expecting before morning the horrors of a
massacre. The rumor proved false and the tension was re-
lieved the following day.
The Sioux tableland is fine. Good people have been at-
tracted to Harrison, because of its healthful climate. The
better element prevails and now it is a pleasant town with
modern homes, good lawns and beautiful flowers.
ANCIENT HOUSE SITES AT MEADOW, NEBRASKA
By A. M. Brooking, Curator, Hastings College Museum
On May 9, 1921, in company with J. E. Wallace I arrived
at Meadow, Sarpy County. Nebraska. While collecting birds
we discovered an ancient house site three quarters of a mile
west of "Hickory Lodge," the summer home of Mrs. A. J.
Cornish. It was located about half way up the north slope
of a ridge somewhat over a half mile long, running north and
south. It had evidently been located behind the ridge in order
to conceal it from enemies passing up and down the river, as
the stream (Platte) was about three quarters of a mile distant.
38 NEBRASKA HISTORY
The depression marking the location of this house site
is about twenty feet across from rim to rim, with a depth of
about two feet and resembled the "buffalo wallows" commonly
found on our western prairies.
Hickory trees were growing about the rim, one of which
was seventeen inches in diameter.
In order to assure ourselves of this being a house site we
dug a hole, about four feet square, in the center of the de-
pression, and at seven feet from the ground level a heavy bed
of ashes was encountered; which left no doubt in our minds
that it was the fireplace of an ancient habitation.
The following morning we started a trench seven or eight
feet long, running east and west, about six feet distant from
the fireplace. We found the earth mould, which had accumu-
lated since the roof had fallen in, to be very black. I judged
it to have been about twenty-five inches thick before we
reached the original roof covering. There was no exact way
of determining this as it was of black earth resembling the
dirt above it, the only difference being that the roof covering
had traces of charcoal through it.
We struck the floor level, as we did at the fireplace, about
five feet under the surface and found it to be of yellow clay,
packed as hard as the day the original inhabitants left it.
On the floor at the east end of our trench a fine double-
pointed flint knife was struck by the spade and broken. The
layers of the floor seemed to be about four inches thick and
bore evidence of having been in use many years.
The only difference that we could note between this and
the pre-historic dwellings near South Omaha was the fact that
no stones or rocks were found in the fireplace while at Omaha
I am told, they are almost always found. Mr. Wallace, who
has had considerable experience in excavating there, says that
he never found a fireplace there which did not have them. All
other material we discovered seemed to be about the same.
By carefully uncovering the floor we soon found evidence
of a cache near the east end of our trench and about five feet
from the fireplace. It had probably been used as a food cache
as we soon began to uncover unio clam shells, and bones of
various kinds. We were able to identify buffalo, deer and elk
bones, also some large bird bones which we took to be Sand-
hill crane. This cache was about eighteen inches across at
the top, shaped like a jug, and gradually widened until at the
bottom, five feet below the opening, it must have been fully
five feet across. We found three sub-caches running out of
this main one at an angle of 45 degrees downward, about a
foot in depth. A beautiful flint celt was found on the floor
of the main cache, pottery fragments were encountered at all
ANCIENT HOUSE SITES IN NEBRASKA 39
levels, some of them as large as saucers, but none of which
would lead us to believe that they had been left whole. In
this cache we also found six arrowshaft straighteners with
well denned grooves, an implement of Dakota sandstone which
may be a discoidal, four small flint scrapers, one round scrap-
er, three arrow points, six chipped tools which may have been
used as scrapers, one piece of red paint stone, snowing use;
a section of an elkhorn tool, a broken pipe, some rare red pot-
tery .and some bone which bore evidence of having been tem-
pered.
At the bottom of one of the lower caches we found a fine
digging tool made from the shoulder blade of a buffalo.
Measuring the distance to the bottom of these sub-caches we
found that they were fully eleven feet from the ground level.
The next day we opened another trench about four feet
southeast of our first one, and found the opening to another
cache filled with much softer dirt than the first one, which
was packed as hard as the floor. Nothing was found in this
except one perfect flint knife and some large fragments of a
well made pot blackened by fire. We judged the depth of
this cache to have been at least six feet from the level of
the floor.
Owing to our limited time we were unable to dig further.
but some good material might be found by searching out the
other caches at the opposite side of the fireplace, as at the
point of the hill overlooking the river large numbers of human
bones and flint implements have been plowed up at various
times by farmers working the land.
The natural supposition is that these are very evidently
the same race of people who lived near Omaha, and that their
settlement extended further westward than is generally sup-
posed, as this is fully twenty miles from the main village. On
the first ridge west of "Hickory Lodge" is a depression mark-
ing a house site at least sixty-five feet in diameter. We dug
down in the center of it but were not able to uncover the fire-
place in the limited time at our disposal. We found charcoal
scattered through the dirt to a depth of six feet. I am sat-
isfied that it is one of the largest house sites known. It is
located on the shoulder of the hill overlooking the river, in a
cornfield where many bones and flint objects have been found
during cultivation, and T am convinced that this would pay
to excavate also.
40 NEBRASKA HISTORY
WOMEN EDITORS OF NEBRASKA NEWSPAPERS
In answer to questions regarding women editors of Ne-
braska, Miss Martha Turner, of the Historical Society, has
compiled this list:
Brock Bulletin, Miss F. E. Warden, editor and publisher.
Crookston Herald, Mrs. J. E. Estle, editor and publisher.
Dixon Journal, Rivola B. Bennette, editor and publisher.
Banner County News, Harrisburg, Ella B. Wilson, editor
and publisher.
Hebron Journal, Mrs. Erasmus M. Correll, editor and pub-
lisher.
Nebraska State Grange Journal, Kearney, Mrs. George
Bischel, editor and State Grange Community, publishers.
Nebraska Legal News, Lincoln, Mrs. D. M. Butler, editor
and publisher.
Minden News, Miss Florence E. Reynolds, editor, News
Publishing Company, publishers.
Morrill Mail, Mrs. W. E. Alvis, editor.
Norfolk Press, W. H. & Marie Weekes, editors and pub-
lishers.
Every Child's Magazine, Omaha, Miss Grace Sorenson.
Tidings, Omaha, Mrs. Mary E. LaRocca, editor, Supreme
Forest, publisher.
Pawnee County Schools, Pawnee City, Elsie S. Hammond,
editor and publisher.
Rulo Star, F. W. and Mrs. B. J. Beavers, editors and pub-
lishers.
Stromsburg Headlight, Mrs. Chattie Coleman Westenius,
editor and publisher.
Upland Eagle, Mrs. J. W. Robinson, editor and publisher.
Verdel (Knox Co.) Outlook, Kate M. Robinson, editor and
publisher.
York New Teller, Miss E. G. Moore, editor and publisher.
WORLD WAR RECORDS AND MEMORIALS
From T. S. Walmslay, chairman of the American Legion
committee upon World War memorials and records, the His-
WORLD WAR RECORDS AND MEMORIALS 41
torical Society has received a most important and valuable re-
port made to the American Legion at its meeting in Kansas
City this year. The report is packed with definite information
and opinion relating to the records, the history and memorials
of the World War. These are matters which the State Histor-
ical Societies and the American Historical Association are
deeply interested in. In this field the American Legion and
the Historical Societies find need of cordial cooperation.
A few salient facts in the American Legion committee re-
port are given for information of members of the State His-
torical Society who may not have access to that document.
Individual records of those in service during the World
War are contained in the records of the Adjutant General's
office, filling 140,000 feet of floor space and weigh over 2,000
tons.
Selected draft records of the Provost Marshal General's
office contain the documents of 4.658 local draft boards and
23,908,576 registrants in draft lists, from which names were
drawn those subject to service. These documents weigh over
8,000 tons.
Besides the above records, which relate primarily to the
individual soldier and sailor of the World War, there are the
national records of all the other departments of military ser-
vice and supply, making in the aggregate many more thousand
tons. These are scattered in various buildings at Washington.
The Adjutant General's offices in the various states have
been supplied with cards from these national records giving
the important facts relating to men in the service. Upon com-
paring these cards with known sources of information in the
service states it is found that about 10% of them contain er-
rors. Some states which plan to publish service lists of their
own soldiers have postponed such publications until the records
are checked and verified.
The American Legion has recommended Congress to ap-
propriate money for the erection of a national archives build-
ing at Washington in which shall be housed these historical
records for the use of state historians and other persons in-
terested.
War history commissions in many of the states, composed
of representatives of the State Historical Societies, of service
men and others, have been formed for the purpose ol preserv-
ing in each state material relating to the state's part in the
World War. From this material volumes of state World War
history are to be published.
NEBRASKA HISTORY
John Bratt, Nebraska Pioneer and Author. 1864-1918.
TRAILS OF YESTERDAY
John Bratt was born in Staffordshire, England, August 9,
1842. He arrived in America July 9, 1864. After a remark-
able experience in Chicago and the South he came to Nebraska
in May, 1866 and engaged as bullwhacker at Nebraska City
with a freighting outfit bound for Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming.
For the next four years (1866-1870) Mr. Bratt was on the
fighting frontier, employed as courier, ranch caretaker, team-
ster, wood and hay contract foreman, contractor's agent and
manager. The Union Pacific railway was under construction.
Forts were being built. Military were moving. Indian wars
were going on. Emigrants were migrating on the great trails.
TRAILS OF YESTERDAY 43
Stage lines and pony express riders were traveling night and
day. The greatest panorama of human life stretched over the
plains and mountains from the Missouri river to the Pacific
ocean. Mr. Bratt's life at this period was in the midst of dan-
gers and important events. He held places of responsibility
handling both men and money. For one firm he disbursed
nearly two million dollars. He grew in the confidence of his
employers and was advanced and finally taken into partnership.
In 1870 the cattle ranching company of John Bratt & Co.
was founded with Mr. Bratt as manager. For the next twenty-
eight years he was in the plains cattle business, driving herds
from Texas, building ranches, filling beef contracts, organiz-
ing county governments for protection, fighting Indian and
white cattle thieves, constructing irrigation ditches for great
meadows, quieting unruly cowboys.
In 1898 Mr. Bratt went out of the ranching business, set-
tled in North Platte, was member of the school board, mayor
and devoted the remaining years of his life to business inter-
ests, support of civic welfare and enjoyment of his friends and
family. He died June 15, 1918, after a brief illness.
The manuscript 'Trails of Yesterday" was written, as
he says :
Sometimes these were written under difficulties in tent, wagon box,
ranch, or on the open prairie, if not on my field desk; perhaps on a
cracker box, the cooks' bread box, the end gate or seat of a wagon, the
skirts of my saddle, or on an ox yoke. These facts are what I have
seen and done in years of activity, often at the risk of my life.
He expected to publish the book himself, but left that by
will to his wife and daughters who have discharged the duty
with fidelity and love.
"Trails of Yesterday" is a real contribution to Nebraska
literature as well as Nebraska history. It is the best picture
of Nebraska frontier conditions thus far achieved in any book.
In simple style the author tells his story. Incidents that stir
the blood and fire the imagination follow each other in natural,
truthful sequence. And, through it all, the pages disclose the
personality of a real man.
Attorney I. D. Bradley of Attica, Kansas, writes a most interesting
account of his early Nebraska experiencps. In April, 1867, he hauled
3,500 pounds of shelled corn to Denver with four mules. After that he
drove up the North Platte rive, to the old Beauvais Ranch where he had
a narrow escape from 400 hostile Sioux. 1 here are only a few still living
who were on the plains in the war days of 1864-67.
NEBRASKA HISTORY
JUDGE GASLIN STORIES
George L. Burr, editor of the Register at Aurora, writes :
"You ask concerning Judge Gaslin stories. I have one that
came under my personal observation. It is not much, but
such as it is you shall have it. I was a boy freighter from
Smith county, Kansas, to Hastings, and when on the return
trip, I stopped over at Hunnell's ranch between Hastings and
Red Cloud for dinner. It was an election day and the candi-
dates were Gaslin and Dil worth. We had a good dinner, albeit
considerably late. While we were eating, a half dozen of us
at table, the little daughter of the proprietor, Hunnell, a five
or six year-old with long curls that were very beautiful, came
to her father's arms, and said: 'They are having 'lection over
to the schoolhouse, papa.' 'Is that so,' he replied, 'and did you
vote?' 'Yes, I voted' said she.' 'Who did you vote for?' in-
quired the father. 'I voted for Dilworth,' said the little girl.
'I didn't want no old Gaslin in mine.'
"The man eating beside me ducked his head, but said
never a word, and after dinner the other freighters told me
that it was Judge Gaslin himself and that he was a good judge,
but that he was prejudiced against women, he having a wife
that had gone wrong, and that he had to watch himself in
cases where women were concerned to see that he did no
injustice."
Other Gaslin stories :
"At one term of district court the jury released several
bad actors that the judge considered hardened criminals. They
convicted one young fellow on a first offense. With utmost
severity of manner he roared out : 'Stand up and receive your
sentence.' The prisoner struggled to his feet expecting to re-
ceive the limit and the judge said, 'Prisoner at the bar: For
some reason, God only knows what it was, the jury have seen
fit to turn loose on this community several bad men, more
guilty than you. If they can do this I can turn loose one boy,
that I hope will know more than to be ever caught in a scrape
like this again. The sentence of this court is that you mount
your horse, and be out of town in less than five minutes.' "
"When I lived in Webster county about 1884 they told the
following yarn about Gaslin. The Cook murder trial where
the man who committed a horrible and unprovoked murder of
an employer was concluded and the prisoner ready for sen-
tence. It should have been murder in the first degree but a
mob had hanged and nearly killed him and he was very pluck-
ily rescued by Sheriff Warren at risk of his life and as a re-
sult the verdict was for murder in the second degree. The
JUDGE GASLIN STORIES 45
Judge had been greatly exasperated by several supreme court
decisions in other cases and spit out : 'I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll give this man five years in the penitentiary if he and his
attorney will agree that he take his medicine and serve the
sentence ; or I will give him ten years in the penitentiary and
he can appeal to the supreme court and see what they Will
do for him.' "
"Later at Bloomington, he was holding court, and my
father, E. M. Burr, was one of the attorneys at the bar. As
court got in motion it became manifest that His Honor was
very drunk and not in fit condition to act on the bench. As
father was bringing forward his case, the judge made a great
effort to appear preternaturally attentive, but he as well as
the onlookers realized that he could not conquer his indispo-
sition. 'This court sojourned,' thickly enunciated, 'I'm not in
condition to try a lawsuit, and I'm not going to do it.' 'To
what date, your honor,' said father. 'To the twenty-fifth of
Deshember,' said the judge. 'But your honor, that is a legal
holiday' was urged. Confusedly he stared at the lawyers and
jury. 'Whatsh holiday that comes on the twenty-fifth Deshem-
ber?' he inquired aggressively. The great judge who was not-
ed for short-cut justice being too drunk to know when Christ-
mas came.
"Everybody has heard the story where he walked out,
measured the breaking and passed judgment on the work, those
points being in controversy in a case on trial before him. When
court resumed trial of the case, he ruled out further evidence
saying the court had seen the land and knew what the facts
were."
STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT. CIRCULA-
TION, ETC., REQUIRED BY THE ACT OF CONGRESS
OF AUGUST 24. 1912,
Of Nebraska History & Record of Pioneer Days published Quarterly at
Lincoln, Nebraska, for April 1922.
State of Nebraska, County of Lancaster, ss.
Before me, a Notary Public in and for the State and county afore-
said, personally appeared A. E. Sheldon who, having been duly sworn
accoi'ding to law, deposes and says that he is the Managing Editor of the
Nebraska History & Records of "Pioneer Days, and that the following is,
to the best of his knowledge and belief, a true statement of the owner-
ship, management (and if a daily paper, the circulation), etc., of the
aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, required
by the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied in section 443, Postal Laws ami
Regulations, printed on the reverse of this form, to wit:
1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing
editor, and business managers are:
Publisher, Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Editor, A. E. Sheldon, Linco'n, Nebraska.
Managing Editor, A. E. Sheldon, Lincoln, Nebraska.
46 NEBRASKA HISTORY
Business Managers, A. E. Sheldon, Lincoln, Nebraska.
2 That the owners are: (Give names and addresses of individual
owners, or, if a corporation, give its name and the names and addresses
of stockholders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of the total amount
of stock.) Nebraska State Historical Society.
3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security
holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds,
mortgages, or other securities are: None.
A. E. SHELDON, Editor.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 11th day of April 1922.
(SEAL) MAX WESTERMAN.
(My commission expires Aug. 4, 1927.)
"What has become" of the old fashioned newspaper custom of
printing a "Carrier's Address'' to the New Year's edition? This custom
was well nigh universal in the 50's and 60's, it persisted in the 70's and
lingered into the 80's. The editor of this magazine has seen no such ad-
dress since the 90's. The stimulus for this paragraph is the receipt by
the Historical Society from Mrs. J. M. Enochs, at the W. C. T. U. National
Home, Kansas City, Kansas, of a very excellent copy, well preserved, of
the
"New Year's Address" of the Carrier.
Of the Weekly Nebraska News.
To the Patrons.
January 1, 1857."
The address is in verse, which was the universal custom of those
good old days. It was the business of the literary talent in each printing
office to produce a page of verse — or worse — for this New Year's edition.
The lines were supposed to rhyme and to convey some local allusions,
some references to news and classic literature, some high hopes and as-
pirations for the future. They were also designed to act as a stimulus
on the subscriber for prompt renewal of his subscription and a bonus —
the word was not then in use as now — to the boy who delivered the paper.
So this old document, with its dear memories of the olden days, finds an
appropriate place among the newspaper treasures of the Historical So-
ciety. Space may be spared for brief quotation only from its contents:
I don't suppose you ever knew it.
That I the "Devil" am a poet;
But when these rhymes do you all read.
A Poet you'll think I am indeed,
Remember friends — I know it well,
The secret to you, I will tell:
"You can no more make yourself a poet,
Than a sheep can make itself a GO-AT."
On politics I've but little to say
Since Democracy has carried the day.
We've met the enemy gained the FIGHT
And our future prospects are yet bright.
And our brave LEADER needs no tear.
Still enough his patriot heart to cheer.
There is no dimness cast upon his fame
And BUCHANAN is still an honored name.
CARRIER'S ADDRESS— 1857 47
I must by no means here forget,
Nebraska City Is improving yet,
Buildings have sprung up in splendor,
Churches have increased in number;
Arts and science still hold a place
Learning still goes on apace;
We have a railroad almost here —
All with me join in a loud cheer.
And now my friends and Patrons true,
I must ask a favor of you
Reward me with the precious dimes,
For my low bow and simple rhymes;
And if you choose to give a Quarter,
I'll not complain, "you hadn't orter;"
'Twill not decrease your wealth or joy.
But save from want your CARRIER BOY.
There are twenty-one other stanzas but the above samples will
suffice. Fine old humanistic custom! Why did it not survive?
A Los Angeles letter from Prof. H. W. Caldwell, former
secretary of the State Historical Society, says :
"Of course you know that this city is making wonderful growth.
In the last 15 months they claim that about 200,000 people have moved
in. Thousands of houses have been constructed, and now everywhere
in the city great numbers of houses and buildings are under construc-
tion. Last evening friends took me with them on an automobile drive
in a rather new and hilly section, yet we saw scores of houses under
way, most of them very small in size. Great numbers of large buildings
also are under way. The city in the last two years has greatly increased
its manufacturing. The increase in population has made the rates for
house or even room rent very high. I got out fairly well by going out
of the central city to a nice district; and by a cousin I succeeded in find-
ing a good room for $15 a month. Dr. Howard told me — I went there
the moment I came — that in his section rooms were about $20 to $30.
As it is. I am about 8 miles from them, yet I can go on a street car for
five cents.
Have you noticed that this city is the largest in area of any city
of the world; it has 365 square miles now in the city — the main reason
due to the need of water for all. Now the distance north to south is
40 miles, and it contains mountains, farms, and many named cities, now
all part of this city. San Pedro is 20 miles away, next to Long Beach,
and on the sea shore. I expect to go there tomorrow to visit Mrs. Jan-
sen (Miss Fossler) in her high school. She lives within 4 blocks of me,
and goes to her school every day, 26 miles. She has to start before 6
in the morning and gets home by 6 or 7 in the evening. That is not
uncommon. Two of the Fossler women teach in the two Universities.
and they live with their mother in Pasadena. It takes them about 1*
hours to go and to return.
In regard to myself, just a word. 1 have gained in weightj so
that today 1 found 1 had more weight than for t\\<> or three years.
Judge Alpha Morgan of Broken Bow writes to secure hack vol-
umes of the Historical Society publications. At no distant date it will be
impossible to secure back volumes except by publication of new editions.
NEBRASKA HISTORY
HOW LONG AGO WERE MEN IN NEBRASKA?
Xo questions are asked oftener of the Historical Society
than these:
How long ago did prehistoric men live in Nebraska?
What proof have we of their existence here?
Tn the 36th report of the American Bureau of Ethnology
(just received), pages 22-24, is further discussion of the prob-
lem raised by these questions. Gerard Fowke, expert from
the bureau, visited southeastern Nebraska and northeastern
Kansas several years ago. He examined many burial mounds
and village sites in this region. His chief purpose was to deter-
mine the age of man in the Nebraska region — so far as study
of these remains might indicate. From his report just pub-
lished, the following points are condensed :
1. Remains found at old Nebraska lodge sites,except mark'ngs on
some of the pottery, are not different from those found at sites of the
Indian villages occupied at the time of Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-
06). (Blackface, ours.).
2. Fairly solid bones of animals and occasional human bones are
found at the bottom of the lodge sites, even where these are damp most
of the year. To say these were there "thousands of years" ago is rash.
3. The best test of the age of these old earth lodge sites is the
depth of dust which has accumulated above the floor and the fallen-in
dirt roof of the old structure. In some cases this is 20 or 22 inches.
These sites are on the tops of hills where the winds blow. An estimate
of an inch per 100 years is too small.
4. Any estimate is a conjecture. It is safe, however, to say that
no earthwork, mound, lodge-site or human bones along this part of the
Missouri river has been there 1,000 years.
In regard to the skeletons and other remains found at Long's
Hill. e:ght miles north of Omaha, by Dr. R. F. Gilder — about the year
1906: Mr. Fowke says the hill has been so much dug over that no new
evidence can be obtained there and the case must res; on what is now
in print.
For many years the writer has said that 1000 years was
the safest guess on the age of man in the Nebraska region — so
far as the evidence in sight disclosed. This opinion is con-
firmed by Mr. Fowke — in fact it is hedged.
Before the arrival of the horse from Europe — A. D. 1540
and later — the western plains and prairies were a poor place
for a prehistoric citizen. The centers of early population were
in the woods of the Ohio and Mississippi — even in the shel-
tered canyons of the Rio Grande and the Colorado.
Evidences of early men in this region are abundant along
the Missouri. The remains of their early culture in bone, and
flint, in charred wood, fire places and kitchen refuse are fas-
cinating, for they show a culture differing from the red Indian
of the historic period. We shall know far more of these early
peoples fifty years hence — for time and money will be given
to study of their remains.
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Made a State Institution February 27, 1883.
An act of the Nebraska legislature, recommended by Governor
James W. Dawes in his inaugural and signed by him, made the State
Historical Society a State institution in the following:
Be it Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska:
Section. 1. That the "Nebraska State Historical Society," an or-
ganization now in existence — Robt. W. Furnas, President; James M.
Woolworth and Elmer S. Dundy, Vice-Presidents; Samuel Aughey, Sec-
retary, and W. W. Wilson, Treasurer, their associates and successors —
be, and the same is hereby recognized as a state institution.
Section 2. That is shall be the duty of the President and Secretary
of said institution to make annually reports to the governor, as required
by other state institutions. Said report to embrace the transactions and
expenditures of the organization, together with all historical addresses,
which have been or may hereafter be read before the Society or furnished
it as historical matter, data of the state or adjacent western regions of
country.
Section 3. That said reports, addresses, and papers shall be pub-
lished at the expense of the state, and distributed as other similar official
reports, a reasonable number, to be decided by the state and Society, to
be furnished said Society for its use and distribution.
Property and Equipment
The present State Historical Society owns in fee simple title as
trustee of the State the half block of land opposite and east of the State
House with the basement thereon. It occupies for offices and working
quarters basement rooms in the University Library building at 11th and
R streets. The basement building at 16th and H is crowded with the
collections of the Historical Society which it can not exhibit, including
some 15,000 volumes of Nebraska newspapers and a large part of :ts
museum. Its rooms in the University Library building are likevise
crowded with library and museum material. The annual inventory of
its property returned to the State Auditor for the year 1920 is as follows:
Value of Land, y2 block 16th and H $75,000
Value of Buildings and permanent improvements 35,000
Value of Furniture and Furnishings 5,000
Value of Special Equipment, including Apparatus,
Machinery and Tools 1,000
Educational Specimens (Art, Museum, or other) 74,800
Library (Books and Publications) 75,000
Newspaper Collection 52,895
Total Resources $318,195
Much of this property is priceless, being the only articles of their
kind and impossible to duplicate.
NEBRASKA
Vol. IV
October-December, 1921
No. IV
CONTENTS
Editorial Notes 49-52
Historical Sites in Nebraska 53-60
Nebraska and Buffalo Bill in French 60
A Revenant Cheyenne 61-64
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE NEBRASKA STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
LINCOLN
Entered as second class matter February 4, 1918, at the Post Office,
Lincoln, Nebraska, under Act August 24, 1912.
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Founded September 25, 1878
The Nebraska State Historical Society was founded Sep-
tember 25, 1878, at a public meeting held in the Commercial
Hotel at Lincoln. About thirty well known citizens of the
State were present. Robert W. Furnas was chosen president
and Professor Samuel Aughey, secretary. Previous to this date,
on August 26, 1867, the State Historical Society and Library
Association was incorporated in order to receive from the State
the gift of the block of ground, now known as Haymarket
Square. This original Historical Association held no meet-
ings. It was superseded by the present State Historical
Society.
Present Governing Board
Executive Board — Officers and Elected Members
President, Robert Harvey, Lincoln
1st V-President, Hamilton B. Lowry, Lincoln
2nd V-President, Nathan P. Dodge Jr., Omaha
Secretary, Addison E. Sheldon, Lincoln
Treasurer, Philip L. Hall, Lincoln
Rev. Machael A. Shine, Plattsmouth
Don L. Love, Lincoln
Samuel C. Bassett, Gibbon
John F. Cordeal, McCook
Novia Z. Snell, Lincoln
William E. Hardy, Lincoln
Ex Officio Members
Samuel R. McKelvie, Governor of Nebraska
Samuel Avery, Chancellor of University of Nebraska
George C. Snow, Chadron, President of Nebraska Press Association
Howard W. Caldwell, Professor of American History, University of
Nebraska
Andrew M. Morrissey, Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Nebraska
Clarence A. Davis, Attorney General of Nebraska
NEBRASKA (ppLHI5TORV
AND RECORD OF W^k PIONEER DAYS
-:?■&*&
Published Quarterly by the Nebraska State Historical Soceity
Addison E. Sheldon, Editor
Subscription, $2.00 per year
Vol. IV October-December, 1921 No. IV
Josiah M. Ward, writer of frontier stories for the Denver Post and
other publications asks for definite information found in our library upon
the Fontenelle family. Mr. Ward has been doing research work on the
men of the plains and mountains who lived in the period 1820 to 1849.
Frank Pilger, president of the Pierce State Bank, sends check for
Volume I of our publications, printed in 1885 and says "I desire to be
connected with the Society permanently." Mr. Pilger's interest in Ne-
braska history has been constant for many years.
The Union Pacific Magazine is the title of a new Nebraska monthly
publication, issued from headquarters at Omaha, edited by Howard Elliott.
Besides serving as an advertiser of the Union Pacific region the magazine
has a fine field for historical study and publication and seems likely to
live up to its opportunity.
A valued addition to our library is a scrap book kept by W. F.
Cody (Buffalo Bill) in 1887 on the occasion of his first tour of England
with his Wild West show. The book is a gift from Mrs. Julia E. Good-
man .sister of Col. Cody, through Mrs. George G. Waite of Lincoln. The
clippings are from many representative British periodicals and give a
vivid picture of Col. Cody and his first triumphant European tour.
Former Representative W. E. Thorne, of Bladen, in sending in
irship for the coming year adds:
"The publications of the Society are very interesting to me."
50 NEBRASKA HISTORY
Richard Shunatona, son of one of the prominent early Otoe chiefs,
writes us from Pawnee, Oklahoma. He was born in Nebraska and will
act as a representative of the Historical Society in gathering historical
material from the Otoe, tribe. The State Historical Society is now camp-
ed on former Otoe territory. Forty-five years ago the Otoe were familiar
visitors at every settler's cabin in the valley of the Blues. Shunatona
is in English, "Big Horse."
Ezra Meeker, pioneer of the Oregon Trail, still lives. His 91st
birthday was celebrated at Seattle, December 29, 1921. The "Borrowed
Time Club" helped him celebrate. All Nebraskans will recall Mr. Meek-
er, his oxen and Oregon Trail wagon, as they drove through Nebraska in
1906-7, going on east as far as Washington and New York City. Mr.
Meeker's first trip overland to the Pacific coast was made in 1852. His
books and numerous photographs taken at various points on the Oregon
and California Trails are among the valued material in the Historical
Society rooms. He is truly a remarkable pioneer, worthy representative
of his great era in the history of the west.
Hector Maiben of Palmyra, responds to our invitation for opinion
upon the value of the Lillie corn husking hook by the following:
I notice your request for information regarding the value of the
Lillie corn husker.
I began using one of them when 30 years old that is in '93. Young-
er persons probably get the hang of it better and may get more advan-
tage. But it is absurd to claim so much benefit as is done in the note
you publish.
I should estimate the gain at about 5%, not more, for me, but
perhaps more for many who did not understand corn husking till they
learned, then using the hook. It has the mei'it that it almost compels
its user to adopt a better way than the old fashioned one of stripping
back first one side then the other.
From Henry C. Richmond, former Chief Clerk of Nebraska House
and later a member, we quote the following in a letter enclosing annual
membership fee, from Philipsburg, Pa.:
More perhaps as a matter of sentiment, and the fact you are run-
ning it impels me to forward you this feeble reminder of my interest.
For several months, I presume, I shall be engaged in the task of
earning a livelihood hereabouts, and I am pleased to say I cannot com-
plain, since affairs were awfully dead in Nebraska when I left, com-
mercially speaking. I often think of you and your work, and hope that
you will not do as did dear Dr. Wolfe, slave your life away without stop-
ping to take a rest.
Long since I have cast from me any desire to be a statesman
"again." I am settled down now, in the work of separating Pennsylvan-
ians from their money — returning it to them of course through one plan
or another. They actually insist upon seeing it start back in this coun-
try. But, they are very dear folks here, I assure you, and have treated
me, as at home, perhaps far better than I deserve.
EDITORIAL NOTES 51
The historical library is pleased to add to its Nebraska author
material an address by Rev. Luther M. Kuhns, of Omaha, on "Constan-
tine the Great," — eulogy and historical oration on the Roman emperor.
Mrs. Sarah Gilbert, now of Atlantic, Iowa, writes a fine,sympa-
thetic letter upon the work the Historical Society is doing. Her father
was a homesteader in the Republican valley when the land office was
at Bloomington. Buffalo and antelope steak was then the staple diet
in her home. She is writing some of her recollections.
Victor Rosewater, Omaha, contributes a pamphlet copy of an arti-
cle by him in the American Economic Review. Mr. Rosewater criti-
cises the statement that real wages in 1918 were less than in 1915.
A letter from Winnie Richards Durland speaks of the work of
her husband, Senator A. J. Durland, formerly of Norfolk, who died at
Seattle, May 28, 1921. Senator Durland was the father of the Norfolk
hospital for insane, introducing the bill in the legislative session of 1885.
He lived 27 years in the state and was one of the active and farsighted
men influential in the growth of the Elkhorn valley.
Sterling, Nebraska,
Jan. 1, 1922.
I am in receipt of notification of the Forty-fifth annual meeting of
the Society. Sorry that I cannot be with you all, but my wife is very
low (bedfast) and has been for four years. I would like to exchange ex-
periences with some of the "cow punchers" as I have slept with my head
on a saddle from the "Aricaree" to the "Big Horn."
I feel stronger than I have been for over thirty years but await
"seeing the other side of The Great Divide," with interest.
Yours fraternally,
"PARSON BOB,"
(Phil R. Landon.)
From former Representative George F. Smith of the State Bank
of Waterbury, Dixon county, we are very glad to quote the following
letter.
I have just received numbers one and two, Vol. IV, Nebraska His-
tory and Record of Pioneer Days in its new form and will say that I am
delighted with it.
It came in my mail last night and I have read and re-i'ead every
word in them.
I think the magazine form for the publications is a decided im-
provement and every old settler and pioneer of this great State should
have it..
I treked across the State of Iowa from Illionis in a prairie schoon-
er when a boy and landed here in Dixon County, Nebraska in the spring
of 1873 and somehow I feel that I am a pioneer.
I don't see very much in the magazine, however, from this part
of the State, but perhaps that is due to the extreme modesty of some of
us old fellows and our reluctance to getting into print.
Many an interesting tale of early day occurrences might be told
if we would just refresh our memories a little. 1 might send you a little
52 NEBRASKA HISTORY
skit sometime if the publication of it would not discredit the magazine.
Tlie Old Mormon Trail made by the company of that section who
moved from Florence to Niobrara — I fail to recall the year — and wintered
there, passed through Dixon County.
I have followed it for miles through the prairie grass in an early
day. I wish we could locate it now and place a marker somewhere on it.
From Sarka B. Hrbkova of the Foreign Language Information Ser-
vice, 15 West 37th Street, New York City, we quote the following:
I wish* I could be present at the meeting of the Society. I think
I'd like to contribute some first hand information on "Nebraska and its
Women in War Time and After."
I trust the New Year will bring you full measure of good things
and true — mostly the true — the others don't count for as much.
From our office window I can look west over the Hudson to the
Jersey shore and I often look beyond the river's mists to the plains of
Nebraska and to those of its people who rang true.
From Mrs. Alice E. D. Goudy, of Auburn, we quote the following
concerning one of the noted pioneers of this State who still abides in the
country which he has contributed so much to develop:
My father, Major William Daily — aged 93 past, very greatly en-
joyed Volume XIX — containing account of contested election of his broth-
er Samuel G. Daily — of course Major Daily remembers much of the cam-
paign in which he took part. He has had a most unusual store of re-
membrances— incidents, etc., of all the early period in which he had very
active part.
The Major is well preserved physically — would be still active ex-
cept for loss of eye sight-— almost entire, which deprived him of vigorous
exercise.
All matters pertaining to Nebraska History — the Historical So-
ciety especially — are of keenest interest to me.
Louis J. Loder settled on Salt Creek near Waverly in 1857. He is
still hale and strong at the age of 87. He readily recalls the time —
familiar even to the childhood recollection of the editor — when the set-
tlers gathered their salt from Salt Basin-, when the nearest trading points
were Plattsmouth and Nebraska City and when antelope and deer were
seen from the log cabin door almost every day.
On January 5, at Rock Bluffs, Cass county, a log house built by
Robert Stafford in 1860 was consumed by fire. The Weeping Water Re-
publican of January 12 gives a fine, sympathetic account of this building
and of the city of Rock Bluffs which was a Missouri river town of bright
prospects and flourishing business in the sixties. When the Burlington
crossed the Missouri at Plattsmouth, about eight miles distant, and the
steamboats ceased navigation of the river, Rock Bluffs. fell away. The
editor of this magazine visited the old town about eight years ago. A
few of the old buildings yet remained— some of them deserted. Photo-
graphs were taken of a number of them. The log house destroyed was
once regarded as a fine building, being two stories high with rock base-
ment.
JOURNEYS TO NEBRASKA HISTORICAL SITES
Pawnee-Sioux Battlefield in Massacre Ca
Scouts in foreground — Committee ;
Pawnees suffered greatest loss
October 1
•on, Hitchcock County. Trenton Boy
ltos in Canyon. Shows where
Photo by A. E. Sheldon,
1921.
JOURNEYS TO HISTORICAL SITES IN NEBRASKA
By Addison E. Sheldon
This is the first (for publication in this quarterly) of a
series of short stories upon notable historical sites in Nebras-
ka. Each story is preceded by a personal pilgrimage to and
study of the site and its literature.
It is time for Nebraskans to know more of our places of
historic interest; to mark them with worthy monuments; to
find in them inspiration for holding in cherished memory
noble lives and deeds of Nebraska pioneers.
MASSACRE CANYON
The Last Nebraska Battlefield of the Sioux-Pawnee War
Four of us left the city of Columbus in the afternoon of
October 13, 1921. One was a frontier soldier of fifty years
ago, captain of Pawnee Indian scouts, rider in desperate
charges into hostile camps — Lute H. North of Columbus. An-
54 NEBRASKA HISTORY
other, a veteran in the U. S. Indian service, leader in winning*
wild men to the new, machine-agriculture, dweller with them
on the open plain and in the earth lodge, guide and adviser in
long marches and great crises, John W. Williamson of Gen-
oa. The third a digger for bones and flints in old Indian vil-
lage sites and grave yards — curator of the Historical Society
museum — Elmer E. Blackman. The fourth held the wheel of
the Essex car.
Our course was southwest, following, as nearly as good
roads permitted, the trail of the Pawnee tribe as it set out
on its last Nebraska buffalo hunt in July, 1873. The hunt-
ing trails of those years followed the line of least resistance,
diagonal swells across the valleys, high ridges over the div-
ides. They forded the streams at the shallows, and rounded
the edge of the swamps. Vainly we tried to trace the old
trails as we rolled over the Lincoln Highway into Columbus,
crossed the Platte where many islands break its channel into
a handful of silver streams, shot through the twilight across
the vales and prairies into the city of Hastings, where our
first night out was spent. The eye could only search the
landscape and the imagination surmise where the ponies drag-
ged the tepee poles in the old days.
Early the next morning we were going thirty-five miles
an hour over the Detroit-Lincoln-Denver highway, headed for
the Republican valley. Some change from the old days when
the long line of the Pawnee nation strung itself out, — warriors,
squaws, children, dogs and ponies, — across the plains. Im-
possible now to do more than look at the map and trace a
rough line showing the route pursued by Williamson and his
Pawnee in 1873 and other lines indicating where Captain
North and the military trailed the high divide between the
Platte and Republican in the Sioux-Cheyenne war in 1864-70.
Like a lake bed lies the great wide bowl of corn and wheat
land — heart of Phelps and Kearney counties. Across this our
auto sped. Axtell, Funk, Minden, Holdrege — then the deep
ravines which give notice of the nearing Republican — then
down the long tongue of divide which leads into Oxford. How
the pulse stirred while memory and imagination kindled at the
great inland valley stretching to the west! Greatest buffalo
JOURNEYS TO NEBRASKA HISTORICAL SITES 55
pasture of America! Every summer the migration of bison
herds from the Black Hills and surrounding plains southward
to the tender gramma grass and pleasant waters of the Re-
publican proved its attraction. Following the buffalo came the
coyote. — then the Indian — finally the white men — each hunt-
ing the choicest beef steak that ever graced a campfire or
banquet hall.
What old-time tales fell from the lips of our party as we
turned up the valley road, perfection smooth with powdered
dust. Many an incident of the buffalo days and early settle-
ment, of the first quaint log-cabin pioneers who risked their
lives in order to live "where the game was" in the great out-
doors of the West. Each member of our party had seen the
valley in its early years and each had his tale to tell.
It was at the end of the tawny October afternoon when
we crossed the Frenchman river at Culbertson and turned west
up a long hill crowned with the high divide which separates
the Frenchman from the Republican. Seven miles out one
sees, from the top of this hill, the fingers of a giant's hand
stretch from the Republican northwest toward the Frenchman.
Each finger is a deep canyon or ravine parting the prairie with
almost impassable chasm. It is fifty-two years since Captain
North and his company of Pawnee scouts picked up the trail of
Tall Bull and his band of murderers on these plains. But of
this another time. It is forty-eight years since Williamson and
his Pawnee had a most tragic experience in one of the Giant's
fingers.
In the early morning of August 5, 1873 the Pawnee nation
broke camp on the Republican a few miles west of where Tren-
ton now stands and started on its last day's hunt for buffalo.
There were three hundred warriors, four hundred women and
children, twelve hundred ponies and a thousand dogs. They
had had successful hunts on the Beaver and the Driftwood.
Already their ponies were well loaded with dried buffalo and
robes. The day before three white men had come to their
camp and told Mr. Williamson that Sioux warriors had been
watching the Pawnee for several days and that a large party
of them were camped close by on the Frenchman. Sky Chief,
56 NEBRASKA HISTORY
leader of the Pawnee, had answered, "the White men wish the
Pawnee to leave the buffalo for them to kill. The Great Fath-
er gave us leave to hunt for three moons. We will make one
more drive of buffalo and then return with plenty of meat to
our village on the Loup."
A mile long that early August morning the Pawnee na-
tion trailed across the divide, going northeast. Soon buffalo
were seen coming from the northwest over the crest of the
hill toward the Pawnee. Eagerly the Pawnee hunters rode out
to the chase. As they approached the buffalo a transformation
took place. Part of the buffalo became, by throwing off the
buffalo robes which concealed them, a band of Sioux warriors
riding in wide war circles and shooting at the Pawnee.
"There's only a few Sioux. We can whip them" shouted
the Pawnee chiefs as they summoned their fighting men. Near
at hand was a deep ravine. Into it were hurried the Pawnee
women, children, dogs and pack ponies. As they sought ref-
uge there the skyline to the north and west swarmed with
hostile Sioux. Round they rode in circles firing as they rode.
There were two white men with the Pawnee camp, one a
young man from the east who had begged to go on the hunt.
When he saw the Sioux, he fled. Williamson, the other white
man bore the written authority of the United States to con-
duct the Pawnee on their hunt, and to preserve peace. The
Sioux chiefs had signed a treaty of peace at Fort Laramie five
years before. In their own camp at this very time was Nick
Janis, of French descent, married to a Sioux squaw and com-
missioned in the same manner as Williamson to conduct the
Sioux buffalo hunt and keep the peace.
Williamson tied a handkerchief at the end of a pole, rais-
ed it and rode out to stop the Sioux, hoping that the U. S. com-
mission which he held could effect this. A shower of arrows
and bullets from the circling warriors showed how vain the
hope. Sky Chief, leader of the Pawnee, had before the onset
of the Sioux dashed off in pursuit of a buffalo to a ravine far
to the northeast and there was killed and scalped without
knowledge of the desperate situation of his people. As Will-
iamson rode back a bullet struck his pony. The poor beast
stumbled on a few more yards and fell at the edge of the ra-
JOURNEYS TO NEBRASKA HISTORICAL SITES 57
vine which sheltered the Pawnee women and children. As he
stripped the saddle from the dying pony he swept the battle-
field with one searching glance which forever fixed it in his
memory :
On either flank the Sioux warriors were rapidly advanc-
ing to envelope the Pawnee.
Below in the fork of the canyon, the Pawnee women were
standing in a circle with arms uplifted chanting the ancient
tribal song — a prayer for victory.
Wave upon wave of Sioux warriors circled nearer and
nearer. Arrows and bullets flew thick and fast. The plains
filled with hundreds of Sioux. The Pawnee warriors were
everywhere driven back. A desperate situation surely for
Williamson and his Pawnee.
No chanted prayer to Tirawa availed in that desperate
hour. "Fly from the Sioux" rose the cry in the ravine, for
their enemy was upon them. Cutting packs and tepee poles
loose from their ponies the disastrous flight down the ravine
began. Some, warriors and women, refused to fly. They
sought refuge in deep holes dug by the flood torrents in the
bottom of the ravine. Everyone of these was cut off and
scalped. The larger part of the Pawnee who perished were
found on this part of the battlefield.
Three miles Massacre Canyon winds to the point where
it opens into the Republican valley. Headlong toward this
opening the Pawnee camp fled. All was confusion. Warriors,
squaws, children, dogs, ponies in a mingled mass. Along the
bluff rode the Sioux firing into the fugitives below. The bot-
tom of the ravine where the fight began is 150 yards wide.
Half a mile below it narrows to a gorge barely wide enough for
a trail. Here the flood of humanity and beasts choked the
gorge and many perished. Farther down a similar gorge was
the cause of another slaughter.
An incident of this flight is burned into Mr. Williamson's
memory. A little Indian baby, two or three years old, had fall-
en from her mother's back and stretched out her hands in
vain to the panic-stricken rout begging to be taken with them.
After the fight a number of partly burned bodies of Pawnee
58 NEBRASKA HISTORY
children were found near this place. The Sioux had evidently-
stacked them up and tried to obliterate them.
Probably every Pawnee would have perished had it not
been for the appearance of a column of United States Cav-
alry coming up the Republican Valley, bearing at its head the
old flag. From the hilltop the Sioux warriors spied this sooner
than the Pawnee fleeing down the ravine, and checked their
pursuit.
As the mob of Pawnee warriors, squaws, children, dogs
and ponies poured out of the mouth of Massacre Canyon into
the broad valley of the Republican the pursuing Sioux rounded
up several hundred loose Pawnee ponies and vanished with
them over the hills to the north.
The army officers urged that the remaining Pawnee re-
turn to the battlefield under cavalry escort and retake the
abandoned food and equipage. To this they would not listen.
They said the food would be poisoned and the equipment de-
stroyed. The Pawnee nation suffered in this battle the most
terrible defeat by the Sioux in its tribal history. One hun-
dred and fifty-six had perished. Most of their ponies and
camp outfit was lost. Nothing for them to do but to go back
to the old home on the Loup overwhelmed with the most ter-
rible disaster they had known. The grief of the survivors was
heart rending. The squaws wailed the lamentation for the
dead. The stolid warriors tore their hair while tears ran down
their faces. In distress, hunger and humiliation those who es-
caped turned their faces homeward, never again to return on
their tribal hunt in the Republican Valley.
Forty-eight years is a long time in the life of the front-
ier. On the morning of October 15, 1921 we were on the battle-
field. From every quarter across the divide came automobiles
concentrating on the canyon where the battle began. Hun-
dreds of men, women and children thronged the hillsides look-
ing down the dark ravine where the pride of the Pawnee was
crushed by the Sioux. A platoon of boy scouts from Trenton
eagerly scanned the sod finding a few fragments from the far-
off fight. Editors of newspapers from Trenton and Culbertson
were there. A thin thread of smoke along the Republican Val-
JOURNEYS TO NEBRASKA HISTORICAL SITES
Pawnee- Sioux Battlefield in Massacre Canyon, Hitchcock County. J.
Williamson (right), and Captain Lute H. North (left) in foreground.
Photo by A. E. Sheldon, October 15, 1921.
ley was evidence of the Burlington fast mail bound for Denver.
At the canyon's edge stood Scout Williamson and Captain
North, near the spot where Williamson's pony was shot from
under him in the battle. Below were the forks of the canyon
where the Pawnee women stood with bare heads under that
August sun of 1873 and chanted their prayer — the old time
Pawnee prayer for victory. Alas, not the only women who
have prayed for victory in war, for the life of their soldiers,
in vain!
We gathered in eager group at the canyon's edge and lis-
tened to Williamson tell the story of the last battle between
the Sioux and Pawnee nations. He had told it many times
since he saw it, but never before as he told it that October
morning for his feet were on the battlefield, his eyes ranging
the hills where the hostile Sioux charged and circled. Below
in the forks of the canyon stood a fleet of automobiles. The
60 NEBRASKA HISTORY
sympathetic ear listened as though to catch the chant of the
Pawnee women. The Past and the Present were blended while
we listened to the story and renewed the recollections of the
old Nebraska days.
Never again on Nebraska prairies the useless feud of red
men fighting each other for buffalo hunting ground. To the
historian, the novelist, the poet, the dramatist belong those
years of romance and. mystery. All too soon the last eye that
saw them will be closed, the last witness which told their tale
will be silent.
Here some day shall arise a monument fit to halt the trav-
eler's journey and claim his attention and sympathy. Upon
its granite shoulder shall be deeply cut an inscription remind-
ing the generations yet to be of these tribes which once found
home upon these plains, of their customs, their religion, their
arts, their struggles, and of this last great conflict between
the two greatest of these Nebraska tribes — the Pawnee and
the Sioux.
Walking along the banks of the Seine at Paris in the closing period
of the World War I browsed in the bookstalls which line the quays.
Suddenly my attention was attracted to a large book with illustrated
paper cover giving an account of Buffalo Bill, the Pawnee Indians and
the wonderful region in America called Nebraska. It was in French,
written (as advertised) by Col. Cody with the slight assistance of a
French journalist. A few minutes' reading in the book told me more
things I had never heard of concerning Nebraska than I had supposed
possible. In free and lurid French the book informed me of wild and
thrilling adventures in the Nebraska region not set down in any his-
torical record. Its descriptions gave me glimpses of geography here
which startled my fifty years' residence. In eager haste I bought the
book and looked for more of the same kind. They were there — a whole
brood of them. America, the land of promise, its Indians, its frontier,
its history and romance, as pictured by Col. Cody and his French collab-
orator. I bought them all and have them yet. In a future issue of this
magazine its readers will be given translations showing how their be-
loved state is presented to the reading public of France.
Senator J. W. Robbins of Omaha was a visitor at the State His-
torical Society rooms during the special session of the legislature. Mr.
Robbins has the scholar's interest in the work being done by the Histor-
ical Society. Everything published is of keen interest to him. The in-
telligent and cordial support of men like Mr. Robbins is one of the great-
est rewards for the work done by the Historical Society.
A REVENANT CHEYENNE
A REVENANT CHEYENNE
In the afternoon of October 28, 1921, a Cheyenne chief
came into my office in the State Historical Society rooms at
Lincoln, Nebraska. I was startled. It was many moons since
I had seen a Cheyenne, many more since I had seen one in the
full panoply of war. Recollections of scenes at Pine Ridge dur-
ing the stormy winter of 1890-91 came back in a flash.
This Cheyenne was unmistakably fully equipped for the
war path. It was the old time war costume — rarely seen to-
day— that he wore. His equipment included one of the most
62 NEBRASKA HISTORY
complete outfits for a long and hard campaign I had seen in
many years contact with Indians. Every article was of the
finest workmanship, hand-sewed with sinew, in perfect condi-
tion. His outfit included a war tepee, (three poles and buffalo
skin covering) ; a woven willow mattress to protect the war-
rior's body from the wet ground when he slept ; exquisite buck-
skin beaded leggings ; two pairs of moccasins, one fur-lined for
winter; a parfleche bag for provisions; a medicine bag with
the old time punk, flint and steel for starting fire ; a pipe case
for the pipe that befits a chieftain ; a mink skin charm bag with
trinkets to protect from adverse spirits ; a raw hide quirt worn
on the wrist ; a buffalo hoof rattle for the war dance ; a braided
raw hide lariat for his pony with headstall and knot to guide.
He was tall — this Cheyenne — over six feet — as tall as his
great compatriot Roman Nose killed in Forsyth's fight at
Beecher Island in September, 1868. He was thin. His skin
was shrunken on his athletic frame. On his fingers and wrists
were rings and bracelets of former days. His black hair was
closely braided in a long queau down his back. He had both
the new and the old Cheyenne weapons — a sixteen shooter
Henry rifle ready for use, a five foot bow with the Cheyenne
magical number (four) of steel tipped arrows. He was ready
ror a winter campaign, for his outfit included six of the finest
buffalo robes and a cavalry officer's heavy storm coat with high
collar protecting the neck and ears.
In the red summer of 1864 the Nebraska border ran blood
from Fort Laramie to the eastern rapids of the Little Blue.
The Oregon Trail was a line of smoking ranches, charred
freight wagons, scalped settlers and freighters. Along what
had been a great world highway traffic ceased while Cheyenne
and Sioux warriors rioted, pillaged and murdered.
Then followed the war for the possession of the plains.
Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Kiowa tribes in a league of
wild nations to drive back the white man from the buffalo
hunting grounds before it was too late. For four years the
war raged, — from the banks of the Arkansas to the moun-
tains of the Yellowstone. Then it died slowly down — only to
flame up again, at Custer's battle field and elsewhere, from
1875 to 1879 — then again died — giving one last expiring sput-
ter in 1890 at Wounded Knee and the Pine Ridge campaign
which followed.
What is known as the Powder River Expedition was the
second act in this western plains war drama. In May, 1865,
General P. E. Connor marched from Fort Laramie northwest
into the heart of the Sioux and Cheyenne country between the
Big Horn mountains and the Black Hills. Three other strong
A REVENANT CHEYENNE 63
columns marching- by different routes were to meet him there
and crush the hostiles.
It was a campaign of miscalculation and failure for the
United States army. A cavalry column of two thousand under
General Cole wandered in the Bad Lands, lost nearly all its
horses, burned its equipment and was rescued from a starving
condition by Major Frank North and his Nebraska Pawnee
Scouts. The other columns failed to reach the rendezvous on
Powder river. In the fall the troops marched back to their
bases, leaving the Sioux and Cheyenne in possession of the
northern plains.
In midsummer of this campaign (July 25, 1865) an attack
was made on the stockade at Platte River Bridge, on the Over-
land Trail, about thirty miles above where now stands the city
of Casper, Wyoming. It was made with the usual plains In-
dian strategem. A small body of warriors rode near the fort
to entice the soldiers out. The main fighting force of warriors
— near 3,000 strong — was concealed in the hills. The soldiers
came out of the fort gate, but refused to follow the retreating
Indians into the ambuscade. Instead they shelled the hills with
a howitzer.
Late in the afternoon the head chiefs sent High Backed
Wolf, one of the leading Cheyenne — to order return of the ad-
vance party since they could not draw the soldiers into the
trap. One of the advance warriors spoke angrily when thus
ordered to retreat. High Backed Wolf was stung by the re-
mark and dared the other to swim the river with their ponies
and attack the soldiers near the fort. Both did so. In the
fight High Backed Wolf was shot through and fell from his
horse at a little distance from the fort. His body was rescued
by the Cheyenne and carried away to the hostile camp. The
wails of mourners and barbaric splendor of the funeral in the
Cheyenne camp may be left to the imagination.
On July 1, 1921, Mr. Adam N. Keith, a Wyoming cattle
rancher, was riding along the base of a high, rocky mountain
near Powder river, about twenty miles west of the inland town
of Kaycee, Johnson county, and about ninetv miles north of
the old Platte River Bridge fort. Mr. Keith had come to
the region as a cowboy thirty-two years before and had ridden
past that point of rocks scores of times, a narrow flat between
the stieam and mountain making a convenient passage for
range riders. On this day his eye caught what it had never
seen there before — the tip of an Indian tepee pole peeping from
a ledge of rocks. He surmised at once an old time Indian bur-
ial and, getting help, rolled the rocks away and brought to the
light of the twentieth century the most perfect specimen of
64
NEBRASKA HISTORY
nineteenth century Indian warrior and equipment discovered in
the plains region. Every detail was complete for the long-
journey into the Spirit land hunting grounds. For the buffalo
hunt or the cavalry charge, for the winter's cold or the summer
heat, this Cheyenne warrior was equipped. The Wyoming
winds had embalmed his body and shrunk his skin upon his
frame, leaving its original form and features undestroyed.
After fifty years he was still recognizable by his old time fel-
lows. An aged Sioux warrior from Pine Ridge started with
surprise when brought to see him and eagerly brought his
squaw and children to behold the fierce Cheyenne with whom
he hunted on the Wyoming plains nearly sixty years ago.
For the French word "revenant" there is no adequate Eng-
lish translation. Even as I write this revenant of the old war
days on the plains looks across the room with a message for
the present time which I try vainly to translate.
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Made a State Institution February 27, 1883.
An act of the Nebraska legislature, recommended by Governor
James W. Dawes in his inaugural and signed by him, made the State
Historical Society a State institution in the following:
Be it Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska:
Section. 1. That the "Nebraska State Historical Society," an or-
ganization now in existence — Eobt. W. Furnas, President; James M.
Woolworth and Elmer S. Dundy, Vice-Presidents; Samuel Aughey, Sec-
retary, and W. W. Wilson, Treasurer, their associates and successors —
be, and the same is hereby recognized as a state institution.
Section 2. That is shall be the duty of the President and Secretary
of said institution to make annually reports to the governor, as required
by other state institutions. Said report to embrace the transactions and
expenditures of the organization, together with all historical addresses,
which have been or may hereafter be read before the Society or furnished
it as historical matter, data of the state or adjacent western regions of
country.
Section 3. That said reports, addresses, and papers shall be pub-
lished at the expense of the state, and distributed as other similar official
reports, a reasonable number, to be decided by the state and Society, to
be furnished said Society for its use and distribution.
Property and Equipment
The present State Historical Society owns in fee simple title as
trustee of the State the half block of land opposite and east of the State
House with the basement thereon. It occupies for offices and working
quarters basement rooms in the University Library building at 11th and
R streets. The basement building at 16th and H is crowded with the
collections of the Historical Society which it can not exhibit, including
some 15,000 volumes of Nebraska newspapers and a large part of its
museum. Its rooms in the University Library building are likewise
crowded with library and museum material. The annual inventory of
its property returned to the State Auditor for the year 1920 is as follows:
Value of Land, % block 16th and H $75,000
Value of Buildings and permanent improvements 35,000
Value of Furniture and Furnishings 5,000
Value of Special Equipment, including Apparatus,
Machinery and Tools 1,000
Educational Specimens (Art, Museum, or other) 74,800
Library (Books and Publications) 75,000
Newspaper Collection 52,395
Total Resources $318,195
Much of this property is priceless, being the only articles of their
kind and impossible to duplicate.
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11