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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1923)
■ Agee/ Pioneer Preacher Starts Out Again With Wife to Trek Over Nebraska rV and Dakota in Old-Fashioned Team-Drawn Wagon-Home of Early Prairie Day Motorists on Modern Trail May Wonder on Meeting Ancient Conveyance and Hale Octogenarians Within—Star Wanderer for 40 Years as Preacher-Farmer Is D. S. Hulburt. April travelers on the Kearney, •■rlngview nnd Pierre auto trail, WHuh runs north nnd south in Ne braska and South Dakota, will rub their eyes and look again and won der whether a 19th century Rip Van AVinkle has waked, when they pass a man with heavy, long, white beard, driving an old-time covered wagon with a breaking plow on behind— about such an outfit nr was an every day sight on the prairies anywhere from 25 to 60 years ago. Should any Manhattanite chance to be traveling that trail for the first time, expecting to see the wild west of the movies jukj the novels, he may accept the sight as a matter of course. But the men Who drove the wagons when the nation was moving west, were at least fairly young, while the beard on this man’s face gives token of the 80 years he has lived. AVhy does this octogenarian, with hia wife who is in her TOth year, thUH set forth' in the maner ot bygone days? That question can be an swered only by asking another—why has he, from early boyhood, kept pace with the frontier, never content to remain till the country became set Hpj^^pd the population stable? (hixty four years ago, with his fa ther's family, he followed his uncles to new and untried lands in Green county, AVisconsia, where it was con fidently predicted, for Instance, that apples would never grow, though a splendid fruit country later developed there. fn September, 1869, he migrated to another newer community, where he h^ft! purchased a farm IS miles due north of Cedar Rapids, la. In 1881 he went to Neligh, Neb., then the west end of what is now the Chicago & Northwestern railway, and having in the meantime entered the ministry he organized tfvo churches in that vicinity. As soon as their buildings were completed, the urge of the fron , tier pulled him farther west. In Sheridan, Dawes and Box Butte ! • A'unties, in the northwest ot Ne- i Hr.t'ka, he preached for a few years until there came the call of the wild- I ernes®—what was then the great, al most trackless sandhill country in I the north central part of the state, j Thither, with covered wagon and I broncho team, he took his wife and three boys, and for two years the i wagon was their only home while I are the last word in Saxes We are now in a position to handle your orders on that popular Conn Mel ody C in nickel. Come in. Conn Trumpets possess that genuine Trumpet tone — not the thin, squealy, stingy, mouse like tone so much in evi dence these days in cer tain makes. Trumpets as low as $70. HEAR BENSON ORCHESTRA This week at the World Theater. An exclusive Conn orchestra. For the best results, Conns are incomparable. Come in and get one tomorrow. EASY TERMS MICKEUS 15th and Harney cowboy* and scattered homesteader* had the gospel preached to them. Eighteen years ago, with the older children almost ready to begin life for themselveB, he went away back Into the sandhills in the middle of Loup county, to a spot that is even now 25 miles from the end of the branch line railway which after a fashion feeds that country, and took a homestead. Now Hound to Dakota. This April, with the wife wk, lui* shared his life for nearly 40 years, with covered wagon, a team and the plow that broke the sod on the Kin kaid homestead, he Is starting north west to where three of his children are pioneering on Indian land at Athboy, S. D., and whore he expects to make his home until the call comes to the great “Undiscovered Country." He Is not looking for that call soon, as he Is still good for a 10-mile walk, and expects to make his own living for some time yet. When D. S. Hulburt reached Ne ligh, Neb., the end of the railroad, 1n 1881, he came with a missionary pur pose- He went out 18 miles to where three Seabury boys, with their wives (sit: Ttnptints) lived on adjoin ing "claims." He took a homestead and built so that the three families were all within a half-mile of hts house. There was not even a schoolhouse within five miles, but seats were made and put in his kitchen so that Sunday school and preaching services were h°ld there before the roof was finished, and more than 60 persons attended some of the services in that 12 by 16 foot room. In this same roomo a church was organized, of which he was pastor, and there also he taught the children of the neigh borhood in a three-months "subscrip tion school.” Some who attended the services said that they wuold prefer to go to a public building ar.d the young pas tor said, “Let’s build a church," They said he was crazy, hut he had his way. One of the neighbors, called an Infidel, subscribed a cow. 8he was sold for $25. which was the first money in the building fund. When the minister’s father in Wis consin took sick, he started hack in an open, one-horse buggy and made the trip across Iowa, crossing the Missouri river on a ferry at Niobra ra, and the Mississippi at Dubuque. Old-Time Incidents. The changes that 41 years have wrought are well illustrated by the fact that the ferry at Niobrara waited while a drove of cattle were made to swim the river, to provide meat for Indians. The government had bought a lot of wild cattle, so un used to human beings except cow boys that they would have killed an unmounted person if he had appear ed among them. They were herded Into a large, high walled enclosure with a steep chute running out into the river. A bunch of cattle would thus be forced into the river and In dians and cowboys on horses would urge them on across, though some times as many as half of the bunch would evade the drivers and gel back to the bank they had Just left. When Mr. Hulburt started on the trip to his sick father in Wisconsin, work on the church building stop ped. On his return, one neighbor asked whether the work would be re sumed, and got this answer: "I guess it will. Hulburt got home, put his horse in the stable, took his dinner in his hand and started on a run for the church.” Of course it was finished. The "infidel” said. "I've heard that you can't make something out of nothing, but this comes as near to it. ns any thing I ever saw." The day the building was dedicated, the pastor withdrew his membership, having se cured another minister to serve the church, and sought newer fields. In Plainview a little church was organized, with six members besides himself. Five of these were women, and the sixth under age and a trans ient—yet on the day of organization carpenters began work on a parson age, and 13 months later a church building was finished, with a debt against It of $1,(50 (a large amount In that day and in that new country) with no security. People Hager for Churches. The church council that was called had three purposes: To organize tho church, to ordain the pastor and to dedicate the building. Hut a build ing could not be dedicated with *1,650 of unsecured debts against it. and when the preacher of the dedication sermon asked the pastor whether they should ask for *100 contribu tions from the audience—or even *50 —he was assured that there were no men of that financial caliber there. He asked for twenty-fives, and only four responded. Including the pastor. He asked for twenties, and secured only four more. He dropped to fifteens, and as Mr. Hulhurt says: "That v.-as our size. They Just rolled 'em in.” While on the subject of church buildings, let us jump 10 years, and then come back. In the spring of [ 1894 a little handful of people a half dozen miles west of Taj lor, in I^iup ! county, Improverlshed by repented years of drough, had organized a church. A council had tieen called to recognize the church and dedicate the building, but up to four days be fore the dute set, there was no sign of a building. A sod structure might have been put up (If they had begun in time), but this could not be. because 1894 I was proving another “dry year” and j the ground was too dry to break sod ] for building. Yet the pastor would not hear to calling off or postponing ' the meet, and an old houso was j bought In Willow Springs, a little town 20 miles away, which had been virtually abandoned when the rail road came up to Hurwell. on the other side of the river. A number of teams went down, the house was demolished snd tho lumber loaded and hauled to the c-hureh site, everybody In the neighborhood turned out and worked and the building was put to gether and dedicated on time, Indian Alarm I'ixcltes. And now go track to I'lnlnvlrw As soon as the debts on the church build , I). S. liulhurt, 80-year-old Nebraska pioneer, and his old lime rnvered wagon. In this wagon—the same one he used in Ills missionary pilgrimages 40 years ago—he and his wife are starting out front their liomeslead In lamp county, Nebraska, for Athboy, S. I). Included in his equipment M. liulhurt is carrying the same plow he used to break ground on his Kin kaid liomeslead 30 years ago. The above layout also shows a picture of a little church lhat Mr. liulhurt built in four days, years ago, near Taylor, Neb. lng were safe, the pastor moved on west. He said he wanted to make room for a bigger man and, anyway, he felt that he could do better at or-1 ganizing churches thafl at running them after they were started. And so he went to the Baptist church at1 Gordon, where a country schoolhouse was bought and remodeled for use as a church building. Hay Springs, still farther west than* Gordon, called him next, and with headquarters heie he organized churches at Box Butte and Lawn, and later spent one winter In Box Butte county to be nearer to those chun-hes. Northwest Nebraska was Just open ing up—one of the periodical booms It experienced In the old days when the tide of migration ebbed and flowed with the alternation of wet and dry years. From Hay Springs Mr. IIul burt went out to country schoolhouses to preach, and It was but natural that he should take up government land. In tho*« d" >\ even though one had had a h"’ -tend, he could secure another qu * • r section of land by liv ing on It and paying $1.25 gn acre. He took such a "pre-emption,” but tie fore he paid for It a law was passed by congress providing that a person who hail proved up on a homestead before a certain date. and who no longer held It, could change his pre emption to a homestead, and thus save the $1 23 an acre. Mr. Hulburt look advantage of this opportunity and thus became one of the compara tively few Individuals who ever rc ceived from Uncle Sam two regular nnd legal homestead*. But 15 or 20 years later, having abandoned this land In pursuit of his missionary labors, he became per haps the only man who has ever had three such legal and regular home steads. For when the Kinkaid sec tion homestead law was passed it provided that a person who had pre viously had a homestead, but no longer held It, could take enough more land to make out <U0 acres. Having already had two homesteads of 160 acres each, and having no land now. he was entitled to 320 acres in the part of Nebraska covered by this law. In the center of Loup county, including perhaps the high est land In the county, he took h « third "claim” and has occupied It most of the time since, while doing Sunday school work and some preaching In the s ittcred school houses of that region, and in his own home. Foinetime later Mr. Hulburt real in his church paper of the religious destitution In the great sandhill reg Ion of north c»ntral Nebraska—the letter he read having been written from Ixuip county. And he said: "I'd like to go to Loup county—but I can’t." Week after week and month after month ho said, it. until he dropped the last three words. Ami then, on March 21. 1V*3, the family loaded Into a covered wagon and started on the 250 mile trip over the sandy wastes, part of the way practically without even trails. to Loup county. The plan was to re turn In about six months, hut '30 years have passed and the homestead they left has long ago gone Into other hands. The covered wagon was built for a home. It was a "double box" wagon, but there were shelves projecting out ward and securely braced, from the top of the bottom box, and on the outer edges of these shelves the top box fitted. Thus one stepped Into a wsgon of ordinary width at the liot tom hut with the upper part a foot or more wider. Boards were laid in the back part, resting on the shelves, and on these a bed was made where the three boys slept "crosswise" of the wagon, while the parents’ bed t was made In the bottom of the wa gon, partly under this, and in the daytime pushed hack under so as to j leave just enough projecting for a »< at. \\ agon for ^ ears Their Home. T .ward the front of the wagon, on one side, was a little sheet Iron stove, the pipe sticking straight up through a met.il shield in the canvas. Tin plates and other dishes were kept in small boxes fastened on the sh< li es, and a large bread board serv ed as a talde. It was set up on edge between meals, but at meal time two persons sat on the projecting edge of the bed, one on the shelf on each side and one. on a box by the stove, with the table supported by the knees of all. For two years, winter and summer day and night, this wagon was the home of the Huthurt family while the father preached in private homes tn school houses, or nny place that offered, organizing and conducting Sunday schools and the little church whose place of worship wne erected in four days, as already told. Many stories might be told. If space permitted, of the rxp rlettoe* "f those days. There wen- i..nchers who lived 40 miles from the post office, and six miles from a neighbor. 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WAGGENER, M, D., Medical Direcloi Miitonic Tnmpl* Rld|. lfMh and DoiikUji Su f i oat turn t Hour*: a a m to 0 r M. • Ths missionary family had experi ences with prairie fires and sand storms and other disagreeable things. They were startled, while eating, by blanket Indlaps lifting the flap of the wagon and sticking in their heads in their friendly, unceremonious way. They camped for three days, in a terrible blizzard, hard by a straw stack and an abandoned stable, keep ing the horses in the stable and burn ing straw in the little stove not only to keep warn, but also to melt snow to provide drinking water for the family and the team. Sunk in Quicksand. Fording the North Loup river T ear Brownlee they were told that there was a little island to cross when al most over. ‘‘And keep going when you get across that, for there’s quick sand there." Going down off the lit tle island into the water again, one horse fell, and struggling in the wa ter kicked the feet from undtsr the • ■ her horse With both horses down the wagon began to sink steadily. The lirst thing done was to carry the oldest boy to shore and send him run ning for help, to a house that was In sight some distance away. The next, to carry out the rest of the family, disconnect the team from the wagon and get them to shore, attach them by the picket rope (which hap pened to be new) to the end of the wagon tongue, and make them work. The wagon was out by the time the boy came hack w.th the report that there was no one at the house. The whole outfit got lost one day when there were no roada and the ■ky was overcast by dull, low hang Ing clouds which absolutely hid the sun. fn the sandhills, the surface formation has been wholly by wind, and not by water, so that there is an apparently never-ending array of hills, all with the same general dlrec ! tion, and with about ns much Indl j viduaiity as the waves of the sc«, ■ The second day out was the only Sun I day they ever traveled and It was a happy family* that came acroaa a | little creek at 10 o'clock, where a I drink could be had, and cowboys told them where they were and how to get to where they wanted to go. Perhaps it Is not at range, With such memories, that the missionary is setting out again, this April, In a 1 covered wagon. Has he chosen lonely places In which to dwell? His spirit haa been no less lonely. Haa he been a pioneer in the boundless west? He is no less so as a religious teacher. And those are the reasons for the kind of life he has lived. The world was (1,000 years old when he was a boy and It had been made out of nothing in six regular days Hatan went about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour—and this man, who at the age of 80 is trekking out across Nebraska and Da* kota, has now for more than 50 years conceived it to be his lifework 4> res cue such souls as he could. It is real to him—he lives It. And that Is why he has felt called to these deso late places, where other ministers were few or lacking altogether. He does not read his Bible as he , (lid €0 or 70 years ago. He may not agree with W. J. Bryan on the ques tion of evolution. He no longer be lieves it literally true that a week * work accounts for all the suns and planets of creation, with the oceans, the trees, the birds and beasts and one family ready-made. He's perhaps ready to give evolution at least half a chance. But he s probably Inclined to believe that General Joshua really stopped the sun and the moon till he could finish his battle, as the old Hebrew war song related, and he ab solutely believes that when the sheep and the goats are separated at the Judgment some of his neighbors and friends wdll he among those to 11' e in torment from that time right straight on. That accounts for the pioneering some of It. And that accounts (11 you had the whole story) for his stay Ing so long with the homestead in the middle of the sandhills, despite tlie pleadings of children and other relatives and the protests of neigh heirs arid friends. So at liottom that's why, yesterday, perhaps, and tumor row. travelers on that norlh and rout) trail are meeting and passing th> covered wagon with the hale oln oouple and that symbol of pioneering, the breaking plow. Bee Want Ads produce results. Out-of-door Togs for the Ladies Complete outfits for the ladies, including everything for outdoor use. 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