Judge Kinkaid *Outstanding Nebraskan’
Tap of a Bell on Puget Sound Determined
Course for Future Congressman
By ROMAINE SAUNDERS
Edilor-m-Chief, Diamond Jubilee Edition
Smoke from ocean-going steamers floated lazily in from Pu
get Sound. The air of mid-forenoon held a chill. Sea gulls on
Se eternal hunt for scraps to feed upon held the attention of a
dapper young man who stood upon the wharf not knowing wh<eth
er to board a vessel for Vancouver, British Columbia, or return i
lflndHe finally left it to the tap of a bell. If the bell sounded at
the appointed hour the scholarly, well-groomed y°un« ™an ®a‘d
to himself he would board a train and leave the Northwest. Th
bell clanged.
And so O'Neill acquired one of its most distinguishad ciii
sens a polished gentleman and able lawyer from old Virginia.
A week after the bell gave that signal M. P. K,nkaid
O'Neill I got the story of the bell out there on Pug
from Kinkaid after he became a member of congress.
That was in 1882 and from then until his death in 1922 he was
a citizen of O’Neill. What brought this polished gentleman from
America’s oldest settled community into a wild and wooly frontier
count y" Maybe it is accounted for on the theory of positive and
npcative forces opposites find their affinity, or was it with him
M ^wiuTothers, drawn into the untamed West by that mystenoua
and subtle thing, a desire for adventure.
But Kinkaid played a part in taming the West.
A* district judge he did
much to clean up the cattle
rustlers and horse thieves, in
1900, Kinkaid was elected to
congress from what was then
the Sixth congressional dis
trict.
It may not be too much to say
he did more for the district and
the state as a whole than any
that have gone to Washington
from Nebraska when he secured
the change in the homestead
laws to enlarge the homestead
in his district from a qu^ter
section to a full section, which
provided also that those who
had acquired a quarter section
under homestead could have
three additional quarters and
added to the tax rolls a vast
amount of government land. This
was achieved during Kinkaid s
first term in congress. He was a
member of congress at the time
of his death.
Kinkaid, a man of exemplary
habits, able, precise, contribut
ing freely to the support of ev
ery worthy cause, knew every
body and extended the glad
hand. But he was not a close
friend and never carried O’Neill
at an election. Kinkaid was a
bachelor. Maybe O’Neill voters
resented the idea of voting for
an unmarried man.
Or maybe ii was like send
ing up to Minnesota for pota
toes when we grow better
ones in Nebraska. Some how
he, a Republican, could be
elected when everything went
otherwise politically.
Some of the party leaders fa
vored his nomination only be
cause he could be elected. They
had no personal warmth of feel
ing for him. As a lawyer, in le
gal contests opponents feared
him.
Judge Kinkaid’s Virginia
blood showed in his interest in
horses. When a herd of wild
ones were brought in off of the
range and corralled back of
Ward’s barn, the judge looked
them over and at different times
bought the one that took his
fancy. But he had unfortunate
experience with two or three
and then was absent as a spec
tator at the corral.
The judge was no broncho
buster. One Howard Wilcox
was taming for him. got tan
gled up in wire and was cut
badly, another in the hands
of Long Hair John kicked off
a hoof and was shot.
Another bought on the as
sumption it was a pacer, proved
otherwise, and was disposed of
probably at a loss.
The upstairs rooms of O’Neill’s
first brick structure, at the cor
ner of Fourth and Douglas
streets, were both home and of
fice for Judge Kinkaid. A new
cottage fitted up on the East
side of town by the judge had
implications of the home of an
other bride and bridegroom in
our midst. Speculation involv
ed three accomplished la
dies of the town, but none of
these were under serious consid
eration as mistress of the new
cottage. The lady he had in
mind turned her hand and heart
to a member of the United
States congress and the fancied
victim of unrequited love was
said to have made the vow to be
elected to congress himself. Af
ter a brief residence in the new
cottage the judge resumed his
lonely life in the original haunts
and found solace in devising a
political career and sustenance
from the crackers and protose
from the Battle Creek sanitar
ium.
I enjoyed the contacts with
Judge Kinkaid as did others
and now wish to pay a tribute
to his memory as one of the out
standing Nebraskans of his day
News Notes in 1881- 82 . . •
Kinkaid Makes
Court ‘Squirm’
Bad Business—R. P. Cooper
Shoots John Frits—Jo Hall m
Pursuit of Cooper Is Thrown
from Horse and Nearly Killed.
—An Unfortunate Affair. Thus
read the headlines over a col
umn story telling of a shoot
ing over a debt. Cooper was
apprehended and placed un
der S500 bonds but made his
get-away.
The wife of Herger Gaulek
son, a Norwegian homesteader
on the Keya Paha, was brought ,
to O’Neill yesterday. The wo- t
man is violently insane and
Sheriff Welton will convey her
to the asylum at Lincoln tomor- ,
row The Frontier devoted a
half column to the story, set
ting forth that the womaif got
the notion that a prairie fire
near their home was hell on
earth and that the Lord told her
she was to be burned up in it.
Recovering somewhat her san
ity, she was started off again in
wild raving when her bed
caught fire probably from the
old man smoking in bed and she
had to be taken to the asylum,
her husband also somewhat de
ranged, and three small children
upon the mercy of the world.
Jesse Crawford was involv
ed in a shooting scrape and
when appearing before Judge
Barnes for trial was released
•on the grounds of lack of jur
isdiction as the crime was
committed in unorganised ter
ritory.
Crawford’s victim was Barclay
Kane. The supreme court, how
ever, ordered him to be tried in
Holt county. M. P. Kinkaid was
defending Crawford on the prop
osition that the supreme court
had held in another case, that of
I. P. Oliver, who was involved
in a killing in unorganized ter
ritory, that the Holt county dis
trict court was without jurisdic
tion. The Frontier said the
court was made to “squirm”
when Kinkaid made jurisdiction
an issue. Crawford was tried and
convicted and remanded to the
West Point jail, where he wrote
a lengthy poem for The Frontier
before being taken to the peni
tentiary.
On this 75 th Anniversary it
comes as a special privilege to
descendents of the pioneers to
join with others in a tribute to
their memory.
★
IRA H. MOSS
LINING UP FOR 'KINKAID HOMESTEAD' . . . These men are
lining up at the U. S. land office, which stood on the present site
of the telephone building on Upper Fourth street—each waiting
his turn to file for a “Kinkaid Homestead”. In every American
history book the Kinkaid Act and U. S. land offices are men
tioned. Scenes such as this provoked the widely-adopted use of
the expression “doing a land office business”—meaning a thriv
ing business.—(Photo courtesy Mrs. L. G. Gillespie collection.)
ROLLING HILLS ON EAGLE .. . This cluster
of buildings represents Eagle Mills—Wm.
Nollkamper’s place on Eagle Creek. Northern
Holt is flat in some sections, rolling in others
(above). Edw. S. Early writes (below) that the
Eagle Creek country is “not too well defined
geographically.”
KEELEY INSTITUTE
HAD ITS DAY
Along in the 1880s there was
started a program for the treat
ment of the rednosed soaks
when Keeley Institutes sprung
up all over the nation. Across
the South side of the Gallagher |
building on lower Fourth street
there was a sign in large let
ters “Keeley Institute.” So the
program got going in O’Neill !
bewhiskered Dr. B. T. True
blood being installed as super- 1
vising physician.
The treatment consisted of!
taking a dose of medicine at j
stated hours of the day along
with certain prescribed regula
tions. You could be cured of
both liquor and tobacco habits
—if you wanted such release
Some young fellows thought it 1
popular to take the tobacco i
cureall but after faithful! I
downing a spoonful several;
times a day for a few days and j
finding the pleasure derived
from the narcotic weed dimin
ishing gave it up and took as
strong as ever to sending up J
the insence from the lighted
end of a Havanna.
Two newspaper men, one
doctor, a former county official
and various gents from various
walks of life, local and out-.
state citizens, who took t h e
Keeley cure at the O’Neill in
statute, for the most part
continued on the water wagon
But the institute, like many ot
her things, started in the
town, had its day.
The sign on the Gallagher
building survived for a num
ber of years after the institute
suspended operation^ here. It
was men of more tlfan ordin
i ary ability in the community
; who took the Keeley cure, a
! matter of wonderment at some
who had showed no outward
signs of needing such treat
I ment. The institute was just
I another of those things which
O’Neill took on for a time
Alcoholics Anonymous is now
said to be bleaching out the
red noses and has become a
nationwide organization. No
doses to take—join the bunch
| and say you are done with the
cup that inebriates for all time
The writer does not know of
such an organization in t h e
county. As yet such are mostly
1 in the larger cities.
Eagle Creek Family Decides Bull Snake
and Bats Are Undesirable House Pets
By EDW. S. EARLY
of O'Neill
My father, mother, my two
sisters and I, myself a mere
kid, arrived in O’Neill from
Pennsylvania in July, 1886
Father secured the relinquish
ment of a claim from George
Gaffney and by Fall of that
year we were established as
Holt county homesteaders on
land in what became known
as the Eagle creek country, not
too well defined in geographic
al boundaries but most any
where from the North boundry
of town to undefined limits to
the Northwest.
There was a makeshift of a
log house built in the side of a
hill on our landed estate and
the family took over. However,
as mother and sisters entered
this castle of frontier grass
land they were greeted by a
huge buli snake coming to wel
come them from his hideout
between two logs and a bat
flapped his ugly wings. Mother
and sisters retreated.
Tom Gallagher had induced
father to pull up stakes in the
East and come West. He was a
neighbor of ours in Pennsylva
nia and so our familv became
guests in the hospitable home
of the Gallaghers until a house
could be built on father’s claim.
. The blizzard of 1888 put a
finish to the log hovel by
Piling 10 feet of snow over it.
crushing the building in. and
this broke up the dishes and
crocks stored there. That
blizzard was the outstanding
experience of prairie home
steaders in the 1880s.
On the mild morning snow
clouds suddenly dropped to
earth and enveloped every liv
ing thing out in the open in a
blanket of damp snow.
Quickly violent wind swept
»n from the North and the
temperature dropped to zero
coating eyes and nose and
bodies of the livestock and
the small herds of the home
steaders were first smothered
then frozen. Onlv a few cat
tle in our neighborhood sur
vived at that time.
The storms of the past in
I ter left no such desolation in
' our community, but the storm
striking as it did in mid-Nov
ember was unlooked for and so
many were unprepared. The
long Winter and severe storms
found the herds weakened for
lack of enough feed but now
out on the grass lands they will
soon fill up. 1
During those Winter months
we fed the cattle some gram
but the hay was inaccessable
because of incessant drifting of
the deep snows. And with the
melting snows under the warm
th of Spring skies came an
other worry, that of flood wat
ers. The settlers of Holt county,
their descendants and the later
arrivals are made of the stuff
to contravene opposing forces.
The first thing I do when
The Frontier arrive? is to di
gest the Prairieland and I am
under the impression that be
ing connected with the press
the author of the Talk has a
wonderful foresight of the old j
original town of O’Neill, pro
bably such as Emmet is today,
or has improved the opportun
ity to mix with thfc pioneers j
who long Since responded to
■ ■
News Note in 1888 . . .
Patrick Fahy’s
Wife Expires
The Frontier of April 19, 1888,
quoted from the Western Cath
olic, published in Chicago, I1L,
the notice of the death of Mrs.
Fahy, of which the following is
an extract:
"On Tuesday last this esteem
ed lady, who was the wife of the
Hon. Patrick Fahy, of O’Neill,
Neb., breathed her last at 2931
Prairie avenue, after a protract
ed illness which she bore with
true Christian resignation. Mrs.
Fahy, who was in her 43d year,
was a sister of the Hon. John
Fitzgerald, of Lincoln, Neb.,
president of the National League
in America, and was born in
the parish of Murroe, County
Limerick, Ireland. She was in
valided for more than a year
and during that time visited
most of the principal cities in
the United States for treat
ment.”
The body was taken to Waun
ake, Wise., for burial after the
rites of the church in Chicago
at St. James. Pallbearers were
these prominent men of that
day: Michael Cudahy, John Cud
ahy, P. F. Ryan, Bernard O’Gal
laghan and W. J. Onahan.
‘A Village Called
O’Neill Was Incorporated’
On October 12, 1882, this
news story appeared in The
Frontier:
“Acting on a petition signed
by a majority of the taxpayers,
a village called O’Neill was in
corporated on Saturday last by
the board of county commis
sioners. Messrs. Sanford Par
ker, John J. McCafferty, Ed E.
Evans, Patrick Hagerty and W.
D. Mathews were appointed to
act as a village board until the
village election in April.’’
the drumbeat of eternity. They
blazed the trail, endured the
privations, the joy .and the
grief incident to the establish
ment of a town and a settle
ment that has become an im
portant center of commerce
and culture.
And now upon this Diamond
Jubilee I join the many in
whose memories are enshrined
the men and women to whom
we are indebted for the herit
age of the pioneers.
O’Neill celebrates today its Dia
mond Jubilee. For the heritage
left us by the pioneers we hon
or their memory on this 75th an
niversary of the arrival of the
First Colony.
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