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About The Falls City tribune. (Falls City, Neb.) 1904-191? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1909)
Reminiscences of a Wayfarer Some of the Important Events of the Pioneer Days of Richardson County and Southeast Nebraska, as remembered by the writer who has spent fifty one years here Tin: i.u \\ ! v \ut* of i iit: 'i »>u \ Wln-n t;:> i storian : the west Hhall r Ci a ‘ tlv a* *s attend nnt on the settlement of tin s.* # new « oiinti i s. In* may, it he in tends to make his history, an entiret «t e people Diems.dv> s, tell tin- secret that everywhere obtrudes t«i 11 upon the attention, but is nowhere r imp i tely manifested, why the first thine a pioneer in any conn try does, is to look out an avail able place to build a lawn. Tin Focioloyica: philosophers'wouhl probably account for this pin nonunion upon the theory that the impulse to do that was a necessary resultant of the yre yuriups nature of man the ani mal, for we find him nowhyre on the earth and at no time in liis history when he is not enyayed in town or city buildiny And that was just as true of the sav aye as the civilized man. ah, more so as the savage is the iaw material of nature out of which the conventions of en byhtened society have fashioned the man civilized. I never saw much evidence of this propensity of men to found anil build towns till I came out west, as the country in which I was reared had passed that per iod of social gestation hefori 1 came upon the stage, but I saw it galore out here. 1 wonder how many people now living in Richardson ('ounty know the number and names of the towns that were projected and actually located on the pub lic lands of the government in this county in the early days of its existence, many of them sur veyed and incorporated under the laws of congress regulating •he disposition of the public lands for that purpose and un now numbered among the things that have been? The number is small indeed. Let me call the roll of the dead, and maybe some other persons besides John "W. Holt aijdunyself will remem her them. Socrates said that all learning is merely reminiscence; that when a person thinks he is learn ing something new. he is in fact only remembering something In bad known before, possibly in some other state of existence. It follows therefore, if the old philosopher was right about it, and I don’t see how we are to prove he was wrong, that there is'nothingnew but the forgotten. In that sense 1 will deal with things new, because they have passed from the memories of men, or were never in them, which i- much tin same thing, in spite of all philosophy. Let me >ee. Salem and Archer were the lirst in time and at about the same time, in the fall of 1854. When R i c h a r d s o n county was organized with seven others by proclamation of the governor immediately after the machinery of the territorial gov eminent was set in motion in the former year, two v o t i n g places were designated, one at the house of William Level out near old Archer, (it was not a town then,) and the other at the house of Christian Hopst (pro nounced Hopes.)out on the south fork of the Nemaha, lie and the Fries family started the old town of Cincinnati, long ago dead with all its founders. When Pawnee County was carved out of Richardson (the latter origin ally included all of Pawnee and some of Cage.) old Cincinnati, and Fries’ Mill were included in the new county. Furtherdown the same stream was another called Middleburg. It had a kind of lingering spas modic existence, was a local post office, and in recent years was metamorphosed into weal j i- known a- Minis City Away out in the northwestern : part of the county, on I.ony Hranch, Frank PYryuson, who was an early settler, laid out a town, which lie called Franklin, hut it was never much more than a creature of his imagination, j hut somehow the name yot fast Iened oil the township, ami it has 1 been known a- Franklin ever i >huv. Further * ast. and a little northwest of Salem, ail old 1 i iii«• r tin mod I ’ five took a .aim land laid out a town on it called Cciieva. It went the way of all the others, like the little yirl's little brother, of whom sh<- was alw ays talking Someone asked her how old her little brother was. “Oh." said she, “he was no old at all. he died abornin Northeast of (ieneva, and somewhere on the Muddy. Frank Ooldsherry established another town .it about the same time, which he named Hreckenridye, in honor of his illustrious com patriot of Kentucky (Frank was from Kentucky,) who was then vice-president of the United States. It never materialized as a town, and its proposed site is known to nobody liviny. Down at the falls of the No malia. two brothers named Ham ilton, and a certain K. C. Sack ett, sometime after Falls ('it y was located, purchased some land of the elder Stumbo. on the north side of the river, and sur rounding the falls, on which they organized a town to be known as •■Nemaha Falls." It was to rival the town on the hills, and to be a world beater in the business. These gentle men came out from < >hio to en gineer the enterprise, and 1 will i presently show in what way they did it. and the success that at I tended t heir efforts. Down on tile Missouri, and a few miles above Rulo, a town was started early in the history of the county, but 1 cannot give I the date, called Yankton. It J was probably the work of some gentleman who had been in the half breed business, but my in formation on the subject is too uncertain as to the actual found er or founders, to be relied upon as veritable history and will not be recorded here. It is certain, however, that the establishment of Rulo put Yankton out of commission .is a town and it ceased to e\ist Not many miles above Yank j ton, at the mouth of Winnebago branch, another town was pro jectcd and named for the branch lor creek That did a little bet ter and lasted a little longer j than Yankton, but another town j was started further up the river [called St. Stephen, and Winne I bago was absorbed by it, and so I became one of the lost thing' of } the earth. St. Stephen in turn was <K populated by the city of Arago. a town founded by a (ierman colonization society from llutTa lo. New York, and it, too, (St Stephen) went the way of 'S ank ton and Winnebago, and in time became a corn field. Of the original towns in the early days, only llulo, Palls City and Salem remain. Arago died a natural death. The post | office and the old name were moved out in the country, and a • new name given the old >ite. It is now known as Fargo. When railroads invaded N e bras k a. steamboats disappeared from the Missouri and Arago com menced to die and has been at it evei* since. The town graveyard might he extenden up the river to < hnaha, and all over the country, for those wrecks are scattered everywhere, but I shall confine my researches nearer home. j At the falls of the Nemaha, there were two towns, one on the north and one on the soutli side of that stream. They rep resented the two contending forces in the life of man. the savage and the civilized. «»ne was an Indian village, inhah i tec I by the remnant of the I '.lack Hawk subdivision of the Sac j Tribe of Indians, confederated ; with the Fox Tribe In the be 'ginning of the nineteenth cen itury. the Sac Tribe dominated I the whole of the Mississippi valley, from St. Louis, Missou i ri, to Prairie du ('then Wiscon 1 sin, and early in the decade of I'do, under the rule of its power I’u] chief Flack Haw]*, war Was! ; declared against the Flitted; States. 'The tribe was not tin-) animous m t .bat mo eim nt. and j a division loi lowed. The follow j ers of Flack Hawk came* to be [ known as the- Mtsssonri and thei others, as the Mississippi Sacs, j and from that time those bands| were- never again united. Tile Mississippi Sacs Were subsequently located 01 the In ; dian territory while the Mis , s mri branch, in the year I'll’,! about sixteen years before 1 saw j their village, were located by the government on the reservu tton, where their village stood | in 1 The treaty for that purpose provided that the reservation should be on the west bank of the Missouri. or on some aflln ent of that river. On the* morning alter my ar.' ri va 1 . t Fa F s ( dty M , mipany without nr two others. I went | other order, would be to the ef fect. "1 am happy to make youf acquaintance" with tiie differ eiu i . tJtiit in the case of this un tutor' il denizen of the wilder m ss, it had tiie ring at s nc< r itv. .vIdle in tin other, we an not always entirely certain. N'f-*.au quit was the itnmedi ate successor ot Black Hawk, and was, without his knowing it. t h last nf hi- race He was not able to hold a conversation in our language, and the little tall: we had w i t h hi m w a s through an interpreter, though now ami then lie would use an Hnelish word or two with apt effect. It fell out that he had hit' ly been to Washington ‘to visit the president i Buchanani and from what he said 1 gath en d lie was not at all pleased with that officer. He turned his face inun side to side, imlicat im. that the president was nut sincere, was two faced, deceiit i\-■ and unreliable in Ins pn - fessjons; and above all he was wroth with the white men for se) ling liquor to his people. The Indian word for whiskey ‘*sca tv o po," he pronounced as though he was wielding a toma hawk on tin-heads of the people who sold it to his children. I did not think so much of what he said then as [ have in later times, but, in serving iny own apprenticeship to life. I have come to believe that the two controlling moral forces, that have lifted man out of bar b; rism, to ids present high plane oit aristian civilization, namely, tiie love of truth, and regard for Ne-sau-quit. Successor ot Black Hawk chief of the Sacs to visit tin* falls and the Indian village beyond. I had never! seen a real blanket Indian, but like all the youth of America I had heard about them, read about them and seen innumer able pictures of them in their native costumes, bedecked in paint and feathers, with their murderous warlike weapons a! way> in hand and ready for use. and I was anxious to see those people in the tlesh as they re ally existed, disassociated from the romantic embellishments thrown about them by Fenimore j Cooper and writers of his ilk. and hence my early visit to then village. At the falls we met the Ham ilton brothers. Frank Ntumbo, a young fellow of about my own age, and some others, and were entertained for a while with glowing prophesies of the fu ture greatness of their town, Nemaha Kalis. 1 had become >0 used to that kind of talk, during the fort} eight hours 1 had been in the territory, that besides being exceedingly wea risotne. it bad become a 1 i111 • • disgusting withal and 1 ceased to give >t attention. < )ur friends, however, gave us a cordial wel come, and showed u s e v e r y i courtesy, and, h e i n g well acquainted with the dusky peo pie on the other side of the ; river, went over with us and to the wigwam of their head chief Ne-sau-quit, where we were in troducedtothat high function 1 ary who greeted us with his son orous ‘-How,’' which, translated I into the polite language of an order, were as strong in the na ture of this ignorant nomad of the plains, as they had ever been in a Fern Ion, or any others of the watchmen on the tower of human salvation in the slow procession of the centuries. He took no pride in tlie fact that he was a total abstainer from the drink habit himself, but hi.~ concern was for tin* help less people, over whom by tra dition and custom, lie had been made ruler, and whom, in their contact with the white race, were fleeced, debauched a n d made infinitely worse by this devil’s agency, liquor. 1 have often thought of that interview with the old chief, and his indignant complaint against the liquor traffic among his peo ple, which, though the govern ment had passed laws making it a crime to introduce or sell li quor in the Indian country, was carried on with apparent impu nity under the noses of the offi cers of that government whose sworn duty was to prevent it. The old chief has long slept with his fathers, and the tribe of which lie was ruler, like a wreck on the ocean, has been going to pieces withev< r\ \ av< of the incoming tide of the white race, until not more than two with uncorrupted blood of the Sacs remain. Whoever goes over the Nemaha by the bridge above the falls, and travels the road south to the home of Mr. (ieorge Fisher, will pass over the site of that long deserted Indian village, which in its day occupied the ridge between r i A pure, wholesome, reliable Grape Cream of Tartar Baking Powder The cream of tartar used in Dr. Price's Baking Powder is in the exact form and composition in which it occurs in the luscious, healthful grape. Improves the flavor ami adds to the health fulness of the food JVo Alum j\o lime Phosphate ice's I Cream 1 J*oWdmvJjj those points and it' slope to the east, and within easy earshot of the complaining voice of the river, tumbling it' waters over tlm rocky ledge beneath, on their journey to the sea. The reservation shrank to 'till narrower lim ts in iWd. Tn that year, by tr ..tv. the In dians consented to a -;ifc of all that portion between Honey Creek to the west and the Wal nut on the east, and tin village mentioned was deserted, the trine and it' chief Xe-sau-quit. moved down to Lost Creek, which forms the boundary be tween the Sac and Fox, and the Iowa tribes, where some years later the old chief died. In lw7b another cut from the Sac reservation was made by act ol congress, at the instance of the Indians themselves, when ten ~ections of the remaining reservation was put on sale to actual settlers through the U. S. land office at Beatrice. Since that time the balance of the re servation has been alloted in severalty to the remaining mem bers of tiie tribe, and the once mighty nation has ceased to ex ist. And so with every other North American tribe of aborig inals. who have come in contact with that all masterful race thtf Anglo-Saxon, they are either dead or are slowly dying. And that, when we come to think of it, is not at all surprising, for whoever does not know (and some pop gu.n politicians are of that class.) that the Anglo Sax on, tin highest type of the Indo (u rmanic races, is engaged in a conquest of this world, is ignorant of history, the signs of the times, and the inexorable logic of human events. (ft. Don't Preach About Home Trade and at the same time send your orders for job printing out of town. Your home printer can do your work just as good, and in nine cases out of Un he can beat tbe city man's prices, because he pays much less for running ex-, penses. By sending your next printing order to this office you'll be better satisfied all around, and you’ll be keeping the money at home. Passenger Trains South Bound Tr ]<>4—St. Louis Mail and Ex press .. . ..] :23 p. i . lr 106—Kansas City Exp., !:41 a n 1 r. 132 x- K c Oerii ‘eaves .7:30 a. n Tr. !•> x —Falls City arrives *.»:00 p. i x Daily ex -ept, Sunday North Bound Tr 103—Nebraska Mail and Ex press .1 ;.‘>2 p n: Tr. pi',—Omaha Express. 2:23 a. n I’r. 1 >7 x Omaha local It aves >:lu a n Tr. I ll x—Falls City local ar rives.S:4i p.r, x Daily excent Sunday Local Frt, Trains Carrying l’assenger North Bound Tr. UCx-To Atchison .11:10a. 1 South E^ound Tr mix—To Ar,burn.1:23 p n i B VARNER. Agent Burlington Route i i West Bound So. J:; Denver Exp.1:59 a. 1 No. 15— Denver Exp. (Local .1:49 p. n No- 43—Portland Exp.. 19:17 p. n> No. 41—Portland Exp.. 2:29 p. rr. No. 121—Lincoln Loc. via Ne braska < ity.. ...z :00 a. n East Bound No. 14—St. J , K. C. A St. L. .7:41 a. n No. 44 —St. J., K. C. & St. L Local) . .11:02 a. n No. 10—St. .J., K. C. A St. L. .4:50 p. u No. 42 St. J., K. C. & St. L. 7:00 p. m No 122 From Lincoln, via Nebraska City. 8:45 p n . E. G. WHJTFor.i), Agent. *+*++■*+ m mi.. ; : I). S. McCarthy ■■ :: ©ray an© :: I; TRANSFER ;■ ' | 4*rompt attention given 1 ‘ i , ' ■ i hold goods. PHONE NO. 211 «-♦ t *■* M t <-<~MMt I ^: .••• •*•*!■ ... . . . . ! C. H. MARION 1 ! AUCTIONEER, _ Z _ " """ ' 1 k ' ' ' 1 I Sales conducted in scientific and busi Z nesslike manner ^_ ») —.. j c. H. MARION | Palls City, Nebraska |
