The Falls City tribune. (Falls City, Neb.) 1904-191?, February 19, 1909, Image 2

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    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 |