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About The Falls City tribune. (Falls City, Neb.) 1904-191? | View Entire Issue (April 2, 1909)
Reminiscences of a Wayfarer MMMMPnCTWwnMMwrmwgjtriwwiEryiTigMriMfflMrTiMi —i mi w t~wna—bn wxini 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 SOMETHIN*; 1.IKK THE I AST. There were considerable set tlements on the Muddy and the small streams emptying into it. such as the McKIroy branch and the Sardine further west, hut 1 am able to give the names ol on I v a few of the most promi nent families. On the McKIroy creek in ad dition to those already mention ed wen* the McCoys and the Joneses. With the McCoys there was a young man who afterwards attained a somewhat equivocal, hut decidedly notor ions reputation as a gorilla chief in Maryland and Virginia, during the Southern Civil War. His name was Harry Oilmore. He was a harum-scarum, dare devil sort of fellow, and in tin* spring of I'.V.i came near having a shooting scrape with a Certain Dr. 'I'. J. Dunn, then a j resident of Salem, and il he wnsi to be believed, something1 of nj desperado, though I have in»! certain evidence that lu* ever: shot anyone. ()n the occasion l reter to lie ! drew his revolver and pointed! it at < iilniore. who was unarmed, j Or there might have been some1 shooting. The trouble occurred in front of a house, near where! Wanner’s drug store now stands, ! that was in course ol construe ! tion. Two or three men were; on top the house was only one story, and about ten feet high and they said after the trouble was over, that if Dunn had shot! t.ilmore they would have killed | him with their hatchets, as they' were in striking distance, and ready to act. 1 have no recol lection what the row was about though 1 was near them when Dunn drew his revolver, hut as that kind ol heroic displays were of frequent occurrence, especially where the other lei low had no gun, the circum stance attracted little attention, and was regarded as a perfectly harmless pastime. It is both interesting and amusing to recall some of the ridiculous antics of a class of young men, many of whom were n evidence one time and anoth er from IK'S till actual war com menced in 1 11, in this and other towns in the territory. They were anxious that the people should know and keep m mind, the very important fact that they were southern gentlemen, (most of them were from over the Missouri river in Holt and Andrew counties), from the first families in the chi valric south, ami that any one of them was a full match for any five of the ordinary yahoo's, who had been so unfortunate as to have first seen the light north of Mason A' Dixon’s line These young Don Quixotes usually went armed to the teeth loaded with big revolvers, one on each side, much as sea going people load a ship, adjusting the cargo so that the vessel would main tain its balance and right itself on the stormiest seas to In* en countered. The balance, how ever, in many cases, was now and then disturbed by additions to the armament in the shape of a murderous bowie knife strapped to the person of tlie warrior, and in nearly all cases by a plentiful supply of irregu larily stowed ballast of fortv rod whiskey. All these were cheap imita tions of an order of things that had grown up in the south where distinctions had been in augurated between the slave holding planter class and the poor white trash, among whom, in a way, the aristocracy 111us established, had come to asso ciate the non slave holding jk o pie of the north; and the young bloods of that exclusive and '.self styled superior caste, had ; sought, ou all occasions ol con ; tact with the mud sills of the north that is the name they i were known by to impress | them by .ill manner of insolent bravado, with that unpalatable tact. This foolish and falso no I (ion was spreading wider and wider as time passed, and the , two sections of the country were rapidly becoming more estranged and hostile, and the absurb cheap John exhibitions indicated, were the natural et fects ol such a cause. In another day, and under an other social order not unlike that in vogue in the southern states in ante-helium dav-. one of the privileged classes who had killed another of the class of no privilege, had the lawful right to be tried for the offense by a jury of his pirrs, that is, a jury composed ol his class, to the exclusion of all others. Such a right did not exist in the south bv express statute law. but it did by .1 custom more- uni versally observed and enforced, than any law ever was. There came a test of personal courage and lighting qualities among the people ot the two sections, and it was found that there were just as good men on one side as on the other, and all controversy on that head ceased long ago, and the question of class privilege lias also been settled and settled right. I Jut 1 have been digressing. There were several other families on the Muddy of whom no mention lias been made. Ben Henchman was among the early settlers, and his oldest son has the honor of being the tirst white baby born in the county. His name is Frank, now past the middle age, and with his brother, the only surviving members of the family, are still living on the old homestead three or four miles north of Falls City William McK. Maddox, a brother of Wilson M mentioned in these papers, came here in isaft. married and bought all the land ndjoing his home farm .1 little south of the Henchman place; raised a large family, most of which are still in life and citizens of the coun ty, and departed this life about two and a half years ago. Isaac Clark opened a farm a little west of the Harkendorf homestead, and a certain Mr. Arnett located a little west of Clark and was a justice of the peace most of the time he lived there. I didn't admire the man, nor was I at all sorry when he left the country. On tin* other side of the Muddy ami about where Verdon now stands, Mr..\sbur\ Walm’s lv located, though 1 think his quarter section was pre empted by a man named Sloan, from whom] Walmsly purchased it Walmsly enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil war and died in the service. He left a widow and several children. His son, Christ Walmsly is with us.’and is one of Richardson county's most successful farm ers. I do not know of any other member of that family. Further np stream and on the same side, two brothers, John anil Charles Cornell settled at an early day. They were from the stati of Maryland, liberally educated, and descended from the old Revolutionary stock who believed in the rights of the individual as well as in the rights of the state: and above all they believed in that kind of liberty that guarantees to each of Cod’s creature*, the right to earn his or her own bread and to eat it in peace. They established excellent farms in that neighborhood, did their whole duty as citizens, and i left many descendants, some of I whom are -till citizens of the county. John F. Fornell, son of the elder John, was Auditor of State for Nebraska, during the last four years of the last (century, lie died some two or i theree years ayro. < 'harles For : Hell has a son still in the same neighborhood, and 1 think is Iiviny on the old home farm, though I have not the pleasure of his personal acquaintance. I think his name is Headier Cor lie 11. There wa> another early set* (tier up then- of the name of Cunningham. At this moment I cannot give his Christian name, though I knew him intimately anti well in the early days. He was a man of great learning, a scholar and a classic, but he chose to come to a westesn ter ritory. help to build the future state and devote himself to rural pursuits as well as to his boohs. He has lung been one of the sil* nt majority. One of lii.s sons Thomas ('. is yet a citizen of the county, honored and res pected by all. For many years this son was prominent in the political and business affairs of the county and state, has been honored by the people with many public offices of trust and confidence, and in every in stance discharged the duties i imposed, with scrupulous lion esty. There are no better men than he in all Nebraska. Mr. , Cunningham has not lost inter est in public affairs though in later years lie has devoted his whole time to improving his farm and caring for his family, and in obeying tin1 great com maud to love his neighbor as he loves himself. He has a brother living in South San Francisco,California, who. thirty years ago was the most conspicuous figure in the current political and legislative fields of this state. He subtie ;«ju«*n11 y abandoned politics to | engage in mining ventures in j the western gold Helds and finally settled permanently in the vicinity of the great Pacific . t tv. The brother's name is E. E, < 'unningham, who is well | known to a large part of the in ople, not only of this county, but of the whole state. Among other* of the old set tiers whose names occur to me j an Amos Frank, Oliver Fuller, and Harrison Mark. They wen early on tile ground and they an- here yet, hale and hearty, with every promise of many years of active usefulness They are among our best people and in years past contributed their lull share towards making the country rich and prosperous. In their day, they, with others, bought land from the govern ment for i< 1.lT. per acre, and have lived to see that same land grow in value till it is now worth in the market, from SlOo t<> *1 per acre: have lived to see school houses and churches dot the country like mile stones on some familiar road as they r« ally are on the great highway of intellectual and moral pro gress that runs all tlie weft of li .man history like a golden thread have seen the country gr dimmed with railroads, those hi raids of the ever advancing tide of civilization, reaching out with their Hriarian fingers in all directions, from the shores of tin stormy Atlantic, over plain and mountain to the peaceful j sea in the west; from those ■ n giltyr inland seas in the north, 1 to the placid waters of the! Southern gffelf, binding the coun try together with thews of steel never to be broken bv the ma chinations of uneasy and ambi V mus political adventures. What I write here will perish, will find its way to the waste pa per baskets and rubbish heaps of t country,but if it i- pleasant to travel in memory,in a reverse ^ 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 torm and composition in which it occurs in the luscious, healthful grape. Improves the flavor and adds to the health fulness of the food jvo a i^tme j order, the road that ha* been made long by the flight of yAirs, it is just as pleasant to commit the attendant incident* of the journey to writing, for, while in their telling the memories of others, who were fellow travel ers and are plod ing, still, be refreshed, the same service is being" performed in my own case, and thus ultimate rorgvt fulness. the certain fate of all tilings human, will be uef< rred a little longer. Further up the Muddy, and about where Mr. Andy Tynan's farm is—but as Andy owns most of the land up there this desig nation of the place is anything but definite there occurred, in tile winter of 1'.'" and 7> 1. on - those awful crum s that blacken tlie world, pollute humanity itself, stain tr- fa;r name o any christia community, ar i savor on!. of the furies*.I hob. I have not the leisure, nor tb • space in this paper, to recourr: the tacts * that horrible trans action that resulted in the nun der of a man and th • i'orciab! - expulsion of a woman from th house in her niylit dress to freeze to death on the Idea prairie within two or three hundred yards of her home. /. I was connected prof* ssionalJ■ with the pro's* intion of tile hr man devil who did the mischief, tile womai husband, I a • sufficiently advised of the fact s<> far as they were ever known to recite them in another pape*. 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