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
AN 01,11 I I M I. KI.I.Ol'ION
The Clifford tragedy up the
Muddy will have to await its
turn, as other matters claim
precedence in the older of their
occurance. Tlu* political entity
of Nebraska, like other embrio
states in the governmental pol
itV of the I’nited States, was
vested by its organic la w, which,
for all purposes of local admin
stratum was its constitution,
with executive, legislative and
udicial powers. The executive
and judicial officers were nom
inated by the president and by
and with the advice and con
sent of the senate, appointed to
their several stations, while the
legislative consisting of two
distinct bodies, the council or
upper house, and a house of
representatives, w e re to bo
elected by the people of the
territory. It comes in my way
lUst now to describe the first
election for members of the ter
ritorial legislature that came
under my observation. It is
proper to say that while the
legislature of a territory lias
the power to legislate on all
matters affecting the local in
terests of its people within the
scope of the grant of such pow
t-r in the fundamental law, its
acts nevertheless, are subject
to be set aside or annulled by
the congress of the general gov
ernment, much as the judiciary
of a state may do the same with j
the By Laws of a municipal cor
[(oration for unreasonableness
etc. The reason for this is fur
nished by the fact that a law is
a rule prescribed by the super
ior power in a state, and is dis
tinguishable from a by law of
one of its ^overnin^ agencies
bv the further fact that the
courts are bound to obey it as
veil .is the individual citizens.
In that sense the acts of a ter
ritorial legislature and the By
Laws, or ordinances of cities,
and other municipal corpora -
tions’of a state, are in the na
ture of police regulations, and
not being prescribed by the su
perior power, are subject to re
peal or annullment by it, if in
ts judgment they are unreason
able or otherwise objectionable.
As these familiar principles are
quite as well known to the
readers of the Tribune as they
are to me, l need not further
enlarge upon them.
In KiS, the annual election j
occurred in August, and the j
voting place of the people ot
the interior part of the county
east of Salem, was at Archer.
The fact is, at that time l-'alls
City was of so little importance,
that it was not only not a vot-j
ng precinct, but it had no post
office until some time later, and
no mail service until a still later
period. All that summer we
could only get mail,at the Arch
er post office and then only
once a week, and somebody had
to be pressed into service to go
over to Archer every Thursday,
and nearly always on foot, to
fetch the mail for the people of
the town. It fell to my lot
many and many a Thursday to
perform that duty, and right
willingly was it done for it usu
ally brought me one or more
letters from home—home: de
serted, dismantled, or shelters
the stranger, the empty nest
from which all the birds have
down, play ground of my youth
with its familiar surroundings,
all gone; but the old home that
once existed as an objective
and physical reality, exists just
as real as a subject in my memo
ry,and always will whileconsci
ous remembrance remains a part
of my life. Mr.Thompson may
own the fee simple title to the
land, may have dominion of the
houses, barns, lots and fields
that once made up the old home
1 stead, but lie does not own the
heart strings that were enc- nd
ered there in another day. nor
the associations that cluster
about it and reach out from the
graves of the dead to every
throbing heart of the living
members of that shadowy com
munity. that memory gathers
forever in solemn convocation
on the same spot, as something
indestructable and eternal.
Richardson and Pawnee conn
ties formed both a council and a
representative district. It was
entitled to one councilman and
I believe three representatives.
There were three candidates
for the council. Mr. Charles
McDonald, a citizen of Salem,
and then a member of the coun
cil seeking re election, K. S.
Dundy, who if lie had any par
ticular residence it was at-Arch
er, and Win. P Loan, an uncle
of our worthy townsman, .1. R.
Cain, who lived some of the
time at St. Stephen, but mostly
at the home of his brother in
law. William R, Cain, who
lived on his farm a few miles in
the country from St. Stephen.
McDonald had a real tight on
his hands, lie had but recent
ly done the business for Archer
by taking the county seat from
it, and locating ii at Salem.
That put all the people at Arch
er and in the Muddy settlements
ferninst him, but it solidified
most of the west end for him,
rPhe balance of power was in
Pawnee, and it was there that
Dundy got in his best work.
Table Rock had been founded
by a colony of Methodists from
Pennsylvania, headed by
a shrewd, clear headed, con
scientious gentleman and minis
ter ol the gospel, of the name
ot ( harles H. t'iddings, and
Dundy went in for his support.
I am not prepared to say that
Dundv was a Methodist at both
ends of the district, but he some
how impressed the people of
Table liock and Pawnee gener
ally with the fact that lie was a
great friend of religion, and if
not exactly a Methodist, he was
just the kind of fellow who
might be. And besides, Dundy
had been for most his life, a cit
%
i/.en of Pennsylvania, and that
fact helped him immensely with
Mr. (liddings and his co-Penn
sylvania colonists. Hut there
was one question that had a po
litical explosive in it, that had
to be handled as gingerly as
people now a days do the ful
minate of mercury,guncotton,or
dynamite. I mean the slavery
question. In the west end of
the district they were nearly all
abolishionists, and just the
reverse in the east. The
(piestion of temperence was
one of importance, though little
was said about it in the east
end. So important was it at
Table Rock, that Mr. (iiddings
caused to be inserted in every
deed conveying a lot in that
town, a clause prohibiting the
sale of intoxicating liquor on it,
and providing that in case that
condition should be broken by
any owner of the lot in the fu
ture, his ownership should then
immediately cease, and title to
the property should eo instant?r
revert to the original donor
Dundy was a crafty fellow
and up to political snuff with
the best of them, and so manag
ed his cards as to get the sup
port of all those antagonistic
and waring elements in suffic
ient numbers to beat his two
opponents with a very satisfac
tory majority. It requires some
kind of political ability not
easily described, to yolk up the
moral sentiment of the country
represented by t h e churches
and church going people, with
that other element represented
by those devil’s recruting offices
! tlie saloons, and get the sup.
! port of both. But as that
l unique specimen <>f polititical
I rU « • i't I r ill it»n wa > >UCC* - >t li 11 V
worked on 'the people of Ne
braska at the last November
election, we must admit that
i the trick can be done, and that
; there are morale?) and political
mountebanks actually in the
flesh amongst us. who can pray
as loud and tony as any Phari
| see, and “sup kale with the
I devil” without any spoon at all,
though the Scotch proverb has
it that most people should have
a long one, who undertake that
gastronomic feat, with his Sa
tanic majesty.
'riu- election of Dundy and
some other decidedly able men
in other parts of the territory,
was fortunate for the country
at that juncture of its history,
as besides,being1 without a crim
inal code, it was also pretty
nearly without a civil code,as
well. At tin- first legislature
portions of the Iowa code had
been adopted, but it was so illy
arranged as to be more confus
iny to the bar and the bench
than otherwise, and the admin
istration of justice had become
disultory, uncertain, and wholly
unsatisfactory. The governor
convened the new legislature in
extraordinary session in the fob
lowing October, and some ol
the best legislation was enact
ed the territory and state ha"
ever had.
Hut 1 must go back to tin
election and give some account
of the candidates for the lower
house. There were three places
to fill and more than a dozen
candidates, four or five for each
place, appeared in the field for
the people’s sufferayes and fax
or. I will n o t record their,
names here, first because 1 do
not remember all of them, and
second because none of them
are still in life, and only two or
three were known to any of the
present residents of the coun- j
ties composing the legislative
1 district. There were no con
I \ entions in those days, a nd
< a oh of the aspirants was a self
j nominated candidate and upon
a platform of his own construc
tion. In after years, and when
1 had come to know them, and
'tin* people, with a more inti -
' mate acquaintance. I was better
orepared to pass judgment up
on what 1 saw and heard in that
campaign: but for the purpose
in hand, it only lies in my way
just now, to relate what I saw
and heard, and what 1 saw and
heard was just as good, if not a
great dyal better, than any cir
cus I ever attended, and that is
saying much indeed. There
were two distinctive characters
in tin* bunch, one an old man
away up close to the half centu
ry mark, and a native of Mis
souri, in which old state as lie
called it, lie took a commenda
ble pride, and being myself a
wanderer from another state
tor which I entertained the same
filial affection, I thanked and
respected him for it, if for noth
ing else. The other \v as a
young man not above thirty,
and a bright fellow he was too,
who had been elected a member
of the first territorial legisla
ture, upon which fact, and his
record in that body, he based
his principle claim to re-elec-!
tion.
These people canvassed the
district in a body, all on horse
back, and all loaded with a.
speech for every center of pop
ulation, which each one deliver
ed in his turn, much as the boys
used to deliver declamations on 1
Friday afternoons in country j
schools, before everybody be- .
came university bred.
Some of them could neither |
read nor write, and what was
most unusual, to me at least,
seemed to felicitate themselves
on that circumstance. I didn't
know then how nearly right
they were in thinking they could
legislate about as efficiently
without education as with it,
but l think I do now, and if I
v'oukl, I would trankly ask par
don of those would be law giv
ers, for any harsh judgment of
mine, touching their ability and
fitness to legislate for the peo
ple.
I attended one meeting of the
candidates for the house, with
their constituency, and only
one. It was held over at Arch
er and occupied most of the day.
Twelve or fifteen such
rambling speeches cannot be
delivered in an hour or two, and
in this case it took all day.
I will give an excerpt from
one of those speeches, as
it was a little out of the
main order that generally pre
vailed. It was by the man from
Missouri, and was something to
this effect. Of course I cannot
give a verbatum report of the
old man’s talk, but it was so
different from all otliere, and so
original withal, that 1 could as
well forget that 1 was in Ne
braska that day, as to forget
that speech a n d its salient
points. The old man came to
the scratch after everybody had
had a drink and his dinner, and
held forth for ;ts much a> an
hour, hear him:
“Feller cit’zens, I'm a can'
date for the legislates and I
want your votes, an I come to
ax you fer um. I haint got no
book larnin and never had eny.
1 was born down in old C'allo
way county, Missouri, where
they had but one school house
and it were tu fur away fer me
to go. but my wife who was a
gal then, lived closer an went a
few, she larnt how to read an
rite an si ter and that’s all the
edecation anybody ort to hev.
I don't know A from a deer's
trak, but 1 know how much a
hunard bushel ov corn comes to
at two bits a bushel, or how
much a steer weighin a thous
and comes to at five cents a
pound, and that’s all tin* larum
l care to hev, an I know what
my folks up on tin* run (creel:)
wants 1 rum the legislate!', > i
what they want you want, an
that's what I eal’cate evrybody
Wants and I'll giv it to inn if
you elect me. And 1 want :o
say furder that I'm fer the lie d
law, and fer a humsted law fust
last and all the time. We must
hev a place fer the wimin an
chilern that the sheriff can t
take fer the ole man’s debts
It’s a purty how-dy-doo fer th *
sheriff to come along with a e
ecution and slice off a pece of
feller’s claim here an a pier *
ther, and keep on whittlin'
down till he has little lef, . i
maybe the ole women has plant
ed some flowers in the front
yard to mak things look purl
round ther place, an the ole
man gets in debt agin, an long
comes the sheriff and .cuts off
his yard an then what will the
ole woman say? I’m agin this
Shilurk pound of flesh business
and don't like it no how,’’ etc.
This is a fair sample of his
harangue and the rest may be
omitted.
Tlie old man from Calloway
was not elected, but all the
same the homestead law was
passed exactly as he would ha\ e
passed it himself, and was as
liberally comprehensive as he
wanted it. The same body e.i
acted another law providing for
the permanent location of tic
county seat of this county by
vote of the people, and then tu
s u e d a acrimonious struggle
that lasted for years, and crest
ed more bad blood and w'de
spread ill feeling among the
people, than they were able to
get rid of in the life of a gene
ation. But, like everything
else, in time it had an end, vi/
after nearly all the combatants
had gone to their graves. The
other candidate, the younge
one, will receive attention lie.
after.
The speeches of the other
candidates were little? else tha i
unintelligent gibberish, flam
boyant nonsense, and concern
trated ignorance, mixed with a
great deal of the rediculous and
the absurd.
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there always will be soda crackers
But
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any other Soda Crackers to equal
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