Reminiscences of a Wayfarer
7BmBnammmam%a wmmsmmmmam * .wicr
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
MY F'lKsT VISIT TO numVNTlM.K
The first settlements in X<
braska were ninny the Missouri
river, extending from the mouth
of the Cn at Nemaha north to
l,'run f/u/ rmn t. or in ordinary
United States, The Running
Water, or as that stream is now
known, the Niobrara, which
empties its waters into the Mis
souri in Dakota county, lyiny
across from Sioux City, in the
state of Iowa. The three princi
pal towns on the Missouri,south
of the Platte.were Plattsinouth,
so named because it is a few
miles, three or four, south of
the point o! continence of the
Platte with the Missouri river,
in Cass county. Nebraska City
immediately south iiHMoecoun
ty, and Mrownville still furtherj
south, in Nemaha county.
There wem three other towns
below Brownville, Nemaha < 'itv.
Aspinwall and St. Demin, in
Nemaha county, and two Birth
er down, St. Stephens ami Itulo,
in Richardson county. In IKi*
Brownville w a s a flourishing'
place, exceedingly lively and
full of business The land of
tice for the southern district,
was located there, which made
it a point of great importance.
Every squatter in the district
had to go there to tile, as it was
called, on the quarter section
he intended to purchase from
the government f»v right of pre
emption:*and if another fellow
wanted the same quarter on
any pretense,a contest was pro
vided for by|law, and a trial of
the respective rights of tin* con
testants to the land was had I
before the officers of the land
office, and if either was dissatis
tied with the decision, an ap
peal was allowed to the com
missioners of the general
land oftice|at Washington, and
if thi>*decision did not suit both
parties, and it hardly ever did,
the loser could cause a review
of the whole matter by the See
retary of the Interior And
even his decision would not
end the contest, it the defeated
party had the money and the
“sand" to formulate a case for
the courts, and then everybody
knows what might happen.
i wen rememner my nrst visit
to Brownville. It was made in
the night, to save time, as my
fellow travelers called it, hut
just how it was a sat ing of time
was not very clear, as none of
us had anything to do in the
day time.hut to kill time,and the
necessity for a night journey
that we might have more day
light in which to do nothing,
seemed tome to savor a little
of the absurd. However, that
was the way they put it. and if
i was to get to the land office
without walking, 1 must go w ith
them, and it was so arranged.
We accordingly procured a team
of horses and a lumber wagon,
into the lied of which, some new
mown prairie hay was put to
sit on or sleep upon during the
night, as circumstances or in
clination might require. It was
dark before we got started,
probably, at that season about
eight and a half or nine o'clock
in the evening. Where there
are five or six, as with our par
ty, to make a journey of* tin*
kind, there art* always more or
less delays in getting everybody
ready, and as we were not ex
empt from the common exper
ience in such cases, it was far
into the "shank” of the night
before we got off. There was
no well defined traveled road,
but as all the party except my
self, had been over the way
many times^before, no difficulty
wTas apprehended in tindingr and
keeping in the right and us
ual route. It was a beautiful
night, moonless but clear, with
the starry|hosts above in splen
did array, makiny the atmos
| ]>ln rr almost as luminous as the
moonliyht could have done.
Added to this was a warm soft
breeze from the south, laden
with the indescribable smell of
the prairie, sweetened with the
scent ot millions of wild Mowers,
whisperiny of tin- summer and
of the seed time and the harvest.
Harvest! What was there in all
that wild waste to harvest but
prairie hav, with never a cow
to eat it?
Well, as there was no beaten
road thi' horses could 'travel no
faster than a walk, and we cal
ciliated the trip could be made
in about seven hours, which
would briny ns to Hrownville
about breakfast time.
IAir the first hour or two, and
until we all got sleepy, the con
versation was about claims,
and what each expected to do
with his own, the number of
cattle they would have, to be
pastured on t h e unoccupied
common, as though nobody but
themselves would ever come to
take it up as they were doing;
and in .ill their vague notions
of the future greatness of the
country, the idea that it would
one day be a solid net work of
highly improved farms, with no
public common upon which to
graze their imaginary herds,
never seemed to have a place
in their minds. Our party, as
I remember the fact, consisted
of live persons, and there may
have been another, but I cannot
be sure. It was made up of
Jesse Crook, Josiali Koken (a
claim speculator in a small way),
a fellow by the name of Solo
mon IMummer, (our driver), un
self and may be another, hut il
so, 1 have forgotten his name.
As the hour waxed late, all hut
thedriver, who claimed to know
the trail sufficiently to follow it
in the darkest night he ever
s.tw, to Use In-, own asserva
tions, cuddled down in the hay
and fell asleep, 1 knew no
more till 1 heard a loud and not
very complimentary talk to the
driver, going o n outside tin
wagon. a n d finding nivself
alone, got out too. The team
had come to a full stop, and 1
was not long in discovering
that we were lost on the prairie.
The driver had allowed the
horses to wander from the path
or trail, probably because he
too, had gone to sleep, and as
there were no land marks to in
dicate to a native where we had
gotten to, tin- general opinion
was, that we camp till we found
from which quarter of the
heavens the sun would rise in
morning, then only a few hours
otf. 1 was the only one not lost.
As 1 knew nothing of the coun
try, all places looked alike to
me. The only tliingr lost was
the way to Urownville. Like
the Indian in the lumber region
who, acting in a confused and
bewildered sort o f way was
asked it he was lost, answered:
“No, wiggeup lost. Ingin here."
While the rest ot them were
swearing at the driver, 1 took a
look at the prospect myself,
and as l knew nothing of the
country, 1 took a look at tin
stars to see in what quarter
( tiarle s Wain was to be found.
'1 his. as most people know, is
tin- seven stars in the constella
tion Ursa Major, called the
“Dipper”. I found it by look
ing all around the horizon, and
tin- situation was made plain to
me at once. 1 then told them
the horses were headed to tin
southwest, and if they kept in
that direction far enough, they
would probably land on the liio
Grande, about where Gen. Tay
lor crossed that river a dozen
years before, to invade Mexico.
They wanted to know how 1
knew that, and I told them.
i Tin* pointers in the Dipper al
ways show Polaris, or what, in
common speech, we call the
north star. 1*1 urn me % who was
1 out of humor with evervbodv,
usiny a stroffy and not
very «'I«yant expletive, want
ed to know how ! found
, it out, and to put him, if
. possible, in a better humor, 1 re
plied that I learned it in about
the same way lie had that niylit.
somebody told me. So we yot
in the wayon, turned the horses
about face and in a very short
time Plummer informed iis that
he was hack on the trail which
proved to he true#as in about
an hour afterwards, (the dawn
was then breakinyi we came in
siylit of Nemaha City’, just over
the Little Nemaha, and without
further adventure, r e a c h e d
llrownville in time for break
fast.
W lu‘ii the land office opened
we went in, transacted our bus
iness, yot acquainted with the
officers,who were both from the
south, and very pleasant yentle
men, alTnble and accommodat
ing, mixed with that whole
souled sociability that seems a
part of the southern character,
and then went to look at the
town. It was rather lively and
decidedly fast. 1 have seen
something like it in western
mininy camps, although unlike
them in one particular, every
other man 1 met was not loaded
with < olts revolvers and buwie
knives. Whiskey and land war
rants were the principal com
modities on sale in the market,
and a rushiny business was done
in both. A land warrant for
Hid acres was -old for sl’h), ;it
five per cent per month, or six
ty per cent per annum, not a
bad interest when paid by the
other fellow, b u t somethiny
awful where you have to pay it
yourself. That applied to sales
made on time or deferred pay
ment.
It was duriny that visit I tirsl
- met IW. Furnas, afterwards
. yoverno of the state, and fur
whom the leyislature named one
of it' ountie'. and who died
only i ah or three years ayo.
At tllat time and several time,'
before, e was a member of the
upper fn>nse of the leyislature,
and continued to be such as
! lony as he desired the honor.
He was also editor of a neu~
■paper called the Nebraska Ad
vertiser. Ha viny visited h i s
j office mi connection with some
j busine's in hand, made his ac
j quaintance the while,subscribed
for his paper for a year, with a
i very little political talk on the
side, he kindly introduced me
' to tin two leadiny lawyers in
soutln rii Nebraska F. F. John
son and Dan McFary, and some
other yentlemen whom i knew
from that day forward. John
son writ back to New York to
die a few years afterwards,
while McFary drifted off south
duriiu,. or about the time of the
civil war, and l lost him. Most
of the people [ saw that day
have yone out of the world
are at rest in the old yraveyard
on tin- hill, many of them, and
royal yood fellows they were
in th. ir day. Furnas,and W. T.
Den. a merchant, lived on after
the town and their compeers
were dead, and both of them
were buried on tin* same day
not lony ayo, in the same silent
community. Horace Freely
once said of Fennimore Cooper,
that lie just missed beiny a yreat
man. Similarly, it may b e
said of < Joy. Furnas, that lie
just missed beiny the best poli
tician Nebraska ever produced,
and but for his penchant for of
fice seekiny and holdiny, miylit
not have failed. He alwavs
had an office, or public station
of sniive kind, and was peculiar
ly constituted for yettiny and i
holdiny them, as much so as- J. i
Sterliny Morton was, for nol
yettiny and holdiny them, and
they both worked at the busi- 1
_
ness w i t li untiring industry.
Artemus Ward said, when lie
made the acquaintance of Mr.
Brigham Young out in Utah,
that lie was the most married
man he ever saw, anii it is prob
able that if that pleasant hum
orist could have been made ac
quainted with our governor’s
office holding history, lie would
have concluded that the Hon.
li. W. was the most public
trust-burdened man he ever saw.
But with all his weakness for
. office holding, Bob Furnas was
an honest man and faithfully
discharged every trust commit
ted to his care, without any
llourish of trumpets, or tricks
of the demagogue.
It is not recollected that he
fixed up a hen-roost outside of
town, and called it a Rookery,
after the style of the titled
snobs from over the sea, nor
built a house and called it a
Hall, or a Lodge,in imitation of
a lordly race not much in evi
dence in this country, except
among the flunkey tribe and
their name is fast becoming le
gion. He neyer made prepara
tion tor canonization as a po
litical saint, but lived with the
people as one of them, and nev
er sneezed when somebody else
took snuff. And beyond all else
he was a sound American, pat
riotic and true, in the hour of
national danger. Had lie been
a blattant copperhead, and
rebel sympathiser in Civil
war days, like some I could
name, the descendants of that
by no means extinct race, would
no doubt erect a monument to
his memory, as they have done
lor others of that feather, but
being only a plain old Union
Soldier, his grave will remain
unmarked, like thousands o f
others, and after a while, will
fade out of the memories of men
entirely.
Brownville. one time and an
other, had among its citizens,
men who were prominent in
early Nebraska history. I lur <
mentioned the two most distinc
tive lawyers at the time of
which I write, but at a lat
date K. W. Thomas, O. U. Hev, •
itt. .James Bedford and sir
others figured in the bar wit
more or less prominence till
H. Broady came among the .
about 1W57, and from that tii
forward till the town began to
lose its own prominence, he and
.Thomas were easily at the head
of the profession.
Broady went on the bench In
lsst. and finally moved to Be
atrice. Thomas li a d already
come to Falls City, where I
resided till hisdeath, July, l*‘.-7
Broady afterwards located t
Lincoln and died there >a^
October, the last of t e
old Brownville Bar. Amo:
those who were j»r<»minent
in the politics of the terri
tory, were T. W. Tipton and bi
son in-law, Henry M. Atkinson.
Tipton was a minister of the
gospel, but in war times became
a politician, and was elect-d
one of the tirst senators frt n
Nebraska after its admission
into the Cnion. He drew the
short term and was re-elected
for a full term, forty years ag(
last winter, and differing with
his colleague on the question o'
which was the greatest ma u
and entitled to tirst consider. •
tion by the President who rati
er preferred Thayer war broke
out all round and Tipton time1
ly became a democrat, and tin t
was the end of him. I had the
misfortune to be instructed by
the convention that was respon
sible for my election to the state
senate, to vote for that gentle
man for senator, which I did
nineteen times in caucus and
once in tin* legislature, and I
have since regretted havia
done so more than nineteen hun
dred times, but what was t! e
user Two years afterwards, P.
W . Hitchcock did the business
for Thayer by buying enough of
his sure pop votes to let him
down with a thud, and that
ear ly statesman disappeared
from the senate, and it became
an orphan.
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