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About The Falls City tribune. (Falls City, Neb.) 1904-191? | View Entire Issue (May 7, 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. THE <; HUM AN COLO N IZATIO N SOCIETY. St Stephen w.i- .i renularl\ established town when < oisl Duerfeldt and Louis Alljjewahr eatne in the neighborhood, as the accredited agents of a yer man Colonization Society of Buffalo, New York, and miylit have been selected by them, as the basis <>! operations <>! the colony that was to come then* after. They declined doing that for oh\ ious reasons, the chief of which was, that St, Stephen was not inhabited by their kind of people, and the moral status uf such as were there was ob jectionable in the Highest de gree. Therefore, i art lie exeCli lion of the trusff committed to their hands, a tract of land, consisting of about one tlioiis and acres, immediately south of the older town, was selected and purchased, and the new town of Arago was established. It was a better location in all respects, as there was no high hill between it and the steam boat landing a> was the case 9 with St. Stephen, and as the river afforded the only means of transportation for commerce or travel, t was important that the new town be located so that easy acc« ss could Ire had to that natural highway It was before the day of railroads, and a town I to be anything in the estima- j lion of the people, had to In built on the banks of that stream, or it wa- out of t lie world. Mr. Allgewahr visited tile country in ls>, but the lands of the Half Breeds had not been allotted in severalty and title could not be obtained for that1 reason. Nevertheless selection! was made, and in the follow ing1 year he and Mr tbtst Ihierfeldt; bought the Aragosite. and made it roomy enough for a city of fifty thousand inhabitants. The; colonization society then began sending its people to the new town in the wilderness. I am indebted to Mr. Duerfeldt for a list of the first families from Buffalo, to take up their resi deuce in Arago. Besides the two gentlemen •who purchased the town site, | there landed at Arago on the 4th day of duly, Win, the fol lowing named heads of families Henry Nommerlad, t'harles K. Walthers, August \V e r n e r t, Louis Kleber; Henry Sac lit, August Dorste, William /demon dorff, Anton Hippchen and h’red Nitsche Mr. Uuerfehlt thinks there were two others, but their names do not occur to him. This, then, was the commence ment of a new community, and of the real settlement of the Half Breed reservation. What a farce it was to give that valu able land to such worthless peo le—the mongrel hair breeds. Nobody in their senses sup posed for a moment, that they would keep their land, or that they would not sell out for a bottle of whiskey or a pony, or for some other trifling consider ation, or be beat out of their holdings by fraud and forgery, as was actually done wholesale. The settlement in the town formed the nucleus for the gatli ering of the hosts of the same nationality to it and the coun try, as time went by, and as the title to land on the Half Breed reservation became settled bv one means and another; those who did not desire town life, purchased land outside a n d opened farms and made homes on them. Mr. Duerfeldt, and most of those whose names I have given, did that, but of all that number, now after fifty |years hate chased each other into the eternity of the past, but two are yet in life,Mr. Ihier feld and Fred Xitsche, the for mer about S1 years of age, and the latter up in '.••>. Consider ing the usual and ordinary lives of men these are high above the ! average span. In addition to those coining from Buffalo, there was soine ! thing of a colony Iruin Wiscon |sin. headed by the elder August l Xeitzel, and his brother John. There were severa 1 others whose , names I am unable to give. In I act the Berman people from all points of the compass Mocked to Arago. until its po p u I a t i o n ; reached several hundred, and up 10 about lsCt.', anti along there, it was the most prosperous town in Richardson Bounty. The bulk of those fair haired natives and descendants of na tives of the Thuringer Wold.and the Black forests of the Father land, did not settle in the town, but went in the country, pur chased land when they could get a perfect title, turned it into a farm and home, stored it with their household gods, and heal thy sturdy children, worshiped God as in their youth they had been taught, grew rich and old at the same time, served their 1 adopted country when it needed them, and gave their influence a-> a class to the moral and tna terial advancement of the conn 1 try they had helped to rescue ! from the wilderness, and made it the happy prosperous land 1 that it i-. ; Arago has been out of com- ' mission as a business point or a : municipality for many years, but its influence as a factor tor good is just as strong upon the country as though it was the leading city and commercial mart. The colonization move ment that gave it existence in the first instance, brought to the country a citizenship of many thousands, and of the very best class of people. St. Ste phen never influenced the popu lation exceut for the worse. All ' that it did briny were of the Worthless and hoodlum class, and the best that can be said of them is, that they disappeared when the town was deserted and turned into a corn Held. Not one of its original settlers re mains in the country, except it may be a few of those who were children at the time, and their number cannot be many. T only know one or two, who were of the family of Stephen Story, and they could hardly be called residents of the town at any time. All the others drifted away and are probably dead. No other event in the history of our county can compare with that of the location of the Her man colony within it^ borders, commencing with the large pur chase of land upon which to es tablish a town as the center of the future operations of those who came first, and of those who were to come afterwards, and the credit for all this, and the resultant widespread settlement of a superior class of citizens in the eastern end of the county, belongs to the two strong young men who selected the place and paved the way for all that has followed. It was not important that Ar ago should continue to grow and prosper as a town, but it was important that the country be settled with a law abiding, in dustrious and frugal people, and that we got and still have. A very large proportion, probably two thirds of the entire Half Breed reservation, isstill owned and occupied by those people from Buffalo and elsewhere, many directly from the old coun try, that the colonization society mentioned, was instrumental in bringing to the country. Among the many valuable and prominent citizens it gave to us. and who became at a later date distinctive in the business and political affairs of the country, I mention those ot',1. (). Wirth, ;i leading business man at Arago til! its decline, when he removed to Falls City, where he contin tied in business several years, and until his death four or five years ago. He was from Buf falo. together with I’ ll. Miller, who in 1*71, was elected county treasurer, re elected for a sec ond term and was succeeded by his son, F. W. Miller, who re centlv died at Lincoln. It is not possible, with the space at my command, to give the names of all the leading" men of the <lermaii colony, but of those who became prominent in political and official station, 1 relate that I Louis Allgewahr was elected a member of the legislature ini lN'd and served his people in that office with honor to Imnsell mil profit to the country. Mr. (lust Duerfeldt was twice elect •d to the same body, the last covering the time Nebraska changed from a territory to a state in which important polit cal crisis lie took a prominent tnd very decided leading part. 11 was directly after the close )f the civil war that is, after ictive operations in the field lad ceased, but the effects of hat mighty conflict will never >ass away and disturbing ques cions of policy touching the re construction of the states that lad been in rebellion against lie national government, were iressing upon the attention of •ongress and the people, com ilicated by another and more lerplexing one, of what was to ie done with the recently liber ited slaves in the South in the natter of citizenship and the mfferage: and Nebraska, though 'till a .territory, knocking for admission into the household of tile union as a state, was com pelled, by congressional action, to modify, <>r rather amend the constitution adopted by the peo ple to the extent of striking out of it all restrictions of the suf i ferage as to color or previous |condition of servitude, before j the state could be admitted. It remained for the legislature to give the assent of our people to the conditions prescribed, which when certified to president by tile governor, the admission of the state was to lie proclaimed by the president. In bringing about ttie amendment men tioned, no man in the legisla ture exerted a stronger influence to that end than our worthy rep resentative, Hon. Gust Duer fehlt. 'J' li o s e w e r e stirring times and only strong men were wanted to the fore. Mr. Duer feldt has had a long and useful life, and deserves and receives; the hearty commendation of the people, many of whom have known him more than fifty years. Charles F. Walthers was Pro bate Judge of the county for ten years or more, was a member of the legislature one session, and in l*7a was elected a member of the convention that framed the present constitution of the state. 11. W. Sommerlad, Win. Par clien and Henry Fisher were at intervals members of our terri torial and state legislatures. They were all brought to the country by this same coloniza tion society. With the excep tion id' Mr. Duerfeldt, all the! others here named, have passed away; only he and the elder I Fred Nitsche are the male mem- j bers of the pioneer colonists of j INis who remain. From a private letter just re ceived from Mr. Duerfeldt, I am informed that it was 1000 acres [ of land that were purchased for, the townsite of Arago, instead DrPRICES Cr$am Baking Powder is the most efficient and perfect of leavening agents* MADE FROM PURE CREAM OF TARTAR No alum, lime or ammonia. of one thousand, and the price paid the Nuckell's family and a Mr. Robert Hawke, was sjUdaO. Those enterprising speculators probably paid the original own ers may be a half dozen ponies, some small sums of money and no doubt an unlimited quantity of whiskey, and 1 will give my reasons for thinking so. In De cember, l*‘Jd, I argued a case in the Supreme court of the United States. Ilegler vs. Faulkner, et al, reported in lad U. S. llo in which a half section of these same Half-Breed lands was in volved. The testimony devel oped that one of this same Nuck olls family bought the land from a young Half-Breed Indian fora pony and twenty dollars in mon ey. The land is now, as when the case was heard in that high tribunal, owned by Mr. Joseph Frederick, and is worth from thirty to thirty live thousand dollars. 1 also know from other sources that that kind of land grabbing methods was the usual osder with those and other spec-1 ulators of the same ilk; and they were not overly particular whether they dealt with the right Indian, or with any Indian at all, so they got the right name to the deed purporting i o convey the land, and when once recorded, the deed was nev • seen afterwards. 1 violate no professional cc tidence in writing of these shad • transactions, for they are m; t ters of court records and are as imperishable as the eternal hill Shoes tor the whole Famil at the THE H M. JENNE SHOE STORE A Card This is to certify that all druggists are authorized to refund your money if Foley’s Honey and Tar fails to cure your cough or cold. It stops ttio cough, heals the lungs and prevents pneumonia and consumption. Co ■ \ tains no opiates The genuine is ir .» yellow package. Kerr's Pharmacy. Buying soda crackers that are not Uneeda Biscuit is buying by guess-work and trusting to luck. To be sure of good luck and good baking, buy no soda crackers but Uneetia Biscuit NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY S. /