Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Falls City tribune. (Falls City, Neb.) 1904-191? | View Entire Issue (June 4, 1909)
Reminiscences of a. Wayfarer ■■■■aaBBmMaB«aaawaw(umraHB.f' "annK' asr- i. »r'* *- / 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: YKAK I"*'.) With the close ol the year ls')S> our first battle for tin County seat came to an end, that is. so far as the three elec tions I have heretofore describ ed, were concerned. Hut we were not entirely through with the struetile. < )iir friends at Salem were not satisfied with the result, and proceeded to institute pro ceedings to contest our ritflit to the majority that the final poll rave Kalis City. In a former paper 1 stated the proceeding was had before the county clerk. In that I was in error: it was before the probate judge of tin1 county, who resided at Kulo, where lie transacted most id his official business, but he sat at Salem, the county seat, to hear the election contest. 1 liaye before said that a very bitter political prejudice was enter tained against Falls City, by the people of both Kulo and Salem, and it was a fact pretty generally recognized at the time, that the probate judge as an individual, shared in that prejudice to a very great ex tent. So much indeed as to render him unfit to hear the case, as it was out of the ques tion for him to do so and ren der an impartial judgment. Hut we were powerless to help our selves and the show had to go on. Dan Mctiarv, the leading law yer at Hrownville, was employ ed on behalf of Salem, while Falls City was represented by K. S. Dundy, who became a permanent resident of Falls City on his return from the legislation, and myself. The trial lasted the greater part of the month of January, much delay being caused by Dtmd\ having the ague, and an ad. journment was necessary about the same time eachday to allow him to undergo his usual shake and spell of fever. It was not a comfortable experience but he stood it like a hero, and when not freezing with the material chill, or burning up with the resultant fever, he put in his best licks for Falls Citv, and fought manfully for the rights of his client. Hut who can successfully light blind and unreasoning prejudice? No body that anybody has ever heard of. Well, we fought it out fls best we could,and lost of course. A considerable number of our people attended the trial from time to time, and as the town was not supplied with a public hotel—and most Nebraska towns at the time were in the same ti.\ we were very gener ouslv and comfortably enter tained at the home of Mrs. Oliver, a widow lady, and the mother of Mrs. John \V. Ilolt, presently residing in this city. I remember Mrs. Holt as a sprightly little miss in those days. She had two other sis ters and a brother living at home, and a married sister, Mrs. Joseph Hare, sometime a resident of this city. 1 think most of the family have passed away. In those times most of our supplies came from Missouri, such as flour and the other nec cessaries of life, though Hare’s mill at Salem furnished corn meal to the country which was an excellent substitute for the wlieat product when none was to be had. The winter was a severe one, and what was astonishing and unusual in my experience, there were frequent freslmts and overflows in both the Nemaha and the Muddy, continuing at intervals during the winter and | late intn the spring, to such ex tent that communication with Missouri was made im| hie. I.Iesse Crook had opened his I hotel early in the tall before, land had kept open house during the county seat elections later on, to all comers in the interest j of our side, and had furnished j lodging and subsistance to a j colony of young men from Ivan sas, who had come up to help us, and as no Hour could be [brought from Missouri, our | only source of supply, lie was {obliged to feed his guests with corn bread only, and that was i in the hill of fare every day of I that long, cold, dreary winter. | Dundy and I, among the rest, ! boarded with .lesst*, but Dundv i was half the time freezing and burning with his old time enemy, the ague, and when the election contest at Salem was over, was mostly confined to the house. One day after spring had shown some signs of its coming. Dundy and 1 were in the dining room of the hotel, he on a loung where he had just had one of his shakes, and I at the table doing some writing, when he broke the silence with this ques tion : “Say, Reavis, how much corn bread do you suppose we have eaten this winter.'" “I’m sure l don’t know’,” t an swered, “but 1 think we can find out by asking Mrs. Crook.” “Well, do so, and let us see if we can’t figure it out,” re plied In- of ague affliction. So in the execution of the pur pose, I went into the kitchen to interview Mrs. Crook on the subject, and got from that ex cellent and obliging lady, (who enjoyed the joke about as well as we did), a statement of facts concerning the number id' bread pans used in the daily baking, their size and general dimen (ions, and the number of times the whole force was in use each day, and with the data thus ob tained, 1 returned to Dundy in the dining room, and together we entered upon the task of computing the amount of that farinaceous staff of life,the peo ple in the hotel had consumed since the last installment of Hour from over the Missouri had become exhausted early in the winter. Dundy figured for a while but finally gave it up, saving the ague had set his head wool gathering, and he could do nothing with the problem, and I would have to figure it alone. This 1 did after a fash ion. The time covered was something over three months, I the are a say one inch thick, covered by each day's baking with all the pans doing duty for every meal, would com prehend "a certain space, have not the data at my com mand now so as to be accurate, but I have a distinct recollec tion, that the amount was three hundred and twenty acres when multiplied by the number of days the process had been going on. That was superficial measure, but when reduced to solid measure, would in a k e | about sixteen and a half cords. W hen our calculation got about amongst the guests, it created j some merriment, as one would I acuse another of getting more j than his rightful acreage of bread, and would, with much mock gravity, inquire of us whether an action could not be brought to even up things in that particular. It was a piece of pleasantry, suggested by the surroundings, trifling in its nature, but for the time being helped to break the everlasting monotony of our ex istence,and in years to come was the subject of many a hearty laugh among all of us. 1 have already mentioned the fact that Falls (' tv had no physician. It is proper to say in tins connection, that while we had none made in the usual wav, we did have one who now and then gave sick people* hom eopathic pellets those sugar creations which, if they do no good, are not likely to do any harm, Ned Burbank, who was about as smooth a proposition in most of Ills relations with the people, and especially the fe male portion of them, (to whom lie never told the truth in hi> lifei, as could be found any where and in any society, had, or pretended to have, great faith in the curative proprieties of those little medicaments and usually kept a quantity on hand, which he gave for any complaint, to anyone, at any time. As tlie iinmayination has a good deal to do with taking medidine, a dose of almost any kind,if the taker lias confidence in it,is likely to do him good,or make him think so, which is the same thing; and it came about that Ned’s pills, as they were called, were in great requisition especially among the women in town, and In* was frequently called to their houses as though he was a regularly graduated physician. 1 don't know that he ever made a charge for his services, [ hardly think he did, hut all the same lie was rapidly gaining a local reputation as a successful doctor, for tlie regu iar practice of which profession he was no more fitted than he was to be a preacher. Never theless the practice went on and the reputation grew, until one day he was sent for to see a sick woman on the west side of town, down about where Mrs. John King now lives. 1 do not remember the name of the wo man, nor i- it important, but Ned was ready to respond, and did. He put on his coat.his hat, and his best smile, (he always |iad one about him), and taking his pill bags in hand, started for the house of suffering with a- much gravity and profession al circumspection as old Kscu lapius himself. Arriving at ihe house he found several neigh bor women in attendance, which circumstance suggested the fact tiiat the case was a serious one, but it would never do to let it b> known that he didn't know all about any human disease. So he laid a-ide his pill bags, his hat and coat, but not his smile, and inquired very gently how the sick lady felt, at the same time feeling her pulse and making close observation of her tongue. Physicians alway- do this, first because it is profes sional,and besides it gives them time to take observation of thing- in the -urroundings, which is frequently of the highest importance. Having thus paid hisresp< cts to the professional proprieties, satisfied himself of the situa tion of affairs, he remarked with great assurance that there was nothing in the condition to be alarmed at, that he had been afflicted in the same way only the past week, and a timely dose of the pellets he would presently give the patient, had straightened him out in twenty four hours: and going over to the table where his pill bags , had been left, he proceeded to extract a half-dozen of the sugar globules and to saturate them with some liquid decoc tion preparitory to administra tion. In the meantime the women withdrew in a group on the other side of the room where they held a whispered consulta tion for a few minutes, when one of them, and the oldest of bunch, crossed the room to where Doctor Ned was prepar ing his lotion, and thus address ed him: “See here, Mr. Burbank, I don’t think you know what’s the matter with Mrs. -. She ain’t got no ague nor fever, and she don't need any of them Well—Here we are again! An old acquaintance back. Just as happy, just as snappy, just as gingery, just as enticing— t GINGER SNAPS 5€ * Package NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY pills. She is about to be con lined in chi Id berth.” “What,” says Burbank, as lie jumped about two feet straight up from hischair,with never the ghost of a smile on his face. Lathering up his pill bags, his coat and hat, he shot out the! door as though impelled by some tremendous force, and go ing up town at a double quick pace,rushed into the Broad Axe office and was no more seen on the street that day. A young doctor named Mc Laughlin was at the Crook ho stel, looking about fora location, was called and attended the sick lady in true professional style. That was Doctor Ned’s tirst and last case of obstitrics, in fact, it was the end of his pro fessional career, but it was not the end of the story. 1 might not have recited this circum stance in these reminiscenses had it not been that Mr. Bur bank is still in life and will en joy it quite a- much as I do the task ot its reproduction. The shadows of fifty years have ob scured many things and events of a later date, but this stands as undimed in my remembrance as the business letter l received from him only the other day. Sometime in the month of' April of that year, I think about the 13th, an event happened that was not, at that time, re garded as of particular conse quence, but which, by a concat enation of subsequent events and circumstances, became a part of the most curious history that was ever made on the Am erican continent. A man thought to be a mono maniac, and by many a down right Innitic, came to our town that morning in the prosecution of a feloneous enterprise and which he boldly published to all who cared to know, and did it in such a fool hardy way as to impress people with the idea that he was either the worst sort of criminal, or a monumen tal incompetent in need of a guardian. It was John Brown and his band of outlaw's, armed to the teeth, and it is said, had in a wagon a lot of stolen neg roes, whom they were engaged in conducting to the Canadian frontier, out of the reach of their owners. It was the same band of outlaws, that later in the same year committed an other crime of a still darker hue, but which by some means not explainable by any process of ordinary ratiocination, has become wedged into world his tory, to there remain as im perishable as that ofThermopvle Tosuffer a felons death for treas on, murder, robbery and arson, was only to furnish the material for a lot of doggrel, without rhyme, reason or sense, which set to an inspiring tune in a great national crisis, became the battle song of the republic, and the very synonym of victo ry. I was not in town that day and so lost the only chance 1 ever had to see that strangely p r e-d estine d c h a r a c t er, who, to use the language of an (other, “was the disgrace and j the glory of his age.” 1 There are but two people re maining in the city, who saw that cortage of criminals pass through, and they are William E. Dorrington and John R. Dowty. If there are any others the fact is not known to me at this moment Close beside the line of the Pennsylvania railroad on the right bank of the Potomac river, and on the very spot where his last crime was committed, and where he was hung in expiation for it, stands a granite monu ment in commemoration of the . now world historical event, ft 1 seems that some grim sarcasm ! is hidden in it somewhere, that the powers that hung the crazy ; brained fanatic were just as un conscious of, as was the Jewish rabble who enacted the tragedy of calvary, that the instrument of their feindish torture that day, would in time, become the ground plan of every Christian church all over the world. You Are Invited i to attend the demonstration at our store on Wed., June 9th and see the exhibition and demonstration of the PERFECTION BLUE FLAME OIL STOVE It has no equal—there’s noth ing like it! Don’t Forget Date We will have with us on that day an expert who can thoroughly explain and demonstrate these stoves. J. C. Tanner SSSSSSS! !
