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About The Falls City tribune. (Falls City, Neb.) 1904-191? | View Entire Issue (June 11, 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 JOHN BKOWN \N11 KAl.l.s i'll'V I ha\ r already mentioned that John Brown's raid at Harpers Perry, in Virginia, in the an tumn of Kb, but only one of the distinctive events of the time covered bv these re in in is cences. it was a far cry from the little hamlet in a western wilderness, to the historic shores of the Potomac, but in the drama that was being enacted in the spring time of that half a century old year, and which was to end in disaster and death running through years to come, before the snows of winter would whit en the earth, these two points had a mysterious connection, lor they were both on the route; of the irresponsible madman and his followers, who in their wild a n d unreasoning fanaticism, were soon to strike a blow in the world that would resound through the universe. That the so-called raid into the state of Virginia, by John Brown, pro cipitated the civil war in our country, there can be no doubt Whatever. But fur that unfortunate cir oumstance, the conflict between! the antagonistic ideas among the people, might have been determined in some peaceful way, or the evil day postponed, and possibly an appeal to arms been thus avoided entirely. This is mere conjecture, for the whole country was in such a state of suppressed irruption that little was needed to set off the mine that had been growing un der t h e feet of the people through forty years of continu ous and acrimonious agitation. There is reason to believe that nothing in the realm of na tare happens by change, or ac cidental means, but that in all its operations, there is not on ly perfect harmonious action, controlled by fixed laws, which, if properly understood, would elminate much of the mystery that now appears to shroud na ture in the present, and lift the dark veil to some extent, that now hides the unknowable fu ture from the knowledge of men. The prophet, who is a fatalist without knowing it, predicts events to occur much in the same way that events have oc curred in the past, for without knowledge derived from the latter, he would have none whatever of the other. If an event in the future can be pres ent in the consciousness of the seer as something certain, ther the happening of that event as predicted, must have been pre determined by superior power, and if one future event is so de termined, then all must be so and fatalism becomes just as true as the mathematical prop osition, that the sum of the an gles of any triangle is equal t< two right angles. Ne\ erthelesi the doctrine of fatalism is basei on a false conception of cans, and effect and is impossible t< be true. All that can be said in favor of prophecy is,that the prophet who best knows the past, and van best interpret the philosophy of its history, is best qualified to tell us the se crets of the future. This in valves o n e other reflection: could history have been differ ent front what it is—that is was it possible for events to have occurred in,any other way than they actually did? 1 an swex no. It is not my intention to en ter into an abstract philosoph cal disquisition, but simply tc call attention to a few undoubt ed facts, which, I think will serve to make plain the idea 1 have in mind. I have said that ed bv fixed and unvarying law-, and is comprehensive of every object or thing in the whole wide expanse of the universe. It is an organism, a machine if you please, and worksconstant ly and always in precisely the same way. If we could rightly understand those laws.we might know vvliat ‘diod and man i" A threshing machine will only do the work it was designed to do, hut nothing else. Its sever al parts move in harmony with each other, and perform their functions as though independ ent entities, but it requires the concurrent action of all to * successful operation. I lie same is true of that mightier machine that makes and controls the world. Its every part is in restless hut harmonious motion with e\ery other, and together produce fixed results which, but for the admirable arrangement of that incomprehensible meeh anism, would not be results at all. It is not probable that Urmvn and his followers, when they passed through F alls City, knew that they would ultimate ly briny up at Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, or that any particu lar place beyond the Canadian frontier would be their destina tion. They were outlaws, crim inals, possessed ot but one con trolling and tixed idea deadly hatred of slavery and the hold ers of slaves. They held no commission from any human au thority to make war on that deeply hated institution: nor were they incited by any hope of pecuniary reward. They knew their enterprise was un lawful, and they knew further, that their lives and their liber ties were endangered at every step in its prosecution, but with a persistency horn of the very madness o f fanaticism, they went steadily and resistlessly on to their doom on a Virginia gibbet. It is probable that the people of any of the small towns through which t h e y passed on their way to the Can ada line, could have arrested them and given them over tc justice had they been so dis posed, but the fact is. the peo. pie in the free districts of tilt nation were either too inditTer ent or too much in sympath\ with the fleeing black men frorr a life of bondage, to interfere unless it was to aid the fugitive in their Might. This fact wa> well known to Brown, benct his careful avoidance of Missnu ri soil, where public -entimen was just the opposite to wha it was in the free -fates. Browr could not have traveled ter miles into Missouri without hav : ing himself and all of hi- fol j lowers shot to death or hung or the nearest tree at hand. I hat shows the state ot pun lie sentiment in the two sections of the country in that spring time in the closing years of the i decade of IKSO. What it was then, was what it had been for many years before, only it had I grown in intensity with the Might of time, and wa> to still continue to do so till in the full ne>- of time the -shock of arm> came and then the bloody drama unequaled in the annals of tin world. Those misguided men were tin' ignorant instruments to an end | of which they were no more con scious than if they had been children. Reasoning a pri>>r<i, a cause may be easily compre , hensible by the ordinarily intei j ligent, but the resultant effect , cannot be measured by even wizard genius, except by knowi edge acquired a posteriori- that is afier the facts are all known. Annie this oostulate to the Har if ail the people along the route pursued by Brown could have known that he and Ids associ ate criminals w«**..* >i in' •<!»• the state of Virginia and attempt to incite insurrection among the slave population against their masters, it is not at a 1.1 likely that they would have done any thing to arrest their progress in that direction; but if those same people could have known, cer tainly, that such invasion would be made and that the occasion would be seized upon by the southern people as an excuse for dissolving the union, or at tempting it by levying war, who will doubt that every one of them would have risen with fierce determination t<> stop that band of mischief makers if they had had to hang them to do so. Thus we observe t b a t the knowledge imparted by cause is, not reliable for all purposes of interpretation of the effect to follow that is with our pres ent imperfect understanding, but the transcendental philoso phy plainly teaches that such knowledge is not only possible but to a very great extent is already possessed b v many, hence the prophet and the seer. They are ust as plentiful now as they ever have been proba bly more so. We are all wise after the event, but the wisdom that precedes it anticipates it so to speak, is the wisdom the world needs most. When the future effect can be known in the present cause, the prophet will go out of business, no mat ter by what name he is known, it has been done to a limited extent, which proves that it can be, to a greater extent; and if approach can be made to final success in the smallest degree, its ultimate attainment must surely follow. I conclude there fore, that to the far seeing phil osophical statesman, every movement made in these United States, after the Mexican war, affecting the institution of slav ery in it, presaged the war that finally broke upon the country in actual conflict, in l"bl. Up to the time of the Harper’s Fer ry raid the hostility of the northern sentiment again-1 slavery had been directed to ef forts to prevent its spread in the newly acquired territories of the union. The fact is that effort to circumscribe the area of slavery territory’, was first brought to the fore in the troub le over the admission of the state of Missouri, but when this band of lawless men broke into the state of Virginia and at tempted to interfere with it in one of tlie states of the u ion where all parties had agreed that it should not be distur >ed, the south became alarmed, and the election of Mr. Lincoln the year following, on an a'-- red anti slavery platform,confirmed them in the belief that the in stitution in the states wa- to 1 lie attacked a n d destro>. ed. That precipitated the war md it came, with what result- ev 1 erybody now knows. Lt was peculiarly unfort ate for our little town that t ese lawless people should ive passed through it at that >ar ticular juncture. We wer»- ,.sk ing the people uf the court? to help us yet hold of the s. . • of go1 ernment, and it a : t of general knowledge that a .-on 'Iderai. e majoritv of the >eo ple of the county at that ime were not favorable to the t >oli tion sentiment. We were not to blame thht Brown a his people passed through the * iwn. Certainly we were not t«. ame for not trying to stop h r. by arresting the whole cro - I, for it is very doubtful whether we would have been able to do it, and it is very certain that many lives would have been lost in the effort. Our people were glad indeed when he left the place, and would have been bet ter pleased if he had given the town a wide berth in his journey to the north. 5“ A Package Jiha— a thought suggests itself—and that is, to get hold of a box of GINGER SNAPS My, but they look good—so enticingly golden and crispy. NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY mer was to elect the delegation from this county to the lower house of the legislature, three in number. Dundy was a hold over in the council, and with that force as a starter, we hoped to again have the county seat question submitted to the people under such restrictions as to make it impossible for a prejudiced officer to defeat us by an adverse, one-sided decis sign. The John Brown visit was troublesome, and it was really out of the question to convince the people that we not only did not know of his cominy but were in no sense in sympa thy with his unlawful proceed ings. To those who did not want to believe the slander that was! put on foot in that connection, j it was not difficult for u> to prove ti> their satisfaction that Brown’s visit came about solely! because Falls City lay on the] only direct route he could fol low from his place in Kansas to a point on the Missouri river in Nebraska opposite the south line of the state of Iowa, where a crossing was made to Mount Tabor, m that state. That point was above Peru and a few miles south of Nebraska City. Who should we select as can didates'.' There were no party organizations in the county, but in a way there were party affiliations, many democrats and some republicans, thouyh there was no attempt to draw party lines, certainly none on the part of Falls City, as it would have been the most ill-advised tiling we could possibly do. It was our policy to furnish one of the! candidates, St. Stephen anoth er and the third from some quar ter in the west end of the coun ty. A certain Dr. Carter, from! what i- now known as Franklin precinct, Dad been selected by our people for the western member, but shortly before the nomination- were made public, he was arrested on a charge Of rape, and that was the last of him as a possible coming statesman. Hi< place wa> rilled by one Nate Meyers, a resident I of a town I forgot to mention, named Monterey, but nobody ever lived in it but Nate and his family. He was something of an orator and talked eloquently of the “iron horse," by which he meant railroads, and proved himself something of a prophet. | as >uch a horse, in days to come, did make its appearance in the country and is here yet. Hous ton Nickells, a harum-scarum, four bottle democrat a t St. Stephen, was selected from that quarter, and our own J. Edward Burbank was selected for the third fellow. Nothing of unus Hnrinp- the campaign, but the result was all that we could desire, our men were elected and the fur was to fly shortly, and it is no figure of speech to say that it did. A bill was passed locating the county seat at Falls City, and providing for a resubmission of i the question of its permanent' location to a vote of the peo- j pie upon the same plan adopted I for the last election for the ' same purpose. [n .the meantime our little city hacl steadily grown in pop ulation. Most of the young men who came up from Kansas to help us out at the first elec tion, became uermanent resi dents, and many others came to us from the east and from other parts. The Ware family and that of Judge Marvin came from Wisconsin, anil later the (Hines brothers, relatives of the Wares and Marvins. One of them, Mr. Fid. Glines, with his family, is still a resident of this city. The Ware family have all passed away, and only Frank Marvin, of Oklahoma City, Ok , and the children of his deceased brother George, are all that survive of the Marvin family. In the latter part of the win ter or early in .the spring, John | R. Dowty, who is still here, came down from Nemaha coun ty. and FI. W. Hutchinson and family came from Rlattsmouth. Some others I have already mentioned. Mrs. Hutchinson was a finely educated lady, with ability much above the average. It was to her I owe my first in trocluction to theWaverley Nov eh. by Sir Walter Scott. She had a complete set and 1 man aged to go through all of them while 'an inmate of the family the following winter. They enabled me to pass many an hour that otherwise would have hung heavily upon me in those long winter nights, and for which 1 have always been grate ful to that excellent ladv. She has long been at rest with the great army of the dead, along with nearly everybody else I knew at the time, but the many acts of kindness she did me. supplemented by kindly words of encouragement when 1 most needed them, will remain in my remembrance among the cher ished things of my life, to the end of it—and after. A theory vaguly hinted at in this paper will receive a more critical examination hereafter, when 1 have the leisure for the purpose, and inclination for the work. It has no doubt been ob served. that, in writing these desultory papers, I have fol lowed no system, but have mixed up with the recital of particular incidents that yet dwell in my memory,some phli osophical abstractions tiiat have occurred to me a> pertinent to my general purpose, and in a measure, explanatory of things obscure that surround and per meare all the transaction^ of men. What they are however, they were intended to be, and are given for what they are worth. Quaker Oats Griddle Cakes Try them today! The family that hasn't eaten Quak Oats griddle cakes has a delightful s prise coming to it. Besides the de :• ious flavor, there is the pleasure knowing you can eat all you want, a~ i the more you eat the better fur you The best of all foods for any ore wanting more strength and vigor. Hundreds of thousands of packag ■! of Quaker Oats are consumed in G;- . many annually and almost all of i: « eaten in the form of Quaker Oi 5 griddle cakes. In the New Yo k cereal restaurant of the Quaker Oi > Company these griddle cakes are ver popular Here's the best recipe for making them: 2 cups Quaker Oats (uncooked). VA r .3 flour: 1 teaspoonful salt I t aspoonfnl soda dissolve in two tablespoonfuls hot water t teaspoonful baking powder (mix in flour) ! ; cuds sour milk or buttermilk 2 eggs be t :o lightly: 1 tablespoonful sugar: t or 2 tab • spoonfuls melted butter (according to richnaai of milk). Process: Soak Quaker Oats over night ", milk. In the morning mix and sift flour, sod i. sugar and salt— add this to Quaker Oats mixture and quantity of melted butter: add eggs beaten lightly—beat thoroughly and em t as griddle cakes—they make your mouth water for more. _ DAVIES &. OW NS Reliable Jawelers and Opticiars — i ■ Diamonds of Purest Quality To wear diamond* is to be in harmonv with the fashion spirit of the period. It is sub stantial evidence that, you are imbued with the element of enthusiasm that accelerates progress and establishes pros perity. By permission we will refer prospective buyers of precious stones to our ultra exacting clientile — those who either knew values, or accepted our word and are satisfied. DAVIES |& OWENS ~~ Horses Wanted I want Horses from work horses to Shetland ponies Bring them in MONDAY, JUNE I4TH At Heiser' Barn. Mett s old stand. Remember the date J. B. McCINN
