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
THK t'L.1 FFOKI) MflfOKR
In a tormer paper l promised
to relate t u* t.'liffurd tragedy
that occurred in the winter of
1H59, on the Muddy, in tin*
northwestern part of the court
ly. It was my intention to tell
the story of that double murder
in my next, but in the mean
time the announcement of my
intention brought me several
letters on the subject, among
which was one from my excel
lent friend, Mr, Francis Wither
ol Stella, informing me that
tire murder of McWhorter by
Clifford was not as l said, com
mitted in the night, rror that the
wife of the murderer, forced or
driven out of the house in Un
freezing weather then prevail
ing, was found frozen to death
on the prairie; but the fact was
ihat the murder was committed
in ttie morning, and through
tear Mrs. Clifford tied from the
house very thinly clad and had
taken shelter in au old deserted
claim shanty, where she was
found later in the day perfectly
exhausted,if not in a dying con
dition, and did die before she
could be gotten to a house.
This letter contained a request
that the account be not pub
lished till he (Mr. Witheejcould
correspond with two or three
ladies, residents in other states
and parts of the country, who
were acquainted with all the
circumstances attending t h e
discovery of the murder of Me
Whorter, and the finding of
Mrs. Clifford in the empty claim
house, and her subsequent death
from long exposure in a free/
mg Nebraska blizzard. In def
erence to the wishes of Mr.
Witliee the account was defer
red until the present moment.
A laminar psychological phe
nomenon, well known to law
yers, is made manifest in the
many stories 1 have heard of
that night o r morning o I
horrors at the-Clifford house
fifty years ago that very good
people will carry in their minds
the recollection ot some occur
rence many years old, a n d
while they all agree upon the
principal fact, will remember
the details surrounding it in as
many different ways as there
are witnesses. '1'his is true of
the several historians of the
Cospel, no two ot whom give
the details of Christ’s three
years ministry exactly alike,
and this fact is urged by one of
the greatest writers on tin: law
of evidence that time and na
tions have produced, as conclu
sive of the truth of the control
ing fundamentals of the Christ
ian religion. It e\ inces an hon
est desire to relate the great
old story as each knew, or
thought lie knew it. and nega
tives all notion of collusive tix
up.
Personally, I had no knowl
edge of the crime. What l
knew of it was what l heard as
common rumor in the first in
stance, and by what was told in
the trial by the witnesses in
their evidence, llad 1 not been
advised by Mr. Witliee, who
was a resident of that part of
the country at the time, 1 should
have related the facts as l re
membered them and have been
slightly wrong in two particu
lars. viz: the time the murder
was committed and where Mrs.
Clifford died, both unimportant.
As it was, we only had Clifford’s
word as to when he killed Mc
Whorter, and it is far from cer
tain that he told the exact truth
about any of the details of that
horrible affair.
The story is substantially
this: Thomas B. Clifford and
Kobert McWhorter were early
settlers in the valley of the
Muddy at the point of conflu
ence of the two creeks of that
I name, tfie Hi_ and Little Mud
l dy, a mile and a half or
(southeast of the present siteoi
Stella. Settlements in that
part were made mostly by peo
pie f r (i m Nemaha, formerly
known as Forney county, and
their trading point was Brown
N ilU-, tliougli perhaps some was
done at Nemaha City, which in
was larger than it is
now. There was considerable
| timber in places along the Uig
I Muddy and these lands were the
first taken. The trees suggest
j ed shelter from tlte winter winds
sweeping over the country, and
besides would yield fuel for tire
wood and for other purposes
of agriculture, and the reason
for taking up claims of that
kind is obvious. The uplands
were nothing but a part of a
boundless prairie plain, stretch
ing away to the western moun
tains in one vast bleak shelter
less vacancy.
I am indebted to my friend
Withee for a plat showing the
claims of those parties and
others in the neighborhood, and
also showing where Mrs. Clif
ford was found and where she
died, together with the location
of the houses of the people in
the vicinity. Clifford's claim
lay on both sides of the Muddy
proper and at the point where
the Little Muddy flows into it.
while the claim of Robert Mc
Whorter was immediately east
and adjoining Clifford's, the two
being the south lialf of section
i JO. (ieorge Rene owned the
(claim west, and Hays the one
north of Clifford's. A man of
: the name of McLaughlin owned
j the claim west of Rene (this
name was pronounced as though
(spelled Ranee) and it was in an
(empty claim shanty on the
I M e L a u g li 1 i n quarter Mrs.
Clifford was found about mid
day after the murder of Mc
Whorter. The neighborhood
about there was known as the
Hays settlement, though there
were many others besides,
among them several families of
the Rhiinlaiis, and some others
whose names l do not remem
bar.
< »ver tin* <tivme on tne inline
Nemaha, all the way up into
j Otoe county, tin1 lands in its
I valley were taken up as on the
Muddy, and in fact tin all the
| streams large and small in the
! whole country. Mr. Francis
Withee first settled in Nemaha
I county, l think in the year lhas,
or thereabouts, and had per
sonal knowledge of the facts
related herein.
McWhorter was untnaried.
j and was -aid to be like Peg
goty -aid Barkis was. ”a little
near" by which was meant
that he was very careful with
his money, and not free in its
use. That i- what most people
call close. lie had a claim
; house and a stove, which was
.rare in those clays, but other
wise he was a- poorly provided
with the comforts of life a
Clifford, or any of his neigh
bor-. Clifford had a rude -true
| ture or excuse ^for a house
. which barely afforded shelter
from the pittiless storms that
! were frequent that winter. Per
haps the winters then were no
more severe than they have
been since, but they appeared to
be so because of the destitution
of the people, their poor hous
ings, clothing and furnishings,
j I have many a time in many a
house in this county in those
days, waked up in the morning
to find a covering of snow
on the bed from a half
to j an inch or more deep,
that the winds of a blizzard had
forced through the cracks and
crannies of the house the set
tler had been able to put up for
the shelter of himself and fam
1
jtlunys in that Muddy settlement
j in January.
,1 It appears that Clifford
McWhorter beiny close neigh
bors and differently situated,
ayreed to combine their house
holds. McWhorter to briny his
stove and other traps to Clif
ford'~ house, they to furnish the
yrub between them for Mrs.
t Milford to coon. In other words,
McWhorter haviny no wife, be
came a member of the Clifford
family on the terms indicated,
to last, I suppose, while the ar
ranyeinent was ayreeable t<> all
parties. I Jiave no information
as to when this joint occupa
tion be y an, but it is probable
that it commenced in the fall or
early in the winter. There is
also some uncertainty as to the
time in the winter the murder1
was committed, i had it in
mind that it Was in February,
but Mr. Witltee is sure it oc
curred in January, and he may
be riyht. I tried to fix the time
from the record of Clifford’s
trial, but the indictment has
been lost from the files and
there was no other record that
would show the date of the
crime. It would not appear
and does not appear in the
journal in the clerk's office.
1 lie testimony in ( litToru s
trial tor the murder of McWlior
ter showed that there was no
person in the Clifford house at
the time except the three, Clif
ford and his wife, and Mc
Whorter. As two of them were
dead in the affray, none lived to
tell the story of that savage
crime but Clifford himself. He
must have been as much as fifty
years old, at least his appear
ance so indicated to me, and it
was agreed by those who knew
his wife that there was very lit
tie difference between their
ages. 1 never saw the woman
and have no personal knowl -
edge on the subject. Clifford
was a man below the medium
height, stocky built, and not in
any sense companionable or
pleasant in his social relations
with his neighbors. I knew
Clifford in Falls City after his
trial, but 1 never saw McWhor
ter.
The crime was discovered by
lienc early in in the morning.
Everything in the house was in
confusion, with evidence on
every hand of a terrible and
murderous struggle. McWhor
ter lay on the floor chopped to
death with an ax, while Clif
ford was in bed complaining of
wounds he said McWhorter had
inflicted upon him with va gun
clubbed for the purpose, and
the wife gone from the house.
It was freezing cold, with a
blizzard still raging as it had
been all night. Clifford said
McWhorter had attacked him
with -the gun and he had to use
the axe in self defense. Later
he set afloat a story that no
body believed, lowit. criminal
intimacy of McWhorter with his
wife. Nothing of that kind was
metioned at the trial. It was a
lie, pure and simple. What
they fought about is mere con
jecture. It was probably the
result of a dispute about their
relative shares of their joint ex
pense, but nobody ever cer
tainly knew the real truth.
Clifford asked Rene to follow
his wife and bring her home.
She was found as stated in the
McLaughlin shanty and Rene
and another tried to carry her
to the house of James Quinlan,
the nearest at hand, but the
load was too great for their
strength.
One of them went for more as
sistance, but before he returned
the poor woman died. She lies
buried in the Archer cemeterv.
Clifford was indicted and tried
for murder at the following
September term of the district
court. The trial was a travesty
on justice and good sense.
There was no theory in the de
fense. It was a mere mass of
contradictions, partly self de
fense and partly excusable homi
cide on the ground of insanity
There
never any falling
off in the grand
flavor of
Ginger Snaps
The nicest, spiciest,
most tantalizing
ginger snaps
ever made.
produced by an overdose of
quinine forty grains, as sworn
to by Clifford. He said lie killed
McWhorter with the axe, to
prevent McWhorter killing him
with the gun used as a bludgeon.
If that was true Clifford was
not insane; and if he killed
McWhorter in a tit of insanity
no possible element of self de
fense could exist in the case.
Yet, the judge, who was incom
petent for the place lie held, in
structed the jury on both lines
of that contradictory defense,
telling them that if either one
was established to their satis
faction they should acquit the
defendant.
To establish the theory of
self defense he told of the
wounds given him in the assault
by McWhorter, and to establish
the theory of insanity, he told
of taking forty grains of qui
nine at a single dose. Had
there been a lawyer o;i the
bench lie would have told the
jury that it was impossible for
both of those contradictory stor
ies of ( Mifford to be true,and they
should disregard his whole tes
timony. A more howling legal
farce was never enacted in a
so-called court of justice.
I assisted at the preliminary
examination on behalf of the
prosecution, but 1 had nothing
further to do with the case. I
was present, however, at the
trial and heard it with dose at
tention. At this distant day it
is out of the question forme, or
any other, to reproduce the
facts as they were detailed by
the witnesses. 1 can only give
the substance of the salient
facts as l remember them. In
this particular I have been ina
t -rially assisted as above stated,
and a general knowledge of the
crime and what followed, can
be gained in a way, from what
is here related.
w nen two or more people
who are cognizant of the
facts of any transaction
in the past, if permit
ted to confer, will, in talk
ing them over in recall, refresh
each other’s memory, and con
jointly bring back in recollec
tion much that neither separ
ately remembered, This is the
common experience, and will
explain the delight with which
old timers like to get together
and talk over old days, people,
and scenes in which they were
actors and of which they were
a part.
Something like it was in the
mind of Burns when he wrote
that song of the ages “Auld
Lang Syne,” and in Tennyson's,
when he gave to the world his
great poem, “In Days of Yore.”
It was a double horrible mur
der, for Clifford killed his
wife as surely as he
klled McWhorter. The ex
act truth in detail will never be
known, but the people in the
neighborhood were never i n
doubt as to the deep and damn
ing guilt of that old savage
monster. He lived for three or
four years afterwards, in this
city, solitary, shunt'd and de
spised, and then disappeared
and was heard of no more.
DAY OF “FREE LAND” GONE.
Uncle Sam Still Has Many Unoccupied
Acres, But Settlers There Must
Have Money.
The original 13 states hulk rather
small on the map of the United States.
As respects population, notwithstand
ing the enormous growth of the coun
try since the revolution, the adding of
state after state io the original united
colonies and star after star to the
American (lag, the old 13 still number
about one-third of the entire 80,000,
000 people of the union.
Another third, according to the bu
reau of statistics of the department of
commerce and labor, live in the states
created from I lie territory ceded to
the common union by the original
states. This is the region known for
half a century as the west, which lias
always been a relative term according
to the period in which it was used.
The other third of the population live
in what was originally known as the
Louisiana purchase, the Gadsden pur
chase and other areas added by pur
chase or annexation. The center of
population, following the star of em
pire westward, has passed over Ohio
and now halts in southern Indiana.
It is interesting to learn from the
statistics furnished by the bureau that
in 1908 there were still 754,895,000
acres of unappropriated and unre
served land. Of tilts nearly one-half
is in Alaska, and its value is yet to be
determined. In Nevada there are 61,*
177.000 acres of this unappropriated
land, in Montana 46,532,000 acres, in
New Mexico 44,778,000 acres, and 42,
769.000 acres are in Arizona.
But these figures are more imposing
on paper than the land will justify as
the possible home of a large popula
tion. By irrigation many thousands of
those acres, now practically a desert,
will vet be made fertile; by drying up
or drainage the immense swamp
areas ill some of the older states an
other large area will be eventually
made available. The day of "free
land," however, in the golden west, a
cry once so attractive to the immi
grant or to the settler from the older
states, has practically passed. Much
of the land yet unappropriated may be
free enough, but it will require wealth
to make it productive.
The United States, as far as regards
the opportunities it offers the landless,
is at the close of its first great era.
The areas to come may be better in
some respects, but they will be differ
ent. There are no more boundless
areas of fertile, well-watered soil
awaiting the settler. The day of free
land is over.
Go from Home to Meet People.
A postcard received from Paris a
few days ago, says the New York Trib
une, bears a picture of the Hotel de
Ville and the Pont d’Areole and this
message: "I have been here an hour
at a time for three days, but never
saw a soul I knew—no met-by chance
adventure.” In the summer of 1905
the man who sent the card was also
in Paris, and one day, when near
the entrance to the Hotel de Ville, he
saw a child stumble and fall. He
hastened to pick the little boy up,
but before he could do so another
man rushed from an opposite direc
tion and performed the service. The
child had sustained a slight bruise.
The man who had picked him up tried
tfi soothe him and said: "You are
i
all right; don't cry.” The other man
asked: "Is lie hurt?” This was ail in
English. After mutual introductions
it was discovered that both men lived
in the same block in New York and
had never met before. The next day
the story was told at the office of
John K. Gowdy, who was then the
American consul general, and it. be
came a stock yarn, the moral of which
was: “If von want to meet people
walk on the Pont d' Arcole.”
Most Unkind.
The Boston Transcript tells the'
story of “a very sinful wag” who was
lunching with 1 Jr. Abbott and referred
repeatedly to his connection with
Outing.
At last Dr. Abbott could stand it no
longer and protested: “But, my dear
sir, I am not the editor of Outing [
have never had anything to do wtth
Outing. I am the editor of the Out
look.”
“Why, bless me, so you are!” cried
his vis-a-vis. “Funny 1 should have
made that mistake. Really, couldn’t
have confused two periodicals more
strikingly different. Whereas, lut
ing makes a religion of sport, the Out
look—”
Domestic Science Teaching.
Chicago lias about decided that a
girl’s education is not complete unless
she has some knowledge of the sci
ence of cookery and kindred accom
plishments and will pay the super
visor of the department $1,000 a year
Miss Mary Snow of Pratt institute has
been elected to fill the position, she
being one of the 75 applicants for the
place.
Mistake in Sickroom.
Mrs. Jones—1 hear your husband is
suffering from a nervous breakdown.
How is he today?
Mrs. Smith—Worse. The doctor said
we must keep him in an atmosphere
at good humor, and we had him al
most well, when somebody showed
lim a Sunday comic supplement —
fudge.
It Didn't Work.
“I haven't anything fit to wear," shs
said.
“Neither have I,” he replied: “let's
stay at home.”
Taken up thus, there was nothing
(or her to do hut hurry and get ready.
To Err Is Human.
"I am going to tel) you the truth
about yourself,” he said.
‘‘Go on,” said the young and ambi
tious actress.
“I have in my time had rare oppor
tunities to observe beautiful, graceful
and talented women, and I violate no
confidence in saying that you are the
queen of them all. You unite in your
lovely person that peculiar magnet
ism which lays audiences at your feet.
Y’otir genius, shining through all the
deficiencies of stagecraft, enables you
to triumph over every obstacle So
supreme are you that you have the
right to rise above all conventionali
ties, to marry, to love, to discard
whom yon please, and no one will
dare to criticise. YTour work will live.
You are the very personification of the
highest art. United with this, your
perfection of beauty gives you the
just title to a lasting fame.”
“Is all that true?” she asked, softly.
Absolutely. Would you have me
say more? What more could 1 say?"
She sighed.
“You might,” she answered, ‘have
mentioned my clothes and my figure!"
—Puck.
STR DOLLAR
tack tc ycu if you spend It at
£ pone forever if you send it to
rder Hoj- p. A glance through
king columns w 11 give you an
it win bay the most.
