First White Child Born in Nebraska
iV ma ADDRESS at the Lewis
and Clarke centennarjr celebra
tion at Fort Calhoun, on August
IQ?(J0 E(Jward Rosewater spoke, of a
cerson belnff nresent who was
born near Fort Calhoun in 1827, seventy
seven years ago. This man Is AntoIne Ca
baney, or Cabanne. He la the "first whit
child" born In Nebraska.
Antolno Cabaney was born at Cabanne's
trading post, near Fort Calhoun, In 1S27.
This was long before the location was
known as Fort Atkinson or Calhoun, Ca
banne's trading post being located at tha
mouth of Fonca creek, now In Douglas
county, near the forgotten site of the town
of Rockport. He is the son of John P.
Cabanne, then and for many years
previous connected in a prominent capacity
with the American Fur company. His
mother was Mary Jane Barada of tha
Omaha tribe of Indians, the second wlfa
of John Cabanne. When but 3 years old,
Antolne was taken to St. Louis and placed
In the care of his foster mother, John
Cabanne's first wife. Mary Barada was
the daughter of Michael Barada, who died
at Bellevue at an early day. Antolne re
mained at SL Louis until 1S55, when he re
turned to Nebraska as an engineer on one
of the Missouri river steamboats, which
profession he followed until 1SCP. In fact
his river career began In IS 19, and em
braced river work on both the Mississippi
and Missouri rivers. Ho went to Kansas
in the early 70's, then to Colorado and
California, returning to Nebraska In 18S3,
where he has since resided, his home now
being at Bancroft, Neb.
Ills father, John P. Cabanne established
Cabanne's trading post In 1S22-6 about ten
miles above Omaha, and remained in,
charge of it until 1S33, when he was suc
ceeded by Major Pilcher. He was also In
charge of the trading post at Bellevue,
where he was succeeded in 1S24 by Teter
A. Sarpy. He died In St. Louis In 1841,
aged C8 years. He was associated with,
Pierre Chouteau, jr., Bernard Pratt,
Bartholomew Berthold and James B,
Sarpy.
In 1831 Narclsse Lo Clerc started In tha
fur business, and the following year set
out for the Sioux territory with a cargo
to trade with the Indians. The American
Pur company wanted to keep him out of
th3 valuable Sioux territory then occu
pied by them and Cabanne, who was their
agent, and authorized him to offer La
Clero cash If ho would not go up tha
river as far as the Sioux country, but
confine himself below. Le Clerc started
up the river with 250 gallons of alcohol
on board by authority of the then Indian
agent. General William Clark. It appears
that before he had embarked that con
gress had passed a law prohibiting taking
llqaor Into the Indian country, but Clark
claimed that he had not received official
notice of the prohibition. A representative
of the American Fur company by tha
name of Chouteau protested, but Clark re
fused to act. Instead, he gave Chouteau
authority to take 1,400 gallons of liquor
Into the Indian country, but before he
had passed Fort Leavenworth the delayed
order was received by Clark and tha
liquor was confiscated. Le Clerc In tha
meantime had gone beyond recall with
his cargo, and was not molested. When
he neared Cabanne's post near Bellevue,
three of Cabanne's men deserted and went
to Le Clerc. Cabanne took a force of men
and recaptured them. From them ha
learned of the liquor on Le Clerc's boat
.While not in any sense a government of-
KNOWLEDGE of fairs in gen
eral Is not yory extensive. Never
being very strong, I generally
I'Of-jl found it difficult to endure the
' fatigue of attending "pumrkia
shows," as county fairs were some
times called, but I finally saw about
all from pigs to preserves that was
on exhibition, and notwithstanding tha
fact that frail nature often suffered from
overtaxation, I fully enjoyed eeclng what
nature and man. In full accord, could ac
complish. Along In the "GO'S husband and I at
tended a county fair at LaPorte, Ind.
I do not remember much about the horse
racing, but presume that It was "up to
date," as there were racers and racings
almost everywhere in those days.
Of horses, mules, jacks and Jennets there
was a goodly number. Farm horses of
every shade of color, and well matched;
well matched and well trained roadsters,
runners, trotters, pacers and "plugs;"
great "blocky" mules that looked as if
they might be able to pull the corner out
of the court house; and well matched, trim
built mules hitched to carriages, heads
and feet all ready to run away or to kick
the first thing that came near mulos were
Just recently becoming fashionable and
then there were the Spanish, common and
aver so many breeds of jacks, with their
everlasting braying; and the sleepy looking
little Jennet that looked as If she had
beither friends or home and was patiently
m
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ANTONIO CALEANNT3, BORN IN NEBRASKA fTEVENTY-SEVEN TEAR3 AGO,
FTom a Photo Madt for The Bee at Fort Calhoun August 3, 19 J L
fleer and having no right to molest the
liquor or its owner. It gave lulm a pretext
which ho seized upon. He sent his clerk,
Peter A. Sarpy, with an armed party and
a cannon to intercept the Independent
trader. They took a position above tha
post and when Le Clerc came along In his
boat, ordered him to surrender, which he
did. The liquor was confiscated. Le Clerc
hastened back to St. Louis where he began
suit agaJnst the American Fur company
and criminal proceedings against Cabanne.
The case was finally settled by the pay
ment of $9,200. But Cabanne had t6 )?ave
"The Pumpkin Show"
waiting for tho dinner bell to call her Into
tho great verdant pastures of tho glorious
"beyond."
I don't remember an about tho cattle,
but I think that the display of both the
common and tho Improved breeds was very
creditable. There were many pens of fine
sheep, Lelccstcrs, Southdowns, Merinos,
etc. Most every farmer kept a few sheep
to help cleir his place of noxious weeds
and help Uesp up the fertility of the soil,
as much for the wool that the farm wife
needed to work up into comfortable cloth
ing for her family.
The swlno were thought to bo fine; in
fact, they were, but nothing to compare
with those of the present day. Thcro wero
tho "big-boned China" hogs that were
very greasy to look upon, tho Chester
whites and tho great, big P.usslan white
hogs that were about two years traveling
from their mother's milk to the pork bar
rel; and then the little China hogs that
went wheezing around like they had the
asthma, were quite pretty to look upon
and said to be profitable on account of the
littio food that it took to keep them, bo
sides, they were always ready for the
daughter houso at any time or ago. There
were other breeds of swlno, with and with
out their "fine points," but just now I
cannot recall their names.
There were Quito a number of pens, or
rather coops, of poullry, such as wild and
tame geftse, ducks, guinea hens, pea fowls,
turkeys, barnyard luvsU aud pigeons. But
the Indian country for a long time to
escapo punishment.
Antolne Cabanne related many Interesting
stories of the early days on the river to a
group of interested listeners at the Fort
Calhoun celebration.
"You have doubtless heard," be said,
"that In the old buffalo days that It was
not an unusual thing for a herd of buf
faloes to delay a train of cars, but I doubt
if any of you have ever tieard of buffalo
stopping a steamboat. It is a fact and on
more than one occasion have we had to
of Fifty Years Ago
as fowls were considered by most men de
structive things, belonging to the women
and children, and of little a!ue other
than to be a factor In man's much-prized
breakfast food ham and eggs or an occa
sional fried chicken or chicken pie, there
were not so very many of tho Improved
breeds, although I noticed some fine
games, Brahmas and Shanghais.
The display of grains and grasses was
fine. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, tim
othy and red clover, in the sheaves and
In the half bushel. Tho field corn, sweet
corn, squaw corn, cow corn, with Its every
kernel on the cob wraped in a tiny hUHk,
and popcorn, all in the ear, made a speckled
display that was Interesting to look upon.
The display of vegetables wns elaborate
and very Interesting. Cabbages, Brussels
sprouts and cauliflower of Immense slzo,
turnips, rutabagos, potatoes, etc., seemed
to have outgrown their usual proportion.
And of pumpkins and squashes there
seemed to ba no end of varieties. One
pumpkin, sild to bo seven years old, was
quite a curiosity; it looked very much like
a medium-sized common Yankee pumpkin,
but It was called a "seven-year pumpkin."
One of our neighbors had a similar ono,
which ho said had been on his mantle
shelf over tho fireplace for thrco and a
half years when I saw It. It had been
Slightly frozen on one side and that was
turned toward the chimney. I think that
ha told me that the seed had been sent
anchor in midstream to let a herd of 1
.don't know how many thousands swltq
across the river ahead of the boat. Thera
la ona particular Instance that I recall
(here we had to anchor in midstream up
, the river here, but a few miles from tola
I point, to let a herd of 15,000 or 0,000 get
across from the Iowa side. The captain of
)ur boat was named Terry. It didn't take
nuch of a man to ba a steamboat captain
:1Q those days, and this fellow was n good
ample of the know-it-all. Ho ordered tha
9.wl lowered and a crew of darkles was
tut Into it for tha purpose of capturing a
lot of the calves. They were about threa
fiiontha old and could be easily caught with,
a sort of a swing or net being passed la
.tudcr them, and then they were brought
down to the boat and hoisted on board
wth a temporary derrick. We caught
at out 150 of them this way. Well, Captain
OVrry concluded that he wanted to cap
lure a big bull, saying that It would be a
fortune to him down at St. Louis. Soma
Of us old-timers cautioned him to leave
tha bull lone, and confine himself to tha
Calves.- But he was bound to have his own
way, and tho darkles got the net under a
powerful old bull and pulled him down to
tho boat to hoist him on board. The old
fellow was bellowing and struggling Ilka
mad, and while we had him hoisted with
tho derrick and swinging In the air, I sug
gested to the captain that ho had better
tie tha bull's legs tight end strong or there
would be lots of trouble. But ho wouldn't
take any advice, so ho ordered tho bull
lowered. We fellows that were posted
hiked back to safe quarters at the other
end of the boat. They had a strong ropa
tied around the bull's horns, and this was
fastened to tho yawl.
"Well, no Booner had that old bull's feet
touched the deck than he charged tha
darkles, dragging the net with him, as well
as two or threo fellows who thought they
were holding him. He cleared the deck,
dragging tho derrick with him and made
for the Nebraska shore, dragging tho yawL
and derrick with him, and drowning two
darkles. He was so strong that he pulled
the boat loose from its anchorage and
dragged It up to a sand bar and there wa
IBtuek. The old bull managed to get him
fcelf loose, all but the rope around hla
horns, and with that he di-aggcd the yawl
to land, tearing It to pieces In dragging It
up the bank. Well, he got away all right,
but we had to stay there for nearly two
weeks working to get the boat off tho bar,
and repair the damage done by the falling;
derrick.
"This happened along In 1S00 or 18tn, In
June. We held on to the calves, and took
them down to Leavenworth, where they
were turned over to the manngers of tha
steamboat company. We had been delayed
two weeks by the buffalo scrape, and a da
lay of that length meant a heap of money
to the steamboat company. We had to re
port the cause, and the result was that
Captain Terry lost his Job. I will give him,
credit for admitting that It was all his
fault, and he told tho company that wa
had advised him to let tho buffalo bull
alone.
"We had considerable fun with thosa
calves going down the river. They soon
became about half tame, and were very
playful. But, Caesar, how the little fel
lows would kick. We had them in a strong
pen on the deck, and If a fellow should
happen to pass near them he was likely to
get a kick that he would remember. Tha
little cusses kicked as quick as lightning;
and seemed to be always watching for an
opportunity to hit some unsuspecting fel
low a swipe."
him by a friend from hla old tiome In Ohio.
Thoso two were the only "sevan-year
pumpkins" that I ever saw, or even heard
of. And then there wero South Carolina
squashes that wero marked "210 pounds
weight" great, big, coarse, russety-looklngr
tilings; and Mexican bean pods, with a
bean every two or three Inches, stringless
and a yard long possibly a fair snap bean,
but no account for succotash. .
And what shall I say of the flowers T Call
them old-faahloned things and let them go
at that? Not a bit of it, for thero were as
fine flowers then as now, only perhaps there
were not so great variety of very fine ones
as at the present time, and many might
now bo called old-fashioned, yet, neverthe
less, many of them were hlgtily prized for
their beauty, or fragrance, or both. True,
there wero some coarse, wccdy-looklng;
things, such as Youth-and-old-crgo, Old
Maid's nipples, globes, snails and a few
others, the names of which I have forgut
ten. And shall we not place the potted
pepper plants as a connecting link between
tho, vegetables and the houso plants? For
surely, from the great big bull noses and
sweet mangoes all the way down the Una
of reds and yellows to the little cherry and
cayenne, they wore pretty and sliarcly;
enough to occupy a prominent place in a
window garden. Many of the houso plant
were very fine and sumo that I did not
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