fetes;;'*; «■■ ,-

GENEALOGY COLLECTION

Copyrighted 1906 by H. W. Foght and W. W. Haskell.

The Author.

^kJ\^^aAAa^ X i Aaa

Trail of The Loup

^ Being d^^

A History of the Loup River Region

^ With d^

Some Chapters on the State

H. W. Foght, A. M.

1906

DEDICATION.

TO ALL THOSE EARLY "TRAILERS OF THE LOUP." LIVING AND DEAD, WHO BY THEIR INDOMITABLE COURAGE AND ENERGY OVERCAME ALL OBSTACLES OF NATURE AND REDEEMED FOR CIVILIZATION AND ENLIGHTEN- MENT THE BEAUTIFUL VALLEY OF THE LOUP, IN ORDER THAT WE, THEIR CHILDREN, MIGHT REAP IN FULLEST MEASURE THE FRUITS OF THEIRISOW- ING,

THIS BOOK,

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR.

Introductory

Years a^o— a quarter century past — the author, then a little chap herd- ing cattle in the valley above Ord, according to his daily wont, reclined one day in his retreat in a shaded nook on the banks of the river, while his charges were left to shift for themselves; and well they might, for was not the prairie theirs for miles around ! He dreamed all enrapt in the charm of the virgin prairie, dreamed of things yet to be. As he lay there, listening to the gurgling, eddying water swishing by, he saw visions and heard

"... the tread of pioneers

Of nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves where soon

Shall roll a human sea."

And they came, those pioneers, and they arc as silently leaving us again, passing away to the mysterious realm beyond; while the great human sea, wave upon wave, rolls over the prairies first trodden by them, obliterating their very footprints, making this a new land, almost beyond the recognition of the old timers.

They endured much, those pathfinders, for us their children, that we might reap the fruits of their industry and toil. And shall we then repay them thus, leaving the history they made, unchronicled, unsung? No: a thousand times no! Let it be taken down, that the generations yet unborn may know at what a cost "The Trail of the Loup" was blazed, and how the fathers suffered and toiled, and even died, that the trail might remain open.

To write an old settlers' chronicle is at best difficult; and when, as in the instance of the North and Middle Loup valleys, no systematic efforts have been made to collect and save historic data or to spare from untimely destruction historic structures, the task becomes almost impossible. In the following pages the author has had to depend, in great part, upon the memory of the first settlers. When more than one version of an episode or event was offered, the materials were carefully sifted, and the version which seemed the most likely made use of.

I lay no claims to have exhausted this interesting field of investiga- tion, but I do claim that I have, in the work as far as it has been carried,

6 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

stated the facts just as I found them, without fear or favor. This is not a partisan history, but the story of a limited section of our commonwealth, and, as such, the individual has in every instance been accorded a space in the narrative in due proportion to the part played by him.

Finally, I wish to make grateful acknowledgment to the men and women who have assisted in the work by valuable information, freely given, and by furnishing i3hotographs and other materials lor the illum- ination of the text. Special obligation is due Hon. Peter Mortensen, Elder Oscar Babcock, Messrs. George McAnulty, David Gard, George Miller, Truman Freeland, James Barr, G. J. Rood, W. G. Rood, John Kellogg, W. B. Weekes, Jorgen Miller, Tom Hemmett, Will Johns, William S. Mattley, Melville Goodenow, W. H. Rood, Mansell Davis, Miss Ina Draver, Mrs. George McAnulty, Mrs. A. M. Robbins and Mrs. Emma Haskell.

HAROLD W. FOGHT.

Contents.

CHAPTER I.

SOME PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NEBRASKA.

Arcbian Time, Nebraska a Part of the Ocean Bed— Paleozoic Time — Nebraska in the Carboniferous A^e— Coal in Nebraska— Nebraska in the Permian Age — The Mesozoic Time — No Triassic and Jurassic Kocks in Nebraska — The Cretaceous Period in Nebraska — All Nebraska Dry Land — Groups of Cretaceous Deposits— Cenozoic Time— The Tertiary Age in Nebraska — Bad Lands in Nebraska — Picture from Miocene Nebraska — The Loup River Pliocene Deposits -The Quaternary Age, the Age of Man— The Glacial Period— The Champlain, or Melting Period— Beginning of the End — River Bluffs and Terraces — The First Nebraskan — A Resume.

Situation and Size— General Topography— Nebraska Climate— Health and Strength— A Land of Beauty— A Bird's Eye View of Nebraska— Prof. Samuel Aughey's Verdict.

CHAPTER IL

THE ABORIGINES.

Father Marquette and the Nebraska Indians — Marquette's Indian Chart— The Pawnees— The Four Great Clans— Lieut. Pike and the Repub- lican Pawnees— The Major Stephen H. Long Expedition— Long and the Loup Indians— June 12, 1819, on the Loup— The Red Man's Plague— The Sioux Sweep down the Loup— The Last of the Pawnees— The Siouan Migration— The Sioux, or Dakotahs— Sioux War of 1862-'69— The Chey- ennes Become Involved— Magnitude of the Westward Traffic- The Plum Creek Massacre— Battle of Summit Springs— Gen. Custer's Massacre, June 25, 1876— Sioux War of 1890- '91— Present Status of the Sioux.

CHAPTER HI.

GLIMPSES OF STATE HISTORY.

Earliest Glimpses— The "Seven Cities of Cibola"— Coronado Sets out, February, 1540 — "The Great Kingdom of Quivera" — Across Kansas into Nebraska — Quotations from Francis Lopez' History of the West Indies —

g THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

A Graphic Description of the Buffalo— Quivera in Nebraska?— Coronado's Letter Locating Quivera— Judge Jas. W. Savage on the Question— Was Quivera ou the Loup?— Mounds and other Signs on the North Loup — Lewis and Clarke in Nebraska; July 13 to Sept. 5, 1804; Aug. 31 to Sept. 11, 1806 Other Pathfinders in Nebraska — The Old Mormon Trail— Mormon Set- tlers on the Lower Loup — Importance of the Gold Fever to Nebraska— The Louisiana Purchase, Apr. 30, 1803— Slavery Agitation— Slavery forever Prohibited in Nebraska — Lawlessness in the Territory — The Compromise of 1850— The Kansas Nebraska Bill, 1854— Shaping the State — Territorial Government organized— Census o" 1854 — The Territorial Capital Fight — Nebraska Gains Her Statehood — The Making of the State— Educational Factors— Agriculture— Stock Raising— Political Nebraska.

CHAPTER IV.

GLIMPSES OF THE NORTH LOUP VALLEY.

The North Loup from a Car Window in 1904 — The Dream of Empire Has Come true — Why These Pages Were Written — Limits of the North Loup Valley — The North Loup River; Its Falls — The Sand Hills once again — Valley County in Outline— Alkali Spots not Frequent — Preparing for the Pioneer— The Cedar Canyons— Some Important Native Grasses — Why the Buffalo Grass is Disappearing — The Buffalo in the Valley— Herds of Elk — Numbers of Antelope and Deer — The Only Bear — Other Denizens of the Wild.

CHAPTER V.

COWBOY REGIME AND FORERUNNERS OF CIVILIZATION.

Bloody Pages of History— How the Valley Escaped the Cowboy Regime —The Cowboy and the Settler— Two Causes of the Cattlemen's Complaint —Murder and Burning of Mitchell and Ketchum— Trouble between the Olives and Ketchum— Death of Bob Olive The Cold Blooded Murder at Devil's Canyon— How the Assassins were Caotured- Trial and Conviction of I. P. Olive and Fred Fisher— Vengeance at Last.

Surveying the Valley, 1868-'70— "Happy Jack," Hunter, Scout and Friend— "Happy Jack" in 1904— Geo. McAnulty's Sketch of "Little Buck- shot"—"Buckshot" Comes to the Loup.

CHAPTER VI.

COMING OF THE PIONEERS.

The Trail of the Loup— Founding of "Athens," or St. Paul— "The Danish Land and Homestead Colony" Founds Dannebrog— The Seventh Day Baptists. Their First Committee— The Voluntary Second Committee— Ex-

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP 9

tracts from W. H. Rood's Diary — Crossing Nebraska — Advancing up the North Loup — Game Seems Plentiful — First Actual Settlement in Valley County — Mortensen, Miller, Anderson and Smith "Trecking" to Valley County — Camping on "Raccoon Creek" — Settlement of Section Eight, Ord Township — Peter Mortensen 's Dugout; Hostelry, School House, Court House — Occupations of the First Summer — "Mell" Goodenow's First Square Meal in Valley County— Christian Frey's Adventure with the "In- dians"— "Det Var da som Pokker" — The Seventh Day Baptists Reach the Site of North Loup — Elder Babcock Conducts the First Religious Services Held in the Valley — Some of the Early Homesteaders — A Faithful Band ^Preparing for the First Winter — The Dane Creek Colony Strengthened — Falle Moller and Family Arrive — Coming of the Post Clan and other Frontiersmen — Everyday Life in the Settlement — "Mell" Goodenow Gets His Start — Mortensen's First Pig; Its Sad End — The Settlement Across the River — Charles H. Jones Tells His Story — Arrival at Jones Canyon, Nov 10, 1872 — Nucleus of Garfield County Settlement.

CHAPTER VII.

ORGANIZATION OF VALLEY COUNTY; EARLY POLITICS.

Valley County and the Organic Act of March 1, 1871 -The First Elec- tion in Valley County, March ), 1873 — Resolutions — Certificate of Election —Early Commissioners' Meetings—First Tax Levy— First Ten County War- ants — Squabble over Militia Accoutrements — Odds and Ends— The Ord Bridge Struggle on— How the Injunction Failed- The SherilT Arrives too Late— Cost of First River Bridge— The County Pays $12U0.00 for a Small Safe,

CHAPTER VIIL

THE MEMORABLE YEAR 1873.

The Restless. Thieving Sionx— Battle of Sioux Creek, March 1, 1873— The Men Who Went and how They Were Armed— Hot on the Indian Trail — Face to Face with the Foe— A Hasty Retreat— Counting Losses— Captain Mix on a Scouting Expedition — Mortensen on the Indian Raids — Emma Haskell Describes an Indian Scare.

Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873— The Storm Breaks- Losses in the Upper Valley— Losses in Howard County— Tragic Death of Mrs. Cooper and Daughter Lizzie— Dillon Haworth and Family Freeze to Death.

CHAPTER IX.

INDIANS AND GRASSHOPPERS.

Crops in 1873— The Battle of Pebble Creek, Jan. 19, 1874— Richard

JO THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

McClimans' House Attacked-Lootiiig the Trappers' Cabin-Courlcil of War— The Battle Is on— Death of Marion Littletield.

Breeding Grounds of the Migrating Locust— Our First Locust Year- How They Migrate- Sjme Exceptional Locust Years— The Locusts Keach the Loup", July, 1874— Times to Try Men's Souls.

CHAPTER X.

FORT HARTSUFF.

The Several Appropriations for Fort Hartsuff— Erection of Fort Hart- sufE a Fortunate Circumstance— Ruin Wrought in the Cedar Canyons— Hartsuff a Fort in Name only— Who the Commanders Were— The Fort Abandoned May 1, 1881— Some Good Citizens early Tdentitied with Army Life.

CHAPTER XI.

VILLAGE ORGANIZATION.

How North Loup Was Organized— First Two Schools in the County- North Loup Platted— Growth and Later History— The Ord Townsite Com- pany, 1875— The Court House Proposition— The Beginnings of Ord— Fur- ther Accessions to the Town's Growth — Ambitious Calamus — Records and Affidavits— Rise and Fall of Vinton— Ord, a Strong Business Center- Quotations from Andreas's History of Nebraska — Ord has "Git." etc.

CHAPTER XII.

THE MIDDLE LOUP AND ARCADIA

First Comers to the Middle Loup— Some Early Hardships — The Post Office Named— The First School and Its Teacher — The School Bond Fiasco —The Criminal Trial in Mortensen's Dugout— George McKellar Convicted of Murder— John Wall's Advent to Arcaciia— Early Arcadia— Hard Times A'knocking at the Door— Arcadia in 1905— Lee's Park Settled in 1874 — J. L. H. Knight on Lee's Park— Early Settlers— The First Post Office— The Town of Lee Park.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FURTHER HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY.

A Resume— The Battle of the Blow-out, May, 1876— Death of Sergeant Dougherty— C. H. Jones'Version of the Battle— Some Timid Settlers Leave —Better Times a-coming— Wheeler County Organized,Apr. 11, 1881— First Election, Dec 30, 1884— Second Election, Jan. 30, 1885— Willow Sorines

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP 11

Declared the County Seat -Last Act in the County Seat Drama— Affidavits and Minutes— Burwell Made the County Seat, Feb. IH, 1890 The Combat- ants Bury the Hatchet — C. H. Jones Tells the Story of the County Seat Contest — Origin of the Name Burwell — Building the Town -Prosperity Comes to Burwell — The Future and Gartield County.

CHAPTER XIV.

LOUP COUNTY AND ITS POSSIBILITIES.

The Pathfinders— D. A. Gard and Others Arrive— Making Three Hun- dred Mile Trips for Flour and Groceries -School District No. 9— Other Set- tlers Spread from Kent tu Moulton — Loup Couity Organized in 1883— The Building of Taylor— Taylor Made the Permanent County Seat, July 23, 1883— Hard Years in Loup County— What Alfalfa, Bromegrass and English Blue Grass Will Do for Loup County — Statistics — Descripton by Town, ships.

CHAPTER XV.

SCOTIA AND HER BUILDERS.

The Oldest Settlers Arrive— The County Organized; Scotia Made the County Seat— Irish Catholics at O'Connor— The Railroads and the County Seat — The B. and M. and Greeley Center — The County Seat Goes to Greeley — Immediate Effect on Scotia — Scotia's Future.

CHAPTER XVI.

HARROWING TALES OF A THIRD OF A CENTURY.

Approach of a Prairie Fire — The Beautiful Octobpr Day in 1878 — Ter- rible Death of Albert Cottrell by Fire — Widespread Ruin in the Valley — A Scarred and Suffering Community- Cause of Hailstorms in our Valley — The Destructive Hailstorm of Aug. 5, 1885— The Ord Quiz Tells the Story — The Storm at Calamus — Notes from over the Affected District — The Cyclone — Widespread Destruction in the Blizzard of January 12. 1888 — The Storm — Instances of Suffering — Mrs. Powell at Hard Scrabble— Minnie Freeman at Midvale — Views on Hero-worship — The Whole Truth in a Nut- shell— "Give Honor to Whom Honoris Due" — The Burwell Tornado of Friday Evening, Sept. 15, 1905 — The Storm Breaks — Frank Hennich's Ex- perience— Miraculous Escape of the Hanna Family — Sad Death of Mrs. E- B. McKinney — Last of the Star Store — The Storm Retraces Its Course- In the Country Districts — The Relief Committee at Work^Odds and Ends — Some Miraculous Escapes — Freaks of the Storm — An Estimate of Losses.

12 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

CHAPTER XVII.

CHANGES DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS.

Elections in Valley County by Years— Drawing Party Lines— The County Adopts the Supervisor System— The Fight on Clerk in 1895— The New Office of Clerk of District Court— Valley County again in the Repub- lican Column— Influence of Railroads upon Settlement— Our Mail and Stage Lines— Mail Movements— Ord and North Loup Vote to Secure the Railroad —The Railroad Celebration Meeting— The B. & M. Builds into the Valley in 1887— "Railroad Racket"— Some Results of the Coming- Arcadia Gets the B. & M.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE NEWSPAPER AND THE VALLEY.

The Printing Press in the Loup Valley— First Newspapers in Valley "County— The Valley County Journal Established, March , 1879— The First Opposition Paper— The Ord Quiz almost Twenty -five Years Old — The Standard and the Democratic Press— The Star and The Blizzard; Prohi- bition Papers— The Ord Journal and The Independent; Populist Papers- Other Changes in the Journal Management— The Real Estate Register and The Valley County Times— North Loup Newspapers— The Loyalist— The Arcadia Papers— The Arcadia Champion— Early Newspapers in Garfield County— A Mixed Newspaper History — Genesis of the Tribune — Loup County Newspapers Scotia's Newspaper History.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE CRITICAL PERIOD IN LUUP VALLEY HISTORY.

The Nebraska Grange»-s— Fight to Collect the B. & M. Taxes — Strin- gent Money and Low Prices- The Dull Years 1875 and 1876— Immigration to the Loup in 1878 and 1879— The Prosperous Decade 1880-'90— Land GrHl)bing in the Early 80's— Real Estate Speculation in Our Valley — The First Diy Year, '90 The Critical Period in Loup Valley History Begins— The Hard Years a Blessing in Disguise— The Groat Drought Year, 1894— A New Cycle of Good C/ops and Prosperity Ushered in -What the Hard Years Have Taught Us — Prosperity.

CHAPTER XX.

THE BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHO OPENED "THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP:"

BIOGRAPHICAL.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO ARE MAKING THE HISTORY OF THE LOUP VALLEY.

List of Illustrations.

Frontispiece.

The Author. Chapter T.

Toadstool Park, Nebraska Bad Lands.

A Seventy Five Foot Mosasaui'us.

Tusks of a Mammoth from Gosper County.

Jurassic Stej^osaurus.

Nebraska Forest of Late Cretaceous Times.

Titanotherium Robustum from Sioux County.

Fine Loess Formation in Garfield County. Chapter II.

Roam Chief and Yellow Hair.

Pawnee Village.

Pawnee Ceremonial Lodge.

Rosebud Sioux Group.

Sioux Mother and Babe, Chapter III.

One of the "Seven Cities of Cibola. "

Quivera Monument, .Junction City, Kas.

Nebraska Territory in 1854.

Nebraska Territory from 1861 to 1863.

First Dwelling in Lincoln, 1867. Chapter IV.

Section of Jones' Canyon.

A View Taken in Olsen's Canyon.

Road in Olsen's Canyon.

Falls of the North Loup River.

A '*Blow-out" in the Sand Hills.

In Its Native Wilds. Chapter V.

Old Mitchell Ranch House in Custer County.

Conrad Went worth or "Little Buckshot."

The Last Buffalo in the North Loup Valley.

Elk at Play near "The Forks."

Garfield County Hunters.

14 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

Chapter VI.

Historic Map of the Loup Region.

H. C. Rood, Member Locating Committee.

Founders of the Danish Colony in Valley County.

Peter Mortensen's Dugout (Reproduced).

Elder Oscar Babcock of North Loup.

Marilla Fl.ynn, the First White Girl in the Upper Valley. Chapter VII.

Precinct Map of Early Valley County.

Township Map of Valley County.

Daniel Cooley Bailey, First County Commissioner, at 85 years of

AgH.

Dr. Charles Badger, First County Superintendent.

The First Frame House in Valley County, 1872.

Mr. and Mrs. William Hobson, First Couple Licensed to Marry in Valley County. Chapter VIH.

The Battle of Sioux Creek from an Original Water Color.

D. C Bailey's First Home.

Cliftun Hill from the Distance.

A Typical Sod House.

The Original Di)vvhower Log-House. Chapter IX.

Ceorge McAnulty, Indian Fighter and Pioneer.

A Second View of Jones' Canyon.

Tom Ilemmott as He Looked in the Seventies.

A Hand-to-hand Encounter. Chapter X.

Fort Hartsufl', taken from the Hills.

Fort Ilartsuff, taken from "Skunk Hollow."

Emma and Ceorge Alderman Rescued by Soldiers. Chapter XI.

The Tieginnings of North Loup, 1878.

Plat of North Lou]i.

Joseph Green on His Way to North Loup in 1872.

The F(iunders of Ord.

Original Town Plat.

Plans of I^'irst Court House.

S. S. lla.skell, the Father of Ord.

Plat of Calamus.

Plat of Vinton. Chapter XII.

First Extant View of Arcadia.

Hon. M. L. Fries of Arcadia.

Hon. A. E . Bartoo of Arcadia.

THE TKATL OF THE LOUP 15

Chapter XIII.

Early Precinct Map of Garfield County.

View of the River near Burwell.

William Dravcr's Orif!:inal Lo<? House.

Cartoons from the County Seat Fight.

Plat of the Defunct Cedar City.

Plat of Burwell.

Typical Burwell Homes. Chapter XIV

Early Precinct Map ol' Loup County.

Landscape in Loup County.

Hosf-Ranch in Loup County. Chapter XV.

Map of Scotia and Vicinity.

Greeley County's First Settler.

Plat of Scotia.

David Moore of Scotia.

The Hillman Family.

Bishop James O'Connor. Chapter XVI.

The Prairie Fire.

Minnie Freeman, Heroine.

Midvale School House.

Old Settler's Meeting. Chapter XVII.

Newspaper Cartoon.

Report of the Election.

Court Hou.se Spuare. Ord, in 1890.

Andrew J. Gillespie, Sr , the Centenarian of the Valley.

"Railroad Racket."

The Largest Ear of Corn ever Grown In the Loup. Chapter XVIII.

Ord in 1887.

John R. Williams's Home at Ord.

Street Scene in Burwell.

Public School Building, Burwell.

White Towers, Home of A. M. Daniels, Ord.

Cedar Lawn Farm. Chapter XIX.

Ord in 1905.

"The Evergreens," Home of Dr. F. D. Haldeman, Ord.

Block of Houses under Construction, Ord.

Hon. Tom Doran's New Home, Burwell.

Other Burwell Homes.

16 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

Home of Vincent Kokes, Ord.

Wisconsin Colonists at Nortti Loup. Chapter XX,

Photographic Likenesses of Okl Trailers. Chapter XXI.

Photographic Likenesses of Present Daj^ Business Men.

PART I.

Some Physical Features of Nebraska.

CHAPTER 1.

■■To me it seems, that to look on the first land that was ever lifted above the wasted waters, to follow the shore where the earliest animals and plants were created when the thought of God first expressed itself in organic forms, to hold in one's hand a bit of stone from an old sea-beach, hardened into rock thousands of centuries ago, and studded with the beings that once crept upon its surface or were stranded there by some retreating wave, is even of deeper interest to man, than the relics of their own race, for these things tell more directly of the thought and creative acts of God. — Jean Louis Agassiz.

IT DOES not come within the scope of this work to dwell at any length upon the evolution ot our state from the primal rock. Such a discus- sion, while interesting in the extreme, belongs rather to the field of science than to that of history; the sjmce herein allotted it is therefore necessarily somewhat limited. Particularly is this true since the bulk of the text is in- tended to narrate the story not so much of Nebraska as a whole, as the livinsr, throbbing history of a limited section of the state — the Loup Valley. How- ever, a passing glance at the geological structure of Nebraska may not be altogther out of place.

In the aeons of time since Creation, our planet, the Earth, has passed through many marvelous changes. At first a companion star to the Sun, blazing a path through the universe, cooling gradually, its enshrouding mantle of vapors condensing to water, the Earth became involved in a uni- versal, shoreless ocean. Then countless ages slowly slioped away ; the first folds of contracting firerockcrust of the earth appeared, and we had the first dry land. In the Western World the wedge-shaped Laurentian High- lands, approaching the shores of Hudson Bay, had appeared, and strips of land were slowly emerging to the east of the present Appalachians, and in the western part of the United States stretching from Colorado to Cali- foi-nia. This was during the so-called Archian Time— the dawn of earth- building. And all through this immense age, as far as we know, Nebraska formed a part of the bed of a turbulent ocean.

Now followed the Paleozoic (Ancient Life) Time during which the land

18 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

areas were gradually enlarged, and myriad forms of strange organisms appeared. Geologists usually divide this aeon into three distinct ages: The Age of Invertebrates— subdivided into the Upper and Lower Silurian Eras— when numberless Sponges, Corals, Starfishes, Molluska and other strange animal types dominated the ocean depths, and a few terrestrial plants appeared; the Age of Fishes, or Devonian Era, when the ocean swarmed with sharks, gar-pikes and turtlelike placoderms of huge size; and the Carboniferous Age — subdivided into Subcarboniferous, Carboniferous and Permian Eras— when coal plants grew and the coal measures were formed.

During neither the Age of Invertebrates nor the succeeding age of Fishes did dry land appear in Nebraska. Vast land stretches had however been added to the Archian backbone and numerous islands dotted the pres- ent states of Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa.

The Subcarboniferous Era, too, must be passed over as unproductive so far as Nebraska is concerned. But we now approach the Carboniferous Age proper, of absorbing interest because then did the first dry land appear in Nebraska, and because during its progress were the greatest and most valuable coal measures formed.

That the Era was of great duration there cannot be the slightest doubt. "A murky, cloudy atmosphere, surcharged with carbon-dioxide gas, envel- oped the earth and gave it a uniform hothouse temperature. A vegetation remarkable in its luxuriance sprang up. Conifers much akin to the Araucan- ian pines of present day equatorial regions flourished and ferns of surpass- ing grace and beauty grew to the size of mighty trees." The American Continent over its broad surface was now just balancing itself near the water's edge, part of the time bathing in it and then out in the free air. From Pennsylvania to eastern Nebraska and central Kansas, it presented a changing view "of vast jungles, lakes with floating grove islands, and some dry-land forests." Vast amounts of vegetable debris accumulated, form- ing ])eat bods of varying depths.

Tht! era of verdure then gradually drew to a close. A general settling of vast land areas took place and salt water by degrees submerged the low lands, destroying every vestige of the late prolific vegetation. Thus, we may picture the old peat-marsh, with its bottom full of stumps and roots in position as they grew, with its surface covered over with heaps of leaves, branches and prostrate ti-ee trunks, to have been overwhelmed and buried. Subjected to enormous pressure from accumulating top sediment and slow chemical change, it, in time, became one of the several coal measures. Alternate submergance and emerganco of the surface crust readily explains the alternation, in these rockbeds, of coal seams with layers of sandstones, conglomerate, shales, clays and limestones. The second and largest coal measures of this age extends from Texas and Arkansas northward through Kansas and Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. The westward boundary is near th(! central part of Kansas, and crosses the state line into Nebraska near the banks of the Blue River, whence it takes a northea.storly trend.

20

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

leaving the state in southern Washington county. It will thus be seen that part or the whole of some twelve counties in our state overlie these in- teresting beds. In Richardson county a workable stratum has been en- countered, though borings at Lincoln and other places seem to indicate that profitable mines should not be looked for in Nebraska.

The closing period of the Paleozoic aeon was the Per- mian Age, in which the ocean once more prevailed, though with gradually contracting limits. The greater part of Ne- braska was yet a part of the ocean bed, covered by turbulent waters. On stormy days the breakers must have roared along the shore and hurled their spray against the limestone cliffs now marked by a line drawn from Beatrice in Gage county to Blair in Washington. county. Some fifteen of our present day counties in southeast Nebraska had by this time lifted their surface above the waters; all else were engulfed in the briny deep.

The Permian Age is in reality a transition period which ushers in the next great aeon of time, the Mesozoic or Middle Life. This is also called the Era ofReptUesi "for nev- er in the history of the earth were reptiles so abundant, of such size and variety, or so highly organized as then." The era includes three periods: 1. The Triassic, so named for the triple rockbeds in Germany; 2. The Jurassic, named after the Jura Mountains in France; 3. The Cretaceous, from the Latin creta, chalk, referring to the formation of large chalk beds in England and continental Europe.

Careful examination of the rock strata of our state fails to disclose the least trace of a Juro-Triassic deposit. Tne probable explanation of this fact seems to be that this region had now, all of it, by some upward movement of the earth, become dry land. The continental sea had retired to Kan- sas on the south and Colorado on the west. The indications are tliat Nebraska then drained westward, emptying her surface water into Colorado, where flood -time deposits of Tria.ssic and Jurassic land fossils are now to be sought. If the above supposition is correct, it stands to reason that the deposits of the age, which were all of them submarine, could not have been formed in Nebraska, hence we find our Permian rocks directly overlaid by rocks of the Cretaceous period.

During those numberless centuries of dry land existence in Nebraska,

"On either side Was level fen, a prospect wild and wide. With dykes on either hand, by ocean self-supplied. l<"or on the right the distant ocean was seen. And salt the springs that fed the marsh between.'

A seventy-five foot MosasauruB from the Cretaceous beds of]

PHYSICAL FEATURES

21

And yet the marsh was slowly becomiri<^ upland, though the climate was still moist and warm. A tropical vegetation of myj-iad species of giant ferns and noble cycads again clad the land with brilliant hues. These im- mense thickets and forests teemed with animal life. Most striking were the giant Brontosauras of the Wyoming fossil beds, often measuring 60 feet in length; the Atlantosaurus, which reached the phenomenal length of 80 feet; and the lately dicovered gigantic Stegosaurus, remarkable for a scries of huge bony plates mounted along the back. As if these curious creatures were not enough to give character to the time we find uncanny, birdlike reptiles, pterosaurs, swarming the upper air and adding much to this the strangest and most interesting of faunas.

Nebraska forest of late Cretaceous times.

The Cretaceous period marks the beginning of the end of the Mesozoic Era. A general subsidence now set in which seems to have embraced even the Rocky Mountain region. The latter, together with the eastward-lying plain, was once more brought to the water level. A marine bay broke northward from the Gulf of Mexico and, before the middle of the period, covered Texas. Indian Territory, part of Kansas the western half of Nebras- ka, and much territory lying northwestward.

Thus the Rocky Mountain nucleus was again reduced to groups of islands, as in Paleozoic times, and all western Nebraska

22 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

was once more, tbo now for the last time, a part of the ocean bed. 'Toward the hiter part of the period the continent slowly rose again and the great western internal sea was narrowed and made shallow, the connection between the Gulf ana the Arctic Seas was interrupted, lakes of fresh water, bavs and swamps with brakish water, took the place of the ocean, and vast quantities of vegetable matter were formed in the marshes of this closing epoch.' But this was more than a period of emergance; indeed a great geologic revolution was preparing. From the plains on the east to the Wasatch, the entire Rocky Mountain region was thrown into a series of earth folds; the crust was bent and the mountain system, as we have it today, was lifted up, getting a drainage seaward. Nebraska now faced eastward, a part of the continental plain.

	--V	E'	■ i
'^^'			■;^

Ti:."'-' • ''■ M:i:ti!;. ii!; - X';.:i\'ated in Gosper County, and now in the Mn. ri.-r, ot ihe University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

The Oretaceous deposits in Nebraska are of vast exteot and import- ance. For convenience the strata have been classified into the following groups: The Dakota, extending from near Dakota City, where many out- croppingsare to be found, in a south-westerly direction, underlying practi- cally every part of the state; the Fort Benton Group, lying conformably on the Dakota droa/) in the eastern part of the state; the Niobrara Group, ex- tending from the mouth of the Niobrara River, dipping under the central portion of the state and reappearing aga;n in the southwest in Harlan county; the Fort Pierre Group lying above the Niobrara deposits, cropping out in Knox county and other places; the Lara)ine Group, exposed in southwestern counties.

These beds comprise various clays, chalks and sandstones, and are rich

PHYSICAL FEATURES

23

in iands of fossil loaves iind roinaitis of animal life. Thus several hundred species of f(U'ns, cycads and conifers have been counted, and some hundred or more reptile forms, ranging;- in size from twelve to seventy -five feet are known to have existed.

The last great aeon in geological history is now at hand. This is the Ceiiozoic. Time, or Era of Modern Ijifc. A higher vegetation makes its a[)- pearance and the great reptiles are rapidly iriving way to higher species of animal life — the mammals. For convenience this aeon is divided into two ages, the Tertiary and the (Quaternary.

The Tertiari/ Age embraces three epochs, the Eocene, the Miocene and the Pliocene. Of these only the latter two are represented in Nebraska. Prum oui* discussion above it will be borne in mind that over the western [)art of tlie continent the region of marine waters was past. The Kocky Mountain revolution had left the Great Plains a part of the continent. But

Jurassic Stagosaurus which flourished in Wyoming and Colorado while Nebraska was an inland sea. It measured from 25 to 30 feet in length

this plain was yet very near the sea level, the proof of which is found in the existence of vast lakes of fresh water both east and west of the Rocky Mountain range. These were not. however, contemporaneous, but succeed- ed one another as the age proceeded. Thus, in Nebraska we find no trace of Eocene lake beds. Conditions were on t^e other hand quite changed during Miocene times; for then a freshwater lake covered much of the western part of the state, receiving the drainage of the rivers that now have their outlet in the Missouri. Into this lake bed were carried broken down materials from the Rocky Mountain axis and the Black Hills, and from the higher lying Juro-Triassic and Cretaceous deposits. Hither, too, were gathered, as in an immense cemetery, remnants of all the vegetable and animal life of the epoch. A gradual uplifting of strata has left these lake bottoms high and dry. Erosion too has changed their contour much, cut- ting valleys, leaving cliffs and buttes in endless variety.

These Mauvai.s Tcrres of the French trapper, or "Bad Lands" are today

24

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

clearly defined in the White River Country of northwestern Nebraska, and covers hundreds of square miles in southwestern South Dakota and north- eastern Wyoming. The writer has personally inspected these reofions, and nowhere is the story of the past told in more forcible language than in this vast graveyard. Banks full of fossil bones, baccolites, huge petrified tor- toises, and fossil leaves tell the story of how Nebraska looked in those times. Magnolias, oaks, palms, figs, maples, lindens and pines grew in wild luxuriance, and the giant sequoias of California grew on every hill. Indeed, a semi tropical vegetation stretched far away towards the Pole. Droves of Miocene horses frequented the lake shores, the ancestral hog wallowed in the bogs, flocks of monkeys chattered in the treetops, and plain and forest were the haunt and breeding ground of droves of huge masta-

Titanotherium Robuslum from the Sioux County Bad Lands. When full grown it measured 14 feet in length and 8 feet in height at the shoulders.

dons and wicked-eyed rhinoceroces and tapirs. Such were then the Ma-koo- si-tch<i, or hard-Iands-to travel over, as the Sioux nomad has seen fit to dps- ignate these reigons.

The Pliocene Epoch of the Tertiary Age is marked by a general enlarge- ment of the old Miocene lake bed, particularly eastward and southwestward. The Pliocene strata in Nebraska far outreach the Miocene and are, on this account, found to overlie the Cretacious from the central counties east. These beds were of considerable thickness but thin out eastward since the bulk of the materials forming them came from the mountains. Much of the Pliocene material is exceedingly coarse. Beds of conglomerate rock, made up "of waterworn pebbles, feldspar and quartz in masses, and some

PHYSICAL FEATURES

25

small pieces or chips of all the Archian rocks" overlie beds of much worn sandstones and clays.

Alons the Lonit Fork.s, and in other localities, the upper beds have be- come decomposed and an immense amount of fine sand of a more or less stable nature has heaiied up to form the famous "sand hills." Beneath lie strata of compacted <;ravcl; then come limestone formations, yellovv?

Fine Loess Formation in Garfield County.

grits and layers of many colored sands and clays. In many places on the North Lnup River calcarious outcroppings are seen. Such are the bottom rocks forming the "Falls of the Loup " the sandstones and limestones forming the channel bottom near old Willow Springs in Garfield county, and again near Scotia in Greeley county.

With the close of the Tertiary Age and the opening of the Quaternarii

26 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

Age a sreat chanj^e came over the eanh. In Nebraska the lakebeds grad- ually drained out, and there is evidence to show that the semi tropical con- ditions which had so long existed were now undergoing changes. Arctic conditions began to prevail at the north, gradually extending into what is now the North Temperate zone , pushing, as it were, both fauna and flora equatorward. Much of the old life was exterminated or forced to give way before the rigurs of the Glacial Period which was now preparing.

For reasons which it does not come within our province to discuss here the temperature of Noith America gradually fell so low that the snows of winter accumulated too rapidly for the summer's warmth to remove. The result was a glaciation of vast land areas. A groat ice sheet, forced by its own weight, slowly moved southward, enfolding the earth in its em- brace. In the west we know that it extended almost to the 36th degree north latitude. Traces of the ice movement in Nebraska are abundant. Along the Missouri wherever the superticial deposits are removed the un- derlying limestone beds are worn smooth as glass and are full of glacial scratches and flutings. Indications are that the drift covered at least the eastern one third of the state. Here are found the beds of blue clay so characteristic of this period; and in strata above these, drift gravel and clay, and next above gravel and water worn boulders of various size.

After countless ages of polar winter an era of general subsidence took place in the glaciated regions; a great increase in humidity resulted and the ice mantle began to melt and recede. Immense floods were raging in the valleys and the continent from glacier edge to the gulf was converted into an inland sea, full of floating icebergs, which drifting aimlessly about, when they melted, dropped their immense loads of sand gravel and boulders to the lake bottom. These floods covered all of Nebraska with the excep- tion of the Miocene beds of the White River region and the western uplands and a few of the highest crests of the Pliocene deposits which lay too high to be reached by the engulfing waters. The Miocene or Pliocene forma- tions, known to us by such names as Scott's Bluffs and Chimney Eock must, in those times, have been so many islands set in a turbulent sea. The entire Loup region was submerged throughout this period, receiving then those loess-clay deposits which have made it one of the most fertile regions in the state. A change in level now set in. "The farther retreat of the glaciers and the elevation of eastern Iowa reduced the area of this great lake. What had been a great interior sea of turbulent waters now became a system of placid lakes that extended from Nebraska and Western Iowa at intervals to the Gulf." The Missouri, Platte and other well known streams of today drained through them, carrying immense loads of ground-up Pliocene and Cretacious materials suspended in the muddy water. In the course of vast ages the lake beds became filled with this mud (loess) and, after passing through the stage of bog and marsh, be- came dry land. Vegetation soon covered the virgin earth : and this from its annual decay and accumulation of debris gave us the rich surface loam so characteristic to Nebraska.

PHYSICAL FEATURES 27

The chains of river bluffs familiar to every Nebraskan were heaped up while the river yet filled the whole trouj^h from bluff to bluff, and, in fact, while those bluffs themselves were under water. They were in a way piled up on the flanks of the raginj^, mud-carryinfr flood current, as the j^lacial Hood declined the waters gradually fell below the top of the bluff forma- tion, and the first terrace or upper bench of the valley flood plain appeared. The waters continued falling: and the river dwindled down to a mere run, leaving the valley terrace above terrace, bench above bench. Thus in Ne- braska river basins there are often found three and even four such "bot- toms." The terrace building at an end, recent time is well along and geo- logical history need be pursued no further. The earth, topograohically speaking, must have had practically its present day appearance; vegeta- tion covered hill and valley; the highest orders of mammalia roamed over it and man took possession of it. In Nebrctska, indeed, we find traces of a jire-glacial race of man. Discoveries of stone implements, and then chiefly flint arrow heads and spear-heads, have been made deep in undisturbed loess beds, side by side with bones of the mastodon and huge elk of this period. We may thus with some reason presume that man roamed the Ne- braska plains ages before the advent of the long glacial winter.

From the foregoing pages it may be noted that in Nebraska forma- tions older than the Pliocene are nowhere exposed excepting the Miocene deposits in the "Bad Lands" of the northwest. The former, indeed, are represented only in a few isolated neighborhoods in the western part, |where lofty "buttes" ut Pliocine formation tower high above the flood plain. The remainder of the state is covered with glaeial drift and loess, the drift be- ing confined to the eastern third. The loess clay forms a soil of inex- haustible fertility, and ranges in thickness from 5 to 200 feet.

Nebraska, the Land of Shallow Water, lies at the geographical center of the United States, and is bounded by parallels 40 - and 43' North and longi- tude 95^20" and 104° West. The extreme length of the state from east to west is 420 miles, and its breadth from north to south is 208.5 miles. In area it comprises 77,510 square miles, or 49,606,400 acres, of which nearly 500,000 acres represent water.

The state stretches from the foothills of the Rockies to the Missouri, having a gentle eastward slope. The western half averages more than 2,500 feet above the sea, to only 1,200 feet for the eastern half. Scott's Bluffs reach the height of fully 6,000 feet, while Richardsor county is only 878 feet above the sea. Nebraska is drained entirely' by the Missouri and its tributaries. Of the latter the most important are the Platte and the Niobrara, which flow through valleys extending the length of the state from west to east. The Republican comes from western Kansas and, after draining much of the "South Platte Country," returns again to that state. The Elkhorn and, farther west, the Loup are the only important northern tributaries of the Platte. The latter, with its three forks, the North, Middle and South Loup, fl.ows from an interesting lake region in Cherry

28 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

county and empties into the Platte just above Columbus. This river system will presently be treated more in full.

The climate of Nebraska is dry and exhilarating. It is subject to sudden changes in temperature, the thermometer being known to have varied from 114= to 42°. The mean temperature for January is, however, 19.7°, for July 74.8°. The nights are for the most pare cool and refreshing. Ne- braska autumns are delightful, the period from early frost till well toward Christmas is peculiar for its mellow, hazy atmosphere— crisp and bracing — this is the well known "Indian Summer Time." The annual rainfall is 23 inches, most of it falling east of the 100th meridian. The moisture is indeed very unevenly distributed. In the eastern half it averages 30 inches and locally it has gauged as high as 50 inches. In the western half it averages a little more than 19 inches, though on the extreme western border it scarcely reaches 10 inches. Most of the rainfall occurs between April and September, the greatest amount falling in May and June.

As is peculiar to the great continental plain, the weather is very change- able. Snow storms, or "blizzards, " may in winter burst with scarcely any warning, and rage with sudden fury over the prairie which but a few moments before lay bathed in brightest sunshine. Occasional hot winds have in sunnner repeatedly injured the growing crops. It is only justice, however, to add that Nebraska, east of the 9'Jth meridian is as "safe" for agricultural purposes as any state in the union. West of this line it is better adapted for grazing purposes, where not irrigated. Nebraska climate is extremely healthful, 'The stranger settling within the state can- not help noticing a general quickening of spirit and a strange increase of vitality. His appetite becomes voracious, and he sleeps as never before. The dry, continental climate is surcharged with an invigorating ozone which acts as a new life vigor to him who comes into it from the malaria and ague ridden districts of other states.'

To the triivelling public not intimately acquainted with its topography Nebraska is a part of the Great Plains— this, and no more. Tourists have passed through the state from east to west and pronouced it a monotonous, tiresome prairie. But such impressions are at best faulty and do our great commonwealth injustice. A birdseye view would disclose a varied scene of rich valley and grassy upland, of broad basin and rolling water- shed.

The surface is indeed varied. The river valley, ranging in width from a few hundred yards to miles, is usually wooded along the river bank. Beyond the rich alluvial or sometimes sandy bottom lands lie the chain of border bluffs, steep or rounded and often of considerable height. These once passed, a gently undulating watershed meets the eye, stretching per- haps for scores of miles, or again may be for but a very brief distance, to be cut by a second bluff chain, the border of another water course.

The northwest is wild and broken but extremely picturesque— this is the Bad Lands. The Niobrara basin is in great part gently undulating; along the river are many almost romantic spots. Here limestone out-

PHYSICAL FEATURES 29

croppins:s and pine-growths make one forget that this is a prairie state. To the south of theNiobnra are the "sandhills," which are mostly great dunes of Pliocene sands fantastically heaped up. This great region, which by the way, affords excellent range for cattle-grazing is gradually being covered with grasses and shrubs, and will no doubt in time become fit for agriculture. These hills with their grasses and wild flowers, occasional "blowouts" and reed-grown lakes give one an impression of a country yet in the making.

The valley of the Platte is of a sandy nature near the river oed, but, as it recedes is transformed into a fertile, rising plain north and south, losing itself in wavy undulating farmlands, as rich as found anywhere in the country. Westward the state changes from rich prairie, so well adapted to agriculture, to dry plains and sage covered foothills, the typical range country of the west. Toward the southeast are excellent farm lands, beautiful water courses and wooded lowlands. On the eastern border winds the "Big Muddy" through its great flood plain, with chains of towering bluffs on either side— bluffs remarkable for their changeful beauty. "Occasionally," savs Professor Aughey, "an elevation is encountered from whose summit tliere are sucdi magnificent views of river, bottom, forest and winding bluff's as to produce all the emotions of the sublime." "There are many landscapes everywhere of wonderful beauty along all the principal rivers. The blufl's are sometimes precipitous, but generally they round off and melt into gently rolling plains. They constantly vary, and in following them you come now into a beautiful cove, now to a curious headland, then to terraces, and however far you travel you can look in vain for a picture like the one just passed."

The Aborigines.

CHAPTER II.

"The land was ours this glorious land —

With all its wealth of wood and streams; Our warriors strong of heart and hand.

Our daughters beautiful as dreams. When wearied at the thirsty noon.

We knelt us where the spring gushed up, To take our Father's blessed boon

Unlike the white man's poison cup."

— Whittier — "The Indian Tale."

TEIE fir.-^t iiicnlion of Nebraska Indians by white explorers comes from the i)en of Fatlier Jaques Marquette, In June, 1673, tliat devout Clii'istian worker and missionary, accompanied by Louis Joliet, embarked upon his o;reat expkiring trip of tiie "Father of Waters." Fired byareiig- ious enthusiasm and by a determination to convert the Algonquin tribes roaming its banks, he made the perilous descent as far south as the Red Kivci-. Fiom his account of this momentous expedition we draw many a thrilling picture of hair breadth escapes and dramatic scenes. Interesting to our narrative is Marquette's description of the hitherto unkn(jwn Missoui'i country. The voyagers were rapidly approaching the mouth t)f the great western tributary, when, to quote fiom that Reverend Father's account, "we heard a great rushing and bubliling of waters,- and soon belield small islands of floating trees coming from the mouth of the Pekitanoni (the Missouri) with such I'apidity that we could not trust ourselves to go near it. The waters of this river are so muddy that we could not drink it. It so discolors the Mississippi as to make the navigation of it dangerous. This river comes frcm the northwest and on its banks are situated a num- ber 1)1' Indian villaires. "

In a most interesting chart of the expedition, now in tiic arcliives at Montreal, Marquette locates, in what is now Kansas and Nebraska, the following Indian villages: The Ouemessouriet (Missouri), the Kenza (Kansas), the Ouchaij:e (Osage), the Paneassa (Pawnee), and the Maha ((Jtnaha). '1 hat his information was indeed surprisingly accurate is seen from this that French explorers found these very tribes in relatively the san)e ])Osition as indicated in the chart nearly 200 years later.

Lewis and Clark, in the expedition of 1804, found Pawnees, Missouris and Otoes in possession of the Platte, th(i Poncas near the mouth of the Niobrara and the Omahas in tbe northeastern part of the state, centering

32 THE TRAIL OF THF LOUP

around what is now Sioux City. The Pawnees were then the dominant tribe of the western prairie, the others here mentioned being treated as wards and dependents.

Their original home seems to have been somewhere in the lower Red River Valley in Louisiana, where they formed the chief tribe of the important Caddoan stock. At an early date several of these tribes migrated northward. Thus the Arikari moved by way of the Missouri, penetrating far into North Dakota. Sometime later the Skidi (Wolves) advanced north waid and halted at the Platte, there to be overtaken by the Puwn(!es proper.

The Pawnees called themselves Skihiksihiks, or "men par excellence." The popular name, and the one most in vogue, is Wolf People. Thoy were a warlike and powerful nation, claiming the whole region watered by the Platte from the Rocky Mountains to its mouth. They held in check the powerful Kiowas of the Black Hills and waged successful war against the Comanches of the Arkansas.

From an early day we find them divided into four grand divisions, or clans, having distinct government though with language in common. There were the Shani, or Grand Pawnees with villages on tne south bank of the Platte, opposite the present Grand Island: the Kitkehaki, or Republican Pawnees, on the Republican in northern Kansas; the Pitahauerat, or Noisy Pawnees, also on the Platte; and the Skidi, or Loup (Wolf) Pawnees on the Loup Fork of the Platte. Here they lived in well built log houses, covered with turf and earth, preferring these to the movable tepee, which was only used when the bands were on an extended hunt. They depended more on horticulture, the raising of corn and pumpkins, than upon the buffalo hunt. In this manner they never outgrew the sedentary and agricultural habits peculiar to all southern tribes.

Lieutenant Zebulon Pike's exploring expedition, when on its way to the mountains in 1806, encountered the Republican Pawnees in northern Kansas. This was a few years before they moved north to join their brothers already established on the Loup Porks. Lieut Pike and his aid. Lieut. Wilkinson held a grand council with the ctiiefs of that nation on the 29th of September, which is interesting to us. as it gives an idea of the northward limit of Spanish activity at that time. The council is described in the following language: "The council was held at the Pawnee Republic village (near the present site of Scandia in Republic county) and was attend- ed by 400 warriors. When the parties assembled for their council, Lieut. Pike found that the Pawnees had unfurled a Spanish flag at the door of the chief, one which had lately been presented by that government, through the hands of Lieut. Malgoras. To the request of Lieut. Pike that the flag should be delivered to him, and one of the United States hoisted in its place, they at first made no response; but, upon his repeating his demand, with the (^mi)hatic declaration that thuy must choose between Americans and Spaniards and that it was impossible for the nation to have two fathers, ihey decided to put themselves, for the time, at last, under American pro-

THE ABORIGINES 33

tection. An old man accordingly rose, went to the door, took down the Spanish flag and laid it at the feet of Lieut. Pike, and in its stead elevated the stars and the stripes."

Another expedition was sent out by the War Department in 1819, for the purpose of gaining a mure thorough topographical knowledge of the central region of the great Louisiana purchase. This was the Long Expedition. Leaving "Engineer Cantonment" just below Council Bluffs on the loth of June, it crossed the Missouri near the site of Omaha and struck boldly across the "Indian Country." And indeed there was nothing just then to fear from the Indians, as treaties of amity had lately been entered into by government agents and the leading tribes along the route.

One was ratified with the Pawnees as early as January 5, 1812, one with the Mahas, December 26, 1815, and one with the Otoes, December 26, 1817. Major Long's instructions read to see that the treaties were strictly lived up to by redskin and white man alike. In the course of his westward advance he made it a point to visit the Pawnee villages. His account has it that after crossing the Elkhorn he trailed along the north bank of the Platte till the confluence of the Loup was reached. At sunset, June 10th, the expedition went into camp at a small creek about eleven miles distant from the village of the Grand Pawnees. Then in Major Long's account of the visit we read:

"On the following morning, having arranged the party according to rank, and given the necessary instructions for the preservation of order, we proceeded forward, and in a short time came in sight of the first of the Pawnee villages. The trail on which we had travelled since leaving the Missouri had the appearance of being more and more frequented as we approached the Pawnee towns; and here, instead of a single footway, it consisted of more than twenty parallel paths, of similar size and appear- ance; at a few miles distance from the village, we met a party of eight or ten squaws, with hoes and other implements, of agriculture, on their way to the corn plantations. They were accompanied by one young Indian, but in what capacity— whether as assistant; protector or tasivmaster, we were not informed. After a ride of about three hours we arrived before the village, and dispatched a messenger to inform the chief of our approach.

"Answer was returned that he was engaged with his chiefs and warriors at a medicine feast, and could not, therefore, come out and meet us. We were soon surrounded by a crowd of women and children, who ga/^ed at us with some expressions of astonishment; but as no one appeared to welcome us to the village, arrangments were made for sending on the hor.ses and baggage to a suitable place for encampment while Major Long with several gentlemen who wished to accompany him. entered the village. The party after groping about for some time and traversing a considerable part of the village, arrived at the lodge of the principal chief. Here we were again informed that Tarrarecawaho, with all the principal men of the village, was engaged at a medicine feast. Notwithstanding his absence, some mats were spread for us upon the ground in the back part of the lodge. Upon

34

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

them we sat down, and, after waiting some time, were presented with a large wooden dish of hominy or boiled corn. In this was a single spoon of the horn of a buffalo, large enough to hold a pint, which, being used alternately by each of the party, soon emptied the dish of its contents." After this strange reception and feast the expedition visited in turn

Roam Chief (Pawnee) and Yellow Hair (Sioux) agree to "bury the Hatchet."

the villages of the Republican and Loup (Wolf) Pawnees, lying a few miles apart, an hour's ride above the village of the Pawnee Grand. Major Long was especially struck with the thrift of these villages. For miles up and down the river large droves of horses were grazing; fields of maize and patches of tomatoes, pumpkins and squashes were seen in many places

THE ABORIGINES 35

and added much to the apparent wealth of the community. This was before misfortune overtook the nation.

The expedition spent the nigrht of June 12 on the banks of the river, within H stone's throw of the Loup village. This was, as far as we know, the first organized party of white men to slumber on the banks of this beautiful stream.

The Pawnee nation formerly numbered some 25,000 souls and in the day of its prime was the terror alike of trapper and trader and bands from other tribes which by chance ventured too far into the hunting grounds of these fierce fightins foes. But calamity was at hand. In 1881, a terrible smallpox epidemic carried off several thousand of their number, leaving the nation in a pitiable condition. Their agent, John Dougherty, in making his report to the government, says: "Their misery defies all description. I am fully persuaded that one-half the whole number will be carried oft" by this frightful distemper. They told me that not one under thirty years of age escaped, it having been that length of time since it visited them be- fore. They were dying so fast, and taken down at once in such largo numbers that they had ceased to bury their dead, whose bodies were to be seen in every direction —lying in the river, lodged on the sand- bars, in the weeds around the villages and in their corn cashes."

On the 9th of October, 1834, a treaty was made between the Pawnees and the United States government whereby the former agreed to vacate all their lands south of the Platte. All the plague stricken .southern viliaii-es wore abandoned and the miserable remnant of a once proud tribe reassembled on the Loup and westward along the Platte,

But scarcely had the enfeebled nation had time to set up their tepees and breik soil in their new home, when the Sioux made bold by their hereditary foes, apparent weakness, swept down the North Loup and the Cedar and began a war of extermination. Villages and fields were abandoned to the revengeful foe and safety sought in fliglit. The Pawnee found every man's hand against him. Even the government was indifferent and did little to check the depredations of the Sioux. To make matters still worse, other enemies on the south, the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes, Infested the Pawnees' old Kansas hunting grounds, eager to strike the final blow. But this was not to cotiie by the hand of red men. In 1849, gold seekers on their way to California brought the cholera to the Pawnee camps. Again several thousand died and the liandful of survivors, reduced to beggary, besought the government for protection, which was granted. By the treaty of Se|)touiber 4, 1857, they ceded all their original territory except a strip 30 miles long by 15 wide U[)on the lower Loup river. This was the old Nance county Reservation, whence they were finally removed to their present abode in Oklahoma. During the Indian troubles of 1862-'65 the Pawnees furnished scouts to the government and proved a valuable aid against the crafty Sioux. The latter, however, reaped sweet revenge after the war closed. The Pawnees were never safe if they ventured away from the reservation. Red Cloud's bands might at

36

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

any moment sweep down upon them to kill and plunder. As if the loss of their hunting grounds were not enough to fill the cup of troubles, the grasshoppers, in 1872, devoured their corn crop. This meant starvation. Congressional appropriation through land sales kept them alive till 1874, when, as stated above, the Pawnees set their faces southward, forever to leave the Loup and the Platte.

The story of their rapid decay is read in the following figures: In 1835,

according to the missionaries Dunbar and Allis, they numbered 10,000. In 1840 disease and war had reduced them to 7,500. In 1849 cholera had reduced them to 5,000. Later official reports give 4,686 in 1856; 3,416 in 1861; 2376 in 1874; 1440 in 1879; 824 in 1889; 629 in 1901.

Thus passed the Pawnees, the Wolf People of the North, while their arch enemy, the Sioux, still roamed the plains.

The latter belonged to one of the most widely extended and important

THE ABORIGINES 37

Indian families in North America. Prior ^o the advent of white man to this country they appear to have held sway of the Atlantic seaboard of Virginia and the Carolinas, outlying tribes even penetrating south to the Gulf. In those days the Sioux were sedentary and inclined to horti- culture. They lived in well built lodges and tilled the soil. Within the recent historic period they set their faces westward and removed to the banks of the Ohio. The cause of this migration can only be surmised. In all probability it was the outcome of an undue pressure by Maskoki tribes living in the South Atlantic states, coupled with a like Algonquin or Iroquoian movement from the north.

Prom their own traditions we learn that at some point on the Ohio, pr(,bably near the mouth of the Wabash, the Sioux and Winnebagoes parted company with the rest of the tribes and took a northwesterly trail [across Illinois, the former taking possession of the headwaters of the Mississippi, the latter pitching their lodges around the lake that bears their name in Wisconsin. Meanwhile other tribes of the great family had reached the mouth of the Ohio and descended the Mississippi till the Missouri was reached. Here the tribes further separated. The 'Quapas" — "the people who went down stream" — penetrated the wilds southward and possessed themselves of Arkansas; the "Omahas" — "the people who went up the stream" — ascended the Missouri and made their home in eastern Ne- braska. The Poncas and lowas are usually classed as belonging to this tribe. The Otoes, Peorias and Missouris, who we will recall were first mentioned by Father Marquette in 1673, also belonged to the Siouan family. They all took up abodes along the Missouri and drifted westward up the Kaw and the Platte. At thisjuncture the Pawnees swarmed in form the south and by sheer force of numbers overcame the smaller Siouan tribes and reduced them to a state of vassalage. This was, however of so mild and paternal a nature that the vanquished appear to have been quite content with the new condition of things. Indeed when in later times the Pawnees became weak and dependent, the wards took the part of the task- master against their own kinsmen, the Dakotahs.

The Sioux are the most important of the Siouan stock. Numerically they are the largest in the United States with the possible exception of the Ojibwas. The Sioux call themselves Dakotah, Nakotah, or Lakotah, according to the respective dialect, the name signifying "allies,." The popular name by which we know them is a corruption of the old Ojibwa "Nadawesiwug," meaning "enemies." The early French pronounced this as "Nadaousioux," which by shortening became modern 'Sioux." This warlike tribe had at an early date forgotten their sedentary habits and become a nation of roaming buffalo hunters. From the headwaters of the Mississippi they gradually moved westward, pressed upon the east by the fierce Ojibwas who were aided by the French. Crossing the Missouri they invaded the hunting grounds of the Kiowas, Cheyemies and Crows, whom they crowded beyond the Black Hills. For many years the Niobrara River in Nebraska formed the line of demarkation between the

38 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

Sioux and Pawnees. When the vSioux iinally extended their hunts and for- ays beyond this stream a relentless war commenced, which ended only with the utter annihilation of the valient foe from the southland. In 1837 the Sioux sold to the government ail their claims to lands east of the Mississippi. In 1851 they surrendered the greater part of Minnesota and removed to the plains of Dakotah. But a general dissatisfaction with the manner in which the government fulfilled the terms of the treaty led to the massacre of white settlers at Spirit Lake, Iowa, in 1857. A few years later, in 1862, the shrewd chieftain, Little Crow, still chafing under real and imaginary wrongs, took advantage of the national government's em harassment consequent upon the Civil War and with his bands fell upon the outlying settlements in Minnesota, massacring fully 1000 of the settlers. This inaugurated a bitter war which lasted until 1869. The Indians were speedily driven out of Minnesota by General Sibley. Little Crow and his bands escaped to Canada, while the remainder, under command of Red Cloud and other noted chiefs sought refuge in Nebraska, where they continued the contest for seven years. Those were bloody days upon the plains. The valley of the Platte was then the great thoroughfare to California. Along a line hundreds of miles in lensfth the plainsmen were exposed to attack. To hazard crossing the plains in small companies was now to invite sure destruction. The pioneers were forced therefore to organize in strong caravans or trains, armed to the teeth. Even then they were not always successful in making their way to the mountains. The trail from the Missouri to the Rockies became marked with bleaching bones, burnt wagons and rotting harness.

The military had its hands full and indeed on occasion suffered severely. Thus, in 1866, Colonel Fetterman's entire comnrand of 165 men was massacred near Fort Phillip Kearney. The frontiers and outlying ranches were panic stricken and at one time in 1864 many were entirely abandoned The Sioux were aided by the Cheyennes in these raids or, mor« correctly, the latter headed the first Platte River attack, after which the Brules and other Sioux joined in the fray, soon becoming the leaders. The Cheyennes were by this time closely allied to the Sioux through intermarriage of the tribes, and trouble with the one nation was sure to mean war with both. The Cheyennes had long been dissatisfied with the way the whites treated them and especially did they hate the soldiers at the army posts along the route. These seem to have been unnecessarily harsh in their treatment of the Indians, and at times to have brutally mis- used them.

Let us here note the magnitude of the traffic by the great overland route of the Platte. It was not unusual, says an old rancher, to stand at one's cabin door and count from 1000 to 1500 wagons passing in a single day. Or to take an example more to the point: One St Louis firm, Russell, Majors, WaddeU & Co., operated no less than 6,250 wagons, requiring a team force of 70,000 oxen, and representing an investment of nearly $2,000- 000. When it is borne in mjnd that this firm was only one of the many

40

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

doing business between the river and the mountains, we shall readily com- nrehend the enormous proDortions of the traffic.

^ The first outbreak of the war occurred at Plum Creek in Dawson county on the 17th day of Au-ust, 1864. This point was at that time the most important stase and telegraph station between Fort Kearney and Ft. McPherson. After leaving the station and the broad valley the route led

Sioux Mother and Babe; Early Trailers of the Loup.

to a point where steep bluffs and wood covered canyons afforded excellent concealment to a prowling foe. In this death trap the Indians planned their ambuscade, ani fell upon an unsuspecting wagon train, killing the entire party of eleven, plundering the wagons and then setting fire to them. Fortunately the Indians had neglected to cut the telegraphic communica- tion eastward, and this alone prevented the general massacre, long planned.

THE ABORIGINES 41

Settlers and ranchmen received timely warning? and generally succeeded in reaching some point of relugo. For weeks all was panic and confusion. How(!ver, with the aid of the military, some degree of reassurance was established and many of the fugitives returned to their homes. For almost live years did the war drag on. involving terrible loss in life and property. During these years numerous pitched battles were fought between the government regulars and the Sioux. The last and decisive fight took place at Summit Springs. Sunday, July 11, 1861).

The Sioux, under command of the vile chief, Tall Bull, had for some time made life unsafe along the Republican, when Gen. Carr of Fort Mcl^herson started in pursuit with several companies of U. S. Troops and Major Frank North's band of 800 Pawnee scouts and fighters. William Cody, better known as "Buffalo Bill," acted as guid«. July 5, Cody and six Pawnee scouts discovered the Sioux in the sand hills south of the Platte, whither they had retreated in haste upon hearing of the pursuit. When theattacik was made the Sioux broke up into small bands and escaped under cover of darkness. Three days later, however, 600 Sioux were discovered in the act of fording the river and a sharp fight ensued. The Indians suffered heavy loss, among others the famous chief, Tall Bull, falling a victim to Cody's unerring aim. On the following Sunday General Carr, who had followed the main trail, overtook the reunited bands at Summit Springs. The Sioux held their ground and a day-break battle ensued. It was short but decisive. Many soldiers and Pawnee scouts were slain, and at least 700 of the Sioux, including many chiefs and sub-chiefs. The handful who escaped the carnage sought safety in headlong flight. Considerable booty was made. Herds of ponies, the entire camp outfit and 300 squaws fell into the victors' hands. This battle practically ended the war. The Indians, DOwer of resistance was broken and while a few depredations were com- mitted after this time, they were limited to the stealing and running off of stock in the border settlements.

The same year a treaty of peace was made which remained unbroken until the invasion of the Black Hills by miners, consequent upon the discovery of gold, led to another war in 1876-77. Nebraska fortunately was spared the brunt of this outbreak, the main actions taking place in Mon- tana. The chief event of the war was the surprise and massacre of the intrepid Gen. George A. Custer and his entire command of nearly 300 regular troops in the bluffs of the Little Big Horn country. Sitting Bull is credited with being the leader of the hordes who on that memorable occasion overwhelmed one of the most daring and idolized Indian fighters of his century. Four days later Gen. Crook arrived upon the battlefield and in a series of fights took summary revenge upon the Indians. Of these Sitting Bull with several thousand followers escaped to Canada where he remained till 1881, when he returned on promise of amnesty.

In 1889 another treaty was made by which the Sioux surrendered the richest lands of the "Great Sioux reservation," embracing all of South Dakota west of the Missouri. In lieu for this they were given five small

42 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

distinct reservations and certain annuities. The new arrangements were cxceedinj]:ly distasteful to a powerful minority, and this, together with an Indian "Messiah Craze" led to a new outbroak in the fall of 1890. At Wounded Knee, on the White Eiver,one of the bands, which had voluntarily surrendered, attempted a treacherous surprise of the troops which all but succeeded. The trick was, however, discovered in the nick^f time, and what had at tirst promised the annihilation of the unsuspecting regulars, was turned into a terrible massacre of the red men. When the alfray was ended fully 300 Indian dead covered the field.

A blot upon our escutcheon in this war was the slaying of old Sitting Bull and members of his family December 15, 1890, by a troop of soldiers sent to arrest him at his lodge. The old chieftain made but little show of resistance and his death was entirely unwarranted.

The Sioux were typical nomad hunters and warriors. Numerically and physically strong, thoy made themselves masters of the butfalo plains, no other tribes being able to make a successful stand against them. In their skin tepees they dwelt where the buffalo was plentiful. They had their horses, dogs and weapons of war and were content. As warriors they were ruthless and unforgiving. No more striking example of these traits is found than in the vengeful spirit with which they liunted down and hounded the Pawnees to utter annihilation.

The census of 1900 places the nation at fully 24,000, distributed as follows: Canada (refugees from the U. S. ), 600; Minnesota, 930; Montana (F'ort Peck Agency,) 1180; Nebraska (Santee Agency), 1310; North Dakota (Devil's Lake and Standing Rock Agencies), 4630; South Dakota (Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Lower Brule, Pine Ridge and Rosebud Agencies), 15,480.

Glimpses of State History.

CHAPTER III.

O

"Now let us climb Nebraska's loftiest mount.

And from it's summit view the scene below.

The moon comes like an angle down from heaven;

Its radiant face in the unclouded sun:

Its outspread wings the over-arching sky;

Its voice the charming minstrels of the air;

its breath the fragrance of the brightest wild-flowers.

Behold the prairie, broad and grand and free -

'Tis God's own garden' unprofaned by man!" "Nebraska - a Poem.''

NE is accustomed to think of Nebraska as a state with but a brief his- tory. And when we consider her history in relation to her forty -four sister states this is perfectly true. In another sense, however, the state has a history surprisingly old. Fully sixty years before the founding of Jamestown in Virginia, and three quarters of a century prior to the coming of the Pilgrim Fathers to New England shores, did white men travel over the arreat plains of which Nebraska forms a part, and write narratives minutely describing the fauna and flora of those parts. Not from the east but from the far southland, Mexico, came the adventurers who were first to gaze upon her virgin beauty of plain and hill. It fell to the lot of the romantic Spaniard to shed poetic glamour over the first pages of Nebraska history. And it came with the far famed expedition of Cavalier Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, which left Compostela, Mexico, February 23, 1540.

From an early date wild stories had been alloat in New Spain (Mexico), telling about a marvelous province, Cibola, in which were said to be seven magnificent cities, far surpassing the city of the Montezuma in riches and splendor. Several expeditions were dispatched to find the much coveted prize, but all these, daunted by the terrible journey across mountain and through desert waste, despairing of success, returned empty-handed. It was not till the year 1536 that the government determined to make a con- certed effort to reach Cibola. In that year Cabeza de Vaca and three companions — the only survivors of the Narvaez Expedition, which had been shipwrecked at the mouth of the Mississippi — arrived at San Miguel on the Gulf of California. These men told marvellous tales of their tramp from gulf to gulf. Of how their Indian captors had carried them from

44

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

tribe to tribe and how in course of these wanderings they had at one time come to niavellons cities, built of stone and brick and surpassingly rich in gold and silver. These tales gave new life to the "Cibola" stories, and stirred the covetous Spaniards to immediate action. The friar Marcos de Niza was accordingly sent forward on a preliminary expedition. This was in 1539. Marcos who evidently did discover one of the Zuni or Moqui ueblos in upper Arizonia or New Mexico, brought back glowing reports to Coronado, the governor of New Gallicia. He had, said he, not alone found fair Ciboia, but the half had not been told about its marvels.

An expedition was now organized which had for its avowed purpose the conquestand Christianization of this fairy realm. And accordingly the governor in own person set forth with a large force of horsemen, infantry and native allies, supplied with artillery and large stores of ammunition and foodstuffs. With much diflficuly he made his way across the mountains

One of the ''Seven Cities of Cibola."

and into eastern Arizona, and there stormed the strongly built stone pueblo of Hawiku, which may yet be seen in its ruined state. This was, no doubt,oneof friar Marcos' "Seven Cities." Not finding the fabled riches here, Coronado sent out expeditions to the west and north, which explored the country as far as the mud pueblos of Tusayan and the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. But as these expeditions were equally unsuccessful, the small army was ordered eastward and wintered on the banks of the Rio Grande in New Mexico.

During the winter of 1540-41 the river tribes were subjugated after tierce resistance. Such shocking cruelty did the Spaniards display in their fights with the tribes that these in a dire extremity preferred death by fire to the small mercy of their Christian conquerors. At this juncture an Indian warrior appeared before Coronado with a strange story about "the great kingdom of Quivera" lying many leaguesto the northeast. A wonder- ful land indeed was this, "with its river seven miles wide, in which fishes large as horses were found; its imnaense Cctnoes; its trees bung with golden

GLIMPSES OF STATE HISTORY 45

bells, and dishes of solid gold." This remarkable bale had all the effect that could have been intendpd for it. The credulous Spaniards took the bait and one self sacrificing red man, thinking more of ravaged kin than life, led the way into the Stalked Plains of Texas, drawing the hated white man as far as possible from the poor, tortured, peace-loving tribes at home.

After 700 miles of weary plodding across "mighty plains and sandy heaths" the explorers reached the banks of a great river which they called "St. Peter or St. Paul," and which from all reports must have been the Arkansas, Prior to leaving this stream the leader ordered the main body of his soldiers back to the old camp on the Rio Grande; with onlv 30 picked and mounted men did he then continue the search for Quivera. Northward, day after day, till 48 had sped by, did they continue — not always in a straight line, but searching out the country as they advanced.

And here let us pause long enough in our search for the promised land to peruse a quaint but graphic description of early day life on the great buffalo plain, as it comes from the pen of the Spanish chronicler, the first civilized man to see such wonders: "The men." he says, ''clothe and shoe themselves with lether, and the women which are esteemed for their long lockes, cover their heads . . . with the same. They have no bread of any kinds of graine, as they say, which I account a very great matter. Their chiefest foode is flesh, and that oftentimes they eate raw, either of custome or for lacke of wood. They eate the (att s as they take it out of the oxe, a.d drinke the bloode hotte, and die not therewithall, though the ancient writers say that it killeth, as Empedochs and others affirmed. They drinke it also colde dissolved in water. They seeth not the ilesh for lack of pots, but rost it, or so tu say more properly, warme it at a fire of Oxe- dung; when they eat, they chaw their meate but little, and raven up much, and holding the flesh with their teeth, they cut it with rasors of stone which seemeth to be great beastialitie; but such is their manner of living and fashion. They goo together in companies, and moove from one place to another as the wild Moores of Barbarie, called Alarbes doe, following the seasons and the pasture after their oxen.

"These Oxen are of the bignesse and color of our Bulles, but their homes are not so great. They have a great bunch upon their fore shoul- dres, aiid more haire on their foro part than on their hinder part, and it is like wool. They have as it were an horse-manne upon their backe bone, and much haire and verv long from their knees downward. Thoy have great tuftes of haire hanging downe at their chinnes and throates. The male!- have very long tailes and a great knobbe and llocke at the end: so that in some respect they resemble the lion, and in .some other the camell They push with their homes, they runne, they overtake and kill an horse, when they are in their rage and anger. Finally it is a foule and fierce beast of countenance and form of bodie. The horses fledde from them, either because of their deforraitie, or because theye had never seen them."

In July the expedition reached a group of tepee villages somewhere

46 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

near the borderline between Kansas and Nebraska. Coronado, at last sat- isfied that he had been duped by his crafty sjuidr, straightway hanged that unfortunate to a tree on the banks of a stream which may have been the Republican or the Blue, in Nebraska. Farther to the north, he was told, was another large stream, presumably the Platte. No records are left to show that he approached this river any nearer.

This we know, however, that he now turned eastward, marching till he reached the banks of a "large tributary of the Mississippi," no doubt the Missouri. And there he set up a cross with the inscription : ' 'Thus far came Francisco ile Coronado, General of an Expedition."

Upon returning home to his province our explorer wrote a lettter to the Viceroy of New Spain, in which he states that, "the province of Quivera is 950 leagues (3,230 miles) from Mexico. The place I have reached is 40= in latitude. The earth is the best possible for all kinds of productions of Spain, for while it is very strong and black, it is very well watered by brooks, springs and rivers. I found prunes like those of Spain, some of wliich were black, also some excellent grapes and mulberries."

Much good ink has been wasted in efforts to determine the exact north- ward limits of Coronado's march. One of the most learned of the scholars writing upon this subject is Judge Jas. W. Savage, whose interesting paper is found in the Nebraska State Historical Society's report for the year 18H0. The gist of this gentleman's argument is that Coronado simply could not have failed to have reached the Platte or at least the Republican in Ne- braska. He says that "from the point where he left his army, Coronado must have proceeded in a direction west of north. "They had diverged too much toward Florida," says Castanada. The time occupied in the march by the detachment is uncertain ; Castanada gives it as "forty-eight days, while Coronado says in one place that it was forty, and in another furty two days. Taking the lowest of these numbers, and conceding that it includes also the twenty-live days spent by the general in exploring Quivera, and there was ample time to reach the Platte or the Republican River." Now here we have it, "there was ample time," but have we the proofy Fiverytiiing being equal, as we say, he should have reached both the Repul)lican and the Platte, but, alas! what does this prove? Such hypotheses are dangerous to say the least, and we must not in our enthusiasm run away from the hard, cold fact. To the writer it does not appear ihat the evidence in the case is sufficient to substantiate the allega- tion; he prefers, therefore, to let the case rest upon Coronado's own state- ment that he reached 40 north latitude. And this may mean that he never set foot on Nebraska Suil, and again, that he advanced some distance into the state.

"In the twenty-five years since Judge Savasre presented his paper a great deal of new light has been shed on the subject. The route of (yoronado has been minutely studied. It has been established beyond question that the Quivera Indians were the Wichitas, — they being the only Indians in all that region who built grass houses, A great river which

GLIMPSES OF STATE HISTORY

47

Coronado crossed on his way to Quivera has been very closely identified as the Arkansas. With these two points conceded it is not hard to fix the valley of the Kansas river in the vicinity of Fort Rily as the true site of Quivera, Here are the remains of a vast former Indian population, — acres of rou^h Hint axes, knives and arrow heads, and at a distance of a few miles other remains of a finer flint workmanship mixed with thousands of frag- ments of pottery. Exploration begun in 1896 on this site by Mr J. V.

Quivci.i ivi..iiuiiirrm. junction City. Kansas.

Browor of Minnesota, culiminated in the declaration by him tliat In; had rediscovered Quivera." — A, E. Sheldon in Somi-Centennial History of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1904.

It is surprising how often even really great scholars will overreach themselves in their zealous endeavors to substantiate their claims and to prove their contentions. Much eager credulity is too often displayed in attempts to prove one's pet theory. And in this respect it seems to me, our

4^ THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

esteemed friend, Jugde Savage, was no exception. He states in a note to his paper "that the engineer of the new branch of the Union Pacific Railway, now building northward along one of the forks of the Loup, report numerou's ancient mounds along their route, and many evidences of once populous cities. Specimens of the ancient pottery, with the shards of which the ground is thickly strewn, are almost identical with those still to be foun'd at Pecos and other cities in New Mexico. This fact is peculiarly interesting in view of one of the statements of the Turk, just before his execution, to the exasperated Spaniards, that the cities to which he was condncting them were still beyond."

The "new branch of the Union Pacific Railway" here spoken of is none other than the Republican Valley (Union Pacific) Railway between Grand Island and Ord, and then refers more particularly to that section of the road which lies between St. Paul and Ord. To think that the railway engineers should have found "evidences of once populous cities" on the beautiful Loup will certainly come as a surprise to the many old settlers of the Valley who as early as 1872 became familiar with almost every foot of ground between "Athens," and "The Porks" of the Loup and the Calamus, but who never dreamt of any such great past for their beloved valley. Many of them were good old plainsmen, too. and well versed in Indian lore. They were not ignorant of the fact that theirs was an "Indian country," and that it had for years been the stamping ground of two great, contending Indian nations, the Pawnees and the Sioux. Almost any pioneer from the early seventies can show a goodly collection of chipped arrows spearheads, war clubs and specimens of pottery. They were acquainted, and well acquainted with the so-called mounds, but never had cause to disassociate them with the Indians of their time. Even now the zealous collector may when the ground is burned over chance upon chipped flints and shards of broken pottery in great abundance.. The author, who has been identified with the valley for almost 25 years and who knows by sight the outline contour of almost every hill bordering the valley for 50 miles or more, has spent much time in excavating the "mounds" and has been well repaid for his efforts with a store of wampum, flints and pottery. But that these "mounds" and deserted camps bore "evidences" of some great and buried civilization certainly never occurred to him. Indeed, his knowhdge of Indian lore, limited as it is, has but a very prosaic explana- tion for the "evidences," and forces him thus, at one fell stroke, to rob the valley of the distinction of having been the wonderful province of Quivera, the reahn of Tartarrax, "the long-bearded, gray-haired and rich, who took his noon day sleep in a garden of roses, under a huge, spreading tree, to the branches of which were suspended innumerable gold balls, which .sounded in ex(|uisite harmony when shaken by the wind."

The "once populous cities" we do not hesitate to state, were chateaux tit Eyptiifif in the minds of men more at home in engineerinsr than in ethnology. (JId, deserted Pawnee and Sioux camps took on marvelous shapes in their imagination and the hilltop burial grounds became, by

GLIMPSES OF STATE HISTORY 49

some strange mind contortion, mounds of unlcnown wealth and anticiuity. No, let us stick to the fact. The North Loup Valley was at no time the home of the semi-civilized Indian. But up and down its whole length the barbarous plains Indians, for untold ages, lived and fought and died. His bones lie buried there and the Manitou still guards the sacred places of the departed.

When Coronado, discouraged and heartsore, forever turned his back upon Nebraska, the darkness of barbarism again settled down over the plains, not to be dispelled for another 200 years. Not till after the acquisi- tion of the Louisiana Territory in 1808 did men's minds turn to the pos- sibilitif^s of the great unknown West. The Lewis and Clark Expedition left St. Louis on the 14th of May, 1804, and spent two whole years explor- ing the great purchase. The reports brought back tended to familiarize the east with this vast region and its unlimited resources, and paved the way to the first commercial enterprise between the two sections of our country. Even before Lewis and Clark skirted the state had enterprising Frenchmen crossed the Missouri in quest of pelts. Pierre and August Choteau, brothers engaged in the fur trade, are known to have passed be- yond the forks of the Platce away back in 1762. They may at that early date have trailed along the Ijoup, fully a hundred years in advance of the first settlers.

Traders, hunters and explorers soon began to pour into the ''Indian country," beyond the Missouri. The first known settlement on Nebraska soil was a trading post founded at Bellevue by a wealthy ^Spaniard, Manuel Lisa, in 1805. The American Pur Company organized by that early captain of industry, John Jacob Aster, established its Missouri headquarters at Bellevue in 1810. This post became the center of a monster traffic with the Indian tribes as far westward as the mountains. Other posts were established for like purposes at Omaha, in 1825, and at Nebraska City, in 1820.

Lack of space forbids a detailed account of the men, the first to blaze the way for later comers to the territory. A bare list of names and dates of a few must suffice. Lieutenant Zebu Ion Pike travelled through southern Nebi-aska on his way to the Rockies in the fall of 180(5. Thos. Nutell and John Bradbury spent a part of 1808 in the territory botanizing. Major Stephen Long crossed the Missouri into Nebraska on the 10th day of June 1819, and traversed the state from east to west. William Asheley, the head of the Rocky Mountain Pur Company of St. Louis, asctonded the Missouri in boats, to the mouth of the Yellowstone. This was in 1822. Colonel John C. Fremont left St. Louis in May, 1842, bound upon his important trip across the purchase t,o the mountains. He spent part of the summer in Nebraska.

At this juncture an event of much interest occurred. It was the advent of Mormons to Nebraska soil. This religious sect had been driven from its home at Nauvoo. Illinois, and was now, after much buffeting around, massing on the banks of the Missouri, preparatory to crossing the

50

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

"Great Desert" to the Promised Land beyond the reach of law. Im- mediately above Omaha, where the present town of Florence lies, some 15,000 Mormons established a camp, spoken of as "Winter Quarters." Here they remained through 1845-46, and to all intents began permanent settle- ment. Such inroads did they make however on the timber up and down the valley that the Indians, angered at what they considered wanton devastation of their lands, sent a bitter complaint to the government. This resulted in a peremptory order for the Mormons to move on. The terrible journey to the Great Salt Lake was thus"begun. Months of toil and hard- ship, of suifering and death, amidst the burning desert sands and at the hands of hostile Indian bands finally brought the wearied advance euard into the beautiful Jordan Valley. But at what a cost! The trail from "Winter Quarters" to Salt Lake (^ity was indelibly marked uut for later

comers. Cast away garments, brok- en and burned vehicles, bleaching bones of cattle and horses fallen by the wayside, and graves of weary pilgrims scattered along the rout, of a thousand miles told the cost Many a disheartened wanderer shrank from facing these hardships and preferred to settle along the route of progress in the fertile val- leys of Nebraska. In this way nu- merous small Mormon settlements sprang up along the Platte and its forks. The most interesting of these, in many respects, was the Genoa settlement in Nance county. Here a large tract of land was en- hundred families comprising the original

Nebraska Territory in 1854.

closed and divided among a settlers and foundations for solid prosperity were laid. Unfortunately for them this land was part of the tract set aside by the govern- ment for the Pawnee Indians, under the treaty of 1857. On account of this circumstance they could not obtain title to the lands. In addition to this trouble frequent raids upon their cattle and horses by Sioux and Pawnees alike made life precarious. It thus came about that the settlement was aliundoned and today only a few low, crumbling earthworks mark the spot.

Then came the gold fever. This most seductive of metals was dis- covered in 1848. and by the following year thousands were already moving through the Platte Valley on their way to California. This event was of much importance to the future history of the state. "The moving host left here and there a permanent impress upon the land nor was this all; the land in turn so charmed the eye, and created so abiding an impression on the mind of many a beholder, that wearied with the unequal contest of the

GLIMPSES OF STATE HISTORY 51

camp, they abandoned the pick and spado for the surer implements of husbandry; remembering the beautiful valley of the Platte, they sought its peaceful hills and plains wherein to erect homes for their declining years " In 1851 one William D. Brown established a ferry on the Missouri River between the trading post of "Lone Tree," or Omaha, founded back in 1825, and the present Council Bluffs. The effect was to divert a measure of the traffic held by "Winter Quarters" and Bellevue and to lay the foundations for the growth of Nebraska's future metropolis. Furthermore the discovery of gold and the consequent growth of empire on the Pacific led to the erec- tion of the trans-continental railway lines. Thus originated the Union Pacific, hugging close the old overland trail, and other trunk lines which together have been the means of throwing open wide the vast resources of the state.

Indeed did the opening of the great Overland route work wonders in the development in the future state. Favorable reports were by the thousands flocking to the gold coast or returning home, carried to all parts of the country The exceptional advantages held out to all turned the tide of i nmigration into the Nebraska valleys, and prosperous communities sprang up along the many rivers. Politicians, too, casting about for more terri- tory to erect into slave states early took a hand in the making of the new commonwealth. But, first, let us pause for a moment.

In 1803 tile most important real estate transaction in American history was consummated. On the 30th of April of that year, Napoleon Bona- parte, acting for France, ceded to the United States that vast region lying between the Missisippi and the Rockies, popularly known as the Louisiana Purchase. Thus, for the paltry sum of ^515, 000,000— less than four cents an acre — were 1,182. 752 sq uare miles of the richest lands in the world added to our domain, and at the same fortunate stroke was the future mastery of the Western Hemisphere by the United States made an assured fact. On the 2()th of December the Stars and Stripes were raised in New Orleans "amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants," and the purchase became American soil.

Prior to the purchase of Louisiana the Ohio river was considered the line of demarcation betw(!en the free north and slave south. About year 1820 the slavery agitation began to take on a new and dangerous face. The struggle had by this time come to center in the national congress. Southern politicians feared to lose the balance of power in Congress and persistently held out for more slave territory, which would mean more representatives in Congress favorable to the perpetuation of their system.

The province of Maine asked for admission as a state in 1819 and the House of Representatives promptly passed the bill; but when it came be- fore the Senate, a clause providing for Missouri as a slave state was tacked on by the way of amendment. After much heated debate the matter was compromised. The contesting factions accepted an amendment proposed by Jess B. Thomas of Illinois, which provided, "that in all that territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which

52 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

lies north of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the state coatemplated by this act, slavery . . , shall be and is hereby forever prohibited." In plain language, Missouri became a slave state and slavery was forbidden in the remainder of the Louisiana territory north of Arkansas. In this way it came about that slavery could never be lawfully carried on within tho bounds of the future state of Nebraska.

When Missouri was admitted to statehood the territory yet unorganized became grossly neglected. Finally in 1834, the jurisdiction of the United States District Court of Missouri was extended over part of it; another portion was annexed to Michigan Territory, and the remainder became a part of Arkansas Territory. A natural consequence of this arrangement was the great laxity in law and order on the frontier. Almost the only protection against the lawless element in certain parts infesting the terri- tory, was the few military posts scattered here and there at long intervals.

Naturally enough the settlers began to long for a more stable form of government.

Meanwhile the slavery question would not down. The California problem had opened again partially healed sectional wounds. That rich territory, it will be remembered, lies partly north and partly south of the old line of demarcation— latitude 36^ 30". Naturally enough this led the pro-slavery people to hope for the erection of a slave state on the Pacific. In this they were however destined to sore disappointment as California, in December, 1840, asked for admission as a free state. The south felt outraged.

Have we not, exclaimed southern men, been robbed of the richest region acquired from Mexico— the region of the war acquisition best suited to the furtherance of our system! Just so, and hadn't California and extension of slavery to the Pacific been one of tho most potent causes of the wary Exactly. Little wonder the contest grew exceedingly bitter, and engendered a dangerous spirit on both sides of th(^ Mason and Dixon line. Again was balm poured upon sectional feeling and the inevitable breach postponed for a few years longer. This came about through the Com- promise of 1850. But the remedy uroved in time almost as bad as the disease and early proved a disa])pointment to friends of peace in both sec- tions of the country. Out of it came, in 1857, the Dred Scott Decision by the United States Supreme Court, which to all intents opened all northern territory to the nefarious tratific. A northern democrat who held that the Compromise of 1M5() had nullified the Missouri Compromise was Stephen Arnold Douglas, United Stat«!S Senator from Illinois. For many years this gentleman had been anxious to organize the vast territory lying west of Missouri and Iowa. In January, 1854, Douglas introduced a bill to provide for the organization of all this tract as the territory of Nebraska. The bill i)rovided "that this territory should be admitted to the Union at some future time as one state or as several states, with or without slavery as their constitution may prescribe at this time." Douglas was an ardent

GLIMPSES OF STATE HISTORY 53

advocate of "Popular Sovereignty" and desired to leave the question of slavery or no slavery to the vote of the people of the proposed states. Be- lo^^e its final passage the bill was changed to provide for the organization of two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, instead of just Nebraska. Of these, the latter was to include all that part of the region lying between 40 and 19^ north latitude, and extending from the Missouri and the White Earth Kiver to the mountains. The bill finally passed both houses and was signed by President Pierce on the 80th of May.

The limits of the new territory were greatly reduced in 1801, when all the region north of the 43d parallel became a part of Dakota Territory. The same year a part of the southwest corner was added to Colorado and the western limit definitely settled on the 110th meridian. This left Ne- braska in the shape of a rectangle some 700 miles long and fully 200 miles wide. A further carving down occurred in 1863. Then the portion to the west of the 104tli meridian was added to Idaho Territory. This reduced Nebraska to the present limits, if we except a very small strip in the northwest, added to the state in 1882.

As a first step in the organization of Nebraska Territory, the president, Franklin Pierce, appointed Francis Burt of South Carolina, governor, and Thomas B. Cuming of Iowa, secretary. The governor reached Bellevue October 7, 1854, and took up his abode with Rev. William Hamilton, in charge of the Presbyterian Mission House there. No sooner had the new head of the government arrived than sickness forced him to take to his bed; from this he was destined never again to rise.

In spite of sickness the oath of oftiee was administered to him by Chief Justice Ferguson. This took place on the 16th of October and two days later the governor was dead. Thus the very first act in the history of the new territory became a sad and tragic one.

Secretary Cuming immediately took up the reins of government and first of all ordered a census taken. To this end the territory was divided into six counting districts. By November 20th the table of returns from all districts was completed, and showed a population of 2,732, which, no doubt consisted in a great part of "floaters" on their way through the counting districts. The population ascertained, the acting governor next apportioned the 13 councilmen and 26 representatives provided for in the Organic Act among eight voting districts. The first general election ever held in Nebraska occurred on the r2th day of December, 1854, at which time not only were the 39 legislators elected but also a representative to Congress.

The machinery, of governrament was now set in motion in all its depart- ments. The first Territorial Legislature convened, in obedience to guber- natorial proclamation, at Omaha City, January 16, 1855, and the bitter contest for the location of the territorial capital was on. Governor Burt had intended to make Bellevue the seat of government: but his early demise gave the acting governor an opportunity to decide in favor of bis personal choice, Omaha. For days after the opening of the session crowds of

54

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

armed men paraded the sreets of Omaha and vowed that no session should be held there. Fortunately these hot headed pioneers did not go beyond threats, and our new territorial escutcheon was spared the stains of early, needless bloodshed. Florence, Nebraska City, Plattsmouth, and several towns farther inland, were all eager to capture the plum, and now for twelve years was the fight waged with unceasing bitterness, at one time indeed causing the secession of a Dart of the Territorial Legislature in favor of Florence. The struggle developed into a fight for sectional supremacy— it became the North Platte country against the South Platte country. At last when Nebraska in 1867 was admitted to the union, Lincoln in Lancaster county, became the permanent capital.

It is not our purpose in these pages to attempt a portrayal of the state history of our noble commonwealth. In the passage from this part of the work to the story of the North Loup Valley let it here suffice that the statehood question came up at a very early date. In 1860 the people voted

The First Dwelling in Lincoln, 1867.

down a proposal to ^all a constitutional convention. Congress passed an Enabling Act four years later, and in 1866 a constitution was adopted by the state. Congress immediately ratified this action by passing the "Admission Act" of July 18, 1866. This act was however pocket-vetoed by President Johnson. Next February he again vetoed a similar bill; but this was passed over his veto and Nebraska became a state upon the first day of March, lH(i7.

Thirty-seven years of peaceful development have changed the state from the wild "Indian Country" that it was to one of the richest agri- cultural states in the Union. This evolution, indeed, albeit suprisingly rapid, was not brought about but at some cost. Our fathers, who first broke the virgin prairie, suffered all the hardships consequent upon the settlement of anew country, before we their children could enjoy the fruits of their labor. There were the Indian uprisings, with sad stories of

GLIMPSES OF STATE HISTORY 55

settlements destroyed and families broken up, repeated destruction of crops by swarms of locusts, destructive windstorms in summer and blizzards in winter, hail storms and droughts, in a word, all the evils and hardships that go hand in hand with blazing a trail in the unlcnown.

In education, Nebraska bears the proud distinction of having the lowest percent of illiteracy in the United States. The public school system has reached a degree of excellence attained by but few of the older states. 'J50'public high schools with almost 1(5,000 scholars, 19 private high schools and academies with 700 students, an excellent state university with 2,500 students, and a dozen flourishing denominational and private schools for higher education are all doing their share in the great work of maintain- ing for the state the high intellectual rank already attained.

The increase in population, too, has been remarkable. The census of 1854 showed only 2732. Since that time, by decades, the census shows the following figures: In 1860, 28,811; 1870, 122,993: 1880, 452,402; 1890, 1,058,910; 1900, 1,066,300. In the decade 1890-1900 the population remained almost stationary. This is accounted for by the serious droughts which were especially severe in the early nineties. A number of the western counties actually decreased in population on this account at that time. Since 1900 there has been a steady and even rapid influx in population, and every county in the state has showed a marked increase.

Nebraska is chieflv an agricultural state. All the cereals are raised, though corn is the most important crop. Up to 1880 the acreage of wheat was almost as great as that of corn, but since that time the acreage of the former decreased more than 2-5 of the entire area devoted to it. Since 1890, however, wheat culture has again forged to the fore to such a marked extent indeed that the acreage which in 1890 amounted to 798,855, was ten years later, 2,538.949. The corn crop acreage increased during the same decade from 5,480,279 to 7,335,187, and the hay and forage crop from 2,462,- 245 to 2,823,652.

The census of 1900 further shows that for the census year 14,137,000 was realized from the sale of dairy products, while an equally great amount was consumed by the farm population. This is remarkable in the face of the fact .that a few years ago dairying as we now understand it was of but little importance. Then cattle were raised chieHy for the packing trade. The beef raising industry is nevertheless on the increase. In 1900 there were in the state 2,663,699 head of cattle. In the same year only three states exceeded Nebraska in the number of swine.

Politically, Nebraska is ranked as a republican state. In every national election save one, that of 1896, when a favorite son, William Jennings Bryan, carried the state, has it cast its electoral vote for the republican candidate. In state politics, as will appear from the appended list of territorial and state governors, the elections have by no means been so uniformly republican:

TERRITORIAL

Francis Burt 1854 Wm. A. Richardson 1858

56 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

T. B. Cuminf? (acting) ...,1854-55 J. S. Morton (acting) 1858-59

Mark W. Izard 1855-57 S. W. Black 1859-61

T. B. Cuming (acting) 1857-58 A. S. Paddock (acting).. .. -1861

Alvin Saunders 1861-67

STATE

David Biitl*')-, Republican. . 1867-71 John M. Thayer, Republican 1891-92

W. H. James, (acting) 1871-73 James E. Boyd, Democrat. .1892-93

K. VV. Furnas, Republican .. 1873-75 Lorenzo Crounse, Republicanl893-95

Silas Graber, " ..1875-79 Silas A. Holcomb, Fusion ••• 1895-99

Albinus Nance, " ..1879-83 Wm. A. Poynter, " ....1899-01

Jas. W. Dawes, " ..1883-87 Chas.H.Dietrich, Republican 1901

John M. Thayer, " ..1887-91 Ezra P. Savage " 1901-03

James E. Boyd, Democrat. . 1891 John H. Mickey " 1903-

Glimpses of the North Loup Valley.

CHAPTER IV.

The land lies open and warm in the sun. Anvils clamor and mill wheels run.— Flocks on the hillsides, herds on the plain: The wilderness gladdened with fruit and grain.

— John Greenleaf Whittier.

IT WAS midsummer in the yebir 1904. The author found himself aboard an "accommodation" train on the Burlinojton running between Pahner and Burwell. For hours had the puffing engine been jerking and jolting the creaking cars through deep cuts in the grotesque hills of Greeley county. A thunder-storm was passing overhead. This was the last cut: then came the down-grade. And that meant that we were about to enter the North Loup Valley. A sudden careening around a steep curve — and the first glimpse of the Valley is caught. Wonderful! Beautiful! The angry thunder-cloud has passed by and only scattered drops are falling, glistening in the sudden burst of sunlight. A few puffs of cloud by contrast give life to the deep blue afternoon sky. Right before us the bluff chain is broken, and we gaze through the beautiful natural gap to the far-stretching panorama beyond. Through a fringe of gnarled, dark green scrub-oak the eye seeks the landscape just beyond — a vista of river valley, reaching out some four or five miles in width. Through it winds like a silver chord, the clear, low-banked North Loup riv- er. Broad acres of waving corn, just bursting into tassle; golden squares of wheat and oats in shock, and stack. Well-built farm houses surrounded by orchards and groves of shade-tree, stud the beautiful expaiise every- where. On all sides are manifest signs of thrift. Ah ! this is indeed "God's Country." The magic wand of enterprise has already out-stripped the words of the poet who sings:

"The rudiments of empire here

Are plastic yet and warm: The chaos of a miRhty world

Is rounding into form."

Indeed it has been shaping swiftly. Thirty-three years ago saw the first furrow broken, and now this thronging humanity, this throbbing life and thrift!

Years ago — a quarter century past — the auihor, then a little chap, herd- ing cattle in the valley above Ord, according to his daily wont, had retreat-

58 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

Gd to a shady nook on the bank of tne river, while his charges were left to shift for themselves. And well they might, for was not the prairies theirs for miles around ! He was dreaming all enrapt in the charm of the virgin prairie— dreaming of things yet to be. As he lay there seeing visions and listening to the gurgling eddying waters swishing by he could almost

■' Hear the tread of pioneers

Of nations yet to be Tlie first low wash of waves where soon

Sliall roll a human sea."

And they came, those pioneers, and they are silently leaving us again passing away lo the realm beyond. And the great human sea is rolling, wave ui)on wave, over the prairie, first trodden by them, obliterating their footprints, making this a new land, almost strange to the first comer. They endured much, those pathfinders, for us their children, that we might reap the fruits of their industry and toil. And shall we thus repay them by leaving the history they made unsaid, unsung? No! a thousand times no! Let it be taken down that the generations yet unborn may know at what a cost the way was paved. How they suffered and toiled and even died that the trail of the Loud might be ooened. .And now where and what is the North Loup Valley— this much praised garden spot of Nebraksa! Let us ans'.ver this qu jry at once. By the North Loup Valley or region, as here un- derstood, is meant all that portion of this drainage system included in Loup, Garfield, Valley, Greeley and Howard counties, linked into one ^commonality by one common history, by mutual ties of friendship and good will, cemented at the time of first settlement, which have drawn these po- litical communities into a bonded union strong enough to disregard mere artificial boundary lines set up by law of government. It includes, on the roush, the Taylor-Kent district in Loup county, the Burwell-Willow Spings lowland in Garfield county, all of Valley county, the Scotia district of Greeley county, and the Cotesfield district in Howard county. In other words it includes not merely those communities which havti a history in common but virtually all the really fertile. Vdlaable lands drained by the North Loup river and sections from the Middle Loup as well.

The most important of all this region is the river valley. Here we find a fine alluvial tioodplain, usually marked by two terraces, the upper bench so well adapted to all agricultural purposes, and the "bottoms" chiefly important for their rank growth of forage grasses. The valley, in places, reaches a width of almost six miles, and then again, in its upper course, dwindles down to a lew yards. Geologically almost the entire region be- longs to the Champlain Period of the Quaternary Age. The mighty rolling or abruptly jutting hills, everywhere flanking the river basin, are com- posed almost exclusively of the wonderfully loess clays characteristic of that period. As this clay is inexhaustible in its fertiht.y, even the steepest hills may be cultivated year after year without the aid of artificial ferti- lizers. The upper part of the region only belongs to another and more ancient period— the Pliocene. Portions of Loup and Garfield counties and a

GLIMPSES OF THE NORTH LOUP VALLEY

59

few square miles in northeastern Valley county are encroaclied uoon by the great Pliocene Sand Hills. This part of our Valley is therefore more prop- erly a grazing district. To get a more definite idea of its topogra])hy, let the reader study carefully the maps of Loup and Garfield counties giv- en elsewhere in the book. The North Loup river rises among a cluster of small lakes in western Cherry county, just east of the 101st meri- dian and about 50 miles from the north line of the state. Some twenty or more lakes comprise this group. And a more beautiful region can hardly be imagined. Some of the lakes are crystal clear, with pebbly bottoms. All nestle in the sandhills, but they are immediately surrounded by grass plots of remarkable richness. Out of them flows the river at first a mere

A View Taken in Olsen's Canyon.

silver thread, making its way by tortuous windings through the hills, which in the upper course approach almost to the river brink. After it enters Loup county the valley becomes well defined, though at first narrow and of a sandy consistency. By degrees, however, an alluvial soil appears, which becomes deeper and richer as Garfield county is approached. The stream itself is shallow and bounded by low, usually treeless banks. Small islands, often coveted with a dense growth of cotton wood, box- elders, ash, and thickets of wild plums and choke cherries, dot the rippling, eddying stream, and add much to a scenery which might otherwise become a little monotonous. The river bottom is, for the most part, fine shifting sand, but compact enough to make fording by heavy wagons perfectly safe

60 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

The river sands are, as far as we can ascertain, of Pliocene origin.- It should be added, though, that in places these beds have been worn through and the underlying Miocene sand-stones laid bare. A most remarkable instance of this water activity is seen in the fails of the North Loup in the sand hill region. Here the river suddenly tumbles over a sandstone ledge 12 feet high and almost 50 feet wide, forming quite a romantic fall, and indeed the second largest in the state. AtBurwell, in Garfield county the North Loup receives its only important tributary, the Calamus. This beautiful, clear stream drains a large section of the sand hills and is remarkable for the numberless springs that everywhere well up from its bottom.

The sand hills cover hundreds of miles lying north of the Loup and even encroach greatly upon its upper drainage. They must have origin9,ted, as i)ointed out in Chapter I, from a disintegration of young and poorly con- solidated Miocene and, more particularly, Pliocene rocks.

Before the advent of white man the hills were not so stable as how.

4^v^

'^/»,

^^""-'^^lit^i^^

:'?'^P

V'f;,fcSM**'""

M"""li

fmmm

' ' III ''' 'i'

A Typical •■Blowout."

The vast herds of butfalo which used to voam here, trampled the grasses and loosened the sand exposing it to wind and weather, thereby causing a r)erpetual shifting in surface. Then too, the great prairie fires which in bygone years annually laid the surface bare and destroyed a very important fertilizing debris, are now much more infrequent and may soon be a thing of the past. Within the memory of the oldest settler important changes have taken place in the once decried sand hills. Now they are completely grassed over and are coming to be recognized as some of the most important grazing and alfalfa lands in the state.

An impetus was given to the settlement of the sand hills when in the

GLIMPSES OF THE NORTH LOUP VALLEY

61

summer of 1904, the so-called Kinkaid Law went into effect. Under this act any bona Me settler in this region may homestead as many as four quarter sections of land where previously one quarter section was the limit allowed any one homesteader. The wisdom of the law is already manifest in the great increase in actual settlers during the tirst year after its passage.

To the northeast of the river, covering a few square miles in Valley county and extending into Garfield county, lie the "Sand Plats. ' This wierd tract has always been of absorbing interest to the writer. As one drives along over its undulating surface, abrupt bluffs rise out of the distance, encompassing the whole area. It appears for everything in

Road in Olsen's Canyon.

the world like an immense amphitheatre. The bluffs along the hoi-izon, many of them, ris3 in steps much like the tiered Roman theatres. Therf* cannot be the least doubt as to the origin of this strange land formation. It represents the b3ttoin of a lake, drained out almost witliin historic times. Drifting sands have then blown over the lake bed and given to it the present undulating surfaci>.

South of the sand hills Valley county is a mighty, wa\\y loess plain pierced diagonally by the flood trough of the North Loun River, which divides the county into two uneciual triangles. The hill lands to the north- east have a southward trend and drain through a series of small creeks

62 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

into the river. The Middle Loup River cuts across the southwest corner of the county, whence it runs parallel with the north fork till the two unite in Howard county. The uplands between the two streams in Valley county form a rolling plateau and drain partly into the North Loup, partly into the Middle Loup. The soil is highly fertile and almost every foot of ground may be tilled.

It is interesting to note that the three forks of the Loup, which after uniting to form one stream, meandering along for a hundred miles parallel to the Platte before pouring their waters into the latter, flowed atone time a> three separate streams and emptied as such into the Plaite. "Later, the stronuer Phitte, while building up a bed some 300 feet thick, obstructed the I'o v of the Ljup by throwing sandbars across their mouths, and thus forced them to shift their courses eastward or down the Platte valley to tind a now and united outlet ov^er the steadily rising barrier of sand." The following description of Valley county townships is taken from the Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, Lincoln, 1902, and gives in the main :i lair e^limate of our soil:

RANGE 13.

Rolling, fertile; North Loup valley.

Northeast half in North Loup valley; fertile; rest rolling;

10. Southwest half North Loup v lUey; rest gently rolling; fertile. Northeast quarter mostly sand flats, fertile; rest rolling, one-half

T.	17
T.	IS
tVrtilp.
T.	10.
T	20
tillable
T.	17
T.	IH
undu latin'
T	19

RANGE 14. All quite rolling, fertile; about two thirds tillable. Northeast part quite hilly, fertile; rest Mira vallev, gently very fertile.

S.juihwest third quite rolling, about one-half tillable; rest Norch Loup vallti.y, fertile.

T. 2U. North Loui) valley ; rest pretty rough, but one-half tillable. RANGE 15. Rolling; fertile; good farm land.

AH very fertile, mostly in Mirn valley; little of itquite roUin":. Mira valley, very fertile; rest rolling, fertile, one lialf tillable; North Loup valley, fertile; northeast sixth rough, fertile, souliiwcst half ciuite rolling, but fertile.

RANGE 16. Middle Loup valley, sandy, fertile; balance rolling, fertile. East two-thirds rolling, fertile, about one-half tillable; rest .sandy and rouga.

T. 19. Mira valley in middle east; portions in north and south rough; balance rolling, fertile.

T. 2(1. Southhalf quite rolling, about one half tillable; north half very rougli, good pasture.

By far the larger fraction of lands in the Loup Valley is fertile though here and there right in the heart of the best loess and alluvial soils are found unproductive alkali spots. These are, it is true, less frequent and smaller in our part of the state than in many other localities.

T.	17.
T.	18.
T.	19.
•V.	20.
Jiw	est
T.	17.
T.	18.

GLIMPSES OF THE NORTH LOUP VALLEY

63

They appear usually in tablelands and lowlands having poor drainajje. The standing water escapos by evaporation and the saline compounds, found in all water, are left behind. An analysis of the white, brinelike substance gathered on the surface of such spots will usually contain a large propor- tion of soda compounds, with an occasional oxcess of lime, potash or magnesia. Alkali lands should be kept well plowed, and be given artificial drainage if at all possible. Careful tests have proven that wheat rapidly

Section of Jones' Canyon.

consumes the alkali. A few crops of this cereal on alkali grounds is known to have made the latter well adapted for other grains.

Thirty-five years ago the Valley was preparing for the advent of the pioneer. B(^fore this an occasional pathfinder had hunted and trapped along its water courses; but the Sioux war which dragged along and hardly came to an end before the close of the sixties made such expeditions

64 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

extremely hazardous, and kept all but the most foolhardy away. Now, however the war was closed and the trapper set his face in earnest north- ward, intent on making the beautiful valley his home. And close upon his trail followed the pioneer farmer, the maker of the valley. But here let us pause again to picture the virgin soil as it must have appeared to the first comer, with its flora and fauna.

A luxuriant growth of wild grasses covered hill and valley, d\\ un- touched by the plow. Myriad wild flowers in their season helped to give color to the landscape. A heavy growth of hard and soft wood trees then covered the river islands much the same as in our day. The really import- ant forest growth of those times was the cedar canyons, now long ago despoiled of their giant cedars and pines. The most extensive of these were found on the north side of the river between Port Hartsuff and Willow Springs, although well-timbered canyons were found on both sides of the river as far up as Taylor, in Loup county. East of the Perks of the Loup and Calamus grew an abundance of the Western Yellow Pine (Pinus Fonderosa), a remnant of the great fir forests which at one time covered much of the sandhill region, and which may again under government care be made to flourish there. The cedar canyon especially celebrated was "Jones' Canyon" in the immediate vicinity of Willow Springs, known to siiltlers fur many miles up and down the valley. The canyons were usually deep rifts in the hills, running more or less at right angles to the river pliiiii, vNith sides so steep and broken as to form an adequate protection against the annually recurring prairie fires. Here a splendid growth of ov<M-greens flourished. The red cedar (Juniperus Virginianus) was the most important for all purposes. Out of them the best dwellings in the settlements were erected ; and so sought after were they that settlers would come from two and tliree days' journey to gc^.t the coveted timber. During tho early days, when the grasshoppiirs ravaged the crops, leaving the sHttlers to stare starvation in the f.ice, this logging industry became their salvation. Great oxioads of cedars weire carted all the way to Grand Island, a distance of fully eighty miles, and sold to the Union Pacific Rail- way (!<,mpany.

Three of the most valuable native grasses, growing on the Loup in the early days, were the sorghum grass (Sorghum nutans), i\u\ blue joint (Andropogon furcatus), and the buffalo grass (Buchlao dactyloides). Of these all but the latter yet flourish and form the bulk of all our wild forage grasses. The sorghum grass is by many experts picked as Ne- braska's most nutritious native grass. In early springtime it is not easy to distinguish it from bluejoint; when, however its russet like spikeletsin a compact panicde make their appearance, all danger of sucn mistakes disappear. [t is very hardy and if cut just before frost, makes splendid hay. lilue joint grows ranker than the foregoing, the stem when full grown is from four to five feet high and is surmounted by a cluster of four to six straight, rigid and hairy spikes, from three to five inches long, and of a purple color.

GLIMPSES OF THE NORTH' LOUP VALLEY

65

The famous buffalo i^'rass once j^rew over the whole region between the Missouri and the mountains. It formed the chief food of the buffalo and has ever been favorite with all kinds of domestic stock. This nutritious grass, too well known to need description, is curiously enough rapidly

disappearing from the plains, and is in our state threatened with total extinction. In the Loup valley where it used to be so abundant now only isolated patdies are found, and these in depressions and alkali spots. Many theories have been advanced to explain this disappearance, occurring as

66 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

it did contemporaneously with that of the buffalo. The most common sense explanation seems to be "that change of climate, especially increase of rainfall, had most to do with this phenomenon."

The Loup was formerly a veritable paradise for g?me and carnivorous beasts. The monarch of all the game roaming here was the bison (Bos Americanus), popularly known as the buffalo. Almost incredible stories are told by early settlers and freighters across the plains about the size of herds they so often encountered. Thus we hear of "Buffalo Bill" estimat- ing a certain herd at 500,000. By 1872 the large herds had already left the valley of the Loup. Bands from half a dozen to a score continued to roam in Garfield and Loup counties for several years longer. As late as the summer of 1874 Charles Post and his brothers killed some fine specimens on Pebble Creek, and even in 1875 James Barr found a last straggler, dead in a wallow near "The Forks." They had for some time been drifting over onto the Middle Loup, soon to disappear altogether. For years skulls, with fairly well preserved horns, could be found on the prairie and in many an old time home may they yet be seen, adorning some mantel piece or wall.

Great herds of elk (Cervus canadensis) frequented the Loup for years after its settlement and were a source of much highly valued food. They usually kept to the hills, but would occasionally enter the valley. Mira valley, with its surrounding hills, seemed to be their most favorite haunt. Two old timers Truman Freeland and A R Harper, state that on one occasion they counted fully 500 in one herd grazing in that valley, with many smaller bands scattered over the hillsides. Again we are told that while Fort Hartsuff was being erected away back in 1875, one day a fine herd estimated at at least 300 poured cut of the hills on the opposite side of the river, near where Elyria now stands, and sought the bottoms at the water's edge. All work on the fortifications immediately ceased, as the workers to the last man threw down pick and shovel to seize the rifle instead. In the pine groves at "The Forks" the elk held out the longest, Alex Draver sla.ying the last one there in the winter of 1882. It was not an uncommon thing in those days to see tame elk and deer grazing peace- fully about the dooryard of some homestead.

The pronghorn antelope (Antilocapera Americana) was very common. Herds of from 20 to 100 of these graceful animals were common sights along the hill ranges. Their natural curiosity made them an easy prey for the early hunter and they passed from the valley about the same time that did the elk. Three species of deer were formerly found here. These were the common red deer (Cervus virginianus). the white tailed deer (C. Icucrus). and the black tailed deer (C. columbianus). 1885 saw the last deer in the valley proper. At that time they sought the less frequented sand hills to the north, where they were hunted for some years. Even in our day an occasional deer may be shot on the Calamus or in the lake country. The writer had the good fortune to see several excellent specimens on the reed grown banks of Dad's Lake as late as 1893.

68

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

Bears were never plentiful in our state, the Niobrara country alone being their natural haunt. In 1875, however, it appears that one had wandered far to the south of his native wilds, for in that year William Pierson killed a large silvertipped bear (Ursus Americanus) between the North Loup River and Brush Lake.

Of carnivorous beasts several species of timber wolves skulked about in the wooded canyons, and the night on the prairie was often made hideous with the yelD of the prairie wolf, or coyote. A few lynxes and wild cats were shot in the timber lands. Such valuable fur bearing animals as the beaver, otter, mink and marten were numerous. Raccoons and badgers yet survive. Opossums, while more at home farther south, have been

In His Native Wilds.

round on the Calamus and the upper Loup. Polecats and skunks, prairie dogs and ground squirrels of many species have always been with us. Gallinacious birds were represented by four species, and of those only three now remain. Of these the wild turkey has been seen only a few times in our .section, and that long ago. The sharp tailed grouse were very numerous at one time but are now much reduced in numbers. The prairie chicken and quail arrived in the settlements with the first crops and have been with us in goodly numbers ever since. The enforcement of stringent game laws has made both of these birds, and especially the industrious and useful little quail or "Bob White" very plentiful.

Answerine birds are represented in many species of ducks, geese and brants. Wading birds, such as the king plover, the piper and the gray snipe, are abundant in the lowlands while the shrill call of the Ions: billed

GLIMPSES OF THE NORTH LOUP VALLEY 69

curlew is still hciird in tlu; sand hills. Numerous songsters, piscarian birds, and birds of ))rey of many species make the valley their home in season. Of reptiles and saurians various turtles and lizards are repres- ented. Of snakea, the black snake, the garter snake, the bull snake and the prairie rattlesnake have been common. Of these the latter has now fortunately become practically extinct. Many species of edible fish have ever been abundant in our water courses. Much other animal life, alto- gether too numerous to dwell upon here, filled land and water and air when the tirst settler arrived.

Hill and valley were inviting and rich with an almost profligate abund- ance of natural wealth. Nature awaited only tfie hand of civilized man to turn it all to practical uses. And he was coming. The forerunners were already in the Valley.

Cowboy Regime and Forerunners of Civilization.

CHAPTER V.

"Your creeds and dogmas of a learned church May build a fabric, fair with nnoral beauty: But it would seem that the strong hand of God Can. only, 'rase the devil from the heart." — Duo.

THE early pages of frontier history are usually written in blood. There are the harrowing tales of massacre by prowling and vengeful Indians, or if these are wanting, then desperate encounters with the lawless element incident to life beyond the reach of the arm of law and justice— the con- fidence man and gambler, preying upon every newcomer; the old time cow- boy element, "shooting up" the town or embroiled in desperate feuds with the homesteader; fugitives from justice, lawbreakers of all kinds escaped from the older states "back East." The North Loup Valley settlements were in most respects no exception to tbis rule. They experienced their share of Indian scares, and can record some thrilling encounters with the red men The desperado and gambler too appeared on the borders after the first waves of settlement had subsided. But they did not long remain. The atmosphere was not congenial and the field anything but profitable. The character of the pioneer fathers was of too sterling a makeup to long countenance outlawry and all that it begets. So this scum of all new civilizations passed away, no more to show its face. Yes, the settlements did not escape these experiences, but this was to be expected. They might have fared much worse. Indeed, should we compare our early days with the pioneer history of say, the Middle Loup settlements, our immediate neighbors on the west, we might consider ourselves very fortunate indeed.

In the evolution of the virgin prairie to settled homestead, our valley by its fortunate location escaped such harrowing incidents of border feud and bloodshed between cowboy occupant and pioneer homesteader as fell to the lot of Custer and other counties west of us.

At the time when our narrative opens, the cattle industry on the Great Plains had taken on vast proportions. Great herds of cattle from Texas and the "Pan Handle" were in full possession of "No Man's Lund" and western Kansas, and great tracts in southern and western Nebraska were swarming with thousands of "rangers." The cattle kings seized upon all the good herding grounds and built their home ranch on

COWBOY REGIME 71

every available watercourse, to the exclusion uf actual settlers. Once in possession the cattlemen proposed to hold the range in spite of herd law and homestead law, by force if necessary. To the good fortune of the North Loup country, when the cattle kings first began to invade our state settlers were already in full possession of the Platte valley as far west as Dawson county. This circumstance checked a direct northward movement and forced the oncoming tide to turn to the northwest, thereby sparing our part of the state for a few vears, lona enough for the first settlers to take possession. 80 by the time the cattle movement could outflank the Platte settlements and again swing eastward, gradually to spread over the unorganized territory embraced in the South and Middle Loup valleys, the North Loup was absolutely safe against encroachment.

The unorganized territory immediately west of Valley county was, at an early date, attached to that county for judicial purposes. And its history in a way becomes our history. To properly understand all the details surrounding our own development, therefore, it becomes necessary to give some attention in the passing, to the lawlessness and bitter strife and bloodshed which for some years possessed our Custer county border. The natural fertility of the soil in the unorganized territory early attracted the attention of landseekers. But to actually homestead the land occupied by the cattlemen was a serious matter. The latter considered all such attempts as encroachments upon their personal rights, and the settlers as so many intruders. The first homesteaders accordingly lived precarious lives. Thousands of cattle ranged at will over the country and necessi- tated a constant watch over the fields by night and by day. To fence one's fields was to invite a raid from cowboys who made short work of all such protections. And to resist force with force meant the loss of house and home and some times life to boot. In those days discretion became the better part of valor.

The years 1877 and '78 witnessed a great influx of settlers to Custer county. The fine bottom lands along the water courses became settled and it really began to look as though the great herds of cattle would be entirely excluded from their old watering places. This to them seeming gross injustice angered the cattlemen, especially as it was the general opinion then that only the bottom lands were fit for agriculture; these occupied by farmers would render practically valueless for grazing the thousands of acres of unwatered hill country. Custer county, they argued, was a natural grazing country, and should be maintained as such. Another, and the immediate cause of many deeds of violence was the prevalence of "cattle rustling. " It will be borne in mind that the cattlemen allowed their stock to roam at will over the range. This meant that for months at a time perhaps they would be beyond their owner's reach, who saw them usually but once a year at the annual "round up." The straying cattle thus fell an ^asy prey to unscrupulous characters, who would coolly shoot them down, slaughter them, and haul them by the wagon load to the nearest railroad station for shipment. This traffic took on vast propotions

72 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

before the cattlemen could notice their losses. When finally they woke to a realization of what was happening their rage knew no limits, and death by lynching would have been considered almost too good for a culprit caught in "the act. The real thieves were and remained unknown. The" cowboys, already prejudiced against the settlers, naturally enough charged these crimes to the latter. That the settlers did occasionally shoot and slaughter a beef or two there can be little doubt -nor was it more than fair recompense for ruined crops— but that they were guilty of this wholesale slaughter and exportation no one believes for a moment. This crime must be laid at the door of cattle thieves from the state at larire.

Old Mitchell Ranch House, Custer County.

Matters went from bad to worse till the cattlemen in their desperation resolved to drive the settlers to a man from the country. This initiated a state of lawlessness very seldom equalled in border feuds. Cold blooded murder, in its most cruel form, was repeatedly committed, and no man's life or property was deemed safe. The climax of all this misery was the murder and burning of Luther Mitchell and Ami Ketchum— oneof the most dastardly crimes ever chronicled in the criminal history of any nation. So gruesome are the details of this heartrending tragedy that we almost rebel against repeating them in this narrative. But it is deemed advisable to do so in order better to impress our readers with the true significance of the North Loup Valley's escape from cowboy regime:

"One of the most wealthy of the cattle-owners of Nebraska, was I. P. Olive, who owned many thousand head of stock that found pasturage in Custer cuuntv. He had, from time to time, lost a great many animals.

COWBOY REGIME 73

some of them undoubiudly stolon by cattle tlii(!ves. For this reason he became the prime mover in the attempt to expel the settlers from (Juster county. His headquarters were in this county, althou<^h he resided in LMum Creek, Dawson county. He had come to Nebraska from Texas on account of having been concerned in the killiniz of several men while there, and it is said that he had been truilty of other murders. Fearini? both legal and personal vengeance, he tied to Nebraska. He was accompanied by his brother Kobert Olive, who had, to prevent all knowledge of his where abouts, assumed the name of Stevens.

"Luther M. Mitchell and Ami Ketcbum were homesteaders, living on Clear Creek, where they had made a settlement some time previous. Mitchell was an old man, sixty three years of age, a farmer, who had removed here from Merrick county. Ketchum had resided in the state for some years and had worked at his trade, that of a blacksmith, in several towns, but, having decided to go to farming, he entered a homestead here.

"For some time there had been trouble between the Olives and Ketchum. In the attempt to frighten or drive the settlers from the county, they found Ketchum too courageous to be frightened, and too ([uickand accurate in the use of firearms to be driven successfully. TV^twoon Stevens, or Bob Olive, and Ketchum, there had been a great deal of difficulty. Stevens, as he was then known, had on several occasions threatened to kill Ketchum and had also accused him of stealing cattle.

' 'Some days previous to the trouble that resulted in the death of Stevens, one Manley Capel had been arrested on the charge of stealing cattle in Custer county, and in his confession, seemed to implicate Ami Ketchum.

"Stevens, or Bob Olive, was well known as a desperado, and it was also known that he and Ketchum were enemies. Yet. Sheriff David Anderson, of Buffalo county, made him deputy for the occasion, and gave him a warrant for the arrest of Ketchum. This warrant was sworn out by some members of the Olive gang, and it has been a question whether this warrant was gotten out in good faith, believing Ketchum to be a cattle thief,or merely as a pretext to get him into the custody of the Olives. It is now generally thought that Ketchum was innocentof any crime, that he was merely a peaceable settler, whom Stevens was anxious to kill on account of the old enmity, and because he could not be driven from the country by threats. It is also generally believed that had he fallen into Stevens' hands, he would have been killed on some pretext or other; that there are reasons to belive these opinions to be correct, as the following sketch of the ensuing tragedy will show.

"Stevens engaged three others to accompany him, all rough and desperate men, among whom was Barney Armstrong, and proceeded to the home of Ketchum, arriving here on Wednesday morning, November 27, 1878. Mitchell and Ketchum were getting ready on that morning to go to a neighbor's to return a bull they had been keeping. Mrs. Mitchell was preparing to go with them to visit the family of this neighbor— one Mr. Dows — during the day. When they were nearly ready to start, a stranger

74 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

rode up and asked Ketchum. who was a blacksmith, to shoe his horse. Ketchum told him that he could not on that day, and asked him to return the next mornint;, which he promised to do and rode off. It has since been supposed that he came there in the interests of the Olives, to see if the intended victims were there. Mitchell and Ketchum had put their rifles in the wa^on, hoping to see some srarae on their journey. Ketchum also took his pistol, which he always carried, from the fact of Stevens having threatened his life.

"While the men wore taking care of the animal, Mrs. Mitchell took her place on the seat to hold the team. While Mitchell and Ketchum were tying the bull to the axle of the wagon and gathreing in the long lariat rope by which it was tied, Mrs. Mitchell observed a party of men riding toward them, but it attracted no particular attention, as they were fre- quently visited by hunters and land seekers. As these men came up, they dashed along, four abreast, and, when they came near, began shooting. Stevens, or Bob Olive, was the first to fire, and as he did so, he called to Ketchum to throw up his hands. For reply, Ketchum drew his pistol, and, at his first shot, Stevens fell forward in his saddle, mortally wounded. Meanwhile, the other men kept up the shooting, and Ketchum was wounded in the arm. The children came running out of the house, when one of the men began firing at them' but without effect. Mitchell reached into the wagon, secured his rifle and began firing, but Stevens now turned and rode ofl', and he was soon followed by the remaining cowboys. There were from twenty-five to thirty shots fired, but onlj' with the effect stated. As soon as the cowboys had ridden away, Mitchell and Ketchum packed up a few of their household goods and started to go to Merrick county, where Mitchell had formerly lived. They did this as they feared violence from the now enraged C'")wboys. Arriving in Merrick county, tbey went directly to the residence of Dr. Barnes to attend to Ketchum 's wounds. The next morning, acting upon the advice of their friends, the men, Mitchell and Ketchum, having secured a place of safety for Mrs. Mitchell and the children, started for Custer county, to give themselves up and stand a, trial for the killing of Stevens. On their way, when they reached Loup City, they visited Judge Wall for legal advice. Judge Wall advised them to go no farther, as the cowboys were waiting for them, prepared to lynch them. They remained here two or three days, and then went to the house of John R. Baker, on Oak Creek, in Howard county, where they were arrested by Sheriff William Letcher, of Merrick county, and Sheriff F. W. Crew, of Howard county, giving themselves readily into custody.

"I. P. Olive had offered a reward of 15700 for the arrest of Mitchell and Ketchum, and several sheriffs, among whom were Crew, of Howard, Gillan of Keith, Anderson, of Buffalo, and Letcher, of Merrick, were anixous to capture them that they might secure the reward. But after they were captured and in the hands of Crew and Letcher, these officers were un- willing to incur the responsibility of taking them to Custer county, and turning them over to the blood-thirsty cowboys; therefore, they were

COWBOY REGIME 75

finally taken to the Buffalo county jail, in Kearney, and placed in charge of Capt. David Anderson, the siiuril'f of that county, for safe keeping. Tho prisoners were first held without any legal authority, as I. P. Olive had given the warrant for their arrest, issued in Custer county, into the hands of Harney Gillan, Sheriff of Keith county to serve. The prisoners had engaged T. Darnall, of St. Paul, Neb., and E. C Calkins of Kearney, as their attorneys. The attorneys endeavord to keep the prisoners in the jail at Kearney, fearing that violence might be done them. The feeling in Kearney at that time was against Mitchell and Ketchum, who were represented as having killed Stevens while he was fulfilling his duty as an officer of the law. A question arose among the sheriff's as to the division of the money offered as a reward for Mitchell and Ketchum, which Olive had declined paying until they were delivered in Custer county. A proposition was finally made to Sheriff Anderson to take them to that place, and $50 was offered him for his services. This he declined to do, however, unless he was paid enough to enable him to employ a sufficient number of men to guard the prisoners. It was finally arranged that Gillan, since he held the warrant for their arrest, should take the prisoners to Custer county, and he promised to notify their attorneys. Calkins and Darnall, so that they could accompany them. As Gillan was a sheriff, and his desperate character was not then known, even these attorneys did not anticipate any serious difficulty. They, however, kept close watch lest the prisoners should be stolen away.

"On the forenoon of the 10th day of December, Darnall, fearing that the prisoners were about to be taken away, was keeping close watch until after the emigrant train came in. This train was late, but Darnall remained at the depot until he thought it was about time for it to leave, when he started away. In the meantime, Gillan had taken the prisoners from the jail, and at just the last moment hustled them on the cars. Darnall, then fearing trouble, telegraphed to Gillan, at Elm Creek, first station west of Kear.iey, asking him if he would hold the prisoners at Plum Creek until the arrival of the next train from the East. Gillan replied that he would do so. To still further secure their safety he also telegraphed to Capt. C. W. McNamar an attorney at Plum Creek, asking him to keep close watch, to see what was done with the nrisoners on their arrival at that town. Plum Creek was the home of I. P. Olive, and here he was surrounded by mar.y friends and employees. They, with wagons, met the party as they got off the train, and, putting the prisoners into a wagon, started at once for Custer county. This was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Capt. McNamar being unable to prevail on them to remain, and believing that it was the intention to murder the prisoners, followed them for some distance, when the party separated, some going in one direction and some in another. He followed after the prisoners, however, until after dark, when he lost their trail. The Olive party kept on, all coming together on the Loup River, about five miles from Olive's ranch, where they went through the process of transferring the prisoners from Gillan to Olive. Among those who took

76 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

the prisoueis were I3ion Hrown, Pedro Domiiiicus and Dennis Gartrell, Gillan and Dufran walk'^d up the road for a short distance, while the remainder of the party started on for Devil's Canyon, Olive ridin^; ahead and CJartrell drivinj,' the wagon. Olive stopped under a large elm tree. Two ropes were thrown over a branch and Gartrell tied one around Ketchum's neck and Pedro Dominicus tied the other around Mitchell's neck. The ropes were not prepared with slip nooses, however, but were simply tied that their agony might be prolonged. The prisoners were handcuffed toirether. Ivetchum was first drawn up. Olive caught up a rille and shot Mitchell. Olive and Gartrell then caught hold of the rope and drew Mitchell u]). Fisher and Brown pulled on Ketchum's rope. A tire was then kindled under them. Accounts differ as to whether this was done purjioseJy or not. The party had been indulging freely in whisky, and some of them claim that this fire was started accidentally. However this may be, the bodies were frighfully burned. Then next day, when the bodies were found, about three o'clock in the afternoon, Ketchum was still hanging, with his legs burned nearly to a crumbling condition. Mitchell's rope had either burned off or had broken, and he was lying on the ground, one arm drawn up to Ivetchum by the handcuffs, while the other was burned off up to the shoulder.

"As soon as the bodies were found, CaiJt. McNamar returned to Plum Creek and reported the fact. I. P. Olive lived here and also several of the men who participated in the murder. They were well known as dangerous characters, and no one cared to attempt to arrest them. Indeed returning at once to Plum Creek, Olive and his men had threatened to kill any one who should attempt to molest them.

•After a few days, a conference was held at the office of E. C. Calkins, at Kearney, to see what could be done. Sheriff James of Plum Creek, Dawson county; Sheriff Anderson, of Buffalo; Judge Gaslin, E. C. Calkins and others were present. The Judge expressd a willingness to issue a warrant, but the question was who should serve it. Sheriff James refused to do so, fearing that the murderers could not be captured, and even if they could, that he would soon be hunted down by their con- federate.s.;^Sheriff Anderson objected to going into another county to make an arrest, attended with so much danger, but said that if the murderers came into Buffalo county, he would not hesitate to attempt their arrest. Two warrants were then made out for the citizens of Kearney and the law abiding portion of the inhabitants of Plum Creek had resolved that the capture should be made. Atty. Gen. C. J. Dilworth, who resided on his farm in Phelps county, near Plum Creek, had for some time, with the assistance of others, been working up a plan for the ^capture of the gang. On Saturday. January 5, 1879, he telegraphed to Kearney Junction that arrangements had been made to take the murderers, and that the citizens of Plum Creek only awaited assistance. At the former place, a well armed and determined party had been organized under the leadership of Lawrence Ketchum, a brother of one of the murdered men. This party bad been

COWBOY KEGIME 77

anxious to attempt the capture of Olive, but had hitherto been held back by the wiser counsels of Dil worth, who sought by the use of a little strategy to surprise the criminals, and thus save the loss of life that would necessarily result from an open attack.

"On receipt of the message above referred to, the Kearney party took the first train bound west and arrived at Plum Creek after dark. Here they were met by some of the citizens, who took them to a place of conceal- ment, and, upon reconnoitering, it was decided to wait until the next morning, when there would be no suspicion, and they could be captured one at a time. On Sunday morning, Baldwin was seized at break of day at his hotel while starting a fire. A number of the party were concealed in the postoffice where Olive and a number of others were captured, one at a time, as they came for their mail. Fisher and others were arrested singly on the street. There was no bloodshed, and but little show of resistance. The prisoners were then taken to Kearney on a special train. On their arrival, Olive, Green and some of the others, fearinsr that they were to be lynched, turned ]rd\ti and showed the most craven fear. They were all confined in the Kearney jail at first, but subsequently wo-e distributed to jails in different parts of the state. On Monday morning, after the capture of Olive, the Mexican Pedro Doininicus, Barney (Jillan, Sheriff of Keith county, and Phil Dufran wer(; captured and bi'ou<4ht in to Kearney.

"The time a})pointed for the trinl was the next sprinsr. The iilace .selected by the presiding judge, William Gaslin, was at Hastings. An indictment was found against I. P. Olive, John Baldwin. William H Green, Fred Fisher, Barney Gillan, Pedro Dominicus, Bion Brown. Phil Dufran, Dennis Gai'trell, Barney Armstrong, Peter Bielec and a man called Mcln- duffer, for the murder of Mitchell and Ketchum.

"The trial of 1. P. Olive and Fred Fisher began at once and lasted for some time. Brown and Dufran tujned Slate's evidence, and the evidence showed the murder to have been committed in the manner above stated. But Olive and his relatives were wealthy, and no expense was spared in conducting the case in their behalf. During the trial, which attracted the attention of the entire stat(3, iiundreds of indignant citizens of various parts of the state went to Hastings, hoping to see justice done. Judge Gaslin was scrupulously honorable, and the murderers had a fair trial. It was known, however, that money wasspant freely in behalf of the prisoners and at one time it became so apparent that Lhe end of justice would be thwarted that the people talked of lynching the prisoners, but as a company of soldiers guarded them this was not attempted. Although the evidence was strong against the prisoners, showing that they had deliberately planned and executed a most foul and cowardly murder, the jury went out and returned with a verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree. Judge Gaslin then sentenced I. P. Olive an Fred Fisher to imprisonment for life in the state penitentiary to which place they were taken.

"Immediately after the sentence of Olive and Fisher, their friends

78 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

be^an to try to devise plans to secure their release, and the trial of their associates in crime was postponed. The following year, these efforts were successful, and the convicts were released from the iDeniteniary upon a decision of the Supreme Court of the state ordering them to be set free on account of technical irregularities in the proceeding of their trial. Let it here be stated that Custer county had recently been formed from territory that had before the county organization been in two judicial districts but now was understood to be attached to the western district. The Supreme Court neld that the prisoners must be tried within the limits of Custer county and at the same time held that this county 'was in no judicial district,' and hence, that the murderers could be tried before no district judse in the state. This was the decision of two of the judges of the Supreme Court, but Judge Samuel Maxwell, all honor to him, dissented in one of the ablest legal documents ever prepared in that court.

"The decision of the court of course practically released the convicts and put an end to the prosecution of their associates, nearly all of whom, However, had been allowed to escape from the county jails in which they were confined."

The closing scene in this terrible drama of blood was enacted in Colorado whither i. P. Olive had sought refuge with his son William. For four years, so the story goes, had the released murderer been shadowed by some vengeful enemy, who had gone so far as to bring his son up to share tljis hatred The two, father and son, never let the Olives get a moment's respite, but pursued them with the bitterness of death. Finally in 1884 the stroke fails. The son of the unknown avenger shoots young Olive dead in a billiard room; the next day, at a cattle round-up, the crime liardened father falls before the unerring shot of the avenger in person. It is now time to return to the North Loup, grateful that Providence has shielded the Valley from all such horrible tragedies as the one just narrated, proud in the knowledge that lynch ings, and violence of a similar nature against man and law, have never tarnised our fair coat of arms.

But more, turn back in time— back to the years 1868, and for the last time see the Valley preparing for the settler. The surveyor was then busy running township lines and preparing the way for the homesteaders. Nicholas J. Paul, well known as one of the founders of St. Paul in Howard county, hud charge of this work. Records show that he completed his task in September, 1868. One William Hardin ran all subdivisions between 18G8 and '70. The lands were now ready for filing.

We have already learned that the first white custodians of the Loup wore trappers and scouts. Several of these strange dwellers on the out- skirts of civilization played important roles in the making of the Valley and should be introduced without further delay.

When the first settlers reached the "Big Bend" in 1872 they encount- ered there an odd character, living in a habitation, half dug out, half log hut, perched on the .side of a prominent bluff. Standing seventy inches in his moccasined feet, erect, muscular, with keen blue eyes, blonde hair,

C0WI30Y REGIME 79

falling in waves over his broad shoulders and massive chest — such was Jack Swearengen, popularly known for miles around as "Happy Jack." A more upright frontiersman can not be imagined. Always cheerful, willing and ready to tramp for days to guide strangers in the Valley. Giving was almost a weakness with him. Many a time is he known to have gone hungry that some poor fellowman in want might be fed. "Happy Jack" has with justice been termed the "Pathfinder of the Loup." When the first settlers arrived he became their guide and adviser. Later, when the first settlement was assured, htj again took up the trail and became their outpost on the Calamus. It was while here that Sioux Indians almost put an end to his eventful career. They took him captive and proceeded to kindle tne fire for a slow roasting alive, when wiser council prevailed and he escaped with his, life, on promise never again to be seen in the "Indian country." In 1H72 he filed upon a claim almost opposite from the site of the future Port Hartsuff. Here he lived for years in a dug-out on the edge of the picturesque canyon whicli to this day goes by the name of "Jack's Gulch," or "Happy Jack's Canyon." As a government scout Jack won an enviable reputation. He alone should be given the credit for running to earth the notorious horsethief "Doc" Middleton, a feat which many had attempted but failed.

Jack was by nature a recluse, and in time melancholia began to cloud his old time "happy" countenance. He became distrustful of his fellow- men, and immured himself in the old dug-out, where no one cared to approach him save his old friends and neighbors, the Goodenows. In 1879 he was removed by a brother to the old family home in Ohio; here, we are told, his malady, pronounced by physicians as "tobacco tremens," yielded to expert treatment, and Jack soon regained much of his old vigor and cheerfulness. Soon after this his father died, leaving an estate worth fully, $40,000. Thus was the old trapper and scout at a stroke pla(;ed in easy circumstances for the rest of his days. And thereon the old homestead he now dwells, no doubt living over again the many stirring events of his life on the plains.

It is deemed advisable to close this chapter on beginnings with the life story of another great pathfinder in the Valley, that of Conrad Wentworth. The very graphic sketch herewith given was prepared at the author's request by one who knew "Little Buckshot" as intimately as a brother — George McAnulty of Scotia, himself no mean Indian fighter and soldier, and honored as one of our most substantial pioneers. He writes: —

"Among the many scouts, trappers, hunters, and all around plainsmen who have figured in the early history of the North Loup Valley, the most picturesque ]iersonality was Conrad Wentworth, knov^^n at that time from the Missouri river to the Rockies as/'Little Buckshot," governmnnt scout and Indian trailer and fighter. H;is splendid courage and daring and countless deeds of heroism and self sacrifice have long been celebrated in romance and song. To this great scout's tireless energy and constant watchfulness the early settlers on the Loup no doubt often owed their

80

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

safety from attack by ihe savage Sioux. Wentworth came from a fine old southern family, but a natural love of adventure early led him to seek hfe

in the West. tt • j o^ ^ -i

"While yet a mere boy he was employed to carry the United States mail

from Independence, Missouri, to SantaFe, New Mexico. Here he saw his

first Indian-fighting and developed the natural instincts of the scout and

Conrad Wentworth, or "Little Buckshot. 'government Scout, Indian Hunter and Friend of the Pioneers.

guide, always waicliing, guarding. Later he went to Salt Lake City and tf)()k part in Cron. Johnson's campaign against the Mormons. At this period ho pcrformod some i^xcelient work as a scout and gained the lifelong fnondshin and gratitude of the officers with whom he served. During the Civil War Wentworth acted as scout for Generals Sheridan, Hancock and Merritt: his work was ever of the most perilous nature and full of the greatest service to the guvernment. After the war "Buckshot" returned

COWBOY REGIME

81

to the plains to renew his acquaintance with the Indian and the buffalo, and for the twelve years next following he was employed as government scout and in that capacity came to the Loup Valley in 1871, as chief of scouts for the troops sent to guard the first settlers' homes. He was at

that time an ideal trailer. He was well at home in all the western Indian tongues and dialects and his knowledge of the different tribes and their customs was simply wonderful. In stature he was rather below medium height. As he appeared in those early days dressed in his handsome suit

82 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

of buckskin, with long curly hair with braided scalp-lock or riding the prairie mounted on his famous pony, "Billy," he presented a picture never to be forgotten.

"The settlers had, one and all, the utmost confidence in his judgment in all affairs pertaining to Indian craft, and felt perfectly secure when he was known to be in the vicinity. Reticent and modest, he seldom referred in anyway to the adventures which had made his name a household word. A man of great natural refinement, he led a life above all reproach. His domestic life was particularly happy, and his devotion to his charming young wife and children was touching to behold. Mrs. Went- worth was born and reared in Washington D. C. but the brave little woman that she was, she soon adapted herself to her husband's life and spent many happy years with him on the frontier. After passing through scenes of adventure such as falls to the lot of but few, the Wentworths settled in beautiful SanAntonio, Texas, surrounded by their children and grand- children. "Little Buckshot" has lived to see the trackless prairie over which he helped guide the vanguard of civilization transformed to a great and prosperous section of our common country— the great American Republic."

Coming of the Pioneers.

CHAPTER VI.

Center of equal daughters, equal sons,

All, all alike endear'd. grown, ungrown. young or old.

Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich.

Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom. Law and Love,

A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,

Chair'd in the adamant of Time.

—Walt Whitman

THE popular hio:hway by which a majority of tlie early settlers made their way into the upper North Loup Valley had its southern termi- nus at Grand Island on the Union Pacific railway; thence it extended north- ward, by devious windings, through the sand range south of the Middle Loup, crossing that river near St. Paul. Prom this place the trail con- tinued its northward trend, entering the North Loup Valley almost due north of the above mentioned town, and continuing thereafter up the south bank of the river. When the tide of immigration began to turn into the upper North Loup country two important settlements were already in progress in Howard county — the settlement of the Paul Brothers and associates at "Athens," or St. Paul, and that of "The Danish Land and Homestead Colony" at Dannebrog. As the history of the upper settlements, especially during the early years, is more or less intimately linked with the colonization of Howard county it becomes necessary to pause and note the circumstances of its origin.

A cold winter night in December, 1870, saw Nicholas Paul, one of the well known Paul Brothers — surveyors and colonizers, and a Mr. Moeller, Vice Consul from Denmark to Milwaukee, camped in the protecting underbrush on the South Loup, not far from where Dannebrog now is. Those two gentlemen, huddled under the bank of the river for protection, almost perishing with cold, represented interests which culminated in locating the first colonies in the county. Not in the least dismayed by such unpropitious a beginning, they weathered the wintery blasts and explored the South Loup as far as Sweet Creek before returning to the settlements. Acting upon N. J. Paul's favorable report a locating committee, consisting of N. J. Paul, Major Prank North, A. J. Hoge, Ira Mullen, Joseph Tiffany, Luther H. North, J. E Noicth, Enos Johnson, S. W. Smith, Gus Cox and Charles Morse ascended the Loup from the Pawnee reservation in Nance County and carefully explored sections

84 • THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

of all tbree forks of the river. The committee evePxtually conclud^^d to stake their town near the Middle Loup, just midway between the other two forks. This important event occurred about the middle of January, 1871. A couple of months later N. J. Paul arrived on the ground with thirty-one colonists and in a short time houses were springing up in and about the new town. This, by the way, was first called "Athens," later changed to St. Paul, in honor of its founders, since there was already one town of the former name in the state.

Meanwhile vice-consul Moeller returned to Milwaukee and organized "The Danish Land and Homestead Colony." This oragnization also selec- ted a locating committee to come west to further examine the land and determine upon the most practical place for settlement. The men chosen for this task were Lars Hannibal, John Seehusen. L. M. Petersen, and Paul Hansen. A search of several weeks ended in the selection of lands on picturesque Oak Creek, southwestward from St. Paul. When the colonists arrived they founded here a town and named it Dannebrog to commemorate the cross-banner of Denmark, their old homeland.

Both of the settlements had a normal growth and time and, circumstance •considered, prospered. The men who built them did not long remain strangers to the upper settlements. Our fathers found it very conveni(uit to stop over at St. Paul or Dannebrog on their periodic trips to and from the "Island." Those were the days of open hearts and hearths. The best the household could afford was none too good for the weary wayfarers. Ties of friendship were formed then between our fathers and the Howard county colonists that neither time nor changing circumstances have been able to sunder. Our hearts go out to those sturdy old pioneers "down the river" who were ever ready to extend a helping hand to the travel- worn trailers of the Loup. Long will their memory be cherished by the sons of these fathers.

It is a well recognized fact in American history that the Church was ever a leader in the colonization of our country in the day of its making. And when it was ripe for a westward growth the various church denominations were among the first to lead their flocks into the wilds. The consecrated man of Cod has been the most important factor upon the frontier. He became a pathfinder in a double sense. Not alone did he blaze a trail for the later comers, but he also fought to give the settlements the Word of Cod, which meant to establish law and order where (^haos might otherwise have reigned. He saved the settlements from years of disre- gard for law and usurpation of the rights of the individual. l\r, made it possible that right and not might ruled the wilds.

The North Loup Valley was fortunate in this respect. The first comers were all earnest church men, seeking here an asylum where to worship Cod according to their own dictates, and untrammeled by other denominations; or they were other honest folk of several nationalities, intent upon making permanent homes for thems(ilves and their families. The very Orst to consider the possibility of a colony here were Seventh

COMING OF THE PIONEERS

85

Day Baptists in Wisconsiu. A cuuiinuiiity of tli(!se p«ju|)lu, in ciistin<^ abont for homes in the new west, were attracted by the j^eneral press to tlie great possibilities of Central Nebraska and tht; Loup river country then in the course of ox[)Ioitation Tiiey lost no time in sending out a committee lo investigate the practicability of settlement in those much vaunted sections.

Accordingly, C. P. Rood, N. B. Prentice, Amos Travis, and C. H. Wellman arrived in the North Loup Valley in June 1871. They explored the river northward as far as the chalk hills opposite Scotia, but determined to go no farther, as the majority of the com- mittee were not very favorably impressed with the country. Especially did it seem to them to be too far removed from the railway and ready facilities for transportation. At least one man of the four, however, was not dis- posed to turn back, and that

^	V	V r<.,,Pjri4
v^SNtr	tr^	•■' 'V)®,"*""***-*'**!

^® St.*<<.,

^CtM). Cii,

^:

was C. P. Rood. As he stood • >x'

on the lofty bluffs looking

north up the valley, this

must have appeared to him

a veritable promised land, if we are

to judge of the enthusiastic minority

report he made after the committee

returned to Wisconsin. The majority

report was adopted and for a time the matter was

held in abeyance. Fortunately, this was not to be

the end of it- For shortly we hear that young men

in the Waushara county community had decided to seek

homes in the Loup Valley. And for this decision_no one

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

is to receive more credit than C. P. Rood. When the boys had finally deter- mined to look up cheap lands in the west, his earnest pleadings and offers of financial assistance had the desired efl'ect. What was more, Mr. Rood in person for a second time ^h-^ -^^- p i<^ the trip from Wisconsin to Ne- braska. And be it rememb was no laughing matter in those days. It meant weeks of wc >> ' ing overland by team, over roads oftentimes almost impassable or throu.ii wilds where the only paths were Indian trails. This second "voluntary committee" kept a diary of their journey from the hour of leaving till the hour of return and from it are drawn the following data, which will not alone illustrate the difficulties to be surmounted in reaching the Loup, but will also tell the story of the first men to actually select claims in the Valley. The writer is W. H. Rood, who still resides at North Loup. He says :

"September 2H, 1871, in company with my father C. P. Rood, my broth- er-in-law Mansell Davis and John Shel don, a neighbor of my boyhood days, I left Dakota, Wisconsin, to view the Loup Valley country in Nebraska. My fath- er who had been one of a committee of four sent out by a colony with head- quarters at Dakota, Wis., had in the lat- ter part of June and early July visited the North Loup Valley. When a ma- jority report of the committee was against the advisability of settling in that part of the country, my father in a minority report strongly favored the Loup, declaring it extremely well adapt- ed for just such a colony. Mansell Davis, John Sheldon and myself, having decid- ed to go somewhere to look for a home, received the proposition from my father, that if we would go to the Loup country in Nebraska he was willing to furnish the outfit for travelling (horses and wagons) and would stand an equal share of the expenses. It was to make this journey that we left Dakota on Sept. 28th 1871. Our tlrst day's journey was naturallv a heavy-hearted one knowing as' we did, that it was to be along one and likely to keep us Irom home for some time, since our intention was to remain in Nebraska through the winter. We round some very sandy roads today. We passed through Montioco and camped for the night at PorL Hope on the Pox River."

With this introduction let us leave our trailers to find their owm way across the states of Illinois and Iowa, as nothing of an unusual nature occurred during twenty-four days required for that part of the trip.

As they are about to enter upon Nebraska soil Mr. Davis writes further: "Sunday, October %% Was on the road by four o'clock this

C. p. Rood, Member of First and Second Lo- cating Committees of the Seventh Day Bap- tists.

COMING OP THE PIONEEKS 87

morning. Reached a Duint op()usit(j Nebraska City by sunrise. Crossed the Missouri Uiv^er on a steam I't'rry, and soon were on a rouj^li and hilly

road in Nebraska Thursday, Oct. 20. Were later than

usual trettinf? started tliis inornint?. Paced a hard cold wind, with lots of dust from burned-off prairie. Our road look us up Lincoln Creek to Hamilton Center where we camped for the night. The town con- sisted of one stone building and a dwelling house. The inhabitants were excited over the prospect of a rumored railroad. Friday, Oct. 27. was cold this morning and rather tough getting breakfast. Were on the road again at sunrise. Left the creek soon after leaving Hamilton and took across the prairie to Grand Island. The prairie had recently been burned off, so it was very nasty travelling in such a high wind. John and I chased some antelope but failed to bag any. Crossed the Platte river ford but found little running water. Arrived at Grand Lsland at about noon. Letters from home. Saturday Oct. 2^. As this was Saturday we remained in camp all day. Saw our first Indians. The "Island" is a lively little place. Provisions are getting high. We begin to realize that we are getting a long way from home.

"Sunday, Oct. 29. A terrible wind came up in the night. As we were in an exposed place we thought best to hitch up and get on the road again. So between two and three o'clock in the morning we were on our way across the sand hills to the Loup River. We reached the river at an early hour and camped on an island, where we cooked breakfast. In crossing over the bluffs between the South Loup and the North Loup we rested for a little while at the home of a Mr. Ward (A. Ward of Mira Creek) and camped for the night at a sod house where dwelt Andrew J. Gillespie (near where Cotesfield now is.) This has been our hardest day's travel yet. Monday, Oct. 80tb. After getting a good breakfast we set our faces toward the bluffs (chalk hills below Scotia Junction). Camped for dinner before crossing the bluffs. We boys followed the river while father crossed the hills with the team to the valley above. Went into camp all tired out at some willows on the river near where Mansell Davis's farm now is. Are now near our journey's end; indeed, we feel as though this is ''out West" for all settlers are now below us. The day has been fine, Antelope are plentiful but there is no time to hunt them.

Tuesday, Oct. 'dl. Father and 1 went down the river and lookod at some heavy timber before breakfast. On the way back we went up stream some distance, and then took across the prairie to reach the wagon, but encountered instead a beautiful little creek which I followed for .some distance. Here I shot a coon. After breakfast I followed a large herd of antelope but again failed to bag any. About noon I saw some elk and wolves. After some further exploring we returned to the Gillespie home for the night. Wednesday, Nov, U. This morning we started early to see what the country was like away from the river. Followed a canyon for some distance, and about noon reached a fair sized creek (Davis Creek) on what is now the Scott place south of North Loup, After dinner we followed the

88

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

creek for some distance. Father now doubled on the trail with the team. We missed one another that ni^ht, and we boys e:ot neither supper nor bed that night. . . Friday, Nov. 3. Wanted to go hunting today but were obliged to give it up as we had some surveying to do to find the lines of the boys' (Mansell and John's) claims. Went up Mira Creek this afternoon with Will West, a young man who had been with us for a few days. Again we saw game in plenty but failed to kill any. The boys have settled upon what claims to take at last, so we are now ready to return to Grand

Island "

This is as far as we need pursue the reading of Mr. Rood's diary. It shculJ be added that the committee retraced their long journey to Wis-

cousin that same fall. Here they spent a busy winter talking up the new enter- prise and making actual preparations to settle the Loup Valley the succeeding spring

From the foregoing narrative it appears that the Wisconsin colony were the first to look over lands of the upper Valley and the first to select claims in what had just been organized under the name of Greeley county; but when it comes to first actual settlement, then the palm must be given to a handful of men coming out of old Denmark.* And the facts in the case are as here set forth : Between 1869 and '71 five enterprising young Danes had arrived in thq. United George Miller. States, hoping here to win the way

for themselves which economic circumstances in the old homeland forbade. In the the spring of 1872 we find them all in Missouri where George Moller (GeorgeMiller) was engaged in the Iron Works of Crawford county, while Niels Andersen (Nels Andersen) toiled in the Warrensburg coal mines. Peter Mortensen, Christian Frey and Jeppe Smith, the other members of the little band, took any work which promised to turn an honest penny. It early dawned upon the friends that Missouri was not the place for them; indeed they longed for a chance to become their own masters, a chance to show their abilities in the line of "nation-building." Thus it came about that they formed a "partnership for weal and woe" and cast their lot with

*Our attention has just been called to the fact that A. M. Stewart, now residing across the line in Greeley county actually settled on a claim in Valley county five months before the Danish colony entered the county. He picked his quarter in September, 1871. and filed on it January 1, 1872. Likewise, A. P. Fish was the very first to move onto a farm in Greeley county. This he did in Sep- tember 1872. He therefore appears to be the very first actual settler^in the entire valley above Howard counly.

COMING OF THE PIONEERS 89

the North Loup Valley. This was no sooner said than done. All but Christian Frcy immediately took ticket for Grand Island and arrived there April 10, 1H72. The former was obligjed to await the arrival of a sum of money from Denmark. He is nevertheless to be considered as one of the original five, and as one of them he owned his share in the partnership outfit.

At Grand Island all preparations were made for the proposed settle-

Peter Mortensen. mcnt. There was the outfit to be procured and the thousand and one things so essential in a new country, miles from nearest trading depot. Pet«^r Mortensen says that "jointly we purchased two ox teams for which we paid nearly $400.00, one wagon which cost us an even $100. 00, two breaking plows and some few other farm and household utensils, for which we paid proportionately high prices." When all was ready for the start the cattle were "inspanned" and our four adventurers faced north for the conquest of the Loup. George Miller, by right of seniority and be- cause of much experience gained in Australian wilds and mining camps, was recognized as "lead trecker" and headed the train.

Behold them then good reader, honest men as you know them today —Hon. Peter Mortensen, State Treasurer of our great Commonwealth,

90

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

Nebraska, and the others, thrifty men all, gee-ing andhaw-ing, perspiring and 'cussing," as they endeavured to keep the stubborn oxen in the trail of those tiresome sandhills south of the Middle Loup! Little did they then realize what the future had in store for them, either of hardship and tribulation or of wealth and honor! The Middle Loup was forded butween Dannebrog and St. Paul. The latter town was then just one year old and boasted four bouses all told. On up the valley the journey continued. At Cotesfield our travellers found a handful of settlers and a company of soldiers on scouting duty. "Happy Jack's" quarters were next reached and passed. They were now on the frontier — the very outpost of civiliza- tion. The many hues of early springtime were beginning to tint hill and vale as the two creaking ox-carts crossed the southern line to the confines of Valley ^county. And there was springtime in the pioneers' hearts too;

for here at last was their land of prom- ise; of these beautiful river bottoms, of these gently rolling hills — the very pick was theirs. The first cansp was pitched on Raccoon Creek, now known as Myra or Mira Creek, near the site of the pres- ent day North Loup. Claims were lo- cated and all preparations made for permanent settlement. It soon became apparent, however, that the quarters chosen would logically belong to the Seventh-Day Baptist Colony already projected. Accordingly stakes were again pulled and our little band con- tinued up the valley and for a second time camp was pitched, but now imme- diately above Dane Creek and not far Jeppe Smith. ^ from its Confluence with the i-iver.

The farm lands in the river valley at this point are not excelled for beauty of location or fertility of soil by any in our section of the state. Here, then, in the very heart of the valley, our pioneers selected for permanent settlement, section eight of the present Ord Township. The very first thing done was to plow a furrow around the entire sectii»n — this, by the way, was done by Nels Andersen, who on this account, and justly, claims to have been the lirst to turn the virgin glebe in the Valley —and then to cast lots for choice of quarters. These fell out as follows: Jeppe Smith, N. W. 1: Peter Mortensen, N. K. i: George Miller, S. E. i; and Nels Andersen, S. W. i. When Christian Frey, the fifth member, arrived a few weeks later, he selected the S. E. i of Section six, cornering with the other section on the northwest.

For economy's sake the newcomers deemed it advisable to spend the first year in a "joint habitation," as Mr. Mortensen puts it. This was a part dugout and part log-house, set in the sunny bank of a low sink in tliQ

COMING OF THE PIONEERS

91

latter's claim. Not alone did this bumble abode answer as a home for the owners, but it became also a sort of hostelry — no pay being taken, let it be known — from later comers. Its hospitable roof sheltered many a weary wayfarer in the early days. Furthermore, in these unpretentious quarters was tried the first criminal suit in the annals of the new county; here was iield the first school for the upper half of the county; and here for several years, was the county treasurer's office locateJ. We cannot but regret that this modest, though historic landmark should have Vjecn demolished, not even a photograph remaining. The cut here inserted is drawn as faithfully as possible from memory and is, -at least, in main features, true" to the original.

The first sunjmei- was a busy one for the newcomers. Prairie had to be broken for a first crop of sod corn; trees must be felled on the river islands and logs hauled out for buildings to be erected. Then there was the all important culinary department. This was (Jeorge Miller's forte. He had, as remarked above, spent some years in the gold fields of Australia,

A Poor Reproduction of Hon. Peter Mortensen's First Dugout.

and there proved himself much more successful as a plain cook than as a prospector after the delusive gold. Such early experiences stood him well in stead now. His ''boarders" never grew weary boasting of *'LTnclo" George's culinary skill and of his warm-hearted hospitality to the hungry wayfarer, Mr. Mortensen avers that "Uncle George" in addition to being a good cook, had considerable luck with his hooks and lines, and often surprised his boarders with a tine mess of well baked cattish — a rare change from the usual meal of fat bacon." Asa single instance of the open-handed hospitality common to all settlers of the early years, let us relate the first experiences of Melville Goodenow in the county. "Mell" Goodenow, as will be shown elsewhere in these pages, first beheld the valley from the hilltops east of the river. In scanning the beautiful, peaceful landscape lying immediately below him, where he had scarcely expected to find trace of white men, he was, to again quote Mr, Mortensen,

92

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

"happily surprised in finding evidence of civilization, and was not slow in wading the river. In a weak and nearly starved condition he arrived at our dugout. Mr. Miller received him in true Danish hospitality, and while he was sipping a cup of George's extra strong coffee, the latter soon had a cattish and a pan oi' hot biscuit ready, and soon our friend sat down to his first— and probablv the best reUshed meal eaten in the Loup Valley." But let us leave the dugout hostelry and trace out the fortunes of Chris- tian Prey.

When the long awaited money from Denmark finally made its appear- 'ancc, Mr. Prey lost no time in shaking the dust of old Missouri from his feet and setting out for Grand Island. This thriving little burg he reached without any adventures, and was there lucky enough to make the acquaint- ance of a Paul Andersen from Dannebrog, who gave him a lift as far as

that place. ' Prom Dannebrog the jour- ney was more difficult. It meant a fifty mile tramp across the hills, with knap- sack on back.

"Happy Jack's" cabin was the only oasis on this part of the trip, and there Mr. Prey rested for the night. Bright and early the next morning, he was again upon the road, ever northward along the river. By noon he climbed the hills south of where Ord now stands and had little difficulty to locate the white tent of bis comrades, some two or three miles up the valley. Pootsore and hungry he reached the camp, which to his disgust he found deserted and the tent closed. However, feeling morally sure that he was in the right far away, he made the most of a bad case by forcing his way into the tent, where after some foraging he succeeded in finding cold victuals enough to satisfy a voracious appetite. Then with a sigh of the well filled he threw himself upon a handy bunk, and was all but drifting into dreamland when, hark! muffled hoof beats in the distance! With a leap he is on his feet and outside the tent, where a hasty survey of the field lends a vision of several Indian warriors on horseback, dashing furiously toward the tent, arms waving and well burnished rifle-barrels brandished on high. This was a moment to try men at home on the plains, to say nothing of a weary stranger in a strange land, suddenly roused from sweet dreams of home across the sea! But if these were savage red skins on murder intent, our camp defender certainly made ready to sell his life as dearly as possible. His old navy pistol, of 50 bore, could surely be relied on to dispatch at least one of the foe and then the Lord would preserve the just! A handy wagon box made an

camp

companions not

COMING OF THE PFONEERS 93

excellent barricade. Back of this protection, then, Mr, Frey crouched, frantically signalling to the oncoming horsonien to halt. Then as bad luck would have it, his ancient weapon exploded, all unpremeditated on his part, and sent its missile whistling dangerously close to the foe.

Here was indeed a predicament! The only weapon of defense suddenly made useless, for we can scarcely count the folding knife which never had seen more serious service than to carve tobacco! And right here the Indians make a diversion. They dash apart to take him on the flanks. They are almost upon him now. The horses' labored breath is audible above the din. The empty pistol may yet make an excellent weapon in a hand-to- hand struggle; so, calmly bracing himself for the final, inevitable crash, when — what means this? Panting horses suddenly reined to their haunches, two astonished pale faces, two pairs of staring, blue eyes, such as are found only close iip under the Aurora Borealis of old Scandinavia, and — "Det var da som Pokker!" from the one, and "Nu har jeg aldrig seet Magen !" from the other. Was he dreaminsr, or was that the tongue he had learned to lisp across the sea! There could be no doubt about it. Here was a case of mistaken identity— a ca.se of Dane meet Dane! Mutual handshakings and explanations revealed the fact that thn horsemen wr.re Danish trappers, Dahl and Andersen, who had for some time made tli(Mr camp with the colonists. They knew that their hosts were away from camp, not to return till nitrht. It was therefore very natural thnt they should mistake the lone defender of the barricade as an invader and enemy, especially as he fired the first shot. Some of our early fathers have claimed that Prey got rattled and lost his nerve. But, tell me, what tenderfi.ot in a lilie predicament could havci im[)roved upon our little melodramaV But, as the author is no Irving and this is no Knickerbocker Histoi-y, we must be done. Only, in passing, let it be said tiiafc never for one moment should Christian Prey's courage be questioned. A man who is willing and eager to hunt Indians on no bcitter steed than a mule, and who slept wf>ek after week all alone in his little ten by twelve log house when many of his neighbors had retired to Cotesfield for fear of Indians is no craven!

The small Danish colony had hardly more than broken ground on their claims before the advance guai'd of the alcove-mentioned Seventh- Day Fiaptists reached the deserted first camp on Raccoon Creek. The story of their advent is well told by Walter Rood in the North Loup Loyalist which runs as follows:

''Inspired by the glowing accounts of Nebraska as given by the second party that had gone to spy out the land, a number decided to emigrate in the spring to this land — the west. On April 1, 1872, the first party con- sisting of John Sheldon and wife, Mrs. S. M. Janes and family, Mansell Davis and wife, and Mrs. Bartow, started on their long overland journey. Mrs. Bartow did not reach the place for which she started as she mot and loved a man in Iowa; they were married and went to Kansas. On Api-il 3 of the same year Charlie Wellman and wife, George Rood and wife and Charlie Rood took their departure. It was expected that the latter party

94 THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

would overtake the former but for some reason failed to do so, tho' Mansell was overtaken before the end of the journey was reached. The journey at that season of the year was not an easy one to make '^'^ ' -ls full of incidents and mishaps which are laughable now, but which i^c sat time were rather serious. At a place where a stop was made one night in the Platte Valley they first met and became acquainted with a family that soon followed them up into the Loup country— the family was that of Alonzo Shepard. When Grand Island was reached George and Charlie Rood waited a day or two for Elder Oscar Babcock who was coming by rail and who was to join them there and to go up with them. Thus they did not reach their journey's end till the 13th of May.

"Thru letters written to the Sabbath Recorder, the denominational organ of the Seventh Day Baptists, others of like faith in Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, and at Humbolt, Nebraska, had learned of the new country and many had decided to cast their lot in the new land, so the parties from Dakota found others had preceded them. There had come from Humbolt, L. S. Davis, A. H. Terry, John Furrow, A. H. Davis and others; from other places H. A. Babcock, George Larkin, G. H. Johnson, N. W. Bab- cock and others whose names are familiar. Those coming first had camped near the river on Will Negley's place opposite "Shepard's Grove;" the other party camped near the river and across the creek opposite where N. W. Babuock now lives. The days of the first week were spent in getting acquainted and in looking over the country; and when the Sabbath came. May IH, all gathered at the upper camp where religious services, the first (iver held in all this Loup Country, were conducted by Elder Babcock, who had been ordained to the ministry but a few years before this time. The services were conducted in the open air, not even a tent being available for shelter. In lieu of a better thing for a pulpit, or something behind which he might stand, the Elder used an old rocking chair. The singing was led by Charley Rood who was at that time a beardless boy. Thus the beginning of their life here, and the foundation upon which they hoped to build their homes, was a recognition of God's power and an acknowledgment of their faith and trust in Him.

"The week following this service was spent by the men in locating claims and by the women in discussing tho.se questions which are dear to every] woman's heart — babies, dress, cooking and their neighbors. The first one to take out homestead papers was Garrett Maxson who filed on the farm now owned and occupied by A. S. Cleary. The original dugout built by Mr. Maxson is still in existance, and is used by Mr. Cleary as a summer kitchen. It, with the house on what is known as the Billins farm, built by John Sheldon, is tho only original house that is in use at this time. It is part dueout and part cottonwood logs cut from what used to be an island in the river south of the R. R. bridge at Scotia.

"Among those who filed on land at this time we mention Elder Babcock who homesteaded a ])art of what is now the townsite of North Loup; Amos Burdick, the farm just west of the "42" schoolhouse; Col. Davis, the farm

COMING OF THE PIONEERS

95

occupied by Charley Rich; H. A. Babcock, the farm where Claud Hill lives; Bert Davis, Buro^ess' place; Charley Wellman, the place the family still owns; A. H. Terry, O. S. Potter's farm where Ed. Brace lives; Dr. Badger, McClellan's farm. Nearly all the land taken was in the valley and near to North Loup. But few of these who homesteaded first now own the land then taken, and Mansell Davis is the only one who still owns his farm intact and who has resided continuously upon his land. "By the time the second sabbath had come several of the new settlers were on their farms, living yet in their wagons, so it was decided to meet at the home — wagon — of Charley Wellman for worship on the second sab- bath, and asain Elder Babcock preached for the little band who gathered at the appointed place. During the week following this second sabbath service the Elder departed for his home in Wisconsin, thus no preaching

services were held, yet the colonists con- tinued to meet for worship during the summer though somewhat irregularly. By the 28th all had broken camp and were located on their claims, and had begun in real earnest the work of developing the country. The sum- mer was spent in breaking prairie, put- ting up hay, tryins to raise a little sod corn, building some sort of shelter for the winter and by some of the men in working in the Platte Valley to earn a little money with which to purchase their few necessities. As nearly all who came here were poor and not at all provided with ready cash, not very many luxuries were indulged

Hon. Oscar Babcock: First Preacher in the during this period. And the SOd hou.'^e

^^''^y- and dug-out made were not the

tinest in the world, nor were they as well furnished as one might wish them to be, yet all were happy and contented with their lot.* Did a plow need sharpening, or were some groceries needed a trip to Grand Island was necessary. In order that letters from home might be received or letters sent to friends, a trip of from thirty to fifty miles must be made. However, as these were to be a part of their daily life the hardy .settlers made the best of them and they but little realized the hardships they were passing

*Elder Oscar Babcock in speaking of the dugout says: "It required but little money to build one of these houses and to finish it in all its parts. I herewith produce a duplicate of an itemized ac- count of money actually expended in building one of the structures 14x14 feet on the ground and one story high: 1 window. 8x10 glass $1.25: 18 feet lumber for front door .54: 1 latch and hinge, no lock. .50: 1 joint pipe to go through roof .30: _3 lbs. nails to make door, etc., .19. Total ^2.78."

96

THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

through. During the summer other settlers continued to arrive from vari- ous parts of the country and by fall quite a respectable settlement was formed."

While the Seventh-Day Baptist colony was thus rapidly getting on its feet, the upper colony was by no means lagging. In June a second con- tingent arrived. These were Fred Dowhower with family, and a brother, J(jhn Dowhower, who filed respectively on the northwest quarter and the southwest quarter of section six, Ord townsihp, and Falle Moller with family, who homesteaded the northeast quarter of the same section. In this Wciy it c^me that by the middle of July the settlement comprised eight farmsteads contiguous to one another. Fred Dowhower was from the first an eccentric and excitable character, but withal a good neighbor, and honest and upright in all his dealings. It is with many regrets that his

many friends, yet living, contemplate his sad end in an asylum for the in.sane, after having weathered all the storms in- cident to the early seventies and laid the foundations to the substantial pros- perity which his family now enjoys. The old iiotiiestead settled in '72 has never been allowed to pass out of the family being at the present farmed by a son, Fred Dowhower, Jr. The brother John early tired of the stienuous frontier life and abandoned his claim, soon after filed on by "Harve" C. Potter.

Falle Moller arrived with his family direct from Hadersley, Denmark. He reached Grand Island on the 14th of September and there left the family in Falle Moller. Comfortable quarters, while he, with

true Danish grit, tramped the entire distance from the "Island" to the Dane Creek settlement, a distance of between 60 and 70 miles, "without feeling," as he puts it, "one bit the worse for the trip." After selecting his claim Mr. Moller retraced the journey to Grand Island, and purchased there a team of horses, wagon, two cows and all necessary household utensils.

Thus equipped he set out for the Loup Valley, reaching the Morten- sen dugout late in the day of July 2R. While buildings were being erected on their homestead the Mollers found shelter under the hospitable roof of our l)achelors. Quite an addition indeed was this to the dugout family of five— parents, the .son Jorgen, and three daughters, Marie, Elizabeth and Laura. But those were tlie days when to incommode oneself was a duty and to suffer inconvenience a rule. The Mollers, too, have religi- ously guarded the old homestead and never allowed it to pass out of the family. It now belongs to the son, Jorgen, who through industry and

COMING OF THE PIONEERS 9^

exceptional ability has not alone become one of the largest land owners and stock raisers in the Valley, having at the present under cultivation fully 2000 acres, but he is also prominent in public life, having filled sev- eral places of trust in his county, such as chairman of the Board of Super- visors for fourteen years.

Shortly after the arrival of the Dowhowers and the Mollers, a second large contingent arrived in search of new homes. They were A. G. Post and his son, Frank; William E. Post and his four sons. David, Charles, Calvin and Louis; John Case, a brother-in-law of the Posts; Doctor E. D. McKenney, and Frank E. Curtis, William E. Post, or "Uncle Billy" as he was familiarly called, made the original entry on the farm now owned by J. W. Gregory; A. G. Post on tlie Dick Rea farm now owned by the Garrisons; David Post on the Tuily farm; Charles on the Elyria townsite; Calvin on the farm just west of the Gregory place ; "Uncle" John on a tract across the river and in the same section with the Gregory place; Frank E. Curtis on the Ervin Dodge farm; Doctor McKenney on part of section 22, just above Elyria. "The Post clan," says Mr. Mortensen, "were regular fron- tiersmen, having been in the advance guard of civilization in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota. They came to Valley County, I believe, from near Logan, Harrison County, Iowa, brought and with them a large number of horses, mules, oxen, cattle, utensils and machinery, and very soon had a considerable portion of their claim broken, and substantial cedar log houses and stables erected.

"A. G. Post constructed buildings of his own, and with his young wife and son Frank, lived at some distance from the others, on the Garrison farm: but Uncle Billy with his wife and sons, who were all single men. Doctor McKenney and wife, and Uncle John Case, all lived with Mr. Curtis on thfi Dodge farm, where they occupied a large two room combination log house and dug-out, with large corrals, sheds and stables for their horses and cattle. From these ([uarters the men would scatter in the morning for their several occupations, improvinsr their homesteads or jointly getting out the heavy cedar logs from the cedar canyons near by, while Mrs. Post and Mrs. McKenney remained at home to prepare the roast venison and cornbread, which comprised the bill of fare for our table at that time. After their day's work the whole company would gather around a common table and enjoy the frugal meal prepared by these good ladies; and later the men would circle around the tire place with its blaz- ing cedar loer fire, on their three-legged stools, to talk over their past ex- periences of frontier life and to lay plans for the development and upbuild- ing of the new country and to consider plans of defense in case of sud- den attact by the Indians who at that time were roaming over the entire state. They were a brave and light-hearted set, these men, generous and accommodating and would divide their last morsel with anyone in need."

Here let us leave them, pathfinders that they were, to further trace out the fortunes of Melville Goodenow, whom we left, .some pages above, in the hospitable care of George Miller at the tlug-out hostelry. "Mell"

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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP

had left his family and most of his worldly goods near Sioux City, Iowa, and in his covered wagon, with an extra saddle-horse, "Billy, " tied behind, struck out westward to find a home for his family. Failing to find what he was seeking in the Elkhorn Valley, he left his heavily loaded wagon there, saddled "Billy" and boldly struck out westward. In this way it came about that tie came to Valley county and found the Danish colony in possession. After but little delay he selected a claim some miles beyond the first colony, near what was later called '"Happy Jack's Gulch" and now in his turn became the extreme outpost to the north. Mr. Goode- now's privations and hardships, endured this summer, picture in a graphic way what so many of the first settlers had to go through. He broke his first twenty acres of prairie, carrying an old army musket; for Indians

were getting troublesome, and the only safety lay [in eternal vigilance.

During this period of preparatory toil his chief diet was mush and milk, the latter coming from a cow borrowed from Nels Anderson. But he was in a worse plight when we come to consider wearing apparel. He tells us that in the course of some months his clothes became entirely worn out, and in lieu of anything better he braided a hat out of grass, and fashioned pads of the same material, which he lined with soft buf- falo grass and tied with buckskin thongs to the swollen and festering feet. Grain sacks patterned into trous- ers then completed this grotesque toilet. He must have presented a startling appearance indeed when, in the early fall, he appeared at the Mortensen dug-out, on his way home to Iowa after his family.

Before being allowed to continue on his way Mr. Mortensen thrust upon this Nebraska Robinson Crusoe a ten dollar bill from his own scant store, with which to procure civilized garb before leaving Grand Island. It is interesting to remember that this kindly act was never lost upon the receiver. When in the spring of '73 he returned from the East with his entire household, including family, cattle, horses and smaller stock, he proceeded straightway to even up scores. Mr. Mortensen tells us that among Mr. Goodenow's provisions was a large barrel of Dork, which Mrs. Goodenow divided evenly among all present.

"But, better still, he brought me," continues Mr. Mortensen, 'a young Chester White pig which was intended as a starter, or a foundation . . . . for building a fortune. Having ho pen, I lariated the animal close to my dug-out, but fat*; was against me. Either the grass was too

MariUa Flynn: First White Woman on the Upper Loup.

COMING OF THE PIONEERS • 99

rich a diet for the animal or the sun too hot on the open prairie. In a few weeks the pig died and it took years before I was able to get another start in the industry which has done so much to develop our country and state."

In order to complete our list of settlers of '72 we must not forget to count the families who during the summer and fall took possession of land east of the river, immediately across from and below the Danish settlement. At Springdale "Due" Elias S. Harter opened a small general store which sold among many other commodities medicines, tinctures and liquors. The grand old man, D. C. Bailey, came across Greeley County, having driven all the way from Waupaca, Wisconsin,' and with his three sons, George, Harry and Prank, filed on land still held by him. W. D. Long, for years a leader in politics and now a highly respected land owner and farmer, took land close to the Baileys. About the same time too, O. S. Haskell and his cultured wife who had the honor of being the first to teach school in the upper half of the county, arrived from Illinois and settled in the same neighborhood. That same fall and early next spring other families came, among them Prank M. Gushing, Prank Chubbuck, Johnson Gerry and Van Gorden, while Leslie Scott tiomesteaded a claini further down the river. On the north Melville Goodenow was not long to remain the outpost; for in November of '72 the beginnings were already laid to Garfield county. The first settler was Charles H. Jones who came from Allegan, Michigan. He left his native state in 1870 and after two years of "roughing it" became the pioneer of the above mentioned county. As Mr. Jones became the founder of the important Willow Springs settlement, and was for many years the center of Garfield county civil and political life, we will let him tell his own story :

"On the 22nd of Peb., 1870, with $50 in my pocket I started west. With no definite idea of destination I entered a ticket office in Chicago and called for |i]0 worth of transportation in the direction of Colorado, and got a ticket to Kearney, Nebraska.

"Learning from passengers that the country about Kearney was'quite sandy, I got off the train at Columbus (Peb. 24, 1870) and went to work choring around a hotel at $10 a month and board. My possessions when I landed at Columbus were $5.20, the ticket to Kearny and a big revolver. In the spring of 1870 I squatted on a claim and made some improve- ments thereon and in the spring of 1871 sold the right for $150. I then sent for my wife and boy and in Pebruary of that year in company with thirteen others in wagons made a trip up the Loup to look at the country, going up to where Elba now is, then turning back. On this trip 1 captured a pony from the Sioux Indians. The party rpturned to Columbus on the 8th of March. The surveyors went out the first of April to run the town- ship and section lines in Nance, Greeley, Howard and Sherman counties.