CEDAR COUNTY, NEBRASKA - PIONEER A.W. JONES ==================================================================== NEGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the NEGenWeb Archives by Carol Tramp Permission granted by: Rob Dump, Editor, Cedar County News ====================================================================== CEDAR COUNTY NEWS FEB 1, 1940 PIONEER A.W. JONES, WYNOT, WATCHES THE CHANGING SCENE RESIDENT 73 YEARS PAINTS WORD PICTURES OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY Editors note - a word picture of Cedar county from its meager beginnings to its present day greatness is painted for the News by A.W. Jones - 74 year old Wynot resident who landed near St. Helena in north Cedar county 73 years ago. BY A.W. JONES Wynot - Most of us when we get on the shady side of life live in the past. Hence my thoughts travel back to bygone years. I find by early records that I arrived in Cedar county Nebraska territory about 73 years ago. I landed in Cedar county on the south bank of the Missouri River about one mile east of St. Helena, the western outpost of that early date. And what did I find? A few white settlers, a dozen settlers or so and a multitude of "red men" - were they good to us? My mother and father told me when I was old enough to understand, "Yes". As I grew older I asked my mother what it was all about as she barred the doors and windows, and she said, "See the Indians coming down the long hill from the west," hundreds of them following the river route as that was the only through trail, the rest of the "rabbit tracks" were just detours in the language of today. INDIAN SCOUTS When they got down to our house they stopped and several of the squaws came to our window as we were looking out the window, not the door, as the door was barred. They looked dirty and hungry so my mother gave them flour, bread, meat, ect. They seemed pleased as they chatted in their own language. They were our friends. In the winter time hundreds of them camped in the timber below us. Some of them worked in my father's saw mill, others chopped and piled wood on the river bank for the steamboats as they passed up stream in the spring. My father paid them in his own money, slips of paper good for a dollar. They exchanged their script for flour, meat, coffee and other groceries. My father kept a supply on hand which he hauled on steam boats from St. Louis, MO. During one of the early winters my father stacked 500 cords of wood on the banks of the river. The settlers wondered what Jones would do with all that wood. To make a long story short the Indian wars broke out up the river and the government sent soldiers up the river on boats. Our wood soon was taken up by the boats and from then on from Fort Niobrara to St. Joseph, MO., there was plenty of wood along the river. The boats would pick it up night or day leaving a note on the bank stating such a boat had taken so many cords of wood. Months after we would get a voucher from St. Louis for the wood. There was no coal those days as there was no railroad to carry it. IMMMIGRATION STARTS As the years rolled along the immigration to this part of the west began to increase. Trains of covered wagons going west passed along every year on the Dakota territory side of the Missouri river as well as on the Nebraska side. After gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1876 the rush began in earnest. A number of settlers from around here followed the caravans seeking gold. The slogan painted on one side of the covered wagons was "Black Hills or bust". Some came back in the late fall and had changed the slogan to "Busted by Gold". These people were looking for homes, most of them had their families and all their earthly possessions with them. Nearly all the wagons were pulled by oxen. At night the wagons were driven in a circle, the oxen were turned loose in the enclosure to feed and to keep the Indians from "running them off." What was the pioneers first thought when they saw land that looked good to them? I imagine it was this; "Can we get water and food for our families and stock and fuel to keep us warm during the blizzards that are sure to follow?" So they settled along the rivers where wood and transportation was available. The uppermost thought in their minds was a home. Those pioneers were a fearless and hard working class of people. A sod house for shelter came first and with their oxen they broke the virgin soil, planted trees and plowed firebrakes. They were honest to God fearing people. If they had more than they needed they would share with their neighbors. How different today for the generation that grew up from those sturdy pioneers, who handed us their life's savings on a silver platter and who have all passed beyond the great divide. COMES THE "SHYLOCKS" Then came the "shylocks" with the sacks of gold. We swallowed the bait, hook, line and sinker. The result after eight years of depression, most of the homes have passed into the hands of the few, the wealth that our lands produce goes east for machinery, gas and not the least, interest. We are told that our dollar is worth only 60 cents in other words we are paying a dollar debt with a 60 cent dollar. Can we ever catch up? The only way this government can stand is for the people to own their own homes. James Monroe was president of this good USA from 1816 to 1824. They seemed to have trouble in those days for he said, "when wealth gets into the hands of a few a republic cannot stand on bayonets, then we must rely on the best elements of our country to adjust our laws of the nation to changed conditions. Eight billions of dollars in the Mellon family and there are others, 500 money changers against 130,000,000 people.