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NE History & Record of Pioneer
Days
Vol VI, no 2 (part 4)
THE WEEPING WATER
Photo
by Addison E. Sheldon, 1907
By this the rim
Of western hills in the cold, wasting light,
Grew indiscriminate; but up the east
Hung, in gray peaceful depths, the full-orbed moon.
Utterly silent was the field of death.
So then the women, who from far had marked
The waning battle as their heroes fell,
And heard the shouts of triumph and the moans
Of men death-stricken fainter grow and cease,
Warned by the ominous stillness of the eve,
Stole, timid, with all orphaned youths and maids
And infants hushed, as by a ghostly fear,
Across that dreadful field of moon-lit death,
Searching for husbands, brothers, sons.
As when a mother doe, with spotted fawn,
Hides by a runnel in some cool, blue glen,
While the brave stag climbs out on some near hill,
Observant of the huntsman and the hounds,
But, venturing too far, a stealthy shot
Reaches his vitals, and he turns and flies,
Bleeding, and falls before his mate, and dies.
But she and the weak fawn smell o'er his wounds,
And lick his face, and moan, and from their eyes,
Lustrous and large, fall piteous tears, so then,
When all their stain had found and turned them o'er,
And knew the light might never break again
In kindled glances from death-faded eyes,
They sat them down through lingering, painful hours
Of the dim night, and, without utterance, wept.
But when the moon, down her accustomed path
Descending, touched the west, He who o'errules
Particular troubles to the general good,
And pities all, and knows the loyal worth
Of true wives' tears, and tears of children--such
As weep a father slain--He, pitying, sent
A sympathetic shudder through the earth,
And the dead warriors sank to graves of calm.
But all the tears of children and of wives
In a green hollow of the lonely hills
He gathered in a fountain, that the sun
Dries not in the summer heats, but crystal pure
O'erbrims and murmurs through the changing year,
Forever on it flows, that gentle stream,
Fountained by tears, and glides among the hills--
Ne-hawka--in a valley of its own,
And passes happy homes, and smiling farms,
And rolling meadows spotted o'er with flocks
That drink its sweet cool waters; and so on
Past groves of leafy hickory, and beneath
Low painted bridges, rumbling to a team,
It moves a broadening current, swelled by rains
Or the chill ooze of Spring-dissolving snows,
And mirrors back the splendors of the sun,
And the cold moon, and the wide stream of stars,
Until, at length, it lingers at the marge
Of the untamable Missouri flood,
As loath to mingle its love-hallowed tears
With that fierce sandy rage; then looks its last
On the sweet heavens by passing day or night,
And sinks beneath the yeasty, boiling waves,
Whose like for might and fury earth has not.
Thomas Marsh died near Tekamah, October 19,
1923, aged 65. He came with his parents from Indiana by the ox
team and covered wagon route in 1865 to the farm where he died.
His home was a headquarters for geese and duck hunters for many
years.. His hospitality was unbounded and his memory a tender one
to all who knew him.
Pioneers to Nebraska were many of
them dreamers, perhaps all of them. The prevailing type of dream
was a home with trees, and flowers and children and friends. Not
all of these dreams were realized in completion. There were also
some pipe dreams. Blair for many years had for one of its notable
buildings a large square building erected by an early settler
named Carson. His dream was to equip this building with a wind
mill which would render all kinds of mechanical service. The
windmill was never installed, but the odd looking building
remained there for nearly fifty years until it was torn down this
fall.
The Women's Club, at Geneva, gave an
historical exhibit in October, 1923. It was a very remarkable
collection, including not only many colonial relics, but ancient
articles from Germany, England, Czechoslovakia and a rifle made
sixty years ago by a pioneer of Fillmore county, used in hunting
buffalo.
Mrs. Ellen Pierson celebrated her
93rd birthday at Bethany, October 20, 1923. She and her husband
homesteaded, in 1869, five miles south of Bennett.
W. H. Stringfield died, at Humboldt,
October 27, 1920, aged 83. He came to Richardson county in 1861
and for years operated one of the old custom mills on the Nemaha
River, which ground grain for one sixth toll, and was kept busy
day and night throughout the year.
Mrs. Mary Yule died at Los Angeles,
October 16 1923. She was formerly Mrs. Burke and one of the
pioneer settlers in Jefferson county. Her husband was a pony
express driver on the Overland Route. He was later killed by the
Indians while going to Fairbury with a load of corn.
Indian Summer
None of the literary or the weather
sharks knows the origin of the term "Indian Summer." Popular
tradition has connected it with the Indians, but in truth the
season has no more connection with the Indians than any part of
the year. The smoky haze which dwells in the atmosphere it has
been suggested came from Indian fires, but the Indians build fires
at all other periods of the year. The origin of the name "Indian
Summer" and the particular type of weather which it signifies are
the subject of a very learned paper by Dr. De C. Ward of Harvard
University in the Journal of the American Philosophical Society at
Philadelphia. Dr. Ward's paper contains references to practically
all of the important printed documents on the subject of Indian
Summer, and is recommended to people who wish to know more about
the subject. The principal cause of Indian Summer days is the
passing from the heat of summer to the cold of winter, making a
breathing spell between the two seasons. The storm areas move more
slowly, it has become too cold for thunder storms and is yet too
warm for snow storms. There is more of the discussion but the
above is worth following.
Bows and Arrows
Every red-blooded boy longs to be the
owner of a real bow and arrow. It is a part of primitive man
lingering in his system. It clothes him with the insignia of wild
nature and makes him once more an animal among the animals. In the
renaissance of wild life represented by the boy scout movement
there is a large place for the bow and arrow. So the Nebraska
Historical Society Museum has frequent calls for the exhibition of
its bows and arrows and for directions how to make the implements.
The University of California has just published a thorough, study
of bows and arrows written by Saxton Pope. The book is abundantly
illustrated and gives description of ancient bows and arrows and
comparisons of them with American Indian bows and arrows. This
book is available for examination and for loan to Nebraskans
interested in the bow and arrow question. A few interesting facts
regarding the distances shot by arrows from different bows, the
result of careful tests in California:
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An Osage Indian Bow
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92 yards
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An Apache Indian Bow
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120 yards
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A Black Foot Indian Bow
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145 yards
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A Cheyenne Indian Bow
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165 yards
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A Yaqui Indian Bow (from Mexico)
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210 yards
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An English Long Bow
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250 yards
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Arrows from the English Long Bow have been sent clear through an
inch of solid oak.
The Pennsylvania-Germans
The Historical Society Library has
recently come into possession of a nearly complete set of the
publications of the Pennsylvania-German Society. This society was
founded in 1891, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In its more than
thirty years of existence it has published twenty-two volumes
descriptive of the migration and settlement of Germans to
Pennsylvania and neighboring states, a history of the development
of the so called Pennsylvania-Dutch people in America, their
peculiar dialect, the part they have had in American life, their
contribution to American thought and industry, their services in
the revolutionary war, civil war and world war, the character of
their people and the names of the families who came to America.
Each of the European stocks which has settled in America has its
own history and its own place in the making of this republic.
Certainly among these the Pennsylvania
German has no reason to be ashamed of his part. The beginnings
of the immigrations to Pennsylvania were from the Palatinate, the
Rhine provinces of Germany, now occupied by the troops of France
and in which there is at present a separatist movement to form an
independent republic. These Rhine provinces of German speaking
people have suffered since the time of Charlemagne from the
continual wars between France and Germany. The industrious
peasants and mechanics who produced the wealth in these beautiful
provinces have endured unspeakable hardships from invasion of
armies. When they learned that William Penn had founded a colony
in America based upon the principle of peace they eagerly sought
to escape from the miseries of the Old World into the wooded
wilderness of Pennsylvania. Their immigration began in 1681 and
continued at such a rate that the first census of 1790 showed
145,000 people of this stock living in that commonwealth. The
Pennsylvania-Dutch have migrated to all the states of the Union
and descendants have married freely with the descendants of New
England, New York and other colonies. They have been among the
most industrious, law abiding, religious and patriotic people of
the United States. Thousands of them have served as soldiers in
the American Army in each period of our history. The
Pennsylvania-Dutch language is an interesting composition of high
German, low Dutch and English. In its written form it is not
difficult to understand by a person either German or English. In
its spoken form it is difficult for either English or German to
understand. It has an extensive literature all its own, that
literature will always be an entertainment for the scholar and
sociologist. A single simple stanza may be given from one of its
poets:
Ihr Pennsylfanisch-deutsche Leut,
Ihr brauchet euch net
schamme,
Juscht loss der Englisch euch auslache,
Mit seine hoochgelerndte Sache--
Er lernd euch a'h noch
konne;
Un's isch en Lerning, net in Bucher,
Wan net so hooch, doch juscht so sicher.
Nebraska has many thousand descendants of
this sturdy Pennsylvania-Dutch stock. Some of the best known
families in the settlement and development of the state bear the
Pennsylvania-Dutch names. It will be a matter of interest for
these Nebraskans to know that the Historical Society has these
volumes in its library which may aid them in acquiring a better
knowledge of their ancestors in America.
HISTORICAL NOTES
The Hartington News comments upon the list of
historical sites in that county as given by the year book of the
Nebraska Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and urges
that citizens there study the data and locate the sites of
important points connected with the early time history. It will be
found that the shores of the Missouri river are rich in the many
camp sites, council points and other important historical
events.--
October 26, was Pioneer Day at Yankton,
participated in by many Nebraska settlers. A pageant representing
the old time voyagers up the Missouri river was given with great
effect.
The Syracuse Journal recalls that forty years
ago the republican County Committee of that county ordered forty
thousand republican tickets printed, dividing the job between the
five republican newspapers in the county. Present day voters are
thus reminded of a system, of furnishing ballots unknown to many
of them. The editor of this mag-
azine well remembers receiving an order for his share of
republican county tickets in Madison county nearly forty years ago
and of waiting two years for his pay.
The editor of this magazine has a vivid
recollection of West Point, in Cuming county, in the early
eighties, and the wagon shop maintained by Mr. Larson. This wagon
shop was one of several manufacturing industries located at West
Point immediately following its first settlement. West Point was
the first small sized city of Nebraska to start development as a
manufacturing center. A remarkable group of enterprising men
placed its name upon the map and for a number of years it appeared
that the town was to attain great distinction in the field of
manufacturing. Discriminating railroad rates and new business
methods changed all this, centering in the larger cities of
Nebraska the hopes of these founders of small manufacturing towns.
There is room for a splendid story upon the industrial development
of our state in the early manufacturing period.
The 75th anniversary of the Chicago &
Northwestern Railroad was celebrated at Chicago, October 24, 1923.
It was made a great occasion by the managers of that great
railroad as it justly should be. Nearly all of the great railroad
lines of the West are developing a historical department for the
purpose of preserving remarkable events in the history of these
railroads using them for advertising purpose and serving the
general cause of historical record.
Old Nursery Hill was a station on the steam
wagon road between Nebraska City and Salt Creek. Pioneers who
traveled by stage or ox team over this road in the sixties and
seventies will never forget Nursery Hill. It was a picturesque
little group of houses on the sidehill looking out over a valley.
The chief feature of the landscape was the big, wide overland
trail winding its way from the Missouri river to the Rocky
Mountains. The writer of this paragraph has promised himself for
many years to revisit this historical stage station and see
whether the picture of the place as he saw it with the child's eye
more than fifty years ago can fit into the present landscape. One
of the oldest pioneers of Otoe county, Mrs. Kate Hedges, who
settled near Nursery Hill in 1861, passed away October 20, at the
age of 85. She had lived more than sixty years in that community.
An intelligent, well-read woman, a lover of nature, a good
neighbor, a true wife and mother. Can any picture of pioneer life
be more complete and satisfying than the one merely outlined in
this paragraph?
At Schuyler the Bohman Opera House, an old land
mark dating back to 1875, has been sold and will be torn down. In
the early period it was used as a public hall as well as a local
theatre. It was the scene of many stormy political gatherings, as
well as the development of the Bohemian theatre brought by the
settlers from the Old World along with other artistic
acquisitions, to the prairies of Nebraska and made a means of
entertainment and dramatic development through the early period of
our history.
A skull supposed to be the skull of a Sioux
Indian was found in the Republican river near Franklin, in
October. Mr. Chas. H. Davis, of that locality, is the old settler,
who relates from a Sioux Indian the story of a battle between the
Omaha and Pawnee on one side and the Sioux on the other, in which
a number of the Sioux were killed along the bank and in the
Republican river, which was then high.
Thomas Gerrard died at Schuyler, October 19,
aged 84. He homesteaded in 1870 five miles north and one mile west
of Schuyler, and was one of the well known and influential
citizens of that county for 53 years. His six grown sons acted as
pallbearers at his funeral.
By the death of Mrs. William F. Stolley, aged
86, at Grand Island, January 31, 1923, one of the best known
pioneer women of that region has gone. Mrs. Stolley was a native
of Holstein, Germany. She came to America on a sailing ship,
landing at New Orleans when she was twelve years old. In 1856 she
was married at Davenport, Iowa, and came with her husband the next
year as a member of the German colony to Grand Island. The story
of that pioneer colony is one of the most thrilling of the
Nebraska frontier and its final victory over hardships and dangers
one of the moat notable in the history of our state. Mrs. Stolley
was the mother of ten children among them Emil G. Stolley member
of the Constitutional Convention in 1920.
Grant L. Shumway of Scottsbluff calls attention
to the Fickler's Ranch, sometimes known as Scottsbluff Pony
Express and Stage Station.. It was located a few miles east of
where Gering stands now and the remains of sod walls still exist.
Early travellers on the overland trail mention the place but the
actual time of its construction and ownership are in doubt.
The story of the great roundup at Camp Clark
Bridge (sometimes called Sidney Bridge) across the North Platte
river in the spring of 1881 was told recently at Bridgeport by W.
E. Guthrie at a noon day luncheon of the Lions' Club. At that time
the big cattle outfits controlled the panhandle region of
northwest Nebraska. The business was highly profitable. Thousands
of cattle covered the country and hundreds' of cowboys were
employed. On June 1, 1881, about 300 cowboys started from the Camp
Clark Bridge and covered the entire range from the Union Pacific
railroad to the Niobrara river in one great roundup. It was the
great event of the land, long remembered around the fading
campfires as the cowboys were crowded from the range.
Joseph Wilkenson, 2627 Davenport Street, Omaha,
was one hundred and one years old October 31. He has lived in
Omaha since 1880. Bought from his savings as an iron moulder a
little farm of six acres forty years ago. The farm was sold
recently for enough to make a competence for himself and family
even though they might live for another one hundred years,--one of
the many examples of the increased value of land arising from the
increase of population.
Margaret Engbery Crisler writes an interesting
story in the State Journal regarding Table Rock, in Pawnee county,
one of the historical sites in Nebraska. Originally the rock
looked like a toadstool, but the top became loosened and slid down
the hill. The rocky there is a favorite place for people to carve
their names. One of the names carved upon the rock was that of old
John Brown, the anti-slavery leader who made frequent journeys
through this part of Nebraska in the earlier years.
At Spencer, Boyd county, James T. Woods, said to
have been the first white settler in that county after it was
opened to settlement in 1890, died November 16, 1922, aged,
eighty-five years. He was a soldier in the Union army during the
Civil War.
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THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
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Made a State Institution February 27, 1883.
An act of the Nebraska legislature, recommended
by Govenor James W. Dawes in his inaugural and signed by him, made
the State Historical Society a State institution in the
following:
Be it Enacted by the Legislature of the State of
Nebraska:
Section 1. That the "Nebraska State Historical
Society," an organization now in existence--Robt. W. Furnas,
President; James M. Woolworth and Elmer S. Dundy, Vice-Presidents;
Samuel Aughey, Secretary, and W. W. Wilson, Treasurer, their
associates and successors-be, and the same is hereby recognized as
a state institution.
Section 2. That it shall be the duty of the
President and Secretary of said institution to make annually
reports to the governor, as required by other state institutions.
Said report to embrace the transactions and expenditures of the
organization, together with all historical addresses, which have
beer, or may hereafter be read before the Society or furnished it
as historical matter, data of the state or adjacent western
regions of country.
Section 3. That said reports, addresses, and
papers shall be published at the expense of the state, and
distributed as other similar official reports, a reasonable
number, to be decided by the state and Society, to be furnished
said Society for its use and distribution.
Property and Equipment
The present State Historial Society owns in fee
simple title as trustee of the State the half block of land
opposite and east of the State House with the basement thereon. It
occupies for offices and working quarters basement rooms in the
University Library building at 11th and R streets. The basement
building at 16th and H is crowded with the collections of the
Historical Society which it can not exhibit, including some 15,000
volumes of Nebraska newspapers and a large part of its museum. Its
rooms in the University Library building are likewise crowded with
library and museum material. The annual inventory of its property
returned to the State Auditor for the year 1920 is as follows:
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Value of Land, 1/2 block 16th and H
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$75,000
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Value of Buildings and permanent improvements
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35,000
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Value of Furniture and Furnishings
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5,000
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Value of Special Equipment, including Apparatus,
Machinery and Tools
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1,000
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Educational Specimens (Art, Museum, or other)
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74,800
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Library (Books and Publications)
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75,000
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Newspaper Collection
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52,395
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Total Resources
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$318,195
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Much of this property is priceless, being the only
articles of their kind and impossible to duplicate.
Vol VI, no 2, part 3 
Vol
VI, no 3
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