Early day stories : the overland trial; animals and birds that lived here; hunting stories; looking backward

Front matter

LIBRARY

Brigham Young University

FROM

Contents

Chapter Page

I Ignorance of Nebraska History — A Great Thor¬ oughfare — The Different Starting Points — The Overland Stage — Marked by Graves Along the Route . 9

II Start from Home in Genesee County, Mich. — Jour¬ ney on Foot to La Salle, Ill. — Down the Illinois River to St. Louis— Up the Missouri to St. Jos¬ eph — Hire Out to Drive Team — Journey With Ox Team from St. Joseph to Sarpy’s Landing . 14

CHAPTER I. Ignorance of Nebraska History — A Great Thoroughfare

The Different Starting Points — The Overland Stage —

Marked by Graves Along the Route.

This story is written chiefly for the young people, but it may interest also the older ones, some of whom possibly may have a dim and shadowy remembrance of events de¬ scribed herein, or of the persons who took part in these events, and who helped to make them a part of the history of our state and country.

There is much ignorance among our young people, and the older ones as well, about the early history of the state of Nebraska. The reason is that this history is not found in full in our books, nor taught in our schools. Im¬ portant events that transpired in the early days, and that left a lasting impress upon the destinies of our state are either entirely overlooked or have received only mere men¬ tion in such records as have been kept. Had these events happened in New England or New York or Virginia in colonial times there would have been a record made of them, and they would have become a part of the history of our country, and would be as familiar to our school boys and girls of today as are the stories of Pocahontas, of Red Jack¬ et, and of Osceola.

If you will take one of our modern large dictionaries and turn to the list of proper names, you will easily find such names as Pocahontas, Powhatan, Red Jacket, Osce¬ ola, Tecumseh, Pontiac, Black Hawk and many others who flourished in the early days of our nation, but in some of them, at least, you will look in vain for the name of Black¬ bird or Red Cloud or Spotted Tail or Sitting Bull, or any

EARLY DAY STORIES.

of the great Indian warriors of more recent times. We have become a great people — wonderful discoveries are con¬ stantly being made — great events are happening, one right after the other, and these things all claim our attention, so that we have little time to give thought to matters of early history, and yet these things should not be neglected nor forgotten.

Before there was a railroad west of the Mississippi river, the country then known as Nebraska territory had the greatest thoroughfare of the kind ever known in histor¬ ical times. This was the Overland Trail, starting at first from Independence, Missouri, and afterward from Westport, Missouri, (nowr Kansas City), with branches from St. Joseph, Missouri, from Leavenworth, Kansas, and from Nebraska City, Nebraska, these lines all converging on the south side of the Platte nearly opposite Grand Island, the route continued on west through Nebraska to Denver, Salt Lake, Oregon and California. On the north side of the Platte river was another prong of this great highway that crossed the Missouri at Sarpy’s Landing, (now Bellevue), and also at Kanesville, (now Council Bluffs), and these two uniting at the crossing of the Elkhorn river passed up the valley on the north side of the Platte, going directly through the places where now stand the cities of Fremont, Columbus and Grand Island. These two roads, one on the north, and one on the south side of the Platte, united near Fort Laramie in Wyoming and continued on west as one thor¬ oughfare, but divided again farther west, one branch going to Oregon and one to California, with still a third and shorter one to Salt Lake.

On the 7th day of May, 1859, gold was discovered in Colorado. Prior to this date Colorado was unsettled and un¬ known. There were a few traders and trappers within its borders, and possibly a few settlers of Mexican lineage in the extreme southern part, but as a whole it was a wilder-

EARLY DAY STORIES.

ness, unoccupied excepting by wild animals and scattered bands of Indians. This finding of gold gave great impetus to the travel through Nebraska, tens of thousands of peo¬ ple passing over the road in covered wagons, many of the wagons bearing the legend “Pikes Peak or bust.”

When this overland trail first came into use about the year 1840 but to a greater extent by 1843, it was used chiefly by emigrants to Oregon, and later to California and still later by the Mormons on their journey to Utah.

After the discovery of gold in Colorado a vast amount of freighting was done over the road, one firm, that of Rus¬ sell, Majors and Waddell, it is claimed had about $2,000,000 invested in the business, employing 6,000 teamsters, and working 45,000 oxen besides many horses and mules. Be¬ fore the building of the U. P. Railroad, the freighting and emigrant travel had assumed enormous proportions. There was also a stage line carrying the United States mail and passengers. At first in 1850 there was a stage each way once a month — in 1857 it was increased to a weekly, and in 1861 to a daily service. The fare by stage from Mis¬ souri river points was $75 to Denver, $150 to Salt Lake, and $225 to Placerville, Calif.

When these two trails were first traveled — one on the north and one on the south side of the Platte river, each one consisted of a single wagon road, and the travel was almost entirely of wagons drawn by ox teams, there being from two to four yoke of oxen to each covered wagon ; the wagons following one directly behind the other, thus form¬ ing only a single track or road. Along the left side of the road was a plain foot path made by the drivers. As the traffic increased over the road other tracks were made par¬ allel with the first one, so that by the year 1860 there were five or six parallel tracks a few feet apart, meandering along up the Platte valley, and so on over the mountains

EARLY DAY STORIES.

to Utah and the Pacific coast. Before the railroad was built, this was the great highway connecting the East with the West. Over it passed tens of thousands of emigrants to Oregon, California, Utah and Colorado, and hundreds of thousands of tons of freight, in the form of machinery, tools, provisions, grain, feed and merchandise of all kinds needed in Colorado and Utah. Nothing like it was ever seen before either in ancient or modern times, and never will be seen again. There were two other routes to Colo¬ rado — one called the Arkansas valley route through southern Kansas, and the other the Smoky Hill route through cen¬ tral Kansas, but both of these together had only a small fraction of the travel that passed through Nebraska over the Oregon and California trails. This trail is now entirely obliterated almost everywhere in the central and eastern parts of the state, where the land is arable and has been put in cultivation, but as one goes west where there is more waste land it is yet plainly marked by several parallel tracks, deeply indented in the soil but almost everywhere over¬ grown with buffalo grass. A few years ago the writer examined the trail in Scotts Bluff county just west of Gehring. Here the trail passes over the low divide separ¬ ating the northern from the southern part of the Scotts Bluff Hills or mountains as they should properly be called. The old trail as it passes up the slope on the eastern side, and so on through the gap, is still used for a wagon road today, but as it goes down the steeper western slope, it is gullied out by the rains into parallel ravines from five to fifteen feet deep. On the north side of the river, through an almost level pasture field the four or five parallel tracks were cut down into the hard, gravelly soil five or six inches, but all covered over with buffalo and gramma grass.

On both sides of the Platte river, and so on west along the whole course, clear through to Oregon and California, these trails were marked by the graves of those who had

EARLY DAY STORIES.

dropped out by the way. Some of these graves were un¬ marked — some were marked by a slab or board only, with the name and age and date cut with a knife, or burned in with a hot iron ; and at the head and foot of others a rough stone was placed without inscription. Very few, indeed, of these graves can be located today, although there are thousands of them. Perhaps the only one that is known in the eastern part of the state is in Jefferson county, five miles northwest of Fairbury; this has for a headstone a large sandstone slab, on which is chiseled the following: “George Winslow, Newton, Mass.” And on the footstone, “1849.” As one goes west where the soil is harder other graves can be found, but generally, the markings, if there were any have perished. About two miles east of the village of Scotts Bluff is a well preserved and well marked grave that was visited by the writer a few years ago and in which he took great interest because it was made probably only about a month after he had passed along the route driving four yoke of oxen. This grave was marked by a wagon tire which had been cut and the ends driven into the earth so as to form a bow over the head of the grave. On this was cut with a cold chisel, “Rebecca Winters — aged 50 years. Died Aug. 15, 1852.” A short distance south of the grave were the deep indentations in the earth, still plainly visible made by the wheels of thousands of wagons more than fifty years ago. In the year 1902 — the centen¬ nial year of the birth of Mrs. Winters, her grandchildren placed an enduring stone monument properly inscribed at the head of this grave, leaving also the wagon tire with the original inscription in place.

EARLY DAY STORIES.

Chapter II

Start from Home in Genesee County, Mich. — Journey on Foot to LaSalle, Ill. — Down the Illinois River to St. Louis — Up the Missouri to St. Joseph — Hire Out to Drive Team — Journey With Ox Team from St. Jos¬ eph to Sarpy’s Landing.

This and seven following chapters will be mostly a record of the writer’s personal experiences on a journey from central Michigan to Sarpy’s Landing (now Bellevue, Neb.) ; and thence over the Overland Trail to the Pacific coast during the spring and summer of 1852. It is given for the purpose of making it clear and plain to the readers of the present time, how things looked in the western coun¬ try at that early date, and how people traveled in those days, and what opinions about this country were held at that time. The reader will be able to make his own com¬ parisons between things as they were then, and are now, and to draw his own conclusions. It is not expected that anything of very great importance will be recorded, there is nothing strange or wonderful to tell, but it is believed that the contrast between the past and the present will be wonderful to contemplate, and almost unbelievable, because of the changes that have taken place. In 1852 there was not a railroad west of the Mississippi river — Kansas City was a little village then called Westport — St. Paul and Minneapolis, if they existed at all, were mere “villages,” and Omaha was not on the map. Western Iowa was a thinly settled frontier country, only partly surveyed, and was the extreme limit of civilization — it was the jumping off place on a journey to the west.

EARLY DAY STORIES.

At the beginning of the year 1852, I was living near Flint, Genesee county, Mich., where I had lived since early boyhood — had never been anywhere else since I was a small child, and had no knowledge of any other place or country except from reading and from listening to the talk of others. At that time I was teaching a country school — the first I had ever taught, a four months’ term, for twelve dollars per month, and “board round.” My cousin, Wesley G. Conant, about three years my senior, but also my chum and companion, was working in a cooper shop, making flour and pork barrels. We got the Oregon fever, and de¬ termined to start, as soon as my school closed in the spring, on the overland journey to Oregon. About the middle of April, 1852, we were ready. Our outfit consisted of a pony, valued at $30.00, our clothing, a rifle apiece, two or three pairs of blankets, a little tent just big enough for two to sleep under, a pack saddle, a big pair of canvas saddle bags, each side holding about a bushel, and between us a hundred dollars in money. My cousin had saved up fifty-five dol¬ lars at his trade, and when my school was out I received a district order for my whole wages, for forty-eight dollars for the four months work. There was no money on hand in the district and I sold the order for forty-five dollars in cash.

Packing our clothing and a few small articles in the saddle bags, and placing this and all our other equipage on the back of the pony, we started for the Great West, on foot, leading the horse by the bridle. We were young, strong, well and happy. I would like to do it again.

Going in a southwest direction we passed through such towns as Ann Arbor, Cold water, Burr Oak and Sturgis, Mich., Elkhart, South Bend and Michigan City, Ind., and Joliet and Ottawa, Ill., leaving Chicago about thirty miles to the north of our course, and arriving early in May at

EARLY DAY STORIES.

La Salle, Ill., at the head of navigation on the Illinois river. Could our young people of Antelope county now make such a journey, just as it was then, I believe that what would strike them as the strangest of all things along the journey, would be the farms cut up into little fields of from five to ten acres each, and all fenced with the old fashioned zigzag rail fence. Not a town that we passed through on this trip from home to La Salle, Ill., was anything more than a fair sized village at that date, although some of them are large cities now.

At La Salle we took passage on a river steamer to St. Louis, where we purchased provisions for the trip, consist¬ ing principally of flour, parched corn meal, bacon and beans. Parched meal was used because ordinary corn meal would not keep well on such a trip. We also laid in a supply of powder and lead, and a quantity of matches. Tea and coffee we had no use for, and of sugar we took only a small supply. Peoria was the only city of any size we saw until we reached St. Louis. The city of St. Louis was a revelation to me. I had never been in a place half as large before. There were no railroads running into St. Louis then, but there was a wilderness of steam boats tied up to the quay, or coming in or going out, or receiving or dis¬ charging freight, the work being done by gangs of negro slaves. The streets along the river banks were paved with cobble stones, and the rattle of the wagons and trucks over these, the screeching of whistles and the hoarse coughing from the exhaust pipes of the steamboats, made a din and racket that was quite confusing to a green country boy from the backwoods of central Michigan.

The trip from home to St. Louis had been on the whole very pleasant. As stated we led our pony all the way to La Salle, Ill., and we also furnished our own pro¬ visions and did our own cooking, excepting that we bought our bread. I do not remember that we slept in a bed or

EARLY DAY STORIES.

ate at a table during the whole time. We slept in a house or barn, nearly every night, paying for the privilege, what¬ ever the charge might be which, if any, was always small. Sometimes when it was pleasant we slept in the little tent. There was a good deal of rainy weather and sometimes the roads were muddy, but generally we had a good time and at small cost. The trip down the Illinois by boat we thought very fine and enjoyed it much, as it was the first trip we had ever made on a river steamboat. The steamboat stop¬ ped at every town along the way to take on or discharge passengers or freight, and as we were going down stream, the boat always made a turn in landing so as to bring the bow of the boat up stream. This is always the way with a river steamboat, to land with the bow up stream.

At St. Louis we shipped on another and much larger steamboat for St. Joseph, Mo., which was to be our starting point for the journey by the Overland Trail. Our boat was heavily loaded with passengers, wagons, mules, horses, oxen and supplies, all bound for Oregon or California. Among the passengers were many women and children. The pas¬ sengers were mostly from Illinois with also quite a sprink¬ ling of emigrants from Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. Of course we took deck passage and fed ourselves, and we also had a bale of hay and some oats for the pony. Many of the emigrants had their wagons and supplies on board, but no stock of any kind, intending to buy oxen or mules on their arrival at St. Joseph.

It was a tedious journey up the Missouri river. Many times the boat ran aground and had to back off down stream and seek a different and deeper channel. Some¬ times the boat would stick fast for two or three hours, and then spars had to be rigged as levers, and the force of the engine applied by means of ropes and pulleys to push it off the sand bar. At Westport, now Kansas City, a large number of passengers disembarked, and a great amount of

EARLY DAY STORIES.

freight was unloaded. These emigrants that got off at Westport, whether going to Oregon or California, would take the trail that run northwest from Westport, and would strike Nebraska on the south line of what is now Jeffer¬ son county, and the Platte a little west of Grand Island.

At Westport while the boat was discharging freight a lot of the young men arranged a match to see who could jump the highest. The match was to be between the steer¬ age and cabin passengers. Two older men were chosen to hold a string at a certain height, gauged by notches cut in a pole; this was gradually raised a notch higher each time until only my cousin Wesley was left to represent the steer¬ age, and a nice looking young gentleman dressed in black for the cabin passengers. The string had been gradually raised to about five feet — both contestants stripped to their shirts, pants and socks. Our friend from the cabin made his jump and cleared the string, then Wesley did the same, both apparently clearing it with ease. Wesley, however, declared he had done his best, and was willing to call the contest a draw. The other said he believed he could do one notch better. He tried it, cleared the string and won the game, but his black pants were split behind from the suspenders down. Covering the exposed part of his per¬ son with both hands, he hurried to the cabin without waiting to listen to the plaudits of the audience.

A day or two later we arrived at St. Joseph where we unloaded our stuff, pitched our little tent and began to prepare for the trip across the plains. I had been sick for two or three days from what was supposed to be a bad cold, but on coming to the tent one day from a trip up town, my cousin found me nicely broken out with the measles. I kept close to the tent, was careful not to take cold and was soon all right again.

St. Joseph at that time was perhaps as large a place as Neligh is at the present time, but not nearly so compact-

EARLY DAY STORIES.

ly built, and with much poorer buildings than Neligh now has. It was a lively place — there were hundreds of people camped near the town, some in tents and some in covered wagons, all preparing for their western journey. We knew that we could not pack supplies enough on our pony to last us more than half way to Oregon, and our intention was to hire out to drive teams for others. While I was sick with the measles my cousin found a man who wanted two men to drive his team, so that he might have time to hunt and fish and look out for camping places, or do anything else that suited him. He offered that if we would drive his team, and give him our pony, he would haul our stuff, put our provisions in with his, he and his wife doing the cooking, and that we should all eat together and work to¬ gether as one family during the entire journey to Oregon. We accepted his offer, found them nice intelligent people and we got along well together. His name was Knapp, but his first name has been forgotten. I have heard that Knappton in Washington was named for him. His family consisted of his wife and a little girl about two years of age.

Mr. Knapp bought for the journey a yoke of oxen well broken and handy, and a yoke of three year old, and another of two year old steers and a yoke of cows. The steers and cows were tame but had never been yoked up and our first work was to break them in. This was not difficult for we both had been used to oxen all our lives but had never used horses to any extent.

Mr. Knapp decided to take the trail on the north side of the Platte river, believing there would be less travel on that side and therefore better grass for the stock. We there¬ fore struck out to drive up along the east side of the Mis¬ souri river through northwestern Missouri and southwest¬ ern Iowa to Traders' Point opposite to where Bellevue, Neb., now stands, where we would cross the river to Sarpy's Trading post, and begin our western journey. We found

EARLY DAY STORIES.

the country well settled and quite well improved until we crossed the Iowa line, when the settlements became new and thin and the improvements small. At Sidney, Iowa, as I remember it there was one house only, in which the Sidney post office was kept. At Glenwood there was a small collection of houses and another post office.

Rather an amusing thing occurred a day or so after leaving St. Joseph. As we went into camp at night, I found an old farmer camped about a quarter of a mile from us with a whole wagon load of smoked hams, shoulders, and bacon, on his way to St. Joseph to market. Reporting the fact to Mr. Knapp he directed me to buy from the old farmer a half dozen or so of hams, and handed me a little pasteboard box containing, I should say, from seventy-five to a hundred gold dollars. This was before the era of greenbacks or national currency. Our money consisted at that time principally of bills issued by state or private banks, much of which was at a discount, and most of it unsafe. There was however much gold and silver in circulation. Mr. Knapp had saved up expressly for this journey all the gold dollars he could get. Probably most of my readers have never seen a gold dollar — it is somewhat less in size and thinner than a dime. I wish they were in circulation now — it was the prettiest money I ever saw. I selected the hams, the farmer weighing them with his steelyards — we figured up the amount, and I counted out the sum in gold dollars, making the small change in silver. He looked at the money and said: “I ’low it mought be good all right, but I never seed sich money afore. I reckon I’ll take my pay in bills.” I had to go back and get paper money for him.

On arriving at Traders’ Point I inquired for Council Bluffs post office and was directed to a little one story frame house about a mile away on the prairie. Here I got letters from home, the first we had received, and a good

EARLY DAY STORIES.

drink of buttermilk and lots of good advice from the kind old Mormon lady who kept the post office.

What is now Council Bluffs was then called Kanesville, and Council Bluffs post office at that time was near Traders’ Point. I thought the country passed over from St. Joseph to Traders’ Point very fine, and after we crossed the Missouri river and passed on west this fine country continued until we crossed the Elkhorn and struck the Platte bottom, after which I did not like it so well. I will now say, however, after having had some experience, and having traveled extensively in twenty or more states, that I think the eastern third of Nebraska, and the western third of Iowa, the very finest and best farming country I have ever seen anywhere, of equal extent.

EARLY DAY STORIES.

CHAPTER ILL

Crossing the Missouri — Camp where Bellevue now stands — Gather wild strawberries May 28, 1852 — Start west on the journey from the Missouri May 29, 1852 — Join Capt. Wells’ train — Cross the Elkhorn River.

There were not many emigrants camped at Traders’ Point on our arrival there, but they were coming from the east every day in covered wagons chiefly from Illinois and eastern Iowa, but some also from Indiana and Wisconsin. There had been a large number of emigrants at this point a few days before our arrival, awaiting their turn to be ferried across the river, but a river steamboat that had been used as a ferry boat had transferred the last of these just a day or so before we came. This steamboat had now gone down the river, leaving only two or three flat boats to do the ferrying. These flat boats could carry only one wagon and the team attached at a time, and it was slow work. We drove the wagon on to the boat with only one yoke of oxen attached, leading the other three yoke aboard and tying them to the wagon wheels. The boat was carried over the river mostly by the force of the current, which set across obliquely from the loading place to the landing on the opposite shore, but was also propelled and guided by two men with setting poles, and by a man with a large oar that worked on a pivot at the stern. The current was very swift and the boat was carried down stream at least a quarter of a mile before landing. On the return trip the boat was cordelled, that is, drawn by a rope and pushed by setting poles, up along the bank of the river, half or three quarters of a mile to a place where the current set across to the eastern shore. It must have taken nearly two hours to transfer one load and make the return to the

EARLY DAY STORIES.

eastern bank. It was almost night when we got across, and driving out a short distance west of Sarpy’s trading post we camped for the night within the limits of the present village of Bellevue, Sarpy county, Nebraska.

Sarpy’s post, at that time consisted, as I remember it, of the store buildings of Peter A. Sarpy, a blacksmith shop for the Indians, a mission school, a government Indian Agency, and three or four dwellings. There were no set¬ tlers in Nebraska, then, nor for two years thereafter. The first real settlers — farmers who came to make this their home — to raise crops and to improve and develop the coun¬ try, did not begin to arrive until the summer and fall of 1854. There were military and trading posts within the present boundaries of the state — there were traders, hunt¬ ers and two or three missionaries among some of the Indian tribes, and although tens of thousands of emigrants to the territories further west had crossed the fertile plains of Nebraska seeking for homes, none of them tarried here. The country was not open to settlement, the title of the In¬ dians to the land was not extinguished until the summer of 1854.

It is sometimes claimed that Manuel de Lisa was the first settler in Nebraska. He was a fur trader and not a settler in the true meaning of the word. He established probably the first trading post in Nebraska, about the year 1807, at or near the present site of Ft. Calhoun, Washing¬ ton county, and spent most of his time here, but he also had trading posts in Dakota and in Montana — his head¬ quarters were in St. Louis, where he died in 1820. He could not with propriety be called a settler.