Building a new empire

Front matter

Book ^ 9_ A^

Copyright N^

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Preface

The story of "Building a New Empire" is not a story conceived in the vivid imagination of the author, or wrought from the wild scenes of the growing West in fiction or by inspiration, but a story of actual experience in making a new West, and the memory of the events of those trying times has led up to writing this manuscript.

In general conversation these events have been related many times, and editors have asked for historical events to be written for publication, and the writer has been urged to put these actual facts in book form, so the conditions existing in the early days in the settlement of the "New Empire" might be known to the younger generations coming on to occupy the country so recently wrested from the wild man of the plains.

The writer had expected to receive assistance from the few old settlers still living, and who had witnessed the meteoric changes in the West in the past thirty-five or forty years, but none could be found that could give additional facts or evidence of value. Many who passed through the wild scenes of the West could not be located, and those that could be found could give but very few reliable facts of value to add to the circumstances related, so the memory of one man is largely in evidence in writing a historical sketch of the last "new West." In some instances fictitious names have been used to represent the real characters, or the letters transposed, but when actual history is preface

recorded, as in state and county officers the actual names of the parties are in evidence.

The purpose of this work is to put in the hands of the reading pubHc the experience and hardships, and the stirring scenes of the actual settlers on the frontier of the new West, who with the aid of the soldier, the scout, the hunter, civilized the last frontier of this great Nation.

Should any gifted writer in future years draw inspiration from this work to glowingly put in prose or poetry the stirring scenes of taming the wild West, my labor will not have been in vain.

The Author.

BUILDING A NEW EMPIRE.

CHAPTER I. The Decision

At Waukula, Iowa, in the winter of i87i-'72, a young man was clerking in a grocery store, and as a side issue, was buying produce, poultry, and game, with the division of profits on the produce deals, as a part of his salary. Like many other young men of the time, he had a very lucrative position, yet but little could be saved from the salary received, and the profits on the poultry and produce investments as a side line.

The proprietor was a genial fellow and a good business man, and often took into his confidence his clerk on various matters relative to the business; and in like manner the clerk consulted his employer as to his future plans. Tan Myers was the clerk, and while he was raised on a farm, and had received only a very ordinary common school education, he was agreeable to the patrons of the store, but longed for something diflferent, and wished for the time that he might do business for himself and be proprietor, rather than clerk; so after thinking the matter over and consulting by correspondence with friends and relatives at the town of Manchester, fifty miles distant, he had about concluded that he ought to go West, obeying the edict of Horace Greeley, and "grow up with the country," although he had a very good position and two other places had been ofifered him on a salary, one of which was to act as a solicitor

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for a Chicago commission house, all of which he was carefully considering; but after reading up on the natural resources of the great West, its possible outcome and the probable growth of a new country, he had concluded to mention the matter to Mr. Burkee, the proprietor.

He had heard old men talk of this and other countries when new, men who had seen a prosperous State made from a country almost unknown to civilization in their time, so why should not he realize the benefits of helping to make a civilized country of a plain or a wilderness?

After dinner one day, while the snow was falling and but few customers were coming and going, Tan nerved himself up to the emergency of the case and candidly informed Mr. Burkee that he was contemplating giving up the place in the store, and going West in the early spring, to take up a homestead and make a new start in the wilds of the West.

The first question was : "Where do you expect to go, and what part of the West do you contemplate locating ?"

"Well, Mr. Burkee, I have been reading up on Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska," replied Tan, "and from what I have been able to learn from the information at hand, I believe Nebraska to be the best for a young man, everything considered, the climate being a happy medium between Kansas and Dakota, and all things considered, Nebraska, I believe, has the best future before it than any other portion of the West now being opened to settlement ; besides I have many friends who have gone there, and others of my best friends are going to Nebraska in the coming spring and summer."

"But," replied Mr. Burkee, "Nebraska is right now

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in the midst of a political turmoil ; their legislature is in session, and fraud and corruption are reported from every direction, especially in the removal of the Capitol from Omaha to Lincoln, and the location of many of the State institutions at the new Capitol. The officials and many outsiders are accused of graft in the location of the Capitol, and the cry of fraud can be heard from every direction ; and the papers are full of scandal from the new capitol of Nebraska ; and there must be some truth in the reports, for the legislature has already impeached the governor, and reports say that many indictments will follow in the near future. There seems to be such a political crisis in Nebraska at the present time that it may take the State years to recover from the effects of the conditions existing there at the present time. There are also other conditions existing there that are detrimental to the future welfare and prosperity of the State; a portion of the State appeared on the old maps as the Great American Desert, and is said to be very sandy, while a portion of the State is said to have a very good soil, but they are troubled with drouth, and the lack of rain back fifty or one hundred miles from the Missouri River, makes the country worthless as an agricultural country, and it is claimed that a white man cannot exist there, and that the country is covered with hostile Indians and buffalo, and a white man is liable to have his scalp raised at any time that he sees fit to venture far beyond the Missouri River.

"A hunting party is sometimes made up in the East or in Europe to go to Nebraska on a hunting expedition, but such parties ask the United States Government to furnish them soldiers for protection, as in the case of the Grand Duke Alexis, who is now out on the

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Republican River hunting, south of North Platte, with two companies of cavalry. 'Buffalo Bill,' Jack Stilwell, and Charlie Meadows ('Buckskin Charlie'), three of the Government's most daring and trusted scouts as guides and protectors until the party return to civilization ; and you have a desire to go to a country like that?"

"Perhaps not to the wildest portion of the State, but far enough West to secure a desirable location, where there is good water and some timber, with the prospect of having a good town near us as the country grows. All new States have had their troubles, and many of them have been condemned as worthless, and the hostile tribes of Indians have caused trouble to frontier settlers, all the way from Plymouth Rock and Manhattan West, as far as the white man has ventured to make a settlement ; and it was but a few years ago the Minnesota massacre occurred, yet Minnesota to-day is a prosperous State, and the terrible massacre of its people by a hostile band of Indians is only known as a matter of history ; and as to political affairs in Nebraska, they are no worse than in some of the older States, and no doubt some of the political grafters in the new State have graduated in the art in some of the older States ; and history will bear me out in the fact that all our States, Territories and Colonies, have had their political troubles. Even the original thirteen colonies had their political broils at home, besides the trouble with the Mother Country, and the political strifes and contentions have been brought down to our own generation. Look, for instance, at the new State of Kansas, the twenty-first State in the Union, had one of the greatest political uprisings on the question of slavery known to any State in the Union. Beginning as early as 1854, when the slave owners made a vigor-

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ous attempt to control its political destiny while the energy of the friends of freedom were just as vindictive for the control of the new territory, and the contest between the two factions became so marked that the contest eventually resulted in the overthrow of slavery in the United States, and the State of Kansas was styled as the home of the 'Border ruffian,' yet Kansas to-day is fast becoming a prosperous State, with the white man making homes well toward the western border of the State, although at one time it was only considered good for the Indian and buffalo. And in the year 1857 an appeal went forth to the benevolent people of the country for food and clothing, for the drouth sufferers of Kansas, who at that time only occupied a few of the eastern counties of the territory, and yet with all its trials and adversities, it is to-day a prosperous State, and you and I can remember when we began the study of geography, the whole of that country east of the Rocky Mountains, way past the one hundredth meridian, was called the Great American Desert.

"But the United States Government in 1848 sent Captain John C. Fremont across this vast plain, crossing the Smoky Hill Fork, the Solomon, Prairie Dog, Beaver, and the Republican, among millions of buffalo and other wild game, with an occasional skirmish with a hostile band of Indians, and this was followed by other investigations, till within the past two years, the whole of western Kansas and Nebraska, to the Colorado line, has been surveyed, and will, in the near future, be thrown open to settlement for agricultural purposes; and I am of the opinion that the push and energy of the Western emigrant will, in a few years, make that short grass country change from a range occupied by wild game and herds of wild horses to a

II prosperous farming country. The State is watered bymany running rivers and creeks, the longest of which is named by the white man the Platte; but the Indians called it the Nebraska, meaning 'shallow water.' The elevations range from eight hundred and seventy-five feet, on the eastern border, to six thousand feet in the extreme west above sea level, and the rainfall is from thirty-five inches in the east to sixteen in the extreme west annually, and this will increase with the cultivation of the soil. The winters are usually open, with little snow, and I am informed that cattle and horses will winter in the central southern portions of the State with but little or no grain, living entirely on the nutritious buffalo grass ; and in view of the natural resources of that vast territory and the quantity and quality of Eastern emigration heading that way, that a homestead in that new country will in time be valuable."

"But remember. Tan, that in going to that new country, the hardships that must be endured, the amount of labor necessary to make a home, being deprived of good society, with no church, schools, or lodges, and in place of attending church or your favorite lodge, you will perhaps be permitted to visit an Indian village, witness a war dance, entertain a few Government scouts, or join in a buffalo chase, in place of enjoying the advantages of civilization ; and the young lady you seem devoted to would hardly care to give up a place as teacher in the city schools to live in a sod or log house on a homestead in the desert, far away from civilization and the city home she now enjoys.

"The Government fees for taking a homestead is fourteen dollars, and it is simply a bet. The Government wagers one hundred and sixty acres of public

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domain against the fee that you cannot live on the land five years and make the necessary improvements to obtain title ; and here is Mr. Rice, who married the lady of his choice, just after the Chicago fire, in a calico dress, the only one she escaped with, from that dreadful catastrophe, and who, but yesterday, oflfered you a salary of one thousand a year, with all expenses paid for one-half the year you were to travel on the road, and I am really surprised that you would turn down a position of that kind in the busy commercial scenes of civilization, to a wild life on the frontier with a very uncertain prospect of future prosperity, and the known disadvantages of the frontier to contend with."

"Well, Mr. Burkee, there is something in the wild life that is fascinating, at least in imagination, and I have thought for some time that I would like to try it, and if it is agreeable to you, I will make arrangements to go in the early spring; and if you will have a man to take my place on March first I will quit the store then, and get my outfit ready to start as soon as the weather warms and the grass gets a start so the stock can graze on the prairies as we travel to the Southwest."

CHAPTER II. Going West

Trecking over the Iowa prairies in early spring could be seen several wagons with white canvas covers, some drawn by horses, while others were drawn by oxen, and all loaded with provisions, clothing, bedding, and the necessary mechanical tools and farm implements with which to begin the necessary work of

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the pioneer settlers on the extreme border of civilization. The first day out found half the wagons swamped in some of the Iowa sloughs familiar to the traveling public at that time ; but by hitching on an extra team or two to the mired wagon, and perhaps a pry with a rail or long pole used as a lever, the wagon was again pulled out of the mire and placed on firmer ground. But this was only the beginning of the trials in store for the little party of pioneers seeking homes in the far West. Day after day this experience was repeated, and one Saturday, after traveling in the rain a part of the forenoon, word was passed along the line that Tan had a "chill," and one of the party driving the loose cattle came to his wagon and drove the team till a stop could be made. Tan laid down in the wagon with his "chill" for company until that passed off, and a burning fever took its place and remained with him until a favorable camp ground was reached to remain over Sunday. One of the good women of the party had provided a quantity of medicine for the journey, and had generously administered large doses to the ague patient, which, with the shaking of the wagon, had produced what on the water would have been called sea sickness ; and everything that was loose he disposed of in artistic manner, which left him weak and trembling with an empty stomach, and he was really glad his friend Burkee or his best girl could not see him in this condition, yet he would have enjoyed their sympathy under different circumstances. But Sunday's rest, with the result of the prescription taken, cured the patient, and Monday morning found him quite weak in body, but ready for another move toward the wild West. Thus, day after day, the effort continued, some days through mud and rain, and others were bright with sunshine, and the ardor of the w

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members of the party still buoyed up with the hope of making a home in the West. Getting swamped in the Iowa sloughs, or to double team up a long, steep hill, did not seem to discourage a single man of the party, but all pushed anxiously forward to the West. To queries asked by passersby, and to those with whom we talked by the wayside, were all given the same answers as to our destination being Nebraska, and one of the party, to more fully express his enthusiasm, had painted on his wagon cover "Nebraska or bust," while another more inclined to morality, and who was advocating the new motto for the American dollar, which was much talked of at the time, had painted in big letters on the side of his wagon cover "In God We Trust." We stopped at Des Moines, the capitol of the State, and viewed with admiration the beauties of the city which one of our party had seen in the winter of i865-'66, when there was not a railroad in sight, and but little else, except an inland town with a State capitol to be reached only by your own conveyance or a stage coach. But in six years it had increased in population, until it had nearly six thousand people, and boasted of having two railroads running through the city limits, which gave to our party evidence of the possibilities of development in the West, and still more hope for the future.

At this point we crossed the Des Moines and the Coon rivers, moving along in a westerly direction, camping at night where water and fuel were plentiful, and grazing for the live stock was excellent, nothing of importance occurring to mar the pleasure of our overland journey. Every day our hunters who were practising for big game, brought in prairie chickens, quail and rabbits, and while these were being eaten as we sat round the campfires, many were the com-

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ments on the prospects of big game to be slaughtered on the plains, which we hoped to see in the near future.

The heavy continued rains of the past week had made the Missouri River bottom, on the Iowa side, almost impassable, and more than a whole day's time was taken up in reaching the river from the bluffs, after which the river was crossed at Plattsmouth, where the Burlington railroad system had located their shops for the Nebraska division. This was then a rival of Omaha for commercial supremacy, and the Burlington system were laying their plans to make Plattsmouth the metropolis of the State, diverting all traffic for the southwest through Plattsmouth, and allowing nothing to go through Omaha that could possibly be turned in this direction.

Here the rains had ceased, the air was pure and healthful, vegetation in abundance, and the people of the new State seemed to be wearing a smile of contentment and prosperity, peculiar to any prosperous country.

Here we met a large number of teams with covered wagons headed for the Republican Valley, and other parts of the new West. Here we also met men prominent in the State, advertising a new town out in the valley situated in what was destined to be the center of James County, Nebraska ; at least that was the statement made by Captain Murphy, who introduced himself to Tan, who seemed to be the spokesman of the party. Tan called the Captain's attention to the fact that the counties east of this new territory (which as yet was unorganized), were twenty- four miles square, and if this new county was organized in size the same as those directly east, would put their new town of Arapahoe near the north line of the county,

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and a town would be started on the north Sappa, in or near the center of the county which would also bid for the county seat.

"But, young man," retorted the Captain, "we are a strong company, with plenty of capital and political influence sufficient to organize the county as we want it. One of our party was formerly Secretary of State, and I was Captain in an Iowa cavalry regiment during the war, and have been on the frontier fighting Indians most of the time since the war closed. We will go to the legislature during their session next winter, and with the influence and capital at our command will have the county organized thirty miles square, which will place our town near the center. We will then elect and control the county officers, who will declare Arapahoe the county seat, and this will lay the foundation for the best town in that part of the valley. We already have a store started there by Messrs. Love and Colvin, who went from here, and they have sent in a petition for a post office, asking that the mail route from Red Cloud be extended on west to Arapahoe, and these things will give us the advantage of any rivals that might spring up elsewhere. Our political influence will be of great value to us in many ways, and especially when it comes to the organization of the county, and we would like for your party to locate with us and help build up the country."

"Your plans, Captain, have no doubt been carefully laid with a view of executing them without opposition, but there are other things to be considered. I have a map here showing the lay of the territory out there and if a county is organized, as you suggest, it will leave but three townships north of James County, to the organized territory north, which is only

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eighteen miles, and the legislature will not make one county thirty miles broad and the next one eighteen to accommodate a few politicians or to gratify the desires of a townsite company. These counties are usually organized for all the people and not for the exclusive benefit of a select few. All United States townships, unless fractions are six miles square, and counties are usually made four townships, or twenty-four miles square, and you and your company must wield a powerful influence in this new State to be able to overcome these advantages in the natural course of organizing counties. You will also see that the south Sappa, north Sappa, and the Republican run parallel from west to east, through this unorganized territory, and if this new county should be organized uniform with the counties east, leaving room for another county between this and the Platte River, it must of necessity be twenty-four miles square, or at least twenty-four miles north and south, so your theory looks wrong, and your town would look better to me if it were on the north Sappa, the lay of the country and the natural advantages being equal."

"Yet you must remember that we are the first on the ground, and in this we will take every possible advantage, besides we have the capital, and the political influence which we will use to the limit, and we are bound to win."

At this point our party was ready to move, and we again started for the great West. That night in camp our maps were brought out and the situation fully discussed by all members of the party, and the conversation with the Captain fully canvassed, but at this time we were headed for Red Cloud and hardly had expected to go as far West as the original unorganized county of James, but our party were eager

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for all the information that could be had relative to the new country, some part of which was to be their future home. We now moved leisurely toward the new capital of the new State. Lincoln, the new capital was now four years old, and was quite a flourishing young city with two railroads and the prospects favorable for a third road. A small stone building was used for a penitentiary, that accommodated the few prisoners confined there at the time. The insane asylum was also a small affair, and contained but few patients, and the State capitol building was of small proportions. The State buildings were all being enlarged and the young city was growing rapidly. We camped here one day and one of our party had a watch that refused to keep time, although frequently shaken and the hands repeatedly turned it would not respond with a single tick, and positively refused to run. The jewelry shop of J. B. Trixley was visited. The jeweler wound up the watch and off it started, but the jeweler insisted that the watch was very dirty and needed cleaning, and that seemed to be the only trouble, but the owner knew it had been cleaned by a reliable jeweler not more than thirty days previous, and took his watch and went on his way rejoicing, knowing now that he had simply failed to wind up his watch and this was why it had refused to run. Out on Salt Creek, near Lincoln, over the little band of homeseekers that night came howling across that vast extent of prairie a thunder storm of mighty proportions, accompanied by a terrific wind, and violent peals of thunder that was awful to behold, even by those who were protected by substantial buildings from the terrors of this awful storm, and when the rain came, it came in torrents seldom witnessed by human beings. The terrors of the storm were appalling in the extreme.

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The rain drifted through the heavy canvas wagon covers as though they were made of cheesecloth, and the contents of the wagons were almost as thoroughly soaked with water as if they had been left out in the rain with no protection whatever; and the party found it necessary to devote the next day to drying the contents of the wagons in the bright sunshine following the rain. The party had now had the experience of a Western storm which, in velocity, had almost assumed the dimensions of a tornado or a cyclone ; and as we advanced on our journey we found the storm to have been quite general, and about the little town of Crete we found much wreckage, denoting that the storm had been even more severe there than on the Salt Creek flats, wrecking many small houses and temporary buildings over the prairies and scattering fragments in every direction. Over the prairies we continued our journey, camping at night with the blue canopy of heaven covering our little camp, while Will, one of our party, and who was the anti-secret society member of the party and was frequently, in a joking way, telling Tan of the sins and wrongs of Masons and members of all secret societies. But here Tan explained that in olden times Masons met on a high hill or a low vale and their covering was the blue heavens above, just as our camp was covered that night, and from this had originated the term "Blue Lodge Masonry," and that perhaps in future ages we might be referred to in history as blue-capped emigrants seeking homes in the West. Here and there were sod houses scattered over this vast prairie, and small towns were springing up along the new line of railway now being built to Kearney. When the town of Harvard was reached, which was then the terminus of the road, we turned

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south to Red Cloud on tHe Republican River, a place hardly deserving the name of a town, its dimensions not being equal to the farm buildings of many of the eastern Iowa farmers, but it was a new start in the great West and must have a name. At our first camp south of Harvard we were given a lesson in the instincts of dumb animals. Arising early in the morning we observed one of the cows coming toward the wagons in the little camp seemingly for treatment, suffering from a snake bite, with her head and body swollen up almost beyond recognition and in great agony, but with proper treatment and a half day's rest we were again on our journey. This incident is mentioned to bring to mind the fact that dumb animals will come to their human protectors for assistance in times of trouble, just as they come home for food when hungry, and later in this story will be given a case where wild fowl came to a white man for protection when assailed by an enemy. Here at night we camped on the Little Blue, at the home of a noted hunter and frontiersman, who was nicknamed "Wild Bill," although not the "Wild Bill" who shot and killed the desperadoes on Rock Creek and was afterwards city marshal at Abaline, Kansas, and was killed by Jack McCall in Deadwood in 1876. Between here and Red Cloud we saw the first wild buffalo, but too wild to get in shooting distance. We were now meeting hunting parties who had been out where buffalo and other wild game and Government land were plentiful. Some of these parties were out for a hunt and what sport could be had from the trip, while others had taken homesteads, and some through idle curiosity. We finally reached Red Cloud, a prospective town, but at this time had one store and two small houses. Guide Rock was a few miles further