Adams County, Nebraska - Chapter 29: Oregon Trail and Lone Grave, 1916

Chapter 29: Oregon Trail and Lone Grave

The Oregon Trail, one of the historic trails of tlie world, enters Adams Connty a little south of the center of section 1 in Little Bkie Township and leaves the comity on the west side of section 18 in Kenesaw Townshij). The trail leaves Little Blue Township at the northwest corner of section 2. In Hanover Township it traverses sections 34, 33, 29, southeast corner of 30, and 19; in Ayr Township it crosses sections 24, 14, 15, 9, southwest corner of 4, south half of 5, northeast corner of 6. Crossing the southwest corner of section 31 in Denver it enters Juniata a little south of the center of section 36 and then crosses the southwest quarter of 25, the northeast quarter of 26, southwest quarter of 23 and then traverses northeast quarter of 21, 22, 16, 17 and leaves Juniata Township on the west side of the southwest quarter of section 7. The trail enters Wanda a little south of the center of section 12 on the east side of the section, it then crosses 11, the northeast quarter of 10, the southwest quarter of 3 and the northeast quarter of 4. It enters Kenesaw Township on the south side of the southeast quarter of section 33 and then crosses the southwest quarter of that section to the southeast quarter of 32 and then runs almost north through the northeast quarter of the section. It crosses section 29 almost diagonally, traversing the southeast and the northwest quarters. The course continues northwest, touching section 20 on the southwest quarter and running through 19 to the south side of 18. leaving the county on the west side of 18. After leaving section 1 in Little Blue Township the trail was a sharp trend northwestwards.

As the basis of striking tradition, the Oregon Trail is undoubtedly Adam's County's richest asset. It is interesting to remember that the stream of early migration westward, in the days before the railroads, flowed through Adams County along the trail outlined in the foregoing. Writing of the beginning of the Oregon Trail, Addison Erwin Sheldon, lecturer on Nebraska history and institutions at the University of Nebraska, places the beginning of the trail at 1813. when the Astorians returning from establishing a fur trading post, Astoria, in Oregon, went over the trail. These men were seven in number and led one horse. According to Mv. Sheldon, the first wagon wheels to go over the trail were those of JMilton Sublette in 1830. Sublette with ten wagons went from St. Louis to the Wind River ]Mountains with one cow that furnished milk all the way. "The track they made," says ]Mr. Sheldon, "from the mouth of the Kansas River up the valley of the Little Blue and up the south side of the Platte and the North Platte, was followed by others, and thus became the historic trail."

In 1832, Cajjtain Bonneville went over this trail from the INIissouri River to the mountains and the same year Nathaniel J. Wyeth opened the road from the jNIissouri River to the Pacific Coast in Oregon. In 18.50, monthly mail coaches began running over the Oregon Trail from the ^Missouri River to California. The mail at first started from St. .loseph and a short time later from Atchison. From 1861 to 1866 daily coaches ran both ways over the route. The pony express ran over the Oregon Ti-ail for a year and a half begiiuiing with April 3, 1860.

The pony express was a man on horseback that carried mail only. Stations were made at distances of ten or twelve miles apart, or at such distances as horses could run at full speed. When pony and express rider arrived at a station, another rider was ready mounted and, taking the mail bag, dashed oiF for the next station at full speed. The quickest time recorded for the pony express was in ]March, 1861. President Lincoln's inaugural address was carried from St. Joseph to Sacramento in seven days and seventeen hours, the distance being 1.980 miles.

It was during the rush for gold in California in 1849. that the Oregon Trail became the greatest highway of its kind that the world ever saw. At that time it was wider than a city street. Thousands of people went West by the route. Great caravans with their horses and cattle and vast stores of su])plies made it virtually the street of a city, Init a street extending from the ^Missouri River to California.

There are places in Adams County Avhere traces of the trail are still visible, but they are being rapidly effaced. The trail can sometimes be seen where it crosses the section lines where the original sod of the I'oad has not been broken. The trail can be seen quite ])lainly in the vicinity of Lone Grave on section 18 in Kenesaw Township.

Early Ranches

County, though not much evidence of them remains. The field notes of tlie surveyors, which are preserved in the office of the county surveyor, refei-»to "Clark's Ranch" as existing between 18.58 and 1860. This ranch is located by these notes on the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 6, town 6, range 10. Traces of an old stockade and well remain. Such evidences also are found on the nortlieast quarter of section 15, town 6, range 10. Another ranch was located 2i^ miles southeast of the present Village of Kenesaw, on the Frank Ealhke farm. In one of the raids made by the Indians the keeper of this ranch is supposed to have been killed. The ranch was afterwards known as "Dead JNIan's Ranch." On the ranch near Brickton, that is the one located on section 15, town 6, range 10, old JMinie bullets have been found from time to time by Adams County peojjie. Deweese, in Clay County, was a well known ranch in coach days and was called "I^iberty Farm." The period of decline of the Oregon Trail was from 1860 to 1869. At the latter time the coaches wt've discontinued entirely. In the declining days of freighting over the Oregon Trail "Bill Kress" drove a team over the trail as a freighter. Varying numbers of horses and oxen were used to pull the freight wagons. Six yoke of oxen to a wagon were not uncommon.

Regulation markers have been placed upon the Oregon Trail in Adams County by the Oregon Trail ^Memorial Commission as follows: One near the Adams-Clay County line at the jjoint where the Oregon Trail crossed. It is 140 rods north of the southwest quarter of section 6, township 6, range 7. Another stands on the school grounds of District Number 12, at the southeast corner of the southwest quarter section 23, range 11, township 7, and a third was placed at the northwest corner of section 17, township 7, range 11. Near Leroy, Niobrara Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, of Hastings, erected a marker on the main road south from Hastings to I^eroy. This is forty feet north of the southwest corner of section 14.

In a letter to the compiler of this history the late Clarence S. Paine, of Lincoln, wrote: "There ought to be two or three more monuments erected on the Oregon Trail in Adams County, but we have never been able to get anyone to assmne the responsibility of ha\ ing them properly set, and while we have the monuments we have not Jiad the means to erect them." ]Mr. Paine was the secretary of the Oregon Trail ^Memorial Commission. Apropos to the subject, ]Mr. Paine continued: "I believe that Dr. Frank Schaufelberger of Plastings knows more about the Oregon Trail in Adams County than anvone else living. I am sure that he knows more about it than I do."

The relic of the Oregon Trail in Adams County to which the most human interest attaches is "Lone Grave," located near the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 18 in Kenesaw Township, just a few steps to the north of where the trail passes. JNIany versions have been told of the occupant of Lone Grave, JNIrs. Susan O. Hail, of La Fayette County, JNIissouri. The most widely credited version is that of JNIrs. Peterson, of Holstein, who gives as her authority a ]\Ir. JMcFarland, father of William Yoho. JNIr. jMcFarland, who drove an ox team from Illinois to California, died in Kenesaw some years ago at the age of eighty-six. Mr. JMcFarland claimed to have known JNlr. and JMrs. Hail and the circumstances of the death of INIrs. Hail. According to this narration j\Irs. Hail died after having drunk water jjoisoned by the Indians at Dead jNIan's Ranch, six miles southeast of the grave. After burying his wife, in a coffin fashioned from the lumber of his wagon box, JNIr. Hail went on with the train to the Pacific Coast. Later, he returned, and after procuring a slab in Omaha brought it back along the trail and erected it upon the grave.

It is also narrated that it took about all the money that JNIr. Hail had to procure the slab, and that he was forced to wheel the monument from Omaha to Kenesaw in a wheelbarro\\-. Nothing definite, however, seems to be known of these details.

The township survey of Kenesaw Township was made by James Cozzad between Juh' 25 and August 4, 1859. The surveyor used the grave as a witness to a corner established, and in his notes refers to the grave. The inscription upon the slab as quoted in his notes by Mr. Cozzad read as follows: "jNIemory of ]Mrs. Susan O. Hail, of La Fayette County, JNIissouri, who died June 2nd, 1852, age 34 years. 5 months and 12 days." That this is the true record as to the time of death and age and name of Mrs. Hail is probable, in that only seven years would have elapsed between the date given for her death and tlie reading of the inscription by the surveyor the inscription would ])r()bably be clear.

In after years, the slab was entirely carried away, piece by piece, by relic hunters. The present monument was afterward placed upon the grave by the children of the Waterhouse Sunday School and much of the second monument has been carried aAvay by relic seekers. The iron fence around the grave was also placed by tlie Sunday School.

that it was used piecemeal by the red man from time immemorial. By 1843, it was a well defined route for trade and traffic between St. Louis and the mouth of the Columbia River. The real trail began at Franklin, INlissouri, "20.5 miles above the mouth of the JMissouri River. Franklin continued to be the fountain of trade over the trail for about ten years and then was superseded by Independence. The length of the trail up the Little Blue Valley was about seventy miles. It left the Blue at a point near Leroy and proceeded to the Platte, which it reached at a point about twenty miles below the western end of Grand Island. The extreme length of the trail from Independence to Vancouver Avas 2,020 miles.

Students of Indian history consider that the first authentic record of the Indian occupancy of Nebraska is that of Coranado's relations with them in 1.541, although the Pawnee are believed to have emigrated to Nebraska some time prior to 1500, coming, probably, from the Red River of the South. The present Adams County was within the territory claimed by the Pawnee, and was ceded by the four bands to the United States in 1833, who ceded the North Platte counti'v in ]8.i7, with the exception of tlieir reserve in Nance County. The latter I'eserve was ceded in 1870 and the Pawnee were transferred to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. The number of Pawnee in Nebraska was estimated in 1801 at 4,000. The Indians in the territory of which Adams County is a part usually made two great himts each year. Old and yovmg participated. From the sunniier hunt they made jerked meat and lodge skins and from the fall hunt robes, fiu's, tanned skins and dried meat.

Louisiana Territory

Inasmuch as Adams County was a part of the Louisiana Territory, it is germane to recall some of the facts which have been compiled aliout the territory. It contained 890,921 square miles, land and Avater. Of this area 878,641 square miles were land, containing .562.- 330,240 acres. The price ])aid for it was 2 3/;5 cents per acre. Out of the territory states Avere formed as follows: Louisiana, 1812: Missouri. 1821; Arkansas. 1836: loAva, 1846: Minnesota, 18.58; Kansas. 1861: Nebraska, 1867; Colorado, 1886; IMontana. 1889; South Dakota. 1889; North Dakota, 1889: Wyoming, 1890; Oklahoma, 1907; Idaho, 1890: Washington, 1889; and Oregon, 18;59. Of Coloi20 PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY

Hunting And Fishing

Looking out over the magnificent fields of waving grain, dotted here and there and everywhere M'ith fine large farm homes, schools and churches, towns and eit}^ one can hardly comprehend that what is now Adams County was a hunter's paradise less than a half century ago. But such is the truth, and be it said to their credit that it was the early hunters who made it possible for this country to settle up so rapidly.

In the early days this was a great hunting ground for the white man as well as the Indian. Thousands and thousands of buffaloes roamed the vast j^rairies in great herds, while deer and antelo])e were in bands of from two to fifty. Beaver, mink, polecats, coyotes and prairie wolves were plentiful, as the trappers found to their delight: while the country seemed to be overrun with wild turkeys, prairie chickens, ducks, geese, grouse, quail, curlew, plover, snipes and Avild pigeons. But today the sportsman who would hunt here must confine his shooting to snipes, plovers, prairie chickens, doves, ducks, geese and the ever present cottontail and long-eared jack rabbit.

Here the hunters used to pitch their tents and call it home. They made their money by trapjjing and hunting - it was a business, not an outing, for them. Hides were carefully gathered, and cured, and then hauled to the nearest shipijing point where they were sold to liide buyers. And it was because of the value of hides that the Indians and white men fought to the death here on many an occasion.

It was in the latter part of the '60s that Stephen Nash, "Buckskin Charlie," and a young boy named I^ittlefield started from here on a buffalo Inmt along the Platte. The young boy had really forced liimself into the party, as he was looked upon as being too young tt» undergo the hardships, but his mother consented so the young man shouldered his rifle, strapped on his hunting knife, and joined tlie hunters. The party was successful and soon had gathered hides tliat Avere valued at $1,.'500, which they carefully placed in a cache. A few days later when they returned to the jjlace where they had hidden the hides they found that Indians had been there and stolen their pelts. They immediately took to the trail of the thieves and followed them up into Valley County where the Indians were located at camp in a small pocket in a coulee. In the battle that followed most of tlie Indians were killed. Young Littlefield became so em- boldened over the success of the fight that he arose from his liiding place just in time to become a target for the Indian's last shot. A bullet struck him in the head and he died a few hours later. With such a sad ending to the hunt Nash and "Buckskin Charlie" saddled their horses and took the remains to the Littlefield home in Sutton.

]\Iortimer N. Kress, who was at that time better known as "Wild Bill," and who was the first settler on the Little Blue, has killed buffalo, deer and antelope on almost every important place in Adams Count}'. Being a notable plainsman and fearless Indian fighter, he made a success of his hunting and trapping here.

In the spring and the fall the PaA»iiee Indians would come in large bands from their main camping grounds on Cedar River in Greeley County do^vii through Adams County and establish a hunting camp on the Little Blue River. On all these occasions they made it a point to camp for at least one night on Pawnee Creek, one mile south of Hastings - and late in the '70s they were still making these hunting trips.

The last buffalo shot in what is now the corporate limits of Hastings was killed in the fall of 1872 by JMorris Alexander, who ran the animal up Hastings avenue and shot it where the water works plant stands today.

It Avas two years later that the last buffalo was killed in Adams County. In the fall of '74 a lone buffalo was seen on the C. F. Francis homestead, three miles south of Juniata. The neAvs quickly spread to the little Town of Juniata and a party headed by .>ames Laird, George Brown and Ed Allen took up the chase. The hunt lasted for several hours but the buffalo was killed on the Francis place, and judging from the number of bullet holes in its hide every man in the chase had a hand in the killing. And so the passing of the bison from Adams Coimty.

Prairie chickens and quail, and occasionally a few teal ducks, breed here - all the rest of the game birds found in Adams County are migratory. The flight of ducks and geese starts early in the spring and continues for about five weeks, during which time the birds stop to feed and water while en route south. About the first of September they start making this their feeding ground while making their northern flight. So there is still good shooting here during the fall months, as that is the only open season.

There are Wilson's snipe, jacksnipe, sandpijjers and tattlers that are quite plentiful here, all of which may be found at any lagoon early in the fall, as well as the green-head and red-head mallards, lilue and green-winged teals, pintails, spoon-bills and butter ducks. The brant, which is the smallest species of the goose, is much more plentiful than the Canadian goose, but sportsmen seem to find plenty of both here in season.

Adams County never has been overburdened with a supply of fish, for the reason that there is but one stream in the county that is habited by any fish to speak of, and that stream is the Blue River. In its blue-tinted waters are found channel cat, bullheads, whitefish, sun fish and carp. Many large channel cat fish have been hauled from the Blue, but the chief catch is bullheads.