Buffalo County, Nebraska - Chapter 24: Incidents in a Wedding Journey Across the Platte in 1869 Ford the Platte, 1916

Ends Well

j\Ir. Samuel Stearley, a resident of Buffalo County in 1869, furnishes the following interesting account of the fording of the Platte River by a wedding party in 1869: 'Tn the summer of 1869 John Martin and Miss Craig, who lived on the Blue River south and east of Grand Island, wished to get married and in order to do so had to come to Fort Kearney crossing of the Platte and thence east to Wood River Center, where lived Judge Patrick Walsh, who had authority to perform the marriage ceremony. The distance necessary to make this journey was about seventy-five miles. The Platte was very high at this time. Charles Walker, who lived at Kearney station, now Buda, had the contract to freight all Government supplies for Fort Kearney across the Platte and at the time mentioned was engaged in hauling fencing material to fence the Government cemetery near the fort. The wedding party arranged with Mr. Walker to take them across the Platte and about 4 o'clock in the evening John ]\Iartin, his sweetheart and intended wife, the girl's mother, Mrs. Craig, also an eighteen months old child belonging to Mrs. Craig, came to cross the river. It was our last trip for the day. I was with the freight outfit and my business was to keep the oxen on the lead team from swinging around the islands or toe heads as we called them. The water was warm and I enjoyed the fun and excitement of fording the Platte. In order to bring Martin and his party across it was necessary to put on a wagon box and crib up the box with fence pickets to set their trunk and roll of blankets on so they would not get wet. The party also had with them two prairie dogs in a box and a box of medicine and these two boxes were put in my charge. There were ten yoke of oxen hitched to the wagon and two horseback riders, one on each side the ox teams. The wedding party was all set, the bull whip cracked and the procession started. I was sitting on the side of the wagon box with my feet inside and holding the prairie dogs and box of medicine in my lap. We went nicely for half a mile till we came to the deep channel. Then the water went over the wagon box. Our load was so light and the current so strong it turned the wagon, box and all upside down. The result was we were all in the water. When I came up I saw Martin catch his girl and pull for a wagon wheel; next I saw Mrs. Craig come up with her child in her arms, the mother struggling for dear life. It fell to me to save her and I held her till Martin could come and get her. The other two men were busy taking care of the oxen and holding them. The trunk and roll of blankets went down the river and one of the bull whackers and myself were detailed to go after them. I want to tell you there was lively work for awhile. When we got back with the trunk and blankets to the north bank of the river the wedding party had all got ashore and Mrs. Craig was sitting on the bank enjoying a good smoke out of a borrowed pipe. She thanked me very kindly for saving her life, as she was going under the second time when I caught her. This delayed the wedding as everything in the trunk and blankets was wet and as the old lady's tobacco was wrapped up in the wedding dress the dress was so stained it could not be used for a wedding occasion. Stores were not plenty in those days and the party had to go to Grand Island, twenty-five miles east of Wood River Center, to buy another dress and make it. Some days later Judge Walsh married the happy couple and they went on their way rejoicing.

"About three or four years later I met Mrs. Craig in Grand Island. She called her little boy in off the street and introduced him to me and then told her son that I was the young man who saved his and her life. She then said the only way she could repay me was to give me, for a wife, her last daughter, then about my own age and a very beautiful girl."

In this connection it might be well to state that the Platte opposite the Fort Kearney site is i^ miles wide from the north to the south bank. This includes islands as well as the channels of the river. These channels have a total width of approximately four thousand three hundred and fifty-four feet, this being the length of the nearest bridge across this river at this point at the present time.

Mr. Dungan, who owns the farm on which the fort was located, states that the old Fort Kearney crossing, commencing on the south side of the Platte, started at a point one-half mile west of the fort, taking a northeasterly course, striking the north bank about two miles east of the fort, making the crossing quite three miles in length. It is related that a ferry was operated at one time near this crossing, consisting of a large flat-bottomed scow drawn back and forth by several yoke of oxen.