Richardson County, Nebraska - Chapter 25, 1917

John B. Didier, Pioneer

The distinction of being the oldest living pioneer of Richardson connt\ , without question, belongs to John B. Didier, of Barada precinct, who ma\ also have a claim as just, covering southeastern Nebraska. He came to this locality, settling on his farm in section 3, in township 3, north of range 16, sixty-three years ago, or in 1854, when it was only a vast stretch of wild plains, inhabited only by Indians and wild animals. There were a few others who came to this county as early, but they have long since died. He has lived to take part in the many wonderful changes here and talks interestingly of the early days and hardships incident thereto. Mr. Didier is a native of France, where he was born on December 25th, 1827. He was a son of Prof. John B. Didier. a man of learning and for many years a professor in the schools of France.

The younger John B. Didier grew to manhood in his nati\e land and there received a good education. He crossed the Atlantic in a sailing in 1847 '^''"1 located in the city of Cincinnati, where he was emplojed as a clerk in a large store for a time. In 1849 he came to St. Louis. Missouri, carrying with him a letter of introduction to one of the leading merchants there at that time. He was given a position by this firm for whom he worked for a year, when he was sent among the Indians of Missouri, with whom he traded for a year. In 1852 he was sent to take charge of a store owned b\ the firm on the Xorth Platte, tliree miles south of Ft. Laramie, Wyoming, which store was established l)v P. Chouteaux, one of the most prominent merchants in St. Louis in the early days.

Later, on account of trouble with the Indians, the post was discontinued, but not until a battle took i)lace between the LTnited States soldiers and an immense band of Indians. The soldiers were nearly all exterminated as the odds were greatly against them, there being only fortv-seven of the soldiers against some three hundred of the redskins. All of Mr. Didier's assistants fled from the post at the first sign of trouble, he alone remaining, notwithstanding the danger. He considered his first duty was to guard the prt)pert\ of his employers and, returning, reported the loss of the store, for which the company was later reimbursed by the government in the sum of thirt\- se\en thousand dollars. After settling up with the company he left St. L(;uis some two months later, coming to St. Joseph, Missouri, on a steamboat, and from there made his way overland to Richardson county, where he took one hundred and twenty acres of land, which place still constitutes his home. It was wild land, upon which no white man had ever trod and to be of service had to be cleared and broken up and in due time made into the wellimproved, comfortable and productive home he now enjoys in his declining years. He had no neighbors and endured all the privations incident to life on the then frontier, when neighbors were few and trading centers remote. His closest trading point was St. Joseph, Missouri, which he must reach l)y an overland journey and as he says, when he came to it there was but one place nn the townsite and that owned by a fellow Frenchman, Joseph Kobidiiiu.x. where he could obtain supplies, the latter being the founder of what is now a metropolis. Mr. Didier was six years in the county before he saw a steamboat on the Missouri and seventeen years before the railroad made its appearance in the south part of the county. He has remained on his place continu- (lusly until the present time, w-itnessing all the changes, the erection of Xebraska as a territory, the first attempt at a county go\ernment. the scramble and Ijitter fight of fifteen years' duration over the location of the county seat, which embittered many of the early settlers for years afterward, the use of oxen in the fields in this county, the cradle for harvesting the grain, the coming of the steamboat, the i)rairie schooner, the railroad, the building up of towns and now the automobile and aeroplane. He left his native home twenty-three years before the war of 1870 and has lived to sec it again engaged in a death grapple with its ancient enemy, Germany. He has resided as long continuoush- on one farm as any man in the state and. in fact, was one of the first white settlers in Richardson county.

Mr. Didier was married in Brownville. Nebraska, in 1855 l)y Judge Whitney, to Marie Pineau. a half-breed Indian maiden, the daughter of Louis Pineau. a French-Canadian, who was a post trader at Ft. Laramie, where his death occurred. The death of Mrs. Marie Didier occurred in 1908. She was the mother of eight children. Mr. Didier is now in his ninetieth vear, and is still hale and hearty, having lived an abstemious and ui)right life - one calculated to lead to longevit\-. He is widely known throughout the countv and his record is that of a pubHc-spirited, industrious and honorable citizen. Politically, he is a Democrat, but he had never sought puiilic office or leadership, being content to live quietly in the Barada hills he loved so well.

Besides being the oldest living pioneer of this county, John B. Didier can lay claim to being the last of those still among the living who witnessed the Indian fight at Ft. Laramie in territorial days.

The clash between the soldiers and the Indians occurred on August lyth. 1854, and was the result of a dispute which arose over a lame cow, whicli was the property of some Mormon immigrants, a large numl)er of whom thronged the Oregon trail en route to Utaii at that time.

The Indians, who were a jiart of the Brule, Ogallala and Miniconjon Sioux, numbering between a thousand and fifteen hundred, were encami)cd .south of Ft. Laramie, between the trading posts of the American l<"ur Company which at tliat time was in charge of James Bordeaux and that of 1'. Chouteaux, Jr., & Company, which was in charge of John B. Didier.

In relating the storw Mr. Didier says the Indians, with whom he was on the best ofterms. claimed that the animal in question had strayed from the immigrant train and hatl wandered into their camp, where it was killed b\ one of tlie young members of the tribe. The owner of the cow, a ^lormon, upon learning what had liappened, at once appeared at the post at I'l. Laramii.- and calling upon the commandant in charge, made claims for tlie loss of the cow.

On the following day. lirevet Second Lieutenant J<jiin Crattan appeared at the Chouteaux trading post wuth, as Mr. Didier says, a company of fortytwo soldiers belonging to Comixmy G of the Sixth Regiment of Infantry, having with them twn liowitzers and small arms, and were on their way to demand satisfaction from the Indians. Mr. Didier. well knowing the dis])osition of the Indians, pleaded with the officer to desist from attack, pointing.; out how greatlv the Indians outnumbered his little band. The undertaking seemed foolhardy to Mr. Didier. and he says he can explain it in no other way than that the officer and his men were drinking, or might have been under the influence of liquor. He incpn'red, a.sking Grattan, what he intended to do, and the latter re])lied that he "was going to give the Indians h - 11." Mr. Didier says he knew it would be suicide for the soldiers and adxised as nuich. but was powerless to interfere.

the tribe responsible for_ the kilHng of the cow, which they as promptly refused to do. Receiving this reply, the howitzers were brought into pla\ as well as the small arms, resulting in the killing of one of the Indians. If the demonstration had been planned to cower the Indians, it failed most signally of that purpose, for they at once fell upon the small detachment in force and in a few moments the entire band was wiped out with one excc])- tion, and this one shortly after succumlied to his injuries.

Word of the extermination of the soldiers was quickly carried to the fort, and a lone messenger was at once dispatched to the trading posts, advising those in charge to repair to the fort for protection, as it was thought the Indians would kill and pillage the French traders. Mr. Didier received the message, but like the other French traders, from long association, had no fear of violence from the Indians. He says they did appear at his post witliin a short time and helped themselves to whatever they cared to remove, but in no way molested his person.

'Sir. Didier was an eye-witness to the tight from first to last and says it was most unnecessary and should never have happened ; that the soldiers bungled the affair badly, and that from his conversation with the Indian chiefs the affair could have easily Ijeen settled without resort to arms, if the soldiers \M)ukl have accepted remuneration for the dead animal and not have tlemanded that the Indians guilty of the slaughter and theft be turned over to them. In tliis jiosition he is borne out in a similar report made by the other French trader-;. It is not recorded that the Mormon ever got any return for the c<>w, whicii had been tiie cause of so nuich trouble and the loss of so many lives.

David Thomas Brinegar came to Richardson county in May, 1855, from Holt count}-, ^Missouri, which is just east and across the ^Missouri river, anil pre-empted a fractional one hundred and sixty acre tract one and one-halt' miles southwest of where the village of Salem was later built. He paid the United States land office, in due time, one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for the farm, on which he has made his home for the past sixty-two vears. There were very few settlers in Richardson county when Mr. Brinegar crossed on the ferr\- at St. Stephens in the northeast part of the count} . How few there were was established by the vote for members of the Territorial Legislature in the fall of 1834, when John A. Singleton was elected.

receiving five votes to four cast for Mr. Piirkett. Quite a number of settlers came during that summer and each succeeding year, until the war broke out, which shut off all immigration from the east. However, there were a numl)er of Missourians who came across the river to get away from the bushwhackers and war troubles on the east side of the river, and many of these remained as settlers.

The first settlers came scantily supplied with farming tools, having usually a breaking plow and a single shovel corn plow. Mr. Brinegar was no e.xception to this rule. He broke his land with an ox team, which was the motor power used almost universally. His house was built of logs, cut from timber along the Great Nemaha river, which bordered his farm. Shortly. Thomas Hare located a saw-mill on the North Fork of the Nemaha river at Salem and sawed clap-boards from walnut and oak logs which were used to build houses and especially for roofing, instead of shingles, of which there were none. The first crop attempted was corn ; the second year some spring wheat was sown, but there was no inducements to go extensively into wheat, as there were no threshing machines in the county and the grain had to be threshed by flails. There were no railroads and no markets and the settlers had to make a journey of about forty miles to Missouri to get their wheat ground into flour. The good water po\ver at Salem was soon utilized to crack corn and make a rough meal in a primitive sort of mill. This saved the settlers many weary trips to Missouri. The early-day farmer had his troubles with dry weather and chintz bugs, both of which appeared to be indigenous. The chintz bugs were more discouraging than the drought. They ate up the wheat and then moved into the corn field. Mr. Brinegar, like all the first settlers, took bv preference a liberal slice of river-bottom land, which yielded better crops at that time than upland.

In August, 1867," about the highest flood that came down the Xemaha since the settlement notified the farmers of the danger of the river bottom farming. This flood was brief in its stay and did almost no damage to the growing corn, which was far advanced in its development. There was very little monev in circulation and especially during the war period, from ^H6\ to 1865, and the farmers swapped, traded and bartered and managed to get along, as their wants were restricted to absolute necessities. During the war coffee was not obtainable, and parched rye was used as a sulistitute, l)ut there w-as very little hiuiger or suffering among the settlers, as, notwithstanding the drought and bugs, plenty was raised to supply the needs and there were thousands of prairie chickens and other small game and a few deer, hut no buffaloes or jack-rabbits. The liist jaek-rabln'ts came to tlie country after farmers started to raise red clover and tiuKjthy and blue .t^rass. perhaps fifteen years after the settlement. Coyotes ran in dnnes and were a great annoyance to stock raisers: wild turkeys were along the Missouri river and in the timlier, and a few were along some of the other streams, w here there was brusli. After i860 the acreage of wheat increased and William Rieschick, a (jierman farmer, of Arago township, brought in a threshing machine in iNf)^. This enctntraged the growing of more wheat. The crop that year was poor, making only three to five bushels per acre. This was on account of dr\ weather and chintz bugs. Mr. Brinegar sold his first wheat that year at one dollar and ten cents ])er bushel at Sabetha, Kansas, to which point a railroad had been built.

There was no railroad built into the county until iSjr. hence the farmers had to drive their stock to the Missouri river and ferry across to the .Missouri side, where there were older settlements and luore established busine^;-. Mr, Brinegar and a brother sold aljout sixty head of three-and- four-year-old steers at two and one-half cents per pound, and drove them about sixty nu'les to a Missouri buyer. He drove the hogs on foot to .\rago. where he sold tliem to Peter Frederick. ,Sr., who ran a ])ackiug house. He recei\ed one dollar and ninety cents ])er hundred on foot in 1872. .\nother \ear. before that, he drove his hogs to White Cloud, Kan.sas, and crossed on the ferry there and sold to a Missourian. who was engaged in meat packing, receiving twcj dollars and fifty cents per hundred, after they were dressed. Schools were started in the town of Salem about 1857.

Mr. Brinegar was born in Boone county, Missouri, September 25, 1835. .md is now approaching his eighty-.second birthday and is (|uite strong and vigorous. He has resided in this county continuously since his first arrival in May, 1855, except for one trip he made across the plains to hunt for gold in the Pike's Peak region in i860, remaining only part of a year. He was married three times and is the father of five children, two sons and three daughters, who are li\'ing. He was a justice of tiie peace in Salem tov.n.ship for about forty \ears and also served as constable. He ser\ed as member of the county Imard of supervisors from Salem townshi]).

Jonathan J. Marvin was born near tlie ])anks of tlie St. Lawrence river, in St. Lawrence county. .\ew ^'ork. on the _'3rd day of September. iHjj. When he was about four years of age his father died, at Hammond. St.

Lawrence county, New York, of Ijlack fever, and his nintlicr returned with lier son to her former home at St. Alhans, Vermont. In tlie fall of 1S37 young Marvin was sent to a French college at St. Hyacinthe, in what \\a> called Lower Canada. While there the insurrection commonly known as the Patriot or Papineau war ensued, and battles of St. Charles and St. Dennis were fought and he saw from the college groinids at St. Hyacinthe the flames of the burning town of St. Dennis twelve miles distant. In 1844 he graduated from the University of Vermont at Burlington. In 1846 he received a diploma as a lawyer, signed by Chief Justice Royce, and came West to the lead mines of Wisconsin, where he was elected county clerk and district attorney and county judge of Lafayette county for several terms. In 1859 he remo\ed to Richardson county, Nebraska, and in i860 was elected mayor' of Salem. He volunteered in the Twenty-fifth Missouri Volunteers to serve in the L'nion army and served three years at the front. In May, 1865. he returned to Richardson county and in the fall resuscitated the old Bnnul .Axe. which he published under the name of the Soiifhcni Xcbrasl,\7ii. at I'^alls City. In the fall of 1865 he was unanimously chosen as county attorney of Richardson county and soon thereafter was appointed postmaster of Falls City, which position he held for three years and resigned. He was mayor of Falls City for two years and held tlie pftsition of justice of the peace at I''alls Cit}- for over ten Acars.

Jesse Crook

Jesse Crook, whose name more than any other is associated with the first settlement of Richardson county and who opened the first farm anil raised the first crop of corn grown on tlie banks of the Muddy, in this countv, by a white man, was born in W'hite county. Tennessee, Se|)teml)er 12, 1820. At the age of twenty, in 1846. he was united in marriage to Eliza Whitakcr dnd in a few \ears ti:e\- began their pilgrimage to the far West in a wagon drawn by three yoke of oxen. To them, in the first years of their married life, were born three children: John, the eldest, n<iw dead: Mrs. J. R. \\ jlhite and W. R. Crook, both residents of this city.

IMiey arrived at Newark, in .\ndrew county, Missouri, in 1852, where be left his family and the following summer ( 1853) in company with several friends, made a crossing of the ^lissouri near the present site of White Ckiud, Kansas, and struck boldly out on a trip to visit this then unexplored region. They followed the Nemaha as far west as Salem and while on this visit liv took a claim near the later site of .\rcher on land now owned 1)\' William

Nutter. The following year, together with a few other families, he crossed into Nebraska to make his permanent home. He resided on this farm six years, during which time Falls City came into being and he then rented his land and came to town, where he erected the first hotel in 1858 which was known as the Crook or City Hotel. This hotel stood for years on the present site of the Richardson County Bank, just south of the court house and faced Stone street as does the bank. He successfulh' conducted the hotel for about three years, when he again returned to his lands and spent several years improving the same. He returned to the city in 1864, where he spent the remainder of his days. During his life he had been the owner of some t\vent\- thousand acres of Nebraska soil, taken altogether. He purchased ten thousand acres of the Sauk resen-ation, having bought it from the government under sealed bids of from one dollar and a quarter to one dollar and forty cents per acre.

David Kinney

David Kinney, whose death occurred at his home near X'erdon in i8yi, was one of the interesting pioneers of the county. He arrived at Salem in

1857 and began working at his trade as a carpenter. Among his first jobs was that of making a colifin for Mrs. Betsey Borden, and building the Salem l)ridge across the Nemaha, under Thomas Hare, contractor. Avho at that time lived in a cabin in the bend of the Muddy, due west of the postoffice at \'eidon. The next year, in 1858, he built the Stumbo mills and dwelling house, southwest of Falls City, near the falls of the Nemaha river. The mills were owned and operated for many years by the Stumbo boys. In the spring of

1858 he staked out his home before the government surveyors had surveyed the land. In 1869, when Liberty precinct was formed. Mr. Kinney's house was the voting place and the first election held there was for the purpose of voting bonds for the Atchison & Nebraska railroad. There were but about eighteen or twenty voters in the precinct at that time. Afterward, the Wickham and Fairvievv school house was made the voting place and when \'erdon was started, it was moved there. For a sliort time during 1862 his house was made the postofiice ami llie mail carriers left the pouches there, Init the kevs to open them were never sent on and so the postoffice had to l)e discontinued.

Francis L. Goldslierry was born in Mason count\-. Kentuck}-. in 18,^3. and came to Nebraska in 18^5. In the month of July. 1856, at the general election he was chosen for county clerk of Richardson county. William 11. Mann being at that time first elected as register of deeds; the one previous in this office was Neil J. Sharp, who had been appointed by the governor when the county was first designated and boundaries formed. In 1858. Mr. Goldsberry was elected county commissioner of Richardson countv.

In 1856 Archer was not only the county seat but the most important business point in the county, boasting two or three stores, a hotel or two, and several mechanics' shops. Here Mr. Goldsberry entered the mercantile business with Abel Downing Kirk, but soon afterward formed a partnershiji with Charles Martin, at Rulo, in a general assortment store under the firm name of Martin & Goldsberry. He was a large shareholder in the townsitc of Rulo, and the proprietor of several hundred acres of land, now very valuable. He removed from Rulo to Salem, and thence went South, and was for several years engaged in the mercantile business in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. He returned to Richardson county from Kentuckv, and established a meat market which he operated for a number of vears.

D.Wid Dorrington

David Dorrington, during his lifetime, was the oldest resident pioneer of Falls City, one of the first to take up an abode on the townsite, was born in England, January nth. 1812. In 1842 he moved to the state of New York, where he resided until 1857, when he removed with his family to Falls City, Nebraska, where he spent the remainder of his life. Esquire Dorrington was one of the first justices of the peace elected in Falls City precinct. At that time the Sac and Fox Indian Reservation on the hills directl}- south of the Falls City townsite, on the south side of the Nemaha and Sauk town, their principal village, where their grand sachem, Massauquit, presided, was in plain sight of the village of Falls City. White maidens frequently became enamored of the dusky chieftains, and white men were very frequently capivated by the charm.> of the maidens of the forest, and it became the duty of the Squire to tie the golden knot, and ease the heartaches, which he did in his usual brief manner, satisfactory to all the parties concerned.

The Squire was for a number of years mayor of halls Cit\-, and nobly performed his part toward making tlie scattered hamlet of i860, the thrifty and promising city of later years. The surveyors had no more than set the stakes marking the townsite, when he arrived and in the histtiry of the city until the day of his death both he and his estimable wife i)]ayed major parts.

In all the days of the county-seat struggle, covering a period of more than lifteen years, while the people of the county were harrassed by the strife which tore asunder early friendships and embittered the i>eople, he stood firm for his city and was tireless in its behalf. In the days of the Civil War, when sectional strife was apparent on all sides, he remained and was ever loyal to the government. His wife, a heroine of those dark days, was a diligent worker and is said to have given aid to many of the slaves who were being rushed through this section on the way to freedom in the North. They resided at the corner of Sixteenth and Stone streets on lots 9, 10, 11 and 12 of block 71, and to the west of their home were located the barns used to house the horses and coaches engaged in carrying the mail. This place was, it is said, often used as one of the stations of the underground railroad and between the evening and morning, slaves were brought and secreted for a time and then hurried on North to freedom. Mr. and Airs. Dorrington were of the strong characters of the early days in Falls City and their good work will alwajs be remembered 1iy the people of this city.

David K. Holt

David R. Holt was born in Platte county, ]\Iissouri, March 22, 1842, and later moved to Andrew county, Missouri, where he lived imtil April 7, 1850, when he came to Salem, Richardson county, Nebraska. In January, 1863. he engaged in the mercantile business in Falls City in partnership witii C. B. Scott. In 1864, Scott sold out his interest to C. H. Xorris and the firm continued in business until 1866. when their store and goods were destroyed by fire.

In No\ ember. 1865, Mr. Holt was elected county treasurer of Ricliardson county and ser\ed si.K }ears. In the spring of 1866 he was appointed Indian trader (jn the Iowa and Sac Reservation, which position he continued to hold for six years. In 1867 he resumed the mercantile business in Falls Citv, in partnership with C. B. Scott; he bought Scott out in 1870 and contiiuied the business until the great mercantile panic in 1873. Mr. Holt's trade was very extensive and he sold more goods than all the otlier stores in the count}-. He built the first brick block and opened the first opera house in Falls Citw Mr. Holt later served terms as deputy comity treasurer under lolm W. Holt and I. R. Cain.

Thomas C. Cunningham was born in Marion county, Missouri, in 1843. And when about four years old moved to Lee county, Iowa. In 1857 he left Iowa and came to Richardson county, Nebraska. In i860 Mr. Cunningham made a trip across the plains to California, during the Pike's Peak gold excitement, and remained there engaged in mining until 1862, when lie returned and enlisted in the Fifth Missouri State Alilitia and served in that regiment until he was mustered out in 1863. Soon thereafter he re-enlisted in the Twelfth Regiment, Missouri Cavalry, United States \'olunteers, and served imtil the close of the war, when he returned to Richardson county, and settled upon the old homestead eight miles north of Falls. City. In the spring of 1870, Mr. Cunningham located in Falls City and engaged in the livery, business. In 1873 '""^ ^^'^s elected sheriff of Richardson county and re-elected in 1875. In 1878 he was appointed clerk of the district cnurt for this countx and in 1879 was elected to the same ofifice for a term of fmu- years.

James Henry Lane

One of the most interesting and picturesque characters connected with the history of Falls City, in the days of its infancy and who later became a na- , tional figure in the dark days preceding and during the Civil \\'ar, was James Henry Lane, familiarly known as "Jim" Lane, the noted Kansas Abolitionist. He was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on June 2. 1814. He attended the schools of his native state and at an early age was admitted U> the bar. Anions; the many honors coming to him were, the command of a brigade at the battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican War, colonel of the Fifth Indiana Infantry- Regiment; lieutenant-governor of his home state (Indiana) in 1848; member of Congress in 1853. At the erection of Nebraska and Kansas as territ(iries he came West to Kansas in 1853 and immediately Ijecame prominent and \\as a member of the executive committee of the constitutional convention.

Lane was active with John Brown in the business of running fugitixe slaxes North on the famous underground railroad and, one of the stations lieing in the heart of tlie hamlet of I''alls C^ity, was a fre(|uent \-i>iitor there. He was officiallv connected with David D. Dorrington and others as the townsite company which laid out b'alls City and is named as mw of tiic founders, but his activities among the .slaves kept him in Kansas most of the time, where he was elected to the United States Senate in iStC'i. Owing to his activities as above indicated he was iiidicteil tor liigii treason and never took his seat, but became a fugitive from justice. He was elected a second time as senator, but joined the army instead. .\t the time of the famous Ouantrill raid and the Inirning of I^wrence, Kansas, he was there and barely escaped with his life. His stormy career ended at Leavenworth, Kan.sas. where he committed suicide in 1866.

GeneralLane was the orator of tiie day at a celei)ration liel<l at Salem in 1856 and performed the same service to the people who celebrated that day in I'alls City in 1857 and on the same dav at Xemalia l-'alls. near I'alls City.

Fli.Tox Peters

One of the most interesting characters in Richardson county and one who has real claims to being classed as a pioneer of Richardson county and the state of Nebraska, is Fulton Peters, who is a veteran plainsman and a present resident of Barada precinct in this county. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, April 27, 1835, and was a son of Francis and Mary Peters, natives also of Germany, where they grew up, married and made tiieir home until 1838, when they brought their family to America, locating at St. Louis. Missouri, where their son, Fulton, was reared, attended school and learned hi^ tratle of ship carpenter. He helped build the ferry. "Carondelet."' which was "subsequently transformed into a gun-jjoat for use in the Union navy during the Ci\il War, being the first unit that formed the famous -'.Mosquito I'leet." Inilton Peters continued to follow his trade in St. Louis until 1807. but he came to Richardson county. Nebraska, in 1856. to locate land, moving in 1858 on the place he had entered, but after a year's hard work improving the land he went back to St. Louis and did not return to his land, here to make a permanent home until 1870. During the Civil War he worked in the government navy yards, under an oath of allegiance, and received five dollars per day for his work. He has lived on hi.> farm of one hundred and tweiUy acres in Barada precinct for a period of forty-.seven years and lias carried on a general farming and stock raising business.

Mr. Peters was married in 1856 to Fuphrasia liarada. a sister of Antoine Barada, a half-breed Indian, after whom Barada precinct was named. Mrs. Peters was born in 1837 in St. Louis, and her death occurred in 1888. Her brother, .\ntoine Barada. was taken from the Omaha Indians when a boy and brought to St. Louis, where he was reared, and where he married a l-'rench woman. In 18;:; lie \\;is notitied tliat he was entitled to a tract <if land in the half-l)reed tract or reservation in this county and he came u> Barada precinct, Richardson county, deveh^ped his land and si)ent the rest of his life, dying in 1887. He was one of the hest known of the early pioneers and when a boy visited this county with a party of Indians in 18 16.

Politically, Mr. Peters is a Democrat. He has filled minor township offices and is a Catholic. Mr. Peters crossed the plains in 1853, from Kansas City to Ft. I.aramie. Wyoming, in fact he made three trips in all across the great \\^estern plains - one to Salt Lake City, Utah, and one to the Salmon river district in Idaho in 1854, with a train of one hundred and five wagons, taking the short cut-ofif by way of I'acific Springs on tlie Platte river and Green river in the mountains. He built a boat which he used in crossing that stream. Some members of the party became dissatisfied and started to Oregon, but when only ten miles away the deserters were attacked by the Indians or Mormons and many of the party were killed, the survivors returning to the original wagon train. A new party was sent out, which chased the maurauders, but the camp was attacked the second night following and the cattle was stampeded. Mr. Peters, with twenty-five men followed the stock, overtook them and turned them back. The train was again attacked on Green creek mountain on Snake river, at a time when the party was divided, part of them having been sent to rescue another party of whites that had previously been attacked by the Indians. Mr. Peters and his band drove off the Indians and then took charge of the immigrants and their supplies, helping them to get to the settlement, the train finally reaching Walla Walla, Washington. At Baker City, Oregon. Mr. Peters engaged in mining for some time, finally returning to Nebraska. In 1873 he made a trip to the Black Hills, in company with Antoine Barada, Frank Goolsby and William Ankrom, of this county. They made the trip overland to the Black Hills and started mining there, but on account of the hostile Indians of that country they were coml)elled to give up their prospects and return home, escaping the savages bv strategy. The\- Inn'lt a big fire at the camj) to deceive the iuilian.^ and stole quietly away during the night, arriving at Buft'alo Gap tiie following morning, their return trip homeward from this point being uneventful.

In 1883 Mr. Peters went to Blackbird, Nebraska, to locate on land which the Barada family was entitled to, but failed to get possession, after one year's effort, even carrying the case to Congress. Some members of tlie family proved up on their rights U) portions of the land, but others, perhajjs equally as well entitled to it. have failed. Mr. Peters worked on the Ohio and Missouri & Pacific r.-iilroad. when it was being built, contracting for a portion of the work. He was nearliy when the memorable Gasconade disaster occurred. He also worked on the construction of the Gascf«nade bridge of the Missouri Pacific railroad.

Mr. Peters is well preserved for a man of his age and is une of the wellknown and honored citizens of Richardson county, in which he has lived to see many of the great changes since he first traversed its wild prairie more than sixty years ago.

Jamks Roijkkt Cain, Sk

ft is safe to sa) that James Iv. Cain, Sr., enjoys as large an acijuaintance as any man in Richardson county today. He was born on December 29. 1843, 'i^ Platte county, Missouri, and came with his parents, William R. Cain and wife, to this county in 1856, when a lad of thirteen years, landing at St. Stephens. The family settled at St. Stephens, where Mr. Cain attended school, and later spent five months at the Camden Point Academy in Missouri. After completing his education he started out in the world to make his own way. He was employed on the farm in Arago township until 1865, when he made a freighting trip across the plains to Denver with oxen. After his return he was employed in the county clerk's ofifice at Falls City for six months and later was employed in a store at Rulo as a clerk. For a year afterward Mr. Cain followed the furrow on the farm, finallv returning to the counter for a few months at Arago.

David R. Holt was elected county treasurer at this time and Mr. Cain was employed by him for six years. Wliile thus employed he made a complete set of abstract books (complete up to that time), of the lands of the county. Tn 1873 he clerked for a clothing firm in balls Cit\- for a few months and then went into a general merchandising business in partnersiiip with George \A'. Powell at b'alls City. In a short time Mr. Cain bought out the interest of his partner and continued the business alone for about a year. Tn 1880 he sold a half interest in his business to D. R. House and after another year Mr. House bought his interest. Mr. Cain was elected county treasurer in 1881, and was re-elected in 1883. Three years later be went to Stella and bought the Bank of Stella, owned I>y Hull & Ferguson, and the State Bank of Stella, owned at that time by Sweet Brothers, the purchase being made for a corporation, and for the past thirty-one years Mr. Cain has been actively connected \vit1i the management (^f the bank and to his untiring energy and good judgment it has easily become (MIc of the foremost institutions of its kind in the c<>unt\. He was married to Miss Martha K.

Kirk, on March i8, 1867, at Covington, Kentucky. On January 9, 1882, his wife died, leaving three children, Mrs. Robert McCoy, now of Sioux City, Iowa; J. Robert Cain, Jr., of Omaha, and Mrs. William Julian, of Long Beach, California. In August, 1883, Mr. Cain was married to Miss Lettie J. Ingram, at San Jose, California. They have five children. Ingram, Nellie May, Harry N., Jean B. and Julian.

Mr. Cain was director and cashier of the Bank of Stella, a director of the Richardson Count}- Bank of Falls City, and at one time president of the Farmers State Bank of Shubert, in all of which he was and is a stockholder. He makes his home in Falls City, where he has one of the most comfortal^le dwellings in the city. He is a thirty-second-degree Mason and has filled every station in the lodge, chapter and commandery, besides serving a term from June, 1881, to June, 1882, as grand master of ]\Iasons of the state of Nebraska. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United ^^^orkmen.

David L. Thompson died at his home in Falls City on November 29, j8c)4, of erysipelas, caused by rheumatism. Mr. Thompson was one of the first white men ever to see Richardson county. Fie passed through here in the early fifties and finally located at Archer in 1858, where he married China -M. Miller, a daughter of J. C. Miller, the first judge of the county, and who at that time kept a hotel and store at the new town, on December 8, 1855. On October 16, 1892, he was married to Mrs. Emma Thomas, wdio survived Inin. When l"'alls City started as a town, Thompson was one of the first t(i l(jcate there. For many years he had l)een deputy .sheriff of the county, having charge of the jail and prisoners. George Thompson, his only son tliat grew to manhood, was killed by the cars on July 24, 1894. As an ofticer of the law he was fearless and always reliable, and as a citizen he was kind and generous.

Dillard Walker died at liis home near Humboldt, Nebraska, of heart di.sease on April i i, 1895, aged sixty years. .Mr. Walker claimed the distinction of being the third man to drive a wagon Ijetween the forks of the tlie two Nemahas in 1855. He helped to raise the house in Salem building tlie first churcli at Salem, the Missionary Baptist. .\ wife and children sur- \ i\ed him.

Hnmholdt. in 1867, and for twenty-five years she was one of the leading physicians in that vicinity. Old age finally compelled her t<i (|uit the practice.

Jamks I.. Overman

James L. Overman, for many \ ears a resident at Stella and who died in that city on Decemher 28, 1894, at the age of seventy yearly, was one of the ])ioneers. In 1858 lie became a resident of St. Deroin, a station just north of the Richardson county line, where he operated a ferry and many of the pioneers of this county landed r]n Nebraska soil from liis ferry.