Richardson County, Nebraska - \'iii, 1917

Earlv Christmas Days

Tlie writer has been asked to write recollections of Christmas in the early (lays of this county, old Archer in particular. To a younger person this might seem a \er}' small task, but to a lady almost eighty-three years old. with sliaky hands and shaky memory, it is quite an undertaking, and, except for those who have grown up in our own town wit1i our own chiklren, I would hardly at this time undertake such a task.

T came with my father's family to Richardson county in March, 1S35. There was nothing much here of importance except breaking prairie, building our log houses, and home work in general until midsummer, w4ien my father, John C. Miller, with the Xuckols brothers. Colonel Sharp and son, Johnson, Robert Arclier and others formed a town cimijiany and laid out the town of .\rcher.

Father began building a big hotel, or tavern, as it was called then. Building material, like everything else to make a comfortable home, was hard to get and the house was built largely of hewed logs. We moved into the unfinished structure in the month of September. At the same time Al)el D. Kirk was building a little log store Iniilding, afterwards stocking it w ith groceries and general merchandise. Tliis was a great convenience to us all, Ijecause we had had to go to Missouri for everything in that line. While liuilding, some of the famil\- camped on the ground to look ;ifter die workmen, others staved on the claims to do the gardening, make the butter, raisechickens and turkeys that were to grace the tables, and feed the hungry ones at our first Christmas in Nebraska.

On the 4th of October, 1855. I was united in marriage to Wilson M. Maddox and went to Nebraska City to reside. Therefore, my first Christmas in Nebraska was not spent in this county. We had a very pleasant Christmas, although we had no picture shows and theatres, but made our own amusements. W^e had nice dances occasionally, several lodges, societies of ditiferent kinds, tem])erance organizations, .ill considered social events tiien.

Christmas day we liad dinner with Rev. D. \\'. Gage and faniih-. old friends of ours, Reverend Gage having performed the ceremonv at our wedding. My brother's family was also i)resent. Besides a wonderful roast turkey we had leaked catfish, the largest I ever saw cooked. It weighed twenty pounds and was browned and cooked to a turn, .\mong other good things we had a splendid plum pudding, such as only Aunt Sally Gage could make. We had a delightful time at Gage's, but to make the day more eventful, there was a Christmas wedding at our house late in the afternoon, when friends of ours, Melvina Blount and AMlliam Pound, came from Sidney, Iowa, to be married. To insure future prosperity the bride must wear something worn by a former bride, so she was arrayed in my wedding dress. A crowd of friends came in the evening and we had wh.'it we tliouglit was a royal good time.

We passed our lirst winter in Neljraska City and moved tjack to Archer, in this county, the ist of May. 1856. and went on our claim. William H. Mann was here; soon the Goldsljerrys came from Kentucky, also Mr. Franklin and John Kirk. They and se\eral other families liegan to build and it looked much l)rig]iter and homelike.

Then the Kansas troubles began, and old John Brown and Jim Lane, of later national fame, were continuously passing through to the north and back again, which kept up a constant excitement until late in tlie fall. With my parents keeping the la\ern I often liad to go and help mother cook for tluec or four huntlred of these men at a time. The_\- sent a man ahead and when the word came cverybod}- got bus\-. They killed bee\es, hogs, chickens, prepared the best vegetables, everj'thing in abundance, for these men wanted the l)est and were willing to pay well for it.

Cold weather set in early tliat year. It was se\erel\ cold, hut 1 do not recall but one big snow before Cln'istmas. In those da\s we did not make such a big festival of Christmas as we did tlie I'ourtli of July and holidays that came in warmer seasons, because it was pretty severe riding across tlie prairie in the biting cold and tlie settlers were not \ery close logetlier.

That year fatlier made a liig dinner at the tavern and all the people residing in Arciier were invited. We did not have many social functions in those days, nor many places where the ladies could "dress up," and Mrs. Goldsberry proposed that we make this dinner a real society affair, just as tliough we were back in a civili/ed country. in>^tead of a frontier -eltlemeni.

Accordingly all were <lressed in their liest hih and tucker, the ladies in their hest black silk dresses - or whatever color they might have happened to he. and even the men did not object to dressing up in their Sunday best. I was down helping mother, but work or no work, 1 managed to change to mv one best dress, a black silk, of course.

If we did not have the fresh cranberries, celery and fruits of today, we had plenty of all that was available, for father would have the best. Our dinner included turkey, roast pork, spare ribs, baked squash, and sweet potatoes, such as we seldom raise now, all such vegetables as could be stored for winter, pumpkin and mince pies, a big steaming plum pudding, a real oldfashioned pound cake, the "kind mother used to bake." There was little formality. Dinner was placed on the long table and the various dishes were l)assed. Everybody ate heartily and seemed to enjoy what they had. My mother was considered an excellent cook in those days.

About four o'clock in the afternoon most of the unmarried folks started for St. Deroin, to the northeast, in the edge of Xemalia C(iunty, to a dance, or ball, as it was then called, at Heath Xuckols. They had a two-horse wagon, plenty of Iniffalo robes and blankets. It was twenty degrees Ijelow zero and when the\" got home about noon the next da}- they wer-e almost frozen.

Then came the news that Archer was on die half-breed tract. Huston -Xuckols recei\ed the word first and before letting it be known to others, sold his big drugxstore building to father at a big price. Tliis with other losses in the townsite almost ruined father tinanciallx'. He never rec(ivered from the shock of those troubles. His health was completeh" broken.

Widi the f.all <if .\rcber, many little towns sprang up and all were after the county seat, and such a struggle followed as you may never ha\e beard. Why, looking l)ack on it now after more than sixt\- years, it seems that if the people had tried to remove the national ca|)itol from Washington to San l'"rancisco, there could have been no uKjre strife, fighting and bloodshed. according to the number of people, than there was o\er moving the county seat of Richardson county in those days.

The Christmas of 1857 we also spent at .\rcher, but I took little part in the festivities, as m\ first little boy was but a few weeks old at the time. We l)assed other Christmas days there also, and T remember that after judge Dundy came, he was instruiuental in getting u]i big dances .it the tavern, which had been moved into the Xuckols store Ijuilding. Judge Dundy was ahvays one of the chief tiddlers and JuHna Hutchins, later Mrs. Ferdinand Harlow, was one of the youngest and prettiest girls present.

With my family growing up and living most of the time on the farm, several years intervened before I passed a Christmas in Falls City, or (.)ne that has fastened any particular incident on my memory, thougli.I know that after the town was fairly started, it at once became the central meeting place for all the county folks and many were the big dances and social affairs. Sometimes we had a grand Christmas tree and it seemed like nearly every citizen in the town was present. Such entertainments as we pioneers had at Christmas we had to plan and provide for well in advance, and there was great pleasure in the anticipation of such events. I sometimes think we enjoyed them more fully and the memory of them lingered longer with us than do such affairs now, when amusements are more plentiful. I recall little that was exciting or unusual,. but hold many pleasant memories of gatherings of friends of the early Christmas days in Richardson county.

The honor of having been the first white settler of Richardson couiitx , lias a number of claimants, and while there may have been others who coulcl have pointed to the fact that they had visited Richardson county or this portion of the great \\'est at an earlier period, there seems to have been none who coud have been classed as settlers at a time antedating" the arrival of Stephen Story. It appears that he came alone first and took up a permanent abode on the banks of the ^Missouri, at a point where was the later site of St. Stephens in St. Stephens precinct, a part of which now joins Arago precinct, and it must be remembered that the St. Stephens precinct spoken of, which was in the nortlieast corner of tlie county, has now been joined bodily onto what is known as Barada. The south row of sections of east Barada. or St. Stepliens precinct, w ere in later years joined to Arago precinct and it was in the most eastward of this tier of sections that he took up a home. His liome was about a mile north of the later site of Arago \illage.

Major Story was born in the state of Vermont on January 8, 18 10, and passed away after a brief illness of pneumonia at his home in Rulo in tliis county, January 27th, 1882, at the age of seventy-t\Vo years. At the time of his death he was the oldest white settler in tlie state of Nebraska. The parents of Mr. Storv moved from W-rniont to Montreal, C;uiad;i. in 1812, where tliey made their home for nearly twenty years and where lie hecame acquainted with Joseph Robidoux, ^^-ith whom he made a number of trips, the latter carrying on an extensive tirade with the Indians of the northern territory. His wanderings led him Westward and he made his way to tliis county in 1S4-I and located himself near the site of the latter town of St. Stephens, whicli he founded, named and made his home for a number of years and where lie erected the first cabin for himself. The Indians, who had but a short time before been moved to reservations in this county, bothered him to such an extent that he returned to St. Joseph, Missouri, and there enlisted in the army sent to Mexico and where he was wounded in the battle of Monterey. On account of this disability he was discharged and made his way to California with the gold-seekers in "forty-nine." Tiring of the gold e.xcitemcnl. which had not proved profitable to him, lie was seized with a longing for his old home and returned to St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1850, and thtn came backto St. Stephens, where he resumed habitation in his old caliin and built a ferry which he operated on the Missouri river for many years, at that place. Here he was found running the same by the first pioneers who entered Richardson county with an idea of making it their home and it was his ferr\ which brought them across to the Nebraska shore. Here the first .five families, so often spoken of, crossed to Nebraska. He, together with Gen. I!enjamin F. Loan, who was the brother of a well-known pioneer lady, Mrs. William R. Cain, started the town of St. Stephens in 1857 and he later sold a portion of his farm to a company of Germans from Buffalo, New Y^rk, wlio started the rival town of Arago, one nn'le south of St. Stephens.

Tlie coming of the steam ferry operated at many points later on the -Mi-snuri river displaced the methed he hatl in use and he then retired to his farm in section ir, township No. 2, nortli, of range Nn. 17, where he resided until 1879, when he mo\ed to Rulo tn make In's home for llie remainder of Ills life.

He was united in marriage in 184^) to .Mrs. I-llizaljeth Robidoux, a halfbreed Indian, then the widow of his old friend, Ferron Rol)idoux. From this unitjn thirteen children were born, of whom but three are li\ing : Ste])hen Story, Jr., of Rulo; John Story, of Hiawatha, Kansas, and ]\lrs. I'eter Murphy, residing southeast of Falls City. Mrs. Story was l)orn in tlie vicinitv of Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1823, anti died at tlic Jionie of her dangjiter, bv her former marriage, Mrs. Dudley Van Valkenburg, at i\ulo, on December r. 1900. Mrs. Van Valkenburg, who is still li\ing, was born on the site of St. Joseph, Missouri, a city founded by her paternal grandfatlier, Joseph Robidoux. She and her first liusband, l''erron Roliidoux, entered a claim on tlie

Mte of St. JMScpli. ;iii(l she figured as <<ue <>\ tlie early pirmeers ni Ridiardsuii CI unity, li\iiig with her parents at St. Stephens when the first pioneers ;irrived. and has .spent her life as a resident of the county.

Major Stephen Story was a true type of the pioneer, noble and genemus. whole-souled and hospitalile U< the last degree, lie lavished a princely for- Uine in deeds ut kindness and charity, and received in return hut meager gratitude.

While, in the very nature nf things, the experiences of the early pioneers of this section of Xehra.ska must have followed pretty closely along the same general lines - for all necessarily had much the .same difficidties to face - there \\ere certain outstanding cases which deserve more than mere ])a>sing mention in a work covering the history of this county and in a general Avay the history of this section of the state. It manifestl\- would he impossible, within the limits of an ordinary volume, to gi\e anything like a proper review of all such cases and the slor\- which follows and which contains so many interesting j)oints relating to pioneer da}s, is presented as perhai)s typical of many such stoiies that could be related by the survi\ ing pioneers of Richardson count}'. The late William M. Jones, who was past one hundred years of age at the time of his death at his home in the precinct of Rulo. was a typical pioneer, as is his son. the Hon. Cass Jones, who is still li\iug in that precinct, and the story of the difficulties and hardships they faced u])on making a settlement in this state back in territorial days ought to be illuminating to those of the present generation who can have no ade(|uate concei)tiou of what real "pioneering" meant to that bra\e band which brought .about the development of the great state of Nebraska.

William .\1. Jones was a \"irginian, born in the \icinity of I'lue Springs, in the historic old county of Tazewell, in the Old Hominion. in the fall of I Si 2, and was but three years of age when his father moved to Jackson countv, Ohio, juick horses being use<l to Ir.ansport the family's household effects. In this latter comity the father look up :\ tract of "Congress land," made a house of logs and went to farming. .Xmid these pioneer conditions, William M. Jones li;ul little opportunity for effective schooling, but lie became .1 practical farmer and e;irly de\elo])ed the true i)ioneering instinct. .\t nine- teen _\ears of ;ijie lie married and started tarmini;- for himself, his pldwin^- being done with a wooden plow made by himself, utilizing for this purpose a large hickory stump for a plowshare. When the point of the plow, l^ecame dull he sharpened it with a draw-knife. .\ml)itious to have a larger place where he could i-aise li\e stock and engage in farming on a more extensi\e scale, William .M. Jones three years later emigrated to Illinois, which was then beginning to be developed, and settled in l*'ult(V.i count)', in the western part of that state, establishing his home on a farm near the Illinois rivei", where he took a "s(|uatter's" claim to a (|uarter of a section of land. lie built a log house on that place and there lived for ll\e years. Me fenced in a considerable tract of land and engaged extensively in the raising of live st(3ck. In 1840 he sold his place for seventeen hundred dollars, taking notes for the same. The purchaser shortly afterward took adxantage of the bankruptcy law and Mr. Jones received nothing for his farm except one horse and a yoke of cattle.

At that time the great Territory of Iowa was be.ginning to be settled up 1)}- farmers, as land could be bought from the go\ernment for little more than a nominal price, and Mr. Jones decitled to move up into the Territory and make a new .start. In 184.0 he took up ;i claim to a ipiarter of a section of land in Johnson county, in the Territory- of Iowa, and settled on the same, starting his farming operations with three yoke of cattle. In e cows, one horse and si.x hogs, which he drove through from Illinois. In preparation for the trip through to the new land Mr. Jones made a wagon constructed wholly of wood, there being neither nails, bolts nor iron of .-my kind in its makeu]). l'"or this purp<ise Mr. Jones utilized ;i large sycamore tree, cross sections of the bole of which furnished the wheels for this hnnl)ering veliicle. The creaking of the>e wooden wheels could be heard o\er the prairie f<ir a 'ong distance and it was no uncommon occurrence, during the journey, for Indians to come riding up over the ])rairie to liml out wh;it made such a noise. Tiiese in(|uisitive aborigines ofi'ered no molestation to the emigrants, however, for Mr. Jones had lived long enough among Indians to know howto get along with them. In their new Ikmuc in Iowa the Jones's neighbors mostly were Indians. There was plenty of wild game in that region and the family fared well, so tar as keeinng the larder supi)lied. .Mr. Jones did well enough in his stock-raising operations and remained there for ten \ears, or n.ntil 1830. in which )ear he sold his i)lace foi- ele\en hundred dollars, .gold, and mo\ed to ('ass county, in the southwestern- part of b>wa, where l.e engage<l in the milling business, paxing se\'en hundred dollars, gold, for a s;iw- and grist-nn'll.

For several years Mr. Jones continued engaged in tlie milling business in Iowa, with the help of his sons doing a good business; but in 1856 his pioneering "fe\er" prompted him to make another move in the direction of the frontier, so he sold his mill property for seven hundred dollars, receiving two cows as "boot," and started out for the farther Northwest, settling west of Sioux City. It was on the afternoon of March 10, 1856, that Mr. Jones crossed the Missouri river on the ice with his family, household goods, two hundred dollars in gold, sixty head of cattle, two horses and three yoke of oxen. The night after he crossed the river, the river hmke up and the ice went out.

It was in Dakota county, in the northeastern part of the then Territory of Nebraska, that William M. Jones entered upon his fourth pioneering experience. He entered a tract of government land, built a log house and started farming, with the expectation of engaging extensively in the raising of live stock. - He had been told that Nebraska was a good cattle country, but where he was the blizzards in the winter froze his cattle, and the high winds made high drifts of the snow. The second winter he was there the snow was so deep and the blizzards so fierce that all of his cattle froze to death, except one yoke of oxen. This discouraged him and he decided to move. With that end in view he sold his land for one hundred dollars and moved south to Leavenworth county. Kansas, on the Missouri river, and settled on the Delaware Indian Reserve, where he stayed from the spring of 1858 to the fall of 1859. making rails during the winter months.

Texas was then considered to be a very desirable state, especially for settlers who wished to raise cattle, as the winters were mild, grazing good, and land plenty and cheap. IMany sayings were current among the people as to its fertility and productiveness, one of tliese sayings, which Mr. Jones often repeated to his family, being that fritter, a kind of pancake tlien considered a luxury, grew on the trees. o\er the lioney ponds, and wJien the\' got there they would only have to shake the trees, when the fritters would fall in the honey and they could pick tliem out with sticks and eat tlieni. He found, however, tliat the ponds were covered with green scum and alxuinded with tad])oIes. frogs, alligators, mosquitoes and snakes.

Mr, Jones took a good bunch of l)rood mares to Texas with iiim. hoping to raise horses on a large scale, and probably would have succeeded had the times been favorable, but that was in 1859, just before the breaking out of the Civil War, the South even then expecting and preparing for war. and feeling against Northern men was very bitter. The year after Mr. Jones's arrival in Texas the campaign for the Presidency between Lincoln and Douglas was agitating the whole country, and the South was badly wrought up against all men from the North. The Texans got down on Mr. Jones; railed him an Abolitionist and warned him to leave the country, unless he would cast his lot with the South. This he would not do, and accordingly made preparations for leaving the country with his horses. On the morning he was to start, about twenty-five Texans came to him and told him they would not allow him to take the horses out of the country, but they offered to trade him Texas cattle and oxen for his horses. They took away the guns and revolvers owned by Mr. Jones and his sons, and they had to do as they said. Mr. Jones lost money on the trade, as horses were high there and cattle very cheap, but he could not help himself. He was glad to get away on any terms. He then had a bunch of about one hundred head of cattle. This was in the fall of i860. In returning north the Joneses went west and made a circuitous route through the western part of Texas and Indian Territory, so as to avoid the more thickly settled, parts of the country, and also to be among the Indians, with whom tliey always got along well. Cass Jones had learned and could speak the Indian language.

Mr. Jones went back to Leavenworth county. Kansas, and bought a claim of one hundred and sixty acres on the Indian Reservation from an Indian, for one yoke of oxen. This gave him all the land he desired on which to graze and fatten his cattle, as he could use all the Lulian land he wanted for grazing. The Indians made the best of neighbors.

Mr. Jones soon found that while he had been away in Texas, times had changed in Kansas. The war had begun, and sectional feeling had been wrought up to a high pitch by John Brown and his adherents. He lived close to the Missouri river, and small bands of Rebel sympathizers, called_ "Jayhawkers," frequently came over the river at night and roamed unmolested through his locality, stealing horses, cattle, and everA^thing they wanted, making life unsafe and sometimes killing people. He lived too far from Ft. Leavenworth, it being twenty miles away, to receive protection from the soldiers there, as by the time the soldiers were given warning the Reliels would recross the river witli tlieir plunder into Missnuri. Tiierefore. as soon as liis cattle were tat lie suld them w the .-'ildiers at the ti)rt and prepared to leave. He had jjeen plowing corn all of one day. and had jnit up his team and was waiting for supper. He had laid down near tlie kitchen door, being tired, and had fallen asleep. He was awakened by hearing the sharp command, "Surround the house!" Mr. Jones asked the intruders what the\- wanted, and they answered they were going to kill him. There were twent\ Missouri "Jayhawkers" in the gang. They said he was an .\holitionist. and took him and his sons Charles and Cass, down to a creek where they lied their hands behind them, and the captain in command of the gang told his men to take the lariats off their hor.ses. and hunt up a good liml) to hang their captives on.

There was a house nearb}- in which w as \\hisk\- iov sale and the captain and his gang went there and helped themsehes, so that nearlv all of them were soon drunk. One of the men, however, slipped around to where the Joneses were tied and told them not to be afraid, as the gang was too drunk to hunt up a limb to hang them on. They were kept there until morning, when they were untied and taken back to their home. Here the "Jayhawkers" took five horses, one cow and calf, two yoke vi cattle, all tiie household bedding, all the Hour and meat and warned Mr. Jones to leave the country within ten days. Charles and Cass Jones at once went to Leavenworth to enlist in the Union army. Charles was not accepted as a soldier because he had asthma, but Cass Jones, then twenty years of age, enlisted in Compan\ I, Second Kansas Cavalry and served in the war for three years, the first part of his service being in Kansas and Missouri, where he had many opjxntunities to be revenge<l on the "Jayhawkers."

.\s soon as possible, William M. Jones got out of liie country and came up into the Territory of Nebraska, stopping a few miles north of Rulo. in Richardson county, where he found a number of families preparing to make the journey to Oregon on the I'acibc coast. lie became impre-^e<l with the many advantages it was said would be foun<l there for settlers and he decided to join the jiarly. In the winter of iS(>2 he made preparations for the journe}' and in the spring of iS'),v when he started on the journey to Oregon, he had two wag(jns, each drawn by two yoke of o.xen. and one yoke of cow-. the latter to furnish milk on the journe\.

riie} traveled across the prairies and muuntaiiis until arri\ing at l'"t. Laramie in \\'yoming. There tiie Indians were hostile and it was not consideretl safe to go any further until a larger number of wagons were congregated together. When fifty wagons had gathered, a guard of about twent}- soldiers under a lieutenant was furnished them and they were allowed to proceed on their journey. They had plenty of flour and meat to last them until the\ reached Oregon; they also secured some game along the mute, such as deer, anteloi;e. elk and wild turkeys, but did not have any buffalo meat, as they >,-iw fin!\ three buffalo during the whole journey.

The party had no trouble with the Indians, as there were so many wagons together the redskins were afraid to attack diem. Hut when tJiey reached the Snake river, in Idaho, an incident occurred diat made them think the\ might have some trouble with the Indians. \\'hile they were camped there waiting to be ferried across the river, an old Indian rode right into their corral of wagons, riding a government horse and using a government saddle. He offered to trade the horse and saddle for one box of gun caps. They did not trade for the gun caps, as 'they were afraid the Indians might attack them if thev could secure ammunition, as there were aliont one thousand Indians camped near. The next day they crossed the Snake ri\er on a ferryl».)at that would hold only one wagon and a yoke of oxen. The ferryman charged one dollar for each wagon. He was kept there b\ the government and was furnished a guard of soldiers. The stock was forced to swim the river.

Mr. Jones arrived at his destination on October lo, 1863, and settled about fifteen miles southeast of Portland, where he purchased one hundred and sixt\- acres for two hundred dollars, .splitting enough rails during the winter to pav for the land. The land was heavily timl)ered and had to be cleared l)efore it could be ])lanted to crops. Mr. Jones commenced to clear his land of timber and the first year jjlanted eiglit acres to crops, his family lixing on wild game and what they could raise. The climate was miM, but from September to May it rained nearly all the time and much of tlie time it was foggv. All the little streaius at this time of the year were rutining brooks of cool, clear wiater, but at other times in the year diey were drv. It was cold enough at night during this season often to snow, the tree tops being covered with snow in the morning, but the snow would lie all luelted by noon.

Mr. Jones was ilisappointed in the countrv. it beitig no country for .stock; an.l the climate was so dift'erenl from what he had been u-^e<l to, that he did not stay there long. In the spring of 1865 he sold his land, cattle and wagons, for two hundred and forty dollars and bought ponies and pack saddles, and started back for the east. With him were about thirty men in the outfit, most of them being cowboys and miners.

The journey back to Omaha required one hundred and twenty days. Mr. Jones reached Omaha in the fall of 1S65. There he worked during the winter in a stone quarry and at getting out rails over on the island in the Missouri river. In the spring of 1866 he again moved to Richardson county, and settled about three miles north of Rulo. on the banks of the Missouri river, where he and his sons, Charles and Cass, bought a half section of land from a squaw man, paying for the land eight hundred and sixty head of ponies and one pair of fine horses. On this land he and his sons settled, his son Charles on the west of the land he kept for his own; his son Cass on land north of him, and his son Stephen on land east of him : his son Lewis buying and settling on land near Salem. On that tract Mr. Jones built a log house in which he lived for many years before he liuilt a frame house.

Life Among The Indians

The country was then a wilderness. It was covered with brush and timljer. An Indian trail passed just back of where Mr. Jones built his house, Indians passiiig every day as they roamed back and forth over the country. The region was inhabited by a mixture of Indians, French and lialf-breeds. There was a steamboat landing at Rulo, and the town of Rulo was about one mile west of the river, the intervening space being farm land. On the river bank at the landing were warehouses for the storage of freight, as all transportation of freight to this region then was by way of the Missouri river. There were a few stores at Rulo, the storekeepers depending for business in a great measure on the trade of the Indians, wlio weie paid an annuity twice a year by the government.

Frenchmen had come to this locality some years Ijefore to trap wild animals for their fur and to trade with the Indians. Some of them had married Indian s()uaws, which gave them a right to the land of the Indians they had married, and this land they could sell to settlers. The Indians lived in teepees, or buckskin tents, stretched over poles : four or five families in a tent and three or four tents in a comnuniily. They were constantly roaming around over the country in c|uest of game and liiey lived by hunting, fishing and begging. .\ little canrp of them wcnild be in one place for a few days and then be gone, and otlier Indians wduld cunie and go. They liatl ponies and dogs, the latter they kept for food in times of stress. W'iien their annuities were paid them, they would generally have a "big time." They would buy a steer, cut it up and cook it in kettles, have a feast and a big dance. The merchants would get the most of their annuity money for blankets, calico, sugar, coffee, ammunition and guns. Whisky was "bootlegged" to them, the "bootleggers" thus getting a good share of their annuity.

Death Of Centenarian

When Mr. Jones started to break the prairie on his land, two squaws came and sat down on an Indian graxe and would not let him plow over it. He farmed this land until he was eighty-eight years old, doing most of the work himself, as he was always an active, liealthy, vigorous man and never sick. When eighty-eight years old he sold his farm to his son Lewis, and he and his wife retired, though continuing to make their home on the place. ^Irs. Jones died at the age of ninety-nine years, eight months and fourteen days. Mr. Jones survived for some years and was well past one hundred \ears of age at the time of his death. He had always voted the Whig or Republican ticket, his first Presidential \ote being cast for General Jackson. He never missed voting at a Presidential election and voted for twenty Presidents.

The Story Of Cass Jones

Cass Jones was only fi\e years of age when iiis father moved to Iowa and he went to school at Iowa City. When liis father bought the mill in Cass county, Iowa, he took an active part in that undertaking and later accompanied his father to Dakota county. Nebraska, and later to Dallas county, Texas, returning thence to Leavenworth county, Kansas, as set out above.

On May 5, 1861, Cass Jones enlisted in Company I. Second Kansas Cavalry, to serve six months. His regiment went from Kansas to Springfield, Missouri, where the Union forces were concentrating under General Lyon. Just at dusk on the night of August 9, 1861, the regiment left Springfield, with about five thousand soldiers under General Lyon, and on the next day they attacked twice their number of Rebels at Wilson's creek. General Lyon rode a large white horse and was a conspicuous mark for Rebel sharpshooters, who were in the large scrulioak trees. In leading a bavonet charge General Lyon was killed. Cass Jones was near enough, to him to see him fall from his horse. The regiment liad been dismounted and formed the sccimd line nf tile cli;ir,i;ini( hiixe, tlic Sdldiers clinihins;- u]) nicks, croucliiiii; bcliiiul stumps. ;ui(l doiiiii' all the ririno- tliey omid. The Rebels siirnjuiuled llieni and the re^nineiit attain iii< united their horses and made several eliarties in order lo break through their opposing ranks. During the fourth (.barge Ceiss Jones's liorse was killed. 'Jlie animal reared way ui). ga\e a big juni]) and fell dead, rolling over, and Mr. Jones was pinned under his horse. A mule driver who was retreating with a load of ammunition, passed close enough to hear iiim call and he stopped his team and came and lifted the dead horse and pulled him out from under the horse. His riglii hip was dislocateil. his right shoulder severely injured and his jaw broken, the latter wouiul being inflicted b\ the hilt of his saber striking him as he fell. He hopiied on one foot, and with the help of the driver got to the wa.gou just in time lo escape Ijeint; trampled by his own re.giment which came galloping back from its charge on the Rebel lines.

Mr. Jones was taken to the tent hosi)ital in the held on the wagon, where three surgeons put his hip joint in place. That night he was taken back to Springfield in an anilnilance. There he remained about two months or until he was suf^ciently recovered to .go to Leavenworth and rejoin his regiment. His term of enlistment having expired, lie was discharged on .\ovember iN. iSOr. .Shortly afterward, and as soon as lie was well enough, lie re-enlisted in the same conipaii}' and re.giment. \\hicli was being reorganized under llie three-years call for troops. The i-egiment marclied into Missouri, .going to Ralei.gh.

While guarding a supply train, ihrou.gh liea\y timber on the way to Ivaleigh, the supply train was captured by the. Rebels at Lone Jack. .Mvmt two hundred of the re.giment, which lia<l dismounted and sent their horses back out of lire, were ca[)ture(l. as the Reliels got between them and the rest of tiieir regiment and cut them off. .Mr. Jones was among those captured. The_\- were disarmed and driven to the rear just like a dro\e of cattle. While going through hea\y timber Mr. Jones jumiied o\er a hi.g tree that had been cut down and hid under a big limb, the other piisoners ;in<l the Rebel guards ])asMng b\ without liis being discovered. He laid under the tree until dark and then started back through the timber, not daring to take the road, for fear of meeting Rebel ])ickels. and was out all that night, the next day and the second night, without any food, so hungry and tired he could make but slow i)rogress. On the third morning be espied a negro cabin in a hollow and went td the dcMir. A hi-;- negTn wnnian ga\c him a big- ]jiecc of corn bread and meat and tuld him ti> ,i,'-et away (|uick nv the l\ebels would get him. While gettini,' over a rail fence on the third ni.<,dit he startled a lot of hogs, which ran grunting, making a big noise that set a ]Kick nf hounds to barking. He thought lie was sure to be discovered and he got out of that locality as fa.st as he could in tiie dark. He ran down a hill and at tlie bottom, in a corn field, stepped on a man who must have been hiding there. This man jumped ui) and ran up the hill he had come down, and Air. Jones ran up the opposite iiill as fast as he could. It was hard to tell wlio was the worse scared. The next morning, Mr. Jones noticed tracks of shod horses in the road, and knew the}- were L'nion arm_\' horses, as the Rebel horses were not shod, ."^ocn he saw blue-coated soldiers on the road. He went to tlieni and the\- ti Ilk him into cani]). wliere he rejoined his regiment.'

While o\'er in .Missouri the}' learned there was to be a sla\e auction. They went up to the crowd, to see what was going on. Their sergeant who \v;is one of the snldiers in the s(|uad. said to the sheriff: "".Vin't it about time thi^ auctioning of niggers was stopjied ?" The sheriff', without comiileting the .sale, took a young negro girl out of die gr<iup of slaves, put her on a horse behind him and galloped off'. I'our of the .squad of soldiers took after liim, overhauled him and made him bring the girl back, making him dismount and help the girl oft' the horse. The sheriff' immediately disappeared. The negro girl was told to go where she pleased and not to consider herself a slaxe an}- more.

They also foraged for provisions. One day wliile on a foraging ex])edition, in a part of the country where ])ro\isions were ])lent}-, Mr. Jones l)eing in the rear of the column of troops, he saw a smoke house oft' the road at the foot of a hill. He went over there, slid off his horse and was investigating the contents of the smoke house when a big darkey woman appeared at the door, just as he had taken do\\n what appeared to be a big corn shock. He had just made the disco\ery that the corn shock was full of sausage, when the negro woman wanted to know what he was doing there and began kicking him out. Some of the're.st of the soldiers were there by that time and commenced making fun of him when they saw the negress kicking him, hut as soon as tliey learned there was sausage in tlie corn shocks that hung uj- in tlie smoke house, tliey soon cleaned them out.

The regiment marched to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and then to Ft. Scott, Kansas, the journey occupying several days. At Ft. Scott they catnped se\- eral days and then marched into Missouri again, as the James and Younger gangs of "Jayhawkers" had been killing men there. They camped on White river, being after "Jayhawkers" all the time. While there word came that at a town about sixty miles ofif they were going to hang three men, whom the Rebels had charged with stealing negroes. As the hanging w-as to take place the next morning, there was not much time to lose, if the rescue of the men was to be attempted. Colonel Thayer secured permission to call for \olunteers for the rescue, and sixty cavalry men, of whom ^Iv. Jones was one, volunteered for this service. They started about five o'clock in the afternoon, galloped all night in the dark, and reached the town just a little before daylight. They divided into three squads, and came in on the town from as many directions at sunrise and surrounded the jail. Colonel Thayer ordered the jailer to open the jail door. At first he refused, but soon opened it and the three men were brought out of jail. They were shown the scaffold where the}- were going to be hung on that very morning, and then the soldiers tore down the scaffold. They took the men back to camp with them, confiscating Rebel horses for them to ride and to replace some of their own horses which had gi\-en out

The command reached White river on a very hot day and manv of the soldiers at once stripped and went in sw imniing. in the stream, which was about sixty feet wide. A Rebel army was on the other side and some of the Rebel soldiers were in swimming at the same time on their side of the ri\er. The opposing- parties talked with each other and traded sugar for tobacco. .\s soon as the Union officers found out w-hat was going on they ordered the soldiers out of the river. That night the Rebels retreated, but they were not followed. The Kansas cavalry then marched to Osceola, Missouri. This was in the spring of 1863. \\'hile they were camped there a w-ell-to-do Rebel asked for a soldier to guard his house and property. The colonel of a New- Jersey regiment furnished him a guard of one soldier. During the night this soldier was killed while in the house, a deed which so infuriated the New Jersev soldiers that they burned the house and all the houses in the town, except one. where lixed a I'nion man.

An Experience With Smaixpox

While camped near Raleigh, Missouri, Mr. Jones, with eight other soldiers, caught the smallpox from a Jew suttler, whom he went to see about underclothing. A few days after this exposure he was taken sick, and his whole mess of eight soldiers caught the smallpox. An old building was utilized for a hospital, and an old man and woman took care of them until they recovered, and a guard kept persons away. Their hands were tied to boards, so that they could not scratch themselves.

Mr. Jones presently was promoted to the position of sergeant-major of the regiment. The command shortly afterward marched towards Lexington, Missouri, where the Rebels had besieged the Union forces. They did not reach there in time to prevent the surrender of the place and the capture of the Union soldiers, but they pursued the retreating Rebels and rescued all their prisoners. They requisitioned every horse and all Rebel conveyances they could find to replace their horses that had broken down in the pursuit and to let the tired Union soldiers ride in on their way back. They returned to Ft. Leavenworth, where the regiment was filled up with new recruits from the North. Mr. Jones was assigned as a body guard, with two soldiers, to accompany him, of Adjutant General Bell and the^' went with the latter to St. Louis, where they stopped but a few days, and then took a l:)oat and steamed up the Mississippi river to St. Paul, where they stayed all winter, General Bell being attached as a staflf oflicer to General Sibley's command.

In the spring of 1864 they started on a campaign against the Indians. They went to Turtle Mountain, in North Dakota, on the Yellow Medicine river, having small brushes with the Indians on the way,; went on to Ft. Rice, on the Missouri river, in North Dakota, and ran the Indians across the river. Mr. Jones and his two soldiers, acting as a body guard to General Bell all the time. While on their way back, they were joined by the Second Nebraska Cavalry and other troops, under General Selby, and at his own request Mr. Jones was transferred to Company I, Second Nebra.ska Cavalry, as he wanted to .see more service than he was having with General Bell. The regiment soon returned to Sioux City, Iowa, and there he was discharged on November iR. 1863.

The I'Owdeu River Expehition

At Sioux City the Powder River expedition was being organized, and Air. Jones hired out to the governnient as a wagonmaster. The troops comprising this exjjeditinn were the 'I'welflh Missouri Cavalry, and there was a train of fifty-six wagons to carry their supplies and amnninitinn. Mr. Junes was bired at one liundred dollars a month and had charge, witJi two assistants, of this wagon train, luicli wagon was drawn liy six mules. Tiie messes comprised six teamsters, wlio cooked their own meals. When marching across the prairie, the wagon train traveled in two columns, so as not to he .strung out too long. The Indians kept out of the way. hut c<inl(l he seen at a distance watching them. They marched up the Missouri river to F"t. Pierre, South Dakota, and then crossed the country to the northwest to Powder river. X(^rth Dakota.

Tile huftaJo on the prairie were so thick that the_\' looked like a cloud when they were moving and stirring up the dust. A curious thing was that they all fed facing one way. The expedition often marched through the herds and sometimes they would stampede and come close to them. Details of soldiers every day would kill enough of them to supply the expedition with huffalo meat, furnishing all die meat needed while crossing the ])Iains. Mr. Jones went out one day after huffalo and rode right up to a hig one, as he rode alongside of him shooting him in the small of the liack. I'he huffalo ran a little further and then fell down in a piece of marsliy ground. A lieutenant, one of the party, got oft' his Imrse, as he did not wani to ride his Jiorse on the marshy ground ior fear of miring, and went up to the l)uft'alo on foot ;ind shot the animal in the head, hut the huffalo's head was so hard that the hall did not penetrate. The huffalo got up on his feet and showed fight, which frightened the lieutenant, who threw down his gun and ran for his hor.se and mounted. As the huffalo came out of the marshy ground Jones shot him hehind the foreleg, but as he .did not drop, another shot was fired at him which brought him down. Antelope and elk were also very plenty and furnished their (luota of food.

The partv had to he always on the alert iuv Indians, as every once in a while they would see redskins off in the distance watching the expedition, but as the Indians rode fleet ponies they were harder to get than the huffalo and other game. The Indians always vanished soon after they were seen and before they could be attacked, .so that the party had hut few fights with them.

Stonk Street, Falls City In 1866

corralled in a circle, with the mules turned in so that they could not be stampeded, and the troops would form on the outside of the corral. Sometimes at night the mules were kept on the inside of the corral of wagons; this was when there was danger of their being stampeded while grazing at night by the Indians^, but at other times they were put outside of the corral. Sometimes they would be chained to the wagon wheels during the night and turned loose early in the morning to graze under care of a guard. ^Vhen there was not too much danger the mules would be herded and allowed to feed at night. If the Indians could at any time have stampeded the mules, the expedition would have had to be abandoned, as there would have been no way to transport the supplies needed b>* the soldiers.

There were no roads to follow. But scouts would go ahead picking out the best way to go. They had two Indians as guides. In crossing the mountains sometimes forty mules would be attached to one wagon, as the way was so steep and rough. Many of the creeks had steep, deep banks, that had to be cut down before wagons could cross; at other times streams would be followed up to their source before they could be crossed. At rocky places crossing was very difficult.

The expedition followed up the Missouri river into Wyoming and Montana, and returned by way of the Platte river, as far as Kearney, Nebraska. Mr. Jones was paid off at Kearney and then went to Leavenworth, Kansas, and stayed until he rejoined his father and his family at Omaha in 1864. He came to Richardson county with his father and brothers in 1866 and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land of the Indians, a few miles north of Rulo. and went to farming and he has lived there ever since. Mr. Jones was a member of the House of Representatives in the Nebraska state Legislature during the sessicjns of 1903 and 1907.

The picture is a drawing made from an okl picture now in the possession of Mrs. W. H. Keeling, of Falls City, who got it from, her father. Anderson Miller, now deceased. The original was made on a tintype and was taken on Stone street in 1866. Every effort was made to secure a cut direct from the original tintype, and some very good copies were secured: liut owing to the faded condition, such copies could not be successfully used for making a newspaper or book cut. Consequently, the above drawing, jirepared by Da\i(l D. Reavis. was made and is here re[)roduced, and ha\ing compared the original tintyiie with the photographic copies of the same, which were made, it is claimed that tlie picture ahove is a perfect rejiroduction of the original, but has tJie advantage of being much more distinct and is enlarged several times.

Tlie luu'lding on the left is a view >ji the old Aiinmck IJoiel. which was located where the present Richardson County Hank now stands, facing- Stone street and directly south of the court house. The old hotel was for many years the political and social center of the little \illagc. Xo old resident of l'"alls City can speak of the "good old times" without repeated reference lo the old hotel. The building was erected b_\- Jes'^e Crook in i85() and was at first known as the "City Hotel!" The building next to it was the old Joe Burbank store, whose chief clerk was George E. Dorrington, later a resident of Yuma. Arizona.

The tirst building on the opposite side of the street was the newspaper office of the old Broad A.vc, which had a somewhat precarious career and was edited at 'different times by Ned Burbank, Judge Dundy. L. B. Prouty, and others of the then prominent citizens. The old building was situated on the lots immediately .s(Wth of the First National Bank and now. in i<)i7. occupied by the Tanner hardware store. The next is the little brick law office of Judge Dundy, afterwards United States district judge for Nebraska, these lots were later occupied by what was known as the Keini & Grable Bank and at the present time by Peter Kaiser's place of business. The iirst little brick law otifice was the only brick building in the city and was the pride of all the hardy pioneers wdio called Falls City their home. The next building, the chimney of which can be seen through the trees, was the home of Daxid Dorrington. familiarly known as Scjuire Dorrington. This homestead was situated where the building now occupied by th.e P'alter clothing store. Charles P. Hargrave and Peter Bacaco's candy kitchen stand. The building adjoining the Dorrington homestead was the law othce of lion. Isham Reavis. and this building was jointl\' constructed by Isham Reavis and Attorney August Schoenheit. and was considered very pretentious in those days. This building occujjied the site across the street to the south, now occupied by the V. .G. Lxford store on the corner <M' what is now Sixteenth and Stone streets. The old "White Saloon" c<inies next and imiuediately beyond the saloon is the residence of James R. Cain. Sr. The building farthest down the street was the palatial residence of Doctor Hanna. which stood I in the corner of the next block to the south at present occupied h\- the .Samuel ^^'ahl mercantile establishment, h'ifteenth and .Stone streets. This residence was the llnest in the state at the time and w,i> i)ointed out to die occasional visitor as a sight of great interest.