Lincoln City (part 19 of 19)

It was over two years after our arrival here before the B. and M. Railroad arrived at Lincoln During these two years Mr. Jessup freighted from Lincoln to Nebraska City. It would take three days each wav to make the trip and often during the winter season he would lose his way and wander about for hours before he realized the situation.

One of the things most dreaded by the early settler was the prairie fire. It was always necessary in the early fall to arrange your fire guards and be sure that they were wide enough that the flames could not jump over them. A prairie fire at night was a grand sight in a spectacular way, and especially when it was cloudy. It would almost seem that the heavens were on fire. If the wind was blowing hard where there was heavy grass, flames could lap over from forty to fifty feet.

Prior to 1S74, for se\eral years, when the wind was in the south in looking toward the sun you could almost invariably see quantities of grasshoppers flying. They never did any great damage, however, until that year. The small grain was nearly all harvested before they came, but corn and vegetables were entirely destroyed. Onions they apparently enjoyed as well as other vegetables. Commencing at the top, they would eat them clear down into the ground, leaving

My brother, Oscar Law, one year sowed one acre of turnips, and when they were about half grown the grasshoppers destroyed the whole patch except two turnips. When he gathered those two turnips the next fall he carried them to the house in a half-bushel measure ; they were so large that the second turnip came about three or four inches above the measure. This is a true story and is given to illustrate how vegetables would grow in those days if given a chance.

Several days before the Fourth of July, 1868, all the fanners with teams and wagons went along Salt Creek and cut cottonwood "boughs. These were hauled to where the business part of Lincoln is now situated. A large bowery was made about one hundred and fifty feet long and proportionately wide. Early on the morning of the b'ourth the farmers and citizens of Lincoln gathered in this big enclosure, tables were arranged and at the noon hour a meal was set, consisting of nearly every good thing imaginable. After dinner a program of music was given, led by Mr. Herman Merrill. Speeches were made by Sawyer, Strump and others. Sack and foot races were indulged in and the day was spent very agreeably.

Olive Branch Precinct is the southwest corner township in Lancaster County. About lyi miles west of this precinct flows the l!ig iSlue River, the valley of which is considered one of the most fertile in the state.

During the Civil war, 1861 to 1865, the Bohemian element began to settle along the Big Blue. From that day on to the present the settlement has continued to grow, until Saline County is almost entirely Bohemian, and for several years they have been pushing their way into the southwest part of Lancaster County.

One of the earliest Bohemian settlers in Olive Branch Precinct was Matias Pomaizl, whc left Bohemia in May, 1867. Having fallen into the hands of an unscrupulous emigrant agent, from whom he engaged passage on a steamer, he was to his dismay, on his departure, loaded onto a sailing vessel instead, and on his arrival in Baltimore with a family of seven children, found that he had been robbed of all his household eflects, even to his wearing apparel. By occupation he was a coal miner, and after hard efforts, he succeeded in securing passage to St. Louis. He found work, with his two eldest sons, in Belleville, 111. Three years later they had laid by $800. The tide of emigration was then toward Nebraska and ]\Ir. Pomaizl concluded to follow the throng. They came to Nebraska City by rail : there he jnirchased a team of horses for $305, a wagon for $80, a breaking plow for $30 and a stove that cost him $35. After loading in a few necessary provisions, they started West and the fifth day out arrived at Beatrice. Learning that the Bohemian settlement was thirty miles north, he started out and arrived there April 5, 1870, and proceeded to take a homestead. He soon discoxered that several of his neighbors were without horses or oxen which proved quite an advantage to him. He was constantly employed in hauling provisions from Nebraska City, seventy-five miles distant, and going to Beatrice to mill. There being a scarcity of money among the settlers, he took for his services any farm product the settler could spare.

Mr. J. Smith arrived in C)live Branch early in the sjjrini; of 1S70, coming from Iowa. After using his homestead right, he started working for the B. and M. Railroad, which was then being built from Omaha to Denver.

Others that should be mentioned as early settlers in this locality are Joseph Letak, Joseph Jistka, Louis Jiskra, Josei)h Shindelar, Frank and John Chrastil, F. Pavlik and Mateas Vancura.

Mr. Joseph Janecek arrived in Olive Branch in June, 1870, from Cleveland, Ohio. He purchased a yoke of oxen for $150, a wagon for $50 and a cow that cost him the same amount, and was rid of his money. He commenced breaking the prairie sod and succeeded in turning over ten acres. Their dwelling was a shanty. His only daughter, Rosie, was working in the city, and by turning over her weekly wages, materially assisted the old people.

John W. Stewart

I located on my homestead in what is now Mill Precinct in 1871. There were but two houses to be seen between my place and Ashland, and the nearest one a distance of six miles. In 1871 I broke fifty acres of prairie and planted it to corn. That crop when harvested averaged twenty-eight bushels. The next year the same ground was sown to wheat, which went 34J/ bushels to the acre. This was sold for .$1.10 per bushel.

We were here during the grasshopper raid and have seen them in such clouds as to obscure the sun. When they lit the ground would be covered and the trees loaded down with their weight. Those were days of picnics for chickens, turkeys and ducks.

Game was nearly as plentiful at times as the grasshoppers. I had ten acres of corn ruined one year by wild geese. They were hard to get rid of and I found that setting steel traps and catching them would frighten the others away better than shooting. The sand hill cranes were there by the thousand and, if anything, were worse than the geese. The antelope and deer could be found in this section in small herds. The buffalo, however, had migrated farther west. Each fall hunting parties would be made up and would spend from a month to six weeks in hunting the "King of the Desert." They were killed principally for their hides, their meat being left upon the ground.

In the early days the prairie fire was a great source of trouble to the poineer, and unless he took the precaution to put out fire guards about his premises, they were almost sure to be destroyed in the fall. Many a death has been caused. by them and many a race has been run to keep out of their way.

William Elfeldt

I came to Buda Precinct in June, 1868, in company with my father and family, and vast has been the change in the appearance of the western prairies since that eventful day.

To the early pioneer the present generation owes much for the trials, privations and sufferings they endured in settling up this country. We are unable to describe fully what they passed through. In those days we lived in what we called dug-outs, which were usually dug into the side hill and would be about

12 by 20 feet square and 7 feet deep, covered with poles, brush, hay and rounded up with dirt. In this kind of a house we were ahnost sure to have during the suninier months plenty of crickets, as well as fleas, but in the winter the dug-out was comfort itself.

The settlers in the south part of Lancaster County did not come in chair cars or Pullman sleepers, but instead it was a canvas top wagon with either an o.x or a horse team which had traveled overland in most instances from three to five hundred miles. Our nearest trading point was Nebraska City, fifty miles to our east, with no roads, only Indian and freight trails. When going to market with these slow ways of conveyance", often taking nearly a week to make the trip, the wife and babies would be left at home without company, except it be a troupe of traveling or visiting Indians making a call or begging for something to eat. The nearest neighbor would be miles away.

The first school taught in our neighborhood was held in a rude log structure, the property of a private individual. A hewed board attached to the wall, with wooden pins stuck in for legs, formed desks ; the same sort of hewed slab with pins attached formed the seats and a desk for the teacher was made on the same order. The children of today would consider themselves ill-treated if obliged to attend school in a structure of this kind. But these were some of the trials of the pioneer children. Religious meetings were held in private houses, the old circuit rider coming on horseback, but our spiritual experiences were fully up to the standard of today.

Farm implements were as crude as the houses. The corn was planted with a hoe, the dropping being done by hand, and cultivated with a one-horse shovel plow. Small grain was harrowed in with an A-shaped "drag" and usually harvested with cradles, afterward by the John P. Manney Lland Rake.

On our arrival here deer and antelope were quite numerous, but the buffalo was farther west. The animal most in evidence, however, in my remembrance, was the prairie wolf. A few of these would simply make the night hideous, and to a person without experience it would seem that the country was infested with them. Chickens and small pigs, however, were all that they ever molested.

\\'ith all the disadvantages of the pioneer, there were many advantages. We were all on a common level financially, game was plentiful ; we were all on the same mission, to establish a home, and though the pioneer sufifered and passed through a great many hardships, he would not take a small fortune for his early experience.

A glimpse of Lancaster County in the days of the pioneer and that of today would be a striking contrast. The mind can hardly conceive the change that has been wrought. No houses, no schools, no churches, no fields, no bridges - nothing but barren prairie as far as the eye could see. Here and there might be seen a few trees along the streams. The few settlers that were here lived in dugouts that could not be seen until a person was on the spot and saw the smoke coming up through a hole in the ground.

On the 6th day of May, 1867, my father,- with his family, started for his homestead on the northwest quarter of section 8, in what is now Middle Creek.

It was ten miles west of Lancaster, now Lincoln. We started at 3 o'clock in the morning with an ox-team belonging to one of our neighbors and expected to reach the place by noon. We were obliged to make our way as best we could around the different sloughs and across the dift'erent streams, and instead of driving to the exact spot as we expected to do, at nightfall we found ourselves just north of where Emerald is now situated. We were obliged to camp out for the night. After our evening meal a bed was made on the ground. We all, only nine of us, lay down to rest in one bed. with nothing but the starry skies over us. We arrived at our future home the following noon.

The following winter was hard times for the settlers; the crop of i<%6 was principally destroyed by grasshoppers, which made flour high-priced. We paid $9 per hundredweight for flour and $4.50 per hundredweight for cornmeal; bacon, 35 cents a pound; sugar, 25 cents; calico, 38 and 40 cents per yard; muslin, 40 to 45 cents, and other things in proportion. Our meat consisted mostly of wild game, and many a meal in those days was spread with cornmeal and prairie chickens. Nearly all of the early pioneers depended upon their guns to furnish their meat.

The first homestead in the precinct was taken by John Poole, the northeast quarter of section 22. To his daughter, Mary, belongs the honor of being the first white child born in the township.

The first death was that of iMiss Alwilda Burd in the autumn of 1869. In 1867 our nearest postoffice was Lincoln, and we were fortunate to receive our mail once in two weeks.

In 1870 the railroad pushed through to Lincoln, after which times were better. jMore settlers came, more grain was raised and all had plenty to eat. Nearly everything was cheaper and stock raising became one of the industries.

Mr. C. L. Laune, a resident of Middle Creek, experienced pioneer life in its true sense. In passing through this section he was not, at first, pleased with the soil and located on the Blue. At one time, on account of the high water and no bridges, the family were obliged to subsist for at least a week entirely on hominy. Later, after attending a wedding, they came home and brought a biscuit made of wheat flour for each of the children, which was considered by them one of the greatest luxuries.

At another time, on a return trip from Nebraska City, he had quite an experience. On arriving at Haines Branch the bridge was gone. The wagon was unloaded and the box removed and a rope attached. One man then swam the creek, taking the end of the rope with him. By this means the box was made to act as a ferry boat and their goods ferried across. The oxen were compelled to swim. This illustrates some of the trials of the pioneer.

In 1869, a Mr. Thompson, who lived in a dug-out near the creek on section 8, w^as awakened in the night by the call of his daughter, Clara, for a drink of w'ater. On putting his hand out of bed he found that water was all over the room. The creek was in front of the house. They were obliged to escape through a hole in one end of the house by placing a table under it and a chair on top of that. The rain was coming down in torrents ; they were obliegd to walk half a mile to a neighbor's house. Their dug-out was destroyed and they were obliged to live the next three months in a covered wagon box.

summer. To find snakes in your house was not an uncommon thing. The good mother usually examined the bed before the family retired to know that there was not a rattler hidden therein.

The absence of timber made the obtaining of fuel a problem for the early settler. When a new settler inquired, "Where do you get your fuel?" he was usually answered by saying, "On section 2,7" which meant on any Government land not yet taken up. The people lived very quietly in those days. They would gather first at one neighbor's house and then another to hold church and prayer meeting, and were usually supplied with a minister from Lincoln.

In 1866 there was a sod schoolhouse erected on section 35, and a Mr. Dunlap taught a three months' term of school. In 1868 a frame building was erected at Emerald, William Meyers teaching the first term of school. From that time on the country improved very rapidly, new dwellings and new schoolhouses were erected, churches were built, and the whole country was in a prosperous condition.

There is something in the life on the frontier that is very fascinating, due principally to the sociability and lack of envy. All were on an equality and all very hospitable. Strangers were well received and were made to feel welcome, if only a piece of bread and butter and a straw bed were the best you had to offer. Now while talking to the i)ioneers of those days we say "Those good old days," forgetting all the hardships.

Magnes Densberger

The early settlers of Oak Precinct experienced many of the hardships coincident to pioneer life. The unbridged streams and the scarcity of well-beaten roads made marketing a burden in those days. Many a hard trip was made to mill and many a horse and man were tired out when the trip was completed.

I located in Oak Precinct in 1878. My first crop was raised on rented land, after which I bought the northwest quarter of section 30, the place where I now reside. This was nothing but raw prairie and was void of a brush large enough to whip a dog. My first house was a rough board shanty 14 by 16, battened with lath on the outside. The first winter was spent in this primitive affair and to keep warm without an abundance of fuel was a problem we were obliged to solve. One blizzard during that winter will be a lifetime remembrance. Snow piled up as high as the houses and at our place we were obliged to tunnel under the snow to get to the chicken house.

Lancaster County, like most of the western country, had its experience with desperate characters. Horse stealing became a common thing and to guard against this, a vigilance committee was formed which had the desired effect, for I never knew of anything being stolen thereafter.

There were a good many Indians in the country at that time but they were friendly. I will not forget my first sight of one. He was a big burly fellow, begging something to eat and was hard to get rid of. He wore the usual Indian blanket and to all appearances had never taken a bath. The tomahawk attached to his belt reminded me of the Indian stories I had read years before.

Farming was done in those days at a disadvantage. Corn was chopped in with an axe, the old A-shaped "drag'' did the harrowing. No riding plows or cultivators in those days. However, we succeeded in raising good crops and

John Thompson

On the i/th day of .March, 1871, when I first set foot in \\'est Oak Precinct, it was warm and dusty, the few settlers had got their wheat sown and the wild plums were in full bloom. The prairie, however, was as black as if it had been burned over, which gave it a desolate appearance for an old country boy.

I homesteaded eighty acres on section 28. There was not a bridge or culvert from O Street, Lincoln, to where I lived. There was no railroad, no postofiice, no store or market nearer than Lincoln. To add to the desolate appearance of the country and the inconvenience of the settlers, on the nth of April we experienced one of the worst sleet and ice storms I ever knew. Young trees and old tree tops were broken by the weight of the ice and for a time it was almost impossible for stock to move about. Dug-outs and sod houses were the principal dwelling houses. I erected the fourth frame house in the township. Log houses would occasionally be seen ; stables and corn cribs were built of poles and covered with slough grass.

A few prices will give the people of today an idea of what it cost to get a start in Nebraska in 1871. I paid $1 per bushel for wheat, 50 cents for corn, 50 cents for oats, $7 per hundred for hogs, 18 cents per pound for bacon, $5 per hundred for flour, $1 per pound for tea, and received twelve pounds of sugar for $1. I paid $3 for half a dozen common chickens, coal could not be purchased at any price, and wood was worth $6 a cord.

In 1873, we were visited by grasshoppers, which did some damage, but nothing compared with the following year, when we were not able to save an ear of corn. Various ways were instituted to save our wheat crop, which we partially succeeded in doing. I took a long rope, hitched a horse on each end and, with a boy on each horse, kept them going up and down through the field and in this way kept the hoppers moving for three days and prevented the total destruction of my crop. I have seen them so thick that you could not drop a silver dollar without striking them. Our corn crop having been ruined, we were compelled to feed our horses and hogs wheat, atid this in very sparing quantities.

The first school district in the township, number 47, comprised twenty-one sections. The building was built in 1873, and a three months' term of school taught. The teacher was paid $25 per month.

Our first postofifice was established in 1873 and was named Crounse, in honor of ex-Congressman and ex-Governor Crounse. We received our mail twice a week.

Little did we realize when we located in Nebraska, how the years would transform and change the face of the country from a barren, bleak prairie to one of the banner states in the Union, and that the land that cost this Government about two cents per acre, would in our time reach a price that ranged from fifty to seventy-five dollars. That instead of traveling over unbridged streams and storm-swept prairies to secure a letter, it would be delivered finally each day at our door. Why should not the pioneer feel satisfied for his efforts in establishing beautiful homes for himself as well as future generations?

J. V. Cove

It was in 1871 that I made my first trip to the "American Desert." Few were the settlers indeed and vast was the prairie. Along the streams might be seen small groves of timber with an occasional shanty and small portions of prairie broken. In the autumn great care must be exercised in putting out fire guards and if the settler neglected to take this precaution he was almost sure to suffer from the prairie fires which oftentimes, driven by a strong wind, would travel between twenty and thirty miles an hour. One of the worst fires experienced commenced here October 6, 1871, the day the great Chicago Fire started.

One of the things most dreaded by the early settler in harvest and haying time was the common rattlesnakes, which were found in this country in great numbers. They would often be pitched upon a load of hay or grain, and the stacker as well as the loader had to be on the lookout to avoid being bitten by them. Cattle were oftentimes bitten and many are the stories that might be told of the trouble they caused.

In the spring of 1869, two families from Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, moved to Nebraska and settled in the southern part of Lancaster County. At this time there was plenty of homestead land, and all was a bleak, wild prairie. In the late summer of that same year there followed about seven or eight other families, all of whom were poor in this world's goods and without money. Their first dwellings were constructed of sod and were from ten to fifty miles to any store. Their market place was Nebraska City, a distance of about fortyfive miles, where wheat was worth 40 cents per bushel. The little settlement remained the same until 1870 and 1871, when others made their appearance and a Holland colony was formed, the growth of which has been steady since that date. Fine residences and other improvements now dot the country over and the land that a few years ago had practically no value is now valued at from fifty to seventy-five dollars per acre.