* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~WELCOME NEW MEMBERS !!~
Margaret Stutheit. Researching surnames STUTHEIT; WESSELS; ROCKERMAN
Maree Rae & Dick Larsen. Researching surnames STINSTROM; MALM; ANDERSON
John E. Rydlund. Researching the RYDLUND family
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~NEW ON THE BOOKSHELF ~
New Additions to the Library at the
Nebraska Prairie Museum
DONATED BY DOROTHY RICHMOND
TWO CLOCKS- One For Our Library and One for The Meeting Room
DONATED BY DICK AND MARJORIE DYAS
NEWSPAPER GLEANINGS OF ANDREW COUNTY AND SURROUNDING AREA
HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY IOWA
LOCAL HISTORY TODAY - Papers Presented at Three 1979 Regional
Workshops for Local History Organized in Indiana
CEMETERY NAMES AND LOCATIONS IN SANGAMON CO. ILL.
BASIC REFERENCE BOOKS ON GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY AND IMMIGRATION
- A Complete List of Titles Published Through 1983
YOUR NAME, YOUR ARMS, YOUR HERITAGE GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH FOR
NATIONAL SOCIETY "DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION"
CEMETERIES OF LANCASTER CO. NEBRASKA, Southeast Quarter, Vol.
1
CEMETERIES OF LANCASTER CO. NEBRASKA, Southeast Quarter, Vol.
2
CEMETERIES OF LANCASTER CO. NEBRASKA, City of Lincoln, Lincoln
Memorial Park, Vol. 8
STAMFORD, NEBRASKA 1887-1987
THE DOOLITTLE FAMILY CHART
DONATED BY SHARON KAY THOMPSON
PLAT MAPS OF CLAY COUNTY, NEBRASKA 1998
DONATED BY NEBRASKA PRAIRIE MUSEUM
I AM BOUND FOR CALIFORNIA, THE OVERLAND DIARY OF EDGAR REYNOLDS
1852, By Robert Manly
DONATED BY HOLDREGE AREA GENEALOGY CLUB
THE 60TH HILDRETH HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI BOOKLET, June 2nd, 1985
1949 OXFORD SCHOOL YEAR BOOK "CARDINAL
DONATED BY EVELYN ANDERSON
THE COMMON SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR, Civil War Times Illustrated
DONATED BY DELORES RADEMAKER
HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II
LIFE'S PICTURE HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II
THE DYER FAMILY....EVER WESTWARD, A Family History
DONATED BY EVELYN DAHLSTROM
THE HANDY BOOK FOR GENEALOGIST, Ninth Edition
DONATED BY SENATOR ED SCHROCK
THE OMAHA EXPERIENCE
DONATED BY DOROTHY JOHNSON
WALLER FAMILY HISTORY
WALLER FAMILY HISTORY UPDATE
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NEW BOOKS
*NEW* Phelps County Marriage Book Volume 2, 13 AUG 1923 to
26 MAY 1976. We wish to especially thank Dick and Marjorie Dyas
for making this publication possible.
Our Marriage Books list brides, grooms, marriage date, book and page number where the license can be located and the bride and groom's parents name.
This publication is published by and can be purchased from Holdrege Area Genealogy Club, P.O. Box 164, Holdrege, NE 68949. $15 + $4 s&h. Nebraska Residents add 75 cents sales tax.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~ DELAYED BIRTHS ~
Information from the
Leila Stall Buffet Genealogy Center Newsletter
Delayed Birth Certificates are those recorded for adults who's original birth went unrecorded. Social Security cards were first issued to all citizens in 1940, many of whom did not have birth certificates issued when they were born.
In order to correct this oversight, they went to the office of
county clerk with documents and baptismal records to obtain Delayed
Birth Certificates and to register their births in 1940. (I have
searched the delayed birth certificates in Phelps County and can
affirm that there is excellent genealogy information in these
records)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Holdrege Area Genealogy Club has had a busy Autumn. We had a successful Everton Workshop, having an excellent speaker, Charlene Dunn. We wish to thank every one who helped and all who took the time to attend. A special thank you to Ada Hinson who was the chairperson for this project.
Dick and Marjorie Dyas prepared all the material for our second marriage book and we now have the books for sale at the museum, Alley Book Store and First National Bank. Our next book project will be updating our Phelps County Cemetery books. If you have any corrections or additions to add to these books, please send them to Holdrege Area Genealogy Club, Box, 164, Holdrege, NE.
We are still wanting to purchase the Soundex for the 1900 Nebraska Census. We have about 50 more microfilms to go which will probably cost around $1,000. Any donations to this project are appreciated.
Remember, this is your organization, we want our projects to benefit you as you search for your family genealogy. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Have a Merry Christmas
Your President, Sandra Slater
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~ PIONEER FAMILY AWARDS ~
Nebraska State Genealogy Society has sent copies Pioneer Family
Awards applications to our Genealogy Club. These applications
have valuable genealogy
information on the families mentioned below. These applications
have been placed in our Surname files in the library at Nebraska
Prairie Museum, Holdrege, NE.
Joseph Richter - Born 6 Nov 1914 in Naponee, Franklin Co.,
NE
Christian John Ruopp - Married 1886 in Bloomington, Franklin
Co., NE
John Abrahamson - Born in Sweden in 1855, died in Phelps
County, NE 21 May 1946.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TERMINOLOGY FOUND ON PLAT MAPS
Information from Leila Stall Buffett Genealogy Society
Acre -160 square rods
Arpent - Similar to an acre, used in French sections of
the U.S. The side of an arpent equals 191,994 ft; one square arpent
is 084625 acre. In Missouri, an arpent
was .8507 acres, or 192.5 square feet.
Chain - Invented by Edmund Gunter in 1620, a chain is 66
feet long with 100 links. One mile is 80 chains.
Degree - 1/360TH of a distance around a circle. Used to
measure direction, with 0 degrees referring to north or south.
Other directions are usually given in terms of
degrees from North or South.
Link - 1/1000 of a chain, 7.92 inches long. 25 links=1
rod.
Meters & Bounds - A type of survey based on measurements
(chains, rods, poles, etc.) and country markers (trees, stakes,
streams, etc..)
Minute - 1/60th of a degree.
Perch - Same as a rod.
Pole - Same as a rod.
Rectangular Survey - Adopted in the U.S. in 1785 and used
in public land states (most states west of the Appalachian Mountains).
Based on certain longitude and latitude lines (meridians and base
lines), land is described in terms of range, township, sections,
and quarter-sections, etc.
Rod -165 1/2 feet. Measured as 1/4 of a chain or 15 links.
Also called pole or perch.
Vara - Unit of measure used in parts of the U.S. settled
by Sapin. Varying lengths, with Texas vara being 33.3333 inches
(36 varas =100 feet), the Florida
vara being larger, and the south western vara being smaller.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
95 YEAR OLD FORMER HOLDREGE RESIDENT WRITES INTERESTINGLY OF
EARLY DAYS HERE
From Holdrege Daily Citizen, June 24, 1958
Albert H. Aronson of Washington D.C., early day Phelps County resident and a printer for the Holdrege Citizen during the first years, writes interestingly of the early days in Phelps County and the town of Holdrege.
The reminiscent letter was relayed on to the Citizen by A.
B. Olson of Shenandoah, Ia., a friend of Mr. Aronson and also
a former Holdrege Resident. Mr. Aronson is now 95 years of age
and although he is unable to attend the Jubilee, "I can talk
about the early days," he writes as long as I don't have
to go anywhere.
A Portion of Mr. Aronson's letter follows: "I arrived in
Phelps county in the early part of 1882. Now if you draw a line
from the southeast to the northwest 18 miles long and put an x
right in the middle, you have the layout of the location of Sacramento
at the south end of Phelps Center at the north end. the x in the
middle represents the location of Holdrege, Nebraska.
"My first real job, not to mention my one week of attendance at the school house, was for Bill Hymer, owner of a hardware store and a lot full of farming machinery. His brother, Jim Hymer, had a hardware store in Phelps Center, I worked outside together with an ex-cowboy putting the various kinds of farm machinery together and ready for use. One day a farmer came to me and asked me questions about the merchandise. He wanted to know whether or not the machine was a new one and I told him, "No;" it had been repossessed because the farmer was unable to pay for it. Then the man went in the store and confronted Hymer who had already told him that the machine was a new one. The result: I got fired. That was the end of that job.
~ EDUCATED DANE ~
"Just about that time an educated Dane asked me to come and work for him. I asked, "Doing what?" He said, "I'm going to start a newspaper and I want you to meet the man who will be in charge of the mechanical end." This man had traveled westward with his wife who was consumptive and believed that the dry climate would be of great benefit to her. The man's name was Nash and he worked for a number of years in the Government Printing Office at Washington D.C. He proved to be an excellent instructor both from the standpoint of typography and correct understanding of the language.
"The educated Dane to which I referred to was Christopher Jensen. He was an exceptional character. He was about 6 feet tall and very powerful. He had, however, what might be called an obsession about Phrenology and no one who came within his reach could excape an examination of the bumps on his head. If there was anything in the world he loved better, it was his horse. This was a beautiful animal; mouse colored with only one mark, a white spot between the eyes. The horse was a one man animal. The only person who could lay a hand on that horse was Jensen."
"Let us return to the newspaper where Nash had prepared a long list of materials necessary for a newspaper shop. The paper was named 'Equity' and was the first paper published in Phelps County. When the news came that the Burlington Railroad was about to straighten it's line by building from Hastings to McCook, the town site was designated and people started to move on it. However, Jensen had a different ideas. He sold his newspaper to a man by the name of Jay Wilkes Moore who moved the paper to Holdrege and began the first newspaper, published in that location. I went along with the paper and worked for Moore in Holdrege. That made me one of the first settlers in the town." (Please note that history indicates that the Phelps County Pioneer was the first newspaper in our county. This newspaper's name was changed to 'The Nugget" when the office was moved to the new town of Holdrege.)
Christopher Jensen, many years later escaped from the insane alyssum in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was accused of murdering a woman outside the Shirley Hotel. That was the end of our friend Jensen.
MORE MEMORIES OF
ALBERT H. ARONSON
A TRIP TO ROCK FALLS FOR WOOD
"Shortly after I had started to work for Jensen it was winter and blizzards were moving along a 40 mile plateau of the level prairie where Sacramento was located. The wood on hand at the time ran dangerously low and a meeting was called at the sod school house and volunteers were asked to go and get fuel. I was present at the meeting setting next to Jensen, my boss. After listening, Jensen stood up and volunteered and with his other hand grabbed me. This was my invitation to join him, so I stood up. The owner of the biggest team of horses was a man by the name of Waite who was a farmer and the owner of the sod hotel (the only place in town a stranger could find a room. Waite offered the use of his team. The next morning, Jensen and I took the box off the farm wagon, and took a lot of ropes and spades with us and started for Rock Falls. This was the only live creek in that section where we could find wood. At two points on the journey, we had to get out with our shovels and made a path for the horses because the snow was to deep, the horses couldn't get their footing. It took us nearly all day to go those 18 miles. The owner of the land where we expected to find wood was named Frazer. The first thing we did when we arrived was to take care of our horses and then we followed Frazer to the house which was built of wood. When Frazer came to the house the first thing he said to his wife was, Do we have anything to eat?" She replied in the negative whereupon Frazer reached for an old fashioned muzzle loading rifle and he handed it to his son, a boy about my own age and told him to go get a rabbit. Kid-like, he turned to me and asked me to go along, and Kid-like, I said "yes." We walked and tramped through the snow about half mile from the house. At this point, my boy friend put his rifle down on top of a stump, and looked across the creek and on the high bank of the opposite side, he spied a rabbit. He shot it and it stumbled down the hill and into the snow in the creek. With a great deal of enthusiasm, I ran to get the rabbit, went through the snow on top of the water in the creek and came up soaking wet to my neck. We hurried back to the house where the folks stripped me of my clothes, put some more wood on the fire and kept me turning around until I was dry.
The following morning I was feeling as good as ever and after breakfast, Jensen, Frazer and I began to load logs, hitched up the team and started for home. When we reached the rise from the bottom land to the plateau the horses were unable to pull the load. Jensen too off some of the timber and drove the team up on the level ground. Then he returned and carried each log, one at a time single-handed up the hill and put them back on the load. We then proceeded homeward along the track made on the trip out.
MORE ON SACRAMENTO, PHELPS COUNTY, NEBRASKA
"Mr. Sand who owned the grocery store and ran the post office; Mr. Ruby who owned the livery stable; Mr. Bowers, the doctor; Mr. Holcomb who was the school master; were some the people in Sacramento.
"Jay Wilkes Moore having moved the paper to Holdrege,
built himself a little shack approximately 20x15 feet. Our press
was a Washington hand press and when we ran the paper off, we
had to arrange some heat under the bed to permit the ink to adhere
to the paper. As for myself, I put some boards across the rafters
overhead, got myself an old mattress and some blankets and made
it into a little nest for yours truly.
CITIZEN FOUNDER WAS OFFICER IN CIVIL WAR; LEGISLATOR IN TWO
STATES
If you ever wondered what editors, printers and assorted newspaper men looked like back in the 1880s, take a look at the photograph which accompanies this story. One of the men pictured was a Holdrege lawyer, the rest were on the staff of the Holdrege Citizen.
The Daily Citizen is indebted to Axel B. Olson of Shenandoah, Iowa for the photograph which is reproduced here. Mr. Olson is a former Phelps county resident. He writes the Citizen that he came to Phelps county in 1886 and lived here until 1896, when he went to Cripple Creek, Colo. In 1902 he moved to Denver where he made his home for almost 50 years. He was a chief deputy State Bank Commissioner at Denver for more than 25 years.
Mr. Olson also relates some interesting information about the founder of the Holdrege Citizen, Capt. Eric Johnson, Civil War officer and state Legislator, who is pictured in the photograph.
According to Mr. Olson, "Captain Johnson helped in organizing a volunteer company and was selected as a captain and participated in the Civil War. He served as chief clerk of a session of the Nebraska Legislature. He was a Methodist and an ardent temperance advocate.
"Captain Johnson's father was Erik Janson, fonder of the Bishop Hill, Ill. Co-operateive Colony. After the tragic death of the founder, his followers prayed for three days and firmly believed he would arise again. Janson was decades ahead of Dowie. After the founder's death, there was much litigation, but finally a settlement was arrived at. " There has been much Written about this colony. Mr. Olson said.
Mr. Olson obtained the photograph of the Citizen staff from an old friend of his Albert H. Aronson, who is the only living member of the pictured group. Mr. Aronson left Holdrege in 1887, going to Denver, where he was engaged in the newspaper business for several years, later opening a printing office of his own, which he operated for a long time. Mr. Aronson is now in his 84th year and lives with his daughter-in-law at 3636 16th St. N.W. Washington, D.C.
The photo, according to Mr. Olson was taken in Holdrege's first Fourth of July celebration in 1885. The only man who was not a member of the Citizen staff was Lawyer Peerson, according to our informant, who delivered the Fourth of July oration that day which he opened by saying "Ladies and gentlemen and Swedes".
It is presumed this lawyer was Mr. Peter Peerson, who later became a stockholder (1887) in the Holdrege Citizen Publishing Co. There were two issues of the paper published each week, one in Swedish and one in English.
According to the "Biographical Souvenir" published in Chicago in 1890, Captain Johnson came to Nebraska in 1885 from Illinois and for one year edited the Stromberg Republican and moved to Holdrege in 1886 to establish the Citizen. (These dates do not agree with the information which came with the photo.) The biographical data continues: "Captain Johnson remained with the Citizen until 1887 and in April of 1888 took charge of the Holdrege Progress, of which he was still the editor in 1890.
In the fall of 1888, Captain Johnson was elected to the legislature from Phelps county as an independent candidate. That year the county went to Harrison for president by a majority of 625 votes.
The Captain's career in the legislature was 'so acceptable to the people of Phelps County, irrespective of the party that upon his return he was given a surprise by his constituents, Many of whom had worked and voted against him when he was a candidate, and presented him with a purse of money and an elegant gold watch, bearing the following inscription: 'From the people of Phelps county to Captain Eric Johnson for honest faithful work as a legislator in 1889.
Mr. Johnson was born in Sweden in 1838 and came
to America with his parents in 1846. He took part in the capture
of Fort Donelson and the Battle of Shiloh during the War of the
Rebellion. Following his discharge from the service, he entered
the journalistic field as proprietor of the Galva, (Ill.) Union
which waslater changed to the Nya Verlden, and was moved to Chicago
to become the leading Swedish newspaper in the United States under
the name of Svenska Tribune.
BISHOP HILL, ILLINOIS
WAS PREVIOUS HOME OF OTHER
PHELPS COUNTY RESIDENTS
The library staff have come across four or five other Swedish immigrants who came to Phelps County to Bishop Hill, IL. It is unknown if these pioneers came in a group of separately.
Eric Johnson who started the Holdrege Citizen, still our local newspaper today, was the son of Eric Janson., founder of Bishop Hill. Mr. Janson selected Henry County, Illinois to build a "New Jerusalem" which later became known as Bishop Hill Colony. He had gathered together 1200 Swedish followers. There remained the problem of how to get them to America. There were no passenger ships available for such a voyage.
His answer was to convert cargo ships for the passengers. The trip was extremely arduous, requiring 13 weeks on the ocean, with some trips taking as long as five months.
These Swedish immigrants often had to stay weeks in New York awaiting the next step in the trip, through the Great Lakes by steam voyage and then down the Erie Canal. Large numbers of immigrants went on foot from Chicago to their new home.
These converts, known as Jansonites, sailed in eleven ships in 1846 with six more shiploads of them coming between 1847-1849
Many of these Jansonites were lost at sea: One ship set sail
from Soderhamn, Sweden with 65 people on board and was lost just
off the coast of Sweden leaving no survivors; another ship sailing
from Stockholm lost all 50 of their passengers when the ship was
wrecked off the coast of Newfoundland and one shipload survived
the trip to New York but lost all it's passengers to Cholera while
it was going through the Great Lakes.
Eric Johnson's father was murdered when Janson's cousin Lotta
marred John Root, Root never joined the colony but had signed
a document that his wife would never leave Bishop Hill. He broke
his promise when he took his family away. The Jansonites came
for her and returned her to the Colony. Again Root came and took
her to his sister's home in Chicago. His sister, not feeling this
was right, contacted Bishop Hill and again Lotta Janson Root was
returned to the Colony. John Root brought court proceeding against
Eric Jansson and on May 13, 1850 and during a recess, Root murdered
Eric Janson. The Colony was taken over by Jonas Johnson and the
Colony dissolved in 1861.
You can still visit Bishop Hill, Illinois and go through the original buildings the colony built and learn about this interesting history.
(Information for this article was provided by Lorena Smith and information on the Internet site on Bishop Hill.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~ I COUNTED THE BUILDINGS ~
Interview with F. F. Brown
(This article found in the Holdrege Daily Citizen, May 12, 1958)
One of the most vivid memories of the early days for F. F.
Brown of Holdrege was sitting on the high point of ground on his
father's homestead in company with his sisters and watching the
buildings moved into Holdrege
from Phelps Center and Sacramento.
"I can remember counting the buildings, day by day, as the new town in the cornfield began to take shape, and although I did not think of it at the time, it was awfully easy for me to understand why someone later coined the phrase, "Magic City", said Mr.. Brown in an interview with this writer. The interview, given April 1, 1955, took place when he was 80 years old. His memory of those early experiences was graphic and vivid.
He had arrived in Phelps county in the fall of 1778 as a boy of 4, to the family homestead on section 13, township 6 and range 34 in Phelps County. ( I think this should be Section 34, township 6, range 18 as shown in the Phelps County 1903 Atlas. This property is just east of Holdrege)
Frederick Brown, who had spent 33 years of his life as a Finnish sea captain and sailor, had first made a trip to Phelps County in 1877 with a party guided by Frank Hallgren. Included in the party were his wife's father, Swan Magnuson and her four brothers, C. O., Emil Victor, and F. J. Magnuson and his son C. O., also filed on homesteads in the vicinity of Holdrege, but the other three boys moved on to Plum Creek, where they filed on homesteads in Dawson county (Please note that Lexington in the early days was called Plum Creek).
Frederick Brown commenced immediately to build a sod house on his claim and when it was completed, he returned to Porter County, Indiana (Just outside of Chicago), where he sold a small acreage on which his family had been residing. He purchased a team of horses, a cow and a wagon. These with their few household goods and some lumber were loaded into an immigrant car of the Union Pacific and the family started westward.
Arriving in Kearney, the Brown family stored some of their possessions, loaded the remainder on the wagon and took off across the prairie.
As Fred remembers his early years, it was his mother, who had the pioneering instinct. Although Fred remembers very little of the family's first occupancy of the 12 x 24 soddie he is convinced that his mother looked on it happily because she saw it as an end to her husbands long absences as a man of the sea. The first winter on the wind and snow swept Nebraska prairies was enough for ex-Captain Frederick Brown but his wife's determination to make it home kept him an early settler. Fred recalls that his father, later, had an opportunity to buy the entire section of land south of the homestead for $300 but turned it down because he was convinced that it would be wasted money.
The Brown homestead, less than a mile east of the present city limits of Holdrege, is still in the possession of the family as well as treasured memories of the accomplishments of the pioneering generation.
Asked what his first and most vivid memories might be, Fred responded immediately, "I was hungry". That first winter in the soddie must have been a rugged one for the family. The fuel supply was scat and the food supply even worse. As members of the family have told Fred in later years, the fuel consisted of buffalo chips and dried bones. Later when they were better organized, broom corn seed and corn stalks plus wood hauled from Spring Creek were added to the fuel supply.
Mr. Brown concentrated his efforts the first year on the construction of a frame house from the lumber brought from Chicago and the two-window, single-door soddie was utilized for other purposes. Ten acres of ground were broken in the spring of 1879 and corn and broom corn were planted. However lacking the proper equipment to work the ground, the crop was poor and the first year's yield was three tons of broom corn. This was marketed in Kearney for $30 per ton and a total revenue of $90.
The hunger of his family and the need for cash prompted Mr. Brown to leave them in the care of his brother-in-law and he returned to Chicago for a year of sailing the Great Lakes and picking up what ever other cash he could earn. When he returned, more ground was broken and the living conditions of the family improved although they were still far from prosperous.
Fred's next most vivid memories of those days were the planting
of the first crop of wheat and the all-day chore that developed
for he and his sisters. Flocks of geese darkened the sky above
the field and the children spent their days chasing away the geese.
However, there were even compensations for this chore because
frequently a wild goose didn't take off fast enough and one of
the children would bring it down with a club. It was a welcome
change of menu for the family.
The long trips to Kearney with broom corn and supplies were another
graphic memory. Only one above-ground building existed between
the homestead and the river. There were a few other homestead
but their occupants lived in dugouts. The Horn soddie was the
favorite place for stopping to feed the horses and resting on
the trip.
The first school attended by the Brown children was opened in the August O'Berg soddie, one mile east and one mile north of the Brown homestead. It was taught by Anna Johnson and served as the only school for two years until a frame school was erected on the old Oscar Waller Place.
The first post office was at the L. C. Barr homestead, one mile north of the present city limits of Holdrege and the Lincoln Street road.
"One last thing," said Mr. Brown. "Don't let anyone tell you there weren't an rattlesnakes. As a boy, I counted them by the hundreds. And there were a lot of buffalo. They didn't bother us except that the trails of the huge beasts through the prairie wore deep tracks in the sod that made it hard for father to break the ground with the meager amount of farm equipment that he had."
Fred Brown later established the Modern Dry Cleaners in Holdrege, which is now operated by his son Frederick. On the old homestead resides his daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Peterson.
~Harlan County Nebraska~
NOTE: The Phelps Helps Newsletter highlights Harlan
County Nebraska in this section. With many of our subscribers
interested in and from Harlan County, and since Harlan County
is a connecting county to Phelps County, the Phelps Helps will
publish history information on Harlan County.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
(Newspaper article dated July 30, 1936)
EX-ALMA MAN
TELLS VIVID STORY OF INDIAN FIGHT
After an absence of sixty-two years, Charles Richmond now resident of Elgin, Illinois, visited the scene of his early childhood near Alma, Friday, says the Journal. Mr. Richmond was four years of age when his parents homesteaded one-half miles north of Alma, now retained by Mrs. Ida Buehler. They remained on the homestead until 1874 when after a struggle with grasshoppers, and other hardships incident to pioneer life, returned to Wisconsin.
To the suggestion that he certainly selected an adverse season to pay us a visit, Mr. Richmond stated that conditions here are no worse than they are in Illinois, so far as drought and grasshoppers are concerned. "When I left Elgin," continued Mr. Richmond, the corn was about waist high, in tassel, and just about dried up, besides grasshoppers destroying crops, gardens and shrubbery equal in your condition here.
Mr. Richmond expressed surprise and gratification to find such a progressive town as Alma, which was not even thought of in early seventies, and to find the country improved and eventually productive and prosperous in normal years.
"Our first public school house was a little sod and dugout shanty near our homestead," continued Mr. Richmond, and our teacher's name ---well I know the first name was Ella." We had a home made table for a desk, with a long slab, higher at one end than the other, placed in front of the table, and the pupils were seated at the high or low end, according to sizes and ages."
Vivid recollections of the last Indian fight, between the Sioux
and the Pawnee, on the upper Republican, in August 1873, were
related by Mr. Richmond. "I well remember my parents and
the other pioneer homesteaders talking about it, and of course
they were very much concerned for fear a general uprising among
the tribes might result and involve the whites also." Following
the battle a number of settlers rode on horse back to the scene
of the struggle, in which about 100 Pawnees' and five or six Sioux
were killed, and returned with several saddles, bows and arrows
and other Indian equipment which had been abandoned and lost in
the hasty fight.
REPUBLICAN CITY,
HARLAN COUNTY NEBRASKA
(Information from the1889-1889 Nebraska Gazetteer)
Republican City is beautifully located in the southeastern part of Harlan county, 6 miles from Alma, the county seat on the river of the same name. Why the river should be called Republican the memory of man does not recall and the oldest _____ has forgotten to explore. The name is forcible enough for designation and may be appropriate in politics, but it lacks the poetry that should suggest the grandeur of clear, voluminous, laughing waters. Transportation is provided for by the Republican Valley division of the B. & M. R.R., and the R, V. & K. R.R. extending from this point to Oberlin, Kansas. The McPherson College is the pride of the town. It has attained a high educational standing. A flouring mill, elevator, brickyard, good public school and flourishing churches are among the institutions of the place. Banking operations are attended to by the State Bank and Republican City Bank. The American House and Eagle house are the leading hotels. The Republican City Independent is the local paper and has a large circulation among the prosperous farmers of this section. It is ably conducted and worth of the success it has attained. The churches are the Free Methodist, Methodist and Presbyterian. The secret societies represent represented are A. F. & A. M., No. 98; the Odd Fellows and Good Templars have each a lodge. Population 700.
1889 REPUBLICAN CITY BUSINESSES...
AMERICAN HOUSE, G. W. STONE, Proprietor., headquarters for travelmen.
BARDEN, John, restaurant
BARTELS., Henry, boots and shoes
BECKER, J. F., confectionery
BENEDIOT, J. A., restaurant
BERRY, .. Mrs., Proprietor. Eagle House
CLUSKEY, Henry, attorney at law
CROOKHEM M. E., photographer
DIXON, Iaaac E., restaurant
DOAKS H., wagonmaker
DOTY O. H., carpenter
DOYL W. N., Pres. McPerson Norman College
DYER, S. G., Mrs., dressmaker
EAGLE HOUSE, Mrs. L. Berry, prietress
ELLENG J. H., notions
ELLIS, James K., harnessmaker
(Harlan County, Continued from page 8)
FOX F. P., hardware
GAGE George A. & C., groceries
GIFFORD & GAGE, lumber
Gifford, J. S., proprietor, Republican City Bank
GILBERT, J. S., barber
GRUWELL, W., physician
GUTHRIE BROS., flour and feed
HUNT, W. W., meatmarket
HUNTER, James, real estate
IRWIN, J. J., station telegraph agent
KELLY, J. F.., postmaster
KIRK, F. A., drugs and jewelry
LEWIS, C. A., drugs
LOGAN, RD, grocery
R. D.. C. A., drugs
LUDI, N. J., manager, Republican City Independent
MC PHERSON, John, general manager, Republican City Independent.
MC PHERSON NORMAL COLLEGE, W. N. Doyle, president
MILLS & MITCHELL, real estate
MITCHELL, J. H., General Manager
MORRIS, L. K., lumber and coal
POOR, C. P., confectionery
POTTORFF, J. W., blacksmith
PRICE, Henry, boots and shoes
REPUBLICAN CITY BANK, J. S. GIFFORD, proprietor
REPUBLICAN CITY INDEPENDENT, N. J. LUDI, manager
RHODEN, R. E., Dr., drugs
ROWLAND, Peter, hardware
SMITH, A. T., agricultural implements
STATE BANK, GEORGE W. BURTON, president. A. E. HARVEY, vice president,
B. D. MILLS, cashier
STODDARD, J. D., justice
STONE, G. W., proprietor of AMERICAN HOUSE
VALLICOT, E. E. & Co, furniture
WILLIAM, D. K., general merchandise
WORTHAM, A. E., Mrs., millinery
ZUMBRO, H. S., physician
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Last Modified: 07/04
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