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WILLIAM WALKER, 1833.

THE JOURNALS

OF

WILLIAM WALKER

 

PROVISIONAL GOVERNOR

of

NEBRASKA, TERRITORY

FIRST BOOK

From March 29, 1846, to September 22, 1849

FROM THIS ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN THE COLLECTION OF

WILLIAM E. CONNELLEY

 

(153)

JOURNAL.

FRANCOIS.

"Le plus beau morceau d'eloquence qu'il y sit dans aucune langue."

Bolmar.
 

TRADUCTION.

"The finest piece of eloquence that exists in any language."

 

"time when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary."

 

(155)

THE

JOURNALS OF WILLIAM WALKER,

PROVISIONAL GOVERNOR OF NEBRASKA TERRITORY,

FIRST BOOK.

From March 29, 1845, to September 22, 1849.

1845.

MARCH, 1845.

     Saturday, 29.--Caught Samuel Medary1 and put him up in a coop to fatten (not on Quassi Quires) to be cooked for dinner on Harriet's birthday.
APRIL, 1845.
     Thursday, 10.--Sam was killed and eat up, though sooner than was at first intended. His day of execution was hastened by his repeatedly escaping from his coop, and when out would invariably fall upon Harry in a deadly fight, but was invariably whipped by the latter. It was thought that under these circumstances Sam could not gain much fat or flesh, and therefore the allotted time was shortened.
Alas poor Sam
Let his bones slumber in peace!

     1 This was evidently a rooster which Governor Walker named Samuel Medary for an Ohio politician of his acquaintance. Medary was afterward appointed Territorial Governor of Kansas Territory. The appointment was made November 19, 1858.

(157)

158
THE JOURNALS OF

[May, 1845.
MAY, 1845.

     Friday, 23.--Finished ploughing the field.
     Saturday, 24.--Harrowed. Set out seventy-five cabbage plants.
     Monday, 26.--Planted red potatoes and thirty-one hills watermelons.
     Tuesday, 27.--Set out four dozen beet plants and some sugar beets; fifty cabbage plants.
     Wednesday, 28.--Planted the corn, part yellow, and part large white.
     Thursday, 29.--Sowed the Sandwich Island flower seeds.
     Friday, 30.--Planted muskmelons and the fall potatoes.
     Saturday, 31.--Planted blue corn1 with beans, and five hills of Santa Fe corn.

JUNE, 1845.

     Sunday, I.--Rested. Rainy day. Wrote to G. N. D.
     Monday, 2.--Tried an experiment. Set out fifty radishes in the following manner: Made holes in the ground with a sharp stick and held the radish in the hole, then filled up the interstices with sand.*

     * I will never try this experiment again. Not worth a cent

     Tuesday, 3.--Set out twelve hills sweet potatoes, and [planted] fifteen [hills] Nantucket corn.
     Wednesday, 4.--Planted pumpkins and watermelons and muskmelons.
     Thursday, 5.--Planted some more, ditto. We have enough.
     Saturday, 7.--Dr. Hewitt and family arrive.2

     1 Corn was one of the principal articles of food of the Wyandots, and to this day they raise many varieties of it - a certain kind for each season, some early and some late, one kind for a special variety of hominy, and one kind for another variety of that dish, etc., etc.
     2 Dr. Hewitt was the Indian Agent, His descendants live near Turner Station on the A. T. & S. F. R. R., in Shawnee Township, Wyandotte County, Kansas. They are farmers. One of his sons lives in Los Angeles, Cal.

December, 1845]
GOVERNOR WALKER.

159
     Tuesday, 10.--Enclosed the woods pasture seven rails high
     Tuesday, 17.--Rainy season commenced.
     Wednesday, 18.--Raining-rained all day.
     Thursday, 19.--Rained all day.
     Friday, 20.--Rained all the time furiously.
     Saturday, 21.--Rained all the time furiously.
     Sunday, 22.--Rained all the time furiously.
JULY, 1845.

     Sunday, 13.--Quarterly meeting-hot day, thermometer 98.

OCTOBER, 1845.

     Saturday, 11.--Devoured our last watermelon.

NOVEMBER, 1845.

     Thursday, 27.--Thermometer at zero at sunrise.
     Saturday, 29.--Thermometer 22 degrees below zero.

DECEMBER, 1845.

     Tuesday, 23.--Bought 810 pounds [of] pork at $3.00 per cwt.
     Wednesday, 24.--Cut it up and salted it away.
     Thursday, 25.--A merry Christmas1 to all! I staid at home all day, for the best of all reasons, being lame and unable to go about. Wrote to some friends in Ohio.
     Tuesday, 30.--Held Council here and did some wise things.
     Wednesday, 31.--Wrote a long letter to our delegates at Washington2

     1 Governor Walker almost invariably spelled Christmas "Chrismas." I have taken the liberty to correct the spelling.
     2 The Wyandots kept delegates in Washington most of the time to look after their interests.

160
THE JOURNALS OF

[January, 1846.
1846.

JANUARY, 1846.

     Thursday, 1.--This is the 45th new year that has passed over my head. In looking through the long vista I have passed through, how few of my contemporaries live to see this day! "Mais ainse va le monde."
     Friday, 2.--Done nothing--read some--lounged about the house.
     Attempted to translate a French Song into English, horribly done. The musical Frenchman would never recognize his song in this butchered English dress.1
     Saturday, 3.--Doing nothing--read some--intending to read some more in Byron's "Island." Whew! Let joy burst forth among epicurians (but more like envy) I am, (hear it ye gluttons!) going to dine on pork and parsnips! Delectable dish! Felicitatus!
     Just heard by Mrs Bostwick that Providence was buried on yesterday. Poor fellow! His last days were full of misery, pain and suffering. He truly died in poverty.
     Sunday, 4.--Staid at home and read.
     Monday, 5.--Heard of the death of Margaret Nofat.2 She died yesterday.
     Tuesday, 6.--Council met at George Armstrong's.3 Trans-

     1 Governor Walker spoke French well. Many of the Wyandots spoke French better than they did English. The record in the family Bible of Robert Robitaille is written in French.
     2 There are Wyandots yet living that belong to the family.
     3 The founder of the Armstrong family in the Wyandot Nation was Robert Armstrong. He was captured on the west side of the Alleghany River a few miles above Pittsburgh about the year 1783, by a party of Wyandots and Senecas. He was in company with another white person when captured. The other was a man grown, and was killed. There are two accounts of the capture. See Finley's Life Among the Indiana, page 453, and Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio (Cincinnati, O., 1847), pages 166, 167.
     The boy was retained and adopted by the Wyandots. He grew up and married a Wyandot woman. He separated from her and married Sarah Zane, daughter of Isaac Zane, who had himself been captured and adopted by the Wyandots, had grown up and married a Wyandot woman. By the first wife he had one son, George, born in 1801; died in February, 1853. By the second wife he had four children that I have an account

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