NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center
On-Line Library
|
69 |
Indians steal horses.-- Soldiers give chase -- Kate Manning murder. -- Her brother arrested. -- A mob at the jail. -- Soldiers called. -- Brick making. -- First brick buildings. -- The old grave yard. -- Hinman remains. -- The new cemetery. -- Col J. B. Park dies. -- The Episcopal church and history. -- The Unitarian Hall and associations. -- Grasshoppers. -- St. Patrick's church and pastors. --The parsonage burns.
Indians seldom hesitated to appropriate the property of white settlers when the prospect of escaping with the booty was favorable. On a Sunday morning in March, 1871, the late M. C. Keith had thirteen head of horses grazing between the section house and the Cody residence, when, to the surprise of witnesses, eight Indians rod furiously toward the herd, rounded it up, and drove westward at a rapid pace. An alarm was given, and
70 |
|
as soon as Major Brown, who was stationed at the Post with a company of the Fifth Cavalry was informed, he ordered his men out gave and chase; but the Indians, having a good start were seen far ahead, apparently making for a ford of the North river about seven miles from town. When the soldiers reached the ford, the Indians were disappearing in the hills with the stolen horses. Nothing daunted, the pursuers followed until darkness hid the trail. A fall of snow completely covered it by morning, and Major Brown gave up the chase and returned with his men, all hungry and tired.
On the afternoon of the day on which the horses were driven off, three Indians ad squaw came to town from a camp of ninety lodges camped on the Republican near Blackwood Creek, and asked for traders, stating that day had five hundred robes, and that Red Cloud and Spotted Tail and all Indians except the Winnebagos are going down there if they can get permits; and that buffalo blacken the prairie from near North Platte, to Smoky Hill fork. They were asked about the morning raid, and said that three days ago they came upon a camp of eight Winnebagos who had mistreated them the previous win-
|
71 |
ter, and they had no doubt that they were the Indians that ran off the horses. There was every possibility of their story being correct, but the horses were never recovered. In this narrative we have a glimpse of the wilds of Lincoln County during the early seventies and the buffalo that blackened the prairie.
"The guilty fleeth when man pursueth," so many loafers with no visible means of earning a livelihood, impressed by the significance of the lynching got out of town, and people began to go round at all hours without fear of being molested. This tranquility, however, did not last long, for, on the morning of April 9, 1871, a young woman named Kate Manning was found dead on the claim she had been holding down, a little southeast of town. It was evidently a murder, but as Kate was well known and respected, and had no enemies, the question was, who committed the deed? Major William Woodhurst was sheriff at the time and he speedly had the case in hand. To find a clew, the ground about the tent or shanty was examined, and footprints in soft soil evidently made by some one wearing a peculiar shoe were observed. Kate's brother Pete, who kept a sa-
72 |
|
loon on Front Street, had a deformed foot, and he was arrested on suspicion and placed in jail. Being of a happy disposition, and a general favorite, no one believed him capable of committing such a deed; however, he had threatened to "jump" his sister's claim, and this and other circumstances wove a net of cirsubstantial evidence around him. The shoe he wore on his deformed foot was found to fit the impression in the soft soil so neatly that he was accused of the murder. Lynching was openly spoken of, and a mob of some 300 citizens assembled in front of the jail. Leaders of the previous mob were on hand, and one of them -- a then prominent citizen, but now dead-walked up to the door and knocked. Mrs. Woodhurst opened it and asked what was wanted. Being told they wanted admittance to the room in which Pete Manning was confined, she said Mr. Woodhurst was from home, but a well armed deputy was inside prepared to protect the prison, and if any one enters the jail he would do so at his own risk. Mrs. Woodhurst's calm demeanor surprised the crowd and with true American politeness, a deference was shown the feminine defender that would not have been accorded the sheriff or his deputy. At this stage, an-
|
73 |
other leader stepped forward and said: "We do not wish any one hurt, but we are going to get Manning." "If you want Manning," Mrs. Woodhurst replied, "get him in a legal way; but I think you had better go home to your wife, for I know she never would sanction you leading a mob." With this admonition she went inside, closing and bolting the door.
n the meantime Sheriff Woodhurst returned and comprehending the situation, went to the Commander of the Post and asked for a guard to protect the jail. This was granted, and the leaders of the mob changed their tactics and presented a petition asking him to turn Manning over to them, and censuring him for protecting a murderer. His reply to this was, that being sheriff it was his duty to protect the prisoner, and he would do so. Not to be foiled and lest Manning should be spirited away, the citizens put a guard at the jail to prevent him being removed without their knowledge. This state of affairs continued for five days, to the annoyance of Major Brown and the sheriff, but the sheriff was equal to the occasion, and procuring a soldier's uniform caused Manning to put it on in the morning and march to the Post with the guard when it was relieved. The scheme worked, and
74 |
|
in this way he was taken to Fort McPherson guarded soldiers, to be kept until called for.
The Vigilants soon discovered that the prisoner was gone and where he had been taken to , and sent a committee to Fort McPherson to wait on General Embory and demand the surrender of Manning. When the general was informed of their mission, he told them that he would give them ten minutes to get off the reservations, and they did so without demonstrance. When the week had passed, Sheriff Woodhurst went to the fort and brought Manning to North Platte and put him in jail, but there was no further trouble, the excitement having subsided.
Manning had a hearing and stoutly maintained his innocence, declaring that he was in no way connected with the murder of his sister. Circumstantial evidence, was strongly against him and he was granted change of venue to Grand Island. After a trial that lasted several days, he was acquitted and returned to North Platte, financially and physically ruined, and after a seige of ill health, died within three years.
Maning's bar-tender was suspect of being
|
75 |
implicated in the murder, or having a guilty knowledge of it, and although arrested and examined there was no evidence to connect him with the crime, and was turned loose. The citizens, however, were not satisfied, and the Vigilants waylaid him and tried to induce him to make a confession, and to emphasize the request, produced a rope and used him roughly, but to no purpose. Although threatened with death, he denied all knowledge of the crime, and maintained that he knew nothing about the guilt or innocence of "Pete" Manning; where he was, or what he did on the night of the murder. If he knew, he kept his own council, and who murdered Kate Manning remains an unsolved mystery.
The Manning incident past, quietness and order again reigned in the city. Houses were built at intervals, mostly of Railroad men; for to their frugality, the phenomenal growth of North Platte is mainly due.
The cost of building material greatly retarded the erection of homes. The making of brick from clay found in the neighborhood of the city had been thought of and tried, but with no great success; yet, on April 17, 1872, A. M. Oliver, then road supervisor,
76 |
|
appeared before the Commissioners and proposed to burn a kiln of one hundred thousand brick made of clay found near town, and to test its capability, asked them to advance him the sum of two hundred and twenty-five dollars. Said brick, he averred, could be profitably made and delivered for fifteen dollars a thousand. The Commissioners did not comply with the request, but promised to take it into consideration. The result was, they concluded to offer a reward of five hundred dollars for the first five thousand good merchantable brick made of clay found in the vicinity of North Platte. On May 31, 1873, A. H. Gillet appeared before the Commissioners and claimed the reward, To quote from the County Records: "The Commissioners and man citizens having gone and examined the kiln of brick burnt by A. H. Gillet, was fully satisfied that said brick are as good as are made in the State of Nebraska, and the Commissioners order that said A. H. Gillet be paid the $500 reward for making the first 5,000 merchantable brick in the county."
The first brick house in the city was built by A. H. Gillet, and still stands on the corner of East 4th and Pine streets, and after its erection brick began
|
77 |
to be used as building material to a degree that changed the architectural features of the city; all stores, public buildings a few residences being constructed of the material. The Smallwoods, Wilkinsons, and others, tried to make brick making a business, but owing to the cost of fuel and the difficulty to find proper clay it could not be made profitable, and the making of brick is now a vanished local industry.
In the early seventies, dwelling houses were somewhat scattered, but none of them were far from Front Street. The corner of 4th and Locust Streets at that time was on the outskirt of town, and there North Platte's first burying ground was spread out. It extended south into the lot now occupied by the Peniston house and west beyond the old home of Joseph McConnell. There was a number of unmarked graves, but a few were indicated by small memorial stones and boards; and as late as 1881 several remained, but the street grader swept them away, and the traffic on Fourth Street rumbles over the remains of person whose identity is forgotten. In digging a trench for a main pipe in 1887, waterworks workmen unearthed human bones and pieces of cof-
78 |
|
fins, and, it is affirmed, the bodies of two soldiers who probably died at the Post; and in digging a cellar on the McConnell lot, a much decayed coffin containing bones were found, and Fred Marti frequently found remnants of mortality under the soil near his dwelling.
Old residents fail to remember when this burying ground began to be, but undoubtedly, like other frontier towns, some one had to get killed before a graveyard could be started, and this one, according to A. J. Miller, had its beginning in like manner. It seems that early in 1867, a would be bad man got crazy drunk, and flourishing his revolver endeavored to find trouble. Failing, he threw it on the ground which it no sooner hit than it exploded and killed him. That this man was the first buried there, is possibly correct, but at least two "old timers" affirm that there were graves there when he was buried and they were supposed to be of persons murdered by Indians, and travelers who died on the way when going west in search of wealth. Be that as it may, it is said that many men lie there who died with their boots on in days when every man carried a revolver and was not slow to use it when fired by pas-
|
79 |
sion and whisky. That the people of North Platte buried their dead there is well known, and also that a few bodies were moved to the new cemetery when the town began to encroach.
Probably the last person buried in the old bury ing ground was a prominent Free Mason named Richard Ormsby who died at Fort McPherson on the 11th of January, 1870, and was interred the follow-the (sic) day with Masonic Honors.
The funeral was the largest ever seen in North Platte, there being one hundred and twenty-five present. The funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Rees of Fort McPherson, and at their conclusion the Free Masons engaged in their solemn ceremony.
It is stated in the County Records that a deputation waited on the Commissioners and asked them to have the bodies in the old graveyard exhumed and buried elsewhere, but after giving the request due consideration, the concluded they had no juristiction. An increasing population soon made a cemetery beyond the city limits an absolute necessity, and a meeting of citizens was held on December 13, 1872, to talk the matter over. The result was that Jona-
80 |
|
than Rogers was elected temporary chairman; R. C. Daugherty, secretary, and B. I. Hinman, treasurer. Matters being so far arranged, another meeting was held on June 13, 1873, and at it the North Platte Cemetery Association was organized, and an arrangement made that five acres of land be purchased from Franklin Peale at twenty dollars an acre, and that the purchase money draw ten per cent interest until paid. Also, that the price of double lots in the cemetery be twenty dollars, and single ones ten.
John F. Kramph was the first man buried in the new cemetery, and Kate Manning the first woman. Mr. Kramph is remembered as being diligent, and of a genial sympathetic disposition. Kate had many friends, and her tragic and untimely death evoked much sympathy. A marble slab erected to her memory, states that she "died May 9th, 1871, aged 27 years, 10 months and 15 days" Her grave was long attended to and kept neat, but it is now forgotten, covered with rank grass, and the slab lies broken into (sic).
In August, 1884, the Association purchased ten acres of land adjoining the cemetery from Mrs. W. F.
|
81 |
Cody to make a much needed extension, as the repositron of city's dead was slowly but surely becoming inadequate.
At this date, the cemetery presents a somewhat bleak appearance, having been swept by prairie fires on several occasions. There are many tasteful memorial stones and neatly kept graves, but the neglected and forgotten predominate. The cemetery books were long kept without method or order; and on this account, the number of interments is unknown, but since they came into the hands of George French, entries are made in a way that the identity of person buried can be ascertained, and their graves located.
It was on June 27, 1873, that the eyes of Col. Josiah B. Park, a popular pioneer citizen, were closed in everlasting sleep after a somewhat eventful and arduous life. He was born April 1, 1831, and served in the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, and saw much active service during the war of the rebellion, and it is supposed that his death was accelerated by wounds he then received.
He came to Omaha with his family in August, 1866, and soon thereafter procured surveying con-
82 |
|
tracts from the Government. The pursuit of his profession brought him to western Nebraska, and it is said that in his time drove corner stakes for nearly every secion in Lincoln and adjacent counties; and that one day he stepped out on a bluff overlooking "The Points" and unexpectedly beheld the waters of the North and South Platte rivers meet and mingle, and a long stretch of the Platte Valley in all its primitive beauty. He was a lover of Nature, and the scene so impressed him that he longed to locate in it, or in its immediate vicinity, and at once began to seek a location, and this what induced him to homestead land in the immediate vicinity of North Platte as narrated in the second chapter. Like most men, he had hobbies, and his chief one was irrigation. This he put to the best by conveying water by ditch to his claim from the South Platte river, and demonstrated that crops could be successfully grown on the then arid soil of Nebraska by the application of moisture.
He was accomplished in many ways, and had taste for literature as well as for agriculture. He issued the "Lincoln County Advertiser," a successful newspaper that held the field for some time, but
|
83 |
surveying was his forte, and his services were often called for by the Government, the Union Pacific Railway Company and the County.
He left a widow and two children, a boy about thirteen, and a girl about twelve who died. The boy, William Lee Park, went braking out of North Platte at the early age of sixteen. He worked diligently, saving what he could from his earnings until he got sufficient money to enable him to take a course at Baylie's Commercial College at Keokuk, Iowa. At the age of eighteen he was promoted to freight conductor, and at twenty-two was permanently assigned a like position on a passenger train. All along he made railroading a study, and labored assiduously to master its intricacy. At thirty, he was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the Union Pacific Railway at North Platte, and in 1900 was given charge of the Wyoming division, and in February, 1904, was made General Superintendent. At this date, 1910, he is Vice President of the Illinois Central Railway; and such is the remarkable career of a North Platte boy whose only capital was confidence in himself and the diligent discharge of duties assigned him.
The Episcopalians built a small frame church on
84 |
|
West Fourth street in 1873, when the district was sparsely built up. This church was moved in 1892, and replaced by the present building, which is somewhat imposing in appearance. Internally, it is compact and neat, and the stained glass window with which it is adorned, shed a hallowed light. The most conspicuous is one to the memory of Susan C. Keith, a founder of the parish, who died September 23, 1877: and another over the alter, to the memory of John NcNamara, D. D., a former rector, who died, October 24, 1885, aged sixty years.
Dr. McNamara entered upon his duties as pastor of this church September 21, 1884, and ministered until the time of his death. He was highly esteemed, and under his care, the parish prospered. He was born in County Down, Ireland, December 27, 1825. He served during the civil war in the First Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and was afterwards assistant rector, Church of the Holy Communion, New York City, and chaplain of St. Luke's Hospital, New York, 1875, and President of Nebraska College, Nebraska City, 1882, previous to coming to North Platte. This church which bears the name of the Church of Our Saviour, like other churches in the city, had
|
85 |
86 |
|
its beginning in the harmony of beliefs and ideas, which in some way influence people to combine and worship together, as will be seen from the following excerpt from its neatly kept record:
The first services of this church were held by Bishop Clarkson in a room of the Union Pacific Hotel before a missionary was appointed. The dates of these services were about 1869-70.
The Rev. John Lyon, missionary at Grand Island held services during 1870-4, and the families prominently connected with the church, were those of M. C. Keith, Mr. W. J. Patterson, and also Mrs. Mary E. Kramph.
Mr. Patterson and Mr. Richard Rogers were the first wardens, and were appointed, probably in 1872. The Union Pacific Railroad Company gave the half block of ground on which the church is erected, and a prominent citizen gave Bishop Clarkson fifteen hundred dollars privately, towards the cost of erecting a church building. This fact was made known to Mr. William Patterson by the Rev. John Lyon immediately. Mr. Patterson prepared a subscription paper, and in a few hours secured eight hundred dollars. A penciling on the wall of vestry
|
87 |
room read as follows: "This church was consecrated by the Right Reverend Robert H. Clarkson on the festival of the Ascension, 1873." Beach I. Hinman, M. C. Keith and William Patterson were amongst those that gave the most liberally. The ladies of the town led by Mrs. M. C. Keith, were untiring in their labors for the church from the first.
Early in the year 1874, the Rev. Frank E. Bullard deacon, was appointed by Bishop Clarkson to take charge of the perish. This registry of official acts began during the pastorship. The last official acts of Mr. Bullard in the parish were done in July, 1879. During 1880, the Rev. A. J. Graham of Grand Island frequently visited the parish, his visits were highly appreciated. It was during the vacancy of the rectorship, that the ladies led in a movement for a rectory.
Early in the year 1881, the Rev. W. G. Hawkins of central New York was called to the rectorship. The people became very earnest in church work. Mrs Mary Nichols, Miss Mollie Keith and Mr. H. N. Jones are at this time especially noted. The Ladies' Church Guild accomplished much good. The rectory was completed at the cost of about $3,000. The
88 |
|
ladies securing at least $1,000, Mrs. Mary Nichols bestowing much necessary furniture.
The Clarkson school was set on foot -- the building cost $800.
In February, 1882, a great desire was expressed that the Rev. A. J. Graham might be secured to take the rectorship, the Rev. W. G. Hawkins having resigned, but his health would not allow him to accept. The parish remained vacant from February, 1882, until the following October, when the Rev. Alexander Allen of Dorcas, Toronto, Canada, was called. Mr. Allen resigned at Easter, 1883. The parish remained vacant from the latter date, until September, 1884, when John McNamara, D. D. was called. The parish was very prosperous under his care, but on October 24, 1885, he died suddenly from a stroke of paralysis. The Rev. John H. Babcock of Red Oak, Iowa, accepted the call, and entered upon his duties, December 23, 1885, and resigned, May 26, 1886, having been sent by the bishop to take charge of the work at Sidney, Nebraska.
The parish continued without service until November 6, when the Rev. John M. Bates of Topeka, Kansas, at the invitation of Bishop Worthington, as-
|
89 |
sumed charge of the parish, on November 15. He received and accepted a call to take charge of St. Paul's Mission in the city of Omaha. At the bishop's suggestion, and invitation of the vestry, the Rev. George Grimes spent the month of September 1888, in ministering to the parish, and accepted a call to the rectorship at a salary of $1000 per annum, together with the use of the rectory, and entered upon his duties. He found almost sixty communicants. Frequent and long vacancies in the rectorship had left matters in a disorganized state, and the people more or less scattered, but lively interest induced them to draw together. A large guild of ladies was formed, and work began immediately and the rectory was repaired and put in a satisfactory condition for occupancy.
A Sunday school was organized with sixteen pupupils in September, 1888, and by Easter day, 1890, they numbered sixty-five, and the parish was in a united and flourishing condition. Since that time, the Episcopal church has been progressive, and a moral influence in the city. It has had several able and popular rectors who had aided to build up a congregation that includes many prominent families.
90 |
|
Presently, 1910, there are 250 communicants, and 220 scholars attending two Sunday school connected with the church.
The present rector, the Rev. C. F. Chapman, B. A. B. D., was appointed to the charge October 13, 1905. Mr. Chapman was born at Piedmont, West Virginia, on the 17th of April, 1872, where his father, the late Ephraim Chapman, practiced medicin but afterwards removed with his parents to Keyser, W. V., where he spent his boyhood. When ten years old, his father died, and his mother, himself, and three other children were reft of a loving protector. After the bereavement, Mrs. Chapman and children lived with her father, Mr. John Russell of Berlin, Pennsyvania, where Mr. Chapman graduated from the public school and acquired a trade. Being of a studious disposition and cultured mind, he took a preliminary course, and entering college at Dealware, Ohio, graduated in 1895 with the degree of B. A., and after spending three years at Bexley Theological school, was ordained to the deaconate, and in 1899, to the priesthood of the Episcopal church; and shortly thereafter was appointed rector of Emmanual church, Cincinnati, Ohio, and coming to Nebraska,
|
91 |
assumed charge of Christ Church, Central City, May 1 1902, and the same year, married Miss Carry Garlick, of Cincinnati.
The snug parsonage, adjacent to the church, is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Chapman and their three healthful children. Mr. Chapman is justly popular, and esteemed by his congregation and the general public.
It is safe to state that the Rev. George A. Beecher, who was rector of this church for eight years, was the most popular clergyman, in and out of the church the town ever had. He was born at Monmouth, Illinois, in 1868, and came with parents to Kearney, Nebraska, when fourteen years old. He attended the University of Nebraska from 1886 to 1889, and then the Divinity school at Philadelphia, graduating in 1892. He was ordained to the deaconic in 1892, and went to Fort Sidney, where he was stationed until 1895. Being ordained to the priesthod, he was called to the pastorate of the Church of Our Saviour, and from this charge was transferred to St. Luke's church, Kearney, and from thence to Omaha in 1904 as dean of Trinity Cathedral. In that city he distinguished himself as a leading sociologist;
92 |
|
for in every field of charitable work among the poor, and in every endeavor to improve their condition, and rescue children from paths of vice and crime, Dean Beecher was active. In October, 1910, he was appointed bishop of Kearney, an honor, universally conceded, he well merits.
Up to 1873, North Platte had no hall or suitable place in which to hold meetings or entertainments, and the few Unitarians who had gathered round Mrs. E. J. Cogswell, a missionary of the faith, concluded to erect a building that would serve for a public hall and place of worship. This they did at a cost of $3,300, and it became known as the Unitarian hall. It still stands, battered and weatherworn at the corner of West Fourth and Locust streets, and has passed through many vicissitudes. Unitarianism was never popular in North Platte, and the consequence was, that adherents were few, and funds scant. The American Unitarian association gave liberal financial aid, and sent several pastors in an endeavor to establish a church, but limited audiences and an uncertain salary were not encouraging and none of them remained long. This small body of Christians struggled along for years, some times with a pastor
|
93 |
but more often without, until it became almost extinct. Archibald R. Adamson endeavored to rally local Unitarians who had become indifferent, and succeded in keeping a congregation together for a lengthened period, but he was the last to conduct services in the hall under the Unitarian banner, for dissention caused disruption, and in 1902 the property got into the hands of a very few who sold it and appropriated the money. It was by Mrs. Cogswell's unwearied zeal that money was raised to pay for the building, and it is questionable if they who profited by the sale ever contributed a cent. The parties in that deal will doubtless feel small when they meet Mrs. Cogswell "in the sweet by and by," for it was a poor requital for her devotion and labor.
As already stated, Mrs. E. J. Cogswell cameto North Platte in 1868 and organized the first Sunday school. She afterwards engaged in teaching and missionary work, and held religious meetings before there were any resident ministers. She also taught music and singing, and performed funeral services in the absence of a clergyman, and was first and foremost in all enterprises for the improvement of the people. Many friends in the east were inter-
94 |
|
ested in her work, and contributed books for her Sunday school, money for the support of the church, and clothing for destitute families. She was always planning to help the uniortunate and suffering, and ready to render service to others. Owing to failing health, she returned to her early home in Lexington, Massachusetts, and after two years of feebleness, died on the 23rd of July, 1897. Her devotion to the Unitarian faith continued to the last, and it is be regretted that the later days of her life were embittered by the knowledge that her work at North Platte was a failure.
1874 is memorable as the year of the first grasshopper plague in Nebraska. The pest came in clouds and ate up every green thing. The grasshoppers covered the ground to a depth of them two or three inches, and on occasions the Union Pacific railway trains were stopped, the moisture from the crushed bodies of the hoppers on the rails causing wheels to slip. This visitation caused great destitution amongst farmers and homesteaders, and in response to an appeal for aid to the ever generous American people, food and clothing were sent from the east to Nebraska and neighboring states. In 1875 the plague
|
95 |
was not so virulent, but in 1876, grasshoppers clouded the sky and obscured the sun; trees being stripped of leaves the prairie of grass and crops devoured. Again destitution ensued, and again a generous public responded to an appeal for aid.
In the fall of 1875, the Knights of Pythias erected a two-story building for a hall which was much admired at the time, but it has undergone many internal changes, and the Knights are no longer a popular order in North Platte.
No body of Christians are so attached to their church as Catholics, and no clergy so devoted and self-sacrificing as theirs. Early in 1867 when North Platte was remote, and far from civilization, Father Ryan of Columbus came and sought out Catholics and celebrated mass in a sod house west of the depot, and a gentleman who was present states that he believed it to have been the first mass celebrated in the district. Afterwards, he came at intervals and officiated until the appointment of Father Lynch in 1875. Father Lynch was the first resident priest, and it was mainly through his exertion that St. Patrick's church, a neat frame building, was erected. In 1880, he was succeeded by Father Conway, and it was during the
96 |
|
|
97 |
Rev. Conway's incumbency that the frame church was removed and the present brick church and parsonage built at a cost of $10,000. Several clergymen have succeeded the Rev. Conway, notably, Fathers O. Tool, Fitzgerald, McCarthy and Haley. The present incumbent is the Rev. Steven F. Carrol. The old frame church, converted into a school, stands near the new church.
In 1879 the parsonage caught fire and came near being consumed. There was no fire brigade in those days. When a fire occurred the Union Pacific shop whistle blew and everybody grabbed a bucket or other utensil and ran, and in brief space every pump in the neighborhood was brought into requisition. This fire was valiantly fought and extinquished, but not before great damage was done and the building rendered untenantable. The Rev. Burns was officiating at the church at the time, and resided at the home of Mrs. Dwyer on Front street until repairs were made, and received the care and attention the delicate state of his health required.
Next to the Dwyer home was a notorious saloon kept by two burly Irishmen named Brady which was a resort of cowboys and rough element of the
98 |
|
town. The cowboys would often ride up and down in front of the saloon, and by whoops, yells and firing revolvers in the air, render night hideous. People thought little of this, but the Rev. Burns being sick, the kindly heart of Mrs. Dwyer sympathized with him, and fearing the unusual noise of a particular night disturbed her patient, she went into the saloon and asked the Brady's to induce "the boys" to quiet down. They blankly refused. "Have you respect for the clergy?" she asked. "We have, " said they, "but we will not have our business interfered with." Mrs. Dwyer informed the invalid of her interview with the Brady's, and he languidly said, "Never mind Mrs. Dwyer, the green grass will grow on the place where their saloon now stands." And so it came to pass. The Brady's did not live a great while after, and where their saloon stood is now a blue grass lawn.
Mrs. Dwyer was a benevolent, kind-hearted soul, but she now rests in our cemetery with other pioneers.
At that time, the Union Pacific shops being unusually busy, industrious workmen prospered, and the town continued to grow.
|
|
|
|