Nebraska Territorial Pioneers' Association

REMINISCENCES OF EARLY NEBRASKA

By J. W. Thompson,
751 Seventh Avenue, San Francisco, Calif.

   My father, William Manning Thompson, was editor and publisher of The Pontiac Gazette, Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan, which he started during the Campaign of William H. Harrison, for President, in 1840, and continued publishing until 1853. He was very active in the Campaign of 1852. The Gazette was a Whig newspaper, but after defeat of General Scott that year, he determined to go west.
   In 1854, we journeyed to Council Bluffs in our own conveyance and my father arranged to start a newspaper there. Shortly after our arrival, he was stricken with typhoid fever and died. The Fourth of July of that year was the date fixed for the opening of the Territory of Nebraska for settlement. There was a large emigration of those who wanted to settle in Nebraska. Among those, that I remember, from Michigan were Hon. O. D. Richardson, a former Governor of Michigan, J. Sterling Morton, A. J. Poppleton, Jonas Seeley, A. J. Hanscom, William Gilmour, Almerion Lockwood, Jonathan A. Thompson, James Gow and many others. The four latter settled at Bellevue and took up claims immediately after the opening of the Territory. Governor Richardson, A. J. Poppleton, Jonas Seeley, and A. J. Hanscom settled in Omaha and J. Sterling Morton went to Nebraska City.
   There was quite a romance connected with Morton's arrival in the west. Morton was a young man then, just passed his majority and had been a newspaper reporter on the Detroit Free Press. When a boy of twelve years, one day I was playing in the street in Council Bluffs, and as the stage came in from Iowa City, I noticed a young woman whom I had known very well in Michigan, Miss Carrie French, leave the stage. She was the daughter of Captain F. Jov of Detroit and the adopted daughter of Deacon French, also of Detroit.
   I went home immediately and told my mother that Carrie French was at the Pacific House, that I had seen her get off the stage. My mother thought I must be mistaken but she went

over to the hotel and found that I was correct. The meeting between mother and Carrie was very pathetic; it transpired that the young people wanted to be married but on account of their youth and financial condition, the various relatives objected, so they had taken matters into theid (sic) own hands, eloped, were married, and came immediately to Council Bluffs.
   Mr. Morton immediately went across the river into Nebraska to find a location, while Mrs. Morton remained with my mother until he was located. Shortly afterward, they went to Nebraska City, where Mr. Morton had concluded to locate.
   Ex-Governor Richardson, A. J. Poppleton, Jonas Seeley, and A. J. Hanscom were members of the first legislature. Mr. Richardson was probably the leading member of the council. J. L. Sharp of Glenwood, Iowa, from Cass County, was president of the council, and Poppleton, Hanscom and Seeley were active members of the lower house. Although but twelve years of age, I was appointed page of the Council. I lived in Council Bluffs, as many members did.
   The building in which the legislature met was built with brick which were hauled from Council Bluffs, the plaster on the walls was hardly dry when it was first occupied.
   The first legislature was an active one, everything pertaining to the organization of the Territory had to be done. It was a notorious fact that Ferry Franchises were granted to various individuals, covering the entire river within the boundaries of Nebraska and all by separate enactments. Every franchise had a clause, "That nothing in the act may be construed to authorize the privilege of banking."
   The location of the capitol and the naming of the various counties were live issues and created much discussion. Generally speaking, the first legislature was very conservative. Lafayette Nuckolls was a member of the numerous Nuckolls family, whose name was almost a household word up and down the Missouri river. It was said he was elected before he was twenty-one, but became of age before the legislature convened.
   There was one member, whose name I do not remember, from Richardson County, who took leave of absence before the legislature adjourned, went to Kansas and was elected to the first Kansas legislature.
   The second legislature contained many of those who were 7

members of the first. I was elected page in the House of Representatives, this time, but not without a contest. There were several candidates and it looked as though I would not be elected. just before the vote was taken, a friend of mine in the lobby, sent a note to a prominent member, which read, "Don't forget that Master Thompson is the Orphan Boy of a Master Mason." The member acknowledged the note, immediately went to several members and I was elected. It was the only, contest in the organization of the House.
   During this session, the incorporation of numerous prospective cities were passed with provision for cities of great population. Bank charters were granted to individuals in almost every town in the territory. The country was flooded with paper money, which was almost worthless outside of Nebraska.
   One incident of the legislature was a woman's suffrage lecture by Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, (the originator of the Bloomer costume). She was championed by General Larimer, a member from Douglas County. The next morning, a committee composed of Morton, Poppleton and Seeley placed a package on the General's desk containing a petticoat; the General did not open the package, but afterwards others did and much merriment ensued.
   The first legislature had not provided for the payment of unauthorized expenses of that session by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which did not include pay to pages. The second legislature authorized the issuance of bonds for money to pay those outstanding expenses, so warrant No. 1 of the Territory of Nebraska was issued to me for $180.00, which was the same pay as members received.
   During the winter, an epidemic of "the itch" prevailed and nearly every member of the legislature was afflicted.
   An interesting incident occurred this same season. Commodore Stephen Decatur who was connected with Colonel Peter A. Sarpy in the Indian trade was at the Omaha Indian Village at Black Bird Hills. A young Indian by the name of White Feather had run a burnt stub of a sunflower root through his foot and broken it off in the foot. Every means obtainable there, failed to relieve him, and Decatur told the Indian Agent it was too bad for anyone to suffer that way. The agent said he had no authority to create an expense for relief so Decatur put the 8

young Indian in his sleigh and brought him to Omaha. The physician administered chloroform and the stub was successfully removed without the Indian having felt the operation.
   There was present an old Omaha Chief, "White Cow," who manifested great interest that a man could be dead and come to life again. A little later, he called Decatur to one side, and said, "My friend, if you could get me some of that medicine, you would do me the greatest favor in the world." When asked what he wanted it for, he replied, "You see I am an old man. the young men think I don't amount to much, if I could get some of that medicine I could go into the enemies village when they were asleep, and with a rag saturated with that medicine, on a long pole, put it to their noses and kill them all, get plenty of scalps, come home and be a great man."
   White Cow must have been eighty years old. He went to Washington once and President Jackson gave him a large silver medal, which never left his body. His only vocabulary in English, which he used on every occasion was "Big Man Me, White Cow Chief, way come here Washington," after that, he expected some tobacco or food.
   An incident occurred at Decatur, Burt County, which I enjoyed greatly. The occasion was a political meeting addressed by Hon. A. J. Poppleton of Omaha. It was a small audience gathered in the dining room of the Decatur Hotel, and included Clement Lambert, a Creole Frenchman who had been a member of Fremont's Expedition that discovered Fremont's Peak in 1841, and who rather prided himself on his acuteness. Poppleton commenced by saying, "Fellow Democrats." but was interrupted by Lambert (who had always been a Democrat but recently became a Republican), who added, "And Republicans too, for I am a Republican."
   Quick as a flash, Poppleton interposed, "Yes, and Republicans too, for I come not only to preach truth to the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance." The effect was magnetic. 9

NEBRASKA

Tune: "There's a Long, Long Trail"
Words by Miss Alice C. Hunter
Sung at Annual Reunion 1921

Prairies wide and brown are spreading
   Burned by many suns;
Little town of Lincoln's lying
    Where old Salt Creek runs.
Back, oh, back, my mem'ry races
    To that little town
Of winding trails and prairie grasses
    With its buildings small and brown.

Chorus

There's a long, long trail a winding
    Thru the prairies and the years,
Where the meadow larks are singing
    To the pioneers;
Brought by many prairie schooners
    Far from eastern friends and home
Then they built their towns and villages
    On Nebraska's fertile loam.

Oh, I hear the larks a calling
    And the Red Man's cry;
While the April rains are falling
    And the white men die.
Tho the years have gone a speeding
    On their weary way,
I forget not the prairies smiling
    And the dawn of coming day.

Chorus

III

Swept by rain and wind together
    Lay our prairie state,
Clothed in turf as sweet as heather
    Tho the spring came late.
Land of buffalo and cattle.
    Dream of hope and gain,
Land of space and radiant sunshine,
    Bursting green with April rain.

Chorus