(125) NOTE -- The incidents related in this chapter are perhaps not very important, but they are interesting and illustrate the olden times perhaps better than can be done in any other way. These few are selected from a large number on file.

     THE following is taken from the West Point "Republican" of June 17, 1873:

     "Thus discourseth the Lincoln 'Journal' upon the accident which let thirty thousand dollars' worth of fish, great and small, into the waters of the winding Elkhorn.

     "A car of little fishes collected in the east at a cost of $30,000 was precipitated into the Elkhorn River by the Sunday accident. The oysters were fished out and roasted by the wrecked passengers. The tautogs will not survive, but there is a large assortment of escaped swimmers that will live and flourish. We suggest to those fish a trip down the Platte and up Salt Creek. We can give them a little brine, and cool shady retreats, and if a few county bonds would be an inducement we'll vote some. We should like to see the mighty shad, and the salty cod, the silver eel, and the Massachusetts cat, sporting in the depths of our tawny river."

     Some time in the early seventies, probably in 1872, the legislature of California made an appropriation to be expended by the state agricultural society to stock the waters of that state with choice varieties of fish of such kinds as were not then found in California. Accordingly, a carload, consisting of three hundred thousand in number, was purchased from Seth Green, the famous fish breeder of New York. These consisted of such varieties as the tautog, the black bass, the striped bass, the perch, the walleyed pike, the silver eel, oysters, lobsters, and trout. The
(126) car was in charge of Livingstone Stone, Assistant United States Fish Commissioner. The bridge over the Elkhorn was weakened from the great flood that followed the April storm of 1873, and when the train drawing this car was crossing the bridge a trestle gave way and the car containing the fish was precipitated into the Elkhorn, breaking the car to pieces and liberating the fish to our advantage and at California's expense.

     The first settlers found the Elkhorn stocked with such varieties of fish as pickerel, catfish, two or three kinds of suckers, buffalo fish, bull-head, sun-fish, and possibly some other varieties. This accident added to the waters of the Elkhorn the black bass, silver eel, perch, and wall-eyed pike, and possibly one or two other kinds. The trout did not survive, and recent efforts to plant trout in the Elkhorn have not been successful.

    In an early day, before the native groves along the Elkhorn and its tributaries had been stripped of their best timbers, a very fine grove of cottonwood saw timber was standing on the south half of section 20, of Neligh township, adjacent to what is now the city of Neligh. This was one of the best groves anywhere along the river. It was on state land, and, as stated in Chapter VI, timber found on state or government land was in those days considered common property. A party of nine men from St. Clair valley and vicinity, consisting of Peter S. Ballatt, Jonas J. Irish, Orson Fields, Orville Fields, W. W. Wilkinson, N. P. Bliss, Sidney Frink, J. H. Eickhoff, and Peter T. Wilkinson, arranged to cut this timber, believing that they could form it into rafts and easily float it down the Elkhorn to Bennett's saw-mill. Mr. Bennett agreed to do the sawing for one half the lumber, and money being a scarce article in those days, it was thought that each one of the party would come into possession of a nice lot of lumber without expending and money. W. W. Wilkinson and N. P. Bliss were to do the team work, and the others were to cut the logs.

     About July 1, 1871, they had the logs all cut and ready (127) to float, but being about out of rations they arranged to go home, attend the fourth of July celebration to be held on section 7, Burnett township, and return with supplies on the 5th. On their return the river had fallen about eighteen inches, and was still going down. Rafting was impossible. They therefore determined to float the logs down singly, using the teams when necessary to roll them off the sand bars. On reaching the mill, which was done after a vast amount of labor, Mr. Bennett declined to saw the logs on account of the great amount of sand lodged in the bark, which he claimed would ruin his saw. Finally, however, it was agreed that the owners should remove the bark from the logs, and for this labor they should be entitled to the slabs. To this all agreed except J. J. Irish, who declared he didn't want any slabs, The others barked the logs, the sawing was done, and each one of the nine men received two wagon loads of good lumber for his share, and eight of the party received each his share of slabs besides.

     The prairie fire of October 15, 1878, was the most destructive fire ever known in the history of the county. The village of Neligh was barely saved from being wiped out, and only by the most strenuous efforts on the part of its citizens. In some neighborhoods nearly every one lost something in the fire, either hay, grain, buildings, or stock. Gildon Donner of Taylor Valley, where the fire was especially destructive, lost his house, bedding, clothing, stable, and grain.

     The "Pen and Plow" of October 19, four days after the fire, had the following: "A Christian has turned up in Antelope County, one of the born again sort, with a halo around his head. His name is Potter, and he sojourns until life's fitful fever is o'er on Antelope Creek. He was offered since the fire eight dollars cash per ton for his hay, but he declined, and let a burnt-out neighbor have it for three dollars per ton. We feel lonesome. Send him up here that we may bless him, may weep over him, and press him to these palpitating bosoms." The old settlers will (128) recognize the foregoing quotations as very characteristic of the editor of the " Pen and Plow."

    Jacob Isele came to Antelope County in 1872 from Fort Dodge, Iowa, by the way of Sioux City, bringing along with him a woman, with whom he was living and whom he intended to marry at Sioux City. However, on arriving at Sioux City the weather was cloudy and thinking that a bad omen, put off the intended marriage. For some unknown reason he also failed to get married on arriving at Dakota City. He brought along with him quite a number of cattle and located in Clearwater township, on a homestead. In the spring of 1873, he lost part of his cattle in the April storm, they all having drifted over to Beaver Creek, and only part of them could be found again. In June, 1874, Isele and his woman came to M. A. DeCamp's house, DeCamp being then a justice of the peace, and asked to be married, but had no money to pay for the ceremony. They were duly united in wedlock, and justice DeCamp received for the job three bushels of millet seed as pay.

    In the early days, probably in 1871, but the date is not certain, four families, consisting of fourteen persons, all lived for a time in a log house, sixteen by twenty-four feet, located on the northwest corner of section 22, Neligh township, and did not quarrel. They were: Emmet B. Gillett, his wife and son Willie; Henry Trowbridge, his wife and children, Albert, Mary, and George; Stephen Hills, his wife and children, George and Retta; John H. Crawford and his wife.

     Marshal Dugar settled on section 14, Neligh township. He used to spend his winters, for a number of years, in burning charcoal. This he sold in part to the blacksmiths and tinners of Antelope County, but hauled the most of it to some market point on the railroad. He burned charcoal for several years on what is now Riverside Park, adjacent to the city of Neligh. 

     (129) In the winter of 1874-75 there was great destitution in some neighborhoods, especially where the country had been settled only a year or so. Willow Creek was settled in the fall of 1872, and of course the settlers in 1873 raised sod crops only. In 1874 the grasshoppers destroyed everything they raised and left the settlers without much to live on. John Hunt was appointed by the board of commissioners to look after the Willow Creek settlement, together with his own neighborhood, which was in somewhat better shape. Mr. Hunt on his first trip to the Willow called at the first house he came to and making known his business, asked if they were in need of any supplies of any kind, saying, "There are provisions and clothing on hand ready for distribution." The lady informed him that " We are not hungry, and when we are we will let you know," and shut the door in his face. However, before spring, she came with her husband and, apologizing for her rudeness, declared she was hungry, and asked for aid.

     In the spring of 1877, while the Ponca Indians were enroute from their old home on Ponca Creek to the Indian Territory, in charge of an agent, they stopped for several days in camp near Neligh on account of rainy weather and the bad state of the roads. While there an Indian child died and was buried in Neligh cemetery. The agent employed Stephen Hills to make a cross of oak lumber to place at the head of the grave. On this cross was placed the following inscription:

     "White Buffalo Girl, died May 2 3, 1877, aged 18 months, daughter of Black Elk and Moon Hawk, of the Ponca Indian Tribe enroute to their new home."

     At the grave the father made the following address, speaking in his own tongue, which was interpreted to the audience: "I want the whites to respect the grave of my child just as they do the graves of their own dead. The Indians do not like to leave the graves of their ancestors, but we had to move and hope it will be for the best. I leave the grave in your care. I may never see it again. Care for it for me." The mother was not present.