Collection of Nebraska Pioneer ReminiscencesDaughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
History
Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences
Daughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
Frontier and pioneer life -- Nebraska; Nebraska -- History
The only time an Indian ever frightened me was in the fall of 1875. I
was used to having the Otoe Indians come to our house. Mother was not
afraid of them so of course I was not. Among them was a big fellow
called John Little Pipe. The door in the hall of our house had glass in
the upper half. One afternoon mother being nearly sick was lying down on
the couch and I took my doll trying to keep quiet playing in the hall.
Looking up suddenly I saw John stooping and looking in through the glass
in the door. I screamed and ran to mother. He didn't like my screaming
but followed me into the sitting room and upon seeing mother lying down
said, "White lady sick?" Mother was on her feet in a moment. He sat down
and after grumbling a while about my screaming he began to beg for a
suit of clothes. Mother said, "John, you know well enough you are too
large to wear my husband's clothes." Then he wanted something for his
squaw and children. Finally mother gave him an old dress of hers. He
looked it over critically and asked for goods to patch it where it was
worn thin. Grabbing his blanket where it lay across his knees he shook
it saying, "Wind, whew, whew." After receiving the patches, he wanted
food but mother told him he could not have a thing more and for him to
go. He started, but toward the closet he had seen her take the dress
from. She said, "You know better than to go to that door. You go out the
way you came in." He meekly obeyed. I had seen him many times before and
saw him several times afterward but that was the only time I was
frightened.
EARLY DAYS IN PAWNEE COUNTY
BY DANIEL B. CROPSEY
In March, 1868, I left Fairbury, Illinois, with my two brothers and a
boy friend in a covered wagon drawn by two mules. We landed at Nebraska
City after swimming the mules to get to the ferry on which we crossed
the Big Muddy. We then drove to Lincoln the first week in April. My
father had purchased a home there on the site where the Capital hotel
now stands. Lincoln then was but a hamlet of a few hundred people. There
were no shade trees nor sidewalks and no railroad. Later father built a
larger house, out a considerable distance in those days, but today it
faces the capitol building. The house is a brick structure, and all the
bricks were hauled from Nebraska City. Afterwards father sold the home
to Chancellor Fairfield of the State University.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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