Remembering early Indianola

I was reading a list of “arrangements” that my dear friend’s grand-daughters had proposed to their parents, five things that they thought should be allowed such as more I-pad time and a later bedtime! It reminded me of the first bargain I struck with my parents, probably the last one too! My mother struggled to turn me into a “lady” and I fought just as hard to stay the tomboy she was strapped with. I hated wearing shoes, even when little, and if instructed to put them on when I went outside, often they ended up in a heap out of eye’s view. I think perhaps that my father wasn’t much of a shoe guy either when he was little, or he was so sick of hearing us argue, he proceeded to strike a deal: If I would wear shoes all the time from November through March, I would be allowed to choose if I wanted to wear them when playing outside during the other months! You’d think that would be an easy choice, but in those days I even liked how the snow felt between my toes but in the end, I agreed, and the bargain was done.

Now that’s not to say my parents were big bargainers. When dad got sick of hearing mom and I go at it while she tried to tame my long hair into ringlets, he just stuck his head inside the bathroom door and declared that my hair would be cut off if the yowling didn’t stop. Mom and I both looked at each other and that was the end of that.

To finish my parts of the Cora Minniear Ruby story, I want to pick up when they return to their home only for this: “In three days the awful prairie fire came down the valley and everybody looked out for himself. We went to the Joe Johnson home, one half mile east, and finally saves ourselves. Cattle, hogs, chickens and property were burned. This happened in October, 1879.” Continuing: “Father moved the Johnsons to Indianola. It was a small town fourteen miles north of Danbury. There were two up and down board buildings at that time. One was a livery stable and on the north side of Main street that leads to McCook, and the other, a store on the southeast corner of Main street, owned and run by George Short. The livery stable was owned by Bill Short, his brother. I have stood on the porch of the Short store and watched the U. S. Mail come into town. I was waiting to see if we got a letter from my Grandmother in Indiana. The mail was carried on a bay pony. The man would ride into the livery stable, set the mail bags in front of him on the ground, with a six shooter in each hand he would wait until a fresh pony would be saddled and brought out to him, then he would go north to the next post office. Indianola had several log cabins. No railroad at that time, most provisions came from Red Cloud by wagon drawn by yokes of oxen, some by horses. We had to ford the Republican river east of the bridge about one half mile to get to Indianola.”

“Everything that would burn was black. The timber sure suffered in the fire. Father put a bed in a roll and strapped it to his back. He started afoot to Grainfield, Kansas, took a stage to Mexico to the mines to work. The first days of the year 1880, he came home. He and Will Stilgebouer laid up a new three room sod house one half mile west of the old sod house we had lived in since we had come to Nebraska. Here we were close to the Stilgebouers and we didn’t feel so much alone when we were alone. Aunt Lizzy was sure a guardian angel to my Mother and me.”

This saga continues to include several other families, Cora’s marriage, the name of school teachers, preachers, etc. Again, as soon as I return it, this paper will be available for research at our SWNGS library, 110 West C Street, Suite M-3. We will have our monthly meeting Saturday, Feb. 3, at 1 p.m.. The public is welcome to attend.