Early pioneers face Pawnee Indians, roaring Republican River

Zolona Chinn, a driving force behind creating the genealogy society, had many items covering the history of Southwest Nebraska in her collection and our little genealogy library was the grateful recipient of many of those books.

One such book was a compilation of the Pioneer Stories printed in the Beaver City Times-Tribune reprinted in book form in 1914. Considering how precious few actual newspapers survived from the early years, this book is even more valuable in tracing the settling of Nebraska.

While the book purports to be stories about Furnas County, one such story comes from the memory of L. B. McComb who as a child traveled with his parents to settle what would become the town of Lebanon, Neb. I’m going to just cover parts of his journey but as always, the book is available for research at the SWNGS library in McCook.

McComb’s father had traveled ahead of his family, leaving Green Lake, Wisconsin in the spring of 1872 and landing in Lowell, Kearney County, working as a carpenter. In November 1872, having determined that Nebraska was to be his home, he wrote to his wife to sell everything and start for Lowell immediately. One wonders how someone would want his family to set forth from Wisconsin to Nebraska in the winter. Mother nature being who she is, treated the three wagon, 9-person company, to a snow storm from the first day forth, but they arrived in Lowell intact and spent the balance of the winter there.

In the spring of 1873, they packed their belonginsg and headed to the banks of the Republican River bathed in the rains that spring can bring to the prairie. These were the days before dams stymied the flow of the river and they found the water running hard and touching bank to bank at what is now Arapahoe. Another pioneer, Mr. McGill, who lived near what is now Hendley, came to their rescue with his oxen team which helped transport the travelers over the Republican, a bit wetter, but safe.

They arrived at their homestead, built a tent house, and proceeded in breaking sod so they could plant their first crops. These were not days where a family could sacrifice raising food to build a home. Along with their household goods they had brought three horses, one cow, and a hen and rooster the latter of which produced thirty chicks the first summer.

Here is an excerpt from his musings: “Buffalo and antelope hunting was the favorite pastime for those days, but that soon came to an end, for we were only nicely settled, and the crop well started when we were visited by a Band of Pawnee Indians out for a buffalo hunt. There were three hundred of them and our place was alive with them for three days. Their camp was only half a mile from our house and while there they killed 300 buffalo in one day. They dried and packed the meat ready for use in three days, putting it in bales, as near as I can remember, 2 ½ feet long, 1 ½ feet wide, and perhaps a foot thick. The bales were covered in rawhide.”

Truly I could reprint the whole story, but time and space don’t allow that. Each of the writers contained in this book tell fascinating recounts of how stalwart our predecessors were, giving a glimpse of what resolve to make the best of what we have is embedded in our DNA in Southwest Nebraska.

To research this book, it is available at the SWNGS library, 110 West C, Suite M-3 here in McCook. Library hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-4 PM.