Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

Amanda Tooman sold the house (featured in the January 19 issue) and 80 acres across our Cottonwood Creek from us to W. L. Butler on February 25, 1904. The legal description is Range 2, Twp 16, Section 25, and the West 80 of the SE ¼.

I am still searching for any information on this Butler. So, my next step will be to cover the Alva and Katherine Bixbys that lived on those grounds from January 1914 to 1918.

Alva Bixby was born May 28, 1877 in Galesburg, IL. His parents were David Bixby of Dodge County, WI and Sara Butterfield of Mercer County Il.

When researching the past, I often find when a new person came to Franklin County, they had a connection to someone else living here. This story contains the same age-old tale.

Sara Butterfield first married David Bixby, and, secondly, she married Andrew Johnson, who lived on Range 2, Twp 16, Section 25. The north 80 of the NE ¼ of Franklin County just up the creek from us is what we now know of as the Lyle Johnson Farm. Sara Johnson was Alva's mother. His half sister was Minnie Johnson, who married John Koelmel. They lived between the Alva Bixby Farm and Bloomington. On 2-15 section 30, is the land we know as the Roy Loschen Farm. Alva's stepbrother was Charles Johnson. He married Hanna Olson. Letters were written for sale. Having relatives here made it easier to make the move. Many people with the same background lived on Cottonwood Creek in 1914.

Before I tell you of the experiences that Alva and Katherine Bixby had on our Creek, I would like to cover the first part of Katherine's story of her life—before Franklin County. I think it's so interesting; you would miss some good reading if I were to jump forward to the year 1914.

Katherine (Dickerson) Bixby wrote of her early years in North Bend, NE:

"I remember my old home were I was born and lived until I was 12 years old. There was 80 acres and when Grandma Dickerson died. We got 20 more so then we had 100 acres in the Platte River bottoms 5 miles northwest of North Bend, NE. I was born in 1889. That house was clear to me. I spent lots of time herding cattle along the one-mile road between our house and my Aunt Mary and Uncle Andrew Dickerson's house. There were lots of snakes. The Platte River was a mile or two south of there. Rattlesnakes were quite plentiful. I usually took a stick or lash whip along so I could kill them before they got me.

"My cousin, Clifton Dickerson, built a double corn crib and grainery with a driveway between. We had a plum thicket north of the house and willow trees and a big locust tree in the yard, and a big cottonwood tree north and west. West of the house were box elder trees.

"At night, I could hear the limbs rubbing on the roof as we slept upstairs, my sister, Margaret and me. There was a walnut tree southwest of the house and willows. We used to pick up the walnuts and put them in a place under the trees. We had railroad ties to make a place to keep them in. Then we had to hull them and put them away to crack and eat in the winter.

"South of the house was an orchard. There used to be some rosin weeds that grew in the hay meadow they grew tall and had yellow flowers, like small sunflowers and they put our a gum like substance. We chewed it for gum when we were children. There was a big cotton wood tree at the southeast corner of the place. We called it the corner tree. Uncle Andrew Dickerson's land joined us on the south. A man named Leopold Krause owned the land west of us. He kept a lot of cattle and had a hired hand. They had a girl a little older than I was, and I used to go up there and play. He had other children. One day a steer didn't want to leave the heard, and they chased him around quite awhile. He finally turned on them and gored a horse. Maggie and I were at the pasture pumping water for our cows. One man rode over and told us to watch our, as the steer was ugly. They took the horse over to Uncle Andrew to see if he could do anything for it because he was sort of a hose man. He told them it was too badly torn to do anything for it.

"We had one horse that we called Sam. He would lay back his ears and come at you with a open mouth and try to strike you with his front feet. I ran and crawled under the fence when I saw him coming. Once, I was cultivating corn with him and another horse, he kept walking the row so he could eat the corn. I got after him to keep off the row and he tried to run around and fight me. It was a tongue less cultivator. It's a wonder we didn't get hurt. We had one horse I used to ride when I was little that would lie down and roll when the flies got bad on her. When I felt her knees bending to lie down, I slid off in a hurry. Her name was Topsey. We had one horse named Queen and they taught her to rub one front leg over the other to rub the flies off. One of her colts was named Bob. I was herding cattle with him one day in the stalk field and had to keep the cows out of the corn that hadn't been husked. He was eating stalks when some pigs came up behind him. Bob gave a jump and jumped from under me, and I sat plunk on the ground. We had a black one dad bought at a horse sale at Rogers. She was a cowboy pony. She knew how to drive cattle. She threw me off once. Felt like she broke my shoulder. It was hard to catch her. We drove her to the buggy, too.

"Krause's dad butchered beef and they cut the hind legs off at the backbone and hung them up by the hoof part by the chimney upstairs to dry. Bertie and I used to go up there and she cut pieces off and we ate it. They used to sleep between feather beds when it was cold. My mother used to sometimes help Mrs. Krause with her work.

"Bill Watt and his family lived a quarter of a mile east of us. They had a large family of 15, some died young—two pairs of twins. We used to go there after work was done and play games. They had a big dining room. They burned corncobs a lot in both stoves. They had a large farm. The girls and boys had lots of works to do. Sometimes Bill took us for sleigh rides. It was a wagon box on runners. Sometimes he would turn over the sled and dump us out in the deep snow and then laugh. I never liked that. North of their house was a slough. They called it Raw Hide. They said the Indians scalped someone. We used to go there to skate sometimes.

"Dennis Dorothy had a piece of land that joined ours on the east. Part of it was hay land. Sometimes, our cows would get over there and I had to get them out. One time while walking along driving them, I happened to look down and there was a rattlesnake lying there. I had to step over it as I had my foot up to take another step. I ran away because it scared me. I wondered how I could kill it, I only had lash whip—a stick with a strap on it. I thought since the dog was with me maybe we could kill it. So I hit it with the whip and the dog watched to grab it. It coiled up and would strike at me. Finally when it struck out the dog grabbed it in the middle and shook it good and hard. When he got done I stomped it head and killed it. The dog's name was Dash. Some one threw him out when he was a pup, and my mother said he looked like a good one so we kept him. He played with some little ducks one day and killed three or four. Mother scolded him for it and he never bothered then after that.

"There was a big old creek willow in the northwest corner of the place and the limbs spread out instead of growing up. I used to like to get up in it and lie on the limbs in the summer when it was hot. There used to be a house on the corner dad had, as it was a homestead. It was a small one, they said. I don't remember it. There, they built the one where we lived. It had a living room, kitchen, and bedroom downstairs and two rooms upstairs. I suppose some of the Stubberts built it—Uncle Dave or maybe Uncle Mose. He was a bridge builder. He was my mother's uncle and lived across Maple Creek, north of us. Uncle Marshall lived on the south side of Maple Creek.

"Our mother was gone a lot of the time when someone was sick or had a new baby. She got $10 for two weeks when there was a new baby, or to do a large washing at other times for 50 cents. They didn't pay much in those days.

" The old homestead where we lived at North Bend was near the road that went east and west and seemed to be the main rail for covered wagons. We used to see quite a few. It went west to Schuyler and they could cross the Platte River there. It was a mile wide. We used that way to go to Grandpa Stubbert's home in David City, and my Uncle J. M. Stubbert at Octavia. He used to be postmaster there. That road leads on to Columbus and out west.

"My sister Lillie was quite a bit older than I was. She used to tell that sometimes they would be in the house and it started getting dark looking and there would be a bunch of Indians lookin' in the window. She said they usually wanted something to eat. They didn't steal things, just took them"

These are some of the early stories from a old woman's memory. This lady, named Kate, was to later live across the Cottonwood Creek from us. I wish I could walk across that creek and take her a loaf of bread, and we could talk about these times and we could be friends. I will continue with more memories from her past childhood next week.

"Make then, while yet we may, your God Your friend, Whom Christians worship, yet not comprehend." Mason.

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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