_Asahel Harrington BROWN _
_Isaac Harrington BROWN _|
| |_Isabella STEELE _________
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|--Hugh Clark BROWN
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| _George Jackson FEE ______
|_Sarah Ellen FEE ________|
|_Mary PORTER _____________
Mary Almira Goff, called "Myra", moved with her parents to Fremont Nebraska
in November of 1868. This was exactly the same year that her landlady and
future relative, Joanna Roscoe Martin, came to Nebraska to homestead in Maple
Creek. The following are exerpts from a history written by Joanna Martin
(later Sutton) in March 1909 for her grandchildren. This was given to me by
Robert T. Brown, a descendant who lives in Massachusetts.
"The first incentive that prompted us to come to this (which seemed to us then)
far off wilderness, was on account of my husband's failing health. He had been
an invalid for over three years. He got the impression that a change of
climate would be beneficial to him, but alas, it proved to the contrary.
"Delusions, like dreams, are dispelled when awakened to stern realities." In
less than a year he was called away as on angels wings to his heavenly home."
[Note: Myra's family also came to Nebraska for the same reason. They had all
been sick with typhoid fever and thought a change of climate would be good for
their health.]
"So contrary to the advice of our friends, we made the venture. We had a
chance to trade our little farm in Michigan and took for part pay eighty acres
of land near Maple Creek, Nebraska. Packed up a few of our belongings, such
as thought weould pay to ship, made a short visit at my old home in Ohio,
bade our friends farewell, and then set our faces Westward toward the Great
American Desert, as it was called in geography in my school days. The trip
was uneventful."
"We arrived in Omaha in due time. We crossed the Missouri River on a ferry
and it was all four horses could do to haul us up the bank: mud, water and
filth everywhere. Groups of savage-looking Indians on every corner. (By the
way, they were the first Indians I had ever seen). A feeling of utter
loneliness impressed me, and my courage began to ooze out at my finger-tips
when I realized how far away I was from home, friends, and civilization with
my three children and an invalid husband: but my better reason asseted itself.
I knew it would not be wisdom to yield to discouragement or discontentment,
for discontentment is the want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will and
I knew enough to know that I would need self-reliance and will power."
"At that time, Omaha was a small dirty town: the Union Pacific R.R. being
the principal enterprise. We took the train at 5:30 PM for Fremont, (car
fare was ten cents per mile) arriving at 7:30 PM. We went ot the Fremont
House where they gave us one straw tick for five of us. We had a light
breakfast-- bill $4.50. There weren't enough buildings in Fremont to be
called a town. Muddy streets and straggling Indians were the chief attraction.
This was March 28, 1868. We bought a small stove at $40.00, a sack of flour
$6.00, one bushel of potatoes, $2.00. We hired a man with a team to take us
out to Maple Creek."
"Then, I had my first experience of what a prairie looked like. After we
left Fremont, not a house or tree could be seen until we reached Maple Creek,
a distance of ten miles. What surprised me was that if that land was fertile
and raised good crops, why it wasn't settled up long before, when all you had
to do was to plow the land and sow the seed: while in the East in the timber
country it took almost half a generation to clear up a farm. But that
problem has been settled."
"Mr. Wulson let us go into a little lean-to, a part of his house, put up our
stove and cooked our first meal in Nebraska. We improvised a sort of bed to
sleep on as our goods had not come yet. The outlook was not very flattering.
There was a good deal of vacant land here then."
"Hugh, my husband... decided to file on a homestead. There was a vacant
eighty adjoining the eighty we had bought. Made a little improvement, dug a
cellar, set out a few trees and expected to file on it when the Land Office
opened. Usually the Land Office opened at Omaha three days before it did
in Fremont. Now was when craftiness played a conspicuous part. The day the
Land Office opened at Omaha, a man took his team, plowed a few furrows on the
west end of this eighty we expected to file on, drove to Omaha and made his
filings the same day (craft!). We learned about noon that the Land Office at
Fremont had also opened. Hugh went in that afternoon, but the office was
closed for theday and he couldn't make his filings until morning and by that
time is was too late. Of course, we felt very much disappointed for the land
was all taken up that was near us. But often disappointments are better than
success. A young man had filed on this eighty that our buildings were on.
We bought his right and gave him $50.00. It was much more desirable for
building on than the other would have been."
"It was a busy time for me after I came to Nebraska. They had built a neat
little schoolhouse and engaged me to teach the school about a dozen scholars.
Then we decided to build a house on our homestead. A well had to be dug, so
we had to board some workmen. With my work and teaching it kept me pretty
busy. I hadn't time to get the blues, even if I had wanted to."
"I will give the cost of a few things to show how poor people's money went
in those days. Our house 16 x 22 cost over $700.00. Well, curbed with
boards, cost $125.00 and everything in proportion we had to buy. We moved
into our house August 28, and I presume we were as happy as any king in his
palace. It wasn't finished yet as it had to be ceiled on the inside instead
of plastering."
"The first spring that we were here, bands of Omaha Indians passed by our
door on their return from their hunt and camped down on Maple Creek. They
made no depredations nor caused any trouble. One day when I was in my
school room, I heard a noise at the door. Turning, I saw a huge Indian
standing there. My first thought was I mustn't be frightened. I went to
the door and there were about a dozen Indians on their ponies. One handed
me a paper with writing on it. All I could make out was "wanted melons."
I shook my head that I did not understand and they rode away. After we
moved on our homestead off the main road, we were seldom annoyed by them."
[Here Joanna included day-to-day details taken from her husband's diary. He
was sick and finally died that year. Rather than give up and go back to her
parents, she decided to continue the farm and raise her children on her own.]
"Several years I taught school, and at the same time had some boarders.
Had many applications for boarding and among them were the Brown boys as they
were called then. There were three of them. They were here off and on for
three or four years. Boarded Mr. Keen and his hired hand one season. Miss
Myra Goff, teacher, boarded with me two school years, etc."
"I sometimes wonder how I got through it all for I was not a strong woman;
a mile was the farthest I could walk in my best days. But the old adage,
"where there is a will there is a way" prevailed.
"There were many and varied drawbacks the first settlers had to overcome as
in all new countries..."
"What with excessive rains, droughts, grass-hoppers, and exorbitant prices
you had to pay for everything you had to buy and the low price for everything
you had to sell; it was a struggle for a poor man to get a start, and not the
least of the drawbacks were the sharkers. With as little money that always
goes ahead of new settlements, ready to pounce down upon their victims, take
advantage of their necessities like vultures on a dead carcass. I mean the
extortionate interest on money loaned."
"Then the terrible winds. Unless one has the experience, they have but very
little idea what those wild west winds on the prairie mean, where there is
nothing to break the winds. One of our neighbors had sown his wheat in the
Spring and in places the wind had blown it out of the ground. He declared it
was not a fit place for a White man to live, and it never was intended for a
White Man's country. He didn't stay long; one of the weaker ones."
"When the men come in from the fields, their faces would be as black with
dust as the ground on which they cultivated. It was dreadful."
"... It was a hard matter to get clothes dry."
"I went out and milked our cow one morning, and when I was coming in, the
wind swept around the corner of the house, took the pail of milk and all
out of my hands and I had to crawl in into the house on my hands and knees.
The pail was found a fourth of a mile away in a slough. These are just
samples of the "Gentle Western Winds."
"Then the grasshoppers-- for days we could see them flying over; they looked
like snowflakes in the air. Finally they dropped down upon us which sounded
like heavy hale against the house. They seemed to gather in piles on the
ground and on the trees, sometimes breaking small trees and limbs. It was
late in August, so they didn't do much damage. They destroyed what garden
we had and some late corn. The ground was like a honeycomb where they had
deposited their eggs, but it was a cold wet Spring that followed, so was
not favorable for their hatching out. The third day the arose and flew away.
They looked like bees swarming, at the distance like cloud of smoke."
"That was the last, I think, of the grass-hoppers to any great extent. Then
the mosquitoes--"
"For several seasons, especially the wet ones, they were almost unendurable.
We had to make smudges of smoke and the poor dumb brutes could hard keep then
on their lariat. We lived those pestilential days as seeing the invisible
realities."
"...In my five years of widowhood, I was in a measure successful in my
financial undertakings. Aside from my family expenses, I got under cultivation
eighty acres of land, built a small barn, set out some fruit trees, a maple
grove and some cottonwoods, etc. Bought 120 acres of land, which makes me
280 acres in a body, and had the means to pay for it all."
The following is a newspaper article entitled "Blazing The Trail For The Iron
Horse" written for the Nebraska Farmer by Hugh Clark Brown about his
experiences as a bridge builder for the railroad. The article came out
Saturday, February 27, 1926.
"My two brothers next older than I started for Nebraska in March, 1868. On
my eighteenth birthday, in September, 1868, my parents who were living in
Brighton, Iowa, decided that I would do better to join my brothers. They had
found a place where I could get work as a carpenter on the U. P. Railroad, and
I started out from Brighton by stage for Washington, Iowa. I took the railroad
to Maringo where I changed to a stage to Blairstown on the C. & N. W. R. R.
where I again took the train for Council Bluffs. There was only one railroad
running to Omaha at that time."
"I reached Omaha early in the morning and the outlook there surely surprised
me. It was quite cool and the sun was shining bright and it seemed to me that
every glass in Omaha was a bright fire. The steamboats on the river were also
new to me."
"At Omaha, I paid $3.50 for a ticket to Fremont. When I arrived at my new
home, I found my brothers batching in a shanty about 16 X 16 feet square,
located on the northwest corner of the block that is now occupied by the water
plant. The next day we drove out to Maple Creek in a lumber wagon. It seemed
to me that we waded through water for two miles or more. Maple Creek Valley
and the surrounding country looked much better to me than the Platte Valley.
In a few days I made arrangements to get some tools and I went down to the
Elkhorn River where I started to work."
"This was my first experience locating a cofferdam which had to be set about
four feet below the bed of the river. It was surely some work to shut the
water and quicksand out to give us a chance to drive oak piles. On the top of
the oak piles, we placed three layers of timbers, and then stone on top of
that. At that time, we did not use cement in any way."
"After a few days getting ready, we moved the bridge eighteen feet and never
stopped a train. Shortly after that, we moved to North Platte where we went
to work on the North Platte bridge, replacing the cottonwood material that
had been used when the railroad was built. I might say that at that time we
were using the same plan for piling timbers that was used at first, which
consisted of five piles for each bent and top of same was 12 x 12 feet and on
top of that, then under each side were the cords which were made of three
timbers on each side, 6X12 inches. You will see by this that the strength
that is now used would be about twice as much or more."
"When we were located at North Platte, we were called out one night to go up
the railroad to replace a bridge a few miles west of Julesburg that had been
burned by the Indians. We had with us about fifty men and one company of
soldiers. After getting something to eat, we started to work with a rush that
I will never forget. Late in the afternoon we completed the bridge and the
train was started across."
"On returning to North Platte, we saw a band of about seventy-five antelope.
This was something I had never seen before, and perhaps will never see again.
During the time we were located at North Platte, we had our sleeping car and
tool car and material cars on a side track east of the bridge. The first few
nights we did not get much sleep as the wolves were so numerous that their
howling would last all night."
"In a few weeks the Division Superintendent of Bridges came and wanted two
men to go with him on a hand car to ruin over the railroad all the way to
Omaha, taking count of bridge lumber and inspecting the bridges. We were told
to take our guns with us as the Indians were very bad at that time. We were
running along very well one day near Wood River when Mr. Roll called out on
short notice, "Stop. The Indians are in there. Get your guns in a rush."
We did not even remove the car from the track, and with guns in hand we
dropped to the side of the car and waited for developments. After a short
time the Indians proved to be stumps of trees. You can imagine the different
feeling that came over us. During that same year, a short time later, near
that same spot, two boys and a captain of one of the companies of soldiers
were killed. They were out gathering wood and the three men and two teams
were killed by the Indians."
"Late in the fall, our complete outfit was called to Omaha to help build the
ice bridge on the Missouri River. For some reason we were located in a tent on
the bank of the river. We had only time to get ready before it began freezing
enough to start driving piling, and we had the trains running, but as there
were some warm days and the ice was not strong enough to hold, one night about
one-third of the bridge went out. The next time we built it much stronger. In
some places the water was 22 feet deep, and we had piling 45 feet long to
handle. It was my work to see to locating the barge in the right position.
Once when I was changing the ropes, the Superintendent of Bridges was standing
on the barge with some men, talking. I told him to be careful that such a
rope would come tight in a few minutes. He had forgotten what I had told him,
and it came tight and threw him into the river. The ice was running and the
water there was 20 feet deep. He was fished out and sent where he could be
taken care of and in a short time was back all O. K."
"If you think it did not take some headwork to start a pile 45 feet long in
22 feet of water, you might be surprised as I was when one day we were getting
along in fine shape and the 3,000 lb. hammer with the top of the pile went
clear down to the bottom of the river. The piling was one that had the grain
of wood running around and it broke off. The only thing to do was to get a
new hammer at the foundry. In about an hour we were back at work with the
new driver."
"After getting the bridge complete the second time, it was frozen over in good
shape and seemed to be very firm. It held good for about six weeks. A few
years after this bridge was made an iron bridge was put in. A little latter
a whirl wind came down there one summer day and picked up one span of the
bridge and threw it into the river with nothing more being touched."
"Soon after, I was sent out on the west division to a place called Church Butts
which was near Green River. There I found the foreman to be a friend of mine
that I had worked with in Omaha. After a short time we were moved west to a
place called Piedmont. Here we found a rough element very prominent. One
morning as we were going from our sleeping car to the restaurant where we got
our meals there was an officer with a man by his side that had been arrested.
They were about ten feet in front of us when the man with the officer said he
wanted to go in to wash and started for the door. The officer told him to come
on with him. he did not do so and the officer drew his revolver and shot him
through the breast. The man fell and breathed his last in a few moments. The
officer rushed for the lone engine which stood on the track and started back
east where he came from."
A Narrow Escape
"A short time later we were working at the bridge over the Green River which
was in danger of being taken out by the logs coming down the river. One evening
we were late in starting down to our camp. After reaching the top of the run
we were making, we stopped and took the key out of the gear of our hand car
and as we had a plank on each side of the car we sat down. There were eighteen
of us on the car and we had no room to spare. We had gone through one snow
shed and were coming out of the second one, one end of which was within about
fifty feet of a very high bridge. We had just reached the bridge when we
discovered to our horror an engine coming toward us. The end of the snow shed
which it came out of was perhaps within one hundred feet of the bridge we had
already started to cross. We were coasting down about as fast as they were
coming up. The order came to jump as soon as we could reach the bank. I was
sitting on the outside, and our foreman, Mr. Carpenter, was sitting in front
of me with his feet over the center of the track. When we reached to bank
everybody jumped. In trying to throw his feet over the plank to jump, Mr.
Carpenter fell between the tracks and the engine ran over him."
"When I was able to get back to see what had happened, I saw Mr. Carpenter
within a few feet of where I had landed which was about sixty feet down the
dump. When I reached him, I placed my hand on his chest but did not feel any
sign of life. We found when moving him that nearly every bone in his body was
broken. The hand car was all torn to fragments and our tools and dishes were
scattered in every direction. The engine took us all back to Piedmont."
"At the Green River Bridge there was at the time railroading was first
completed, a small place called "White City." It was built mostly of tents,
and was perhaps the roughest place on the railroad at that time. One night
there was trouble between the business men and the gamblers and the rough
element resulting in about forty being killed or wounded. This was the cause
of a vigilance committee being formed in a short time and the business men
took hold of it with this plan to finish the gamblers."
Driving Out the Gamblers
"The plan was to hang as many as possible. After spotting one or two at each
time and calling them out they would string them up to the first pole they
could reach. We heard of this being done every few days up or down the road
for some time. It was not long until the entire situation was changed along
the road. After going through what we had for the last few months, we began
to feel that life and property were somewhat safe once more."
"In June, 1870, the Wasatch Indians had their annual gathering within a few
miles of our location. One Sunday part of our crew took a walk out to see them.
In some ways it was surprising to see young folks so well dressed and bright
looking and talking our language very well. They were dancing when we were
there and it was hard to tell whether they had music or what you might call it.
If it was music there were a few notes lost somewhere."
"When the golden spike had been driven the changes came fast. Perhaps the most
important is the change in the bridge building necessary because of the
increase in weight. Nearly all wood is now being replaced with cement and
steel."
"At the entrance to Echo Canyon the switching on the zig-zag plan has been
changed so that trains now run direct. Everywhere possible, the road has been
straightened and the tracks are now being replaced with the heavy steel rails.
The engines are stronger and nearly twice the weight, the old style of brakes
on the freight cars have given way to the steel frame freight cars and many
larger cars of every kind. Air brakes are now being placed on all kind of cars
and the Pullman cars are improving in every way."
"As yet I have not said anything about the change of climate or the
improvement of land along the railroad. I think it may be interesting to
notice some of the changes I have seen. The first year I was on the road, I
did not see any signs of gardens or cultivation after we left Grand Island.
In the month of August that year we could start a fire in the grass almost
any place after we left Grand Island. At that time homesteads were being
taken all along the road and the rain seemed to increase. In the Wood River
Valley we could see many farms that had been broken up and some very good
buildings had been erected and all vacated the first few years for the
Indians were so troublesome that no one was safe that far west.
When I was ready to leave the railroad, I concluded it would be best to go
down to Salt Lake City for a few days. My Assistant Superintendent told me
he would give me a pass to go down and see the city. It was a surprise to me
to see what a city it had become. The pipe organ had been installed, and the
Temple was fairly started, the foundation was completed and the walls were up
as far as the sills of the windows. In the main part of the city a theater
had been started. One evening when it was full, Brigham Young stopped the
performance and ordered twelve of his daughters home because they had low
neck dresses on. If it were possible I wonder what he might do in such a
case at the present time."
"On my return down the railroad, I saw many things I have never seen since:
A large flock of a hundred or more prairie chickens, a drove of 75 antelopes,
and some deer, and one brown bear a short distance west of Cheyenne. As my
work did not give me any chance to know about the financial trouble the
railroad had at that time, I kept in touch with it as best as I could by
the reports given out by the newspapers, and I think it came out in a
well-planned manner, and that the public in general does not realize the
true condition of the railroad at the present time. I have known of every
move that had been made for the last half century, and I predict for the
next half century that this railroad will have the most profitable outcome
of any in the United States."
After their marriage Hugh and Myra lived in Fremont, Nebraska on 8th Street.
Hugh built a nice house (which we have pictures of) using money he had saved
from working on the railroad. At Fremont he designed, built and sold farming
equipment. He held patents on some of the items he made. His business ended
in a bankruptcy during a severe economic downturn in the 1890s.
In the 1880 census in Fremont, Dodge Co., Nebraska, he is shown living on
8th street:
Clark Brown, Male, 29, Occupation: Farm Implements. Born Iowa. Both parents
born in Pennsylvania.
Myra Brown, Female, 30, Occupation: Keeping house. Born New York. Both
parents born in New York.
Mary Brown, Female, daughter, 4.
Grace Brown, Female, daughter, 1.
In the 1880 census in Fremont, Dodge Co., Nebraska, his brother, William
Steele Brown lived on 5th street:
William S. Brown, Male, 33, Occupation: Horse dealer. Born Iowa. Both
parents born in Pennsylvania.
Ida Brown, Female, 23,
In 1910 the census showed H.C. Brown was a machinist in the farm implements
industry. He was self-employed and owned his own house. H.C. Brown and his
wife Almira had eight children of whom six were living in 1910. Five of the
children lived in the household and one, Grace, was living with her husband,
Robert E. Noyes, a college professor in Brooklyn, New York.
Census 1910, Platte Twp, Dodge Co., NE, p. 197
Brown, H.C., Head, age 59, Married 35 yrs, b. Iowa, Fa b. PA, Mo b. PA.
, Almira, , age 60, Married 35 yrs, b. NY, Fa b. NY, Mo b. NY.
, Mam mie [Mary Ellen], age 34, Single, B. Neb, Fa b. IA, Mo b. NY.
Her profession was a City school teacher, she was unemployed 12 wks.
, Harry , age 27, Single, b. NE, Fa b. IA, Mo b. NY.
His profession was a Hydraulic Well Digger
, Alice , age 25, Single, b. NE, Fa b IA, Mo b. NY.
Her profession was a City school teacher, she was unemployed 12 wks.
, Edith , age 22, Single, b. NE, Fa b IA, Mo b. NY.
Her profession was a Stenographer.
, Lewis , age 17, Single, b. NE, Fa b IA, Mo b. NY.
His profession was a Farmer.
After his retirement they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. Hugh and Myra were
staunch supporters of the Vine Congregational church in Lincoln.
Both are buried in the Ridge cemetery at Fremont, Nebraska, in the Goff block.
For their entire lives they lived with their two daughters Mary Ellen and
Alice Brown.
Census 1920, District 85, Lancaster Co., NE.
Brown, Hugh C. Head, age 69, B. Iowa, both parents b. PA.
, Elmira age 70, b. NY, both parents b. NY.
, Mary E. age 44, b. NE, Fa b. IA, Mo b. NY.
, Alice M. age 35, b. NE, Fa b. IA, Mo b. NY.
Census 1930, District 42, Lincoln, Lancaster Co., NE.
Brown, Hugh C. Head, age 79, B. Iowa, both parents b. PA, retired.
, Mary E. age 54, b. NE, Fa b. IA, Mo b. NY, professor, extension svcs.
, Alice M. age 45, b. NE, Fa b. IA, Mo b. NY, school teacher.
In the 1930 census Irena (Harlan) Tully and Cecil Tully appear a few lines above
Hugh Clark Brown so they appear to have lived very close by.
Tully, Irena Head, age 74, b. Illinois, both parents born in Indiana.
Cecil Daughter, age 52, b. Illinois, Fa b. PA, Mo b. IL,
a newspaper proofreader.
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_Jonathon DEMING ___|
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|--Elizabeth DEMING
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|_Elizabeth GILBERT _|
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|--Martha DOANE
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_Timothy HALL __
_Bristol HALL _|
| |_Sarah BRISTOL _
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|--Timothy HALL
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|_Jane GORDON __|
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|--Samuel HUFFMAN
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|--Effa Amanda MCCOLLOUGH
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_Willis Delos REED __________
_John Delos REED ______|
| |_Betsy HAWKINS ______________
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|--Esther REED
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| _Charles Edward CHAMBERLAIN _
|_Ella Mae CHAMBERLAIN _|
|_Martha Maria BIGGS _________
!SOURCE:
MRS. EDNA LEE TAYLOR
RR 1, BOX 129
WOODSTON, KANSAS 67675
!As if April 1991, Esther is living at
424 N 8th
Stockton, Kansas 67609 Phone 425-6492
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|--Mary WILLIAMS
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