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....Early Pioneer Sketches....
From Earliest Settlement To The Year 1877.
BY F. F. CREVECOEUR,Historical and BiographicalCOMPILED AND ARRANGED BY F. F. CREVECOEUR.
PIONEER SKETCHES
This electronic edition is transcribed by Frederick Eugene Bonjour (1950- )
Current EMAIL addresses (as of 1996) include:Since there is nosuch thing as forever and email addersses tend to change over the years,
As "Distance lends enchantment to the scene," so Time adds a charm to matters of history that has always appealed to the curiosity and the higher sentiments of mankind. If it were not so, all of the great classics would fail to create emotions that have such a strong hold on the minds of men. If the Bible had not contained a record of the doings of the most enlightened race of man from the day of creation, with their genealogy, vicissitudes, victories, and progresses, until a time when its history was corroborated by what have been called profane writers, we doubt very much that it would have been accepted as the infallible guide which it is called by the nations into whose hands it had the fortune of falling. so, also, the great hold the Vedas has on the minds of the Hindoos, and that of the Zend Avesta on that of the Parsees or Persians, lies in the fact of their age and their dealing with the ancient history of mankind.
Secular history, though not being considered of so much importance as the above, is appreciated to a greater or less extent by all peoples, and in consequence it is not only read, but taught in nearly all schools of the present day.
Though the dissertion (sic) above might seem to imply that written history is not to be depended on as a reliable source of information, the writer wishes to say that he hopes the following account of the early settling of the territory more nearly contiguous to the city of Onaga contains as few errors as it is possible to keep from creeping into a work which deals only with persons and things of more than twenty-five years ago. This article covers all of Vienna, Mill Creek and the western edge of Grant townships, in Pottawatomie county, and Neuchatel township in Nemaha county. The removal of many of the older people to other states or communities, and the passing away of many of the others to that bourne from which no one returns, has prompted the writer to attempt the compiling of the comings, goings, and the principal incidents and events connected therewith, before it will be too late.
We have decided to close this paper with the year 1877, as the time from the earliest settlement in this locality until that year about equals in length the time from that year to the present. That year the railroad was built and Onaga founded, which events were followed by a large influx of people whose histories it would be difficult to trace; and it was quite soon after Onaga was founded when a newspaper (The Onaga Journal) was established, which recorded the principal events occurring in Onaga and vicinity. Therefore, if there are members of some families which are not mentioned in this paper, it will be understood that they either came to this locality or were born later than the above mentioned years. Where the present residence of people mentioned is not given, it will be understood that they are either living in the neighborhood where they settled or their whereabouts is not known. As most of the pioneers mentioned in this paper built log houses for their first home, it will be understood that each one built a house or cabin of that kind if there is no mention made of the style of house that was built.
Like most communities, the country surrounding Onaga was settled by small colonies, either from the older states or from the various countries of Europe, and usually consisted of families or people closely related, or of those speaking the same language as in the case of foreigners. The earliest settlers always chose the streams as their first places of abode, as water and wood for building their log houses and for fuel, were more convenient and game more plentiful. In fact, as Judge Huffman so quaintly says, they had to do so to keep from freezing and starving to death. As a rule, the houses were built on the east or south side of the timber, so the northern wintry blasts would not reach them. The early settlements consisted principally of the following, commencing at the east:
The Vermillion river, settled by residents of the older states in 1856-7.
Coal creek, by Irish, and Mound creek (Rocky Scrabble), mostly by French and Belgians, in the late 60's.
French creek, the lower stretch by Americans in 1856-7, and the upper by French-Swiss in 1857.
Dutch, Hise, and Mill creeks, in their upper courses by Germans, in 1857, and various colonies from the older states further down, near where they join the Vermillion, about the same year.
Fred Bonjour
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