Sunday, April 15, 2007

The terminus of a railroad extension was duly investigated and through the recommendation of Rev. Geo. Bray, a Presbyterian minister, who had been preaching in that field, we visited the new town, Wynot, in northern Cedar County. There seemed to be a good future for the new town. Located near the Missouri river and just a mile west of old St. James, pioneer village of northeast Nebraska, 14 miles northeast of Hartington, the county seat, and plenty of territory south and east, as well as north, there seemed to be sufficient trade territory to support a growing and prosperous community.

The territory was well settled with people of all nationalities, the Germans outnumbering other nationalities in northern Cedar County. Cattle, hogs, corn and other small grains were the prevailing sources of revenue for farmers and they were in a prosperous condition at that time.

The “Omaha” railroad had not yet wholly completed building the new extension from Ponca but service, both passenger and freight, mail and express, was being maintained by a mixed train, twice a day from Sioux City. Upon our arrival in the new town we found the business part in the formative state, but practically all kinds of business had started and even two new banks were occupying temporary quarters, pending the completion of new brick bank buildings. Residences and other buildings were being moved from St. James, and a new hotel near the depot was being completed and offered board and room for visitors and new settlers.

Jones & Emerson were the founders of the new town site of Wynot, and also for the villages of Obert and Maskel east on the line. On our first visit to the new town, we had considerable difficulty in getting any encouragement or information from the officers of the town site company. From other sources we discovered that another hungry newspaper man had been there ahead of me and had arranged to move in a printing outfit and start a newspaper.

We finally discovered where we could locate this man, whose name was Adams, and who already had a paper at Fort Calhoun, near Omaha. Immediately boarding the train, we visited Adams, and it did not take long for this writer to make a deal with Adams. The printing “outfit” which Adams had planned to move to Wynot, had already been loaded in a box car, waiting for orders to ship it to Wynot. In due time the shipping order was issued. This writer then returned to Wynot and arranged for a place suitable for at least temporary quarters.

With everything new, except the buildings that were being brought from the old town of St. James, there was little choice. The best that could be had in the emergency was an old store building that had been used for a granary and storage building This could do in the emergency, so we paid the rent in advance and then returned to our home at South Sioux City, pending the arrival of the printing outfit, that had been shipped from Council Bluffs.

After more than necessary delay, notice came that the outfit had arrived in Wynot, and without delay, the writer journeyed again to the new town, where we proceeded to inspect our printing outfit that had been to us “sight unseen”. It was a heart-breaking sight when we opened that car and beheld the loading job of an amateur who had probably never seen or handled a printing plant. Cases of type of all sizes had been stacked up against the end of the car, with nothing to keep them in place. Probably the first start and stop of the car had upset the cases and the contents were scattered over the floor and eventually much of the type had rattled through a hole in the bottom of the old box car. It was a sight that almost brought tears to the printer, who would have the everlasting job of sorting out the type and returning it to its proper place in the cases.

There was other serious damage as a result of faulty loading. What to do? A down payment had been made on the outfit, but it had been damaged seriously. The railroad agent was told of the condition and instructed to lock the car until we could get in touch with the seller. This we did by phone and telegraph, and finally a compromise was arrived at and a discount agreed to.

The outfit was unloaded and arranged in the building that had been prepared for the birth of Wynot’s first newspaper. It was an exasperating and tedious job to get that outfit in shape to use. In fact, some of the type “fonts” had been partially lost through that hole in the box car. There was little adequate type left, so that it was necessary to buy considerable new type and other equipment, necessitating over a week’s delay in preparing the first issue.

To secure a place of residence was another complex proposition. Of course, there were no houses available in the new town. The townsite company was not as efficient as they are of the present day, when a flock of new cottages is generally offered as an inducement in the new towns. Our only resource was to secure some kind of a place in the old town of St. James.

We finally rented the only available place, an old frame house, belonging to a widower and his flock of boys. The old man was about “half baked” and his sons more or less better. They lived in a house across the street. One of the boys, almost a complete idiot, would get out in the yard late each evening and indulge in unearthly yells and hideous screams - apparently just to amuse himself, but not so amusing to children and women, who had not been used to such “antics.” In fact, my family refused to stay there in the evening unless I was there with them. Of course, we soon learned that there was nothing dangerous about this “half animal and half human” and we finally got used to it.

After a big job of attempting to clean up the filthy place - excepting the bed bugs that seemed to be hiding in all the cracks and crevices, (even scalding hot water had only slight effect in ridding the place of these nasty pests) we moved our household goods in and took possession. In the preceding years nine children had been born to the editor and his good wife. Two beautiful daughters and a son had died in infancy. The remaining children - three sons and three daughters - all came to Wynot with their parents, except the oldest son, Ralph, who, after completing a business education in Sioux City, began railroading, and was at that date agent for the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific. The other children - Ruth, Helen and Irene, and Harry and LeRoy - were all still in their teens or younger.

Eventually, with the help of the editors’ daughters and sons, the printing plant was made ready, and the first issue made its appearance. During their grade and high school days, the children helped materially, both in the home work and activities, and in assisting with work at the printing office. Ruth was the special stand-by for Mother for a number of her school years; Helen and Irene learned to set type and do various kinds of other work necessary in getting out a weekly newspaper, as well as assisting Mother as opportunity occurred. Harry and LeRoy also helped materially in the newspaper work from the time they were able to handle a “stick” of type and feed and operate the presses and other machinery.

No comments: