Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-02-13
Autobiography of Bill Nye.

Autobiography Of Bill Nye.
Edgar Wilson Nye was born in
Maine in 1850, August 25, but at TWO
years of age he took his parents by the
hand and telling them that Piseataquis
county was no place for them, he boldly
struck out for st. Croix county, Wis
consin, where the hardy young pioneer
soon made a home for his parents. The
first year he drove the Indians out of
tie st. Croix Valley and suggested to
the Northwestern railroad that it would
be good idea to build to St Paul as
soon as the company could get a grant
which would pay them two OF three
times the cost of construction. The
following year he adopted trousers
and made $175 from the sale of wolfe
scalps. He also cleared q acres of
land, and raised some watermelOns. In
1854 he established and endowed dis
trict school in Pleasant Valley. 1t was
at this time that he begun to turn his
attention to the abolition of slavery in
the South and to write articles for the
press signed Veritas, in which he
advocated the war of 1850, OF as soon
as the government could get around
to it.
In 1866 he graduated from the farm
and begun the study of law. He did
not advance very rapidly in this pro-
fession, failing several times in his
examination and giving bonds for his
appearance at the ueXt term of court.
He Was, however. Il close student of
political economy and studied personal
economy at the same time till he found
that he could live on ten cents Il day
and his relatives easily.
Mr.. Nye now began to look about
him for a new country to build up and
foster. and as Wisconsin had grown to
be so thickly settled in the northwest
ern part of the State, that neighbors
were frequently found as near as five
miles apart, he broke loose from all
restraint and took emigrant rates for
Cheyenne, Wyoming. Here he en-
gagged board at the Inter-ocean Hotel
position in bank. Not succeeding
in this, he tried the law and journalism.
He did not succeed in getting a job for
some time, but finally hired as associate
editor and janitor of the Laramie
Sentinel. The salary was small but his
latitude great, and he was permitted to
write any thing that he thought would
please people, whether it was news
or not.
BY and by he had won every heart by
his gentle, patient poverty and his
delightful parsimOny with regard to
facts. With Il hectic imagination and
an order on restaurant, which adver-
tlsed i'll the paper, he scarcely cared
through the livelong day whether school
kept or not.
Thus he rose to Justice of the Peace
and finally to an income which is re-
ported very large to everybody but the
assessor.
y
beautiful children by his first wife who
is still living. She is Chicago girl,
and loves her husband far more than
he deserves. He is pleasant to the
outside world but perfect brute to his
home. He early learned that in order
to win the love of his wife he should be
erratic and kick the stove over on the
children when he came home. He
therefore asserts himself in this way,
and the family love and respect him,
being awed by his greatness and gentle
barbarism.
He eats plain food with both hands,
conversing all the time pleasantly with
any one who may be visiting at the
house. If his children do not behave,
he kicks them from beneath the table
till they roar with pain, as he chats on
with the guests with bright and over
flowing stream of bon nlOts which please
and delight those who visit him to
that degree that they almost forget that
they have had hardly anything to eat.
In conclusion, Mr.. Nye is in every
respect lovely character. He feared
that injustice might be done him.
however, III this biographical sketch,
and so he has written it himself.
[NOTE-Mr. Nye will positively ap-
pear (no preventing providence) at the
Grand opera house, Great Bend, on the
evening of the oath inst. With due
respect for the taste Of our people he
has shaken his former pardner, Mr..
Riley. tfor alcoholic cansesl and
associated with himself Miss Ollie
Torbett, the renowned yioiinist, and
one of the very hest pianists in the
United States. They win be here on
time.-ED.l