Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-25

0,bVU TO N,uVO peOpl0 hhO
of smaller towns. in addition to the
great hordes OF individuals who contentedly
cultivate our millions of fertile acres; a
state that will cast 10000 votes in the
great presidential election within the next
fortnight, to assert that there yet lives
anyone who at any time in his history
was acquainted with all the people living
within the borders OF this great common
wealth. Yet, regardless of the great sys-
TENS OF railways, with their spurs and
tributary lines traversing well nigh every
portion of the state: regardless of tho
hundreds Of substantial towns and cities
with their teeming, busting population re-
gardless Of the scores of high schools,
normal schools. business colleges, conser-
v~atories OF music. denominations and
professional colleges and the state uni
versity, with the tens OF thousands OF
students; regardless OF our hundreds OF
banks and thousands of mercantile estab-
lishments, North Platte is proud to num-
Der such an individual among her citizen
shin. In the person of Charles Mcdonald,
the successful ranchman, merchant and
banker, who today celebrates his eighty
second birthday, western Nebraska has a
citizen who was closely identified with all
the leaders during the years of the es-
Enlistment Of the territorial and state
governments and who himself helped to
direct the policies of that period.
Mr.. Mcdonald is a native or Tennessee,
having been born near Ooltewah, Jeffer-
son county, October %, 1926, his father
having emigrated from Virginia, where at
least three generations of his ancestors
had resided. He was the ninth Of eleven
children and owing to the difficulties In
cident to properly providing for so large a
family his educational advantages were
confined to rural subscription schools. But
like that rugged and distinguished fellow
citizen of Tennessee, who worked on the
tailor bench by day and studied by night
under the supervision Of his wife, Presi'
dent Andrew Johnson, whose friendship hi
enjoyed, having been entertained by him
and shared his bed at the executive man.
sion while he was the governor OF thai
state, Mr.. Mcdonald has been a student
especially Of men all his life.
In his early manhood he mad a longing
for the west and on May 10, 1855, having
bsde goodbye to friends and loved ones al
McDonald's Gap, Hamilton county, Tenn.
in company with his cousin Arthur w
Mcdonald. he started for the great r.
Dorado beyond the Missouri to build his
home and carve his fortune. With the
luxurious Overland Limited trains, that triI
Is nothing now. but that was the day
when there was no train west OF the Mis-.
sissippi. The journey was made by boat
from Nashville to Memphis. down the Cum
1 berland and Ohio rivers to Cairo, Ill.
. thence up the Mississippi to ST. Louis and
then up the Missouri past the Kansas City
of today TO Leavenworth, Kan. Here the
; young men arrived the day an election
) was being held for the representatives L
\ the territorial legislature and though tOta
= strangers, were kindly invited to register
5 their choice az the ballot box. From thil
3 village, then numb n W hundred people
they journeyed overland by foot TO Osaw
i kee, Kan. returning TO the same place
. and thence by way OF Platte City and Yves
/, ton to S Joseph, No, a distance Of one hun
dren and thirty miles. At ST, Joseph. a tow
Of 1000 Inhabitants, two mules and saddle
were purchased and the trip made to Ne
!, braska City, where the Sage OF Arbo
J. Lodge" the Hon. J. Sterling Morton, hal
\ recently located, his acquaintanceshi
Z formed and the life Of the plains begun.
h MI. McDonald's diary OF the first feV
I months spent upon Nebraska soil is in
y tensely interesting. The total population
d Of the territory. according TO the eensu