The Falls City tribune., 1909-07-16
SOME OF THE OLD TIMERS.

the three last years of the decade of
1850, were marked by rapid increase
OF the population of Nebraska. The
acute stage of the troubles in Kansas
had been reached and passed before
the end of the Pierce administration,
for the very good reason that emil
grafton from the free states a large
~ in excess of that from the slave
states. From the date of the organi-
cation of the territorial government
till midsummer 1856, Kansas was the
torn center in the Union, and the
breeding ground of those baleful SEN
timents which at a lat date brought
about an internecine war that shook
this nation as no other nation has
eve been shaken and lived.
With comparative quiet restored,
the rush of people to that territory
was, in a great measure, suspended,
and the channel of emigration turn
ed in the direction of Nebraska. The
country was to a large extent a terri
i%ncognito to the people of the east
and being further to the north than
any other organized possession of the
nation, it was thought by the people
south to be wholly unfit as a district
~ NhACA u ~ &Obld Dt diillLtd
with profit, and SO in large measure
was neglected by both sections, and
as a consequence no effort whatever
was made in the way of planting the
institution of slavery in it, and no
excitement obtained on that account,
therefore, emigration was slow in
coming in till the period | have men
toned.
In our section, the increase from
the now middle western states in the
Mississippi valley north of the Ohio,
from the spring of 1859 till the com
mencement of the war in 1861, was
rapid and in all respects highly sat
~isfactory. The valley of the Muddy
and its affluents was filled up to the
north county line, and the same al
true of every Water-course in the
country.
A colony of excellent people came
on from northern Illinois, headed by
the elder Freeman A. Tisdel, and
located at Salem. There were sever
al families of them, besides single
young men, and were followed from
time to time, by others from the
same section, among whom | remem-
Der Capt. Arson Risin, long a citizen
of Salem and later a resident of Falls
City, and Lincoln, where he died
only a ear or SO ago at the great
age of nearly ninety.
Our fellow citizen, w. w. Abbey,
was another to follow the Tisdel
emigration a few years later, and
some others whose names | do not
recall at this moment.
The Tisdel family were somewhat
distinctive, all of them natural pol
iticians, and quite successful in OBJ
tanning office.
The younger Freeman A. Tisdel,
was elected a member of the terri
torial legislature the year after he
landed at Salem and his father given
the office of county treasurer the year
following, which he held four years.
Another son, Delos A. Tisdel was af-
forwards elected to the legislature
once or twice-once in '6S, | distinctly
remember, and it is in my mind that
he was elected once before, but of
that | am not certain. Paterfamilias
Tisdel was elected to the legislature
while he was holding the office of
county treasurer, and subsequent de-
Velopment made it plain that his pen
chant for holding office was not a
paying business-that is not very.
He ran for the office of treasurer
again but was defeated by David r.
Holt, and when father Tisdel came to
settle his accounts n turn the office
oyer to his successor he found him
self short on the cash balance, and
had to sell his house in this city
which | think he wanted to do any
how-to fix up the deficit. All this
was done before he turned the office
over. but the old man was always
puzzled to know how his balance
sheet was so far out of plumb. 1t
would have occurred to a careful
business man that it was bad form
to run that kind of office by proxy,
or at least it would appear so to me,
whatever may have been his notion
on the subject. The temptation to be
a legislator was too much for the old
man. and a winter at Omaha in the
honorable office OF lawgiver over
came his sense of business prudence,
though | think he was persuaded or
partially SO, that h missing cash
from the official till had been
spent to defray the expenses of his
several campaigns for the two offices
he held at the time. Anyhow 1T was
the last of his official life. Sometime
afterwards Ills VILE ultu. dliu HOC-N Ill
standing his advanced age, he married
his hired girl and then ensued a fam
lily disturbance that lasted the balance
of his life. Some of the family lin
gered about Salem for a few years
afterwards, but gradually one by one
have left, or died, and at this time
none are left in this country to my
knowledge. In the course of my life
/ have known many families to go to
pieces in much the same way.
Among others to locate on the up
per Muddy was the Van Deventer
family. | have seer this name spell
ed as one word,-Vand eventer, and
| have seer it spelled as | give it
here, but which of the two modes is
the correct one | do not know Prop
er names are arbitrary in all cases.
In the spring of 1859 Morgan H.. Van
Deventer came to Nebraska and sell
VIA hn Dn ~ ~