Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-18


THE Memoirs, that Hs and bloom in trees, that ~Aisper Of the loved
and lost in summer Leaves, are as fmpsrisbdbk 10 III: SGsOns OF the gear
immortal as tbs lOUe of mohsr''-J. Sterling Morton.
r SUPPOSE the story of a successful pioneer will always interest
and encourage people. The narrative of a strong, farsighted
man who makes something out of nothing seems to put heart
into the average worker. That is why 1 am telling the story
of how my father, J. Sterling Morton. and his young wife, set
their faces toward the west, one October day in 1854, and built them
a home on the prairies.
Arbor Lodge as it stands today, with its classic porucoes, its gar
dens and its srboretum, the present country home of my brother,
Joy Morton. is not the home that 1 remember as a boy. That was
a much more modest edhce. Yet ever that house was a palace COM
pared with the first one, which was a little log cabin standing on the
lonely prairie, exposed to billiards. and Indians and with scarcely a
tree In sight.
My father was a young newspaper man in Detroit, only recently
out Of college, when he took ht bride, two years his junior, out to
the little-known frontier. Attracted by the information about the
new country brought out by Douglas and others In the Kansas
Nebraska debates in congress. he conceived and acted on the idea
that here were fortunes to be made. Taking such household goods
as they could, they Travelled to the new land making the last stage
up the Missouri river by boat
Nebraska at that time was the Indians own country. There
were not over 1900 white people in the entire state. ALI the coun-
try west of the Missouri was called In the Biographies the Great
American Desert, and it took a good deal of faith to believe that any
thing could be made to grow where annual fires destroyed even the
prairie grass and the fringes Of cottonwoods and scrub oaks along
the rivers. Today this section, with a radius of some 200 miles, in
cludes perhaps the most fertile soil in the world and has become a
center Of industry, agriculture and horticulture for the middle west
There was then no political organization, 40 laws; men went about
fully armed, There were no roads and no bridges to speak OF in the
entire state; 1t was waste land"
This was part of the land of the Louisiana Purchase. and my
father bought a quarter section (l0O acres) from the n pre-
empted it from the government. The price paid was s1.26 an acre
Today the estate comprises about 1000 acres and the land is readily
saleable It a hundred times this price.
On the spot where Arbor Lodge now stands my father built this
first log cabin. This was soon replaced by a modest frame house,
there was not then another frame house between 1t ant ID ROCKY
mountains. 500 miles away. On the same place two succeeding
houses were built by my father, the present. and fifth, Arbor Lodge
having been built by his sons after his death. My father called these
first four houses seed, bud, blossom and fruit"
The first winter was a mild one. fortunately. but there were
plenty of hardships for the young couple. There were no very near
neighbors. the village of Fort Kearny, now Nebraska City, being
then over two miles away. The Indians formed the greatest danger.
1 can remember a day in my boyhood when we had everything packed
up. ready to fee across the Missouri TO Iowa from the murderous
Pawnees and Cheyennes, who. fortunately, did not come that time.
A part of that first winter my father and mother spent in Bellevue.
When spring came they set about building nell nome. Later on
they had young trees sent to them from the east, including some ex-
cenent varieties OF apples. peaches. cherries. pears. etc. Things
grow fast out there; it was only the prairie fires that had kept the
land a desert SO long, and year by year these fires had enriched the
soil.
The farm was located on the old California trail. the favorite
route to Pixies Peak and the Ell Dorado. Many of the Mormon emf
grants crossed the river at that place. / can remember the big
trains of o. and mule teams passing the house.
My fathers interests were always inseparably Joined with those
of the community; he was in public life from the start and Ne
braskas fortunes were his. His neighbors all had the same experi-
ences and many a farmer who started with nothing is now wealthy
The farmers had to bring in from Missouri and Iowa all the food for
themselves and their horses and cattle the first year. They were
living on faith. During the first spring and summer the anxiety was
great, but they were rewarded by a good harvest in the fall. The
success of that harvest settled the Nebraska question forever. 1t
was a land that could support Its Inhabitants.
But the end was not yet. The "get-Ttch-quck" fever struck the
community. immigration was over-stimrlated and town lots were
manufactured at a great rate. In a few months they increased In
price from $500 to $4,000 apiece. Banks were created and money
was made plenty by legislation. My father never caught this fever
being always a sound-mOney man and believing in wealth based on
the soil.
At the end Of the second summer the crop of town lots and Ne
brasks bank notes was greater than the crop Of corn. But the les
son was not learned until the panic of 1857 drove out the spectators
and left the farmers in possession of the territory With the sprinl
of 1858 sanity came to rule once more and there was less bank
making and more prairte-breaking. The citizens had learned that
agriculture was to be the salvation of the new country. In 1857 81
a bushel had been paid for imported corn. but in 1859 the same
steamers that had brought 1t In bore thousands of bushels south al
40 cents a bushel. bringing more money into the territory than al
the sales of town lots for a year.
The FIRST territorial fair va held in Nebraska City in 1859. and
on that occasion my father made a speech In which he reviewed the
history of the new territory up to that time. I speak of these things
because my father was always q man OF public interests and his for
tunes were wrapped up in those of the territory. His hardshIpl
came when the community went crazy and his fortune grew wheE
sanity was nee more restored.
Though not a working farmer in the strict sense of the word, IN,