Magazine Article Review: Justice on the Tracks, How Sidney earned its reputation as Nebraska's toughest frontier town in the Fall of 1875

Justice on the Tracks, How Sidney earned its reputation as Nebraska's toughest frontier town in the Fall of 1875 by Loren Avey, Nebraska Life Magazine, Flagship Publishing, Timnath CO, September/October 2025, pp 22,23.

This short article tells a very interesting story about a murder and a double lynching.  Three en were arguing in town, Chuck Patterson, his friend Joe Reed and livery owner Robert W. Porter.  Patterson drew on Porter and three quick shots left Porter dead.  Sheriff John Ellis quickly arrested Patterson and placed him in jail.  Porter was well liked and had lots of friend being the livery manager.  By the next day a group of 40 men had gathered at the Capitol saloon owned by Cornelius "Con" McCarty.  They worked up quite an anger and with the sheriff out of town they stormed the jail.  The lone deputy did not put up a resistance and they took him out and hung him from a telephone pole.  They then returned to the saloon to celebrate their deed.  Ellis returned in the meantime and cut Patterson down.  He was not dead.  He was taken back to the jail.  When the mob heard this they returned to do the job again.  Ellis put up a resistance and they beat him into submission.  The hung Patterson again, making sure this time.  Sheriff Ellis shortly left town for good and the lead of the mob, Cornelius "Con" McCarty, took his position. 

Chipeta wife of Ouray

 Chipeta is the wife of the Ute Chief Ouray.  She was his confidant and adviser.  She was born Kiowa APache but was raised with the Utes in Colorado.  She was always an advocate for peace in negotiations between the Utes and the U.S. government.  She influenced her husband a great deal.  She attended many tribal councils with her husband.  Women were usually not accepted at tribal councils but Chipeta was always welcome.  She also attended a peace conference in Washington D.C.  After the negotiations of 1880 the Uncompahgre Utes were forced to leave Colorado by the U.S. Army.  They had not taken part in the Nathan Meeker affair but were caught up in it anyway.  Ouray passed away before they were forced to move, but Chipeta was forced to Utah.  She felt betrayed by the government.  They had promised her a house like what she had in Colorado with Ouray.  She was given an unfinished home so returned to living in a teepee.  

1880 peace commission to Washington, Chipeta on right next to Ouray.  Carl Schurz is also seated.  This peace commission resulted in the removal of the Tabeguachi/ Uncompahgre Utes and the White River Utes from Colorado.

Western Shoshone Mary and Carrie Dann, Nevada

 Mary and Carrie Dann were Western Shoshone Native American activists in fighting the federal government over land issues and grazing rights.  They were sisters.  They did not feel they should have to pay grazing fees for land that was Native American land.  The contention is the Shoshone did not give away their land but granted rights to Whites to pass through only.  

Ute Chief Colorow

 Ute Chief Colorow was born Comanche.  When just five years old there was a battle in northern New Mexico and he was kidnapped Muache band of Utes.  He had red skin so was given the nickname Colorado, which was pronounced poorly, Colorao with the d swallowed and when heard by White people was pronounced and spelled Colorow.  Colorow as a youth tra veled throughout Colorado.  He participated in a couple battles against Arapaho, one near Aspen where he was declared a hero, and another near Golden Colorado.  This battle was so severe the valley was abandoned after.  

By 18868 Colorow was a sub chief of the Northern Ute.  He was involved in treaty negotiations.  Despite this White settlers continued to encroach upon Ute land and the treaty negotiations favored the Whites.  Colorow began to not trust the government.  He signed the treaty of 1878 identifying himself as a Yampa and Grand River Ute.  Nathan Meeker tried to force the Utes to be farmers by with holding the agreed upon food allotments.  Colorow tried to negotiate for peace, but Colorow stabbed Meeker in the mouth for lying.  This resulted in the deaths of Meeker and about ten others.  It also resulted in the Battle of Mink Creek where Ute warriors ambushed an intervening military force.  Meeker's wife was held hostage.  The final result of this was that he and his people were forced to leave Colorado, as were the Uncompahgre who were not involved.  The forced removal became the Northern Ute's trail of tears.  Colorow was removed to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah.  He would return to Colorado to hunt as per treaty agreement, but this made Whites nervous and lead to Colorow's War.  The Buffalo Soldiers from Fort Duchesne had to intervene between the Ute and the Colorado local militias.  

In later life Colorow suffered from obesity, diabetes and kidney failure.  He died of pneumonia in 1888.  His body was buried by the White River.

African American Biography: Mary Fields aka Stagecoach Mary

 Mary Fields was born a slave in Tennessee.  She was emancipated at the end of the war.  She first found work as a chamber maid on a steamboat on the Mississippi River.  She then worked for Judge Edmund Dunne.  After Dunne's wife died he sent Mary and his five children to live with his sister Mother Mary Amadeus Mother Superior of the Ursuline Convent.  Mother Amadeus was sent to Montana, and Mary followed when she learned she had pneumonia.  She nursed her back to health, but her ways were a bit rough for the Catholic mission (swearing and going to saloons etc) so she was asked to leave.  She opened a tavern, but went out of business within a year as she gave too much away.  In 1895, at the age of 60 she won the contract for a star route with the U.S. post office.  Although a contracted employee, she is the second woman and first African American woman to have such a position.  She is very diligent in her job.  She preferred to drive a stage, with a gun under her robe.  If there was too much snow, she had snow shoes and would carry the mail on her back.  Mary was a large woman, six feet and 200 pounds.  One time she held off a pack of wolves who had caused her to turn her coach.  However she was able to right it the next day.  Mary did not marry.  However she loved babysitting and would often be paid to babysit.  She retired from the mail service after eight years.  In 1912 her home burned, but the townspeople helped her rebuild.  Michael Hearst wrote a song of her life, "Stage Coach Mary."

Comanche Cynthia Parker the Mother of Quanah Parker

 Cynthia Parker was a white girl who was adopted into the Comanche Tribe.  In 1836 at the Fort Parker Massacre she was captured by the Comanche.  She was about eight at the time.  She was adopted by a family and married the chief, Peta Nocona.  They had three children together, two boys and a son.  Her oldest son was Quanah Parker who became the last chief of the Comanche.  In 1860 Texas Rangers tracked her down and captured her in Comanche country.  They killed her husband.  She and her daughter were taken captive.  After 24 years they were returned to Parker family members.  People thought they were rescued.  Cynthia Parker thought she was again captured.  When her daughter, Topsanna died form pneumonia Cynthia Parker joined her shortly as she refused to eat.  The song "Run" by Tophouse is about her life.  Her son had her body moved to the reservation.  She and her husband are both buried in Fort Sill Oklahoma with their son.  Topsanna's body was also reinterred with them.  

Western Women: Fox Hastings Rodeo Performer

 Fox Hastings' specialty event in the rodeo was bulldogging, a sport traditionally left to men such as Bill Pickett.  She started her rodeo career at the age of 16.  Bulldogging is better known as steer wrestling today.  It once involved biting the cows lip so they would stop fighting.  She also participated in bronc riding.  She was a trick rider and could ride a horse standing up.  She said, "If I can just get my fanny out of the saddle and my feet planted, there's not a steer that can last against me."  She traveled from California to New York demonstrating her rodeo skills.  In 1987 she was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.  In 2011 into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

Ute Chief: Walkara/Wakara, aka Chief Walker, aka Colorow

 Walkara was a Northern Ute Chief of the Timpanogo and Sanpete Bands.  He may also have Shoshone ties.  Walkara is the Shoshone word for Hawk.  He was known as a diplomat, leader, warrior and horseman.  He was the chief when the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entered the Utah area.  He was born along the Spanish Fork River in Utah.  He liked to fish in Utah Lake.  He spoke English, Spanish and Native languages.  He was known as a great horse thief with his brothers, especially in southern California.  There he had conflict with Juan Antonio Cahuilla leader.  Mountain men would trade them whiskey for stolen horses.  

In 1847 the Mormons settled in Salt Lake which was between Ute and Shoshone territory.  Walkara objected to their having a permanent settlement and wanted to drive them out.  However his brother intervened, so the Mormons had peace with the Timpanogo.  Utes were advised not to steal from the Mormons, but some did resulting in retaliation from the Mormons and the death of six men at the Battle Creek massacre.  Walkara supported attacking Fort Utah, but he held negotiations with Brigham Young after which he invited Mormons to settle Sanpete County.  The Utes were helpful to the settlement which was some ways for the next closest settlement.  Walkara and his son were baptized in 1850.  The Utes had a slave trade using women and children and the Mormon community tried to stop this.  This lead to poor relations.  Additionally many nonMormons were traveling through the area and competing for resources.  This resulted in the Walker War of 1853.  The Utes were angry with both the Mormonee and Merikats (terms used to distinguish mormons and nonMormons.  James Alexander Ivie shot several Utes and one later passed away.  The Utes demanded compensation but Ivie felt it was self defense and refused.  The Utes, demanding the death of a EuroAmerican to compensate were denied, so a Ute shot and killed Alexander Keele.  This lead to open hostilities.  Towns were attacked.  Mormon communities became tighter and turned into forts.  Four men were killed driving a ox-wagon from Salt Lake to Manti.  Brigham Young and Walkara negotiated a peace in May 1854.  The underlying problems were not resolved and would blow up again ten years later in the Black Hawk War.  Walkara was rebaptized and many of his people were baptized at this time.  Walkara died in 1855.  

Pamphlet Review: Bob Gibson: Baseball Legend Born in Omaha

 Bob Gibson: Baseball Legend Born in Omaha by Jess Vermeulen. I found this in the special collections on the third floor of the Omaha Central Library.  There was another copy on display.

This little pamphlet gives a brief sketch of Bob Gibson frm his being born the youngest of seven children, playing sports at Omaha Technical High School, and then playing for Creighton University Bluejays in basketball and baseball.  The St. Louis Cardinals noticed him and signed hi in 1957.  There is a timeline in the pamphlet.  He pitched in the World Series in 1964 which they won,  1965 he won the golden glove award for the first of nine consecutive times.  In 1967 he went 3-0 in a World Series against Boston.  1968 he wins the first of two Cy Young awards and is the NL MVP.  1971 he pitches a no-hitter and wins his second Cy Young award.  1975 he retires with 3,117 strikeouts and 251 wins.He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981.  He played all his Major League baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals, 17 seasons, 56 shutouts, 3,117 strikeouts, and an ERA of 2.91.  He died October 2, 2020.  He was 84.

Buffalo Soldiers

 Almost 200,000 Black Troops served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War.  40,000 passed away.  In 1866 peacetime units were formed.  Units were segregated and the Buffalo Soldier regiments where all Black regiments.  They made up the 9th and 10th calvary regiments and the 24th and 25th infantry regiments.  The Buffalo soldiers were given their name by Native Americans who referred to the bravery and their hair.  The soldiers themselves also adapted the name.  The first units were organized in 1866 and they served through the 90s.

The Buffalo units served in the Indian Wars generally, guarding trails and manning forts.  They built roads and guarded the mail.  Members of the calvary units trained cadets at West Point in horsemanship.  This was because of their skill with horses.  They are remembered through Buffalo Soldier Field and a campus monument.  Henry O. Flipper is a West Point graduate and the first African American to command Buffalo Soldier, the 10th regiment.  Charles Young, another West Point graduate rose to the rank of colonel in the 10th Calvary regiment.

Buffalo Soldiers also served in Cuba during the Spanish American war and climbed San Juan Hill.

Native American Artist: Marita Growing Thunder

 Marita Growing Thunder is a Native American artist, activist and designer from the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana.  She is an advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.  She comes from the Growing Thunder Collective which is a family of artists.  She practices quillwork and beadwork.  She promoted awareness for MMIW through her project Save Our Sisters.  

other native americans

Painted Cave: Chumash

Chief seattle

Shelley Niro

Harry Fonseca

N. Scott Monday

Leslie Marmon SIlko

R. Carlos Nakai

Princess Red Wing

Monique Mojica

Louie Gong

Mary Golda Ross

Twyla Baker

Nicolle Gonzales

Suzan Shown Harjo

Pushmataha

Marie Aioe Dorion

oconostota

Janet McCloud

oren Lyons 

Matthew King

Ute Elder: Unca Sam

 Unca Sam visited Washington D.C. as a Native American representative when the White River were forced out of Colorado after the Meeker affair.  Unca Sam was instrumental in getting $1,000,000 from the federal government for their loss.  He was a hunter, warrior, fur trader and diplomat.  His bust in on display at the Utah State Capitol Building.  The bust was done by Millard F. Malin.  After traveling to Washington he lived a long and peaceful like on the Uintah Ouray Indian Reservation where he passed away at 106 in 1938.  

Native American Biography, Aza Erdrich Abe. painter, Louise Erdrich daughter

 Aza Erdrich Abe is an accomplished artist.  On her mother's side she is of Ojibwa descent, Anishinaabe.  She also is of mixed white descent.  Her visual art is deeply rooted in Anishinaabe aesthetics and sensibilities, featuring intricate line work and woodcut-style aesthetics. She focuses on Anishinabee identity through her family life and personal growth.  

Aza Abe paints for the covers of her mother's books.  Her mother is the accomplished author Louis Aldrich.  

Asa and her mother

self portrait beadwork

Woman of the West: Calamity Jane

 Calamity Jane, born Martha Jane Canary, was a figure of the old west.  She lived in Deadwood, South Dakota.  She was a larger than life figure, mostly because of her self promotion.  She was gender nonconforming, wearing men's clothing and doing men's jobs.  She was a noted marksman and traveled with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a marksman, rider and storyteller.  She dictated a book of her autobiography.  This is regarded as highly exaggerated by Calamity Jane was noted for being courageous and brave.  She was the oldest and when her parents died when she was 14 she raised her siblings.  When a stage driver was shot and killed she took over the reins and drove the passengers to safety.  She was acquainted with Wild Bill Hickok saying he was the only man she ever loved.  She was buried by him after she died.  She said they had been married but there is no record of this.  A movie starring Doris Day was made about her time in Deadwood; although this was a fictionalized version.  

 

Magazine Article Review: Forging a Faith, Nebraska Life

 Forging a Faith by Matt Masich, photographs by Christopher Amundson, Nebraska Life, January/February 2024, pp 40-45.

In the late summer of 1846 Mormon pioneers, fleeing persecution in Illinois established the first town in Nebraska.  The had been four months crossing Iowa, a journey they expected to make in three weeks.  But the rain and the muddy conditions lead to a very hard pull across the territory.  Arriving on the western edge of Iowa, Brigham Young negotiated with Peter Sarpy, who had a post in Bellevue on on the opposite side in Iowa and a ferry crossing, for ferrying across the river.  There was no way for him to ferry the thousands wanting to cross, so the Mormons made there own ferry.  After crossing they were for a brief time in Cutler Park where they established a government, but the Otoe thought it was too far (The Omaha were OK with the location) from the river so they moved east three miles and established Winter Quarters on the Missouri River.  The Nebraska side of the River was Indian territory at the time.  

Thomas Kane was a friend of the Mormons.  His father was a friend of President Polk.  Using his influence with his father he asked the president if there was any way the government could help the Mormons.  The agreement was that the Mormons could raise a militia to serve in the Mexican American War and they would allow the Mormons to stay in Indian territory.  The Mormon Battalion brought countless benefits: The land deal gave the Saints a place to stay; serving the nation in time of war was great for public relations; the Army, instead of hindering the emigration, was now paying Church soldiers to go west; and much of the soldiers’ pay could be funneled back to their families to buy provisions.  The enlistments took place in Iowa in what was known as Kanesville.  Thomas Kane visited with the recruitment and became ill and was laid up for a month.  

Brigham Young was anxious to be on the west side of the river so they could leave earlier in the spring and avoid flooding on the Missouri River.  Starting in August the Saints began to harvest local grasses.  They put away 2000 tons for the animals.  The Saints erected crude log cabins in which to stay, and a few sod houses.  That winter there were 3500 people in Winter Quarters with 538 log cabins and 83 sod houses.  The population would reach a high of 4000 with 800 homes.  They were able to get supplies shipped up from St. Louis.

Many died.  Death had begun to show its face crossing Iowa due to disease.  Disease (diphtheria, typhoid, scurvy, malaria) also haunted the Saints in Winter Quarters, and as winter come on there was less disease but more death due to cold and malnutrition.  About 600 died while they were at Winter Quarters, half babies and infants. The cemetery was west of town, at the top of the hill.  At times there were so many deaths the grave diggers were overwhelmed.  Sometimes a corpse would lie in the home for a couple deaths before collected and buried.  

Brigham Young lead the first group in the Spring.  They traveled west and eventually ended up in Utah.  Huge number of Saints followed.  By the late 1860s 70,000 Saints had been through the area.

The Saints abandoned Winter quarters within a couple years as promised.  There still was Mormon settlement on the Iowa side of the river.  The property was inhabited in 1854 for the Florence Land Company.  James C. Mitchell named the town Florence after a child, niece or granddaughter.  

The Mormons abandoned the area and nothing of the original settlement is left today except for the pioneer cemetery and the Mormon or Florence Mill.  There is now a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the cemetery property.  

Echo Canyon Breastworks

We traveled through Echo canyon on the Echo Canyon Road which parallels the I80 freeway.  This is where Great Great Grandfather Isaac helped build and man breastworks made of stones while defending Salt Lake from the federals who were coming as part of the Utah War.  It is hard to see the breatworks from below, but they are there someplace.  

Book Review: A Braid of Lives: Native American Childhood

A Braid of Lives: Native American Childhood edited by Neil Philip, Clarion Books, New York, The Albion Press 2000.

A common theme of childhood Native American is the desire to be an adult.  This is seen over and o ver again in the stories included in the book.  Also of concern is childhood is development of a spiritual self.  This book includes the stories about 50 Native Americans looking back at their childhoods.  There are girl wanting to be like their mothers, and boys playing at war.  There was being forced to get up early and running and swimming so as to be able to withstand the pressures of war.  There are also stories of people form many different tribes.  A Lakota boy at age nine pierced his sister's  ears who was four.  This is usually done by a medicine person with a bone and a giveaway and with songs.  As this was lacking father did a big giveaway and gave the son's horse away.  There were lots of sports and games, such as games like hockey of shooting arrows at hoops.  Some girls enjoyed dolls, and others not so much.  There were a few stories about Indian school and being forced to talk English and cut their hair.  

Henry O. Flipper: First Black Graduate of West Point

 In 1877 Henry Ossian Flipper became the first African American to graduate from United States Military Academy at West Point.  He had been born into slavery in 1856.  He received a commission and served as an officer of Buffalo Soldiers in the 10th Calvary.  He had an eye for the captain's daughter at Camp Davis in Texas.  Because of this he was framed for embezzlement.  He was found not guilty of embezzlement but was found guilty of conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman.  He was dishonorable discharged.  He was unable to clear his name during his life.  However he was cleared after his death. in 1976 his discharge was changed to a good conduct discharge.  In 1999 President Bill Clinton granted a full pardon.  He was also an engineer.  At Fort Sill in Oklahoma he designed a system to drain a swamp which was leading to malaria.  Known as Flipper's Ditch the system is still used today.  

Historical Bulletins, East Bellevue: Rifle Range, Peter Sarpy Trading Post, Presbyterian Mission

 The Rifle Range and the Peter Sarpy bulletin ar both at College Heights Park off of Mary Mallory Kountze Memorial Drive.

The memorial to the Presbyterian Mission is further south and is in someone's yard on Warren street.

African/Mexican Cowboy: Bronco Sam Steward or Stewart

 Bronco Sam Stewart was born in Mexico.  He is of Mexican and African descent with some European mixed in.  They say he could ride anything.  He is known for riding a longhorn through Cheyenne.  The beast diverted into a store and came out decorated with clothing from its horns.  Bronco made it right with the store owner.  It is said he could ride anything.  He always wanted to try his hand at a buffalo.  He eventually settled in Laramie.  He worked for Tom Alsop.  When the Laramie River was overflowing Alsop's three-year-old son fell in.  Stewart jumped in with his clothes on and saved him.  Bronco Stewart met a tragic end.  He married and was told his wife was cheating on him.  He shot his wife and then himself.  He was always thought of as one of Wyoming's best cowboys.

Book Review: Who Is Lionel Messi?

 Who Is Lionel Messi by James Buckley Jr., illustrated by Manuel Gutierrez, Penguin Workshop, New York, 2024.

Lionel Messi is a soccer player, perhaps the best in the world; perhaps the best of all time.  This book was written before the World Cup this year, so does not tell the story of Argentina being the runner up, but it does tell the story of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.  

Messi was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1987.  He has been playing soccer since he was three and got his first soccer ball.  He started playing organized soccer at age four; and he was good, a goal scorer and dribbler.    When he was seven he began playing for Newell's Junior teams.  His father and. brothers had played for Newell.  Messi was still a goal scorer and won every game.  Messi was small due to lack of a growth hormone.  Shots corrected this but were expensive.  He was invited to try out for Futbol Club Barcelona.  By 2001 Messi was playing in Spain.  Most of his family went.  Messi quickly moved through Barcelon's teams, under 16 then under 19.  Everyone moved back to Argentina except Lionel and his father.  This was a hard time missing his mother.  He played his first game in the top division for Barcelona at age 17, the second youngest player to do so.  

He played in the U20 World Cup at age 18 and Argentina won.  He also played his first National Team match, a friendly against Hungary.  Messi came in as a substitute but was red carded when he hit another layer in the throat.  

He retured to Argentina for a time to support a girlfriend who had lost a friend in an automobile accident.  Atonela would eventually become his wife.  They have three children.  At age 20 he started donating some of his money through the Leo Messi foundation.  Barcelona had a near perfect season in 2008-2009.  They won the FIFA Club World Cup and several other major competitions.  Messi won the prize as best soccer player in the world.  Messi started competing in the World Cup in 2006.  Each year they came up short until 2022 in Qatar when they won.  At this last World Cup he broke the record for mowt World Cup goals.  

In 2021 due to the rules of La Liga he had to change teams.  He then played in France on a team with Kylian Mbappé also on the team.  He played against France and Mbappé in the finals of the 2022 World Cup.  More recently he has joined Major League Soccer with the Inter Miami FC team.  They had been flounder

ing but with Messi's signing thay have become one of the better teams in MLS. 

Magazine Article Review: Where Bellevue Began

 Where Bellevue Began: A Bluff-top trading post on the Missouri became Nebraska's oldest permanent community by Ron Soodalter with Chris Amundson, Nebraska Life Magazine, Flagship Publishing Inc., Timnath CO, March/April 2026, pp 24-29.

Lewis and Clark came through the Bellevue area in 1804.  In 1822 Joshua Pilcher built a trading post above the Missouri River in what would become Bellevue.  From this location it commanded a way to send goods up the Missouri, and also the Platte River which was a few miles to the south.  It was a trading post and a place where furs could be dried and prepared for market.  It became the hub for traders, company men and hunters.  Pawnee, Otoe and Omaha traded there.  Beaver built the Missouri Fur Company.  Beaver skin was durable, water proof, and well suited for hats.  The trading post supported the annual rendezvous which was to the west.  Goods would leave from Bellevue and then at the rendezvous they would be sold and traded, and beaver skin would come back to the trading post.  Bellevue would keep the trade moving as a hub for the business in St. Louis.  The trade business could be dangerous.  In 1823 fourteen men were killed and eleven wounded in South Dakota n the Missouri.  Pilcher also learned the same lesson in 1823.  Blackfeet attacked a caravan along the Yellowstone River and killed seven men.  This resulted in a loss of roerty of $15,000, valued today at $467,000.

The Pilcher site faltered, but Lucien Fontenelle purchased it in 1828.   By this time it had grown beyond a trading post.  It included separate lodgings for Otoe and Omaha.  It had smith shops, and a counsel meeting area and lodging for interpreters.  Karl Bodmer made a rendering of the trading post and surrounding buildings. Lucien Fontenele would sell the buildings to the federal government and it became the Indian agency.  The area continued to grow.  1855 Bellevue incorporated as a city.  1856 the first church still standing in Nebraska was built.  The major settlements located south of the old trading post.  This encroachment of people lead to the removal of Native American people to reservation.  The Omaha reservation is further north on the Missouri, the Pawnee in Oklahoma and the Otoe to the Nebraska/Kansas border but then again moved to Oklahoma.  Peter Sarpy also arrived and established a ferry at Bellevue as well as trading posts on both sides of the river.  

First Nebraska Territory Murder Was by a Doctor

 In the Nebraska Life Magazine for March April 2026 there is a note about a murder in Bellevue.  Dr Charles Henry was a physician and a land speculator in Bellevue in 1855.  He argued with George Hollister about property lines.  Henry shot him dead.  It seemed a clear case and he was arrested and confined in the blacksmith shop.  He was protected by guards form a lynch mob.  Cholera broke out about this time.  Many needed treated and Dr. Henry was lead form home to home to provide treatment.  He was under guard and providing treatment.  When his case came before the grand jury there were enough on the jury he had treated, and others as character witnesses the he was never convicted.  This was the first arrest for murder in the new Nebraska Territory.

There were two grand juries convened, and both failed to indict.  Another possible reason for this is there were groups of land speculators who were protecting their own.  However the story of the patients refusing to indict is a good one.  Henry relocated to Omaha where he became a prominent citizen and supporter of the Union in the Civil War.

African American Biography: Charley Willis: The Singing Cowboy

 Charley Willis was born a slave near Austin Texas.  After slavery he became a western Cowboy first in West Texas.  He worked breaking horses.  He later road the Chisholm Trail taking Texas cattle north to Kansas.  He was a singer and is credited with writing the song "Goodbye Old Paint."  This song is is now in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Fort Crook; Now Offutt Air Force Base

 Fort Crook was the original name of the fort constructed south of Bellevue to replace fort Omaha in North Omaha.  It was named for General George Crook who had been the commander at Fort Omaha.  I took some pictures of the old for from the Fort Crook days.  There was a model in the Sarpy County History museum.  The fort was planned and announced in 1888 but construction did not begin until 1894.  Officers quarters were built on the west side of the parade grounds and the private quarters opposite on the east.  Troops began to arrive in 1896.  1920-24 the fort added an airfield and the fort was renamed Offutt for a WWI pilot named Lieutenant Jared Offutt.  During WWII the base became a large manufacturing plant for B-26 and B-29 bombers.  After WWII it housed the Strategic Air Command.

parade grounds

sergeant's row

Native American Biography: Zoey Roy, Spoken Word Music

 I was informed of Zoey Roy in the book Not My Princess.  She is a spoken word artist and poet and social activist.  She is from Canada.  She is of mixed descent, indigenous person from Canada.  She affiliates with the Peter Ballantyne Cree nation.  Through her spoken words she explores indigenous issues and colonization.

South Omaha Public Housing

 Omaha received a public grant for public housing in the South Omaha area and the Southside Terrace public housing was built in 1940.  They are located between R and W Streets between 29th and 30th. There were 51 barrack  style buildings.  These apartments housed low-income families and immigrant workers to the meat packing industry.  They had low rents and income requirements.  They are now being taken down and modern mixed-use housing is taking their place.