The Dawson Herald from Dawson, Nebraska • 12

THE DAWSON HERALD DAWSON NEBRASKA HISTORICAL EDITION Draper Family Long Associated With Community 1865 that the post office was located at the Rothenberger ford and named Monond Joseph Watton was postmaster and the old log cabin is still standing on the Rothenberger farm Later the office was moved to the Thomas Lynch home about a mile and a half west of Rothenbergers and was discontinued from there about 1868 The first invasion of grasshoppers was in 1866 the next in 1874 The first great flood was in 1883 Mrs Draper a Pioneer Teacher Mrs Draper who as Ellen Deweese taught school in the Page district in 1866 is surely one of the Dawson until 1916 when he went to live with his daughter Mrs Grace Schlpsser He had for his hobbies poultry both show and utility and made seven violins of splendid tone For 30 years he followed violin repairing He enjoys good health and is active about the place The little wooded home south of Dawson where he now lives is very dear to him He says he never lived in a place he liked better and is happy in its restful security Always being of a studious nature he still reads a great deal and is keenly interested in the doings of today known as the underground railway A bounty was offered for his father-dead or alive but he sent out word that he kept his powder dry He had no trouble whatever He was a brave strong character typical of the of Va (very first families of Virginia) In the fall of 1862 the two older boys Will and Newton enlisted the army A year or so later Louis went to war Mr Draper was next in line but the war was over before he was old enough to go He often was tempted to falsify his age and get into service The' fall of 1864 the Drapers came to Nebraska Mr father bought the farm west of Dawson then owned by Fred Honnan Until a few years ago Ira Bob and Tom used to gather at the old place where the cabin still stood The Star cemetery bears evidence of lots of early day residents It was a part of the farm homesteaded by Louis Draper Will Draper homesteaded the present site of Dawson In 1872 Ira helped carry the chain to survey Noraville which was named for Mr wife Lenora In 1865 Mr father subleased from Miles a government contract to carry mail from Falls City to Gallaghers Inn four miles west of Pawnee City John and Ira did the riding of the route On one of these trips Mr Draper remembers he was hailed by Hansbury and informed that Louis was home from war to ride home with him He remembers well the shock it was to his mother who had had no word from him for so long and was not expecting to see him at that time In the fall of 1871 Mr Draper homesteaded in Phillips county Kansas He spent several weeks at intervals on the from Fort Mr and Mrs Draper and Miss Helen Draper extent that there are now 285 living members Their occupation is mainly farming though some have taken up other vocations such as doctors preachers teachers and missionaries and have gone out to other parts of the country to establish their homes Edna Ulmer Ira Draper and Family Came to County in 1864 In November 1864 the Ira Draper family arrived in Richardson county via the covered wagon means of travel crossing the Missouri river at Brownville on a flai-boat propelled by man power four oars on a side They had moved from Vandalia Iowa where it was becoming too thickly settled to suit them as they wanted some real and they started doing it the day they arrived at Brownville Their destination was three miles west of Dawson in the Nemaha valley On what is now known as the Tighe place The family was very large and very hungry so the big problem was to get something to eat (something mind you as it was impossible to get enough) The nei ghbors were very good and kind and helped a good deal' A Pioneer Teacher Very shortly the talk of school came up and a log school house was built on the bank of the Nemaha near the Rothenberger ford which was at that time a prominent point as all of -Speiser precinct crossed there when going to Brownville to trade and sell their grain Ruth Barlow was the the oldest girl in the Draper family so she was asked by the school board to teach in the new school First thing she asked about was the scholars and when told that there were about forty mostly very large and old (some having whiskers) she declined the job But the board kept insisting and told her that if the older ones would not mind her they would come and help her with an elm club So she started in and found before long that she was really pioneering The best in life is living in a log house and going to school in one Carrying the Mail The Draper family moved into a log house 16x18 ope story with a detached room 10x12 and lived very happily there and pad company much of the time In thfe summer of 1865 Ira and John Draper rode the mail from Falls City to Pawnee City using a relay of ponies Ira was 15 years old and John 13 and they took trip about going up pne day and back the next Their hofne being in theniddle of the route they made it for dinner every day Draper was wrangler for the outflows job being to wrangle the fresh and have them ready for a quick change And as the ponies had all of outdoors to range on this was sometimes no easy job Monond Post Office Draper homesteaded the land on which Dawson was later bpjt in 1865 or 1866 It was in pioneer teachers of the state Four of her pupils are still living They are Page Mrs Mollie Porter Mrs Minnie Page Staley of Fall River Kansas and Wm Triggs of Wymore She also taught the first school held in Dawson it being in the old hall where tpg meat market now stands Mr and Mrs Draper and their daughter Miss Helen live in their comfortable farm home four miles northeast of town and would not even consider leaving me home where they have lived for 50 years to move to town Has Fine Collection of Canes For several years Mr Draper has made a hobby of collecting canes and now has nearly 150 different ones Many of these or the materials for them were found on his own and adjoining farms and others are gifts from friends who know of his hobby Mr Draper is quite proud of these and can give the deiailecL history of each one STRATTON FAMILY HERE FROM INDIANA IN PIONEER DAYS In response to our request for information about the early families in the community Stratton County Superintendent of Pawnee County schools sends us tpe follow -ing letter: Pawnee City Nebr Oct 19 1935 Dear Friend Ross: Here is a short contribution for your historical edition There is nothing spectacular about the Strattons They paid their debts fed clothed and educated their children they were good neighbors and they kept out of jail They were natives of Indiana born of English-born parents The first to settle in Nebraska was John who came in the spring of 1871 Then his father William came with his sons Tom and George and a daughter Lizzie in 1872 The fall of 1874 brought my father Isaiah and his family Our home was on the land now owned by the Burke and Auxier families The old meeting place of the clan was at the house one mile east of my old home Tom built his home on the land nov occupied by Stacy Brown who is a great grandson of Grandfather William and is the only descendant of the family now living on land originally owned by a Stratton All of the older members of thp family have passed out of the scene and those who knew them will soon be gone They brought their wheat to Joshua Mill and received their mail of Chittenden when the post office was on the south side of the railroad and they made Dawson their loafing place when they had time to visit am the only bearer of the name left in the state arid' my descendants are scattered over three counties Respectfully Stratton Celebrated Birthday Miss -Joanna Riley maternalaunt of Dan Rilqy celebrated her seventy-ninth birthday in Omaha on September 15 Among thp twenty -two present were nieces nephews grand nieces and nephews and a great 'grand niece Miss Riley came tfo Nebraska with her mother Mrs Bryan Riley William Fenton and her cousin the late Miller in 1867 Ira A Draper With Some of His Handicraft IRA A 4 HOBBY IS MAKING FINE TONED VIOLINS Ira A Draper was born in a cabin a few miles from Indianapolis Ind May 21 1849 At theage of eighteen months he came with his parents Mr and Mrs Ira Draper by prairie schooner to Vandalia Iowa southeast pt Des Moines The "family lived near Apple Grove postofflee when he was about six years old He remembers distinctly of carrying food in pails to runaway darkies in the brush near their home His father was a friend to the slave and participated in what was Pierre Dakota to the cantonement in Texas The winter of 1879 and he was in the Black Hills December 1880 He was mameu Elsie Amelia Libbee daughter of the late Libbee To this union eight children were bom the youngest dying in infancy Mrs Draper passed away in September 1903 In 1882 Mr Draper moved to the farm now owned by Jerry Kean and lived there until 19f2 He lived in I I.