Sometimes I find bits of information in a Google book I want to use.
Google has an embed feature that lets you take these selections in both image and text form.
Classroom Idea : Use Google books to discover Local Histories and pull out pertinent stories. The book images and their corresponding texts below are for a lesson on how barb wire changed the West.
S.D. Butcher's Pioneer History of Custer County And Short Sketches of Early Days in Nebraska By Solomon Devore Butcher
Frederick Schreyer first Homesteader in Trinmph Tp Settled 1875 Frederick Schreyer was another interesting character He was the first homesteader on the South Loup between Callaway and Arnold He was a very resolute German about fifty years of age and as eccentric as he was resolute He constructed a dugout in which he imagined he would be secure from the depredations of the festive cowboy As we have said before there was a natural antipathy between the cowboys and the settlers and the breach became wider and wider as time passed by and the settlers became more numerous Armed encounters were frequent and bloodshed was often the result Schreyer often had encounters with the cowboys and at one time was wounded in two places He thought he was going to die and had Charles Rockwood draw up his will He had a ford near his house which he called S.D. Butcher's Pioneer History of Custer County And Short Sketches of Early Days in Nebraska By Solomon Devore Butcher
S.D. Butcher's Pioneer History of Custer County And Short Sketches of Early Days in Nebraska By Solomon Devore Butcher
his ford and nobody was allowed to cross the river at that place if he could prevent it without his consent He also surrounded his house with a high sod wall which he called his fortifications Ou the morning of April 1 1878 JD Haskell and the writer put some tools in a wagon aud went up the river to repair a corral In going we crossed the river at Schreyer's ford We saw nothing of him at that time but during the day he sent us word that if we attempted to cross there in coming back he would shoot us When we arrived at the ford on the way back and while watering our horses we saw Schreyer and his son running toward the house with guns As soon as we got within range they raised up from behind their fortifications and began firing at us We were unarmed and thinking discretion the better part of valor put the whip to our team and got out of the way In our flight we had to pass pretty close to the house aud one of the shots tore the step from the side of the wagon From that time on there was trouble Young Schreyer was arrested on the Platte but escaped and went to Lincoln where he remained a month He came back to Kearney was again arrested and brought up into Custer county He and his father were taken handcuffed to Custer for preliminary examination and were bound over to appear before the District Court Not giving bonds they were lodged in the Plum Creek jail In July they were tried and sentenced to serve a term in jail bv Judge Gaslin They served out their time and got home the next winter The war between the homesteaders and the cattlemen continued for some years but at last the large herds were compelled to remove farther west where free range was more plentiful and homesteaders scarce After being in possession of this country for twelve years they like the Indian were compelled to give it up to more advanced civilization Stockmen who had traveled over the plains between here and Texas said this was the best country for ranging stock to be found anywhere in the United States No wonder then that thev made such a hard struggle to retain it Where once roamed thousands of buffalo and afterwards thousands of cattle we now see the locomotive steaming along the valleys The country is now dotted over with beautiful farms and the ground that was once used for bedding down cattle in immense herds is now occupied by the village of Callaway Belies of unusual interest have at different times been found in this country In the summer of 1SS0 while riding on the Middle Loup with others we came to a bed of charred wood near where the Milburn bridge now AND SHORT SKETCHES OF EARLY DAYS IN NEBRASKA 16 S.D. Butcher's Pioneer History of Custer County And Short Sketches of Early Days in Nebraska By Solomon Devore Butcher
