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Nov. 8, 1945
HARTINGTON - Transportation has changed considerably and is somewhat faster now than it was 69 years ago when J. M. Lammers, pioneer resident of this community, came to Cedar County.
When Mr. Lammers, who celebrated his 82nd birthday anniversary Nov. 1, read last week that an airplane had crossed the country in less than seven hours, it recalled to his mind the slowness of travel in pioneer days.
“It used to take us about a day and a night to drive a wagon load of hogs to Ponca, our nearest trading post in Nebraska,” he recalled. “A trip to Yankton usually took a long day.”
Most of the travel in the late ’70s and early ’80s was by foot, horseback or wagon. There were no roads and only a few trails.
Mr. Lammers came to Cedar county on a steamboat up the Missouri river. The oldest of four children, he landed with his parents at Brookey Bottom July 6, 1876. His father, a farmer, came to Nebraska from Peoria, Ill., and purchased a homestead site about a half mile east of what is now Bow Creek junction.
The father hired a farmer in Brookey Bottom to transport his family in a wagon to their new home.
There were few settlers in the area at that date and only three families lived west of the Lammers farm up Bow Creek.
There was a post office, known as Smithland, located about three or four miles east of the present Hartington. Twice a week a mail carrier on horseback took the mail to Ponca to St. Helena and it was later brought to Smithland.
“The only church in the vicinity was a small Catholic church at Bow Valley,” Mr. Lammers said. “I used to walk there once a week to take instructions for my first communion.”
Mr. Lammers said he used to herd sheep over the land which is now incorporated into the city limits of Hartington. “The sheep were owned by a Ponca man and I got one sheep a month for herding them.”
There were few trees in the country, even along the streams, when Mr. Lammers arrived here. Plum thickets along the creeks and rivers had provided most of the fuel. Some wood was hauled overland from the Missouri river to provide fuel for winter.
“We used to twist hay for fuel to heat the house,” the pioneer recalled. “We would take the lids off of the stove, put in the hay and light it and then put a boiler upside down over the holes. This would keep the house warm for quite a while.”
Prairie fires were a menace in the early days and every farmer spent considerable time plowing fire guards around his land. The grass grew long and if a fire started in dry weather the flames roared over the countryside. “For days it would smoke,” he said, “if a bad fire started,” he recalled.
As a boy Mr. Lammers said he played with Indian children when the tribes passed through the country about twice a year going from one reservation to another.
“We never had any trouble with them,” he said. “Our parents would trade coffee, sugar and flour to the Indians for buffalo, antelope and deer meat. We enjoyed playing with the Indian kids and they apparently liked us.”
Mr. Lammers said the country was full of game when he first came here. Prairie chickens and grouse were especially plentiful and they were hunted heavily.
“A group of neighbor boys would go hunting and would shoot until we had 100 prairie chickens. Then we would quit as this amount would last our families almost a year.”
About once a year, he said, he would get a trip to Yankton or Ponca. He recalled that he once got a load of lumber that was brought into Hartington by the townsite company. The lumber was brought from Yankton by wagon. “This helped drive the first stake for the townsite when the land was laid out,” he said. “It was somewhere near where the Bank of Hartington is now located.”
When the town was first founded, Mr. Lammers started in the business and furnished ice for the saloons and a few residents of the town. He also furnished ice for Coleridge and Pleasant Valley and after the railroad came he shipped ice to Laurel. The Lammers disposed of their ice business last year after operating continuously since 1885.
Mr. Lammers was pleased on his birthday last week when 82 persons called on him or sent greetings through the mail.
