Holt County Museum & Research Center

STEPHEN’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE Exploring Early Holt County 1841-1844: One Pioneer’s Tale Part 5: Back To Holt County, Where New Neighbors Move Into The Higgins Neighborhood Stephen Collins returned to Holt County almost immediately after his first, October 1841, adventure. This time, he made a beeline to the Higgins’ brothers place in the Missouri River bottom in the vicinity of today’s Craig. And he walked that 20-odd miles from Ellington’s Ferry to there in one day.... And his trip included a stop to build a sycamore log raft to cross the Tarkio River. He reached the Higgins place around dark, and found the brothers enjoying a fire in the new log cabin that he had helped them build. After supper, they informed him that they intended to go to Platte County after more cattle*, and he agreed to watch their place during their absence. Soon after they left, Collin’s discovered that several families about 60 members of the Ioway, Sac & Fox tribes -- had camped nearby.** Returning from hunting one day, Collins found six of the men hanging around the cabin. One came running up to Collins with this tomahawk raised, and stuck his hand into Collins’ shot pouch. When Collins asked him what he wanted, the man smiled and touched his finger to the flint on Collins’ rifle. He gave them men two or three of his flints***, and then they all shook hands. Several of Collins’ new neighbors visited his cabin that evening, but he couldn’t understand a word that they said. They left at dark and returned to their nearby wigwams. *They probably bought cattle to winter on rushes in the river bottom. **The Ioway, Sac & Fox tribes who sold their land to the U.S. government in 1836 (The Platte Purchase) were supposed to vacate the area and move across the Missouri River to their new reservation in Kansas Territory. But they were known to return to their former hunting grounds in the fall. In telling his stories about them 40 years later, Collins never expressed any fear of these former inhabitants of Holt County. ***For starting fires in the world before matches and lighters. Collins didn’t mention the Ioway, Sac & Fox tribes having firearms.

STEPHEN’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE Exploring Early Holt County 1841-1844: One Pioneer’s Tale Part 4: Back Across Holt County And The Nodaway For Now, Anyway . . . Stephen Collins and his travelling companion John stayed on with the three Higgins brothers at their camp for a while, and helped them build their cabin. ... But Collins had decided that it was time to head back to Andrew County. The oldest Higgins tried to bribe Collins to return -- by offering to build him his own cabin in the same area if he did. Collins didn’t reveal why he never made it to the Rush Bottoms near Big Lake, like he planned. Instead, the pair returned to the Ellington’s Ferry on the Nodaway via what is now Bigelow and Mound City. They crossed back over the Tarkio River on a cottonwood tree that someone had felled across the river to serve as a foot bridge. The water was high, covering the tree with a foot of water, but they made it across and headed for the Little Tarkio through waist-deep sloughs. They got hungry, so Collins roasted a rabbit that he shot. They ate it without bread or salt, which apparently was the preferred recipe -- if you had the fixin’s. They passed by a John Hughes’ place on Squaw Creek, and stayed overnight at Thomas Ferguson’s cabin, where they lodged before. After crossing the ferry on the Nodaway, the pair made their way to the place of a man named John Bradford, where Collins had left the rest of his belongings before leaving to explore Holt County. It was here that Collins and John parted ways and they never saw each other again. But Collins would return to Holt County. And this time, he would come face-to-face with Native Americans -- lots of Native Americans.

STEPHEN’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE Exploring Early Holt County 1841-1844: One Pioneer’s Tale Part 3: Into The Missouri River Bottom -- White Bears, Prairie Wolves, Paw-Paws, And Birds By The Millions Stephen Collins and his buddy John crossed the Little Tarkio at Army Ford in a canoe, and traipsed west through the "high weeds, vines, and grass" to the Big Tarkio River.... Collins began to make camp for the night -- after dark, it would be impossible to find the wagon track that Daniel Durbin had suggested that they follow to the distant Rush Bottoms. Starting a fire with steel, flint, and tow*, Collins noticed that John seemed a little edgy, eyeing the setting sun as if he were dreading the coming darkness. When prairie wolves (coyotes) began to howl, John moved closer to Collins. Apparently, around his dinner table earlier in the day, Daniel Durbin had filled John with stories about dangerous animals such as white bear further west, on the Big Tarkio River. Collins assured John that Durbin was just pulling his leg. Without any breakfast or supper the night before, for that matter the pair picked up the wagon track and began following it. Late in the morning, they ran across a covered wagon -- and hoped its owner had something to eat. But all they found there was a large bulldog walking around, and no humans. They pressed on, along the edge of a lake**, where they eventually found some paw-paws to eat. Around sundown, the two heard a gunshot nearby and went to investigate. They found a man named Higgins on the shore of the lake. He had shot a loon, but he couldn’t retrieve it from the water. There was a small Indian canoe***’ in some willows nearby, but the man claimed that he didn’t know how to use it. He asked Collins for help. Collins put down his weapons, climbed in the canoe and promptly capsized. He tried again, sitting closer to the middle of the vessel this time, and managed to bring the loon back to shore. The three went to Higgins’ camp, and asked if they could stay overnight and maybe get something to eat. The stranger agreed, and later they were joined by Higgins’ two brothers, who had been out looking for a place to build a cabin. Later, two more men also showed up at the camp Abraham Sharp and Presley Hayes of Sharp’s Grove, who were looking for their cattle. That night, the geese, cranes, swans, loons, ducks, and owls made so much noise that we scarcely slept, Collins reported. There appeared to be millions of them. NEXT: Part 4 - Stephen And John Return To Andrew County And Part Ways *flax, hemp, or jute fiber **Possibly Schulte Lake west of today’s Craig ***Probably a dugout canoe

THE SMALLEST MAN IN MISSOURI - Samuel Hulse 1867-1901 Holt County once was the home to a farmer who, at 62 pounds, was the smallest man in the state at the time. Samuel Hulse lived two miles west of Fillmore (but on the Missouri side of the Nodaway River, apparently). According to a report at the time of his untimely death at age 34, he was "an enterprising and successful farmer, handling a strirring plow as well as any six footer and could harness the largest team with ease...." Just six months before his death, he married Sarah Stephens. Although it appears that Sarah was a few inches taller than Samuel, she weighed only 60 pounds. Sarah lived another 23 years after her husband's death. Both are buried in the Fillmore Cemetery. NOTE: We are trying to obtain a higher-quality copy of the photo of the Hulses.

VINTAGE FORMAL BRIDE PORTRAITS -- We only have a couple, but they're impressive . . .

BARBARA TURNER WHIPS BROTHER SCOTT INTO SHAPE FOR THEIR APPEARANCE IN THE FALL FESTIVAL CHILDREN'S PARADE - 1958

THE REAL DEAL - The Raiser Brothers Pose For A Photo At first blush, this photo looks like one of those souvenir photos that tourists have taken in Old West costumes at places like Silver Dollar City. Or could it be a gang of real (but young) outlaws on the run from the law? ... Actually, these are three, upstanding Holt County citizens -- brothers E.A., Jake, and Pete Raiser-- wearing their own clothes in a portrait taken in the late 1880s. It looks like they were young adults or possibly teenagers at the time. Pete Raiser was the great-grandfather of Christie, John Jr., and David Banks.