Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

While seated at Veda Clements’ kitchen table last week, she picked up the following article from an unnamed February 2, 1934 newspaper and said, “ I think your readers would be interested in this information.” I read this to myself in the comforts of my upstairs office as the snow fell softly outside the window. A Phone call to our local courthouse started my research. A very nice person helped me locate the farms mentioned below on my 1905 Franklin County Atlas map. This story of the Franklin Area is recorded as follows:

“Visit By Old-timer: David Riley Carpenter Visits Scenes of His Early Life in Franklin County.”

“Last Friday David Riley Carpenter of Newton, Kansas Arrived at the home of his sister, Mrs. R. D. Burton, three miles east of town, where he will visit a few weeks. Fifty-seven years ago (1877) Mr. Carpenter married a Franklin County girl, Miss Emma A. Peak, sister of Gus Peak and daughter of Eleazer Peak.

The Peak family (20-2-14 note above map) and the Carpenter family (32-2-14, note map) were well known in Franklin county, and especially in the vicinity of Franklin. In the year 1869 or 1870, the father Peak and his son, Gus, homesteaded a mile and a half north of Franklin, and here, in the early ‘70’s, father Peak died, with the distinction of being the second person to be buried in Greenwood Cemetery. His other two sons, Will and John were once residents of this community.

The elder Carpenters, Jacob and wife, purchased a 40 acre tract a mile east of town in 1894 and built on it. They lived there until their passing (Mother Carpenter, 1905 and father Carpenter, 1912). William, a son, was hotelkeeper here several years and was town Marshall for ten years. Other sons, Henry and Jim, were also residents of Franklin.

In the year 1881, David Riley Carpenter moved to the old Peak farm, where he lived a year, then purchased the north 80 of the old Billy Carl Farm (30-2-14, Map), where he built a sod house and lived a year, then he built the little square house that still stands at the northeast corner of the old Academy campus, where he lived a few years.

In the years 1881 and 1882, Mrs. Carpenter taught at the Macon School, and then taught in what was called the German District. Fifty-two years ago (1882) Mr. Carpenter taught in the upper room of the Franklin School and Miss Wynings taught in the lower room. This was the second term of school taught in Franklin. The next year Mr. Carpenter taught the old Haynes District.

While living in Franklin, Mr. Carpenter worked at masonry and plastering, and built the foundation and plastered several houses now standing here. He laid the corner stone of the Old Congregational Church, which was attended with ceremonies, and 50 years ago he built the brick vault for the First National Bank, founded by Col. Zediker. This bank building burned down 20 years later, but the vault is still intact in the present bank. Mr. Carpenter is now a writer of verse and songs to some extent, and on Sunday at the Methodist Church dinner, where a program was put on, he, by request, sang tow of his songs and recited one of his humorous poems to the delight of his listeners. Two years ago, when Mr. Carpenter was here he was made honorary member of the Travel Club.”

I think those people who are interested enough to help me find these neat stories and those who help me find all the legals on these farmsteads. To be able to put the names of these people on maps helps me bring them alive and into our lives in the year 2000. I so enjoy the ability to put people like Billy Carl, Jacob Carpenter, and Eleazer Perk on a farm in a home, in Franklin County. I have had the pleasure to walk the show place of Dr. Robert and Lorraine Money, and I thought, “this is where Jacob Carpenter really lived.” So to really walk this acreage owned by the Moneys, and to know it well I asked a well-known gentle man who lived North of the old Carpenter Place. “Tell me Carl Stuhmer, What do you know about this forty acres of land?” He was able to tell me the land as he remembered it: P. P. Eastwood owned the Jacob Carpenter land when Carl was a young man. He remembered that the first old one-story house burned in the 1930’s. Eastwood replaced the burned home with a new one-story home on the same spot. Carl was sure the first house was an old house. Another source said the reason the new house sat on the same spot as the burned one was because only part of the old one burned, so they just added onto the unburned part.

If you are ever invited to walk the grounds of the Moneys (once owned by Jacob Carpenter), consider it an honor and don’t turn it down, for you will find yourself touring an ornamental garden. Every nook and cranny of the yard is full of flowers of all kinds, planted to bloom at just the right time. Water gardens and ponds spread north and south of their home, adorned with day and night blooming water lilies. Among the lilies are all kinds of other water plants and the sound of water falls soothe your mine and soul. It’s a sight you won’t want to miss. I was so impressed by this yard that I went back more than once. The best part was, Lorraine shared a peach water lily and some cattails with me and, do you know what? -They actually lived and bloomed in my makeshift water barrel.

I must warn Lorraine: This coming season I will be back and I have purchased real water barrels this time and I have my gold fish growing in an aquarium in my office, beside my desk. All I need is for April to come, but on this snowy night in January, springtime is only a wish.

“We’ve had our May, my darling, and our roses, long ago;
And the time of the year has come, my dear,
For the long dark nights, and the snow.” Rembrandt Peale

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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