Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

With the arrival of spring this week, I want to continue sharing with you the stories of Mary Sigman (Butterfield) Hublitz that she wrote for the North Bend Eagle Newspaper in 1917.

A Little Adventure And Sleigh Ride.

"I am going to tell you of the best sleigh ride I ever had.

"In the winter of 1864, my husband wrote to me that one of her regiment had to come home on a furlough and that he had sent me some money by him, and if I would go up to Mercer County I could hear about all the boys. Well, there was fine sleighing and a full moon. So I borrowed a light cutter and started before daylight so that I could have as much time to visit as possible, for I could only stay one night and it was about thirty miles to where I was going. I stayed the next day and visited the old neighborhood, saw the soldiers and heard from all the boys. I got the money that my husband sent me. That was the last time he ever sent me, for he was killed three months later in battle.

"Well I started home about three or four o'clock in the afternoon. As I went through a little town, the sun went down and I was about twenty-three miles from home and all alone. It seemed like it was going to be a long road. When I had gone about five or six miles further, I heard a racket and saw a team coning on the run with a big sled hitched up to it. I got up and called to them not to run over me but I soon saw that there was no one with the team. So I started my team on the run and stood up and struck at the passing team with a scarf and talked to them until they began to slow up. Then, I held my team in as they came up I was uneasy for fear they would knock a hole in my sleigh box, but I kept my team going just to suit their pace. They walked along for a little way and then started to go around me. I caught hold of the bridle of the near horse as he passed me and held them back. In a short time, I came to a house and I called the people out and asked them if they knew to whom the team belonged. They said it belonged to a man who had his house burned down the day before and he had just gone after his family. I had seen the house burning as I went up the day before. I suppose he had not tied his team, and when they saw me pass they had taken after me.

"The man invited me to come in and warm my self. I had gotten a little cold and my wraps had become loosened, so I went in and wasn't there many minutes until I had found they had friends in the 102nd regiment. So, we were well acquainted for everybody was kin if they had folks in the army. So, I had a visit and got my supper for catching the team, which was something that I did not expect to get that night, but I am lucky sometimes, you see. I stayed a while and then pulled out for home. I was lonesome after I started again. I had not thought much about having company, but that was all that was lacking to make it the best sleigh ride I ever had.

"I stopped about two miles from home and changed the team from the sleigh to my sled, and when I got home and got my team watered, fed, and unharnessed it was half after one o'clock. I slipped into bed and the family did not know I was there until they got up in the morning—no one there but the children—but they were all right."

Consider the burden this woman carried: to be a full caregiver and supporter of her children because her husband chose to fight for the cause; then later to loose him in battle; and then to be truly alone. But in 1917 she could look back at this night and count herself lucky.

Not many women today would make a 30-mile journey like she made. Mary was a valiant lady, trodding on in good faith that life would get better. Consider as well the trusting manner Hugh relayed money to Mary and his family? This makes me thing people were very honest back then. I can imagine how excited Mary was to get to her friend's home and be able to question Hugh's comrades of the war. Tales like Mary's come far and few between. To be able to visualize how life was in the Civil War Days provides us in 1999 with the detailed impression of a personal reflection of a time known only to her.

I am thankful Mary took the time to write down these memories.

Work like you don't need the money,
Love like You've never been hurt,
Dance like nobody's watching. UNKNOWN, the internet.

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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