"In the year 1862, I came to Nebraska with my parents and we settled at the old salt basin, now known as Capitol Beach. A few families made up what was called a colony, later known as Lancaster. In the fall 1863 my father was elected constable, and this was the first attempt to call in the aid of the law.

People now-a-days think they have hard times. They have good clothes, automobiles, and most have money they need. In those days, we wore grain sacks for trousers no different clothes for Sunday either. I had one pair of buckskins that I wore until I outgrew them. We had to be content with the simplest diet, cornbread was an old standby, we roasted the corn and ground it in a coffee mill. 

For coffee we raised beets, cut them in pieces and roasted them. There was plenty of wild wheat and it could be used for coffee. There were very few people to visit with, we were entertained by wolves. We had one Indian scare. We buried our supplies in a cave and left for Stevens Creek. We stayed there two days and came back, no trouble had developed. 

We lived at the Salt Basin until 1868 during which time we scraped salt out of the basin and peddled it over the country for store purposes. We made barrels and sold them to a miller at Weeping Water. The mill and the miller's house were all that made up the town.

During the Civil War we made ram-rods, wagon spokes and fellows and hauled them to Nebraska City and sold them. All the hauling was done by oxen and was slow moving. From the Basin, we moved to the homestead known as the Flodeen place south of Raymond. I planted the walnuts that grew into trees that now stand by the road. I intended that they should be thicker than they are but they didn't care to be friendly. 

My parents lived in a log house and it served as a road house for several years. We went to school in a dug out where Albert Carlson lives, later Mrs. C. C. White taught school in a log house on the A. O. Stearns place. During this time, my father took the contract to haul wood to burn the bricks for the first university building. I helped haul the wood from Oak Groves above Valparaiso. It was a real job, all the streams were forded and if we got stuck we had to throw the wood over and reload on the other side.

In 1872 the Oak Creek Mill was built by George Baker. I traded my share in the homestead for the mill, then sold in 1873 for a filing right on the Morgan 80 known as the Luther Howard place. That year was grasshopper year. I had a good corn crop but stalks were all I had left, grasshoppers ate the onions out of the ground, just leaving a hole where the onions had been. 

Nebraska did not look good to me then. I traded my land for a team and wagon and we moved by covered wagon to Iowa in 1874. I did not like it in Iowa, came back in 1878. We lived in a dug out on Elk Slough near the Barney Spath place and I worked in the Oak Creek Mill owned by Doc Strickland. I worked with a team and wagon and boarded myself for $40.00 per month. 

In 1878 we moved back to the old homestead and I farmed there until 1880. In 1878, the survey was made by the R.R. and it went thru my cornfield. The R.R. still owes me for the corn and the land. In 1880, we moved to my own place now owned by J. A. Jackson which I bought for $8.00 per acre. We lived in a dugout until 1893, then built the home which is now owned by Pearl Corden.

The first Post office was Orlando and was a log cabin near the place where Clyde Campin now resides. The mail was handled from Lincoln. People from Crounse had to go to Lincoln after their mail. There wasn't much reading matter, one family would take a paper and it would make the rounds to the rest until one could hardly make out the letters. 

Raymond was started in 1878. The R.R. Co. gave it the name. The first house was a log house at the Chas. Priest place. The first store building stood where the bank now stands. I was 10 years old when I came to Nebraska and have lived near Raymond practically all my life. I am as satisfied with the small town as most people are with the large town."