It is most appropriate that this week the story of my early days in Hamilton county shouldappear in print, for it was just sixty years ago today, March 3, 1879, that my family and I, with our emigrant car of household goods, personal effects, machinery--in fact all of our earthly belongings--arrived at Chapman, Nebraska, and were brought by wagon to Aurora, and it is here I have lived ever since. Enduring the hardships, experiencing the joys and the sorrows that only one of my years has been privileged to pass through-I will be 90 years of age April 24.

But I am getting ahead of my story. Let us go back to the place of my birth in Tioga county, in the southern tier of counties in New York state, where I first saw the light of day on April 24, 1849. I lived there until I was 12 and with my parents, Mr. and Mrs. James DeMaranville, I came to Bureau county, Illinois, in 1961 where I grew to manhood. I worked in the mines there for some years and on July 5, 1872, I was married to Miss Clara Kinkead of Mineral, Ill., at Tiskawa, Illinois.

My first trip to Nebraska was made in the spring of 1878 by covered wagon. I was accompanied by Jim Smith and his wife, Amanda, who joined me at Davenport, Ia. Smith used to work with me in the mines. IŠll always remember one incident that happened on that trip. I had left home with my faithful dog on the wagon, and some place in Iowa we lost him probably when we stopped over night. At any rate, the dog could not be found when we were ready to continue our journey. In a few weeks he arrived at our home in Illinois, making his way alone and crossing the Mississippi river. After a trip of a few weeks without mishaps, we arrived in Aurora. I bought an eighty- acre tract of railroad land two miles west of town for $7 per acre. I spent a hard summer breaking native prairie and when I returned to Illinois in the fall, I went by railroad, leaving my team for the winter with Charlie Kimball, who lived north of Aurora.

When we made the trip to Hamilton county the next year, my family consisted of my wife, my son, Fred, age 5, and a little daughter, the late Mrs. Jessie Squier. We rode the passenger coach while my brother-in-law, Warren VanVelzer, came through with the emigrant car, to take care of things. We took up residence on the King farm and the house consisted of a dugout and part frame structure.

The year 1879 was a busy one for us. Besides farming, I was spending all the time I could getting my own land ready for cultivation, and building sod premises--they were all made of sod--a new house, a large barn that had a combination cattle shed and chicken house under one roof. I even built a hog pen, using sod as the fence. We moved to our own place in the spring of 1880. We didnŠt yet have water, and carried it from a neighbors a short distance down the road. My daughter Grace, now Mrs. McLaughlin of Loup City, was born in the sod house.

It was a few years later that my father-in-law, Isaac Kinkead and wife came from Illinois, and, having served in the Civil war, he secured a homestead 6 or 7 miles west of Aurora, that had been reclaimed by the government. My father-in-law was a carpenter and he built us a good two-story frame house within a few years.

We were living in our frame house in 1888 when the noted blizzard came. We lived a half mile north and a quarter mile west of the schoolhouse, and as the storm was so severe and it was time for school to be dismissed I decided to go to the schoolhouse. My wife had just finished with some baking, so I filled a pail with food and started out. The snow was so thick and blowing so badly, I became confused and lost. I wandered to the railroad bridge and that gave me my directions again. I finally arrived at the schoolhouse and the young man teacher, several of the children, and I remained there until midnight when the storm cleared and the wind went down. Then we came home in safety. Some of the children started home in the storm and stopped at the E. B. Barton home for the night. No one loast his life in our vicinity. The mail carrier stopped at our house and remained overnight, and as I remember now, we had several there for the night. We crowded all our stock inside the barn and lost nothing in the storm.

There were no trees on our place until we planted them. We took slips of cottonwoods and put them into the ground. My wife never forgot my mistake in planting these slips. I found the small end slipped into the ground much easier of the two and I had planted all the slips upside-down when my wife discovered what I had done and they had to be taken out and replanted. We saved all of them in the draws, but on the higher land it was hard to get them to grow.

One night when my sister-in-law was staying overnight with us, she was sleeping on the second floor, when she heard persistent noises that kept her in terror all night. They wereprairie chickens making their queer hooting sound and she thought they were Indians. I had gone to the Platte river that day to bring back willows for fuel and I was most all night getting home. She was afraid to tell my wife for fear of scaring her, or she could have found out what the noise was. There were no tribes of Indians around by that late date, although there were a few scattered ones, and it was not uncommon for one to appear at your door occasionally. They always were begging for something to drink--just anything that would have a few spirits in it. However they were friendly and there was no danger of harm from them.

Speaking of fuel, it was a mighty scarce article in those days. I drove down to the Blue River many times to bring back loads of corn stalks to burn. Our sod house was always warm in spite of the fact that we had just a dirt floor.

Prairie fires were not uncommon and after a fire the children and I often took a basket orpail out on the prairie and gathered quantities of prairie chicken eggs. The fire bared thenests and destroyed the hatching qualities of the eggs, but they were fine for eating. One Sunday, we went to the Kinkeads for dinner and as we drove along we noticed a fire to the southeast of us. We arrived there, ate our dinner, and seeing smoke to the east by that time, we decided to start home. When we arrived home we fouind the fire had been around and had burned past us. Neighbors had come in and plowed furrows around our premises to save our buildings.

We had some good years and some lean ones. We always raised as much as we could in the garden but as we had no fences we kept only one cow and she was lariated out to graze. We got some eggs from our chickens, but in the winter time they didnŠt lay as we never heard of special rations in those days, and wouldnŠt have been able to get them if we had. So often times the children were happy with lunches of bread, spread with lard or fryings and sugar for their school lunches. I donŠt recall just the year when the grasshoppers came and stripped us of everything.

Our other two children were born after we moved into our frame house. They are Carly, now living in Scottsbluff, who was born in the summer of 1888, and Minnie, now Mrs.Clarence Stokesbary of Long Beach, who was born in the fall of 1889.

My wife and I moved into Aurora in 1908, and have lived comfortably through the years. She passed away in 1920 and since then I have made my home with my children. I am remarkably well for one of my years, but I do wish my memory was a bit better when I try to recall many of my early experiences. There were many happy years through my early years spent in Hamilton county despite hardships, but I have enjoyed the modern conveniences and wonderful inventions that have come to lighten the work in every walk of life. My many years in this good old world have given me an opportunity to see the vast changes as they have taken place.