there was a little girl in our family story who was very interesting. her parents died when she was about three. She had a younger sister, and four older sisters; one was a half-sister, having the same father but an earlier mother. When her parents died, all six girls were in Ohio, near Cleveland. Her younger sister was adopted by a family in Wisconsin, relatives.

they had a gregarious uncle, freeman tisdel, a wealthy man who ran a hotel in warren, illinois. many of them ended up out there. he was involved in the founding of warren and was its first postmaster.

her oldest sister, the half-sister, met my great-great grandfather and married him in warren in 1858. there was a depression in 1857, and everyone was just trying to get by, but they had their baby pretty quickly as they were trying to make it. as i understand it, the young girl, ellen, who was now about six, looked up to her oldest sister, hattie, who was more like 20. that older sister was watching out for her. young ellen helped hattie with the baby.

word came of gold being found in pike's peak, colorado, and there was lots of excitement. menfolk were tired of the depression already and thought maybe money was to be had by going out there and mining for it. after all, it was only back in 1849 that gold had been found in california, and there were plenty of people around bragging about how they'd gone out there, found it, got rich, or at least knew someone who did. you needed certain tools, like pickaxes, and horses and oxen to lug things around. and you needed to get out there; the first problem was getting across the mississippi, which was wide and shallow but very muddy and treacherous in its own way. after that it was wild, uncharted plains all the way through iowa, nebraska and eastern colorado though there were wagon ruts on most of it.

the mnefolk included hattie's husband, james walker leverett, but also freeman tisdel. freeman tisdel had been wronged in a dispute over the founding of warren, and had begun selling everything out, preparing to vacate, hotel and everything. what about all these nieces he'd taken in? i'm not sure; some of them went back to ohio. they were not without resources. hattie and the baby waited for word on where the menfolk ended up; ellen remained in warren with her. the menfolk gathered up teams of oxen and tools and wagons and set out across the mississippi for pike's peak. pike's peak or bust.

the mississippi was as rough as its reputation, but in iowa city they caught the mormon trail west and settled into a rhythm. when they got west of des moines they saw little stone towers marking lane's trail which cut south at nebraska city and helped settlers make kansas a free state. lane's chimneys, they were called. but also they saw eastbound travelers who said pike's peak was a humbug. there was gold, yes, but it was too hard for normal people to get with a pickaxe. might as well turn around right here, they said.

instead they followed lane's trail, cut south in nebraska city, and before they got to the kansas line, stopped in the southeast corner of nebraska and settled a town called salem. it was 1859. nebraska was still a territory. there were very few houses, but james walker leverett had brought a sawmill, and he started making one. they sent one man back to get the womenfolk.

the women at that time included hattie and the baby, but also ellen. what else could she do? she was sticking with hattie at all costs, and if they were going to live out there, she was going with them. there was a cool way to travel now that the west was opening up. they could take the steamboat down the river, from warren, to quincy/hannibal, then take the new railroad from hannibal to saint jo, in western missouri on the missouri river north of kansas city. then there was another steamboat going up the missouri, from saint jo up to rulo, nebraska, in the southeastern corner. they'd get off the steamboat in rulo and go the last eighteen miles by horse & carriage, to salem.

the new railroad was scary enough - war was brewing and outlaws were robbing the trains - and the steamboats were a wild ride, since they didn't know the missouri, and it was a wild river - but what really scared ellen, who was nine, was the stage ride through indian country. it seemed to her so wild, so dark, so wild-west. as it turned out, there were so-called indians there, between rulo and salem, the sauk and fox, but they turned out to be friendly. when they finally met her, they were quite taken with her blonde hair and offered to have her come live with them, and they meant it. they would have taken her in that minute. but she was a nine-year-old girl, being brought up in salem, a pioneer community. she went to school with other children. she helped hattie in whatever way she could.

life was not easy, and the baby died. hattie had three more, while they were out there, and kept taking care of ellen, as well as freeman and a few other people. james finished building their house. war broke out back in the east. it was the civil war, war of all wars.

ellen lived the life of a kid in a pioneer village. she liked the people and came to like the place. she came to not be afraid of the indians, and to be useful to hattie and the family. the following year, the five thousand settlers in nebraska voted against statehood. two men were shot and killed in nearby falls city in a dispute over which town should be county seat of richardson county; salem ultimately lost that opportunity to falls city itself. neither town has more than a couple thousand today, and rulo is dinky too. it's the plains; it's pretty hard to get food out of the ground.

in 1864 the family turned around and went back to illinois. they heard about indians in the west, coming back east, and burning everything down on their way. these, the pawnee, were the original residents of southeast nebraska. they had been promised protection from the sioux, if they were to just move west and out of the way for the settlers, but the promise had been broken. they were angry. they had lost their homeland, and they'd been attacked in the west. and they were coming back.

the family loaded up everything they owned in their covered wagon, and set off the same way they came, into iowa, across the nishnabotna, across the plains on lane's trail. the nishnabotna was flooding because of heavy rains. by now ellen was 14. she was watching the babies in the back of the wagon, on their straw beds. there was a rickety bridge on the nishnabotna and everyone was allowed to walk across the bridge while the team tried to get the wagon across the river. eventually they made it, and made it across iowa, too. one had to figure out how to feed one's horses; but if that was done, everything else was easy.

back in illinois, her sisters had gone back to ohio, so ellen just kept on going. but when she found her other sisters, she told them about nebraska. she sold them on nebraska. in 1867, she was to go back, marry, and have eight children or so. her sisters would follow and do the same.

all except hattie. hattie, with her new family, ended up in wisconsin for twelve years, and then south dakota for eleven. south dakota was much like nebraska - a territory, wild, just developing, with a wild river running through it and nasty, cold winters. in the panic of 1893 hattie and james decided they had to leave, and turned to their friends down in southeast nebraska.

their best friend lived across the state line in kansas, so they moved there. by now they were in their sixties; their children were grown. but ellen was in the area, and her sisters too. hattie got to see everyone again.

ellen had maintained all along that it was a good place; people were nice. they helped each other out. winters were hard. it was not for the faint-hearted. but ellen was tough. she had seen much of the world, from ohio on west anyway, and it suited her. whe was considered one of the early founders of southeast nebraska.