Page 23 - AreaNewsletters "Apr2023"

COMMUNITY INFORMATION
were settlers enough to justify a state organization.
Douglas County extended
from the Platte River on
the west to the Kansas line
on the East at the time.
The settlers were mostly
in the western part of the
county and located along
the creeks. All were young
or middle-aged men and
very few families. The men
all seemed very friendly and
made frequent calls on each other for social chats. On hearing of a new family locating anywhere in the county a few of the young men would mount their ponies and ride for miles across country to pay their respects to the new comers and to feast their eyes on a calico dress. There were laggards or deadheads among the early settlers. That class of men were content to live and die in the country where they were born.
I remember at one time working with another man, fixing the road across a gulch, when a covered wagon halted nearby and the driver came to inquire about vacant land and other matters as home seekers looking for a location. We saw in the wagon an old man with glowing beard and snow-white locks, who resembled the picture of Santa Claus. This prompted us to ask why such an old man should venture out into a new rough section like this. Well, he said the old man was past labor, but he would do to start a cemetery. No one thought for a moment that these hills and ridges would
Smith’s home in the Craig & Gould area, built in 1904
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
ever be fenced and had it not been for the Yankee who invented the barbed wire no doubt but a large part of Douglas County would now be an open stock range.
It was the custom among the early settlers when they were away on business or pleasure to leave the latch string of their cabin door hanging out and anyone away from his own range was at liberty to enter if hungry and help himself to keep his stomach from caving in . I never will forget a hard day’s ride I had looking for a two-year-old heifer ... near Happy Canyon ... never did find her. When I returned, I was tired and it was almost dark – quite so inside my cabin. I lighted the candle – candles were in fashion then. I found a piece of paper with a steel fork pinning it to the top of my table, on which was penned the following:
Hello Smith:
Many thanks for favors received, but when we call again, please have some better bread in the bread box. Signed,
WILD BILL,
“PICKET PIN”
That was friendliness we all liked. Those little acts
of social effort, and we would gladly repeat, “Call again, call again, Wild Bill and Picket Pin”.
Lizzie & Upton in front of their original homestead
23
Castle Rock “AreaNewsletters” • April 2023