CROSSING THE PLAINS IN 1865 FROM SARAH RAYMONDS DIARY AS FOUND IN THE 1880 "ROCKY MOUNTAIN HUSBANDMAN" NEWSPAPER.

12 June 1865 Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory:

 Here we stood at fort Kearney, a major way station on the trail west, looking at eleven graves of men killed by Indians last August as they were at breakfast in camp on Plum Creek. There were two women, wives of two of the party.  One man who had left camp to get water was the only survivor . The invaders killed and skalped all the men at camp, and took the two women and whatever of the provisions in the wagons, then set fire to them, and ran off with the teams and the women.  The one man who had been at the creek for water went with all haste to the way station for help. There the soldiers chased the Indians, fought them, rescued the women. These folks were from St. Joe, Missouri

Pennsylvania Register
Contributed by Harrison


Description: Get To Know The 1702 Port of Lewes Tariff Collector, Henry Brooke, Aristocrat.
Date: December 19 1929

Newspaper published in: Pennsylvania

Source: Michael Morgan Collection

Page/Column: Delaware Diary

Lewes, Delaware
Henry Brooke was born to an aristocratic English family in the late 1600's, was an Oxford student in the early 1700's but included parties and carousing with his studies. His parents and teachers decided that he needed a dose of reality, so in 1702 he was removed from Oxford, handed a position as the tax collector for Port of Lewes on the Delaware, and so found himself on a sailing ship bound for America. While in Lewes Henry found the hot spot of town was a tavern at the corner of Second and Mulberry by name of Phillip Russells, where illegal card playing and other activities sometimes had the owner hauled into court. However, these activities did not satisfy Brooke and he often hitched a ride aboard a ship bound for Philadelphia where he caroused with other drinking buddies. In Lewes at his station one day in 1709 a French privateer came into Cape Henlopen and upset the towns people for fear of another pirate attack like they suffered in 1698. Unable to secure any assistance locally, Brooks set sail in a small sloop up the bay to Philadelphia for help from the governor but was refused. He then hired two ships and returned to Lewes with intentions to drive the Frenchmen away, however, they had already left for larger spoils. After this incident Henry Brooks seemed to mellow, perhaps growing older, declined his carousing and spent more time in his library, reading and writing and developed a respected reputation of knowledge and became the Speaker of The House of Representatives in the Lower Counties on the Delaware in 1717. In 1721 he was appointed to the Governors Council and five years later was appointed a judge of the colonial Supreme Court.