The Frontier

Takes First Drink at Gunpoint

By MAUDE SILVERSTRAND
Special Correspondent

ATKINSON—Joe Miller, a resident of Holt county for the past 73 years, recently celebrated his 94th birthday anniversary in a quiet way at Atkinson.

Mr. Miller was born in Bluffton, Winneshiek county, Iowa, in 1859.

Most of his boyhood was spent in Iowa. At the age of 17, he went to northern Minnesota to work in the logging camps.

He was hired as a teamster. His work was to haul the logs from the woods on a sled to what was called the skidway. There they were rolled down a slope to the river where a key log held them in place until they had accumulated a number sufficient to send them further down the river in a boom to where they were loaded on rafts and taken on down to the sawmills.

The bolsters on the hauling sleds were seven feet. The logs were rolled up a ramp onto the sled and then the pins at either end were raised by the weight of the logs, forming a frame. Some of the logs weighed 1,700 pounds. The largest load hauled out while Joe was there was one of his own. The entire load weighed 7,000 pounds. For this work he received $90 a month and feed for his team.

At one time, Joe worked on a river boat with runs up the Tennessee river.

His life in most ways seemed to parallel the lives of most sturdy young men of the last half of the 19th century. They knew rough, hard work and adventure. They developed a keen sense of humor and the ability to look after themselves with as little trouble as possible but when it came they met it head on.

In 1880, he came to Holt county to take a look at the west. The following year he returned and brought his parents with him. They traveled by train from Charles City, Ia., to Niobrara City. At the latter place they joined a wagon train and traveled with oxen and covered wagon along the trail at the north edge of Nebraska and the Niobrara until they came to what was known as the "hay flats" at the head of Ash creek.

They built a log cabin, 16 x 22, hauling the logs from Carns. Joe made a trip to Neligh with a team of oxen to get lumber for the door, windows, floor and ceiling. The logs, when finished and ready to chink in, were still 8 inches thick.

He recalls many interesting and hair raising tales that vividly picture the life of the average Pioneer Nebraskan. He knew the famous outlaws of the territory, "Doc" Middleton and "Kid" Wade, and, like many others, he remarked that some early bad men were made to appear worse than they really were and some that really were bad went unnoticed and unpunished. He recalled for me the incident leading to his first drink of hard liquor. It was this way:

He had been riding along beside the boss of the group of freighters going from Long Pine to Wisner. This particular train was made up of 10 teamsters and a hundred oxen with a few extras for emergencies. When they reached O'Neill that evening, the boss asked him to go along to the saloon with him. On the way over Joe said, he was trying to make up his mind just what he would say if he was invited to drink.

When they entered the place it was crowded and at the bar sat a great big fellow, known in the community as "Big Roy" Linthacum, the cowboy.

Immediately the cowboy invited the boss to a drink and the boss in turn said, "Come on kid, have one."

Joe said he didn't believe he cared for one, whereupon "Big Roy" jerked out his gun and said, "So you think you're too good to drink with me, do you?"

Well, Joe said, he wasn't a bit too good. It could be that Big Roy was just kidding like lots of them did just to make a tenderfoot dance or it might be that he wasn't joking at all.

The "kid" drank his liquor like a man. That was the safest way if you didn't want to get into trouble.

In September, 1896, he was married to the late Charlotte L. Adams. He relates that at that time he was helping to locate homesteaders. A mutual friend brought the Adams—a father and daughter—to the Miller home. He introduced Joe to Mr. Adams and then he said, "Joe, meet Mrs. Miller."

Joe looked up and was convinced. Later, he told the friend he sure aimed to make that come true if he could. And he did.

Mrs. Miller died in 1930.

They had no children of their own but a nephew, Asa Boyce, became a vital part of their home.

There are two things in relation to his family tree of which Joe is quite proud. One is that his own pioneering instincts reach back to an illustrious ancestor, Peter Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam; and his wife's ancestors were equally entitled to be classed as pioneers. The king of England had given land grants in America to two branches of the Adams family. One grant was for land in Massachusetts. And from this branch came John Quincy and his son.

Joe's wife, the former Charlotte Adams, came from the branch of the family which received a grant of land located in Maine.

Mr. Miller is well acquainted with Mrs. Joseph Axtell of Stuart, who celebrated her 103rd birthday anniversary. Her story appeared in this paper on the 100th anniversary of her birth. She and Joe lived in the same community. He is well acquainted with another nonagenarian of the Stuart community, who now lives in Atkinson, Miss Tillie Colson. Miss Colson was 91 on her last birthday anniversary, which was in October. She is totally blind. Joe's birthday also is in October—on the 24th.