1931
the memories of 92-year old fannie giddings norris, who was one of the original settlers
|
Fannie Giddings came to Nebraska in 1858 as a 16-year-old girl. Two years later, at age 18, she married C. H. Norris. This WONDERFUL collection of her memories by her grandchildren is undated. It is now preserved in pdf form on CD #8 in the Stehlik Museum of the Table Rock Historical Society. Within the same folder is a clipping about Fannie's 90th birthday. Perhaps these memories were collected at about that time. There being no other clue to the date of these stories, the approximation of 1931 has been seized upon.
|
Fannie's father, C. W. Giddings, is regarded as the founder of Table Rock. Her sister, Lydia Giddings, was married to John Gere, whose murder by Indians is one of the sigificant stories of Table Rock history. These memoirs are a quick read and have many fascinating details of many subjects:
** Her general recollections of life as a child in the east.
** Her father's decision to form the Nebraska Settlement Corporation and move the family west to the Table Rock site.
** Details of the family's journey to Nebraska -- by rail from Scranton, Pennsylvania to St. Louis, by river boat from there to Aspinwall, Nebraska (a tiny river village east of Schubert), and by wagon from there to Table Rock.
** The buying out of the Table Rock Town Company by the Nebraska Settlement Company.
** The earliest days of Table Rock (in multiple places)
** The first building in Table Rock was a two-story hotel where the Methodist Church now stands.
** Schooling in the earliest days
** Going to church in the earliest days.
** Her marriage to Chauncey Norris in 1860 and her life with him, including his absence to fight in the civil war, his days as an Indian agent at the White Cloud reservation.
** The life of her sister Lydia and her husband John -- Lydia Giddings Norris and John N. Gere, who was killed by Indians.
** Her sister Lydia's second husband, "Mr. Holmes," was the engineer who laid out the Wymore rail line.
** The building of the mill and the death of the miller's wife
** The hanging of the horse thieves in 1864
** The Underground Railway
** The grasshopper plague of 1874
** Getting the mail
** Women's suffrage
** Temperance and prohibition
** Her general recollections of life as a child in the east.
** Her father's decision to form the Nebraska Settlement Corporation and move the family west to the Table Rock site.
** Details of the family's journey to Nebraska -- by rail from Scranton, Pennsylvania to St. Louis, by river boat from there to Aspinwall, Nebraska (a tiny river village east of Schubert), and by wagon from there to Table Rock.
** The buying out of the Table Rock Town Company by the Nebraska Settlement Company.
** The earliest days of Table Rock (in multiple places)
** The first building in Table Rock was a two-story hotel where the Methodist Church now stands.
** Schooling in the earliest days
** Going to church in the earliest days.
** Her marriage to Chauncey Norris in 1860 and her life with him, including his absence to fight in the civil war, his days as an Indian agent at the White Cloud reservation.
** The life of her sister Lydia and her husband John -- Lydia Giddings Norris and John N. Gere, who was killed by Indians.
** Her sister Lydia's second husband, "Mr. Holmes," was the engineer who laid out the Wymore rail line.
** The building of the mill and the death of the miller's wife
** The hanging of the horse thieves in 1864
** The Underground Railway
** The grasshopper plague of 1874
** Getting the mail
** Women's suffrage
** Temperance and prohibition
