This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Ricketts, Platt, Jacobs Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ok.2ADE/1557 Message Board Post: SOURCE: Unknown. DATE: July 8, 1937.--"S.F. Ricketts Knew History".--If you want to know something of the early history of the western part of Fremont county, that part bordering on the Missouri river west of Percival known to the first settlers as "Civil Bend," you should converse with Samuel Platt Ricketts, who was eighty-five March 28. This aged pioneer has lived in that community more than eighty years. No one is more familiar with the history of this region than this citizen of Percival. It is interesting to hear him tell of the things he has experienced, the early settlers he has known, the changes that have taken place in that part of the county. Mr. Ricketts was nearly four and a half when the family arrived in Civil Bend. They had come from near Oberlin, Ohio, from the Great Western Reserve. Their farm back east was but eight miles from Lake Erie. The family group were the father, Richard Ricketts, the mother, Charlotte Elizabeth Ricketts, and five children, Charlotte Elizabeth, Richard, Mary, Samuel Platt and Asel Edwin. Another child, Myra Grace, was not born until in 1857. The route the family took for its western journery from Oberlin, Ohio, was the one that crossed the Mississippi at Rock Island, passed through Iowa City and on to the western part of the state. It took most of the summer to make the trip. They arrived early in the fall of 1855. It required two covered wagons and a double seated buggy all drawn by horses, to bring their equipment. The buggy probably was the first vehicle of its kind brought to Fremont county. While enroute west they crossed ponds and marshes on corduroy roads made of heavy logs. While in some places the logs were none too close to each other, they served to keep the horses and wagons and buggy from miring in the mud. When crossing one of these places in Iowa Mr. Ricketts' mother remarked at the time that it reminded her of the road at the southern end of Lake Michigan. Corduroy roads were quite common in those days for there was much swampy land. By making such a highway they saved taking long detours. Mr. Ricketts' father, Richard Ricketts, was born in Baltimore, Md., Feb. 6, 1802. The father of Richard Ricketts died before his son, Richard was born, and the mother died when he was but six weeks old. Samuel Ricketts' father was born a slave owner, for in the estate which the orphan boy inherited were five negro slaves, two men, two women, and a baby of one of the women. His father was raised by an uncle and this negro mammy. The estate at the time of his inheriting the same was estimated to be worth $15,000. When he had become of age it had dwindled away so that all he received was a $20 gold piece. Some of the family estate became a part of a large city in New Jersey. Sixty acres of the original inheritance was located near Harper's Ferry, made famous because of John Brown's raid. Mr. Ricketts' father was bound out to a cabinet maker when thirteen and served until he was eighteen. I N D I A N S: Samuel Platt Ricketts did not see any Indians until he came to Civil Bend. There was no Indians residing in the county then, but every winter some of the Pawnees from Nebraska camped in the timber along the Missouri river. The Pawnees knew Lester W. and his wife, Elvira Platt, for they had been missionaries among them in Nebraska in the early forties. The Indians highly respected these missionaries. Coming to visit them they found the region a desirable place to hunt and trap. The heavy timber furnished them shelter and fuel. The marshes provided an abundance of mink and muskrat. These they trapped and sold the furs. Muskrat furs then brought ten cents. Wild game provided them with an abundance of food. The Pottawattamies, whose home had been in western Iowa, often came back from Kansas to visit this section. They preferred to camp around the old Lake Waubonsie and in the Waubonsie hills. One time Mr. Ricketts attended a Pawnee war dance. The original tribes were very war-like and probably were feared more than any other in the mid-west except the Sioux. There were quite an Indian village camped in the neighborhood that winter. The Indian braves were dressed in the war regalia typical of that day. Their faces were painted in glowing colors characteristic of their tribal customs. There was something wierd and suggestive about their native music and about their movements. The Indian bucks possessed tomahawks and spears, which they brandished in fiendish glee like they did in the days when they planned to go to war against some enemy tribe. It startled Mr. Ricketts to see them swing the tomahawks as though they were going to strike the squaws who witnessed the ceremonies. When he saw how stoically and unconcerned the squaws met their threats his fear abated. The Indian ceremonials of those days were a perfect reproduction of the ancient tribal customs. It wa! s so intense and so realistic that its impress was so marked that as he relates the story you can almost feel the emotions that surged through him at the time. L O N G D A R T S One day Mr. Ricketts saw two Indians, dressed only in breech cloth and sandals, playing a game of skill. Each had some long darts pointed with barbs.They would roll rings made of buckskin. When the rings began to wabble they would see how often they could throw a dart through the center, before it struck the ground. They seemed to enjoy the sport, were very enthusiastic in their efforts, and were remarkably expert in the use of the darts. On one occasion the folks in Civil Bend had quite an Indian scare. Word had come to them that hostile Indians from the north were advancing toward Lincoln, Nebr., and might move eastward across the river into Iowa. But they never came. When you hear the early settlers of Fremont county talk about Civil Bend, remember that it was not a village or a city. On the maps of the county, even of that early day, you will find it not. It was a section in the bend of the Missouri river. Draw a line on you county map due north and south about a mile west of Percival, make it long enough so that it will cut the river at each end of the line, and all the territory lying between that line and the river was known as "Civil Bend". It was given that name in derision by those who lived in a bend of the river just south of them. This bend was called the "Devil's Bend" on account of the rough character of some of its citizens. The next story about Mr. Ricketts will tell about floods, severe winters, wild game, prairie fires, the "Underground Railway", volunteers for the Union army, fighting in the west.--Rev. Peter Jacobs "Just Folks", taken from the Shenandoah Evening Sentinel of March 17, 1936.