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| Adam Ickes |
There is no 1890 census in existence, but the 1890 veteran's census shows the Ickes family living in Potter, NE, so we know Ellen and Alle are still parked on the homestead. (We know that from the homestead documents as well.)
April 1890 began the establishment of the town of Ickes, Nebraska - complete with a post office set up to serve 75 people. Here's the history as listed online:
"John Brayton had asked to name the post office Fairview. However, that name was crossed out and Ickes written instead. The original location was about 10 miles west of Dalton on Road 58, about 1 mile west of Jay Peter's home (NE 1/4, 34-17N-51W).
"Local information indicates that the post office was in the home of Jacob P. Eckert. John E. Sanders then moved it to his home, the location being 6-16N-51W, close to where Phil Sanders lives on road 56. At some point, it may have been moved again, as Davison's petition for a site change showed a map locating Ickes in the SW part of NW 1/4 26-17N-51W, or about a mile north of the proposed change. On Aug. 18, 1894, James Davison requested locating the Ickes Post Office to SE 1/4, 26-17N-51W, which is where Jay Peter's now lives, about 9 miles west of Dalton on Road 58.
"The Ickes Post Office was closed on August 15, 1915.
"There is a historical marker on that spot commemorating the Ickes Post Office."
Lincoln Evening State Journal
July 25, 1936
(transcript)
Old Water Holes All That Is Left of Pioneer Town of Ickes
SIDNEY, Neb. (AP). One of the last outposts of a frontier civilization that sprung up with the building of the railroad was the old town of Ickes, population seven, located in Cheyenne county about 35 miles northwest of Sidney.
Actually there is no town left on the old site of Ickes, altho [sic] the census maps list it as possible the smallest town covered by the 1930 population county. There never was much of a town, pioneers recall, but the old postoffice and frame ranch house that once occupied a remote spot on the western prarie were welcome sights to many a frontiersman and rancher in the days of horse and buggy travel.
Ickes was named after Adam Ickes, western Nebraska pioneer. The postoffice was near a series of water holes fed by springs, and Ickes was more of a watering stop for stock than a haven for human beings. Yet the old settlement lived for years after civilization settled the panhandle, and it became somewhat of a tradition in the rich history of western Nebraska.
Adam Ickes was the first treasurer of Cheyenne county. In those days Cheyenne county covered most of western Nebraska and it was a good week's journey to cover it from border to border by horseback or buggy. The town of Ickes actually consisted of a crew of ranch hands, together who whoever happened to be postmaster at the time. Never in its history did Ickes have more than eight or ten persons.
Nothing remains to mark the old town site except a few scattered farm dwellings and the old water holes. Pioneers can point out the exact spot where the old postoffice was located, but that section is now served by rural mail route. Adam Ickes has been dead many years and no other members of the family are living in Cheyenne county.
Horace got married in September of 1890 and sometime after that, he didn't say exactly when, moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming and then to Sterling, Colorado where my grandfather, William Bunn, was born in 1895. So with business dropping off and Horace leaving it could have been sometime after 1890 that Adam relocated his business to a smaller store as discussed in an earlier post.
16 May 1891 Adam delivered an address to the Sidney, Neb. Teacher's Institute.
Intellectual and Manual Education
The education of the hand must be recognized to be just as
necessary as the education of the head.
Our reason should be cultivated because it is one of God’s best gifts to
man, the argument applies equally to our bodily powers. Nearly all men encourage or sanction the
intellectual education of the masses as public expense by the public, but, the
manual education of the masses is only looked after by the parents, and too
often sadly neglected by them. Parents
are very often at fault in permitting their children to grow up without a
knowledge of manual labor. Their sons
may be able to unravel knotty problems in mathematics, give an intelligent
reason why water will not run up full, but they are unskilled in the use of the
saw the hatchet the plow and the hoe and I have seen those make a miserable
failure in the attempt to harness and hitch a house to a wagon. Their daughters can entertain company, talk
of the true the beautiful and the good converse freely and intelligently on
various topics, discuss the fashions of the day and such like, but they are
ignorant of household duties from the cellar up and could not for the life of
them make a respectable looking roll of butter or bake a loaf of bread.
It is just as necessary for a man to know how to earn his
living as it is to know how to vote. “Is
ignorance dangerous to the commonwealth?”
Idleness is equally dangerous.
“Does the education of the head prepare a man for the better discharge
of his social duties?” So does the
education of the hand. Learning is the
ally of morality and virtue”. So is
manual labor.
Learning gives a man a feeling of independence and
self-respect, so does industry. Learning
tends to keep a youth from low company and base habits, so does industrial
labor. Physical training is just as
necessary for the full development of personal character as intellectual
training.
Physical development is essential to the growth and vigor of
the mental faculties. Who does not
admire the well developed country lad or lass with sun burn hands and face but
with the glow of health and vigor beaming in their countenances, having the
courage and strength to hew their way to success.
To be skilled in the capacity of a farmer or tradesman does
not unfit a man for the highest profession.
It is rather a source of pleasure and gratification to the professional
man to be able to take up a hammer and nicely shape a piece of iron or to turn
a furrow with a plow, and vice versa the skilled mechanic or farmer delights in
rich intellectual treats. The martyr
Lincoln was a rail-splitter, the hero Grant was a tanner and the lamented
Garfield endured the kicks and cuffs administered to subordinates on the ferry
boat.
“Man can not live by bread alone”. The possession of a good common school
education, which was once so rare as to be a mark of distinction, is now so
common as to be noticed only when it is wanting. Our wonderful facilities for elementary
education has flooded the country with teachers, lawyers, doctors, clerks,
salesmen, runners and petty traders. The
evil seems to be that of making a discrimination in favor of the man that lives
by his wits, and against the man that lives by the sweat of his face. Therefore in the train of our immense army of
producers and distributors there is following another army of hungry
camp-followers, without either the hands to produce or the head to distribute,
but with stomachs that must be filled at the expense of honest producers and
distributors, and this army is daily increasing in numbers and acquiring
strength by organization. We have now
companies, we shall ere long have regiments of tramps bummers, loafers, rough,
gamblers and one horse politicians. What
shall we do to correct this evil and stay the ride that is drifting to ruin and
desolation so many thousands of our population?
Teachers, we turn to you, a grave and fearful responsibility
rests upon you. You are to lead the
onward way to higher and better things.
Your calling high advanced, calls with noiseless and persuasive voice to
universal progress. Are you making the
most of your calling? Will your conduct
stand the crucial test of a noble life?
May we not hope that a thorough practical common sense intellectual
and manual education of the masses will teach all the plain duty of life and
that while the ladder may be crowded there is plenty of room at the top.
A. I.
5/16/91
Sidney, Neb. Teacher’s Institute
And apparently this had been going on...
Omaha Morning World Herald
September 5, 1891
Omaha World Herald
October 23, 1891
So this Edward McLernon guy was in cahoots with the county board to get Adam thrown out of office and take his place, even though Adam had been re-elected. Apparently they didn't trust him with the county's money. (Go figure.) The local courts couldn't find cause to force him to vacate his position, so McLernon took it all the way to the Nebraska Supreme Court. The supreme court sustained the lower court's decision. Either Adam didn't run for a third term or he was defeated. His political career ended at the end of 1891.
At least his good name wasn't completely tarnished as he delivered a patriotic address on the 4th of July in Chappel, NE. (I don't have the speech - only the newspaper clipping.)
Omaha World Herald
July 5, 1892
Adam began selling life insurance to supplement his income.
North Platte Tribune
March 22, 1893
North Platte Tribune
March 21, 1894
Later, Adam's daughter, Alle, wrote, "He tried farming on a homestead in Pumpkin Creek Valley, Cheyenne County but had to give it up, and then he took up writing Life Insurance for the Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York." But by 1890 Cheyenne County had already been divided and Pumpkin Creek Valley was in Banner County, so maybe she meant he tried farming on his own homestead outside of Potter. Who knows? All we know from the above newspaper clipping is that he was still in Sidney in 1894. And that's the last time we find him there.
The Sidney, Nebraska roller coaster ride had finally come to a stop.
All original content, images, commentary, etc. copyright © by Joy Denison 2015-2016. All rights reserved. All writings, poems, speeches, essays, images, scans, likenesses, etc. by Adam Ickes (b 1845) as well as personal histories, images, and all other content by all persons referenced and discussed within the pages and posts in this blog may not be copied, shared, or reproduced in any way without expressed permission by the owner unless included here from other referenced sources or are historical records already considered to be in the public domain.
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