It was May of 1884 when Adam, 40, along with his family, Ellen, 41, Horace, 16, and Allegra, 12, moved almost 1,500 miles away from their native Bedford County Pennsylvania to the western frontier town of Sidney, Nebraska.
I don't know if Adam knew about Sam Kelner's dry goods store being for sale before he left or if he just got lucky and was able to make the deal after they arrived. Sam Kelner was a Hungarian immigrant who first settled in Columbus, OH and then worked in the dry goods business in St. Louis, Laramie City, and finally in Sidney from 1877. Apparently it was time for him to move on again. The Sidney store was 72' X 21' and was stocked mostly with clothing, shoes, boots, caps, hats, etc. Sam had employed three men.
Sidney, Nebraska was founded by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867 as a military outpost to protect the railroad against the threat of hostile Indians. The town grew up around the barracks and Sidney soon defined what we would call the wild, wild west. Up until 1882 it was referred to as "Sinful Sidney" and the "Wickedest Town in the West" as lust and lawlessness were pervasive. Sidney was the closest shipping point on the Union Pacific Railroad line to the gold discovered in the Black Hills and Deadwood. Sidney had seen the presence of legends like Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane, Doc Middleton, Buffalo Bill Cody, Butch Cassidy, and Jesse James. Lynchings, murders, and hangings were uncontrolled as the sheriff at the time was as corrupt as they come. The Molly McGuires and the Irish Mafia ran the town and contributed to the crime spree.
The town serviced its customers: gold seekers, freighters, soldiers, cowboys, desperadoes, and criminals. It was reported that as many as 80 saloons and numerous gaming halls, brothels and even the world's first 24-hour theater dotted Sidney's Front Street along the tracks. And let's not forget that, among other reputable businesses, there was Sam Kelner's dry goods store on Front Street as well. Though much of the commerce was immoral and debauch, it was indisputable, however, that there was lots of money to be made.
The largest gold robbery in the history of the US occurred in Sidney in 1880. (It remains unsolved even today.) As a result, the Union Pacific Railroad threatened to pull out, a move which would inevitably bankrupt the town. A vigilante group of local business owners composed and distributed a document titled, "Get out of Sidney Forever!", rounded up the 16 baddest of Sidney's bad boys and set out to hang them on the courthouse lawn. With one criminal hanging from a tree, it was reported that over 200 of Sidney's shadiest characters fled the town, and thus began the two-year clean-up of Sidney's days of unchecked crime and corruption. An important point to note: although the criminal activity may have left the area, the abundance of immoral and debase local businesses, however, did not. Even son Horace would later write that Sidney had "27 saloons and dance halls and no churches". (He must have counted them.)
I'm giving Adam the benefit of the doubt and assuming he had no way of knowing the horrific criminal history of the small, western town to which he relocated his family. Maybe Adam needed an adventure. Perhaps he was bored with the quiet, mundane life in Pleasantville as it was just too....pleasant. Most definitely he was looking to expand his wealth and he had heard that Sidney was just the place to do it. And maybe he wanted to be out from under that controlling, overbearing father of his and venture out on his own. It didn't much matter how the rest of the family fared as a result of the move because the culture at that time dictated that the male head of the household made all of the decisions based on the outcome that he deemed important. That's what patriarchy is and that's how patriarchy works. But enough about that. I promised to tell Ellen's story.
In May of 1884 Ellen left behind the only homeland she ever knew. I don't know if she had to say goodbye to her mother as there is simply no available documented evidence as to when her mother died. Since her father died before she was born, Ellen had learned through her mother to rely on extended family for sustenance and support. She had Callihans and Reiningers and Harbaughs and others, I'm sure, whom she called family. Her son, Horace, later wrote of many happy memories at great-grandfather Robert Callihan's house, sledding at great-uncle William Reininger's farm, and walking 2 1/2 miles through the woods to church with grandmother (Ellen's mother). Soon those would all be distant memories.
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| Ellen's Callihan cousins. Everyone over the age of about 15 would have been alive when she left Pleasantville. Photo courtesy of callihanfamilyresearch.org and Donald M. Callihan |
Ellen also said goodbye to her beautiful Pleasantville. Pleasantville was a small town, but she lived in the heart of it. She had friends and neighbors a stone's throw away whom she would never see again. Even in 1884 she had modern conveniences the likes of which would not be seen in Sidney, Nebraska for years to come.
She left two grown sons, though both would actually travel west themselves. And she left the graves of two baby boys she never had the privilege to raise. For this dutiful wife, the day she left Pleasantville had to have been a very, very sad day.
The homesteaders came to the great plains from places far and wide, hoping the free farm land would be their ticket to financial solvency. They were primarily new American immigrants, former southern slaves, and even single women grasping at their last hope for success. Adam came to profit off of them. Although the Homestead Act of 1862 was never meant to benefit those already financially stable, at some point Adam also decided to join them. I wouldn't have known this except for finding 33 pages of homestead documents with his name on them. Of course, he and son Horace had a respectable business to run in town, so the 160 acre homestead (much like the one in the photo below), 19 miles from Sidney, became the primary responsibility of Ellen. Here, in frightening loneliness, Ellen raised Allegra, miles from outside conversation, void of transportation, constantly dirty and working to exhaustion in the harshest and most primitive of circumstances. Adam visited occasionally. Details to follow.
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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