News Articles
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Shot Dynamite from Rifle
A Nebraska Lad Fitting Himself for a Naval Career
Washington, August 10. – Secretary Bonaparte wrote a letter today to an embryo Nebraska inventor which is designed to interrupt some interesting, experiments in throwing explosives.
John Sweeney, a 17 year old boy from Ericson, Nebraska, wrote to the secretary asking for a full statement of the requirements for admission to the naval academy and outlining some experiments he is conducting in throwing dynamite, preparatory to becoming a useful officer of the navy.
The you inventor says that at present he is able to throw .064 of an ounce of dynamite, 150 yards with a Winchester .44 caliber, range 300 yards.
With a large siege gun, he says he believes he could throw 400 pounds of dynamite six miles, and asks if his achievements will not assist him in gaining admission to the Annapolis Academy.
Secretary Bonaparte replied to the young man that his experiments were better adapted to taking him to a cemetery than to the Naval Academy, and suggested that he abandon them and adopt some other means of preparing himself for a naval career.
Emporia Gazette – August6 10, 1906
Rancher Shot and Killed
Ericson, Nebraska, February 21. – O. P. Beeson, a former well known resident of Butler County, Nebraska, who recently became a ranchman of Wheeler County, was shot and killed this afternoon by D. F. Mason, a man little known in this community.
Some of Beeson’s hogs wandered onto the neighboring ranch of Phillip Crimmins, with whom Mason lived.
When their owner went for them there was a quarrel and Mason shot Beeson.
Mason is in jail.
Grand Forks Herald – February 22, 1912
Sand Hills Ranchers
Two gentlemen from the sand hills of Nebraska (Grant County) are in the city for the purpose of buying thoroughbred stallions and brood mares.
They are Messrs J. E. and C. A. Teater and they control a ranch of 12,000 acres within fences. Their ranch, which occupies government lands, is within a short distance of both the South Dakota and Wyoming State Lines.
In an interview Mr. J. E. Teater talked very entertainingly of life in the West, and the cattle and horse raising industry as seen on the plains. "Our object in buying Kentucky horses is to improve the character of our stock," said Mr. Teater. "Our horses are the pony type -- short and choppy. By breeding with the Kentucky horse we will get a larger animal with greater lung capacity and better bottom. While our horses have great endurance, we can get even a more powerful and a more serviceable animal by mixing the breeds.
"We are producing a better grade of cattle -- that is bigger cattle -- than is raised here. We usually sell by the head, but estimated by weight we get about $2.65 per hundred. Since we have to pay no rent for land, scarcely any taxes, and do not have to feed our stock grain our profit is much larger than the Kentucky cattle raisers. Our cattle are all of short horn and "white face" or Hereford breeds.
"We are in the sand hill country, not an acre of which is cultivated, and there is not a stick of timber or a stone in the county that has been brought from other parts of the State. We also have to import all of our grain, etc. for provisions. Twenty varieties of grass were taken from our county to exhibit at the at the World's Fair. Buffalo grass and swamp hay are the principal varieties and those upon which the stock feed. We cut and stack the two grasses. They are very hardy and doubt does not kill them. Indeed, in years when we have had the most severe drouths the cattle have been of the best grade. Prairie fires are what is most to be feared. We had escaped two years without them, but the last fire burned hundreds of cattle alive in our district.
"I am sorry that people here have such an exaggerate. We do not allow bad men to lie in our country, Few of the ranchmen ever carry pistols and we have far less crime than you have in Kentucky. We are governed by neighborhood laws. The gravest offense a man can commit is to offer insult to a woman. If he does, he had better get out of the country that day if he can. We have a jail in Grant County, but in eight years there have been only three men confined in it."
Morning Herald - September 22, 1897
Mickey Will Run Behind
L. B. Unkefer of Hyannis, Grant County, Nebraska, came in with two cars of fine cattle from his ranch near Hyannis and left for home Monday evening.
Mr. Unkefer, besides being a stock raiser and rancher, is publisher of the Grant County Tribune, one of the best republican newspapers of that part of Nebraska. As a newspaper man he manages to keep in close touch with the political situation all over Grant and adjoining counties.
To the World Herald man Mr. Unkefer said, "Mr. Mickey will not get a very good vote in my section of the country. So far as the rest of the ticket is concerned, I am inclined to the belief that it will get its usual vote, but Mickey will run behind."
Mr. Unkefer is a republican.
Omaha World Herald - November 1, 1904
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