Nelson Family Juvenilia
Box 1 Folder 37
The Pioneersman, Vol. 1, No. 5 - n.d.

The Pioneersman

Vol. 1 No. 5 Published by E. H. Nelson & Co. Bird Nest. F.C. Dec 16

The Border War

In Four Chap. Chap 3

The noise kept coming nearer and then all of a sudden it changed its direction and went towards the fence this I saw was going to bring what even twas more with in the range of my gun and I rather suspected that it was a Union trying to creap up on me. It went round towards the fence and as it got just between me and the road I caught a glimse of something and I thought well that one of my men trying to find some place of concealment and had put my hands to my mouth to whistle to him when it came out in plain sight and I saw that it was a woodchuck that set me up a little and I kept still alert that after a while it became dark then I cralled out and got in to the road and started off keeping a good look out for I couldn’t see two yards ahead of me. I had gone I should think about a mile when I heard someone step in the road I said “Halt” and there was an instant russell at the side of the road and then a crackling in the brush. I knew what that meant it was one of my men and he supposed me to be a Union so I gave my peculiar call and the man answered then I heard him coming back and when he had got in to the road I spoke to him in a whisper just then there came a call from further down the road that I recognized as a Union call so we slipped down beside of the road in to the bushed and soon [page break] we heard the light footsteps of a man walking in the road it was a Union trying to get our location then he began to flash light with a dark lantern along the side of the road by he had miscalculated the distance between him and us and so had got to far ahead to find us then in a little while two more men came along and then everything was quiet so we got in to the road and went on through the darkness as it began to grow light a little we heard a part of horsemen coming along over the road and we had just the time enough to get in the cover of the bushes by the side of the road when they thundered past. There was a good score of them all tall and broad shouldered men on large army horses. “How I wish I was in the places” said my companion. “It would be more fun than laying here in the bushes” I answered. We dared not get in to the road again and we did not want to stay in the bushes close to the road and it was all open field for more than a mile either way but up the road the way we had come there was a brook lined with alders most of the way from the road to the woods about a mile distant so we climbed over the fence with out being seen and followed on the other side of the wall keeping watch lest the farmer or some of his hired men should see us on that side or a Union on the other. We soon got to the brook then we waded crawled and swam up this till we got to the woods. Then we found a sugar house and stayed there for the day in perfect safety. I kept watch part of the time and let my companion sleep then he kept watch and let me sleep. Joe Jam

Continued.

[Page break] Biographies

Geo. Washington

Geo. Washington was born in Nov. 1860 at Mountain City Big Continent his father was a printer he lived at this city till he was eighteen doing some carpenter work and helping his father with the printing while he was helping his father he saw a good many thousand papers leave the office of his father but he got discontented with the ways of his country and wanted to do something great so he began to try and get the young men of his acquaintance to go with him and begin a new republic on the new country that had just been discovered. At last a dozen boys joined him and they bought a ship and started for the new country, He had barely enough crew to sail from here to Forest Continent in fair weather and if there should come a storm he might go down but it happened that he went at a lucky time and got safe to Forest Continent and called it they had formed a new republic George then wrote to Will Little and told him that a new republic had been formed by him-self and several others and that they wanted his protection for a while. He recieved a reply that if he wanted to make a new republic he must take care of it his self. William Little also sent them a chart marking the limit of their republic. George soon had more people coming to his land they all agreed and elected him president and he had made a very good one as long as he has ruled. [Illustrations of George’s birthplace and his first house in Chipewa] He had built up one city and helped Burt Green and William Little build a railroad through his.

Horace Ray

[Page break] Terms

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How to Trap the Rabbit

The rabbit is a timid little animal of a reddish brown color in summer and pure white in winter he lives mostly in the swamps and where there are a number in one piece of woods they get paths made round through the snow. There are a good many ways to catch this little animal. Though realy it is not very small weighing from three to five pounds and measuring from the tip of it hind foot to the tip of it front feet about two feet and a half long. The trap I like best for catching the rabbit is the box trap this is made the same as any box trap only that it has two ends and that the stick comes out of the side instead of at the back like the diagram below another way is to set a snare over the path so that as the rabbet comes a long the path he puts his head through and gives the rope a jerk and lets the tree loose that is fastened down this springs up and takes the rabbet in to the air and still another way is to set a steel trap under the snow as if setting it for a muskrat and bate it with sweet apple.

Burt Green