Arthur Reid Thomson was only 16 years of age when he boarded a ship for America. His grandfather, he claimed, was sending him to his uncle in New York. However, he never arrived at his uncle’s doorstep. Had he, his road to a homestead would have taken a very different path.
Canada
It was May 1843 when Arthur arrived in Quebec, Canada. It is hard to imagine what was going through his mind during his journey and upon seeing a whole new land, which was so vast in comparison to his homeland of Scotland. He was truly alone, as he had sailed without his brother Alexander “Sandy”, his sister Genia and her husband, or his grandparents. And, his parents were long deceased. He stated that he wrote letters home, but received no response. Thus, he was truly alone in a vast new country.
His only support came from friends, supposedly of the name Hutchinson. He apparently spent time in Montreal, Canada with them. However, he did not put down roots there. Instead, he traveled on. He may have traveled to Rochester, New York. This was likely before he immigrated to the United States in 1847, since it is much closer to Montreal than it is to Detroit, where he crossed when immigrating.
Immigration
Exactly where Arthur traveled in those early days in the Americas isn’t 100% clear. It is said that he may have come to Nebraska about the time Nebraska City became the first city to be incorporated in Nebraska Territory. However, other accounts seem to leave out this early journey to Nebraska.
Marriage
It would be 12 years before Arthur would settle down enough to marry Margaret Ronald. Margaret, who was about 10 years Arthur’s junior, was also an immigrant from Scotland, having arrived in the United States in 1856. At 7:00 p.m. on May 9, 1859, they married at the home of Andrew Christy in Berlin, Wisconsin. However, they would not make Wisconsin their home for long.
Nebraska Territory Here We Come
1860
Within a few months, Arthur and Margaret moved to Nebraska City. In February 1860, their first child was born in their new hometown. Only a couple of months later, Margaret’s father died in Nebraska. Life would continue to be busy the following month as a major fire broke out in Nebraska City.
Fighting the fire was complicated by the lack of fire-fighting equipment and a shortage of water. The city was ravaged and approximately 40 buildings in and near the business district were destroyed. Fortunately, Arthur and Margaret’s home was spared.
The following year the city formed its first fire-fighting company. It was one step in recovering from the fire. The fact that the city didn’t have competition and it was in the perfect location contributed to its quick recovery.
Property Ownership
During their time in Nebraska City, Arthur and Margaret ran The Western House, which is where the Grand Hotel was later located. However, they did not initially own any property with Arthur having only $300 in personal property and Margaret having $50 in personal property in 1860. The first property purchased was by Margaret in 1862.
At that time she bought lot 2 of block 44 of the Prairie City Addition (18th & Central). Why it was purchased by Margaret and not Arthur is unknown. It is also unclear if they lived on the property, which Margaret held until 1872 when she sold it to her sister Mary Thorne. The sale was witnessed by their brothers John and Robert Ronald.
Mary had come from Wisconsin to Nebraska City by covered wagon. She worked at the Grand Hotel to support herself. There she had met James Thorne, her third husband.
Steam Wagon Road
In the spring of 1863, Arthur and Margaret left the comforts of city life for life on the prairie. They lived in a dugout near Wallen Ridge on the Steam Wagon Road. The prior year, a special election had been held to fund the road and associated bridges.
The family called this location Nebraska City Ranch. However, it is unclear why they gave it that name as it was not near Nebraska City. Instead, it was halfway between Nebraska City and Lincoln, which was originally named Lancaster. The location was a freighters’ inn. It had a grocery, post office, and a place for travelers to rest themselves and their horses/oxen.
The post office was unnamed until Margaret’s brother Robert Ronald approached the government asking that they name it Paisley after the hometown of the Ronald family in Scotland. It received the name Paisley in 1869. About the same time Paisley School #6 and Paisley Church came into existence. However, a town never sprung up in the location. Although the school and church continued on for some time, the post office closed in 1872.
While living here, Arthur sometimes worked in Nebraska City, returning home only on the weekends.
Obtaining A Homestead
Property Improvements
On January 8, 1863, prior to their move to the dugout on Steam Wagon Road, Arthur filed a homestead application with the Nebraska City Land Office. It was the seventeenth application filed in the county.
As soon as they moved to the dugout, Arthur began improving his future homestead, which was about ¾ mile from the dugout. By the following year, he had constructed a 12 ft. by 16 ft. log cabin and broken ground for crops on the land he hoped to one day call his own.
The Log Cabin
The log cabin provided only basic accommodations of the prairie. All the small openings, along with the chimney, were filled with a mixture of straw and clay. The roof of the log cabin was composed of clay on top of sod on top of pieces of wood on top of rafters. The floor was dirt at first, but later covered with wood. A small window provided daylight. Additionally, the interior had been whitewashed, which got on anything and anyone that touched it.
The fanciest feature of the cabin was its one-way locking door. It had a bar that latched into a slot. The bar had a string attached. When someone wanted to open the door from the outside, they simply pulled the string and it would move the bar and open the door. However, if the family wanted to lock the door, they could simply pull the string inside and no one could get in. However, that meant that they could only lock the door when they were inside.
The family moved to the homestead property as soon as they could as they had to live there continuously for five years and improve the land before they could obtain ownership of it.
Arthur worked hard for this land, building a frame house to replace the log cabin, plowed and planted many acres of land, adding a shed, granary, cellar, corn crib, pens for animals, and more.
More Property
In 1864, Margaret purchased 3 1/2 acres of land along Steam Wagon Road for $21.30. The land was in the S.W. of the N.W. of N.E. quarter of Section 32. This property was described as “lying South of the Creek, and East of a certain cotton wood tree, (and the Steam Wagon Road).” This land is likely where the dugout was located although I am not yet entirely sure.
In 1868, Arthur purchased at a sale the S. E. 1/4 of the S.W. 1/4 of Section 19 and the N.E. 1/4 of the N.W. 1/4 of Section 30 (This section number is from a text version of a legal document. I think this should be Section 29 per the map shown). The land had outstanding taxes for several prior years and the sale amount of $38.43 was to cover the taxes owed and other fees.
Where Are The Deeds?
Homestead Deed
In 1869, Arthur wrote to the land office in Washington, D.C. regarding obtaining the deed to the homestead. In the letter, he wrote,
“Now seeing that I have now half starved myself and family to put improvements on the place which I now have 70 acres of land under the plow and a pasture fenced for my stock, a good house and other out buildings, and a grove of young timber planted out. If I being a citizen of the United States has to lose it, I presume I might have got my deed from the land office at the time if I had given them money that they asked from me which I thought did not belong to them.” (Some grammar changes were made for readability.)
It appears that there was some question over why they had not moved immediately to the property. In response to those questions, Arthur and his brothers-in-law John Ronald and Robert Ronald made three points.
- Arthur had to work for others as he didn’t initially have means to support his family and for what was needed to improve the land.
- While he worked away, Arthur claimed that he could not leave his family on the homestead out of concern for their safety from Native Americans. Note: Arthur was friendly with some of the local “Indians.” However, bands of unfriendly “Indians” sometimes came through the area, including onto the homestead. When this occurred, Arthur and the family would hide from them.
- He was informed by the land office that if he began improvements that he wasn’t required to immediately occupy the land, but that he should do so as soon as he could.
Deed to Purchased Property
Now, all he could do was wait for a response from the government. In the meantime, Arthur provided the sales receipt for the additional property he had purchased to the country treasurer in order to get a deed to the property. It is unclear exactly what occurred. However, again, he waited.
Getting The Deeds
In July 1870, everything started coming together. The county determined that Arthur was the rightful owner to the property he had purchased. This included acceptance of the certificate of purchase and ensuring taxation and all other legal laws, including proper advertising of the land for sale, had been followed.
In addition, the government accepted Arthur’s response to their concern about him not moving immediately to the homestead. And, Arthur finally secured the deed, to the homestead. He paid $200 for the E 1/2 S.E., 1/4 Section 19 and the N 1/2 of NE 1/4 of Section 30 in Township 9, Range 10 East containing 160 acres at $1.25 per acre.
Finally, Arthur had a homestead that he could call his own – 27 years after he left Scotland. By this time, he had a 14 ft. x 17 ft. frame house with bedrooms over the main room. A few years later, Arthur added a kitchen followed by two additional bedrooms. In 1893, the house was completely remodeled. As a result, it was an 8-room house with a basement.
Arthur died on Christmas Day in 1913. He dearly loved his home and family and his advice was “Live right and do right.” (Taken from family notes.)