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FORM A
Circumstanees of Uterview
L I
NAME OF wan= lasky E. Wilson ADDRESS RtOl Btu 10B lisPront
DA? s Sept, la
SUBJECT Folklore
1. Nano and address of informant .0« Ira H. Fisher.
2. Date and time of Interview *-aa* Sept. 15, 10004M
3. Flee° of interview 808 W 12
4 Name and address of perFAIsa, if any, mho put you in touoh with
informant,-" Nebel Fidher, (grandeadaughter) Verth Platte, Nebr.
5. Name and address of person, if any, aceompanyind you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc., 4,0, Mr. Flitter
lives with a grand,pdaughter in a building the front of ishieh another man
uses for a seoond hand automobile establishment, the back part being
divided into a duplex, one-half of whioh mr. Fishers' family, occupies
with him. His little great grand.mdaughter reads the 'funnies" to him,
though he says he would enjoy a good story if any one had time to
read to him. The place wus slean though crowded, and I sow two articles
know to have been made an the Sewing Project so the family may be an
relief.
FOAM
PERSONAL HIST= or IiiroRmAgft
NAME OF WORD* ROIB Wiloen ADDRESS
Dos mown le
SUBJECT
NAME AND ADDRIESS OF I!FO1.NT Ira Hp PIONar 81,
1. Amosstrye unknown other than from the Eastern U.S., Fathers name
was Rind David Fisher.
R. Plain and date of birthsm Born in 186$* Gael County* Nebraska.
3. Familyw., Twelvw in family.
4. Plaoe lived in* with date0010 Gage County, Thayer County, Sharman
County, and Lincoln County* Nebraska.
5. Eduoation* with dataa .0. 9 months of eshool 3 tea,nm of 2 months
each) quit to hard his tethers cattle,
8. Occupations ad accomplishments* with dates-. Herding* hunting
and farming.
7. Special skills and interests-.' Mad* his first Violin at 19 years at
ago traded it to his brother for a shotgun and made another.
8. Community and religious activities-'. Used to danoo a lot and play
for dances. embraces no religion.
9. Description of informant,-- A tall square shouldered man with
white mustache and almost white hair, lost one eye and 2 years ago the
sight from the other He is cheerful and talks.
10. Other points gained in interview... Enthusastioaly, hitehing his
chair apperantly with sheer pleasure of recalling incidents of which bs
talked.
FORM C
Text of Interview U
NAME OF wOREER Ruby E 'Tlstrn ADDRESS 11(: I Bem lAB It Front
DATE septo )45 SUBJECT
NAME AND ADDRESS OF INFORMANT Ira 111. Fisher BOB V 12 North Platte
I vas born in. Gage County Nobles:km, My fake had relations that had
nous to Thayer County and took up homesteads, so reefather took:up a
homestead there too, when I was a little shaver. We lived in a dugeout
in a South bank in some timber and there vas brash in front. There was
two springs on the plaoe and I was beak in August to the old place where
my father is buried, to u Fisher reunion, end we oome *woes a little
drew and I said °There aught to be another spring about there' To then
and sure enough it me still there and I drank again some of the eater.
It is about 2 it, high and we hollowed out a slat of slate rook and its
still here. .1 used to eater the oattle there.
My father is buried 3 mile east of Hebron on the south side of the
river. We had a picture took of the marker. Its broken now and my
little grandson had to hold it up so you oould toe what it is and it
has an open bible on it, and my fathers name. I want to have it fixed
if I live another year or so. There vuent any town of Hebron thee..
It was built after my father died.
I mind one tine my father was gone and we had the horses all out
south. Two mares that had edits had bolls on and ve had them on pleksts
The other horses would ran the oolts and the horses would fight and we
heard the bells and vent out to see and looked through the brush, when
we got ales* and an Indian was layin in the bruela a punahian a noir
to make her break loose from the pioket. The other ens loose and purty
FORM C CONIT•
soon the nare lunged to get awoy from him and then they ran and the
ether Indians bunched than and drove than away. We saw than drive
our horses away and there wasOnt anything we could do. That night
ye went away !Farnham's and my uncle came :rem Beatrice where he went
to get euppliee and his horses were worn out and he lift them down by
the river and oame on up and we were gone and the heroes were too, and
he cane to the neighbors where we were and got a yoke of oxen to go
and get his wagon and load and we went home with him.
Tw co or three years later one of the mares came babk with a pleas
of raw hide out from a buffalo hide around her nook: She'd got away
and found her =whom*.
My father had a =sale loading rifle. Its at the court house now
with my name on it. You can get a picture of it if you want to. One
time he fell on the toe on, the Little Blue and broke the stook of it, and
he patohed it with a pie*. of brume and its an there yet.
A girl that used to go to school when I did is there yet and I
found her when I went book. That was Becky acknon but I forgot what
her nem is now. We had a stone school house. One time an old
Indian came that used to be around there from the Otos Reservation, old
medicine Jake, he -efts the medicine man of the tribe, the school house
door was open but the teacher woe afraid of him and wouldent lot him
in and barred the door. He wouldtnt have hurt nothin, every body
knew hi, he was kind of a friend of my father*.
All my family is lig like no, I have eight children and they're
all big, I dent know, mabe it was plenty of wild meat, ye always had
meat, antelope deer, and elk and button°. We kept it in the summer
3
FORM C CWT.
too, we dried it atter we out it up and salted it. we put it en
sticks en a seaffold and built a little fire under it.
One time ve °aught a buffille *elf and raised him in milk.
He got to be about a yearlin and we mildest keep that weemetieeregun
anywhere. Me had a femme mode with rails youNt ley se many rails and
fasten it and than ipc many another say, and sigesag and fasten it and he
he wouldent stay anywhere. Mybrethers said they weld help him in
and they put him in the shed one night and piled bare all the way up and
in the morning he IONA in the garden eating the oabbsgs and peas and
onions Cho chuekled). They get so mad they took him to the river and
butchered him and we ate him.
One tim iv older brother was going huntin, and I went and a
younger brother and another younger kid. 114 went over around the
Loup and Dismal rivers and I kept wantin to kill me an elk so ray
brother said *new if you to kill your elk, get olf 'Black Legs,* morose
that pine and get yuu a bead.' Black Lags wee the old mosaic leader that
is in the court house now. I aimed old Sleek Legs across the pine and
drooled a good aim. He was layin with his radp to me and I get him in the
hip and broke it. The dog had been used to runnimg deer, eatehin them
by the hind leg and throwin them, then heed get a throat hold. So he
lit in1 the old elk had big home and when he lit the ground with
them they sounded like clubs when he was fightin the dog off. 14
horse ems a big old grey and he smelled the elk# they have a smelI
horses don't like and he started out and I had that big old gum and
that horse an a dead run in rough timber ground. My brother shot the
elk and theta the way I got my first elk.
4
PO C CON'?.
There is a man at Hebron by the name of Tibbett, he as raised by people
by the name of Garrison after his father was killed by the Indians.
dont thin* the boy was at home when it heppened. SOW Indians wended to
trade horses, they was always wantin to trade horses and the man didn't
want too. He was a neighbor of m7 fathers, he started to his horse and
one of the Indians dropped behind and the other walked with hill. The
one behind shot him in the back, the man ran to the river and he had
three girls and they came from the house and stayed with hit till he
died there an the bank of the river. The Indians camp bask to try to
take them, but they were too much for the Indians. They took the
horses and went away. There was a stone wall around his grave, we used
to pass it by the road but after they had a team and a oemetary,
Tibbett had his fathers grave moved to Hebron, They dug down and slid
they didnt find anything left but a few bones and some square nails out
of the coffin but they moved the grave.
I homesteaded here. 25 years ago up north, it wasn't hard then,
there was a settlement.