Hall County NEGenWeb
Reminiscences & Narratives of Pioneers
A FEW GLIMPSES OF EARLY LIFE IN HALL COUNTY

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Transcribed from
the ©1920 "History of Hall County," by Buechler, Barr, and Stough

One of the interesting characters of Grand Island's early days is a man whom we all know as Jack Anderson, who has been living at the soldiers home for some years past. Anderson was a member of Company E, Second United States cavalry, during the Civil War.

Mr. Anderson, in reply to a query, casually remarked that the Soldier's Home was the only home he had, and was about as good a home as a man could ask for. Having expressed a feeling of gratitude for such a home, a word or two of comment over his services aroused the curiosity of the reporter, and it required only a few questions to reveal that he was a man with a rather remarkable record of service not only during the war, but with reference to building up of the great west. And the following story was finally worked out of Anderson:

In brief he was born at Bedford, Pennsylvania, and enlisted in the company mentioned and served the full five years and was honorably discharged two days after Lee surrendered. His discharge notes he participated in thirty battles. At the expiration of the war, things became too dull for Jack, and he served three more years in the wilds of Nebraska and Wyoming. His discharge from this service is amplified by a note from A. E. Bates, first lieutenant, and adjutant of the Second Cavalry to the effect that Anderson was an excellent soldier, an honest, upright and reliable man.

Mr. Anderson states that after he was honorably discharged for the second time, there was a vacancy in the transportation department, and says Mr. Anderson, "I was told to go to Omaha, where the headquarters of the department of the Platte now were, when Adjutant Bates gave me a slip informing whom it may concern, that I was competent, and I got the job. Bill Cody was at the time a scout, and he and I worked together for a year and a half, I in the transportation department, and he as a scout. Later the posts were abandoned and I lost my job, and that is the end of my service."

Mr. Anderson came from there to Grand Island in February 1870, having now been a resident of this city for 49 years. He says the first place he stopped was at the old Michelson hotel, of which James Michelson, the father of Fred Michelson, and builder of the Michelson block, was owner. Mr. Anderson desired to engage in the retail liquor business and wanted someone to draw up his papers. He was introduced by Mr. Michelson to Governor Abbott, as "my lawyer" and from that day to this the governor and Anderson, both comrades in the days of the country's trial, have been constant friends.

Mr. Anderson was in the saloon business during the 'seventies in Grand Island, and his place of business was the center of many exciting chapters of the early history, in the free, easy, and noisy days. He built a large house between where Fifth and Sixth streets and Cleburn and Elm streets now run. This place became very notorious and as it was so far "out on the paririe" in the early 'seventies, it was called the "Prairie House." This site has recently been selected for the new High school, and the old building standing there, with all the others since erected on that block, will soon be removed.