Remimscences of John H. Charles. 39 



pass in the spring so I could take up surveying, an 

 occupation much to my liking. I soon had a chance to 

 use my compass. During the last days of February, 

 1857, a man from Ohio, named Bennett, came to Sioux 

 City. He represented an Ohio company which desired 

 to locate a townsite somewhere along the Missouri river 

 above here. None of this country had been surveyed 

 and townsites had to be located as best they could in 

 order to be held against the settlers. The pre-emption 

 law allowed this to be done providing certain conditions 

 were met. Mr. Bennett engaged me to locate his town- 

 site for him. Accordingly on March 1, 1857, I took my 

 compass and started, together with Father Martin of 

 Dakota Qitj, from Covington,^ where my claim was, for 

 the upper river. We had a span of horses and a sled to 

 haul the provisions. The claim-men, ax-men, etc., 

 walked, I with the rest. Towards evening of the first 

 da}^ we got as far as St. Johns,^ Nebraska, where John 

 Tracey ^ lived. The snow was two feet deep and we 

 could make but slow progress. On the second day the 

 expedition reached Ponca, where we stayed over night. 

 The next day we started for Concord,^ which is at the 

 head of Lime Creek. When we got there we found some 

 Sioux City people — S. B. Mullhollen (MullhoUand) and 

 [Wesley S.] Trescott among them. The fourth night we 

 camped on the open prairie and almost froze to death, 

 as it was the night of a terrible blizzard. It was only 

 by building a big fire that we managed to live through it. 



Next night we stopped at St. James,^ Nebr., on the 

 Missouri River, where we found trappers who had gone 

 there to trade with the Indians. I made my bed on a 



1. Located on the Nebraska side of the Missouri opposite Sioux 

 City. Both town and claim have since been washed away. 



2. Town lias disappeared and site has been washed away. The 

 present town of Jackson (Dakota County, Nebraska) is said to 

 represent the former town of St. Johns. 



3. A Catholic priest and founder of St. Johns, having led a colony 

 of Irish Catholics there in 1856. The fiftieth anniversary of this 

 event was celebrated at Jackson during the summer of 1906. 



4. There is a town named Concord in Dixon County, Nebraska, 

 but it is too far south to be the town here indicated because the 

 party was following the Missouri river closely. 



5. In Cedar County. 



