THE CENTRE REPORTER, CENTRE HALL. "BACK —TRACKING an OLD TRAIL ———————————— THIS woman's husband was run down, frre table, unhappy. She didn’t know what wasthe matter with him, It worried her. She was afraid he would lose his job, Her mother-in-law suggested she buy Fellows’ Syrup and sce that her husband took it regularly every day. She saw it build up his vitality, ease the nerve strain, pep up vigor and appetite, She recommends it now to all her friends. Ask for genuine Fellows’ Syrup at your By ELMO SCOTT WATSON OME time this summer a gray-halred New Yorker will be setting out upon a romantic journey. For William H. Jackson, eighty-nine-year-old “nioneer photographer” and at pres. ent research secretary of the Ore gon Trail Memorial association, is going to back-track on the trail of youth. Here is the way he told about It recently in announcing his plans: “About the end of June the snows of the Rocky mountains will subside for another season and the roads will again be passable. Then I will start out on my annual trek over the Old Trall. You know, I first went over the trail back in the days of the Indians and the covered wagons with my little mule, ‘Hypo,’ for company. I'll use an auto this trip. It won't be much like an ox-cart for seeing the country, but it's be some better than the train. And I guess a man who could ‘bullwhack’ can handle a steering wheel on the Old Trail, even if he Is close to four-score and ten. This time I shall go alone, But I probably will pick up various friends along the way . . . folk we have interested In our project of placing monuments and markers at the historic spots on the Trail. Last year we placed 100 from the Missouri river to the Pacific coast, and 60 more on the pony express trail of "61." Indebted as the posterity of America will be to this association and its active gray-halred re- search secretary for their work In marking his toric spots on the famous “highway of a west- ward-faring nation,” the Oregon Trall, pos- terity is even more indebted to the work which William H. Jackson did many years ago with his camera in preserving scenes which soon passed away forever and for the work which he is still doing In preserving more of those scenes through another medium—that of brush and canvas. Jackson was born In Keesville, a little town in the Adirondacks of New York state, In 1843. The traveling which was to characterize his whole life started early, for when he was just one year old his family moved to Georgia. They soon returned to New York but so strong was the wanderlust which became inbred In young Jackson that he refused to go to school after he had finished the eighth grade. At the age of fifteen he had only one desire and that was to draw and paint. He came naturally by that ambition, for his mother was a landscape artist and his father an experimenter in the making of daguerreotypes, the forerunners of modern photography. “Various kinds of pleture making occupled my time for a while,” says Mr. Jackson, “I made family portraits; I painted landscapes on win- dow screens, a fashion in those early days; and 1 painted a row of big jars as part of the scenery for a play about “The Forty Thieves’ of the Old Arabian Nights. The chief scenic artist for the local theaters gave me an approving slap on the back for my good drawing in this first attempt at scene painting. “None of these beginnings brought In much money but they were good practice. To this hit. and-miss art training was added a few months work In the studio of a portrait painter which Improyed my technique somewhat.” But the opening of the Civil war put an end to this work and when Lincoln issued his call for #300,000 more” Jackson joined the Rutland Light Guards, later entering Company K, Twelfth Ver. mont Infantry which with other troops became the Second Vermont Brigade. As soon as Jack- son's commander discovered his talent for draw. ing he was detailed to sketch maps of picket lines along Bull Run so at the age of nineteen he held an important and dangerous post in the Union army. After the war was over, Jackson returned to his home in the Adirondacks where for some time he was busy making photographs of the local heroes home from the war, At that time he earned what was considered a munifi- eent sum, $25 a week. But soon the wonder Just asserted itself again and he decided to go west. JYle headed for Detrolt but got only as far as Chicago and then worked his way on te Detroit by painting signs, teaching the art of coloring photographs and picking up other odd Jobs. Eventually he got as far west as SG Joseph, Mo. Here he secured a job of driving ox teams from Nebraska to Montana, "bull whacking it was called, for the wages of $20 a month a year, 1806 to 1867, he was engaged work, freighting from Missouri via Fort Kearney, Julesburg, Fort Laramie and South Pass and to the valley of the Great Balt lake. The following quotation from a letter which young Jackson wrote to his parents dated “Great Salt Lake City, October 30, 15864." is a graphic pen picture of the life of a bullwhacker in those days. “The program of a day's work will give you some idea of the kind of a life we have been leading. In the morning, just as day is breaking and when sleep lles heaviest upon us, the night watch makes the rounds, pounding on the wagons and shouting ‘Roll out! loll out! The bulls are coming.” “Khouldering one of the heavy yokes I begin looking for my old off-wheeler. It is hardly light enough yet to distinguish objects clearly and 1 have some difficulty at first in telling one ox from another, 3ut I finally get my last pointer yoked and having previously put the wheelers onto the tongue 1 drive around the other five yoke, connected with chains, and hitch them on ahead. I am ready to pull out, usually just as the sun Is appearing above the hori 20n. . . “About ten o'clock the train is corralled, un- yoking quickly done, and the cattle turned out to graze In charge of herders, and we proceed at once to get breakfast. The train is divided into four messes, the men taking turns at the various doties. This is frequently accompanied by a good deal of contentious wrangling be cause there are always shirkers that always fail to do their share of the work. The details bring the wood and water. The cooks for the time being bake bread in the big dutch oven, make two or three gallons of coffee, slice up half a side of bacon, find it hardly necessary to shout *Grub plle!" for the whole mess Is right there, impatiently waiting. Zach one helps himself with tin cup and plate and retiring to the shady side of a wagon experiences for a brief half hour complete satisfaction. “The afternoon drive sometimes brings us into camp so that it is quite late by the time we get supper. One of the greatest difficulties in cooking is the matter of providing fuel. Wood is scarce and along most of our route entirely lacking. The oniy substitute available is buffalo chips. It makes an excellent fire for cooking purposes when entirely dry, but when wet Is the meanest stuff imaginable to get along with, trying the patience of the cooks to the ut- most. . . . “My heavy suppers with the great quantities of strong coffee that I drink just before going to bed frequently result In dreams that verge on nightmares. At first, when the novelty of my adventure with its attendant work and worry was uppermost In my mind I had lurid dreams almost every night and invariably they related to my team of bulls. Sometimes I Imagined them out of control and about to plunge over a great precipice. Wild with terror I would tum. ble out of my wagon in my desperate attempt to head them off from destruction, only to be yanked back by my bed fellow or brought to my senses by the night watchman, Billy and 1 slept on a buffalo robe with long shaggy hair, On one occasion 1 began tugging at this rode so violently that I nearly threw Billy out of the wagon. Of course he was in a high dudgeon and wanted to know what I thought I was doing; dreaming still, 1 replied ‘I can't get my con. founded leaders’ heads around!'” After a year of this work, young Jackson de. eclded he wanted to start up In the business which he knew best so he went to Omaha and fn 1868 he and his brother, who had come on from the East, set up a shop with a shingle over the door which read “Jackson Brothers, Photographers.” This was the period when Omaha was booming with activities connected n this in Nebraska City on the 1. Crossing the South Fork of the Platte river near Julesburg, Colo. From a sketch made by W. H. Jackson in 1866. 2. W. H. Jackson in the days of his youth. 8. W. MH. Jackson (left), eighty-nine years old, “the pioneer photographer,” greets another nota ble, Daniel Carter Beard (right), veteran Boy Scout leader, when they met at the National Pioneer dinner given by the Oregon Trail Memo. on December 29, 1930, the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Ezra Meeker, founder of the association, 4. West from Devil's Gate on the Sweel. water. From a photograph made by W. H. Jackson in 1870. ith th iilding of the Union Pacific railroad ung Mr. Ja¢ 1 wad a wonderful chance for pictures. So he the business In the hands of his brother and arted out to record what was happe gays Mr. Ja« raphy was different than it Is today. we “In those days, kson, “photog a chemist, artist and mechanic all put together. When he wanted to take pictures on the road he had to carry chemicals, trays, glasses and what pot, for each plate had to be prepared on the spot for every exposure. So when 1 started complete portable outfit for developing pictures en route.” obtain definite Information about those vast re 5 Oregon Trail, across Wyoming and back by the Overland Stage route. Thus it came about that William H. Jackson was the first man to make photographs of the marvels of the old Oregon Trall country, Although he was appointed official photog- rapher of the Hayden survey, he received no salary, but his equipment was provided and he was permitted to keep all negatives he made, for his own use. Most of his photographic sup- plies he carried in the ambulance which accom. panied the party, but he also was provided with a little donkey which he named “Hypo.” *Hypo™ carried his working kit, This survey of Doctor Hayden's started in Au gust, 1870, and from Independence Rock fol- lowed the old Oregon Mormon trail along the Sweetwater river. Returning, It followed the old Overland Stage route across southern Wyoming and at Fort Saunders disbanded for the season. So pleased were Washington officials with the pictures taken on this first survey that they ap- pointed Jackson to accompany future surveys as photographer and for ten years he remained with Doctor Hayden in this capacity, In 1871, he took pictures of Yellowstone. He was the first to make photographs of the marvels of this country and his pictures, as well as the discov. eries of, and specimens collected, by Doctor Hay- den and his party, played an important part in the creation of the Yellowstone National park in 1872 The last expedition of "the Hayden Geological survey to the Rocky mountain region was made In i878, the present United States geological survey then being instituted, Mr Jackson accompanied this final expedition, Having completed his work as a ploneer photographer, Mr. Jackson eventually settled In Detroit and took up photography as a business. For 25 years he was connected with the De troit Publishing company, retiring from that com. pany a few years ago. Since that time he has been busy writing about his experiences in the old days, making paintings from his notes and sketches and promoting the work of the Oregon Trall Memorial association. And this summer he will climax his career by one more trip over that historic route where he was once a bull whacker and the first and ouistanding member of his profession-that of photographer of the Wild West. (@ by Western Newspaper Union.) druggist, Outlines Six Steps for Land Use Plan sells, higher prices for what he buys, and higher taxes per and nether millstones which are slowly grinding the life out of rural gald Prof. M. 1. Wilson of Montana State these are the up America, College In a radio program of the National Advisory Odd Type of Frog A frog that never goes near the water is one of the curlosities noted by Arthur Loveridge, of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology on a trip through East Africa. found this type of i Done With It! Bireet Orntor—We must ge ima} 4 dry and sandy ri tunately, there is a way out,” Wil eversal of the basie the nation.” The speaker presented six steps In land poliey of a program for land utilization, First in the list of six fundamen and the enactment of a new national lar policy bill which, he pointed out, is essential because there 8 no more land Ir able for farming and 1 v, each state 3 develop a state-wide institute Professor tT pre include axes ang y lands from § | we're about | rheumatism’ On the Fence Rkjold—Why don’t you vote? Bjor—1've never been sold on the proposition. LARS AE Peterman's Ant Food keeps them out of house, too. Sprinkle it about the floor, window sills, shelves, etc. Effective 24 hours a day. Cheap. Safe. Guaranteed. 1.000.008 cans sold last year. At your druggist’s. PETERMAN’S ANT FOOD Heard at a Party t wonld "EY “x would you =a Madge Watchful Waiting “If you've spoited the man who stole your car, why don't you get it back?" new set of tires” ————————— as low As Ix ssible Excuse It, Please (wer [elenhone Beover Dandrof Stopes Hair Falling imparts Color and Beauty to Gray and Faded Hair Or and 51.00 ut Droggiets Hiseoz Chem Wis. Pstrhogue N TON SHAMPOO » jdesl for use in connection with Parker's Hair Balsam Makes the hair soft and Safly. 50 cents by mail or at drog- gists Hiscox Chemical Works, Patchogue N.Y As Usual “How did Joe make out with bee “He got stung.” high regard if he supports a law in tended to reform you?! Hel No one fears an opportunity as a timid man does, RL ALY SU Fragrant Mule on Snowshoes To help him carry pack for his owner who is a trapper 600 miles north of the northern mining town of Sherridon, Man., a mule owned by W. Klonwick has been taught to use snowshoes, The snowshoes are about elghteen inches In diameter and the mule refuses to walk in snow with out them. Covered Bridges Going The covered bridge is fast disap pearing from Vermont roads, and if is estimated at least 1,000 of the plc: turesque old wooden structures have been supplanted by Other bridges within the past four years, Much of the reconstruction was necessitated by the floods of 1027. It doesn’t take much of a hu to bag his trousers an is rarely mistaken A good ns 2 bad one Is Best for Daily Use Because while it is cleans- | ing and purifying the skin, | by reason of its pure, sap- onaceous properues, nis soothing irritations, by reason of its supercreamy emollient properties de- rived from Cuticmra Ointment. Soap 25¢. Ointment 25¢ and 50c. Proprietors: Potter | & Chemical Corp., Malden, Mass, Try Cuticura Shaving Cream. Billion Acres Surveyed Nearly a billion acres of farm lands in the United Siales have been mapped by soll surveyors of the Unit ed States Department of Agriculture This area is greater than the com bined area of European Germany, France, and Great Britain. The work is now progressing at the rate of more thin 15,000,000 acres each year, and department officials estimate that between 20 and 30 years will be re quired to complete the survey. The cost of this work is between 2 and 3 cents an acre. Show “Going to the horse show?" “1 think 1 will. It may be my last chance to see a horse”
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers