NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTION RECORD RG1227.AM: Ricker, Eli Seavey, 1843-1926 Correspondence & research materials: 1800-1936 Dawes County, Nebraska: Lawyer, Judge, Editor, Historian Cubic ft.: 17.5 No. of Items: 35 boxes & 7 reels of microfilm BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Eli Seavey Ricker was born in rural Maine in September 1843. His family moved to Oneida, Illinois, where he was apparently raised. During the Civil War he served with “I” Co., 102nd Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and rose to the rank of Corporal before his discharge in June 1865. He returned to his Illinois home and began farming. Ricker worked hard but money was in short supply, and in 1866 he journeyed with friends into Kansas, where he apparently took a land claim before returning to Oneida. In 1867 he married the girl, Mary A. Smith, with whom he had corresponded since 1863 but never met until 1866. Ricker had always had a deep desire to obtain more education, and his family lived frugally as he worked his way through two years of college. In 1882 he took his wife and children to Brooklyn, Iowa, where he read law in the office of John T. Scott, and was admitted to the bar in 1884. In 1885 the family moved to Dawes County, Nebraska, where Ricker set up practice. In 1890 he affiliated himself with the Populist movement, and was elected to the first of three terms as county judge. He then retired briefly before becoming editor of the Chadron Times, from January 1903- February 1905. After 1905 he devoted his remaining years to research on a book which he hoped to write, to be entitled “The Final Conflict Between the Red Man and the Pale Faces.” The book never was written because Ricker became engrossed in his research, and in the process amassed a remarkable collection of source material, including interviews with soldiers, Indians, cowboys, trappers, and generally anyone with knowledge of the frontier and frontier incidents. He spent years in the archives of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and the War Department, and collected originals and copies of letters, reports and official documents from many sources. E. S. Ricker died at Grand Junction, Colorado, in 1926. SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE This collection consists of thirty-five boxes of material and seven reels of microfilm arranged in eight series. The original arrangement, if there was one, has been lost, but materials have been kept in as logical an order as possible. Series One includes Ricker family correspondence, dating from 1814-1936. The bulk of this series consists of the letters written by and to Eli Seavey Ricker during the Civil War, including a long series of correspondence between Ricker and his future wife, Mary A. Smith. These letters often repeat information to different respondents, but Ricker remains consistent in detail and evidences an interest in preserving his accounts of life in camp and in action during the war. Later letters are mostly to Mary, as Ricker was forced to live away from his family for many years. There is little correspondence for the period during which he was practicing law or editing the Chadron newspaper, and the letters after 1906 RG1227.AM: Ricker, Eli Seavey, 1843-1926 relate mostly to his research work in Washington, D.C., and his travels gathering interviews. Letters to Ricker bearing personal narratives or other historical information, include: Edward H. Allison, 1906- 1908 (Army life; post duties; the Custer fight, accounts of Gall and Patriarch Crow; White Bull on the death of Lt. Harrington; Custer); W. B. Allison, 1905 (Young Man Afraid of His Horses); W. A. Ballou, 1905 Nebraska militia (Fetterman massacre, and the action of Capt. Ten Eyck); Francis Croft, 1907 (Wounded Knee); Frances D. Ten Eyck, 1906, 1908 (Fetterman massacre, and the actions of Capt. Ten Eyck); J. W. Horncloud, 1903 (Wounded Knee); John W. Ross, 1907 (a version of the Rawhide Creek story); Grenville M. Dodge, 1905 (Ft. Laramie treaty). Series Two consists of the “Ricker Tablets,” a series of more than two hundred school notebook tablets in which Ricker transcribed most of his interviews, as well as: copies of newspaper stories; lists of source materials; notes and extracts from source materials; and personal comments. See the description for a more detailed listing of contents. The interviews are concentrated in tablets 1-48, which have been microfilmed. These seven reels of film should be used instead of the originals. Series Three consists of interviews, some of them typed and some in longhand. These, like the interviews transcribed in the tablets, were mostly taken by Ricker in meetings with Indians, soldiers, and scouts over a period of years. See the description for a detailed account of contents. This series is on microfilm. Series Four consists of notes and note cards transcribed by Ricker and by his son, Leslie A. Ricker, from source material in Ricker’s possession or note cards, and some are on scraps or sheets of paper. Many are grouped according to subject matter, and are so listed in the description. Also includes Ricker’s “Ana” a ledger-size volume with notes and excerpts from a variety of sources, arranged by topic. Series Five consists of manuscripts. These, written by either one of the Rickers, by a third person, or copied from some other source, are extended accounts of persons and places. See the description for a listing. Series Six consists of two boxes of primary source material dealing mainly with the re-settlement of the American Indians on lands west of the Mississippi River. Included are originals and copies of all sorts of letters, reports, official records, treaties, and other materials. This material relates to most of the major tribes of Indians across the United States and dates run from the 18th century into the twentieth century. Series Seven consists of printed matter, 1823-1927 and n.d. Series Eight consists of miscellaneous material and unidentifiable articles. This collection was acquired on November 2, 1926, through the efforts of Dr. A. E. Sheldon, then Superintendent of the Nebraska State Historical Society. 2 RG1227.AM: Ricker, Eli Seavey, 1843-1926 DESCRIPTION SERIES ONE CORRESPONDENCE, 1814-1936 Box 1 Folder 1 1814, 1823, 1856 Folder 2 1861 Folder 3 1862 Folder 4 1863 Folder 5 1864 (January-June) Folder 6 1864 (July-December) Folder 7 1865 (January-April) Folder 8 1865 (May-August) Folder 9 1865 (September-December) Box 2 Folder 10 1866 Folder 11 1867 Folder 12 1868 Folder 13 1869 Folder 14 1870 Folder 15 1871 Folder 16 1872 Folder 17 1873 Folder 18 1874 Folder 19 1875 Folder 20 1876 Folder 21 1877 Folder 22 1881 Folder 23 1882 Folder 24 1883 Folder 25 1884 Folder 26 1885 Folder 27 1886 Folder 28 1888-1889 Folder 29 1903-1904 Folder 30 1905-1906 Folder 31 1907-1908 Folder 32 1910 Box 3 Folder 33 1911 Folder 34 1912 Folder 35 1913 Folder 36 1914-1915 Folder 37 1916-1917 3 RG1227.AM: Ricker, Eli Seavey, 1843-1926 Folder 38 1918 Folder 39 1919 Folder 40 1921 Folder 41 1922 Folder 42 1923 Folder 43 1924 Folder 44 1925 4 RG1227.AM: Ricker, Eli Seavey, 1843-1926 Box 4, Reel 1 Tablet Page Name Subject Date 1 13 Palmer, Mrs. Maggie, at White River Janis Family 1907 1 4 Garnett, William, at Cane Creek, SD Man Afraid of His Horses; treaties with the Sioux; killing of Frank Appleton; Capture of Red Cloud. 2 Garnett, William (continued) 3 7 Cook, James H. at Agate, Nebraska Biographical n.d. 3 10-11 Robertson, William M. at Pine Ridge Agency People to interview 1906 3 12-32 Shangrau, John at Allen, South Dakota Wounded Knee n.d. 3 33-125 Wells, Phillip F. at Pine Ridge Agency Language & customs of the Sioux; buffalo roundup in 1882; biographical 3 126-144 Missing 4 Wells, Phillip F. (continued) Wounded Knee; Holy Rosary Mission fight; death of Lt. Casey Box 4, Reel 2 5 Wells, Phillip F. (continued) Indian customs, law, discipline, government; Dog Soldiers; Battle of the Little Big Horn; statements of several Indians about Wounded Knee; the Messiah Craze 6 63 Philey, A.J. Beecher Island Battle n.d. 6 77 Donovan, J.J. Letter to John Donovan 1905 7 1-15 Description Little Big Horn Battlefield 7 16 Server, F.E. n.d. Crow Agency Indians dead after Big Horn Battle; Mutilation of soldier’s bodies; Frank Grouard 5 RG1227.AM: Ricker, Eli Seavey, 1843-1926 Tablet Page Name Subject Date 7 39 Shively, Frank S. at Crow Agency, Montana Crow tribes and customs 7 48 Server, F.E. (continued) Relocation of Crow agencies, Little Big Horn Battle 7 62 Description List of dead June 25, 1876 8 1 Stirk, Richard C. near White River, S.D. Army scout; Wounded Knee; death 1906 of Crazy Horse; Cheyenne outbreak 8 59 Tibbitts, Ben at Interior, South Dakota Release of White women from 1906 Cheyenne; Wounded Knee; Nick Janis 8 79 Bradford, Mrs. Julia (Clifford) Clifford, Henry C. n.d. 8 83 Russell, John (Jack) near Porcupine, S.D. Larimer-Kelley Affair 1906 9 1 Shangrau, John at Allen, South Dakota Cheyenne outbreak 1879; Army 1906 Scout 9 43 McGaa, William Denver at Baptiste Pourier’s Census at Pine Ridge; Army Scout 1906 10 1 Peano, William at Pine Ridge Agency Wounded Knee & list of the dead 1907 10 12 Clifford, Mrs. Charles (Saunders) at Deer Attack at Cache la Poudre 1904 Springs, S.D. 10 18 Clifford, Charles at Kyle, South Dakota Custer fight 1907 10 43 Correspondence Letters (copies) regarding difficulties at Pine Ridge 10 59 George Little Wound, son of Chief Little Wound “Little Wound Papers” 11 1 Starr, Paddy (at home of Frank Salaway) Wounded Knee; Army scout 1907 11 8 Eastman, Dr.