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NEBRASKA NEWSPAPER WOMAN FOR FIFTY YEARS

Harriet S. MacMurphy Possesses Knowledge of Indian Ways and Mysteries Unsurpassed by any Living White Woman.

HARRIET SHERRILL MACMURPHY may not be the oldest retired newspaper woman in the country, but she has been a newspaper woman more than 50 years

Mrs. MacMurphy was born at Waukesha, Wis., De, 12, 1848, and her father was Charles Rufus Dakin, who ran the general store, She was one of 12 children.

Reading from the oldest on down they include Julia, John Charles, Clara, Harriet, Helen, Mary Ward, Anna, Robert, Charles, Mary Phebe and Talbot. Five are still living.

"Strike Dakin, the devil's in the hemp!" declared the king to the lord who came before Harriet, a lot of years. To be exact it was on October 14, 1066, in merry Old England that the king made this declaration.

This all took place in a hemp field, and the enemy was hiding behind the stacks. The lord, no sooner heard the king cry out that he drew his sword and singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," took after the enemy, and drove them pell mell out of the hemp, up the broad highway, and well past the white Hart, This battle was called the battle of Hastings.

Charles Rufus Dakin, just a few hundred years later, hitched up the old covered wagon and with his family started for the great open spaces that lay over yonder toward the setting sun.

THEY SETTLE AT DECATUR.

Now you must understand that 13 children are a lot of children, and even a covered wagon has its limit, So Harriet drove the buggy, that brought up the rear along with the fine prize stock. She was 11 years old, and pretty.

They spent the winter at Floyd, Ia., and in the spring again took up the journey in the same direction. As father was hailing a ferry on which to cross the turgid Missouri, Harriet sat on the bank and conversed with Mrs. Jules. They named Julesburg, Colo., after Mr. Jules, who met a horrible death. Later Mrs. MacMurphy heard the particulars from his wife and wrote graphically about them. It seemed that Jules had some trouble with a man named Slade and had shot him but had taken him to Denver and put him in a hospital and paid to have him cared for. Years passed and Jules thought it had all been forgotten.

Then one day Slade and his gang got him, carried him to Slade's ranch where they tied him to a great box. Then Slade took his position with a rifle. He shot at Hiles just missing his neck, or his ear or his hand. Then he started hitting him just enough to draw blood. He kept this up the rest of the day, and then toward night he fired a shot that killed him.

GOVERNESS FOR FURNAS CHILDREN.

The Dakins settled at Decatur, Burt county, on the sound side of Wood Creek. The Omaha Indian reservation was on the north side. Here Harriet learned to know the Indians and their ways. They called her "Little Sister." In the years to come her friendship with this tribe gave her a knowledge in Indian ways and mysteries, unsurpassed by any white woman now living in these United States. She was an intimate friend of the half-breed wife of Henry Fontenelle, brother of Logan Fontenelle, "last chief of the Omahas."

Mr. Dakin engaged in the land business. This was before railroad days. The very next year after their arrival, Harriet became a governess for the children of Major Furnas, Indian agent on the Omaha reservation and later governor of Nebraska. This was at Macy. In order to keep the records straight let it be said that Harriet was the youngest governess ever holding the title, one of her pupils being older than his little teacher.

After being a teacher Harriet became a pupil, having entered Brownell Hall, where she remained two years. She would have been the first girl to be graduated from this school but finances were pressing and she was compelled to leave school before she received her diploma.

In 1867 she married John A. MacMurphy, a union soldier, member of the first mounted cavalry squad organized under General Kilpatrick. Mr. MacMurphy had a splendid record for bravery as a scout. He was seriously injured when his horse stampeded and fell upon him during a night raid. As a result of this injury he was eventually discharged from active service.

For a while after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. MacMurphy lived near Decatur where Mr. MacMurphy ran a stock farm. Then he engaged in mercantile business which he sold out to become the legislative reporter at Lincoln for the Omaha Republican, the first man to hold such an assignment in Nebraska. He wrote as "Tip Top."

Before his death in 1808 he had been proprietor and editor of papers in a score of Nebraska towns. Harriet helped him set type for the edition of a state paper which told of the Chicago fire.

HER FIRST SMELL OF PRINTERS' INK.

Later he was editor of the Blair Times and it was at this time That Mr. MacMurphy got her first smell of printers' ink. After her husband bought the Nebraska Herald at Plattsmouth, Mrs. Mac Murphy entered the newspaper office regularly and as she, herself, confesses, became the "devil" of the office, doing everything from setting type to addressing the weekly mailing list by hand. To this say Mrs. MacMurphy couldn't if she tried, forget the exact initials of every well known family in Cass county, so many times did she write them in those early days.

Mrs. MacMurphy as a girl wrote her first newspaper article when she was attending Brownell Hall. It was published, she says, in the old Herald.

Her career continued to be tied up in newspaper work while her husband ran the Schuyler Sun, The Wahoo Wasp, and later the Hoof and Horn in South Omaha, later the Drovers' Journal.

During the lifetime of Hoof and Horn, Mrs. MacMurphy was a potent factor in its success. She kept the books, read proof and did a little of everything until she used to become so tired she would fall asleep in the tall high-backed chair that had been especially provided fro her. She and her husband had living rooms adjoining the newspaper office. Mrs. MacMurphy declares she did her real Nebraska "pioneering" at that time in South Omaha.

CHARTER MEMBER OF WOMAN'S CLUB

One day she had occasion to go out on some errand and while crossing a South Omaha street she became so firmly imbedded in mud that a man had to come to her rescue and pull her forcibly from the oozy Nebraska clay that threatened to completely engulf the former editor of The World-Herald Food Talks.

For a time Mrs. MacMurphy was associate editor of the Excelsior with Clement Chase, and it was during that period she agitated the formation of the Omaha Woman's club, of which she became of charter member, she was the first head of the domestic science department of the club.

After this she and her husband moved to Beatrice where they remained for two years and where Mr. MacMurphy was part owner of the Beatrice Times.

Then the MacMurphys returned to Omaha, Mr. MacMurphy to engage in journalism here and Mrs. MacMurphy to take up the work that was to win her fame, the study and teaching of scientific food production and preparation.

She and Mrs. Mary Moody Pugh, another club woman, gave the natives something to talk about when they started on a tour of food lectures at county fairs, the first time in Nebraska that women's voices were raised in these august gatherings.

During the Trans-Mississippi exposition Mrs. MacMurphy established the first "model kitchen" in these parts, She also demonstrated the use of corn in one hundred differtion, hundreds of people hereabouts would have tried it for supper.

She has engaged in a number of projects relating to the scientific production and preparation of food. At one time she was hostessing the Alamito dairy and she took a very acting part in The World-Herald food shows.

At the time the United States entered the war, Mrs. MacMurphy sensed the need

Harriet MacMurphy with and without her cottage.

NEBRASKA NEWSPAPER WOMAN FOR FIFTY YEARS

Harriet S. MacMurphy Possesses Knowledge of Indian Ways and Mysteries Unsurpassed by any Living White Woman.

HARRIET SHERRILL MACMURPHY may not be the oldest retired newspaper woman in the country, but she has been a newspaper woman more than 50 years

Mrs. MacMurphy was born at Waukesha, Wis., De, 12, 1848, and her father was Charles Rufus Dakin, who ran the general store, She was one of 12 children.

Reading from the oldest on down they include Julia, John Charles, Clara, Harriet, Helen, Mary Ward, Anna, Robert, Charles, Mary Phebe and Talbot. Five are still living.

"Strike Dakin, the devil's in the hemp!" declared the king to the lord who came before Harriet, a lot of years. To be exact it was on October 14, 1066, in merry Old England that the king made this decleration.

This all took place in a hemp field, and the enemy was hiding behind the stacks. The lord, no sooner heard the king ery out that he drew his sword and singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," took after the enemy, and drove them pell mell out of the hemp, up the broad highway, and well past the white Hart, This battle was called the battle of Hastings.

Charles Rufys Dakin, just a few hundred years later, hitched up the old covered wagon and with his family started for the great open spaces that lay over yonger toward the setting sun.

THEY SETTILE AT DECATUR

Now you must understand that 13 children are a lot of children, and even a covered wagon has its limit, So Harriet drove the buggy, that brought up the rear along with the fine prize stock. She was 11 yesrs old, and pretty.

They spent the winter at Floyd, Ia., and in the spring again took up the journey in the same direction. As father was hailing a ferry on which to cross the trugid Missouri, Harriet sat on the bank and conversed with Mrs. Jules. They names Julesburg, Colo., after Mr Jules, who met a horrible death. Later Mrs. MacMurphy heard the particulars from his wife and wrote graphically about them. It seemed that Jules had some trouble with a man named Slade and had shot himm but had taken him to Denver and put him in a hospital and paid to have him cared for. Years passed an Jules thought it had all been frogotten.

Then one day Slade and his gang got him, carried him to Slade's ranch where they tied him to a great box. Then Slade took his position with a rifle. He shot at Hiles just missing his neck, or his ear or his hand. Then he started hitting him just enought ot draw blood. He kept this up the rest of the day, and then toward night he fired a shot that killed him.

GOVERNESS FOR FURNAS CHILDREN

The Dakins settled at Decatur, Burt county, on the sound side of Wood Creek. The Omaha Indian reservation was on the north side. Here Harriet learned to know the Indians and their ways. They called her "Little Sister." In the years to come her friendship eith this tribe have her a knowledge in Indian ways and mysteries, unsurpassed by any white woman now living in these United States. She was an intimate friend of the half-breed wife of Henry Fontenelle, brother of Logan Fontenelle, "last chief of the Omahas."

Mr. Dakin engaged in the land business. This was before railroad days. The very next year after their arrival, Harriet became a governess for the children of Major Furnas, Indian agent on the Omaha reservation and later governor of Nebraska . This was at Macy. In order to keep the records straight let it be said that Harriet was the youngest governess ever holding the title, one of her pupils being older than his little teacher.

After being a teacher Harriet became a pupil, havnig entered-Brownell Hall, where she remained two years. She would have been the first girl to be graduated from this school but finances were pressing and she was compelled to leave school before she received her dimploma.

In 1867 she married John A. MacMurphy, a union soldier,, member of the first mounted cavalry squad organized under General Kipatrick. Mr. MacMurphy had a splendid record for bravery as a scout. He was serously injured when his horse stampeded and fell upon him during a night raid. As a result of this injury he was ecentually discharged from active service.

For a while after their marraige Mr. and Mrs. MacMurphy lived near Decatur where Mr. MacMurphy ran a stock farm. Then he engaged in mercantile business which he sold out to become the legislative reporter at Lincoln for the Omaha Republican, the first man to hold such an assignment in Nebraska. He wrote as "Tip Top."

Before his death in 1808 he had been proprietor and editor of papers in a score of Nebraska towns. Harriet helped him set type for the edition of a state paper which told of the Chicago fire.

HER FIRST SMELL OF PRINTERS' INK

Later he was editor of the Blair Times and it was at this time That Mr. MacMurphy got her first smell of printers' ink. After her husbad bought the Nebraska Herald at Plattsmouth, Mrs. Mac Murphy entered the newspaper office regularly and as she, herself, confesses, became the "devil" of the office, doing everything form setting type to addressing the weekly mailing list by hand. To this say Mrs. MacMurphy couldn't if she tried, forget the exact initials of every well known family in Cass county, so many times did she wrtie them in those early days.

Mrs. MacMurphy as a girl wrote her first newspaper article when she was attending Brownell Hall. It was published, she says, in the old Herald.

Her career continued to be tied up in newspaper work while her husband ran the Schuyler Sun, The Wahoo Wasp, and later the Hoof and Horn in South Omaha, later the Drovers' Journal.

During the lifetime of Hoof and Horn, Mrs. MacMurphy was a ptent factor in its success. She kept the books, read proof and did a little of everything until she used to become so tired she would fall asleep in the tall high-backed chair that had been especially provided fro her. She and her husband had living rooms adjoining the newspaper office. Mrs. MacMurphy declares she did her real Nebraska "pioneering" at that time in South Omaha.

CHARTER MEMBER OF WOMAN'S CLUB

One day she had occasion to go out on some errand and while corssing a South Omaha street she became so firmlu imbedded in mud that a man had to come to her rescue and pull her forcibly from the oozy Nebraska clya that threatened to completely engulf the former editor of The World-Herald Food Talks.

For a time Mrs. MacMurphy was associate editor of the Excelsior with Clement Chase, and it was during that period she agitated the fromation of the Omha Woman's club, of which she became of charter member, she was the first head of the domestic science deaprtment of the club

After this she and her husband moved to Beatrice where they remained for two years and wehre Mr. MacMurphy was part owner of the Beatrice Times.

Then the MacMurphys returned to Omaha, Mr. MacMurphy to engage in journalism here and Mrs. MacMurphy to take up the work that was to win her fame, the study and teaching of scientifuc food producation and preperation.

She and Mrs. Mary Moody Pugh, andother club woman, gave the natives something to talk about when they started on a tour of food lectures at county fairs, the first time in Nebraska that women's voices were raised in these august gatherings.

During the Trans-Mississippi ecposition Mrs. MacMurphy establushed the first "model kitchen" in these parts, She also demonstrated the use of corn in one hundred differtion, hundreds of people hereabouts would have tried it for supper.

She has engaged in a number of projects relating to the scienrific producation and preparation of food. At one time she was hostessing the Alamito dairy and she took a very acting part in The World-Herald food shows.

At the time the United States entered the war, Mrs. MacMurphy sensed the need