HIS FEET FROZEN
This night we drove to the ranch of J. E. Boyd on Wood River, where we found shelter for our cattle. Here I discovered, when going to the fire in the house, that my feet were frozen. I applied cold water as soon as I could get my boots off and succeeded in getting the frost out so well that my feet were safe except the large toe on each foot.

I bought a pair of moccasins made from buffalo skin with the hair on, which I could wear, but was not able to walk for several weeks. Nothing of importance happened on the trip after this.

About the middle of February, the balance of the men at the house, Arnold, Van Zandt, George Duncan, and Franer, were preparing for a trip up the Loup and Cedar Valleys on a hunt for deer and elk, leaving myself and Miss Arnold to keep house. I was not able to hunt and suggested to Arnold that it would not be just the proper thing to do for him to go away and leave his sister without a natural protector, when he said:

'Well, damn it, get married. If you are going to, you might as well now as any time.'

MARRIED TO MISS ARNOLD
Then, after consulting with the party interested and getting a favorable reply, we went to Columbus on horseback on the morning of February 17, 1859, and were married by C. B. Stiliman, acting county judge, while sitting on our horses, in the presence of John Browner, Peter Meyer and wife.

Thus a new life began with the pleasure of calling the only woman I ever loved by the sacred name of wife.

The men all started on their hunt the same day and in three days thereafter, I was taken with the typhoid fever, which came near proving fatal, and no doubt would, only for the constant nursing of a devoted wife.

This year I devoted entirely to farming. Raised a good crop of wheat and secured some young cattle, besides two cows.

Mother came back from Ohio this spring and Frank came from his wolf hunt, having been quite successful. The family all lived in the Cleveland hotel this year.

In the fall, about October 1st, my wife received word that her oldest sister was dying with consumption in North Vernon, Indiana. Frank had traded the oxen for a horse team and I took the wife to Omaha, where she embarked on a Missouri River steamer for St. Joe, to go thence by rail to Hannibal and by river to St. Louis, then on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad to her home.

I worked on the ferry boat after this until cold weather. Then I went to Indiana and stayed during the winter. Wife's sister, Mary, died October 6, 1859.

In March, 1860, Ed Arnold, Al, myself and wife started for Nebraska, Ed and Al intending to go to the gold mines in Colorado, and, after getting to Columbus, finding little encouragement or prospect of doing anything, I concluded to go with them, leaving my wife with mother.

PROSPECT FOR GOLD
We arrived in Denver on the tenth day of May, 1860. After camping two or three days, started for Central City by way of Golden.

I located in a cabin with a man named Carter, in Leavenworth Gulch. Worked hard all summer and got just enough gold to buy provisions to live on. Came home about November first with O. B. Selden of Omaha. Made the trip to Columbus in twenty days.

Frank made a trip out to the mountains during the summer with a load of freight. After I came home, mother moved to Omaha with Lute and sisters, Lib and Phon, where she stayed through the winter.

The Pawnee Indians had moved from their location on the south side of the Platte below Fremont in the fall of 1859 to their reservation on the Loup Fork and built their village on the west side of the Beaver, directly south of the present village of Genoa, and were getting an annuity from the government of forty thousand dollars per annum.

This gave the few settlers an opportunity of trading with them to a limited extent and making a little money.

The summer of 1861, I planted considerable corn and built a large sod stable with a large cattle yard, besides putting up a good lot of hay to prepare for keeping the freighters who were to haul supplies to the Indians.

The Civil War broke out in the spring, but few people out in this country expected it to last longer than when cold weather set in, but in this the result shows how little we can predict for the future.

During the summer, Frank and I built a log house and sod stable west of the old hotel building and moved mother back from Omaha into this house. The winter was very severe, a heavy fall of snow and the roads were nearly impassable for a great portion of the time

FRANK BECOMES INTERPRETER
Lincoln was inaugurated president in March, and soon thereafter removed the agent of the Pawnees, Judge Gillis, and appointed a man named Depew. J. O. Rudy, a son-in-law of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, was appointed Trader, and from him brother Frank secured a position as clerk and interpreter. A man named Monroe had a contract for hauling a large amount of supplies from Omaha for the Indians, consisting principally of flour. He had six large wagons, each drawn by four yoke of cattle, and made arrangements with me to keep his stock and men on their trips each way, which was a source of help to all of us. The winter was very severe, deep snow and bad roads all winter.

FEBRUARY 7, 1896
Since I commenced writing in this hook, a great affliction has come to me in the loss of my beloved wife, who left this world November 26, 1895, surrounded by all her children and in my loving arms. The world has indeed seemed dark to me since that sad event and, but for the lingering hope born within me that I may see her again in the future, I should certainly consider the creation of mankind a failure.

The balance of the memories written in this book will undoubtedly be very imperfect, for the reason I had depended so much on my life companion for help in recording our lives from her most excellent memory."

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FOOTNOTE: James never went on to complete his writings after the death of his wife --it ended with the February entry above.