other incorporators succeeded in getting an act through the territorial legislature, approved March 1st, 1855, to incorporate the "Platte Valley & Pacific Railway Company," for the purpose of constructing and building a railroad, single or double track, from the Missouri river at Omaha City, and also a telegraph line up the North Platte river and on the north side of the south fork. I have in my possession the original record book of proceedings of this organization, and from a memoir in the book, written by Dr. Lowe, I quote this remarkable sentence: "Let it be remembered that this great work (a Pacific railway) was actually commenced within the corporate limits of Omaha, in February, 1860." He made strenuous efforts to induce capitalists to put money into the enterprise, but they looked upon the idea of a trans-continental railway as visionary and impracticable. A few years later, however, it bore fruit, but the original projectors of the work were not participants in its benefits.

Dr. Lowe was also one of the incorporators of another pioneer railway, the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph R. R., in May, 1858.

"The character of Dr. Lowe, like his noble and stately form, dignified and commanding, never tainted by infidelity to public or private duty; always generous in service to friends and the community; wise in counsel as a citizen, and singularly gifted as a physician, with insight into disease, and a pre-vision of the thousand forms of its malignity, and of the issues of life and death, which wait upon it; is of right entitled to the veneration and perpetual remembrance of all who have made their homes in the city of Omaha, and among whose founders he was one of the first for twenty-five years of its history. After the full period allotted to man on earth, full of years and of honor, he laid himself down to rest in death."

On July 22d, 1828, Dr. Lowe was married to Kitty Ann Read, a native of Mercer county, Kentucky, who died at Burlington, Iowa, February 19th, 1870. The Doctor died at Omaha, Nebraska, in the afternoon of February 12th, 1880, of paralysis resulting from exposure. The only child, a son, Gen. W. W. Lowe, the writer hereof, now resides at Omaha, Nebraska.

MRS. CAROLINE JOY MORTON.

CAROLINE JOY MORTON was born on the 9th of August, 1833, at Hallowell, in Maine. Her father was Hiram Joy. He was of Irish descent. His ancestry, as far back as the family records in this country go, were seafaring people. They who go down to the sea in ships learn to cast out fear, and meet danger and toil and watching with steady nerve and toughened muscle. Their children have a heritage of courage and resolution, and the breath of the salt sea air is their constant stimulant. Her mother was Caroline Hayden. She, too, was reared in the rugged hill country of Maine, and breathed the same strong air and dwelt among the same stern and vigorous

scenes.

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Hiram Joy, when a boy, was apprenticed to the trade of a saddler and harness maker. Hard, steady, honest work was his lot, and he bent to it with a native fidelity and docility; and he had a strong desire to help himself. His education was such as the district school of those early days, in that new country, could give. It was not much, but what it was he made wholly his own. And so heritage and education and circumstance all contributed to make him a man strong, hard-working, practical, tenacious man. In 1834 he removed to Detroit, Michigan, and followed the trade to which he had been bred. He had early success in it, and kept to it with his natural force and tenacity. In the spring of 1835, after a violent illness of a few weeks, his wife died, leaving the little girl, who was the only pledge of their married life. They only who have had the same experience, or have seen close at hand others in like condition, can understand what a calamity and what a risk were here. The desolate father and the unconscious child-what now should be their way in the world? He was of a temper and a training to find distraction in his work; but she, the little girl, not able to care for herself, nor even know the nature of her loss, according as she should fall into good hands or ill, so was she to be and so was to be her life. Of all sweet charities, the care for little friendless children is the sweetestin hospitals and orphanages, if more cannot be done-but a home for the tender soul, made its own by the love and pity of strangers, is the best refuge. It is a sad thought of this world and the men and

women in it, how many motherless children there are and how few such homes are open to them.

But happily the little Caroline was one of these few, and she never ceased through all her years to bless her lot—and with good reason. Her mother had near neighbors whom she loved and trusted, and to whom had not come the gift of children, and with her dying breath she charged them with her baby, to rear in virtue and all godliness of living. Deacon David French and Cynthia Eldred French were fit to be so trusted; mild in their ways, loving in their natures, and Christian in their lives, they accepted the charge, and they kept it with fidelity. Afterward she bore the name of Caroline Joy French. Until her marriage their house was her home, and till her death they were to her father and mother, and she was to them a daughter. In 1850 her father Joy removed from Detroit to Chicago. He met the usual vicissitudes of life, but accumulated an ample fortune, enjoyed general respect and confidence, and died in 1868.

Caroline was first sent to an Episcopal school in Canada, opposite Detroit, where she remained until she was nearly fourteen years old. She was then removed to the Wesleyan Seminary at Albion, Michigan, remaining there until nearly seventeen. She was then placed at the celebrated school for girls in Utica, New York, which was under the charge of the Misses Kelley, graduating in her twentieth year. Her school life was much the same as that of such girls generally. Tractable, diligent, conscientious in the prompt performance of all her duties, and at the same time genial, vivacious, generous, and happy, she was a favorite with teachers and scholars alike. To her alma mater she always bore a loving loyalty, and to the Misses Kelley a most affectionate respect and admiration. It always pleased her to speak of them and the school, and she did so as one appreciating what both had done for her.

While she thoroughly mastered what are generally called the solid studies of such schools, she was an apt and delighted pupil in music, drawing, and painting. Her love of music was natural and very strong. She was well instructed upon the piano-forte. When she left school she was a very fine performer on that instrument, her years being considered; and in the other arts she showed taste, skill, and a desire to excel. So many young ladies do something in these ways and give promise of excellence, that it may seem superflous to men

tion them. The difference is, that generally when the serious cares of life press upon them they cease their practice, and soon lose the skill which they have gained, while all through her life she almost daily found time, in the midst of many duties and occupations, to study and improve herself in these accomplishments.

Her best education was at home. Through her girlhood her foster-parents loved her tenderly, as the best natural parent loves his own child. But their affection was judicious. She was made to understand that her business in her girlhood was to do everything and omit nothing that would improve her physical, mental, and moral nature. She was taught that health was to be cared for as well as books, and that kindness, charity, and regard and respect for others, were as necessary as any advantage personal to herself. Definite religious training was imparted. The clear, decisive, positive teachings of religion were constantly impressed upon her mind, and she accepted them with docility and faith. She never forgot them, and when in her turn children were given to her, she seriously and rigidly imposed on them what she had received. But she was not only taught all sound religious knowledge, but she was trained to the conscientious performance of religious duties. She was not reared in a dark, austere, formal, ascetic system. Religion was to her the thankful enjoyment of all the good gifts of God, and her service to her divine Lord was willing, sweet, and sincere.

There was also another line of instruction for her. Her mother carefully taught her the duties of good housewifery. The art of wholesome cooking, and the other work of the well-regulated kitchen, and the care and service of chamber, dining-room, and parlor, were familiar to her even as a child. And amidst it all was one lesson of prime value which she learned and never forgot; it was the ethics of use, and the immorality of waste. She was generous, she was made on too large and liberal a mould to be penurious, or to deny herself or her children, or any others whose pleasure was in her care, any proper indulgence; but she was taught that wastefulness, even in the little things about the house, as well as criminal extravagance, was wrong and led to other wrongs.

At this time she was in person and mien a striking and handsome young woman; tall, slender, vigorous, active, and graceful, with luxuriant brown hair, hazel eyes, clear, dark complexion, always dressed

with taste and a due regard to occasion and circumstance, she was observed and admired by all who saw her. Her genial, cordial, gentle manners; her direct, honest, vivacious conversation; her pure, truthful, sincere nature drew to her the affections of all who knew her.

Her circumstances were very happy. Her father lavished upon his only child all his affections, and they who stood to her as father and mother were very indulgent, giving her all that wealth can buy and the largest freedom consistent with their Christian convictions and teachings. And so it was that, inheriting from her ancestry, hardened by the sea, a strong, resolute, and vigorous nature, receiving from those who were charged with her care the nurture and training of loving, Christian parents, and educated in the best methods of the best schools, she entered upon the duties and responsibilities of life an admirable Christian woman. Everybody wished her God-speed.

At the age of fourteen she was engaged to be married to him who became her husband. Nor in all her girlhood had she any experience incompatible with her promise, nor did her heart ever for a moment draw back from it. In fulfillment of that early betrothal, on the 30th of October, 1854, at the residence of David French, corner of Congress and Brush streets, Detroit, she was married to J. Sterling Morton by the Rev. Joshua Cooke, minister of the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian church of that city. The young husband was her senior about a year; he had been educated at the University of Michigan, and Union College. He inclined to adopt journalism as his profession. On the day of their marriage the young pair bade adieu to the homes of their youth and turned their faces westward, to make for themselves a home in Nebraska. It was a new land. Six months had not passed since the Indians had ceded to the United States their title to this territory. Few pioneers had penetrated its borders. It was an absolutely unoccupied and vacant country.

There was a certain romance in this adventure. They gave up homes that had been made for them and the ministries which had there waited on them, the culture and elegances to which they were wont, the indulgences and pleasures of cities and of competence, for a new land where even grain for food was yet to be sown, houses to be built, and the first foundations of society to be laid. They came in a spirit of adventure, to do for themselves what their fathers had done before them, to begin their lives with the life of a new community, to