March 15th, 1885


Major Frank J. North has passed at his residence in this city, of congestion of the lungs.

Mr. North started from New Orleans March 5th, for home. At St. Louis he encountered a snow storm, when he was taken sick. At Omaha, he was met by his brother, James E., with whom he returned home on Wednesday last. On Saturday, at 4 p.m., his brave, generous spirit left the body.

The funeral services took place yesterday forenoon, the Mayor's request by proclamation having been complied with, and business houses closed. The Opera House was crowded to its utmost capacity, and many remained outside.

Rev. Dougherty of Brownell Hall, Omaha, read the impressive service of the Episcopal church, and delivered a well-merited and touching tribute to the memory of the deceased.

A select choir sang "He Giveth His Beloved Sleep," and the Maennerchor, "He Rests in Peace." Acquaintances were then privileged to cast a last look upon the remains, and the procession reformed for the cemetery. And there, after the burial service and hymns, the mortal remains of Frank J. North were consigned to mother earth.

The following, from the Omaha Bee of Monday, written by the associate editor of that paper, a personal friend and admirer of the deceased, will be recognized by our readers as a fitting tribute of respect to the memory of the deceased:

"Frank J. North was born March 10, 1840, in Tompkins county, N.Y. His father, Thomas J. North, was a general merchant. Early in life deceased moved with his family to Richland county, Ohio, and in 1856 the family moved to Omaha, Neb. The father was engaged as a surveyor under contract with the government, and on March 12th, 1857, while so employed near Papillion river, he was caught in a terrific storm and perished. Thus, at the age of 17, Mr. Frank J. North by the sad death of his father, was left with his mother to superintend the extensive business in which his father had become engaged whereby forty men were employed in clearing a large tract of timber land, on which a part of the city of Omaha now stands. Frank took charge and kept this work moving until its completion.

In 1857 the deceased moved to Florence, just above this city, where he resided in the winter of 1857-58, and went in the following summer to Columbus, Neb., while the family returned to Ohio, and after about one year's residence there returned to Nebraska. At Columbus Frank J. North began to break prairie with teams taken with him there, and did some farming. In the fall of 1858 he joined a trapping party, who established a camp 125 miles west of Columbus, and remained there until the spring of 1859, returning to Columbus and farming during the summer, after which he began freighting from Omaha to Cottonwood Springs.

In the spring of 1860 he went to Denver, shortly returned to Columbus, continued freighting for some time, and finally went to the Pawnee reservation with a team to work for the agent there. Having previously become proficient in the Pawnee language, Mr. North soon secured a good position at the agency as clerk, in which position he remained until August, 1864, when he began the organization of a company of Pawnee scouts, to be enrolled for ninety days. This organization completed, he went with three scouts with General Samuel Curtis, serving until his time expired as first lieutenant.

Before bidding adieu to Lieut. North and his Scouts, so favorably thought was Gen. Curtis of them and their control by Lieut. North, that without solicitation he promised a captain's commission to North, which he received October 15, 1864. He immediately recruited to a full quota a separate, independent company of Pawnee scouts, which he led to Julesburg and joined Gen. Connor, going out on the Powder river campaign. Besides a great deal of scouting during the season, this company killed more than 200 Indian enemies without the loss of a man from the ranks of the scouts, who attributed this wonderful escape to the Great Spirit.

In 1865 Capt. North commanded Camp Genoa, twenty-two miles west of Columbus, remaining there until the spring of 1866, when all volunteers were mustered out of service. Returning to Columbus, Capt. North in the fall of 1866 was appointed post-trader for the Pawnee agency, where he remained until the spring of 1867. In March, 1867, he again entered the service as major of a battalion, he organizing it and appointing its officers. These troops served along the U.P. line until 1871 when they were mustered out.

In the summer of 1871 Major North was made post guide and interpreter for Camp Munson. In 1872 he was transferred to Sidney Barracks where he remained until August 5th, 1876, when he was called to Chicago to report to Gen. Sheridan and ordered to proceed to the Indian Territory and enlist one hundred Pawnee Indians as scouts for service in the department of the Platte. This was done, and he brought his Pawnee scouts by rail to Sidney Barracks, where they were equipped for service. They were ordered to Red Cloud Agency, where they participated in the capture of Chief Red Cloud and his entire tribe of warriors. They then went with General Crook and served during the entire campaign of 1876-77; returned to Sidney barracks until May 1st, 1877, where they were disbanded and returned to the Indian Territory.

Soon after Major North came to Omaha, formed a co-partnerhsip with Hon. W.F. Cody, (Buffalo Bill), under the firm name of Cody & North and embarked in the stock business, having accumulated 4,500 head of cattle which grazed on five ranches, embracing an area of country twenty-five miles in breadth by thirty in length, situated in the Dismal river section, sixty-five miles north of North Platte City, in western Nebraska.

On December 25, 1865, Major North married Miss Mary L. Smith, in Columbus. She was born in Hartford county, Connecticut, June 3, 1845. They have one daughter, Stella G.,--a lovely girl--now attending Brownell Hall school, in Omaha, born April 16, 1869.

The tidings that flashed along the wires Saturday fell upon the ears of his legions of friends all over this great western country, aye, and away on the Atlantic border, like a mourning, melancholy wail!

It was difficult to realize that he was dead, whom we all have known for twenty-five years as the conspicuous chief and leader of an Indian tribe, in their savage battles with their inveterate foes, the equally savage Sioux; as the pioneer white man, who left the path of the husbandman, cultivating the ways of peace, to ride at the head of feathered Indians and mark in red war a pathway for a thousand white men's homes; as the cool, cautious, trusty adviser of Sheridan, Conner, Curtis, Crook and others to whose keeping the safety of the border was entrusted, when the fiery breath of Indian rifles was constantly blown so near that one could almost feel it upon the outstreatched hand; as the 'white chief,' whose courage, truth, wisdom, precaution and prudence had won their savage hearts and made him chief and ruler of the barbarous red men; as the real pioneer, whose energy, pluck and faith in Nebraska kept him day after day breaking her virgin soil to receive its first kiss from the generous sunlight; as the law-abiding citizen; the dutiful son; the affectionate husband and father; the true friend, and amist all the trying scenes of a most eventful life, the noble, brave, generous and honest man.

It was meet that a life of romance, hardship, danger and heroism, should be ended amidst the scenes of its exploits that stand alone in their simplicity of grandeur and greater because unboasted and undisplayed. This truly good and useful man has gone! We all knew him and we loved him; and while the young girl, now an orphan, her mother having died about two years ago, is left midst the hosts of his friends to be respected and beloved, green by 'Frank's' memory as the grass upon his grave!"