150 years ago

JULY 14, 1876

Two men of a sable hue have been driving a lively trade here the past week in Texas horses. Also, a white dealer in horse flesh has been doing likewise. Marion Centre is quite a horse market.

S.C. Locklin and family have returned from California to find their old love, Marion Centre. Those who have the unwise notion of exchanging this county for the far west would do well to consult Locklin before making the foolish move.

The next time our friend T.J. Smith of Clear Creek comes to town, he will have a grin spread all over his face. If he doesn’t recognize you on the street, if he walks around talking to himself and laughing immoderately, pausing occasionally to beat his fists together, don’t be surprised. Just attribute his strange freaks to that 11-pound centennial boy who took up abode with him yesterday.

For some weeks the country has been expecting tidings of the route of Sitting Bull and his savage followers by the U.S. troops marching against them in Montana.

Ill-prepared then was the country for the sad intelligence that flashed across the continent last week that General Custer and 300 brave men had been slaughtered by the Indians and that not one had escaped to tell the tale.

Seldom has the country been so thoroughly aroused on the Indian question as now. We would rather be anything now than a Sioux Indian.