Trails Of Yesterday.

JOHN BRATT

Publication: The University Publishing Co, 1921, Lincoln

First edition. Pictorial cloth, xi [3], 302 pp., teg, frontis, illustrated with drawings and photos. In 1866 Bratt joined a wagon train traveling from Nebraska City to Fort Phil Kearny. He gives a vivid view of the country along the Great Platte River Road, reporting on the condition of the trail, meetings with Indians such as Dull Knife, and encounters with buffalo herds. There are splendid descriptions of the few forts then protecting the long trail - Forts Kearny, McPherson, Mitchell, and Sedgwick - and of the road ranches of John Burke and the notorious Jack Morrow, among others. "The author was one of the first ranchers in Nebraska. An Englishman, Bratt came to America in 1864 at the age of 17. In the late 1860's, he worked as a bullwhacker supplying Ft. Kearny and other Army posts. He started his cattle business in 1870, and most of his narrative is devoted to the development of the ranching industry on the central plains."---William S. Reese. "Bratt's story is a minor classic because of the raw but credible frontier adventures of a young English emigrant."---Merrill J. Mattes. Fine, bright, tight, unread copy housed in a clamshell case with the design on the front panel and spine matching the book. An exceptional copy.

Inventory Number: 29731