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| General Leonard Wright COLBY was born on 5 Aug 1846 in Ashtabula County, Ohio. He appeared in the census in 1850 in Silver Creek, Stephenson County, Illinois. (living at home with father and mother.) He appeared in the census on 18 Jun 1860 in Silver Creek, Stephenson County, Illinois. (living at home with father and mother.) He appeared in the census in 1870 in Silver Creek, Stephenson County, Illinois. (living at home with father and mother.) He appeared in The Salt Lake Herald newspaper on 18 Dec 1903 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah |
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| Gen L. W. Colby holding Zintkala Nuni "Lost Bird". |
He died on 15 Nov 1924 at Leavenworth, Leavenworth County, Kansas. Cause of death was. Leavenworth, Kansas Deaths, 1923-30 Name: Lenord W Colby Date: Nov 15, 1924 Notes: S v Age at Death: 83. He was buried in the Evergreen Home Cemetery at Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska Occupation: 1872 Lawyer, Appointed by Pres. Benjamin Harrison, Asst. U.S. Atty. Gen Military service: Bet. June 12, 1864 - February 24, 1899 U.S. Army Infantry , From rank of Private to General. Served in Civil War from Illinois, enlistment 12 Oct 1864, private.
COLBY, LEONARD W., soldier, lawyer, was born in Cherry Valley, Ohio. He graduated in the regular, classical and law courses of the university of Wisconsin. He has served two terms in the state senate of the Nebraska legislature; has been assistant attorney of the United States; and is acknowledged to be one of the ablest lawyers in the western states. He served in the war of the rebellion, had command of a company in the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian war in 1863, commanded a battalion in the Indian campaign of 1876-78; was colonel in command of the regular and state troops during the strike in Omaha in 1882, and was brigadier-general in command of the Nebraska military forces in the Sioux Indian war in the winter of 1890-91. He has served in the infantry, cavalry and artillery, and in every military capacity from private to brigadier-general. He has been three years captain, six years colonel, and nine years brigadier-general.
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| General Leonard Wright Colby House, Beatrice, NE |
An infant named Lost Bird orphaned by the massacre (Wounded Knee) was found alive under the slain body of her mother, who had shielded her from gunfire with her own body. Brigadier General Leonard Wright Colby rode into the Indian camp and took Lost Bird by force from the elderly Lakota woman to whom she had been entrusted. He adopted the child, naming her Marguerite Colby. And later described as a " living curio" of the massacre. Initially Colby spoiled Lost Bird, but then ran off with his housemaid. Leaving his wife to raise the child. From "Native Americans" : A History in Pictures by Arlene Hirschfelder.
On December 29, 1890, beneath a white flag of truce, a band of Lakota Indians was massacred by the United States 7th Calvary at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Four days later, after a blizzard had swept over the area, a burial detail heard the cries of an infant. Beneath the slain body of a woman who had frozen to the ground in her own blood, they found a baby girl, frostbitten yet miraculously alive, tightly wrapped, and wearing a small buckskin cap, beaded on both sides with American flags. Disobeying military orders, Brigadier General Leonard W. Colby adopted the small living "curio" of the massacre. He later became assistant attorney general of the United States and used his adopted daughter to convince prominent Native American tribes to hire him as their lawyer. As an adolescent, Lost Bird was sexually abused by the general, and her adopted mother, Clara Colby, divorced him. A suffragist and newspaper editor, Clara Colby spoke up against the exploitation of Indian culture and defied her close associates Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to raise the girl alone. After an unceasing but futile search for her roots and employment in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and in silent films, Lost Bird resorted to the streets of the Barbary Coast to survive. Her tragic life ended on Valentines Day, 1920, at the age of 29, and she was buried in a remote cemetery far from her native land. In 1991, more than 100 years after the Wounded Knee tragedy, descendants of victims of the massacre searched for Lost Bird's grave, repatriated her remains, and re buried her at the Wounded Knee Memorial alongside the mass grave of her relatives. In this significant work, the author movingly narrates the story of Lost Bird, who has become a symbol for thousands of children adopted away from their tribes and, for all people who have lost their heritage through social injustice, ignorance and war. From "Lost Bird Of Wounded Knee, Spirit of the Lakota", written by Renee Sansom Flood
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| Clara D Bewick |
Colby married Clara D Bewick. They adopted a daughter Ada Mary who died before she was a year old. (no dates but soon after they were married) Clara watched her mother die in childbirth then had her adopted daughter die, She was afraid to give birth and either die herself or have the infant die. In 1883 an orphan train pulled into Beatrice Nebraska Clara and Leonard were walking by after all of the children had been chosen but one.. a small curly haired 3 year old boy. they took him home cleaned him up and named him Clarence. It did not take them long to discover Clarence was developmentally slow. (so Clarence would have been born in NY in 1880.. I say NY since that was where the orphan train was from) Clarence was 11 years old when Leonard informed Clara he had adopted Zintkala Nuni or "Lost Bird" Leonard Colby named Lost Bird Marguerite Elizabeth, But Clara would have none of that! She said that the child had been given a soft musical sounding name by her people, Zintkala Nuni That was her name!! Because of Clara's work with Susan B Anthony , she entrusted little Zintkala into her sisters care. Dr Mary White (possibly the first female Dr in Nebraska) hired a woman by the name of Marie Miller to be governess to little Zintkala. "Maud" as she was called had been Clara's kitchen maid since she was a child.. now at the ripe old age of 17 she was promoted to governess. On April 1 1893, Maud gave birth to Leonard Colby's illegitimate son Paul Livingston Colby (Livingston is Leonard's mother's maiden name) In June of 1894 Clara took Zintkala to her mother-in-laws house and snuck back to Beatrice in the middle of the night, she crept through the house and caught Leonard and Maud together in bed. Leonard had other affairs and fathered 4 other children. In 1896 Leonard began trying to win Clara back, (He knew she could help him get the appointment of brigadier General) They reconciled yet again and he got his appointment. On Oct 8 1898 they split yet again.
On New years Day 1899 General Colby and his Mistress Maud with the 1 million dollars raised for Cuban relief were in Matanzas Cuba Using an alias (or rather marrying Maud to a Cuban, Tomas H. Martinez, who afterward mysteriously disappeared) Colby purchased 17,000 acres of sugar and coffee plantations, deeded under Mauds new name Maria C Soler Martinez.
Sending Maud home ahead the general returned home to Beatrice in Feb 1899. One of Colbys first duties upon returning to his legal practice was on behalf of his client Maria Martinez, She filed a multi million dollar suit against the United States government for ruining her husbands plantations during the Cuban insurrection. Litigation was held up for years but eventually the long wait proved to be worth it.
The years of 1904 and 1905 were marked by a series of misfortune for Leonard. His brother Dr David Colby was drunk and his team of horses ran away with him dragging him to his death. then a second brother Edward died leaving his ailing mother Abigail to be looked after by an unmarried sister Abby. This arrangement ended in tragedy also after the police received reports that Abby was sadistically abusing her mother> The allegations were proven when police found Mrs Colby with bruises all over her body. They took her to a hospital but she refused to press charges against her daughter. She never recovered and died not long afterwards. Her daughter Abby was never prosecuted for the crime.
On March 30 1906 Leonard finally got his divorce.
On June 4th 1906 Leonard married Marie Miller "Maud" Martinez incidentally.. a few weeks before she had received a huge sum of money.
A special dispatch from Havana announces... the claims of Maria C Martinez for property injured and destroyed during the Cuban insurrection and the final judgement of $400,000 was awarded.
In Jan 1907 Clara sent Zintkala to live with Leonard and Maud... By April 7 1908 Zintkala was pregnant with Leonard Colby's child. On April 22 1908 Zintkala gave girth to a stillborn baby boy, After having been bound and gagged and made to sit in the attic (of a "maternity" home Leonard had hidden her in) on a day where the temp rose to 85. (apparently Clara never learned of this.. how she couldn't with Zintkala locked in that school for a year is beyond me.)
On Sept 7 1916 at 10 pm Clara Bewick Colby died.
At 3 am on Valentines Day 1920 Zitkala nuni died.
(BOOK SOURCE: "The Colby Family in Early America" by Frederick Lewis Weis, Caledonia, The Colonial Press, pub 1970.)
General Leonard Wright COLBY and Clara Dorothy BEWICK were married on 23 Jun 1871 in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin. They were divorced on 30 Mar 1906.
Clara Dorothy BEWICK was born on 5 Aug 1846 in Gloucestershire, England. She died on 7 Sep 1916 at Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, California. Cause of death was. Married June 23, 1871 in Madison, Wisconsin by Rev. C. H. Richards; Father: Thomas Bewick; Mother: Clara Willingham; Burial: 1916 Windsor, Wisconsin. Occupation: Suffragist, Women's magazine publisher.
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| CLARA BEWICK COLBY |
Clara Bewick Colby, author, lecturer, and Nebraska most prominent suffragist was born in Gloucester, Eng. She came as a child to this country and is a naturalized citizen in her own right. Her father, Thomas Bewick, was related to Thomas Bewick, the naturalist and founder of modern wood engraving. Her mother was Clara Willingham Chilton, niece of Walter Medhurst, D. D., pioneer missionary to China. She was graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Ph.B., and is a Phi Beta Kappa. She belongs to the Federal Suffrage Association of the United States and is corresponding secretary and chairman of the Congressional work, making her home the greater part of the year in Washington, D.C. she is a patron of the National Council of Women of the United States. She is a life member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. From 1883 to 1898 she was president of the Nebraska State Woman Suffrage Association and is now honorary president.
Since 1890 she has been a member of the District of Columbia Woman Suffrage Association which is the oldest woman suffrage association in the world. She is honorary vice-president of the International New Thought Alliance. She is vice-[resident of the League of World Peace. She is an honorary member of the Higher Thought Center, London, England. She is vice-president for Oregon of the National woman's Press Association. She is a member of the State Woman's Press Club of Oregon. For two years she was corresponding secretary of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
She founded the public library of Beatrice, Neb., and maintained it for six years. She has traveled and lectured in most of the states of the union, and for four years has given courses of lectures in Washington, D. C. She spent a year in England, Ireland and France, giving lectures and interpretative readings. Her lectures are on philosophy, history, literature and feminism. Shortly after graduating she taught history and Latin in the University of Wisconsin. In 1883 she founded the Woman's tribune in Nebraska. In 1888 she published the paper in Washington as a daily to report the First International Congress of Women. She continued the publication there until 1904 when she moved it to Portland, Ore., to further the cause of woman suffrage along the Pacific coast. In all she published the paper for twenty-five years.
In 1899 she was a delegate to the International Congress of women in London, Eng.
In 1908 she was delegate to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Amsterdam, Holland. She was that same year delegated by Gov. Chamberlain of Ore. To the First International Moral Education Congress held in London. She was also a delegate to the International Peace Congress at the meeting in London.
In 1910-1911 she participated in the woman suffrage movement in England
In 1913 she was delegated by Gov. West of Oregon to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance at Budapesth, Hungary, and was a delegate to the International Peace Congress at the Hague. In 1915 she was chairman of the Federal Suffrage Congress held in connection with the Panama-Pacific Exposition and of the Federal Suffrage day to the San Diego Exposition. For several years she was appointed by various governors of Nebraska as a delegate to the National Conferences of Charities and Correction. She has addressed the legislatures of Nebraska, Missouri, Michigan, Rhode Island, in behalf of Woman Suffrage. She has written for many magazines and is the author of The Song of the Plains, London Past and Present. History of woman's Suffrage in Nebraska for the History of woman's suffrage written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Perhaps the work in which she is most interested is the effort to secure an act of congress which would enable women to vote for members of congress. SOURCE: "BLUE BOOK OF NEBRASKA WOMEN;" BY WINONA REEVES (1916); PAGES 7 - 50
From Monday, December 19, 1904 Paper: Daily People (New York, NY)
Obituary: Clara Bewick Colby lived on the edge at a time when women had few rights and plenty of Victorian constraints. Colby shed the prohibitions of the day to become a leader in women's rights. Born in England, she came to the United States as a child. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1869 and married a former Civil War general, Leonard Wright Colby.
The couple moved to Beatrice, Neb., in 1872, where her husband set up a law office and promoted real estate ventures. He was elected to the Legislature in 1876 and 1886, followed by his appointment as assistant U.S. Attorney General.
Clara Colby's career bumped along, traditional and low-key at first. She founded a free public library in Beatrice, established a lecture series and brought in public speakers. Among them were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
In 1881, she helped organize the Nebraska Woman's Suffrage Association and, two years later, founded the Woman's Tribune, the eventual official voice of the Woman's Suffrage Association.
When her husband was appointed to the Attorney General's office in Washington, D.C., she moved with him, packing up the newspaper and continuing to publish. She would keep her readers informed of the suffrage movement for 26 years. She traveled widely, a delegate to international events espousing women's rights and world peace. In 1906, the Colbys divorced and although she was then nearly 60 years old, she continued with her commitment to causes now bubbling around the world. Ultimately, her story ended before she realized her goals of world peace and women's rights, especially the right to vote and own property. She died four years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Clara Bewick Colby 1846-1916 Home: Beatrice Legacy: Women's rights
General Leonard Wright COLBY and Clara Dorothy BEWICK had the following children:
Ada May COLBY was born about 1871. She died about 1871. Cause of death was. She was adopted about 1871.
Clarence Chilton COLBY was born on 5 Mar 1880 in New York City, New York County, New York. He was adopted about 1883. He appeared in the census on 16 Jun 1900 in Midland, Gage County, Nebraska. He died on 2 Jan 1923 at Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska. Cause of death was.
TRUMPETER CLARENCE C. COLBY
Clarence C. Colby was born in New York City, March 6, 1882, and moved to Nebraska three years thereafter; adopted son of Brigadier General L. W. Colby; enlisted in Lincoln, Neb., May 14, 1898, as Trumpeter; served with the regiment till August, 1898, when he was assigned by order of General
Breckinridge, commanding Camp George H. Thomas at Chickamauga Park, Ga., as Brigade Trumpeter and Mounted Orderly to Brigadier General Colby; afterward by special orders No. 282, A. G. O., was transferred as first-class private to United States Volunteer Signal Corps, to date September 7, 1898, and assigned to the Seventeenth Signal Company at Anniston, Ala.; on December 22 was ordered by Captain A. W. Yancey, commanding signal station, to report for detached duty in charge of telephone and other special service at headquarters Second Brigade, Second Division, Fourth Army Corps, commanded by Brigadier
General L. W. Colby; honorably discharged February 6, 1899, with record of service, hones and faithful. Residence, Beatrice, Neb.
Marguerite Elizabeth COLBY was born about 1890. She was adopted about 1891. She died on 14 Feb 1920 at California. Cause of death was. She was also known as Zintkala Nuni, Lost Bird. Marguerite was a Lakota Indian. Picture of biological father below
General Leonard Wright COLBY and Marie H. MILLER were married on 4 Jun 1906. Marie H. MILLER was born on 24 Aug 1875. She died on 10 Jun 1942. Cause of death was. She was buried in the Evergreen Home Cemetery at Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska Father: John Miller Mother: Henrietta General Leonard Wright COLBY and Marie H. MILLER had the following children:
Paul Livingston COLBY, born on 2 Apr 1892, Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland; married Katarina (COLBY), about 1917; married Leola V. HOLTZ, about 1923, Nebraska; died on 31 Jan 1956, San Francisco, San Francisco County, California.
Second Generation
Paul Livingston COLBY (Leonard Wright-1) was born on 2 Apr 1892 in Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland. In 1920 he was a rail road in Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska. In 1930 he was a rail road in Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska. He died on 31 Jan 1956 at San Francisco, San Francisco County, California. Cause of death was. (SOURCE: California Death Index, 1940-1997.)
Paul Livingston COLBY and Katarina (COLBY) were married about 1917. They appeared in the census on 12 Jan 1920 in Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska. Katarina (COLBY) was born in 1897 in Russia.
Paul Livingston COLBY and Leola V. HOLTZ were married about 1923 in Nebraska. They appeared in the census on 10 Apr 1930 in Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska. Leola V. HOLTZ was born in 1903 in Nebraska. She died on 8 Jul 1968 at Oregon. Cause of death was. Paul Livingston COLBY and Leola V. HOLTZ had the following children:
Wayne Livingston COLBY was born on 28 Jul 1924 in Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska. He appeared in the census on 10 Apr 1930 in Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska. (living at home with father and mother.) He died on 24 Dec 1979 at Multnomah County, Oregon. Cause of death was.
The decade of the 1870s was a period of enormous growth and prosperity for the city of Beatrice. Founded in 1857 in Gage County on the Big Blue River, the "Queen City of the Blue" grew slowly until the arrival of a reliable stage route in 1868, and rail in 1871. Organized as a city in 1872, by 1873 the population had increased to more than 1,000. Occupying the county seat, Beatrice boasted its permanence in fine stone and brick buildings, upscale residences, and vigorous mercantile and industrial districts. Churches had taken root; the common school enrolled 260 pupils and was taught nine months of the year. The county courthouse and the land office for the southern portion of the state were located in town, and commerce and trade boomed. The production of lumber, coal, and flour employed many residents, and the Beatrice Express boasted that citizens could patronize "six general stores, two drug stores, three hardware stores, two furniture stores, one agricultural depot, five blacksmith shops, two harness shops, two shoe shops, two jewelers, four milliners, six carpenter shops, two wagon shops, two tin shops, two butcher shops, one barber shop, one bakery, one brewery, two banks, two livery stables, half a dozen or more boarding houses, three restaurants and two saloons."
These businesses were not, as Nebraska historian A. T. Andreas explained, "built for temporary use by capitalists expecting to soon reap an abundant fortune and return in a few years to the East to enjoy it, but on the contrary, by men who have located here permanently, for the purpose of making this their home." But permanent prosperity for Beatrice also meant it would need to design itself as a place where the best women and men of this new America in the West would want to stay. Business, industry, and agriculture put food on the table, but left the improved mind hungry for more. Not surprisingly then, the wives of men intent on building business determined that Beatrice would have amenities to build the town's society and culture-and within a short period, there sprang up a variety of clubs and organizations designed to edify residents. Among those groups was one focused on establishing a public library.
As historians of libraries in the West have shown, public libraries were an important benchmark of respectability, especially in the emerging West in the years preceding the establishment of professional public librarianships and government-run public libraries. The social institution of the library reflected a community's progressive cultural values in that it provided democratic opportunities for recreation, self-improvement, and Americanization. Libraries were also seen as a civilizing influence and as a vehicle for civic reform-especially during the early years of the temperance era when many positioned libraries as an institution that could support moral order and serve as an antidote to the scourge of liquor and other less wholesome pursuits.
Women's associations served an important role in culture-building and reform throughout the West during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era; however, in comparison to historical work on other cultural institutions, there have been few studies of what historian Paula D. Watson notes as women's "massive, nationwide influence on the growth of one of our most important public institutions, especially outside of the urban areas of the northeast." Similarly, historian Anne Firor Scott has called for an examination of women's roles in the early years of the public library movement in order to better understand "the tremendous social change represented by the education of women, the development of women's organizations, and then the movement of women into public political activity." In other words, educated, civic-minded women used public libraries for building community and fostering municipal pride through cultural enrichment. Libraries were also a means for propagating social values and creating pathways for women to enter into civic dialogue and larger social roles. The public library of Beatrice fits this model; as a result, the history of the earliest years of public library activity in Beatrice is best told by beginning with the association of women who were instrumental to its founding and development. Especially important is one woman at the center of that activity: Clara Bewick Colby, Beatrice's first librarian, whose vision and volunteerism sustained library activity during the 1870s.
From Unity Volume 20
THE WOMAN'S TRIBUNE Published Weekly by CLARA BEWICK COLBY Editor BEATRICE NEBRASKA
Sample copies five weeks for 10 cents Single copies 5 cents The Woman's Tribune was founded in 1863 It has a wide circulation and many able writers among its contributors It gives reports of woman suffrage conventions and of legislation relating to women and its departments of law hygiene literature etc make it Interesting to all classes of readers Persons In sympathy with the work of the National Woman Suffrage Association Elizabeth Cady Stanton president Susan B Anthony vice president will find it as also all official announcements duly recorded In the Woman's Tribune Every person interested in the effort to obtain political legal and industrial equality tor women should become subscribers Readers are invited to send items of news and names for sample copies PREMIUM For a club of twenty new yearly subscribers to the Woman's Tribune the three splendid volumes of the Woman Suffrage History will be furnished in cloth as a premium For a club of twenty five the same bound in leather Liberal cash premiums will be given to The Woman's Tribune and Unity to one address one year for $2.10
- Frontier Feminism and the Woman's Tribune: The Journalism of Clara Bewick Colby
- Academic journal article By Lomicky, Carol S.
- Journalism History , Vol. 28, No. 3
- Lost Bird: Survivor of Wounded Knee, Betrayed by the White Man
- Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota By Renee Sansom Flood
- Plains Indian Wars, Updated Edition By Sherry Marker
- American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World By David E. Stannard
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