150 years ago

July 28, 1876

Another company of Mennonites, numbering 15 men, arrived here Wednesday under the guidance of an enterprising German agent of the AT&SF Railroad. These gentlemen are very wealthy, many of them worth $50,000 ’tis said, and are but the vanguard of still others soon to follow.

The meeting of these men with their friends was a scene that would have been strange to our people. They took off their hats to each other, grasped hands, and kissed fervently — a practice they probably claim as an inheritance from Biblical days.

It was in the abuse of this practice that Judas betrayed his Savior.

Were there eyewitnesses to tell the story of the terrible battle in which the gallant Custer and his 300 brave soldiers died, that story could never be fully told, but as there are no white surviving witnesses, that story must remain a scaled book.

Is it possible that not one of these 300 cavalry could have escaped had they tried? Reinforcements only three miles distant, certainly some of these brave men could have escaped.

It would seem that rather than yield to a foe they had known only to conquer and despite, rather than suffer the ignominy of a precipitous flight, rather than desert their wounded comrades and each other in that hour of death, they resolved to die together — and died!