U-H Loren - 001

Loren W. Hastings, also known as…Old Salty…editor and proprietor of the Aurora Republican, was born on the banks of the Connecticut River, at Turner's Falls, Franklin County, Mass., February 26, 1835. He was the first son born to Richard and Betsey Hastings; three other sons, Lewis, Edmond and Lyman, and one daughter, Eveline, were born to them. Richard Hastings, the father of Loren W., was born in what used to be known as the Black River country, in York State, and Betsey Lee, his wife, was born near the town of Gill, Mass., the former of English, and the latter of Irish extraction, dating back to the Revolutionary War of 1776-1782, in which wars these names were well known, and figured most prominently as among the leaders of American Independence.

The early life of Loren W. Hastings was spent on a farm, though his father for a number of years was a carder in a woolen-mill at a little village called Greenfield Factory Village, now Turner's Falls, but afterward the father purchased and operated a ferry boat above the falls, where he lived till he moved his family to Milwaukee, Wis., in 1852 or 1853. While in Massachusetts on the farm, the young man worked in the summer months and went to school in the winter. Six to eight dollars a month in those days was considered to be the best wages paid. After the young man was fourteen years of age, he attended two terms of a select school four miles distant from his home, during the first of which he lived at home and walked four miles morning and evening; during the last term he worked for his board near the school.

At the age of sixteen he moved west with his father and mother, two brothers, Edward and Lyman, and sister Eveline, his other brother, Lewis, having died at the age of twelve years. The family settled at Milwaukee in the spring of 1852. Loren was not content with his new home in the west, and soon went upon the lakes as a sailor before the mast. He sailed first from Milwaukee, then from Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Ogdensburg and Kingston. He was gone from home three years, and on his return was grief-stricken to learn that his father, mother, brothers and sisters, there having been another sister born during his absence, had all been stricken down, and died by that terrible malady, the cholera, which had scourged the Eastern cities during the year 1854. Alone in the world, he now turned from the city on the lakes, known as the Cream City, and to this day so unpleasant has been the memory of that place where thirty-six years ago he sought in vain to find the last resting place, or even one who heard the last dying words of those most dear to him on this earth, that he has never cared to return.

Loren went again upon the lakes as a sailor, and soon after drifted down on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. There as a steamboatman, by his knowledge of the ropes gained while upon the lakes, he soon rose from a common deck hand to the position of mate of a mail packet, the "Lady Madison," plying between Cincinnati and Madison, on the Ohio River. From here he went on to the Mississippi, and from there in the summer of 1856, being sick with the chills and fever, he went to live in the city of Rock Island, Ill. In Rock Island he engaged as runner of the City Hotel, one of the largest hotels in the city, and it was here he cast his first vote, which was for John C. Fremont for president, but not, however, until he had sworn in his vote, having been challenged by a Democrat, by whom he was well known, and who knew he was entitled to a vote, and who, to prevent his voting, attempted to have him arrested. Young Hastings had always inclined to be a Republican, but if this was Democracy, he swore never to be a Democrat, and to this day he has kept his word.

The next season he went to St. Paul, Minn., and was engaged to pilot a raft down the Mississippi River. At Port Byron he left the raft and went to Bureau County, Ill., and again worked on a farm for a living. Here at the age of twenty-three, he soon appreciated the need for a better education, and so after his day's work behind the plow, he attended night school, where in the winter of 1858-59 he became acquainted with Maseroa Abigail Matthews, and July 3, 1859, they were united in marriage. Here they resided, where on August 26, 1860, a son, Lewis Edward, was born to them. In the spring of 1861, they moved to Iowa City, Ia., where they were living when the war for the Union broke out.

On August 16, 1861, Mr. Hastings enlisted in the Sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, his wife and babe returning to Bureau County, Ill., where they lived till the close of the war, and the return of the husband and father. On April 6, 1862, Mr. Hastings believing that he could render his country better service in the United States navy than in the army, went into the navy, and served on board the U. S. S. Ironclad "Cairo," on which vessel he participated in the capture of Island No. 10, the naval fight with the rebel Mississippi fleet above Fort Pillow, on the morning of May 10, 1862, the evacuation of Fort Pillow in June 4, 1862, the naval engagement with the entire rebel fleet before Memphis, June 6, in which the entire rebel fleet with the exception of one fast ram was sunk or captured, the bombardment of Haines' Bluff in the Yazoo River, above Vicksburg, in December of the same year, in which engagement the old "Cairo" was blown up with a torpedo planted in the river by the rebels. When the "Cairo" was blown up December 20, Mr. Hastings alone, after every other gunner had left the gun-deck of the sinking vessel, elevated, pointed and fired the last gun ever fired from the old "Cairo," after which he made his way to the spar deck, just in time to escape from the doomed ship, by plunging over-board into the river, where he was received by a shower of bullets from the rebels on shore. Other gunboats were now coming up and opening fire on the rebels, and driving them back, while small boats picked up the "Cairo's" crew.

About January 1, 1863, Hastings, with one or two others, was ordered for duty on board the U. S. S. "Cricket," when for meritorious conduct at the sinking of the "Cairo" he was promoted to the rank of quartermaster. In June, 1863, received his commission as master's mate, U. S. N., and ordered for duty on board the U. S. Ironclad "Carondelet," where he served till April 1, 1865, when he was promoted to an ensign U. S. N. and assigned for duty to the U. S. S. "General Price," a steamer captured from the rebels at Memphis, in June, 1862. In July, 1865, he was detached from the "General Price" and ordered to duty as second in command of the U. S. S. "Pearta," where at the close of the war, December 25, 1865, he was honorably discharged with the thanks of the Navy Department.

Loren’s leaving the army to join the navy resulted in a charge of desertion. This charge was taken up in the U.S. Senate by Senator F.M. Cockrell of Missouri …

The charge would appear to have been dropped, given the fact that upon his death, he was listed as a veteran of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Others commented on this subject…

It does seem odd that you could up and leave the army in order to join the Navy, without realizing the trouble this would inevitably cause. And surely a naval recruitment officer would have asked about his military service and wouldn’t have accepted him if he knew about Loren going AWOL from his army unit, suggesting that Loren did not share this with the recruiter, and therefore knew what he was doing.

After the war was over Mr. Hastings returned to Mineral, Bureau County, Ill., where he wife was then living, and where on September 3, 1863, Julia Iona, the little daughter, had died. No other children were ever born to them. They lived here but a short time, and then in 1868 moved to Des Moines, where they lived in Polk County till 1870, when they came to Nebraska, and settled on Section 2, Township 10, Range 6, west of the sixth principal meridian, on Lincoln Creek, about two miles east of what is now the city of Aurora, being the first white settler in Aurora Precinct. Here they lived till 1875, when death removed the wife and broke up the home. Mr. Hastings now rented the farm and went to Harvard, where he was again married to Miss Annie E. Peterson, of Lafayette, Ind., and in the spring of 1877 returned to Aurora, and took editorial charge of the Aurora Republican, having purchased a half interest in the paper in the spring of 1875, of F. M. Ellsworth, an attorney of Seward, Neb., and who at that time also owned a part in the town site of Aurora. Mr. Hastings continued to edit the paper and have the business management of it till 1878, when he came into full possession of the entire plant, since which time it has been greatly improved, and is now located in a fine large new brick building, on the south side of the square, built expressly for it, and fitted up with steam power. However, Loren had trouble with the new building…

His life was not without controversy…

Is it…hole cloth, or whole cloth? But so ran the feud between Loren Hastings and the Hamilton County News…

Ouch!

So the Hamilton County News states that Hastings had only a few readers. But an even more nasty accusation is made…

And…

…and he’s corrupt! But he’s so much more…

…yes, he was a potato thief as well.

And the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.” So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

So Pharaoh got his punishment. Just as Aurora had.

But he was remembered fondly by others. His friend, Joseph Alden stated…

And control of the paper passed to Alden…

Later in life, Loren contracted stomach cancer…

And…

Mr. Hastings is a member of Zach Chandler Post No. 40, G. A. R., and also a member of Hamilton Lodge No. 60, I. O. O. F., of Aurora. He is also a pensioner for injuries received in the defense of his country and his country's flag. Loren died on November 28, 1889, in Aurora, Nebraska.

The funeral…

The uptake of Loren’s grave…