Billy Marsh a Prominent Member of Omaha's Historic Bird Enthusiasts

In considering essentials of the bird history for the Omaha vicinity, there are the obvious two men with their prominence as news men writing their regular articles for the local papers. Less obvious was a local resident and family man, that nonetheless had a profound role among the regular watchers of birds at the various wild places formerly present around the river city.

Billy Marsh was known by Sandy Griswold and Miles Greenleaf. The latter wrote about Marsh's 50th birthday in 1917, and also featured the bird watcher in a "Bird Lore" column in an August 1931 issue of the Omaha Bee-News. The words he wrote which were in the paper may have changed during the passing years, but the essential, yet vital aspect of the character had not changed.

"More than 20 years ago there was an aggregation of comparatively young men who strode forth each Sunday on West Center street, rain or shine, winter or summer, to get great gulps of fresh air and to broil steaks and other larder over hardwood coals in Paddock's grove. A very popular member of this party, and considerably the most advanced in years — although that would be hard to prove even now — was Billy Marsh.

"In that outfit of hoofers were to prominent Omaha attorneys, a nationally known New York journalist, a millionaire, Billy Marsh and the author of these lines. There were 'strays' from time to time — but the aforementioned comprised the regular crew."

Greenleaf described Mr. Marsh as a "bird-nut," always carrying a pair of field glasses and the requisite note book for taking notes, a habit that originally started in 1886, and described by Greenleaf back in 1917.

"And those bird records, day by day, sweltering summer or howling blizzard — have been kept up through all these years by Billy Marsh and can be seen today at his home at 4157 Davenport Street. He is a successful and retired business man but the birds are still his buddies."

The sighting of a lark during a "mean January" was definitely "something" Greenleaf wrote with an understanding of this bit of significance.

"So Billy Marsh commenced in untold wonders — and has been doing so ever since. He never urges anybody to study birds. All he says, when he finds someone who appreciates the pleasure and value of walking, is" — "'If you like walking — birds add so much to the hike!'"

Greenleaf mentioned that he learned his own birding skills — which became a prominent subject for his extensive writings — from Marsh, as well as Dr. Solon R. Towne and aided by Prof. Myron Swenk.

Though Billy Marsh has not ever been a person featured in the bird history for Nebraska as presented by the state's ornithological society, his legacy is prominent in its own unique, and subtle fashion. Certainly if his notebooks were known, they would tell of bird species and places where they would never been seen during the historic era. The notes would convey features of natural history that will never again be a part of any outdoor enthusiasts time under the open skies.

The bit of written information available, conveys the efforts of a man dedicated to knowing the birds, and getting others involved in their study and appreciation. It is hard to fathom the many Sunday walks and the observations appreciated to an extent that so many notes were kept on the observations of such a multitude of outings.

The diminutive Marsh was a "big man" in the history of bird study for Nebraska, though his legacy has been little known and celebrated.

Billy Marsh Birdologist and His Notebook

Forty Years' Study of Wild Life Around Omaha.

By Miles Greenleaf.

"I consider Mr. Marsh the best posted man on small birds and wild bird life in this part of the country, although he may have competitors unknown to me. It is certain, however, that Mr. Marsh's deep interest in the welfare of our feathered friends has resulted in great good to the entire community, for his converts are many. For this we owe him a considerable debt of gratitude." - Dr. Solon R. Towne, President of the Nebraska Audubon Society.

Next Wednesday, November 14, "Billy" Marsh will celebrate his fiftieth anniversary. He will celebrate it by going out into the woods somewhere and mixing up with nature. Since he does that same thing every day of his life, his semicentennial trek will be nothing new.

Although a member of the Nebraska Audubon society, and in good standing, he has never attended a meeting and displays his remarkable interest in the birds by mingling with them, yet there has never been a time when funds were needed for bird conservation that Billy's check book was not unsheathed.

Ever since he was old enough to trudge alone through the woods or over the fields in an around Omaha, Billy has kept a complete record of the birds he saw on such expeditions, and these old records, now in precious possession of his wife, are convincing evidence of the sincerity of his love for the songsters.

Began at 10 Years.

The first bird record was taken by Billy Marsh when he was 10 years old, but the beginning of his complete data on such trips came in 1883, when at the age of 16. This and succeeding censuses taken for several years included - think it of Marsh! - not only the names of the birds seen, but also the number of eggs taken from nests! He blushes when shown those records now, but, as he explains:

"Every boy was collecting eggs in those days, and nobody ever tried to have us stop it. All I can say in my own defense is that I only took one from each nest, and did it with a spoon, so that the human odor might not cause the old birds to leave."

The youthful Marsh made his records in an old-fashioned "composition book," and they were kept up, day by day, until the end of the month, when the account was totalled to show the number of varieties and the number of specimens seen or taken.

In Billy's Note Book.

In these old composition books are notations to tickle the memories of other "old-timers" of Omaha, for some of the spots mentioned by Billy during his ornithological tramps have long since been forgotten by those titles.

For instance, there was "the Island" - known thus to every outdoor lad of thirty-five years ago, and which was a strip of land cut off by the Missouri river near where the east end of the Locust street viaduct now touches. Billy is still tramping that locality, although the "Island" has since lost its identity. He has a "shack" on Carter lake and prowls the underbrush in search of strange birds almost every weekday. Sundays, it must be explained, he investigates Elmwood park and the Pappio creek district.

Then there was "Redick's Grove" - where a youthful Marsh made many an iniquitous haul of eggs for his collection. This forest centered at the spot now occupied by the Clarinda Apartments at Farnam Street and Turner Boulevard and extended all along the creek once once running through that territory, clear and beyond the present Leavenworth Street.

Extending south from Leavenworth, as it now lies, and west from Twentieth street to the crest now occupied by Hanscom park, was another "jungle" beloved of the boys of Marsh's character, and they called it "Brewery Woods," according to Billy's bird book. There used to be an old brewery in the middle of these woods from which they got their now prohibited monicker.

"Whitney's Woods" was another paradise for the bird lovers of that day, and it covered that part of present Omaha centering in the tract recently given to the city by Dr. Harold Gifford for a public playground, lying between Davenport and Cass streets, Thirty-third to Thirty-fifth. Here, as in other now heavily populated "wildernesses," was nothing at all but nature, for but very few hardy pioneers had moved out "so far from town," when Billy Marsh was a boy.

Among other entries are those of explorations at "Griffin's Farm," which lay about half a mile southwest of the Field Club of today, and at Lyon's Inn. It would appear that Billy's spelling was at fault in the later item, for the Lion Inn was on Center street more than a quarter century ago, near the present entrance to West Lawn cemetery, and had the big figure of a lion hanging outside as a sign. It backed up into deep woods full of birds and nests.

Poor Farm Woods.

Then there was "The Graveyard" - Twenty-fifth and St. Mary's avenue; the Cottonwoods" - probably lying along the river down south; the "Poor Farm Woods" - where the north section of the Field club golf links now extend, but which was than a trackless forest; the "Deaf and Dumb Woods" - near the present site of that institution - and many other localities mentioned in Mr. Marsh's first bird hunt records.

While the youthful Billy was laying the foundation of his present startling knowledge of birds and their habits, he accumulated one of the best collections of eggs to be found in Nebraska, but he isn't bragging about it much. The collection still is in his home at Forty-second and Davenport streets, but seldom sees the light o' day.

But while these eggs were being gathered the knowledge thus acquired has made him an authority, and so he feels it might be forgiven. Among the nests seldom found in these parts, but discovered by young Marsh were those of the Swamp Sparrow and Golden Crowned Thrush. The latter, better known as the Oven Bird, is often heard in the woods in summer, but seldom seen, and so cleverly hides its nest that few are ever discovered.

Some of the old fashioned names for common birds noted in Marsh's first records are interesting to amateur ornithologists of today, having long since been discarded. There is the "Black Throated Bunting" - now the Dickcissel; the "Yellowbird" - now the Yellow Warbler; and the "Crow Blackbird" - now the Bronzed Grackle. Grass Finch, Lark Finch and Titmouse are names you seldom hear about Omaha nowadays - but Little Billy found 'em.

His Museum at Home.

The inside of Billy Marsh's room in his present home looks like that of some great bird museum. The walls are covered with photographs taken by himself of birds, nests and eggs, while there are scores of specimens of the birds and their nests - the latter only taken when the songsters have finished with them.

Himself an ardent hunter in season, Mr. Marsh is rampant on the subject of bird protection and conservation. Not only will he not shoot a single shell except in accordance with the governmental laws on the subject, but stands willing to "turn up" anybody who does, friend or foe. And yet he is one of the best wing shots in Nebraska.

The birds are Bill's best friends, and in the winter, when he is taking suet around the woods to place in the "station" provided by him for the feathered folk of that season - they seem to know him and follow him like pets through the glades.

Although he collected eggs in his youth, you can bet that his sons don't! They have been taught differently. The oldest Harry, is in the officers' training school at Fort Omaha and the youngest, Billy Jr., is of just the age of his father when Billy, Sr., started his first bird records. And Billy, Jr., is doing likewise. Flora, the daughter, a young Brownell Hall miss, spends most of her spare time outdoors - again like her daddy.

William Marsh is 50 years old next Wednesday - but he acts more like 15 - for which fact he thanks the outdoors and the fresh air. And as far as his enviable record as a natural historian is concerned, you would never have learned even as much as is included in this story except by the stealth and underhanded ways of the writer - for Billy never talks about himself.

November 11, 1917. Omaha Sunday World-Herald 53(6): 1-M.

Jocund Days of Sandy Griswold - A Premier Sports Writer

In a room above lower Broadway Street in New York city during 1874, Sandy Griswold wrote steadily with his pencil pushing across the paper, word after intent word. He started at 4 p.m and continued until 10:30 a.m. the following day to finish a 30,000 western story called Border Fugitives. It was sold for $100 and subsequently read by many enthusiasts of the genre.

The release of this dime novel of the "Wild West," was a distinctive and unique effort for a writing career started many years earlier, and which went westward to eventually become a distinct legacy for the sports and history in Nebraska.

Samuel Girard Veals Griswold was born in Marion, Ohio in February 1849. The family had a newspaper tradition in the state, as his grand-father was founder of the Ohio State Journal, and his father was once owner and publisher of the Lancaster Gazette. Sandy was writing sketches at fifteen and in his early twenties, moved to the nation's publishing capitol on the east coast. He put his pencil to work for the New York Sun in 1873, then soon at the New York Weekly, when he also started writing the dime novels.

The Frontier Fugitives: A Tale of the Minnesota Massacre was also published in 1874. Titles were written to excite the reader with a vivid portrayal of the still wild, western frontier: The Lost Hunter, Along the Mohawk, A Tale of 1877, or The Rival Tribes of the Desert: A Wild Tale of Arizona and Wild Man of the Plains. In the 1870s, Griswold produced more than 65 dime novels. Some of the stories were reissued with new titles, 10-15 years later.

Sandy Griswold, dime novel writer and sporting editor for decades in Nebraska. This image was used to illustrate some of his weekly columns in the Sunday newspaper.

Being proficient and prolific with words, kept Griswold in a newspaper career. One of his first big assignment's was the Sullivan and Ryan boxing pugilistic bout of 1882. He was city editor for the Toledo Commercial and sporting editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer before arriving at Omaha in 1886.

His writing for the papers of the River City started with The Bee in 1886. During a railroad stop-over in the city, he visited the paper's office. On a challenge he wrote the "first real baseball story ever printed in Omaha." He became sporting editor, being the first in the Midwest to present a box score of a baseball game.

In the fall of 1887, The Bee featured a story on the nature of the outdoors: "One Day in the Country. The Pretty Legend of the Indian Plums. A Visit to Horseshoe Lake. A Picturesque Place - an Attractive Retreat for Rest and Recreation - Duck Hunting and Fishing." It vividly portrays when Griswold and a companion had "an excursion of exploration to overlook the prospects for fall duck shooting" at the lake, north along the Missouri River. "The blue vault was of that tender transparent tint through which we seem to penetrate into the unbounded depths," he wrote about the early morning, Sunday sky.

The area around Omaha had untamed lakes with wild fowl, prairie for the prairie chicken, timber and forest, brush lands for quail, and wet low-meadow, home of the indomitable jack-snipe. A multitude of other birds dwelled in the diverse habitats. Wild game was so abundant, especially fowl and prairie-chickens, it was sold as food in historic downtown stores.

In May of 1898, Griswold moved to a desk at The World-Herald, where he was sporting editor, columnist and feature writer. Nearly every Sunday he had the "Forest, Field and Stream" column. There was often also a feature story, some with installments spanning several issues. During his tenure as sporting editor, he managed "Questions Answered by the Oracle," where readers submitted questions about sport-related topics, with suitable answers provided. During the later years, his column was titled "Leaves from the Notebook of an Old Nature Student." The first paragraph of most columns were adorned with a decorative sketch of a scene with the letter of the first word. Sport reports and columns were done for other days of the week.

Some of his favorite topics were the game birds upland plover, prairie chicken and jack-snipe. He enjoyed writing about habits of the robin, the flicker or celebratory yellowhammer, diminutive warblers, the forlorn bluebird, the bluejay and other birds about the state's fields and woods. The colorful and showy spring flowers in the forest's of Florence were eloquently detailed in prose, the words faithfully set in type columns for the reader's of the coming edition of the newspaper.

He wrote on occasion about the "frowsy" coyote. His stories include details about "Old Limpy" and "Old Black Snout," two of the infamous gray wolves of the Sand Hills. The "legendary" Elkhorn was the place for a December day's ramble over woods and fields. Griswold enjoyed watching the bird-life of Turner Park, across the boulevard from his home near 30th and Dewey Street.

Among his favorite places for a duck shoot were the "ghostly" Sand Hills. At the Merganzer Hunt Club, owned by Charles Metz, owner of the Omaha brewery, Griswold went on spring and fall hunts at the Three Springs Lake north of Cody. His first trip to the "Lugenbeel marshes" was in 1893.

The club members also journeyed to the wetlands along Lake creek at the northern edge of the sandhills in on the southern edge of South Dakota. An Indian of the Pine Ridge tribal reserve showed some hunters "Lake Creek's haunted hole."

"Sunset in the sand hills! A golden light, as if transmitted through the windows of topaz, kindles a gentle slope upon the eastern borders of the Lake Creek marshlands; one sweep of yellowing verdure covers the remainder of the scene," Griswold wrote in November 1898. The hunters tents were in the foreground at a primitive camp in the wild lands of the northern sandhills. Transportation at the time was a steady, horse-drawn wagon that slowly rolled across the sand dunes.

He went hunting at the prominent lake district south of Valentine, enjoying a hunt with son Gerard in 1903. He stayed several times at the Hackberry Ducking and Fishing Club, where George Brandeis, "the dry goods prince," and brewer Albert Krug, were among the members, all which were Omaha business men. Twice he enjoyed a hunt on the Gentry ranch northwest of Whitman. Miles Maryott, the prominent naturalist and artist of Oshkosh, was part of the hunting party in a fall 1925 excursion to the lakes nestled among the hills of northern Garden county.

Griswold used fine words representative of a rich working vocabulary; jocund for one, with synonyms of gay, merry, jovial lively or mirthful. He'd write, for example, "Jocund days" to start a sentence of his dialogues with the reader. His first story from Horseshoe Lake used "revivifying." In 1893 he wrote about "farinaceous seeds" eaten by the upland plover. He talked about the "phantasmagoria of the past" when he wrote about "scenes that make the blood tingle" in January 1905. A spring 1910 outing near Brownlee was a "saturnalia of joy." His descriptive story dialogues poetically conveyed the nature of a hunting excursion or a walk afield where nature was something to just enjoy.

A notebook with pencil-written notes was obviously an essential part of notable outings by Griswold. He wrote in the summer of 1905: "A camp diary need not be prolific or detailed. The briefest mention and barest record will be sufficient to revive recollections of forest, field and stream incidents, to snatch one up from the surroundings of every-day life and transport them back to the old ducking days."

Some of his most notable adventures were recalled again and again in columns of the Sunday World-Herald. He consistently recalled events of the forlorn days hunting seasonal fowl on Prairie Creek near Clark's, along the fabled old Platte river. Hunting sandhill cranes and missing a shot at the rare and majestic whooping crane were subjects recalled from his treasured notebooks. The disappearance of the prairie pigeon was described in reminiscences.

During the years Griswold also contributed occasional sporting notes from Nebraska to Forest and Stream, a weekly outdoors journal. His writing was very popular.

The Wild Man of the Plains, a "story of the mysterious wild west" dime novel, was reprinted by the Sunday World-Herald starting in February 1910, and then weekly for several issues. The paper called it a story of novel and thrilling interest. Sketches to portray the story events were part of the newspaper version.

In April 1910, Griswold was at the Hanna ranch on Big Creek on a hunting trip. A prairie fire burned 25 miles from in Thomas county up to the Brownlee country. The ranch men went to help, while Griswold went to the "little prairie hamlet" to watch the "bedlam" and assist where possible. He wrote an exciting news account of the "demon fire" that jumped the North Loup river and threatened people and buildings until a shift in the wind's direction blew the fire past.

Nebraska's land changed drastically during the years Griswold did his writing. His lament was for the dramatic reduction in wild habitats and their flora and fauna. He was a champion for ways to protect birds, including an end to market hunting and spring hunting seasons. Many Forest, Field and Stream columns promoted game laws to help wildlife conservation.

In 1922 a profile of Griswold, then 73, was written for the eastern journal, Editor and Publisher. The story listed "big scraps" in the boxing ring from 1889 to 1904 for which Griswold had filed reports with detailed and distinctive blow-by-blow action. "Throughout the section covered by Omaha newspapers, Sandy's dope, his nature stories and his opinions on all kinds of sports, both indoor and outdoor, are sought by thousands of readers," said the article's author, Basil G. Rudd. "By means of the written word, he has established a personal journalism on the sports page like unto that which characterize some of the great editorial writers of a few decades ago." Griswold was a "virile, poetic, kindly, picturesque and prolific sportsman and sports writer," the article said.

Carter Lake - also known through the years as Horse-shoe Lake, Cut-off Lake - was created as a wildlife refuge in 1924, due to its regular use by migrating wild fowl. The city of Omaha passed a resolution calling it the "Sandy Griswold bird sanctuary." Griswold and a companion had enjoyed this lake decades earlier. During the years, different outdoor recreation resorts were established to take advantage of the lake. The water's value to bird-life continued to a greater or lesser degrees during the ongoing changes of the area.

Goodbye, Sandy! Sandy Goes "I am ready to go at the tap of the gong" were characteristic words of Sandy G.V. Griswold, who not many days later passed to the beyond. Somehow, we had not thought of Sandy as an "old man" of 80 years. Of course he was not the writer he was in his prime, but his quick movements and his old impetuous way, his natty slouch hat or cap, his "cracks" at the world about him, marked a man who in many ways seemed destined never to grow old. And his zest for his daily task in "Sandy's Dope," his undimmed enthusiasm for the out of doors, kept him writing of "forest, field and stream" right to the end. On his sickbed he was dreaming of April days to come and in his mental wanderings returned frequently to the thought that he must hurry his copy into the composing room for the afternoon newspaper. In the hours of his illness he said with dismay to a caller, "Why, until last week, I was bursting with life and health, not conscious of the burdens of years, coming suddenly and smack into this bed." Sandy's work days of considerably over a half century were to him mostly pleasant days. Beginning as a newspaper man in Cincinnati, writing fiction for New York weeklies than much in vogue, coming west, to locate accidentally in Omaha, he ever took a boyish delight in life. He won his first laurels as a writer of baseball news, his articles for many years being a feature of this newspaper. He was an authority on many branches of sports and his figure was as familiar at the ringside for a half century as that of any man in the sport world. But the work that he loved the best and which therefore reflected the best that was in him as a writer was his newspaper department in the Sunday World-Herald descriptive of the out of doors. He was not a hunter who went out merely to kill. His ventures into the fields and woods of the lake country and the plains were grand tours in which he was enthralled by the charms of nature in her wild and untamable moods and environments. he loved the wild flowers, the flags, the sedge along the lake shores, the crisp early morning light and the glory of the sunset sky. It was his experienced observation with the enthusiasm that was undimmed even into his later years, which, transmuted into his descriptive stories of field and stream, made them appeal to the hearts of thousands of newspaper readers. Although he was an authority, with few if any equals, on the out of doors in the middle west, he was not ambitious to write a book about it. His contributions to out of door magazines were much sought, but all too rarely attempted. He was a newspaper man writing for his day until his eyes failed and finally closed. Impetuous, quick tempered, with a bluff exterior which ill concealed a kindly heart, Sandy was a man's man. He was a fighter, a man with seams in his armor, but a royal figure in the circle of his comrades who were many and notable in the years long gone. "Hard boiled" he seemed to many, but he was sensitive as a girl to his friends, grieving deeply as they fell around him while he moved on to the goal of eighty years of human life. We are reminded now of his farewell, printed in The World-Herald, to W.D. Townsend, a pal on many hunting trips, on which he said: "Many golden days did we spend together, in the fragrant stubble after quail, on the river where the black bass leapt, and on the sunlit marsh where the ducks were, and that little sprite - richest rosewood in color - and the bird we both loved above all else - the jack. 'Skeape!' There he goes now, Billy, over the faded flags; can you hear him where you are - for you don't seem more than across the slough from me, this glorious wintry morning? Yes, I can wait - we all can - in time we will hail the hallo of the boatman, and then we will know what you know." April 22, 1929. Omaha World-Herald editorial.

Laws in the 1920s rigidly restricted the pursuit of game, but sporting was still important. Migratory flights of fowl were dramatically changed - Griswold considered bird migration a big mystery - but there were still times for going afield. In his latter years, many of his columns were about the yellowhammer, junco, martin, fox sparrow and vesper sparrow, the blue jay and other bird life common to the parks and places with some wild character around Omaha.

In April 1928, Griswold wrote some recollections - "taking a long glance backward" - about his more than a half century as a sportsman writer. He was starting his 33rd year "on the good old World-Herald," he wrote in "Leaves From the Notebook of an Old Nature Student," the name of his Sunday column. He expressed lament for days with times that were gone forever - a glorious morning of long ago, when prairie chicken were abundant on the prairies about Omaha. There had been times when antelope and deer were abundant. He remembered magnificent mornings at a wild blue lake with a myriad of flying ducks and other fowl. His notebooks kept the details for so many experiences among the land, watching fowl and other wildlife. The memories were later wrought in words issued by the newspaper.

In one of his final series, newspaper writer Griswold scribed several installments of a recent outing with the "Boy" to the lingering wildness along Big Pappio creek, west of Omaha.

A last fowl hunt for the endurable sportsman was a final duck shoot in the sand hills for ten days in the fall of 1928. "Camp Gumaer" was among the lakes in northern Garden county. His story "Off in the Oshkosh Hills With the Lordly Canvasback" started in the paper the first Sunday of November, 1928 and continued for some weeks until the end of the fowlers times. In his characteristic style of describing each day's doings, a number of weekly installments described the times and events during the ten-day outing. In pursuit of ducks, they traveled among Black Lake, the Herman Ranch, Maverick Lake, Canvasback Lake and Wolf Lake, near Pawlet.

The last story written by Sandy for the Sunday World-Herald was left unfinished. A sketch of the writer with some little aspects of nature, stylized with the capital letter R were used to start the first paragraph of the last weekly column on February 3, 1929. At the end of his World-Herald legacy of decades was the sentence - "It was plumb dark before we went in to hash," - the final words of his story of the last outing after ducks for a lifetime of a man with such a multitude of experience in so many different sports.

On Saturday evening, April 20, 1929, the local edition covered the death of Griswold that morning at his house on Dewey Street, when 80 years of age. A picture of him covering a baseball game was on the front page with the headline: "His Pencil Won Him Fame as Dime-Novelist, Prose Poet of the Out-of-Doors and Dean of Sports Writers." A photo montage of the man with renowned sporting figures was on the front page of the Sport's section.

The Sunday World-Herald sports section featured a sketch with a caption that simply said "Goodbye, Sandy!" as Griswold, shown with his rod and gun, was passing to a glorious sporting world depicted with broad skies with flocks of birds over the river, hills and woods. A fond farewell from three figures in the foreground are the myriad of sportsmen, boxers and ball players that this sporting editor knew during a career of more than 50 years. The Sportolog had other reminiscences of a distinguished career.

Friends packed the chapel at the Griswold funeral on Monday as reported in the Omaha World-Herald. "It was peculiarly fitting that the funeral should be held on Arbor Day," said the article. The Omaha Bee story said more than 200 people "paid tribute" to Griswold.

Bishop George Beecher - Griswold was a "close friend" - gave a "touching eulogy." More than 50 bouquets and sprays of flowers decorated the casket. Beecher commented, according to the OWH article:

"His path was marked by smile and good cheer. ... God judges men by their motives. It is a pleasure for me to bear witness to the high quality of Sandy's mind, and the purity of his motives.

"Nobody who loves birds, the trees and the streams is unacquainted with God. Sandy, by nature, had a love of beauty, a passion for the harmony of nature and its lullabys. His was an artistic soul, and the products of his pen were never lacking in the spirit of high ideals.

"So long as men are men there will be a love of sports. But it is men like Sandy who carry into the sports wholesomeness and cleanliness."

There was also a special tribute to the writer, placed upon his desk at the newspaper: "And while the services were in progress, Sandy's desk at The World-Herald office was adorned by a single beauty rose, sent by 'An Old Pal," together with instructions that the rose be placed on the desk. Such a flower was often to be seen on the desk during Sandy's lifetime."

Burial was at the historic Prospect Hill Cemetery in Omaha, where his marker had a simple inscription - 30 -, the journalistic lingo for end of story. The family plot, off the crest of a hill-top, has a broad view of the bluffs and flats of the Missouri River valley to the east.

Sandy's Creed "The love of nature born in me has had plenty of time for evolution. The ways and habits, cries and calls of the folk of the woods and fields, were my heritage, a part of my childhood, my whole early training. What I liked most was to be alone in the woods or open fields listening to their ceaseless voices, and the silent whisperings of my soul. "Rod and gun have been my boon companions in the years that have past, but the greater pleasure has been the communion with God's creatures enjoyed with open heart and hand. In this glorious state of ours, Nebraska, and in those round about it, this companionship has been most wonderful. "To hunt and fish are still my pleasure, but greater than these, is to seek, find cherish and protect them all — the birds, the beasts, the flowers, the trees and creatures of the waters. These are OUR heritage, which now I pray I may help pass on to those who follow."

Sandy Griswold was gone but not forgotten because of the fans of his notable newspaper legacy. Some Omaha sportsmen afterwards worked to establish a lasting memorial to a comrade of the outdoors. A bird sanctuary at Carter Lake was first recognized by an Omaha city ordinance. Prominent town men George Brandeis and Thomas Kimball, were on a committee of 50 folk that raised funds to place a memorial monument or marker in the city park now at the former Missouri River oxbow.

The people wanted to remember "Sandy's Creed." A tribute in the April 1930 Sunday magazine told the story of Griswold's "pot shot" of 11 geese from two shots of his trusty Parker doubled-barreled shotgun. Eugene Mayfield told the incident from fowl hunt on the Platte river near Clarks in the early 1880s. It was written to remember nationally famous Sandy Griswold, one of "America's finest sportsmen" and a pioneer in writing about nature, birds and other outdoor wonders of Nebraska.

This man may have been forgotten, but his legend is unsurpassed and denotes a myriad of reminiscences, so many recollections and such a vast array of history that his unsurpassed work is a pinnacle for a writer from Nebraska.

Griswold had two sons, including Gerard Coburn that worked at The World-Herald, and Rev. Latta Griswold. At Prospect Hill Cemetery, Griswold's widow, Gundie Coburn Griswold was buried in December 1940, two days after her 70th birthday. Katherine Griswold had been buried when 6 days old in October 1898.

Newspaper Bird History of Miles Greenleaf, an Omaha Newsman

Research into the history of Nebraska ornithology provides many an opportunity to look at past issues of newspapers on microfilm reels. The variety issued from Omaha provides a distinct and unique view of local avifauna at many havens about the city on the Missouri river valley and its diverse array of habitat. Bird flocks of varying species and sizes - their calls heard in the nights' sky - flew over constantly changing business and residence buildings, roads and transportation, and other developments located on a major bird migration route.

A former landscape of the on-growing place did have untamed spots appealing for a weekly jaunt and bird hike. Settings have changed but open land, parks and now built-upon green spaces were certainly much more interesting decades ago.

Miles Greenleaf pictured in the Dundee News upon his death in 1951.

Particular information on birdlore was presented in the Sunday newspapers as feature stories, columns, editorials and occasionally pictures in latter times. A distinctive record was written by Miles Greenleaf, a resident of the hills of Dundee, west of city central about 3-4 miles. To the west was the Wood creek and Elmwood park natural setting especially inviting to birds and their watchers. Happy Hollow and the Patrick Farm tract of pasture was another open space further north in the same valley.

Because of his contributions, The Sunday World-Herald is an especially valuable source of information so the issues from circa 1900 through the latter-1920s were reviewed at least three times to extract pertinent details on bird stories and other items of historical interest. Also looked at was the entire issue of fifty years of the Omaha Bee and subsequent Bee-News issues available at the University of Nebraska at Omaha library. And then for this Dundeeite, a complete review was done of the bound volumes of the Dundee News, from January 1937 into the early 1950s. These are kept at the offices of the Douglas County Historical Society at Fort Crook near Florence in Omaha.

When a story on bird life, notes, sightings, lore or whatever related to the topic of interest was found, each of the older historic and feature stories were always copied. Publication details are kept in Bibliography datatable with details of author, article date, title and source details, along with a citation for any bird occurrence records entered into the BirdRecords table. For the large number of bird editorials and columns, only a small portion of them were photo-copied for further reading and future reference. Vital bibliographic details were noted for eventual entry in the database. When an item did not have a headline, key words or species notes are used as publication title. When a given title may not be very descriptive for the actual topic, key words or the name of the species discussed is included.

Newsman Greenleaf

Miles Greenleaf joined The World-Herald in 1904. A first known story appeared after ten years of experience.

A staff co-worker was Sandy Griswold, the renowned sporting editor for Sunday columns and stories since 1896, with almost another decade prior to that at The Bee. The sporting editor wrote about outdoor sports: hunting, bird migration, bird life in the woods lengthy fowl hunt stories and otherwise recorded Nebraska ornithology in his distinct and convivial manner. Griswold was among the pioneers in voicing support for conservation of birds and their habitats, promoting conservation measures such as closed hunting seasons and creating refuges. The public's realization of changes in wildlife brought increased attention to the birds. This interest took flight in the years after 1910 when Greenleaf was notably developing his outside interests.

Greenleaf had the writing skills to initiate a new bird perspective in the paper's features: what is the lore for common birds in the parks, green places and neighborhoods of constantly growing metropolis. What about bird feeding and nest boxes, active measures being promoted as conservation measures? These are his first known feature stories:

• Hunting Wild Birds in Parks and Green Woods that Abound Near Omaha. The Boom of the Gun is No Longer Heard in the Woods Near Omaha, But in its Place Bird Hunters Search Diligently with Lead Pencil, Notebook and Camera, While About Flit the Feathered Tribe Happy in Their Freedom. (7 Jun 1914)
• Feats of Feathered Genius in the Wilds of Elmwood. Odd Habits of the Shiftless Cowbird, the Defense of a Bird Home Against the Squirrel, and the Ubiquity of the Horned Lark about Omaha. Did You Ever Find a Wood Pewee's Nest? (8 Aug 1915)
• Birds Found in Woods Near Omaha are Interesting. The Hunting of Warblers With Notebook and Field Glass Becoming a Fad and Leads to Delightful Revelations-Partial List of Beauties that Visit this Section Given by One Who Knows - Sign of Songsters Point to Early Winter. (29 Aug 1915)
• Making Winter Homes for Birds in Omaha Parks and Yards. School Children to be Enlisted in the Audubon Society in the Work of Bringing Happiness and Comfort to the Feathered Dwellers in the Parks. (24 Oct 1915)

Greenleaf's obvious interest in birds and the outdoors provided many opportunities to write paper stories. From the house on Douglas street, a block south of Dodge, there was a nearby cemetery with the favorite Elmwood park and Wood Creek a short jaunt less than a mile to the west. Another mile further to the southwest was the twisting little Papillion Creek and its lowland environs. Forest Lawn Cemetery was also a destination.

Bird editorials started on the opinion page of the Sunday World-Herald in January 1916. The Tree Sparrow was the subject. The following week's editorial was about the upside-down bird, or nuthatch. Greenleaf wrote a feature story on the nuthatch for this weeks' Sunday edition. Youngsters and bird study was the topic the fourth week. And the comments of 250-300 words continued nearly each Sunday paper thereafter. The editorials discussed the pleasures of being afield to see the tree sparrow, shrikes, the blue jay, thrasher and kingfisher. The author told about the ovenbird. Writings often discussed problems or threats to the wild habitats in the parks, especially due to the destruction of trees and underbrush by city parks workers at Elmwood park.

In May, a letter to the Omaha paper from the York Democrat praised the bird editorials, and wrote about the writer: "He can get more genuine satisfaction out of watching the birds and listening to their songs than any sportsman ever got out of shooting them" (21 May 1916, Sunday World-Herald). The comments also urged bird protection: "We have failed to realize what staunch friends they are to man. We need to study them more, and to throw greater protection about them." The York paper comments also urged teachers to read the editorials and then read them again to their students.

Although no specific attribution was given for the editorials (1916-1924), nor was supporting evidence found in an ancillary item, this content is designated to Miles Greenleaf as author, and for several reasons: Greenleaf was a staff writer, the topics dealt with the subject and places Greenleaf was known for, and some of the columns were published again on a later date with Greenleaf's byline.

In April 1916, an anonymous byline story, most likely Greenleaf, detailed an outing of 25 teachers led by Audubon Society representatives on an outing to Elmwood park. A bird list of 36 species was included. An editorial gave the details for a green-tailed towhee found as a carcass at Billy Marsh's cabin on Carter lake in January 1919, the sighting said to be first in Nebraska. In April 1920 a nest of the Red Crossbill was found in Elmwood Park, and according to Myron Swenk quoted in the editorial, was the first nest to be found in Nebraska. One column refers to the kingfishers that nested in 1914-1916 at a former Elmwood Park lake along Wood creek.

A bird editorial "Why Study Birds?" gave one apparent reason for Greenleaf to get outdoors: "Bird study for the amateur, we think, has its chief value in the fact that it takes the office-ridden and business-plagued persons of both sexes out of doors" (19 Dec 1920, Sunday World-Herald). The editorial continued: "If you go into the woods or fields, you will become a pal of the birds. If you become a pal of the birds, you must walk."

Walking about was a big part of this man's living. Columns mention the weekly Sunday outings. Pictures show the bird feeders at the sanctuary, men outdoors at a prominent spot of the 1910-20s of central Omaha, whether it is a park or a cemetery. But the informative and interesting details are the treasure for this bird history.

It is intriguing to consider the observations kept in notes of the day. Greenleaf kept a bird log. The procedure for keeping records of birds seen was explained to his readers. One of his first stories included a schedule of birds, listing species and the date of their arrival. Greenleaf wrote about keeping his birdlog and vividly recalled a 1918 visit to Elmwood park with the facsimile birdlog numbered 128. I suspect he learned the methods from another avid birder of old-days Omaha. Billy Marsh had notebooks filled with bird sightings at landmark places of woods, fields, forests, wetlands and prairie starting in the mid-1880s. It is interesting to note that the Sandy Griswold also extolled keeping a notebook of observations and thoughts and scenes during the same decades. Consider the finely documented records and notes provided by the birding notelogs or notebooks once enjoyed by these gentlemen.

As the following quotations underscore, Greenleaf had a skilled teacher to develop a long term and keen interest in bird behavior and natural history of the local outdoors.

"Through more than a score of years ... Billy Marsh was my mentor on our Sunday bird hikes, all the year around, fair weather or foul, he taught me one thing in particular, and one thing in general.

"In the first place, the long stroll of about ten miles at least, even when plowing through snow up to our hips, was mighty good for me physically and would put some years on my life - which it certainly did.

"Watching for birds, which may surprise you at any moment of any day in the year, adds to the pleasure of the hike, continued Billy Marsh, and makes you forget how far you have actually gone.

"Bird study is the finest medicine in the world! declared Billy, who really ought to know, since he is hitting eighty and fetched me along to a prime sixty-one" (Birds and the Outdoors column titled "Billy Marsh Had Outdoor Medicine" in 21 Mar 1947 Dundee News).

Most of the bird lore known by Greenleaf came from outings to Elmwood park. This renowned park established in 1890 had trees and brush and fields and untamed places. Artesian springs in the woods also attracted birds. The variety of bird life provided many ideas for writings about the birds. Readers sent in questions and observations from their own little piece of birddom.

After a lull of about two years in a regular bird feature, in 1926 "Intimate Affairs of our Bird Citizens" was started by The World-Herald. Greenleaf included his bird lore along with notes on natural history (note, nest and range) and a sketch of the species. The feature lasted about six months and is known to have reused previous editorials on the dickcissel, kingfisher and sweet song of the meadowlark, described in an earlier editorial as "Whoop la! Potato Bug!" These were the final writings done for this paper.

Greenleaf restarted his prolific writing about birds in the summer of 1930 while employed at the Omaha Bee. He wrote at least two feature stories and then initiated a column called Bird Lore, using the style of the previous bird editorials to convey natural history, bird lore and avian events while out looking about the hill and vale of the Dundee and Elmwood park vicinity, and Omaha's western edge. In autumn of 1931, Greenleaf wrote about keeping track of bird sightings and in his column, now called Feathered Folk Lore, again wrote about keeping a bird log and used once more the example from an outing with Billy Marsh to Elmwood park. The writings with this paper continued until mid-1932.

A column with the longest duration started when Mr. and Mrs. Greenleaf started the Dundee News, a weekly paper with a focus on the neighborhood, which at the time was western Omaha. He started Bird Lore with the first issue.

Some of the more interesting details include records of species occurrence for places such as Dundee Place, Elmwood park, Forest Lawn Cemetery, and the historic man-made George Lake on the upper watershed of Wood creek at Underwood Avenue. Most of the bird information from the Sunday newspaper is not available elsewhere. For George lake, a man-made lake historically present at Wood creek and Underwood Avenue, a complete list of birds from a local resident observations was presented in one column.

Greenleaf was familiar with the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union. Some columns or feature stories mentioned dates and events for group meetings. Sometimes the paper would include the list of species seen during the field day, perhaps at Fontenelle Forest. In May 1945 it was noted that the world war postponed the NOU meeting.

The Orme bird sanctuary, bird films at Joslyn Art Museum sponsored by the local Audubon Society and a nice variety of species ranging from the mourning dove, kinglets, Townsend solitaire, crossbills, waxwings, swallows and bluebirds; or consider notes on migration, nest box construction, feeding stations and reader correspondence were all part of the grand mix. News of magpies in the Dundee neighborhood was mentioned in several columns. He did a story on the fire that destroyed the bird study blind at an Elmwood park sanctuary. On one occasion, the occurrence of a brown thrasher in the winter was big news, and notable enough for Greenleaf to also write a short note for the Nebraska Bird Review (January-June 1940. Nebraska Bird Review 8(1): 27-28). In 1940, a quail was seen at 52nd and Burt streets and noted in a column of less than 250 words. For George lake, a list of birds compiled from the observations of a local resident was presented in 1942.

Topic after topic. Column after column. Issue after issue. Week after week. The bird lore name may have changed but the topics remained the same. This continued until Greenleaf's demise on a Sunday, with an obituary in the subsequent Friday, February 23, 1951 issue of the Dundee News. The death ended a wonderful personal legacy for bird history in the Omaha area. Not long before his death, the Omaha Hiking Club presented him with a collection of his bird columns they were using as a textbook.

The longest enduring column feature done by Greenleaf was as editor of the Dundee News, a weekly newspaper for the neighborhood in what at the time was western Omaha. The first columns in January 1937 were also called Bird Lore but latter ones were titled Birds and the Outdoors.

Greenleaf authored more than 1,100 columns or stories about birds, conservation, natural history, the outdoors, and species sightings. Some of the columns may be repeats, a topic of special interest from The World-Herald or The Bee and perhaps even a encore presentation from an earlier issue of the Dundee News. There are more than 800 entries for the items published in the Greenleaf paper. The bird columns continued after Miles Greenleaf died for another 25 installments, perhaps using previously written stories placed in the paper by his wife, also an editor of the Dundee News. Others may have been written by Greenleaf's wife after her husband's death

Greenleaf's many stories, editorial, columns and features - with occasional pictures for feature stories - are known from decades in the prominent newspapers of Omaha. His focused writings on birdlife were shared with so many people as he promoted birds and their habitats and helped forward bird conservation in the era of the origin of the Audubon Society. The bird lore and history described by Greenleaf is a great resource. It is not possible to provide an overall summary or simply describe this interesting record. They are best appreciated by reading a sample of the writings.

In the history of Nebraska ornithology, Greenleaf is an ardent student of the birds that has heretofore not been given suitable and proper recognition. His efforts to promote bird conservation and habitat protection endured in Omaha for the lengthy tenure of about 1914 until 1951. This record of writings is a distinct and unique part of the bird history for Nebraska.

Greenleaf wrote during the exquisite period when Sandy Griswold, the best sporting editor in Nebraska, was also sharing his prolific prose with the newspaper readers. The fine writings by either of these two men have not been suitably recognized for their value as a bird resource. Given this significant legacy, any avifauna history for Nebraska that does not refer to the efforts of Griswold and Greenleaf is simply not complete.