The Martin Brothers

Among the tales of danger and heroism that have come down to us from pioneer days on the Nebraska prairie is this remarkable true story. Two brothers, caught in a hayfield when the Indians raided their central Nebraska farmstead in 1864, dashed for home on the back of their pony. Robert, the younger brother, held himself bravely on the horse’s bare back even though Indian arrows had pierced each thigh. Nathaniel, a few years older, took an arrow in his back, which hit with such force that it came through his chest and into his younger brother’s back. Now, impaled with the same arrow, the two boys fled for their lives. These boys, the Martin Brothers, are the subject of two life-sized bronze statues, one of which stands on the grounds of the Stuhr Museum, and the other in front of the Hastings Museum. And this is their story.