USA > Nebraska > Antelope County > A history of Antelope County, Nebraska, from its first settlement in 1868 to the close of the year 1883 > Part 2
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T HERE is not much evidence that Antelope County had been occupied as a permanent home by any of the Indian tribes for many years prior to its settlement by white people. When Lewis and Clarke passed up the Missouri River, along the eastern bor- der of Nebraska, in July, 1804, on their trip of explo- ration to the Pacific coast, they found the neighboring tribes of Indians located in the following named places: the Otoes, with a remnant of the Missouris, were on the south bank of the Platte River, about eight miles above the mouth of the Elkhorn; the main band of Pawnees was located on the same side of the Platte, at a point probably nearly opposite the present town of Clarks. Another band of Pawnees was living on Wolf River, or Loup Fork, in the vicinity of the present town of Fullerton; the remnant of the Omaha tribe had their headquarters on Omaha Creek, in what is now Thurston County; the Poncas were located on Ponca Creek near its junction with the Missouri River, in Knox County. Lewis and Clarke do not mention any other bands of Indians as being found in central or northern Nebraska. Other authors, however, state that the Arapahos and Cheyennes roamed over the western part of the state, as did also some bands of the Dakota or Sioux tribe. The Pawnee Indians laid claim to a large tract of land lying in central Nebraska, and embracing with other lands the western three-fourths of Antelope County. This tract, excepting the portion now known as Nance County, was ceded to the United States by treaty September 24, 1857. The Omaha Indians claimed the east-
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
ern one-fourth of Antelope County, and all the country east to the Missouri River. This tract, excepting the Omaha and Winnebago reservations, was ceded by the Omahas to the United States by a treaty dated March 16, 1854. The Santees and Winnebagoes that now occupy reservations in north-eastern Nebraska were moved thither by the United States government in 1864 and 1866, and were not here when Lewis and Clarke made their trip up the Missouri.
There is no evidence to show that any of these tribes made a permanent home in any part of Antelope County. It is, however, probable that the Pawnees, Omahas, and Poncas, tribes that were generally on friendly terms with one another, used Antelope County and contiguous ter- ritory as a common hunting ground. There are also many evidences to show that some tribe of Indians used certain parts of the county as a summer residence or temporary headquarters. On section 34 in Oakdale township, on the east side of Cedar Creek, there were found, in the early days of the settlement of that neighborhood, many pieces or remnants of broken pottery, such as the Indians manu- factured. Near the bank of the Cedar, on a high, dry table or bench of land, there were several excavations that had evidently been used to store their corn, or perhaps other things not needed for immediate use. Some of these excavations were four or five feet deep and somewhat larger than this in diameter when discovered in 1869 or 1870. They had caved in and filled up somewhat, but were still plain to be seen. They were evidently made by the Indians. Near this place, on section 3 in Cedar town- ship, on a flat, rich meadow bottom, rows of small mounds four or five inches high were plainly visible, though over- grown with grass, and here, probably, corn had been planted and hilled up with a hoe or some other utensil. A mortar for cracking corn was found in the same vicinity. It was made from an oak log, ten or twelve inches in diameter, and about three and one-half or four feet high. The mortar part in one end would hold about four quarts. It was considerably damaged by prairie fire and had not been
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
used for several years. In the same neighborhood a farmer, while breaking prairie, turned up from a little pocket or cavity in the soil, where they had been buried or hidden, ten or twelve flint knives, such as were used in skinning game or cutting up meat. A flat, smooth stone was found, about twelve or fourteen inches long and about four inches wide by two inches thick, probably used in dressing skins.
No extensive burial places have been discovered any- where in this county, which would not probably be the case if a permanent home had been made here by any of the Indian tribes. It was the custom of the various tribes of Indians occupying eastern Nebraska to bury their dead, usually selecting for a burial place the top of some high hill. The various branches of the Dakota or Sioux tribe placed their dead in trees, or, if trees were not convenient for that purpose, on scaffolds erected by placing in the ground four poles, eight or ten feet long, on which a plat- form was built. It was the custom to wrap the corpse in a buffalo robe and fasten it among the branches of a tree or place it on a scaffold. Mr. William Campbell, who was one of the first settlers on Verdigris Creek, found the body of a Sioux Indian fastened among the branches of a tree not far from his homestead, in the spring of 1878. There were occasional graves of Pawnees, or others who bury their dead, found in different places throughout the county, but these were isolated, there being only one or two in a place. In 1869, when the first homesteads were taken in Cedar township, there was found the grave of a Pawnee warrior that had been made only a year or two, as the grass had not yet grown where the sod had been removed. It was on the summit of a hill on section 3 in Cedar town- ship. It was left undisturbed by the settlers, but sometime during the summer of 1870 or 1871 some cattle that were running loose on the prairie partly tore off the covering of earth, leaving the body exposed. The grave was about three feet deep, and a cover was made by placing two forked sticks in the ground, one on either side, and laying a ridgepole across these. Other sticks were set up leaning
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
against the ridgepole, and the whole was covered with a buffalo robe, and on this, sods and earth. The body was placed in a sitting posture and wrapped in a buffalo robe. Some years afterwards the body was exhumed and the bones removed by a young doctor from Oakdale.
In the fall of 1869, while three of the homesteaders on Cedar Creek were engaged in putting up hay, a small band of Pawnees called upon them and stayed for dinner. One of these Indians could speak a little English. He said they had been chasing a band of Sioux that had stolen a number of Pawnee ponies and were making off with them to the northwest. That somewhere in the upper part of the Elkhorn valley they came in sight of the Sioux Indians with the horses, but that the Sioux at once set fire to the prairie and escaped under cover of the smoke. These Pawnees were now returning to their village on the Loup River. Their moccasins were nearly worn out, and they had no provisions left excepting a little parched corn. They seemed very tired and all but one of them lay down and immediately went to sleep. . The one who could talk a little English sat by the camp-fire and watched the whites cook the dinner, and at the same time gave the information about following the Sioux Indians. He said that the grave which was in plain sight on a hill about half a mile distant, was that of a Pawnee warrior who was killed in a fight with the Sioux not long ago. He pointed out the place where the fight occurred, which was in a bend of Cedar Creek on the east half of the southeast quarter, section 3, Cedar township, on the farm now owned by Jeff. C. Chap- man.
Antelope County, in common with all Nebraska, had been the home of the buffalo for ages before the coming of the white people. Lewis and Clarke, in the summer of 1804, state that the Otoes, Pawnees, and Omahas were nearly all absent from their villages on a buffalo hunt. The first buffalo found by Lewis and Clarke were on the Iowa side just above the present site of Sioux City. From there on they were seen in large numbers in what is now
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
Dixon, Cedar, Knox, and Boyd counties, Nebraska. When this county was first occupied by white settlers the buffalo had entirely disappeared from this section of Nebraska, excepting an occasional stray band that was traveling across the country. In November, 1871, A. J. Leach, while hunting on Cedar River, in Greeley County, saw where a band of thirty or forty buffalo had been feeding a few days previously, but did not see any of the animals. Their beds were plainly visible where they had been lying down in the grass. About 1872, R. W. Smith of Ord township ran across four buffalo while out hunting in the vicinity of the present site of Clearwater. He succeeded in shooting one, the others escaping in the sand hills to the southeast. A few days later John Bennett saw three buffalo in the southwestern part of Antelope County and, not being prepared to hunt them himself, notified E. R. Palmer of the Cedar Creek settlement, who went out and killed two of them in Logan township, about two miles southwest of Elgin. Sometime in the seventies, D. E. Beckwith, while on a hunt in southern Holt County, being camped on Willow Lake, was awakened early one morning by the splashing of water in the lake. Looking out of the door of the tent he saw two buffalo wading out some dis- tance in the lake. They took the alarm, however, and escaped to the sand hills. These are the only instances, so far as known, where buffalo were found in or near Ante- lope County since its settlement first began.
Evidences were abundant, however, that buffalo had been plentiful within a very few years. The skulls, horns, and bones of buffalo were found scattered about over the prairie in great abundance, and in some places the bones and skulls were very numerous on a tract a quarter of a mile or so across, where the Indians had surrounded and slaughtered them in large numbers. The skeletons of buffalo were often found in the streams where they had come to drink and had been mired down, or perhaps been trampled to death by others. Their bones were also sometimes found several feet under ground, in grading roads along the banks of streams.
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
Buffalo trails were very numerous, especially where the country was hilly, bordering the streams. These trails were made by the buffalo in going each day to water from their feeding grounds. They led straight to the watering- place, and, where the country is hilly or rough, always took the easiest grades. When the country was first settled these trails were mostly, but not wholly, over- grown with grass, but were still plainly visible.
Buffalo wallows were numerous in places along the Elk- horn valley and in the valleys of some of the creeks. The wallows were made by the buffalo in the summer time, by stamping and pawing the earth until the sod was removed, forming thus a little hollow a few feet in diameter. In wet weather these hollows, having been packed hard and solid by tramping, would hold water for several days after a rain. In these places the buffalo would lie down and wallow, carrying away with them a quantity of mud, thus continually making the wallow deeper. These wal- lows, where numerous, interfered with the cultivation of the land. Some of these are still to be seen on the north side of the river, below Neligh.
CHAPTER III
ELK OR WAPITI DEER - BLACKTAIL OR MULE DEER - WHITE- TAIL DEER - ANTELOPE - DISAPPEARANCE OF GAME - WILD TURKEYS - PRAIRIE CHICKENS AND SHARP-TAILED GROUSE - QUAIL -. BEAVER - WOLVES - BADGERS - WILDCATS - HONEY-BEES
T HE elk or wapiti deer had been very abundant in all this country not long before it was settled. Their horns, that had been shed, were often met with on the prairie, frequently only slightly decayed. Not a season passed that they were not seen by some of the settlers, sometimes a single one, sometimes in little bands of three or four, and at other times large droves of thirty or forty were met with. Lewis Warren, who settled where Newman Grove now is, in Madison County, at one time counted sixty in one drove in Boone County. A. J. Leach and J. H. King, while hunting in Wheeler County, counted thirty-six in one band, and about the same number were seen in the southwestern part of Antelope County. Sev- eral were killed within the borders of the county by the hunters among the early settlers. In a short time, how- ever, they all disappeared, going farther west, where they were not so often disturbed. The elk will not remain long in a prairie country where they are hunted. The common deer will remain, although they will soon become very wild and hard to approach. The blacktail or mule deer were found here, but they were not at all abundant. Their home is in a rough, broken, or hilly country, and they are never found in a smooth region, except when traveling through from one rough tract to another. They are larger and considerably heavier than the common deer, darker in color, with much larger horns, and with ears almost as large as those of a mule, hence the name - mule deer. Two at least were killed in the rough part of Logan township, one in Lincoln township, and a few were seen on the rough
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
lands of the Verdigris, in the northwestern part of the county. On July 4, 1870, A. H. Palmer, S. P. Morgan, and one or two others were hunting in the southern part of Cedar township. Mr. Palmer crossed the line into Boone County, to a little patch of timber at the head of a ravine. From this timber a deer jumped out and was shot by Mr. Palmer. No one of the company had ever seen anything like it before, and they concluded it must be a cross between an elk and a deer. It proved to be a blacktail deer. This was the first time it was known by the settlers that they were to be found in the country. They were very numerous in the rough country bordering the Loup and Cedar rivers as late as the winter of 1880, but they have probably now disappeared from the state. The common or whitetail deer were very plentiful in an early day, and were found along the Elkhorn and all the streams of the county, especially wherever there was brush or tall grass for shelter. Hundreds of them were killed by the settlers, but they held their own pretty well and were not greatly diminished in numbers until the winter of 1880. This winter was very severe, beginning the middle of Octo- ber by a very heavy snowstorm, with a terrific wind, and continuing for three days. Snow that fell in October still lay in drifts the next May, having been augmented by storm after storm throughout November and December. The deer were killed by hunters in considerable numbers the fore part of the winter, others were killed and devoured by the prairie wolves, and others perished from the severity of the weather and scarcity of food. They were scarce after this winter, and in five or six years more entirely disappeared from the county. There are none now found in the state, excepting an occasional one in the sand-hill country of the central northern part. The prong-horned antelope, the only representative of its species in the United States, were as abundant in Antelope County in the early days as sheep now are in Montana. There were thousands on thousands of them here from the date of the first settle- ment up to about 1875 or 1876. They are strictly an
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
animal of the plains, and are never found in a hilly country or in the timber, excepting for a little while in traveling through these places. In the spring they could be seen scattered about all over the smooth prairie country in little bands of three or four, up to a dozen or so. Later in the season, about August, they began to gather together in larger numbers and by September large droves of forty or fifty could be seen together. Most of the antelope went farther west to winter, and returned in the spring to rear their young through the summer. A few would remain here throughout the winter, but generally not many. In the winter of 1870 a large herd of two or three hundred spent the winter mostly in Lincoln township, where they were often seen, and several of them were killed. The winter was mild and they continued in good condition all winter. One killed in February that winter was very fat. The antelope have probably left the state entirely, and cannot be found this side of Wyoming. All of the first settlers of the county were familiar with all of these wild animals named, and depended on them to a great extent for food for the first five or six years. One of the sad things to call to mind is that now they are all gone. The elk is the grand- est and most lordly of any of the deer family ever found in Nebraska. Next to the elk in size and grandeur is the blacktail deer, while the whitetail deer is the most graceful in form and movement, and the antelope the fleetest of all native wild animals. While it is to be regretted that they are all gone, there is no help for it and there could have been none. These animals cannot exist in a wild state in an agricultural community, such as we have in Antelope County. They must have such shelter as is afforded by rough or mountainous tracts of land, or by dense swamps, or by large tracts of barren land unsuited for cultiva- tion.
There were a few wild turkeys here at first. They were found only along the timbered streams and chiefly on such creeks as the Cedar, the two Hopkins creeks, and St. Clair Creek, where oak timber abounded, the acorns forming one
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
of their chief articles of food. Mr. A. L. Kimball, one of the first settlers on Cedar Creek, counted twenty-two birds in one flock near that stream, in the fall of 1869. A few were shot by some of the first settlers, but they migrated to some other place as soon as they began to be hunted, there not being sufficient cover for them here.
Prairie chicken and sharptail grouse were found in great abundance for many years after the first settlement began. In the fall and early winter they would gather in large flocks of hundreds in a flock, visiting the tracts of tim- ber for shelter in stormy weather to quite an extent, al- though often remaining on the open prairie, especially among the hills. Numbers of them were shot by the set- tlers and in some cases they were caught in traps made for that purpose. They were used extensively to supply the table, and sometimes the breasts were salted and smoked and packed away, late in the fall, for late winter and spring use. Their numbers did not diminish materially for sev- eral years, the increase each season equaling the number killed by the settlers.
There were no game laws in force in those days, and the settlers helped themselves to game of all kinds found here whenever their needs demanded, and it could be obtained. Prairie chicken were taken at all seasons, but elk, deer, and antelope were seldom killed from February to July, because they were poor in flesh at that time. Elk and deer killed in October, November, and December were often salted down like beef, for winter and spring use, or the hams of the deer and the thick parts of the meat of the elk were salted and smoked. Smoked or dried venison was common on the tables of many of the new settlers. Game was sel- dom, if ever, hunted for the market in those days, but was killed only to supply home demands. The prairie chicken hunters had not reached Antelope County in those days. These hunters, and the rats, came at the same time. They both came with the railroad, but not before.
Quail were found here in very limited numbers by the first settlers, but they soon rapidly increased, and are
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
much more plentiful now than in early times, while the prairie chicken are nearly exterminated.
There were beaver here along nearly all the timbered streams, but they were not numerous. Their cuttings were fresh and plentiful among the cottonwood and willow trees and bushes. One cottonwood tree on Cedar Creek was cut by them that was about fifteen inches in diameter. They usually made their nests in the banks of the streams, but sometimes built dams and houses. There was one beaver pond on section 10 in Cedar township from which two beaver were taken, one of them a large one, weighing fifty-two pounds. A dam was built by the beaver, across Beaver Creek, in Wheeler County, about five miles south- west of Antelope County, that flooded several acres of land, and appeared to be used by a large colony. The beaver remained but a short time. A few of them were trapped, and the others, becoming alarmed, soon left the country.
There were no wild honey-bees here when the country was new. Those here now are swarms escaped from the bee- keepers that raise them. There were few gray, or timber, or buffalo wolves here when the country was first settled. None have been trapped or killed, so far as it is known, but it is claimed that an occasional one has been seen. There were numbers of coyotes or prairie wolves, also some bad- gers, raccoons, and wildcats. These have nearly all dis- appeared, excepting the prairie wolves, which are still with us.
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CHAPTER IV
THE COUNTY AS IT APPEARED TO THE FIRST SETTLERS -
EFFECT OF PRAIRIE FIRES - SCARCITY OF HAY - FIRST WHITE MEN IN THE COUNTY - STATEMENT OF CAPTAIN CLARKE - THE ELKHORN RIVER : WHY SO NAMED - THEOPHILE BRUGIER - INDIAN AND MORMON TRAILS- MODE OF TRAVELING BY THE INDIANS - STATEMENT BY JUDGE THOMAS L. GRIFFEY
T HE general appearance of the county as viewed by the first settlers was quite different from what it was only a few years later. This difference arose not so much from changes caused by cultivation and the building of houses, as from the prevention of prairie fires. Before the county was settled, and at the time of the first settlement prairie fires prevailed exten- sively every fall. Sometimes even the Elkhorn River was not effective as a fire-guard, the fire having been known on several occasions during a strong wind to jump across the river and set fire to the grass on the opposite side. This burning over of the prairie in the fall of the year left the grass roots exposed, the ashes and cinders being swept away by the winds and deposited in the ravines and other sheltered places, leaving the ridges and all high lands swept bare and clean. The snow that fell during the winter was blown off the high lands and piled in great drifts on the low grounds. As a consequence, when the snow melted in the spring the water was nearly all carried into the creeks and rivers, and the high lands were left with in- sufficient moisture. Then when the spring rains came, there being no vegetation left to hold the moisture, it drained off quickly, producing freshets and doing com- paratively little good. Evaporation also was rapid, owing to the fact that there was no covering of old grass or other herbage to hold the moisture. As a result, the grass, although consisting of the same kinds found years after- wards, was light of growth and comparatively thin on the ground.
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
Owing to these things hay was very scarce the first few years. There were some low tracts of moist meadow along the Elkhorn, an extensive tract of similar meadow land on the Willow, perhaps some small tracts on the Bazile and Clearwater creeks, and also little narrow strips of good hay along the sloping banks of the ravines. Gen- erally speaking, however, grass fit to cut for hay was very scarce. The settlers found out that by keeping out prairie fires this difficulty was soon overcome. By plowing around large tracts and burning fire-guards in the fall, the fires were headed off and kept under control, and large tracts of land were prevented from being burned over. This resulted in holding the snow during the winter, pre- vented rapid drainage and evaporation of the spring rains, thickened up the grass roots, and caused a much heavier growth of grass. As a consequence, in a few years' time wild blue-stem hay could be had in great abundance, not only on the bottom and valley lands, but upon the high rolling lands as well.
This keeping out of prairie fires, together with the plant- ing of trees and the cultivation of the soil, has tended to very materially modify the climate, but this subject will be taken up in a future chapter.
Nothing definitely is known as to just when this country first became known to white men. Probably the earliest authentic account of any definite knowledge is given by Lewis and Clarke in the narrative of their explorations in 1804. Captains Lewis and Clarke camped with their out- fit, on the 22d day of July, 1804, on a high and shaded spot not far from the Missouri River and ten miles north of the mouth of the Platte. The narrative of Captain Clarke recites: "The present season is that in which the Indians go out on the prairies to hunt buffalo; but as we discovered some hunters' tracks, and observed the plains on fire in the direction of their villages, we hoped that they might have returned to gather the green Indian corn, and there- fore despatched two men to the Ottoe and Pawnee vil- lages, with a present of tobacco and an invitation to the
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