USA > Nebraska > Antelope County > A history of Antelope County, Nebraska, from its first settlement in 1868 to the close of the year 1883 > Part 4
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There was a fine body of timber along the creek, just north and west of their camp. It was supposed that the section line ran through this body of timber and that part of it was in Madison County, and part in what is now An- telope County, but then unorganized territory. Crandall Hopkins decided to take a claim in Madison County, just
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
east of the line, and Allen would take the southeast quarter of section 1, on which they were encamped. Crandall at once began breaking prairie on his claim in Madison County, but having found in a few days that the section line ran entirely east of the body of timber, he abandoned this land and located two miles farther west, on the east half of the northeast quarter, section 3, in Burnett township, and on the south half of the southeast quarter of section 34, Elm township.
Allen Hopkins made homestead entry on his claim Sep- tember 9, 1868, and Crandall entered his as a homestead on October 22 following. Allen Hopkins' land was the first homestead taken in Antelope County. They at once set to work to build a log house on Allen Hopkins' claim, and in this they all spent the winter. This was the first house within the limits of Antelope County. During the winter they built a log house on Crandall Hopkins' home- stead and in March, 1869, he occupied it with his family.
CHAPTER VII
TIDE OF IMMIGRATION FOLLOWS THE VALLEYS - ROLLING LANDS SETTLED LAST, BUT ARE OFTEN THE BEST - ADDITIONAL SETTLERS IN 1868 - FIRST DEEDED LAND IN THE COUNTY - BIOGRAPHY OF CRANDALL HOPKINS
I N the early days, in settling a new country, the tide of immigration always followed up the valleys of the large streams, and afterwards the valleys of the trib- utary streams, leaving the intervening or adjacent high lands to be settled later. In more recent times this has not always been the case, for the reason that the railroad has now become the pioneer, and settlement now follows the railroad. When the first permanent settlement was made in Antelope County there was only one railroad in the state and that one, the Union Pacific, had only five hundred and forty miles completed on January 1, 1868, and had been running passenger trains as far west as Kear- ney only since the year 1866. Only one railroad at that time, the Chicago and North Western, had crossed the state of Iowa to Council Bluffs, it having been completed to that place in 1867. Immigrants had not yet become accustomed to travel by rail. They all, or nearly all, came by covered wagons, following the most generally traveled routes, which nearly always led up the valleys of the large streams. When Crandall Hopkins and family in 1868, and those who followed in 1868, 1869, and 1870, first stuck their stakes in the unorganized territory that afterwards became Antelope County, they passed by hundreds of thousands of acres of as fine unoccupied land as could be found in the state of Nebraska. This land, however, lay back from the streams and could not be seen from the traveled road. At that time there was still much vacant land in Cuming County, in the northwestern part of Dodge, in northern Platte, in the northern and southern parts of
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
Stanton, and at least three fourths of Madison County was still vacant. But the valleys had their attractions; they were easy of access, the streams afforded running water, and the groves along the banks and in the adjacent hills supplied timber for building purposes and for fuel. However, many of the first settlers in Antelope County, as in other places, took up inferior land for the purpose of securing water and timber, rather than go back a few miles for the finest of level or sloping prairie. An old settler once said to the writer, "I would rather settle twenty-five miles from timber, and have land to suit me, than to settle on a stream with timber and water and have inferior land." And he was right. Some of the farms along the streams of Antelope County, to-day, are of the very best quality, in every respect, but the great bulk of the finest farms of the county lie in the sloping upper val- leys above the head-waters of the creeks, and on the fine, broad, undulating, and rolling divides between the streams. Some of the earliest settlers came from a timbered country, or from a country that was part timber and part prairie, where timber was plentiful, and these generally felt that they must have a patch of timber. It is true, therefore, that many of the settlers who came later secured better land for farms than some of the first settlers.
The settlement of Antelope County had now commenced, and Crandall Hopkins and family were not to be long without neighbors. George St. Clair, as previously stated, had taken a preemption claim. This he changed to a homestead on October 22, 1868, and immediately there- after abandoned it and left the country. Josiah McKeri- han filed preëmption papers on the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter, section 4, Burnett township, and on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter and the east half of the southwest quarter, section 33, Elm town- ship, lived on it thirty days, proved up November 2, and went down to the Yellow Banks, in Madison County, where he took up a homestead. This preemption claim of McKerihan was the first land proved up on in the county.
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
A year or two later he sold the land to Cyrus D. Buck, gave warranty deed, and this was the first real-estate sale and the first deed to be recorded in the county. On October 31 Thomas D. Mahan entered a homestead on land that cornered with the homestead of Crandall Hopkins, and on November 28 Albert Schlueter and August Liermann took homesteads about two miles farther up the valley. None of these settlers, however, occupied their lands until the next spring. Crandall Hopkins and family were the sole inhabitants of Antelope County from November, 1868, to about March, 1869. After this last date settlers began to come in rapidly, but an account of this will form the subject of another chapter.
It is not the purpose, nor within the scope, of this work to present biographical sketches of the early settlers, for two reasons. First, it would require too much space and time, and make the work too lengthy; secondly, if there are ten or twenty early settlers whose biographies should be given, there are a hundred or more equally deserving of notice. This feature of the work, therefore, will not be taken up.
Crandall Hopkins, the first settler, has been made an exception to this rule. He came nearly six hundred miles with teams and covered wagons, with a wife and twelve children, and without means except his teams, wagons, a few tools, and his household goods, to drive the first stake and plow the first furrow in an unsettled and untried country. He located twenty-five miles from the nearest permanent neighbor, thirty miles from the nearest store and post-office, over one hundred miles from the nearest railroad station by the traveled road, and seventy-five miles from the nearest mill. He located in the fall of the year, with no hope of raising a crop, excepting such as could be raised on sod ground, for two years. A brief biographical sketch will, therefore, be accorded the pioneer settler of Antelope County.
Amos Crandall Hopkins, son of Gardiner Hopkins and of Freelove Parker Hopkins, was born in the town of Virgil,
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
Cortland County, New York, May 22, 1825. It is related that three brothers bearing the name of Hopkins crossed the Atlantic from England in the seventeenth century. One of these brothers settled in Rhode Island, one in New York, and one in Virginia. The subject of this sketch is descended from the one who settled in Rhode Island. It is family tradition that the great-great-grandfather of Amos Crandall Hopkins was a brother of Stephen Hopkins, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The parents of young Amos Crandall Hopkins had followed the occupation of farming in Cortland County, New York, for several years, but were poor, and were not getting on as well as they wished. They therefore determined to pull up and go west, with a view of bettering their condition. When Crandall was eight years old his parents sold out in Cortland County and moved to Ashtabula County, Ohio, settling near Conneaut, on the Western Reserve. Here the father opened up a farm, assisted to some extent by young Crandall. A part of Crandall's time, however, was spent in working out for the neighboring farmers. He had very little opportunity for an education. Such educa- tion as he did receive was obtained from the country schools of the time by attending only a few months in the winter. In 1840, when only fifteen years old, he engaged as sailor on Lake Erie and followed this occupation for five and one-half years, becoming mate of a vessel before he was twenty years old. On November 20, 1845, he was married to Miss Thankful Otesia Ames, at Girard, Erie County, Pennsylvania. Of this union there were born fourteen children. Two were born in Ohio, ten in Wis- consin, and two in Nebraska. In the fall of 1850 Mr. Hop- kins left Ohio with his family, removing to the vicinity of Gratiot, Lafayette County, Wisconsin. Here he engaged in farming until February, 1868, when he removed about one hundred miles south to Whiteside County, Illinois. and located near Sterling. It was his intention to remain here and buy a farm, but becoming dissatisfied with the country he again pulled out for the west, and crossing the
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
greater part of Illinois and all of Iowa, with teams, he located in Antelope County, Nebraska, about August 31, 1868. Here he opened up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, and afterward bought adjoining lands. These were improved until he had one of the finest farms in the county. Mr. Hopkins also purchased a small stock of such goods as were most needed by the settlers and kept a store for three or four years, or until about 1875. He also went to Sioux City and purchased an outfit of black- smith tools and ran a shop for a few years, or until there was no further necessity for it. For many years before his death he attended strictly to farming. He died No- vember 5, 1904, having been in failing health for about a year. He was buried in Neligh cemetery. His departure was greatly regretted, especially by the old settlers, to whom he was well and favorably known. Crandall Hop- kins, or "Uncle Cran," as he was familiarly known, was a man of sterling worth, somewhat rough and uncouth in speech and manner, firm and positive in his convictions, a good neighbor and a useful citizen. He was of the material that the best pioneers are made. He was a typical pioneer. His widow, who is two years his junior, still survives, comfortably surrounded by her children and grandchildren, with a good home, and with everything that one could wish for that this world can provide to make her last days happy.
CHAPTER VIII
SETTLEMENTS IN 1869, 1870, 1871 - CROPS RAISED - PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE - BILL PASSED TO ORGANIZE THE COUNTY - THE FIRST ELECTION; OFFICERS ELECTED; NUMBER OF VOTES CAST - PRECINCTS FORMED - FIRST JUSTICE OF THE PEACE - FIRST SCHOOL DISTRICTS
T HE settlement of the county, having been com- menced in the latter part of the year 1868, proceeded very rapidly on the opening of spring in 1869. By the middle of May all the most desirable lands on the north side of the river had been taken up, to a point opposite the present town of Oakdale. On the first of June settlers began to come in on the south side of the river, the settlements also continuing to proceed westward along the river valley until, by the last of June, Clearwater Creek was reached, and in August the main valley was settled on both sides of the river to some extent, throughout the county. The tributary valleys on both sides of the river also began to be settled before the close of the year 1869. Settlers continued to come in during the years 1870 and 1871, filling up the Elkhorn valley, or at least taking the best of the land and spreading out over the tributary val- leys on both sides of the river. The Bazile country, in the northeastern part of the county, was also settled in the spring of 1871 by members of the Bruce colony. This colony originated in Omaha, and following up the valley of the north fork of the Elkhorn, located in Knox County at the present site of Creighton, some of its members also locating in Antelope County.
No crops were raised in the year 1869 except sod corn and garden vegetables, but these produced well for those who were here early enough in the spring to plant. In 1870 the first wheat and corn were raised on land that had been broken up the year before. The summer of 1870 was rather dry and the crops on new ground suffered some-
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
what for lack of rain, and the yield was light, but the quality was excellent, and gardens also produced well. A great deal of breaking was done in the summer of 1870. The season of 1871 proving favorable, there being sufficient rain, a good crop of corn, oats, and wheat was raised throughout the settled parts of the county. Wheat especially was good, producing from ten to twenty-five bushels per acre, and testing from sixty to sixty-two pounds. Corn and oats yielded rather a light crop, for the reason that in this country neither of these crops yields well, generally, on newly broken prairie. The quality was good, however, and there was an abundance of all kinds of root and garden vegetables and pumpkins and squashes beyond anything known in recent days, both in quality and yield. One farmer that year - 1871 - raised on four and one-half acres of new breaking sixty wagon loads of pumpkins and squashes, measured in an ordinary farm wagon with a top box on. Potatoes were so plentiful as to be of little value, as there were more than enough raised to supply the demand.
In the fall of 1870 the question of county organization began to be agitated, and sometime in February, 1871, a meeting was called at the house of Judge John H. Snider, on section 6, Burnett township, to take the matter under consideration. A petition was drawn up and signed by all the voters present, asking the legislature, which was then in session, to organize the territory west of Pierce and Madison counties, defining its boundaries, and giving it the name of Oakland County. This name was selected for the new county for the reason that the name was con- sidered appropriate because it was believed that there was more oak timber in this vicinity than in any other part of the Elkhorn valley. The petition was sent through the mails and nothing more was heard of it for some time. The mails were rather infrequent in those days, the nearest post-office being at Norfolk, and it often happened that some of the settlers did not receive their mail oftener than once in two or three weeks. The matter of organization,
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
however, had already been taken up in the legislature be- fore the petition reached that body.
Leander Gerrard of Platte County, who represented this part of the state in the senate, had introduced a bill defining the boundaries of Antelope County, and providing for its organization. This bill was approved March 1, 1871. The territory described in this bill has already been noted in Chapter I of this history. Mr. Gerrard was not aware of the petition that had been for- warded until after his bill had passed both Houses of the legislature. It was therefore too late to give the new county the name of Oakland, as petitioned for.
The naming of the county came about in this way. In the summer of 1867 or 1868 a number of Sioux Indians stole some horses near Columbus. Leander Gerrard and his brother, E. A. Gerrard, and S. C. Smith, and perhaps others, took up the trail of the Indians and followed them to the Elkhorn valley, near the mouth of Cedar Creek. Becoming short of provisions they encamped and, while hunting, Mr. Leander Gerrard shot a fine fat antelope. Calling this circumstance to mind when the bill was pre- pared, Mr. Gerrard suggested the name "Antelope" for the new county.
In accordance with a proclamation of the governor, an election was held on the 15th of June, 1871, to elect county officers to hold until the next general election in Otcober following. The election was held at the house of A. H. Snider. The judges were A. M. Salnave, Jeptha Hopkins, and E. R. Palmer; clerks, A. B. Elwood and A. H. Palmer. The following named officers were elected: county com- missioners, L. A. Boyd, William P. Clark, E. R. Palmer; county clerk, J. W. Skiles; county judge, D. V. Coe; super- intendent of schools, A. J. Leach; sheriff, Jeptha Hopkins; county treasurer, W. G. Rhodes; surveyor, A. B. Elwood; coroner, A. M. Salnave. Returns of this election were filed with the secretary of state on June 29, 1871, and commissions were immediately issued to the successful candidates. The returns do not show the number of votes
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
polled, but the highest number cast for any one office was seventy-two, and that is probably the whole number of voters participating in this election.
Immediately after receiving their commissions, John W. Skiles, county clerk elect, issued notices to all the offi- cials to meet at his house, on section 18, in Burnett town- ship, and qualify for their respective offices. They all did meet and qualify, excepting W. G. Rhodes, treasurer, and A. M. Salnave, coroner, who failed to appear.
At this time also the board of commissioners held their first meeting and proceeded to divide the county into three precincts, each precinct being also a commissioner district. The eastern precinct was named Twin Grove, and consisted of all the townships in range 5; the next was called Center, and took in all the townships in range 6; the third was named Mills, and consisted of the western half of the county. This arrangement was not at all satisfactory to the residents of the western part of the county, and before the October election the board had another meeting and changed the boundaries of the precincts as follows: Twin Grove was made up of the eastern third of the county, Center of the middle third, and Mills of the western third.
No justice of the peace had been elected, and as County Judge Coe resided west of the center of the county it was thought best to have a magistrate in the eastern part of the county. Accordingly, at the first commissioners' meeting Robert P. Elwood was appointed justice of the peace. He immediately qualified and became the first justice of the peace in the county.
These county officials had very little to do. There were no books in which to keep the records, no taxes to collect, and in general no records to keep. The board of commis- sioners had two meetings, possibly three, but if the county clerk kept any record of them he failed to turn it over to his successor in office. The county superintendent organ- ized seven school districts, and the surveyor laid out one road. The record of the doings of this first set of county officers is made up chiefly from the memories of those par-
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
ticipating, and the recollections of other old settlers. There is one exception to this, however. The county superintendent kept a record of his work of organizing the seven school districts, in the back part of a private account book, and he still has that in his possession.
CHAPTER IX
THE FIRST COUNTY CONVENTION - THE FIRST GENERAL ELECTION - SET OF COUNTY BOOKS ORDERED-PART OF THE ORDER CANCELED - FIRST TAXES COLLECTED - SETTLEMENTS CON- TINUE - NUMBER OF SETTLERS BY TOWNSHIPS - THE GRASS- HOPPERS
I N September, 1871, a county mass convention was called at the house of J. W. Ploof, on the southwest quarter of section 7, Neligh township, to place in nom- ination candidates for county offices to be voted for at the general election to be held in October following. This con- vention was non-political and was pretty generally attended by voters from all over the settled parts of the county. The following ticket was placed in nomination and was elected in October: county clerk, W. W. Putney; treasurer, Robert Marwood; judge, D. V. Coe; sheriff, Jeptha Hopkins; county superintendent, A. J. Leach; surveyor, George H. McGee; coroner, A. B. Elwood; county com- missioners, Ist district, William P. Clarke; 2d district, L. A. Boyd; 3d district, Zebulon Buoy. These officials- elect qualified and entered upon the duties of their offices immediately after the election, excepting Robert Marwood and George H. McGee, who failed to qualify in time, and they were accordingly appointed to their offices by the board of commissioners. It is probable that these officials should have waited until the January following before entering upon the duties of their respective offices, but there was not a copy of the statutes of Nebraska in the county to be used as a guide, and as there was no objection, they assumed the duties of their offices immediately. The county commissioners drew lots for the terms they should serve, Buoy drawing for one year, Clarke for two, and Boyd for three years.
There were no records to be turned over excepting such as had been kept on slips of paper and in private account
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
books. Mr. W. W. Putney, county clerk, found that his predecessor had kept no records whatever of the commis- sioners' meetings, and he was compelled to make this record from memory. The former county clerk had, however, ordered a complete set of blank books from Acres, Black- mar & Company, DesMoines, Iowa, but these had not yet arrived. On investigation Mr. Putney found that the cost of these books would amount to a much larger sum than the new county could afford. He therefore wrote to Acres, Blackmar & Company, requesting that a part of the order be canceled. His request was granted, and only such books were bought as were of absolute necessity. Sev- eral of the county officials were left without any books in which to keep their records, but this was considered better than to run the county heavily in debt at the start.
Before the county was organized, that part west of Madison County was attached to Madison for revenue and judicial purposes, and that part west of Pierce County was attached to Pierce for like purposes. The settlers, there- fore, who were here on the first of April, 1871, or prior thereto, had been assessed in Pierce and Madison counties. These assessments were transferred by County Clerk Put- ney to the books of Antelope County, and in April, 1872, County Treasurer Marwood began the collection of taxes for the year 1871. Mr. Marwood opened his books for the first time at the house of W. W. Putney, on Cedar Creek, and there began the collection of taxes. His first receipt was dated April 4, 1872, for personal tax of A. J. Leach for 1871, and amounted to $8.60, two dollars of which was a dog tax. County Clerk Putney kept his office at his house on the north half of the northwest quarter of section 35, Oakdale township, and here the board of commissioners had their first meeting, and here most of the county busi- ness was transacted until the county seat was located in the fall of 1872.
Meanwhile the population continued to increase and the settlements to expand. Early in May, 1872, settlers began to come to West Cedar valley, both north and south
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
of the present site of Elgin. The valley of Willow Creek was settled in the fall of 1872, and during the year a number of new settlers located on Bazile Creek. The Elkhorn val- ley continued to fill up, especially in the western part, and the settlements both north and south of the main valley continued to expand.
It is not known exactly how many settlers were here in the spring of 1872, but a pretty close estimate of the num- ber can be made. For this purpose a list has been made out from the county treasurer's personal tax list for 1872, showing the names of all permanent settlers who were assessed a personal tax for that year. Also there are added to this list the names of permanent settlers who had filed on homesteads or preëmptions prior to April 1, 1872, but who were temporarily absent when the assessment was taken. In Bazile township there were nine settlers, as follows:
Anderson, Wm.
Anderson, Isaac
Anderson, E.
Baldwin, Richard
Chappell, Jason
Hammerly, Isador
Ressor, Doc.
Ressor, Phil.
Steele, James
In Blaine township there were eight:
Bonneau, E.
Choate, James
Bunce, Thos.
Eldridge, R. C.
Crum, James
Snider, F. M.
Smith, J. H.
West, Joel
In Burnett there were forty-four:
Bausman, Jacob
Bowers, L. L.
Berry, Geo.
Ballett, S. P.
Cowin, J. C.
Daily, James
Fletcher, S. B.
Fletcher, J. P.
Gross, A. E. Hopkins, Crandall
Hopkins, Jeptha
Hopkins, Allen
Hopkins, William H.
Ives, Nicholas
Ives, Isaac
Ives, Isaiah
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