Biographical and historical memoirs of Adams, Clay, Hall and Hamilton counties, Nebraska, comprising a condensed history of the state, a number of biographies of distinguished citizens of the same, a brief descriptive history of each of the counties mentioned, and numerous biographical sketches of the citizens of such counties, Part 13

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, The Goodspeed publishing co.
Number of Pages: 820

USA > Nebraska > Adams County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Adams, Clay, Hall and Hamilton counties, Nebraska, comprising a condensed history of the state, a number of biographies of distinguished citizens of the same, a brief descriptive history of each of the counties mentioned, and numerous biographical sketches of the citizens of such counties > Part 13
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Adams, Clay, Hall and Hamilton counties, Nebraska, comprising a condensed history of the state, a number of biographies of distinguished citizens of the same, a brief descriptive history of each of the counties mentioned, and numerous biographical sketches of the citizens of such counties > Part 13
USA > Nebraska > Hall County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Adams, Clay, Hall and Hamilton counties, Nebraska, comprising a condensed history of the state, a number of biographies of distinguished citizens of the same, a brief descriptive history of each of the counties mentioned, and numerous biographical sketches of the citizens of such counties > Part 13
USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Adams, Clay, Hall and Hamilton counties, Nebraska, comprising a condensed history of the state, a number of biographies of distinguished citizens of the same, a brief descriptive history of each of the counties mentioned, and numerous biographical sketches of the citizens of such counties > Part 13

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Its public improvements alone for the year 1889 were as follows: Court house, $60,000; city hall, $13,000; granite paving, $35,000; water works ex- tension, $35,000; high school building, $27,000; ward school building, $11,000; street railway im- provements, $5,000; streets and sidewalks, $2,500; parks, $3,000; railroad improvements, $8,000; elec_ tric fire alarm system, $2,000; total, $201,500. Fremont's population in 1880 was 3,031; in 1885 it was 5,600; on January 1, 1890, it was estimated at 10,000.

Grand Island, located on the north side of the Platte River (and only a short distance from it), and at the crossing of the Union Pacific and the Bur- lington & Missouri River Railroads, in Hall County, was founded in 1857 by a colony which started out from Davenpert, lowa, in May of that year. But little improvement, however, was made until the Union Pacific Railroad was completed to that point in 1866. The town then began to grow, a postoffice was established, and other improvements immedi- ately followed. In 1869 a United States Land Office was established at Grand Island. In the spring of

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

1873 the town was incorporated as a city, The first church built therein was a German Roman Catholic, which was erected soon after the railroad survey of the town in 1866. Many other denominations have since organized societies and erected edifices for worship. Good schools were established early in the history of the city, and its educational facilities are now of the first class. The city contains fine public buildings and public works, newspapers, banks, many mercantile houses, and all things nec- essary to constitute a flourishing place.

Hastings, the county seat of Adams County, lo- cated on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, at the junction and crossing of several other railway lines, was laid out and established in 1872, by the " Hastings Town Site Company," on lands owned by Walter Micklin, a member of the company, who made the first improvement by erecting a sod house. The same year Samuel Alexander opened the first business house in the town. The postoffice was es- tablished in the fall of that year. The city had a continuous and rapid growth from its inception, on account of which it became the seat of justice for the county in 1877. In April, 1874, it was declared an incorporated town, and before the year closed it became a city of the second class. With the begin- ning of the town, church societies were organized, and the first school was taught by Miss Phoebe Den- stoe in the spring of 1873. Space will not admit of specific mention of the phenomenal growth of the city. Suffice it to say that it has become a great railroad center, having the " Burlington " and its branches, the Hastings & Oberlin line, the Hast- ings & Aurora line, the Chicago & Northwestern, St. Joseph & Grand Island and the Missouri Pacific; also an educational center, having the Hastings (Presby- terian) College, the Sisters of Visitation Academy (Catholic), a fine high school, and several ward school buildings. There are eight churches, viz. : Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Catholic, Evangelical Asssociation and German Evangelical. The city has five banks, a number of loan and trust companies, water works, street railways, gas and electric lights, free postal delivery, many business houses, a hospital, public library, newspapers, and all other requisites of a

substantial city. The improvements in Hastings for the single year of 1887 amounted to $1,450,595. The site of the city is a level plain, and the streets are wide and well paved, and cross at right angles. It contains many handsome business blocks, and the residences-from the palaces to the cottages -- all have a neat and stylish appearance. The population is estimated at 12,000 or more.

Kearney Junction, an important point in the Platte River Valley in Buffalo County, on the Union Pacific Railroad, at the junction therewith of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, was set- tled in 1871, and the same year the postoffice was established there. The town was surveyed in 1872, and both railroads were completed to it that year. In the spring of 1873 it contained about twenty buildings, and in the fall of 1874, upon a vote of the people of the county, it became the county seat. In January, 1873, it was incorporated as a town, and in April, 1874, it was incorporated as a city. The first church in Kearney Junction was the Methodist Episcopal, organized in 1871 by Presid- ing Elder A. G. White and Rev. A. Collins, at the residence of the latter. The Presbyterian and Con- gregational Churches were organized the following year, and since that time several other churches have been organized. The first school was taught in 1872 by Miss Fanny Nevins. The city has now a large central and other school houses, banking institutions, public works, and all the requisites of a growing city of several thousand inhabitants.

Lincoln, the capital of the State and county seat of Lancaster County, is situated on high rolling lands in the southeast part of the State about fifty miles west of the Missouri, and thirty miles south- west of the Platte River at its nearest point. The first settlement on the site of the city was made in 1863 by Elder J. M. Young and others composing a colony. Soon after a town was founded and named Lancaster, which name it retained until 1867, when it was chosen as the capital of the State, and the name changed to " Lincoln." At this time the town contained two country stores and four or five dwelling houses; and the county numbered about 500 inhabitants. The State capitol was erected in 1868, and has since been enlarged. In October,

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

1867, the survey of the city was completed. The streets running east and west were named from the letters of the alphabet commencing with " A" on the south and extending to " U" on the north, not including the letter I. The streets running north and south were numbered from First on the west to Seventeenth on the east, making thirty-seven streets, with an average length of one and a quarter miles, or an aggregate of ahont forty-six miles. The site, however, was cut into by a reservation on the north- west corner of about twenty acres, and another pene- trating from the northeast as far as O street to the south and Fourteenth to the east. The four blocks bounded by H and K and Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets were reserved for the capitol, another tract of the same size bounded by R and T and Tenth and Twelfth Streets was reserved for the State University, and the blocks bounded by D and F and Sixth and Eighth Streets were reserved for a park. Reserva- tions of one block each were made for a court house, State Historical Society and a market square. All churches applying had a reservation of three lots set apart to them. The blocks were 300 feet square and laid out into twenty-four business, or twelve resident lots, with a frontage of twenty-five and fifty feet. The streets were 100 feet wide with the exception of D, J, O, S, Seventh, Eleventh and Fifteenth, which were 120 feet wide and called avenues.

The first church in Lincoln, the Congregational, was organized in August, 1866; and the first school was taught in 1867, by G. W. Peck. In April, 1868, the town was incorporated, and in 1871 it was chartered as a city. At this writing, 1890, it is only twenty-seven years since the site of the city was first settled by white men, and only twenty- three years since it was surveyed for a town. Not- withstanding this short period of time, it is now the railroad, political and educational centre of the State. Among the industries, religious and eduea- tional institutions of the city are the following: Eleven banks, the State fair, seventy factories, twenty-six schools, three great universities, three public libraries, thirty-eight churches, sixty-eight wholesale houses, thirteen temperance unions, seven building brick works, twelve miles of paved streets,

the best paper mill in the west, twenty miles of san- itary sewer, ten miles of storm water sewers, thirty- one miles of street railway, three immense paving brick works, doubled in population in three years, strong gas and electric light companies, eighteen newspapers and periodicals, the finest residences in the State of Nebraska, a government building cost. ing a quarter of a million, five street car companies, one with a capital of $1,000,000, six hundred tele- phones, connected with fifty-seven towns in Ne- braska and sixty-six in Iowa, stock yards and two large beef and pork packing houses, the only con- servatory of music west of Chicago, the finest pot- tery on the globe, the products of which go to either ocean, the finest soap factory in the West, the largest tannery in Nebraska.

Lincoln is rapidly taking a foremost position in the great Northwest as a manufacturing centre. Its wonderful shipping facilities, with twelve di- verging lines of railway radiating in every direction, connect it with the railway systems of the entire country. Its population is estimated by the local press at 60,000, but this is probably too high at this time.

Nebraska City, the seat of justice of Otoe County, lies on the west bank of the Missouri River, about sixty miles south of Omaha, Neb., and 110 miles north of St. Joseph, Mo. Its site was first . occupied about the year 1844, by a company of United States Dragoons who afterward erected there- upon a block house, a log cabin for the officers, and a hospital. The place was subsequently occupied by the United States Fur Company. It was per- manently settled about 1852 by the Boulwares and Hiram P. Downs, the original proprietors of the site. The town was surveyed and laid out in 1854, and the following year it was incorporated. In 1856 the second land office in the State was estab- lished at Nebraska City. The first regular preach- ing in the place was by Rev. W. D. Gage, a Metho- dist missionary, in the spring of 1854, and the first school was taught in the spring of 1855. On the organization of Otoe County, in 1855, Nebraska City was made the county scat thereof. This city is now one among a number of cities each of which claims to be the third in size in the State. For

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

transportation it has the advantages of the river and five diverging lines of railway. It has all the requi- sites of a modern city.

North Platte, in Lincoln County, is situated be- tween the North and South Platte Rivers, just above their junction, and on the Union Pacific Railroad. The town was laid out in 1866, about the time of the completion of the railroad to this point. A post- office was established, and a newspaper, The Pioneer on Wheels, was published, and the town began at once to grow. In 1867 it became the seat of justice for the county. The same year the Union Pacific began the erection of their machine shops and round houses, which gave the place an impetus for growth. North Platte is now a flourishing little city of several thousand inhabitants, well supplied with churches, schools and business of all kinds.

Omaha, the commercial metropolis of Nebraska, aud the county seat of Douglas County, is situated on the west bank of the Missouri River, opposite to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Its site was first settled in 1854, and the same year it was surveyed and laid out into 320 blocks, each being 264 feet square, in- tersected by streets 100 feet wide, except Capitol Avenue and Nebraska Avenue, now called Twenty- first Street, which were made 120 feet wide, but which were given no alley in the blocks on each side of them. The lots were staked out 66x132 feet, ex- cept the business lots, which were made 22 feet wide. Three squares were reserved-Capitol Square, 600 feet; Jefferson Square, 264x280 feet, and Washing- ton Square, 264 feet square. A park of seven blocks, bounded by Eighth and Ninth and Jackson and Davenport Streets, was laid out, but afterward given up to business purposes.

During the year 1855 Rev. Mr. Koulmer and others preached at stated periods at Omaha, and soon thereafter church societies began to be organ- ized. The first public school was opened in Novem- ber, 1859, and A. D. Jones, J. H. Kellum and Dr. G. C. Monell, composed the first school board. They employed Howard Kennedy, who taught the first school in the old Capitol building. The year 1860 found Omaha with one high and three subor- dinate schools. At this time the city was estimated to contain about 1,500 buildings and 4,000 inhab-

itants-a marvelous growth for its short existence. Of church organizations there were then about a dozen. During this year the city debt was reduced to $46,000, and business was prosperous. From the beginning of the Civil War of 1861-65 until December, 1863, when the first ground was broken on the site of the city, by a pick in the hands of George Francis Train, for the Union Pacific Rail- way, which event gave it a new impetus and insured its future great success, Omaha's growth was not very marked.

Immediately following the close of the war a " boom " took place in the building up of Omaha. The restoration of peace and the construction of its coming railroads induced many immigrants to settle there. In January, 1867, the Northwestern Rail- road was completed to the city, being the first line to give it an castern outlet. The growth of the city was so rapid that in 1870 its population reached 16,000. During the next decade its growth was somewhat retarded by the financial panic of 1873, but notwithstanding this fact its population was more than doubled. Its most rapid growth, however, has been during the decade closing with 1890. To show the extent and wonderful growth, the following is taken from the Omaha Daily Bee, of January, 1890:

"Omaha, with a population of 120,000, covers an area of twenty-four and two-thirds square miles. It has 103 miles of graded streets, of which fifty- two miles are covered with pavement. The sewer- age system of Omaha has a mileage of seventy-two and two-thirds miles. The total cost of these im- provements up to December 31, 1889, aggregates $5,619,954.14. Its street railways, water works, gas works and electric light works are owned and operated by chartered corporations. Its street railways have a trackage of eighty-six miles. The waterworks company has laid 120 miles of mains, and 1,113 fire hydrants are now in use. The gas company has laid forty miles of gas mains, and lights the public thoroughfares with 820 lamps. One hundred and twenty electric arc lamps have been contracted for by the city, and 560 gasoline lamps are in use in the outskirts.

" The board of public works reports public im-

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

provements during 1889 aggregating $846,665.95. These expenditures represent nineteen miles of curb- ing, costing $77,415.25; six and seven-tenths miles of sewers, costing $103,668.61; eleven miles of pav- ing, costing $483,482.09; twenty-two and three- tenths miles of grading, costing $182,000. The cost of sidewalks laid during the year approximates 8112,000. The amount expended on park improve- ments was $55,000.

" The franchised corporations, including rail- ways, street railway company, water works, gas and electrie lighting companies, have expended $2,010,- 666 in 1889 in improvements within the city. The public improvements in South Omaha for the same period are computed at $140,000, making an aggre- gate of expenditure for public improvements during the year of $3, 160,325. 75.

" The building record of the year includes 1,918 buildings of all grades, costing in the aggregate $7,064,556. Of these structures ninety-six were business blocks, mills and factories costing in excess of $2,500 each, 336 were residences costing in ex- cess of $2,500, 1,434 were stores, dwelling and mis- cellaneous buildings, ranging in cost below $2,500 each, and twenty-two were churches and school- houses, ranging in cost from $10,000 to $100,000. There were also 106 buildings erected in South Omaha, aggregating in cost $412,106, and fifty- eight residences were erected in Dundee place, which, including other improvements, represent an outlay of $383, 000. The expenditures for the com- pletion of business blocks under way at the com- mencement of the year was $750,000. This swells the aggregate expenditures for building improve- ments made during 1889 to a grand total of $8,609,- 662. In other words, Omaha has expended $11,- 802,957. 75 for public improvements, packing houses, factories, banking and business houses, school buildings, churches and dwellings, and erected 2,082 new buildings of every description during the year.

"Omaha's commercial growth is exhibited by its wholesale trade, bank clearings and industrial statistics. The capital of the Omaha banking houses aggregates $5,100,000, and their deposits amount to $18,343,734. The clearing house record pre-

sents a fair index of the volume of business trans- acted in Omaha, and affords conclusive proof of its commercial supremacy. The clearings of 1889 ag- gregate $208,681,000, as against 8174,700,761 the preceding year.

"Omaha maintains its rank as the third largest pork market in America, and its beef packing in- dustry has more than trebled within the last two years. The number of hogs packed during the past year was 931,478, the number of heeves slaughtered was 113,307, and the total of all kinds of stock killed and packed foots up 1,303,765, as against 1,078,785 in 1888.

" The manufacturers of Omaha have turned out products to the value of $23,515,000, an increase of over two millions over the preceding year. This is exclusive of the products of the packing industries of South Omaha, which exceed $13,000,000, and which will swell the grand total of Omaha's indus- trial products in round figures to over $37,000,000.

" The wholesale trade of Omaha has materially increased in volume, and the jobbers have extended their territory considerably during the past year. The sales of the wholesale dealers, exclusive of products manufactured in Omaha, amount to $44,910,000."

The banking capital of the city amounts to $6,000,000. There are fifty-two public school- houses, four colleges, three Catholic academies, nine parochial, and a number of other schools with- in the city. There are also ninety-four church or- ganizations divided among various denominations. The city is a metropolis of the great Northwest.

Plattsmouth, the county seat of Cass County, is situated on the west bank of the Missouri River, a short distance below the mouth of the Platte River. In 1819, Long's exploring expedition, with the " Western Engineer," the first steamer on the Mis- sonri, was sent by the government to explore the great river and the regions between it and the Rocky Mountains, leaving St. Louis, Mo., in July, reach- ing the mouth of the Platte September 17.

The traders and trappers presumably crossed the Platte at various times during the twenty years fol- lowing, but the next visit to that section of which there is historic record is that of Fremont, in 1842,

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

his expedition camping for one night on the project- ing bluff just below the present site of Plattsmouth, the place still retaining the name of Fremont's Point.

About the year of 1848, a Mormon by the name of Libeas T. Coon established a ferry-a flat-boat propelled by sweeps-across the Missouri, landing in the vicinity of this point, on the Nebraska side, for the convenience of the Saints, whose exodus to the far West was in full progress. In this manner a highway became established along the south bank of the Platte, but no settlements were made below that river and along the Missouri for some years, the territory being occupied by the Pawnees and Otoes, and the Indians protected in their rights by the Government, forts flanking the Missouri and no one being allowed to remain on Nebraska soil without a special permit from the Secretary of War.

The first permit of this kind as regards Cass County was obtained by Samuel Martin, who had been living on the east bank of the Missouri, to establish a trading post at or near the confluence of the two rivers. Accordingly, very early in the spring of 1853, he brought over on the ice the logs of his house in Iowa, and, with the assistance of James O'Neil and Col. J. L. Sharp, erected a sub- stantial two-story building, afterward known as the "Old Barracks," for a trading house, and, shortly subsequent, a smaller one for a council house. The following year the .Plattsmouth Town Company, consisting of Martin, O'Neil, Sharp and others, was organized, and by them the town was laid out. An act of the Legislature of the Territory, approved March 14, 1855, defined the boundaries of Cass County, made Plattsmouth the county seat thereof, and provided for its incorporation. The postoffice at Plattsmouth was established in the fall of this year. The first merchant was Samuel Martiu, with his "trading post." The first school here was taught in 1856, by Miss Mary Stocking, and the first church, Baptist, was organized the same year; the next, Methodist, was organized the following year. The city is now well supplied with schools and churches, also with several newspapers, socie- ties, extensive and substantial buildings, manufac- tories, etc. Its population in 1880 was 4,180; it is now probably double that amount or more. It is a

prosperons city and bids fair to maintain its promi- nence. It is twenty-one miles below Omaha and thirty miles north of Nebraska City. For transpor- tation it has the advantages of the river and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the Missouri River Railroads.

Among other young and ambitious cities of Ne- braska, each of which numbers its inhabitants by the thousands, and strives to take front rank in the great march of progress, mention may be made of the following: Seward, the seat of justice of the county of the same name, is quite a railroad centre, having six lines of railway diverging from it. York, the county seat of York County, also has six lines of railway diverging from it, and so has Wahoo, the county seat of Saunders County. Ash- laud, Auburn, Aurora, Brownville, Central City, David City, Fairbury, Fairfield, Friend, Norfolk, North Bend, Pawnee City, Ponca, Red Cloud, Schuyler, Sidney, St. Paul, Sutton, Tecumseh, Teka- mah, West Point, Wilber, Wymore, and some other places also deserve mention as prosperous little cities.

Nebraska may well be proud of her educational facilities. An act entitled "Common schools," passed by the Territorial Legislature, and approved January 26, 1855, was the origin of the public school system of the State. The first State report of the schools was made January 5, 1857, by the State anditor, ex-officio commissioner of education; but as the system was yet in its infancy, the report contaius nothing worthy of note here. The next report was made by State Auditor W. E. Harvey in January, 1861, showing nineteen counties returned. in which there were eighty-four precincts and 139 sub-districts. There were 3,763 males and 3.272 females enumerated, making a total of 7,041 chil- dren of school age. These were attendant upon four high and 104 primary schools, of the public system, and twenty-three private institutions, giving a total of 131 schools of all classes. The high schools contained 376 pupils, of whom 227 were males; the primary schools held an enrollment of 2,554, of whom 1,377 were males. This showed an enrollment of 2,930 out of an enumeration of 7,041. There were two male and two female teachers in the high schools, and thirty-six males aud seven-

HISTORY OF NEBRASKAA.

ty-four females in the primaries, besides eight males and seventeen females in the select schools, or 139 teachers all told. The school-houses numbered thir- ty-four, with a total value of all property of $9,748. The aggregate of wages paid was $4,772, and the aggregate of expenditures reached $8,214.

Under the act of January 13, 1860, an appor- tionment was made and an enumeration taken of " the unmarried white youth" of the Territory. The result of this for the year 1860, and the apportion- ment of money for the year of 1861, were:

COUNTIES.

NO. ENROLLED

AMOUNT.

Burt ..

115.

$153 68

Calhoun

17.

Cass.

1,106.

1,000 00

Cedar.

78.

38 10

Clay ..

74 ..

Cuming

26.

Dakota.

300.

156 30

Dixon.

30 43

Dodge

87.

80 64

Douglas

889.

1,000 00

Gage.

120.

47 12

Johnson

124 ..

61 43

Nemaha.

917.

700 00

Otoe.

1,222

1,491 35

Pawnee

249.

106 65

Richardson

629

500 00

Sarpy.

393.

500 00

Washington

452.

431 38

Platte ..

153

55 25

Total. 7,041.

$6,352 23

The enabling act of Congress, approved April 19, 1864, under which Nebraska afterwards became a State, provided that Sections 16 and 36 in every Congressional township should be donated to the State for the support of common schools, and that if any portion or portions of these sections had pre- viously been conveyed, other lands equivalent thereto should be donated in their stead. It further provided that seventy-two other sections of land should be set apart and reserved for the use and support of a State University, to be appropriated and applied as the Legislature of the State might prescribe for the purpose. It also provided that five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of all publie lands lying within the State, which had been or should be sold by the United States prior or sub- sequent to the admission of the State into the Union, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, should be paid to the State for the support of the common schools. These were the provisions of the

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Author: Goodspeed Brothers Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago, The Goodspeed publishing co. Number of Pages: 820

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, The Goodspeed publishing co.
Number of Pages: 820