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 4

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 4
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 4
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 4
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 4

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"Set all things in their own peculiar place, And know that order is the greatest grace."

T has been shown in the preceding chapter how Louisiana became a part of the domain of the United States. When the United States took formal posses- sion, Louisiana contained less than 500 white inhabitants ; but the tide of immigration was already sweeping westward, and in 1810 the census showed a total population of 1,062. The influx of English-speaking inhabitants steadily continued, and be- fore many years the struggling settle- ments enlarged into Territories, and the Territories were soon clamoring for the dignity of Statehood. Previous to the year 1850, the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mis- souri and Iowa had been carved out of the original Territory of Louisiana. West aud northwest of these States lay a vast, unorganized territory, with no form of government whatever. It was pre-emin- ently the home of the Indian. Immense herds of buffalo grazed undisturbed on the prairies, and the entire region was as free from the civilizing restraints of the white man as when Columbus first sighted

the palmetto trees of the West Indies. But a terri- tory so vast, so fertile, and so well adapted to the wants of man, was not to be left unoccupied. The gold excitement in California in 1849 had impelled an immense throng of adventurers to cross the plains in search of the treasure fields beyond the Rockies. The route of the emigrauts lay along the Platte River, across the entire length of the present State of Nebraska. The whole region was then known as the " Platte Country," and it soon became known that it embraced lands of the greatest value to the settler.

There had been calls for a Territorial organ- ization for the " Platte country " as early as 1850, and in the first session of the XXXIId Congress, which assembled at Washington in the winter of 1851-52, petitions were presented asking for the formation of a new Territory west of the Missouri River. No action was taken in regard to the mat- ter in that session; but in the next session, Mr. Willard P. Hall, a representative from the State of Missouri, offered a bill which had for its object the organization of the "Territory of Platte." This bill was introduced on December 13, 1852, and was referred to the committee on Territories. On February 2, 1853, Representative William A. Rich-

IHISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

ardson, from that committee, reported a bill provid- ing for the organization of the "Territory of Nebraska." This bi!l, it will be understood, in- eluded all the territory now comprised in the States of Nebraska and Kansas. When the bill came up for consideration in the committee of the whole, it was the signal for a bitter and formidable opposi- tion from the Southern members. After a violent discussion, the committee rose with a recommenda- tion that the bill be rejected; but the House passed the bill on February 10, 1853, by a vote of 98. to 43.

From the House the bill went to the Senate, where its opponents were already organized for its defeat. Reaching the Senate on February 11, it was referred to the committee on Territories. Stephen A. Douglas, whose name is inseparably linked with the history of Nebraska, was chairman of this committee. On March 2 (being the last day but one of the session), a motion to take up the Nebraska bill for consideration was defeated, by a vote of 25 to 20. Another attempt to get the bill before the Senate on the last day of the session was defeated and the bill itself laid upon the table. Thus, the first attempt to ereet the Territory of Ne- braska was unsuccessful.

It will not be ont of place here to give a brief resume of the political events which combined to eause so determined an opposition to the formation of the Territory of Nebraska. That opposition had been forming in the minds of the people of the South for forty years, and the implacable hostility of the Southern people to the formation of the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, form one of the most prominent of the causes of the War of the Re- bellion.

The first opposition to the admission of a slave State occurred in 1811, when Louisiana knocked at the doors of Congress and demanded admission into the Union. The opposition to the admission of Louisiana was not grounded so much upon the fact that it would increase the power of the slave holders, as upon the alleged violation of the constitution in forming a State out of a Territory not included in the original government of the Union. The opposition centered in the person of

Joseph Quincy, and in the light of subsequent events, his threats of ilissolving the Union read strangely enough. Hle declared that if Louisiana were admitted, "the bonds of the Union were vir- tually dissolved; that the States which compose it are free from their moral obligations; and that as it will the right of all, so it will be the duty of some to prepare definitely for a separation, amicably if they ean, violently if they must." Hle maintained that " there was no authority to throw the rights and lib- erties of this people into ' hotchpotch ' with the wild men of Missouri, nor with the mixed but more respectable race of Anglo-Hispania-Gallo-Americans who bask in the sands at the mouth of the Missis- sippi." Although the people of the North did not go as far as Josiah Quincy in their objections, there was a strong opposition to the admission of Louisiana. Many people of the North had always regarded the purchase of Louisiana as unconstitutional, and always looked upon that Territory as foreign soil; but the agitation did not extend beyond the walls of Congress, and the bill admitting Louisiana was passed by the necessary majority.

But the rapidly-increasing hatred of slavery soon began to erystallize into organized opposition. Ben- jamin Lundy had organized his "Union IIumane Society" in 1815, and soon afterwards had written his famous appeal to the philanthropists on the subject of slavery. Charles Osborne had also started the Philanthropist, a journal devoted to the abolition of slavery. The influence of other pio- neers in the anti-slavery movement began to make itself felt, and when, six years after Louisiana had become a State of the Union, Missouri asked for admission on an equal footing with the other States, the agitation at once became so violent that for a time it seemed as if the Union would be disrupted. The agitation continued for a period of two years and was finally ended by the adoption of the famous "Missouri Compromise." By the provisions of this compromise, Missouri was admitted as a slave State ; but it was further enacted that slavery shoukl for- ever be prohibited in all that part of the Louisiana purchase lying north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes. north latitude. This compromise, which alone stood between the nation and civil war, allayed to a large

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

extent the bitter feeling between the North and the South. The North had secured the blessing of freedom for a large part of the then organized Terri- tory, and, as it thought, checked the advance of the slave power. The Southi felt satisfied that gen- erations would pass before the development of the country would call for the formation of new States out of the unorganized territory. Both were con- tent; though, in the light of subsequent events, both were mistaken.

However, the Missouri compromise, much as it allayed sectional feeling at the time, could not check the sweeping tide of immigration which was surging westward. The population of the United States in- creased so rapidly that the formation of new States became an imperative necessity. The bill for the formation of the Territory of Nebraska was a result of this demand, and the determined opposition of the slave power was conclusive evidence that the famous compromise would be trampled under foot as soon as it should prove a barrier to the further extension of the slave territory.

The friends of the Nebraska bill did not remain inactive. The XXXIIId Congress assembled on December 5, 1853, and on December 14 of the same year Senator Augustus C. Dodge, of Iowa, submit- ted a bill "To organize the Territory of Nebraska." The bill was very similar to the one introduced in the previous Congress by Representative Hall, of Missouri, and contained no intimation that the binding foree of the Missouri compromise was to be disputed, or that the compromise itself would be meddled with. After being referred to the proper committee, the bill was, on January 4, 1854, re- ported back to the Senate by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the committee on Territories. In his report Senator Douglas alluded to the fact that a question had arisen regarding the right to hold slaves in the new Territory of Nebraska, after it should have been thrown open to settlement and the Indian laws withdrawn. The Missouri eompro- mise clearly prohibited slavery in the new Territory ; but a question had arisen concerning the constitu- tional power of Congress to pass laws prescribing and regulating the domestic institutions of the vari- ous Territories of the Union. One class of states-

men, notably those of Northern birth and education, contended that Congress had no constitutional authority to regulate the domestic institutions of the Territories, but, rather, that such matters should he left exclusively to the people residing therein. An- other class of statesmen, who probably represented a much larger number of people, especially those of the South, insisted strenuously upon the doctrine that the constitution secured to every citizen the in- alienable right to move into any of the Territories with his property, of whatever kind or description, and to hold and enjoy the same under sanction of law. The committee on Territories, foreseeing the storm of agitation that was certain to follow the re- opening of this much-disputed question, very pru- dently declined to enter into a discussion of the relative merits of the conflicting opinions.

Soon after the new bill had been reported to the Senate, Mr. Archibald Dixon, a Senator from Ken- tucky, gave formal notice that when the bill erect- ing the Territory of Nebraska came up for consider- ation, he should offer the following amendment :

SECTION 22. And be it further enacted: That so much of the eighth section of an act approved March 6, 1820, entitled "an act to authorize the people of Mis- souri Territory to form a constitution and State gov- ernment, and for the admission of such' State into the union on an equal footing with the original States, and to prohibit slavery in certain Territories," and declares "that, in all that territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, north latitude, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punish- ment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be forever prohibited," shall not be so construed as to apply to the Territory contemplated by the aet, or to any other Territory of the United States; but that the citizens of the several States and Territories shall be at liberty to take and hold their slaves within any of the Territories or States so to be formed therefrom, as if said act, entitled as aforesaid, had never been passed.

This proposition to virtually repeal the Mis- souri compromise was received by the Senate with no little surprise. Senator Douglas, whose presi- dential aspirations were well known, had hoped to concentrate Southern prejudice by his proposal to organize the new Territory of Nebraska without reference to the question of slavery ; but the belliger- ent attitude assumed by the Senator from Kentucky

IHISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

showed him that the South would be satisfied with no doubtful or implied concession. He saw at once that if he was to gain any prestige by fathering the Nebraska bill he must include in that bill the total repeal of the Missouri compromise. Accordingly, upon his own motion, he withdrew the bill, and, on January 23. 1854, reported from his committee a new bill so dissimilar in its provisions that the pro- moters of the original bill were hardly able to recog- · nize it. Instead of one Territory, to be called Nebraska, stretching from the parallel of 36 degrees, 30 minutes on the north, and westward from the boundary of Iowa and Missouri to the Rocky Mount- ains, Mr. Douglas proposed to ercet two Terri- tories, one to be composed of so much of the terri- tory lying west of the State of Missouri, to be known as Kansas, and the other to compose that region lying west of the State of Towa. With refer- enee to slavery the new bill contained the following provisions:

SECTION 21. And be it further enacted: That in order to avoid all misconstruction, it is hereby declared to be the true intent and meaning of this act. so far as the question of slavery is concerned, to carry into prac- tical operation the following propositions and principles, established by the compromise measures of 1858, to-wit:

First, That questions pertaining to slavery in the Territories, and in the new States to be formed there- from, are to be left to the decisions of the people resid- ing therein, through their appropriate representatives.

Second, That "all cases involving title to slaves," and "questions of personal freedom," are referred to the adjudication of the local tribunals, with the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Third, That the provisions of the constitution and .

laws of the United States, in respect to fugitives from service, are to be carried into faithful exeention in all "organized Territories," the same as in the States.

The original Nebraska bill, introduced by Senator Dodge, stipulated that "the constitution and all laws which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory as elsewhere in the United States." Mr. Douglas, having once committed himself, threw himself bodily into the arms of the most radical of the pro-slavery

leaders, and to the above stipulation of Mr. Dodge, added the following:

Except the section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri Into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which was superceded by the principles of the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, and is declared inoperative.

At the present time it is difficult to realize the storm of indignation and protest that swept up from the North at Mr. Donglas' blunt proposal to repeal the Missouri compromise-a measure which had come to be regarded almost as a part of the con- stitution. There had been, it is true, talk of the repeal of the measure; but the people of the North always looked upon such talk as the mere idle bravado of the slaveholders. Consequently, Mr. Douglas' proposition was the signal for combat. The " Nebraska question " took the precedent of all others, and was almost the sole topie of discussion in public and private circles. The sentiment in the East, North and West seemed to be almost unan- imous in opposition to the bill, while even in the South, the section most to be benefitted by the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the proposal was looked upon with some disfavor.

In spite of sentiment against it, however, the Kansas-Nebraska bill became a law and was ap- proved by President Pierce on May 30, 1854, after having been almost the sole subject of an exeited debate for a period of four months. " No previous anti-slavery excitement," says J. G. Blaine in his "Twenty Years of Congress," "bore any compari- son with that which spread over the North as the dis- cussion progressed, and especially after the bill be- came a law. It did not merely call forthe opposition; it produced almost a frenzy of wrath on the part of thousands in both the old parties, who had never before taken any part whatever in the anti-slavery agitation. In the North, conservative men felt that no compromise could acquire weight or sanction or saeredness, if one that stood for a whole generation could be brushed aside by partisan caprice or by the demands of seetional necessity."

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

CHAPTER V.

GEOLOGICAL FORMATION-PRIMITIVE AGES-MINERAL DEPOSITS-TOPOGRAPHY AND PHYSICAL, FEATURES-EXTENT - AND AREA-RIVERS, LAKES, ETC .- NAVIGABLE STREAMS-TIMBER-BEFORE THE TIME OF WHITE MEN-NATURAL PRODUCTIONS.

Such blessings Nature ponrs, O'erstocked mankind enjoys but half her stores .- Young.

O part of the history of Nebraska is of more gen- eral interest than an ac- count of its geological formation and character. The record following the लृष्टखलल advent of man covers but a comparatively short period of time. The history of the State for the thousands of years previous to man's appearance-a history re- vealed by geological research alone, is of more entrancing interest than the wildest dream of fiction. A large volume might be filled with the geological history of Nebraska without exhausting the subject ; the brief scope afforded us in this sketch eompells a condensation of the story of ages within the limits of a few sentences; but even a bare outline cannot be uninteresting to the readers of this work.

It was not until the Carboniferons Age followed a long succession of periods of growth that dry land appeared in Nebraska. Previous to this age the State lay many fathoms beneath a restless, illimita- ble, nameless ocean. It was during the Carbonifer- ous Age that the vast deposits of coal underlying nearly every section of the country were formed. Nebraska, emerging from the waters at a later period

in this age, reaped a smaller share of its benefits. The carboniferous deposits are only found in the southeastern part of the State. They commence as far north as Fort Calhoun, in Washington County. and extend across the southern boundary of the State. The principal characteristics of this age, which covers a period of thousands, perhaps mil- lions of years, were a remarkably luxuriant vegeta- tion, abundant animal life, and a constantly cloudy, murky atmosphere. Had man existed in Nebraska at this remote period of its geological history, he would, of necessity, have been a semi-amphibious creature, roaming through interminable, almost im- penetrable jungles of vegetation. He would have found hundreds of forms of vegetable life long since extinet. He would have noted the presence of ferns as large as our tallest trees, huge lepidoden: driads with tough bark and pithy wood, tall sigilla- rias with fluted trunks and long, tapering. needle- like leaves. He would have subsisted principally on fishes and the lower forms of animal life. The sun would have been obscured from his vision by dense clouds of fogs and vapors, and he would un- doubtedly have found life a burden which he would gladly have dispensed with. Coal, the sole valnable product of the Carboniferous Age, has been discov- ered in many places in Nebraska, but not in suffi- ciently large quantities to make the work of mining remunerative. The most valuable deposit as yet discovered is in Richardson County, where a vein

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

from eighteen to thirty inches in thickness has been worked to a limited extent. A fifteen-inch vein has been discovered near Nebraska City at a depth of 189 feet. At Lincoln, at a depth of 909 feet, a thirty-inch vein has been discovered. At Ponea, a vein four and a half feet thick has been discovered at a depth of 574 feet.

Passing out of the Carboniferous Age, Nebraska emerged into the Permian Age, in which the State was marvelously changed in appearance. The murky atmosphere gave way to clear skies, and the sun's warm rays exerted their influence on the soil. The continent had been upheaved and ranges of high mountains appeared on Nature's map of the State. The climate became more changeable, and the old forms of animal and vegetable life disappeared. It

was a period of transition. Then dawned the Meso- zoic Era. In this period the surface of Nebraska underwent many more startling changes. The land surface was measurably inereased, and was more thoroughly drained. Vegetable and animal life again appeared. The surface of the State again became covered with thiekets and forests, the vegetable types being those now found in tropieal and semi-tropieal latitudes. It was the Reptilian Age, and the huge animals that ranged the forests were of a kind that would have stricken terror to the heart of our friend of the Carboniferous period. Among these ammals was the Atlantosaurus immanis, or giant lizard. It had a femur eight feet, four inches long, which would indicate an animal, when standing on all fours, thirty feet in height and one hundred feet in length. Other animals of this age were the rep- tilian birds, crocodiles, and a mammal resembling an opossum. This age was brought to a close by still further changes brought about in the earth's surface. The cooling globe was gradually contract- ing. The mountains, among them the Sierras, the Wasateli and the Rockies, were emerging from the sea. The waters which covered the western part of the continent were still further drained away. Then came the Cretaceous period, divided into the Dakota, Fort Benton, Niobrara, Fort Pierre and Fox Mills groups. During this period the land was gradually subsiding, and the climate becoming colder. In the times covered by the Fort Benton group deeper

waters and quieter seas had taken the place of shal- low seas, extended sea beaches and flats and low islands. The Niobrara group epoch was marked by a still further subsidence of the continent. All but the southeastern part of Nebraska was covered by deep seas, which swarmed with fishes and mollusks. On the land the reptiles flourished in large numbers, over forty speeies being discovered. They ranged in size from twelve to seventy-five and one hundred feet in length. One tortoise discovered had a spread of fifteen feet. The flying reptiles also flourished in this age, and disputed the empire of the air with the birds, of which many species existed. Toward the close of the era represented by the Niobrara group a reverse movement of the continent commenced. Instead of subsiding, the land began a slow process of elevation. Animal life again became nearly extinet, not to appear again in Nebraska until the era represented by the Fort Pierre group had passed away, and a new era, represented by the Fox Mills group, appeared. In this era Nebraska was covered with huge forests and savannas. The land again swarmed with animal life. Then followed the Lara- mie epoch, during which the seas again covered the greater part of Nebraska, and the entire plain region of Colorado. The Laramie epoch was brought to a elose by one of the greatest convulsions in the geo- logical history of the globe. From the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains to the Wasatch range, the entire region was thrown up into a series of folds and undulations. The whole region of the plains sympathized in this movement. The elevation in the mountains became sufficient to give free drain- age to the sea, and exclude the oceanic waters. The great interior sea which had tossed its restless bil- lows over Nebraska for so many countless ages, was finally exterminated, never again to appear. The culmination of these stupendous changes inaugu- rated the Cenozoic Age, or the age of mammals, comprising two divisions, the Tertiary and the Quaternary. The Tertiary period is again divided into three epochs, the Eocene, the Miocene and the Pliocene, the two latter being represented in Ne- braska. Passing over the Eocene epoch, which is of little interest to Nebraskans, we come to the Miocene epoch. In this epoch the physical condi-

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.

tions first began to assume a modern air. Vegetable and animal life flourished in their higher forms. The forests of the Miocene epoch were composed of oaks, cottonwoods, willows, magnolias, cypress, sas- safras, lindens, maples and pines. Geologists are of the opinion that the fig and palm trees also flourished here. The conditions of mammalian life were also extremely favorable. The horse family was represented by a number of species, elephants and mastodons roamed the forests, the camel made its appearance for the first time, and several species of monkeys chattered in the trees. Passing into the Pliocene epoch we find the conditions of animal and vegetable life much similar. Prof. Aughey, until recently the State geologist, has drawn a vivid pic- ture of life in Nebraska during the Pliocene epoch. "Had we beeu in existence then," said he, "and started westward on a journey from some point near where the Missouri now flows, much of the peculiar life of the times would have been observed. The climate was congenial to an eminent degree. The great Pliocene lake caused a much moister atmos- phere than exists at the present time. Groves of sequoias, like the present gigantic trees of Califor- nia, the glyptastrobus of China and Japan, the cypress, the date and the palm, were interspersed with magnificent savannas. The songs of ten thou- sand birds, many of them of the most beautiful plumage, would have greeted our ears. At some places, herds of thousands of oveodons would have been encountered. Bisons, similar in form to our buffaloes, would have been seen cropping the grass. At other points might have been seen herds of ele- phants and mastodons quietly proceeding toward some streamlet, or lakelet, to indulge in a bath. Vast numbers of many species of camel would have been seen reposing at midday on a gentle hillside under the shade of sequoias or cypress. More curi- ous than all, thousands of hyperions, those wonder- ful three-toed horses, along with many kinds of one-toed horses, of all sizes, would sometimes have made the earth tremble under their tread. When, at last, in such a westward journey, the shores of the great Pliocene lake would be reached, its borders would have been a marvel for the life represented there. A rhinoceros might have been

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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