USA > Nebraska > Buffalo County > Buffalo County, Nebraska, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
Fawcett, Barclay
Howe, Frank
Booth, Jacob
Fieldgrove, Henry
Hubbard, Emory M.
Brady, William
Fisher, Kingman
Hubbard, J. J.
Brayton, Charles E.
Fisher, Thomas J.
Henning, John
Brown, George
Forrest, John W.
Irwin, John
Brown, Seneca
Forehand, Lloyd D.
Jackson, William N.
Bunker, Ira P.
Gagin, John
Johnson, David W.
Bushong, Isaac
Garfield, James
Judd, James E.
Buzzell, Oliver A.
George, Amos D.
Kenney, W. H.
Chamberlain, J. S.
George, Ira P.
Kelly, William H.
Childs, C. O.
George, L. D.
Kelsey, James E.
Clifton, Mrs. Mary C.
George, Rodney
Killgore, Coe
Crable, D. P.
George, Truman Q. Gibson, Adelbert F.
Knight, W. J.
Craig, Andrew
Kenedy, A.
88
.Day, Usher A.
Gray, Marcelus
89
HISTORY OF BUFFALO COUNTY
La Barre, I. D. Lew, Clara E.
Pember, Mrs. E. A.
Plumb, Lorenzo
Steven, Walter J. Stonebarger, Daniel
Lee, Harry A.
Putnam, Christopher
Thatcher, Timothy D.
Lloyd, John
Putnam, John J.
Thomas, M. D.
Lowell, Samuel B. Lucas, John Lux, John K.
Rogers, Horace P.
Trew, Willmot P.
McClure, William F.
Rosseter, S. Sammons, Benjamin F. Seeley, Simon V.
Washburn, Albert A.
McKinley, Jeremiah F.
Short, Nelson W.
Washburn, Oscar B.
Mattice, Samuel Meisner, George
Silvernail, George H.
West, Levi N.
Mercer, Vernon T.
Silvernail, John N.
White, Alva G. H.
Mills, James H.
Smith, George N.
Whittier, James J.
Mills, Nahum Monks, Charles
Smith, John P. Smith, Sereno
Wilkie, James
Northrup, Emory
Sprague, William H.
Willard, Richard E. L.
Ogilvie, James
Standley, J. C.
Worthington, L.
Oviatt, A. Judson
Starbuck, Isaac
Zimmerman, Adam W.
Patterson, William
Stern, John
HONORARY MEMBERS
Those residing in the county and in the vicinity of Gibbon Switch on the arrival of the colony were, by action of the Soldiers' Free Homestead Colony Association, made honorary members of the association and of the colony.
Dugdale, Henry
Oliver, James
Thompson, Oliver E.
Meyer, August
Owens, Joseph Walsh, Patrick
Nutter, William
Slattery, Martin
Wood, Thomas K.
Oliver, Mrs. Saralı
Stearley, George
Oliver, Edward
Reddy, John
A HABITATION-A PLACE TO LIVE
The homesteads filed upon, the most important matter was a habitation, a place in which to live. The colonists were all practically persons of very limited means, so much so that quite often two families lived in one house. the house located on the line between the claims.
More often two or more joined in owning one team, wagon and plow.
Several had so little means, nothing but their claims, that they worked for others as occasion offered. Some lived in dugouts on their claims, others built sod houses, and a quite common frame house was 12x16 feet in size, 8 feet in height, boarded up, one thickness of boards, battened, and with a shingle roof, the furniture consisting of a stove, a bed, and three chairs. So exact were the estimates of material for one of these houses that when completed the pieces of lumber left would not make a wheelbarrow load.
Roach, William
Thomas, George L. Traut, Samuel R.
Ward, Aaron
McCraney, Mrs. E. P.
Silvernail, Calvin T.
Waters, Robert
Wiggins, John W.
90
HISTORY OF BUFFALO COUNTY
RANGE OF PRICES
Oxen were largely used for teams; they cost less to purchase, required no expense for harness, other than a yoke, and required no grain ration, living and working on grass in the growing season and on hay and forage in winter. The sudden and unusual demand inflated prices, oxen selling for from $150 to $250 per yoke. Cows sold for from $50 to $60. A four weeks old pig (razor back breed) cost $5 and hens 50 cents each. A quite common price paid for breaking prairie was $5 per acre. Potatoes, ȘI per bushel. Corn meal, $2 per 100 pounds. Pine lumber, from $30 to $40 per 1,000. If one complained that the prices asked seemed too high, the invariable excuse was "excessive transportation rates on the railroad."
FIRST CROPS GROWN
On the newly broken prairie the crops grown the first year or season were corn, planted with a spade, pumpkins, squash and melons.
No finer squash, pumpkins and melons were ever grown in the county than were grown on prairie sod in the summer of 1871.
Some made gardens on the sod and learned that onions from "black" seed did remarkably well, and later these proved a valuable crop.
On and in the vicinity of the Boyd ranch was a hundred or more acres of "old" land-land that had been previously tilled-and some of the colonists rented from five to ten acres of this land, planting to corn and potatoes. The corn yielded about forty bushels per acre and the potatoes about one hundred and fifty bushels. Practically no weeds grew on this land and most of the corn and potatoes there planted were not tilled after planting, the fact being there were no implements to be had for such tilling. On the newly plowed sod no weeds grew except tumble weeds, which were easily destroyed.
CONDITIONS CONFRONTING THE COLONISTS
Possibly some mention of conditions which confronted these colonists may be of historic interest. First, with a very few exceptions, they were persons of limited means. Second, quite one-half of the number were without practical experience in farming, even in the locality from which they came. Third, this was a new country-quite generally believed not adapted to the growing of crops-a virgin soil, destitute of timber for either fuel or building purposes, destitute of coal, or stone, in a state of nature, other than a railroad, and the base for supplies of all kinds nearly two hundred miles distánt.
There were no precedents which could be followed or referred to; no old and experienced farmers to whom the "tenderfoots" could go for counsel and advice. From the construction of some kind of a habitation in which to live to the securing of teams and farming utensils for tilling the soil, seed to be planted, everything to the minutest detail had to be purchased, and at what then seemed and which has since proven to be, extravagant prices. These conditions soon exhausted the resources of the homesteader, even though he expended his
0
SOD HOUSE ON WASH MILBOURN'S HOMESTEAD Built more than thirty years ago
91
HISTORY OF BUFFALO COUNTY
means with utmost economy. If compelled to run in debt he found later that to pay from $150 to $200 for a yoke of oxen, $50 for a cow, $5 for a four-weeks- old pig, $32 for a breaking plow, and like prices for other needed articles, and then to make payment in corn and potatoes at 10 and 15 cents per bushel required not only hard, hard work, but years of privation and economy to get out of debt, which, with exceeding regret, it is to be recorded, many of the poor homesteaders were never able to do.
There were other conditions which took years of time and long and bitter experience to realize and understand. One of the most important of these to be understood is the relation of the growing season for many crops as affected by altitude or elevation above sea level.
No member of this colony had ever given a thought to the fact that along a parallel of latitude, increase in elevation meant a shortening of the growing season for many crops, especially the corn crop, on which main dependence was placed in all farming operations.
The corn plant requires and can make good use of a growing season of quite 140 days, which condition prevails in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys to the east and which prevailed in the lower levels from which most of the colonists came, but the greater elevation in Buffalo County was such that the growing season for corn was from thirty to forty days less than the colonists had been accustomed to.
It was the most natural thing in the world for colonists to send to their former home, "back east," for seeds of various kinds to plant, and yet when these seeds were planted in this new country, this virgin soil, the conditions confronting the plants from these seeds, were as new and strange as were the conditions of all kinds confronting the members of the colony. It is true that plants adapt themselves to changes in soil, climate, length of growing season and other surroundings and conditions which affect their growth and full devel- opment, but plants require time and opportunity to so adapt themselves the same as do people.
INSECT DEPREDATIONS
Another occasion of failure or at least partial failure of many crops in those early years, was that many kinds of insect life, such as grasshoppers, crickets, etc., feed during the growing season on the leaves and stems of plants, the prairie being alive with such insects at that season. The cultivated plants of the homesteader, such as corn, potatoes, vines of all kinds, and of small grain- wheat, oats-are much more tender and succulent as a food than the native plants and grasses of the prairie, and the result was that these insects flocked to the small crops of the homesteader, either completely destroying, or at least weakening them, resulting in a partial if not entire failure to make a crop. It is recalled that when the grasshopper raids came, that small fields of crops were entirely destroyed, while a large field of corn-a half section or a section in a body-was often only injured by them for a comparatively short distance on the outer edges, the center portion of the field being uninjured.
92
HISTORY OF BUFFALO COUNTY
LACK OF MOISTURE
That this was a land deficient in moisture for the successful growing of crops was understood by the homesteaders, but how best to take advantage of this lack, how to conserve moisture as now understood, had not, in the minds of any one, even a beginning. Briefly stated, the conditions as regards moisture were as follows: For ages the prairies of Nebraska had been annually burned .- As our rainfall comes in sudden showers, the result was that a sudden shower of two or even three inches of rain did not wet the prairie to a depth of more than a few inches, the prairie being burned clean of any dead leaves or grass which might hold the rainfall until it could soak into the earth. Under such conditions the rain ran off the prairie as from the roof of a house, into the sloughs, ravines, rivers and thus out of the country, doing vegetation little or no good. Also the prairie being hard and undisturbed, the moisture which pen- etrated the soil was soon drawn from the soil by the action of sun and winds. It is believed that in the early settlement of the county, 50 per cent of the rain that fell on the prairies ran directly into the ravines and rivers and out of the county, this being especially true of unbroken prairie, while at the present time probably 90 per cent of our rainfall is absorbed in the soil and retained for growing crops. Also, because of more moisture retained in the soil, the atmos- phere is much more humid than in the earlier periods of colony history.
LIVE STOCK CONDITIONS
Another condition, not generally understood, occasioned heavy loss of live stock to many homesteaders. Previous to the coming of the colonists it had been widely advertised that cattle would live and keep in good condition during the entire year, living wholly upon the wild grasses. Doubtless this was prac- tically true with half-wild cattle, used to ranging for a living, and where they could range at will seeking shelter in the brush along the streams in time of storms and extreme cold. There were no more nutritious grasses for live stock anywhere to be found than the native grasses of Nebraska. When the home- steader came there was no longer an unlimited range; also native or domesticated cattle, accustomed to being fed and cared for, would not range the prairie and rustle for a living in the winter months, and the result was that many an early homesteader, many a colonist, who perchance borrowed the money with which to invest in cattle to roam the prairie, had only the hides when the grass was green in the succeeding spring.
It is recalled that all of a herd of some five hundred head of cattle being wintered on the Platte River south of Gibbon in the winter of 1871-2, perished, and the same fate met a herd of about one thousand, five hundred being kept the same winter on the South Loup River in the immediate vicinity of the present Village of Ravenna.
GROWING SMALL GRAIN-WIIEAT AND OATS
In the spring of 1872 a few acres of spring wheat and oats were sown. Harrows were used to cover the grain; these harrows were home-made, of oak
93
IIISTORY OF BUFFALO COUNTY
secured at the Loup River ; they were light, "A"-shaped, and of little real service. The wheat and oats were harvested with grain cradles, threshed with flails, on the ground, and cleaned by throwing the grain against the wind. While the yield was fairly good the crops were badly infected with smut-in fact, in the earlier attempts to grow small grain the crops were at times not worth harvesting on account of smut.
Machinery for the rapid harvesting of grain had not then come into use, the better kinds not even as yet invented. The first of these machines was a dropper attachment to a mowing machine (the expense of the mower and attachment $175). With this machine five men were required to bind and remove the grain as fast as cut. This machine, high geared as a mower, wore out very rapidly. The first Marsh harvester was purchased and operated by William Nutter, using oxen. On this machine the grain was delivered on a platform, on which two men rode and bound the grain. While much more rapid in harvesting, it was very hard work and very wasteful. The first self binders, using wire and costing $315, were not satisfactory to use and the wire, broken in threshing, caused loss of stock where cattle ate of the straw and chaff.
To pay the above named prices for harvesting machinery, newly invented and not in very satisfactory working order, and to make payment in wheat at about fifty cents per bushel and corn at about fifteen cents, was not a rapid way of accumulating wealth or of paying debts.
THE QUESTION OF FUEL
In the early days of the colony the question of fuel was not so pressing as a few years later. In the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad about two thousand, five hundred ties were used to the mile. It appears that of these ties, to each rail was used four of hardwood (oak or black walnut), the others cottonwood. These cottonwood ties were beginning to be removed before the arrival of the colony and were used for fuel purposes, the only other fuel avail- able being willow brush and dead cottonwood trees on the islands of the Platte.
The Union Pacific Railroad at that date was poorly supplied with rolling stock to use in hauling coal, also the coal mines were undeveloped, and at times in the early winters it was impossible to buy, beg or steal coal from the railroad- the only source of supply-and on one such occasion the railroad authorities advised that organized parties be sent to the Loup River (twenty miles distant) for fuel, stating that any timber found on railroad land could be freely used for such purpose. Many homesteaders, having ox teams, hauled wood from the Loup River, at times making the trip in the dead of winter.
Some families endeavored to keep warm by burning corn stalks, cut stove lengths. Later years when corn was more plenty, the corn itself was burned for fuel. Some ranged the prairie in search of "buffalo chips." the dried drop- pings of cattle, and used these "chips" for fuel. It made an intensely hot fire but was far from clean and pleasant to use. Many families living near the Platte bottoms used the coarse grass for fuel. It is recalled that J. N. Allen invented a machine which twisted the grass into a hard rope, which he cut in lengths and burned, as wood, in a stove. Ira P. Bunker constructed a furnace
94
HISTORY OF BUFFALO COUNTY
under his house and invented an arrangement (which he patented) by which, from the outside, he fed hay into the furnace and thus heated his house.
Many families used fuel of the kinds described to keep warm in houses built of only one thickness of boards, not lathed or plastered, and more than one child was born in such a house, in the winter time, when the snow sifted into the house, and over the bed whereon lay the mother and new born infant. In those early years, during the extreme cold of winter, to many colonists the most comfortable place, the occasion most looked forward to, was to attend a grange or church service, at the schoolhouse, there to absorb the heat from a red hot stove, a hot coal fire, and enjoy for a brief hour or more the companionship of friends and neighbors in full sympathy with all the surrounding conditions and circumstances. The great lack of fuel, cheap and abundant, was a most serious handicap in the early settlement of Buffalo County, and a cause of much dis- comfort and suffering during the long months of winter.
CHAPTER XXII
A COLONIST'S TRIP TO OMAHA-$250 FOR A YOKE OF OXEN-OPENING UP FOR BUSINESS
A COLONIST'S TRIP TO OMAHA IN APRIL, IS71
The homesteads taken, the next step was a habitation in which to live, fur- nishing for the house, and farming implements, at least a plow.
Lumber, hardware, household goods, farming implements and food supplies could only be purchased in Omaha, as there were no stocks of such goods at a nearer point. A number of the colonists made out bills of needed supplies and chose one of their number to make the trip and purchase the articles. The colonists had brought their funds in New York exchange which would require the one presenting the same to be identified, and as one of their number had an acquaintance residing in Council Bluffs, a lawyer, who could identify him, he was chosen to make the trip.
The railroad fare from Gibbon to Omaha was $14.75, 7 cents per mile. The party arrived at Omaha about 6 P. M., crossed to Council Bluffs to find his acquaintance attending court at some point in Iowa and not expected home for some days. The next morning found the colonist on the banks of the Missouri ready to cross at first opportunity, but the wind blew at such a furious rate that it was not possible for the boat to make the crossing. All day long the colonist remained, without a bite to eat, awaiting a favorable opportunity to cross.
Several attempts were made without success; on one occasion the ferry boat barely escaped being swamped on one of the piers of the railroad bridge then in process of construction. With the going down of the sun, the wind abated, but the colonist reached the Nebraska side after business hours. Early the next morning a call was made on a lumber dealer, but when the case was stated he replied that he could not take drafts where the party was not known or could not be identified.
A visit was then made to the store of Milton Rogers, a dealer in hardware, stoves and agricultural implements, and the situation explained to Mr. Rogers, who without a moment's hesitation replied, in substance: "We have all heard of your colony in Buffalo County and we want you to stay and help settle the state, and I am more than willing to aid you in any manner possible. I will take your drafts in payment for such of my goods as you desire, will find a lumber dealer who will take your drafts for lumber, and I will endorse your drafts at the bank for the balance so that you may take the remainder home in currency."
This kindness on the part of Mr. Rogers was greatly appreciated and has
95
96
HISTORY OF BUFFALO COUNTY
never been forgotten. The business of Mr. Rogers was established in 1855, and more than half a century later was being conducted under the name of Milton Rogers Sons.
The articles purchased comprised two car loads-cars being much smaller than at present, ten tons the limit of capacity-and had a wide range from lumber to build several small houses to stoves, furniture, crockery, breaking plows, spades, well buckets, rope, picket pins, pork by the barrel and molasses by the 5-gallon keg. The railroad company made one concession, making the same rate on the shipment as for emigrant movables.
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS FOR A YOKE OF OXEN
On this trip an option was secured on a yoke of oxen at $250. This seemed like and was a large price if not an extravagant one, but teams of oxen were scarce, and a better yoke of oxen never looked through ox-bows than these. They were large, young, well broken and active.
Later the purchase was concluded through Milton Rogers and the oxen shipped to Gibbon. The first use made of the team was to draw a load of lumber out to a claim across Wood River; when in mid-stream the yoke broke and it was necessary to send to Omaha for another before use could be made of the team. These oxen, a wagon, and a breaking plow were owned by three homesteaders.
OPENING UP FOR BUSINESS
Immediately after the taking of the homesteads, Aaron Ward engaged in the lumber business and L. D. George and I. D. La Barre each arranged to engage in the mercantile business. The business venture of Mr. George was on a much more extensive scale than that of Mr. La Barre; T. Q. George, a brother of L. D., came later, the firm being L. D. and T. Q. George and Co. 1. D. La Barre at once secured a considerable line of goods and opened for business in a box car on the siding, until such time as his first place of business was in readiness; this store building of Mr. La Barre's was the first building completed in the Village of Gibbon, and the first building to receive a coat of paint ; it is, at this date (1915) the first building to the west of the Babcock Opera House, on Main Street. It is recalled that when the prices which the colonists had paid for the two carloads of goods-before mentioned-became known, it occasioned much irritation as between the merchants and their cus- tomers. For instance, the price paid at Omaha for a 12-inch breaking plow was $21 ; for a stove, $20; a well bucket, 75 cents; while the prices for like articles at Gibbon were: a 12-inch breaking plow, $32; a stove, $30; well bucket, $1.50. It will be seen that on such standard articles the margin of profit was certainly large enough to warrant success in the business, and yet those merchants, in the end. did not make any marked success of the business, for the reason credit was universal and when a debtor was a homesteader whose whole source of income was from crops raised on his claim, it stands to reason that merchants' losses were large where credit was extended to such a class of customers.
97
HISTORY OF BUFFALO COUNTY
It is a matter of astonishment, at this date, to recall some of the methods of transacting business which prevailed in the early days of which this history treats. It was a common occurrence for a homesteader to agree to pay 2, 3 and at times 4 per cent a month interest on borrowed money. It was a common business transaction for a homesteader, without means, to purchase on time a full line of agricultural implements, their value aggregating several hundreds of dollars, and often not even paying in advance the freight charges on the same, and in case of crop failure, payment had to be extended, and often the machinery was worn out before paid for, and at times it was never paid for. Such business conditions and transactions, can only be accounted for on the theory that the unbounded faith and optimism as to the country and its future development, which caused people without means and experience to come here and engage in agriculture in a country in which nothing was known as to capabilities for support of an agricultural population, included not only the homesteader himself but all classes engaged in business as well.
Just across the Platte River south of Gibbon was the Village of Lowell, and one of the early merchants at that point was Joel Hull. At a reunion held at Fort Kearney, many years later, by Mr. Hull read a paper entitled, "Pioneer Merchandising in Central Nebraska." It presents so true and complete a history of merchandising in Buffalo County in those days that as a matter of historic interest it is here given place.
Vol. I- Y
CHAPTER XXIII
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL-THE COLONISTS AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL-COLONISTS LIVING IN THE CARS ORGANIZE A SCHOOL DISTRICT-COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT-STATE- MENT OF C. PUTNAM MADE FOR RECORD-ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS- ERECTION OF SCHOOLHOUSES-REPORT OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT, JANUARY, 1872-LIST OF LICENSED TEACHERS, 1871-76.
THE COLONISTS AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL
That the members of the colony were home builders in all that the term implies is possibly best illustrated by the prompt action taken in the organiza- tion of school districts, the building of schoolhouses and the opening of public schools. The records of school district No. 2 (Gibbon) under date of April 15, 1871, read in part as follows :
"At a school meeting duly noticed, held by the inhabitants of Gibbon for the election of officers and the transaction of such other business as might be brought before the meeting, the proceedings were as follows:" The proceedings further set forth that "At a previous assemblage of said inhabitants for the purpose of attending to the school interests of Gibbon and vicinity, a committee con- sisting of C. Putnam, J. N. Allen and Aaron Ward had written the state super- intendent of public instruction for a copy of the school law of the State of Nebraska and such other personal instruction as was necessary for the proper organization of a school district." It appears from the records that no reply had been received from the state superintendent and the meeting adjourned subject to call of the chairman.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.