USA > Nebraska > Buffalo County > Buffalo County, Nebraska, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 16
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At the date of holding the first term of District Court, the Third Judicial District in the state, of which Buffalo County formed a part, comprised not only all the territory north of the Platte River except the counties of Douglas and Sarpy, but that part of Dawson and Lincoln counties south of the Platte and all territory west of Lincoln County. The area of this Third Judicial District exceeded 50,000 square miles, an area greater than is comprised in either of the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania or New York.
Under the constitution of the state in force from 1866 to 1875 the Supreme Court was composed of three judges, to each of whom was also assigned the duties of district judge. The three judges in 1873 were George B. Lake, Daniel
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Gantt and Samuel Maxwell, the latter being assigned the Third Judicial District.
Under the state constitution adopted in 1875 there was created the Fifth Judicial District, embracing the counties of Buffalo, Adams, Webster, Franklin, Harlan, Kearney, Phelps, Gosper, Furnas, Hitchcock, Dundy, Chase, Cheyenne, Keith, Lincoln, Dawson, Sherman, Red Willow, Frontier and the unorganized territory west of said district.
In 1887 the Legislature created the Tenth Judicial District, embracing Buffalo, Dawson, Custer, Lincoln, Logan, Sherman, Keith and Cheyenne counties and the unorganized territory west of Logan County.
In 1891 the Legislature created the Twelfth Judicial District, embracing Buffalo, Dawson, Custer and Sherman counties.
In 1911 the Legislature changed the boundaries of the Twelfth District to include Custer, Sherman and Buffalo counties.
Before the first courthouse was completed agitation had begun for removal of the county seat. Time is too short, eternity too near, printer's ink and white paper too expensive, to even attempt to relate the history of a county seat fight. On August 24, 1874, the county commissioners, W. F. McClure, Patrick Walsh and J. E. Chidester, were induced to declare the courthouse unsafe and to order that no meetings except for county purposes be allowed in the building. On August 29, 1874, a petition was presented to the commissioners asking for a special election for the relocation of the county seat. On October 13, 1874. a special election for the relocation of the county seat was held, resulting in its removal to Kearney. The records do not show the number of votes cast for and against this question.
In the removal of the county seat the records were loaded in the night on a farm wagon by Joseph Scott, county clerk, and his deputy, F. G. Keens, arriving at Kearney Junction about 2 A. M., and were deposited in a heap on the floor of the Chandler Building, being guarded until morning by F. G. Keens, then a lad of twenty-one years. The Chandler Building then stood on the lot now occupied by the Presbyterian Church. This building is still standing on the west side of Central Avenue and is occupied as a millinery store. About July 1, 1875, the records were removed to the R. R. Greer Building on Twenty-fourth Street, just west of the Catholic Church, and remained there until January 4, 1876 The Greer Building is still standing ( 1912) on the east side of Central Avenue and is occupied by Greeks as a shoe shining parlor. Much of the early history of the county government was enacted in the Chandler and Greer buildings, while occupied as county offices, one of the most exciting and important events being the auction sale of lots in School Section No. 36, upon which lots then sold many of the buildings of the present City of Kearney now stand. During this period the sessions of the District Court were held in More's Hall, now (1912) the upper floor of the Gilcrest Lumber Company Building on Central Avenue. One of the inducements offered for the removal of the county seat was that the South Platte Land Company and the Union Pacific Railroad Company would donate to the county a site for a courthouse and also erect a building for court- house purposes. The site donated is the one now in use by the county and which, for a consideration of $1, was deeded to the county December 27, 1875, and there- on was erected in 1875 by these two companies a cheap frame building, two
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stories high, and used by the county until the erection of the present courthouse. This building was first occupied by the county on January 4, 1876. At its own expense the county erected, on the present courthouse site, a small I-story brick building, with fireproof vaults, for the safe keeping of county records, and in this building were the offices of the county clerk and treasurer. The frame building erected by the Union Pacific Railroad Company for use as a courthouse, when no longer needed for that purpose, was moved to another location, veneered with brick, and is now being used as the W. C. T. U. Hospital.
In 1886 a proposition was submitted to the voters of the county, and adopted, whereby a five-mill levy for the term of three years was authorized, the proceeds of the same to be used for the building of a courthouse. The understanding of the voters was that the cost of the completed courthouse would not exceed the amount of the levy voted, estimated at about $45,000, but the larger per cent of the levy was used in the foundation of the proposed courthouse and it was neces- sary for the voters to authorize the issue of county bonds in the amount of $45,000 with which to complete the courthouse building, making the actual cost of the present building $90,000. In the light of history, as viewed by the writer, the courthouse proposition has been unsatisfactory and disappointing from the date of the voting of the bonds to build the first courthouse until the present time. It was by means of representations, later found to be not true, that pro- moters induced the voters to authorize the issue of the $20,000 in bonds to build the first courthouse, and it was promoters, with city lots to sell, who secured the location for the present courthouse site at a point entirely unsatisfactory to the people of the county.
The casual reader of this history of the first courthouse in Buffalo County, whether he be an early settler or late comer, will be quite apt to exclaim: "What a waste of money! What utter foolishness on the part of some one or more persons that taxpayers should have been compelled to squander more than $70,000 in paying for a courthouse that was used by the county less than two years for courthouse purposes."
It seems best to complete, in a brief manner, the history of the first court- house, the uses to which it was put, and possibly when this is understood it will appear that the erection of the building was not after all an entirely useless waste of public money. In 1875 there was established in the courthouse building an academic department of the Gibbon schools, District No. 2. Prof. W. S. Camp- bell was at the head of this academic department for two years. County Super- intendent of Schools J. J. W. Place visited the schools on December 13, 1875, and in his official record reports as follows: "Spent the day in visiting the academic school in Gibbon. The scholars are enthusiastic in their studies. Les- sons mostly perfect. Twenty-three scholars present. Prof. W. S. Campbell is an able teacher ; he holds the only first grade certificate in the county."
On November 28, 1876, County Superintendent John Swenson records : "Visited the academic school at Gibbon. About thirty-five pupils in attendance, many of whom live out of the district and others have moved in to take advan- tage of this school. The brilliant success of this school is greatly owing to the personal character of Professor Campbell both as a man and as a teacher. There is need of another teacher in this department."
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Prof. J. T. Mallalieu succeeded Professor Campbell and for three years fully maintained the high standing of this school and the excellent work accomplished by the students in attendance. The necessity and importance of this school at that date can hardly be appreciated by those conversant with present educa- tional advantages only. In all the territory of Central and Western Nebraska, at the dates mentioned, there was not a high school nor a school where the educa- tional advantages offered were much above the present eighth grade in our com- mon schools, hence it was that the academic department of the Gibbon schools offered superior educational advantages to students from a large territory and more especially to those students desiring to fit themselves as teachers in our common schools, and students came long distances to attend this school.
Equally as important and far-reaching in results were a series of county farmers' institutes held in the courthouse building from 1874 to 1880, at which were presented and discussed problems relating to the agriculture of the county, and the lessons there learned, the seed there sown, have brought forth fruit in great abundance to all the people of the county. In the growth and development of the county education has been the most important factor. This wonderful growth and development can be best illustrated by a brief comparison. In 1870 the population of the county was 193 and the value of all property for purposes of taxation $788,988, and 97 per cent of this amount was that of the railroad and telegraph companies. In 1900 the population of the county was 20,254, and the valuation of property, for purposes of taxation, in 1908, $35,276,110. The total amount of taxes levied in 1870 was $13,484.56, and in 1908 $298,998.91.
In 1882 there was established in the courthouse building the Nebraska Baptist College, at the head of which was Rev. G. W. Read, assisted by Rev. George Sutherland, now (1912) president of the Baptist College at Grand Island. This college was well attended and did excellent work in an educational way, but because of a more central location and financial considerations was removed to Grand Island in 1885. In 1886 there was established a collegiate institute under the control of the United Brethren Church, Rev. C. M. Brooke, principal. The attendance at this college was in excess of 100 students, and the educational advan- tages offered were of a high order. This college, after three years, removed to York, Neb., and takes rank as a, leading college of the state. At a later date commercial colleges were conducted, first by Prof. U. S. Conn and last by Pro- fessors Boggs and Moody in 1904, so that for some thirty years the "First Court- house" has been a temple of learning instead of a temple of justice. As before stated, there was pressing need, in the early history of the county, of schools offering the advantages of higher education, and by reason of the sheltering walls of the abandoned courthouse such advantages were provided and made use of by hundreds of students. From an educational standpoint it is believed Buffalo County never made a better investment of public money than in the erec- tion of "The First Courthouse." In the 'gos the courthouse was sold to School District No. 2, Gibbon, for the consideration of $1, the object being to enable that district to secure the permanent establishment of a commercial college. This project failed, and in 1908 the building was torn down and in its place erected an up-to-date high school building at an expense of approximately $25,000. Of the some 400,000 brick used in the construction of the courthouse building about 100,000 were used in the high school building. Vol. I- 9
CHAPTER XXIX
BRIDGING THE PLATTE AT GIBBON AND KEARNEY JUNCTION-CONTRACT PRICE FOR GIBBON BRIDGE, $16.50 PER RUNNING FOOT-CONTRACT PRICE FOR KEARNEY BRIDGE, $8.50 PER RUNNING FOOT-"IT IS THEIR SKUNK AND THEY MUST SKIN IT," WRITES THE EDITOR OF THE BUFFALO COUNTY BEACON-MUCH BITTERNESS IN THE FACTIONAL FIGHT OVER THE BRIDGE QUESTION-DRIVING THE FIRST PILE FOR THE KEARNEY BRIDGE.
The first bridge across the Platte River in Buffalo County was south of Gibbon and completed in the spring of 1873. The contract price for this bridge was $16.50 per running foot, including approaches, and H. T. Clark of Omaha was the contractor. The bridge was built at the joint expense of Buffalo and Kearney counties. The contract was let at Lowell, county seat of Kearney County, at a joint meeting of the county commissioners of both counties, the two commissioners on the part of Buffalo County being W. F. McClure of Center Precinct and B. F. Sammons of Shelton Precinct. The county- bonds voted to build this bridge bore 10 per cent interest and are not at this date (1912) wholly paid, but have been refunded by bonds bearing 3 6-10 per cent interest. The settlement of the Republican Valley to the south began in 1872-73 and the nearest railroad point for all that section, for at least one hundred miles, was at Lowell on the Burlington and at Gibbon and Kearney Junction on the Union Pacific, the Burlington having also made junction with the Union Pacific at Kearney Junction in September, 1872. Large quantities of lumber and house- hold supplies were needed by the settlers south of the Platte and Kearney Junc- tion business men were greatly handicapped on account of lack of a bridge across the Platte.
A proposition to vote county bonds to build a bridge south of Kearney Junction was twice submitted to the voters and defeated, the defeat creating much bitterness of feeling as between Kearney Junction and the eastern portion of the county. In the Central Star, Moses H. Sydenham, editor, published at Centoria (near old Fort Kearney), under date of January 1, 1873, appears the following: "The people of Buffalo County are to vote a second time on the issuing of bonds for the purpose of building a bridge across the Platte River between Kearney Junction and Centoria. The first proposition not being satis- factory to the people generally was voted down.
* * Enterprising men have commenced to do business at Kearney Junction and it is only natural that they should seek to command all the trade
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possible of this great region of country, so soon to receive its large acquisitions of persevering pioneers."
On March 18, 1873, the county commissioners submitted to the voters of Kearney Junction precinct a proposition to bond that precinct for $25,000 to build a bridge, the bonds to bear 10 per cent interest.
This proposition carried and after litigation in the courts a contract was let by the county commissioners, W. F. McClure, Patrick Walsh and D. A. Crowell, to build a bridge of like specifications as the one south of Gibbon, the lowest bid being $8.50 per running foot. It was T. H. Clark, who received $16.50 per foot for building the Gibbon bridge, who bid to build a like bridge at Kearney Junction for $8.50. The writer does not believe, and neither was it generally believed, that the county commissioners who let the contract for the Gibbon bridge were paid by Mr. Clark to award him the contract, but rather that there was little or no competition in bridge building at the time the first contract was let and that Messrs. McClure and Sammons had no knowledge as to a fair price for the work. As a matter of history of the times and the rivalry that existed as between the citizens of Gibbon and Kearney Junction it is interesting to read the following editorial found in the Buffalo County Beacon, published at Gibbon, A. J. Price, editor, which appeared in the issue of March 22, 1873. First is quoted the petition for voting the bonds: "We, the undersigned citizens of Kearney Junction Precinct, Buffalo County, Nebraska, are in favor of Kearney Junction voting bonds for $25,000, for the purpose of building a bridge across the Platte River at or near Kearney Junction." The editorial reads: "The above statement was presented to the commissioners on Tuesday last, numerously signed, and, though it is not a petition for an election, yet Walsh and Crowell issued proclamation for an election to be held in said precinct, Commissioner McClure voting no and ordering his protest to be recorded. These bonds have been twice defeated by a large majority in the whole county, the people having sense enough to keep their property free from such a damaging incumbrance; and we shall be astonished if the small territory of Kearney Junction Precinct votes to issue these bonds. If they do it will certainly bankrupt them as badly as several counties in Iowa are bankrupted, where many have sold their property for half its worth to get rid of the ruinous tax. But it is their own skunk and they must skin it.
"We warn them that they can safely console themselves with the idea of any trick or catch, for 'eternal vigilance' shall guard the people's interests, and so sure as they rush into this speculation, recklessly determined to dance, so surely they shall themselves pay the fiddler."
After many delays, caused by injunctions and other court proceedings, work was begun on the Kearney bridge. It was a great day when the first pile was driven. Kearney Junction had a population of 245, according to a census taken that year by J. W. Leland, and every male citizen of the town was in attendance at the ceremony attending the occasion.
The following account, published in the Central Nebraska Press, Webb & Rice H. Eaton, editors, gives an interesting report of the proceedings :
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"KEARNEY BRIDGE
"THE FIRST PILE DRIVEN
"A LARGE AND ENTHUSIASTIC CROWD AT THE RIVER
"THE CITIZENS OF THE TOWNSHIP SUPERINTEND THE WORK
"SPEECHES, ETC., ETC.
"Yesterday at 3.30 P. M. was the hour appointed to commence the opera- tions of driving the first pile for the bridge over the Platte River. Most of the male inhabitants of the town assembled on the bank of the stream by the appointed time, all anxious to see a commencement made. The route had been surveyed and under the direction of Capt. L. R. Moore, the first pile was placed in position immediately south of Colorado Avenue, and at 4.56 o'clock, September 24, 1873, the ponderous cast iron hammer of the pile driver came down for the first time upon the first pile driven for the bridge that is soon to connect the north and south banks of the Platte opposite this point. The Stars and Stripes had been nailed to a staff, and by Mr. Keens (F. G. Keens) was nailed to the driver. Everyone felt glorious and even the appearance of Sheriff Thompson (O. E. Thompson) with his pockets full of injunctions did not affect or stay matters in the least, for our folks have become so used to these little documents that they consider them part of the program on all important occasions. After the pile had received four or five hard thumps from the driver, Judge Hemiup (N. H. Hemiup) was called for and in a neat little speech of fifteen minutes told the people of the importance of this internal improvement, alluded to the trouble we had experienced in getting as far as we have, counseled obedience to the laws of the land and prophesied a bright future for Kearney and the surrounding country.
"He was followed by Judge Connor (A. H. Connor), who spoke about the same length of time. The judge spoke with much emphasis, denounced the enemies of the bridge in strong language, said we had been fought step by step in this bridge matter, but we had defeated the enemy wherever we had met them, and closed his remarks amid loud cheers from the assembly. The crowd then dispersed and the driver proceeded to finish the work of driving the first pile."
CHAPTER XXX
THE SAXON COLONY -- CAME FROM SAXONY IN 1873-MADE SETTLEMENT IN BUF- FALO COUNTY IN FALL OF 1873-CROPS DESTROYED BY GRASSHOPPERS IN 1874 -REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF ENDURANCE ON PART OF SAXON WOMEN.
THE SAXON COLONY
The saying "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war," has been fully demonstrated in the settlement of the West, and in the settlement of Buffalo County as well. If it be counted as hardship and privation to those living in eastern states to make the attempt to establish homes in the unsettled and almost unknown West in an early day, to make settlement in company with those speaking the same language, accustomed to the same form of government, schools, churches and social relations, how much greater the hardship, the priva- tion to those settlers among us who left home and native land, crossed the ocean to a strange land to found homes among a people speaking another tongue, hav- ing a form of government entirely different from that to which they had been accustomed ? How strange must the new surroundings have seemed, and how, at times, must these newcomers have longed for a sight of the hold home across the water, to see again the loved ones so far away! In the settlement and devel- opment of the West we are indebted in a large measure to those of our people who came from other lands to here make homes. They have been to us living examples of a high type of courage, fortitude, industry, economy and above all loyalty to the home of their adoption, to the Government to which they have sworn allegiance. Schneider Township in Buffalo County was very largely settled by emigrants from Europe and even at this date the names of quite eighty per cent of those residing on the 150 farms in this township indicate that the present occupants of the farms either came from Saxony, Germany, Bohemia or other European countries or are descendants of those who in the preceding gen- eration emigrated from one of those countries to Schneider Township there to make a home.
Schneider Township, six miles square, lies on the divide between the Wood River Valley of the Platte on the south and the South Loup on the north. From the center of the township it is nine miles to Ravenna, on the Burlington Railroad on the north and fourteen miles to Gibbon, on the Union Pacific Railroad to the south. There are no running streams of water in the township and no natural growth of timber. The altitude is approximately two thousand one hundred feet and water in wells is found at approximately seventy feet. The general surface is rolling and somewhat broken. The soil is fertile and easily tilled and produces
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abundant crops. There are in the township at this date ( 1910) six schoolhouses, and three churches but no village. The population is approximately five hundred and the valuation of property by the township assessor for the year 1909 $964,835.
In the valuation of property in the township it should be borne in mind that this valuation represents farm values only, the value of the farms and personal property incident to farming, as there are no railroads or village or city property within the township. The valuation of the township on a strictly farm basis indi- cates that the inhabitants are prosperous and as one travels over the township, the comfortable houses and barns, the well tilled fields, the groves of trees, the orchards of fruit, the abundance of well bred, well kept domestic animals, the comforts and conveniences on every hand are indisputable evidence that the people are contented and happy. The present prosperity attained by emigrants who came from a foreign country, without means, and making settlement on lands destitute of timber, without running water and from nine to fourteen miles from a railroad station having trading or shipping facilities.
The first settlement in this township was made by emigrants from the King- dom of Saxony and for much of the history the writer is indebted to Richard Goehring, a member of the colony.
In the early '70s there were in the Kingdom of Saxony many people of the laboring class who looked with longing eyes toward the New World, where it was reported lands from which homes might be made could be had almost for the taking. Saxony was at that date densely peopled, having an average of approximately four hundred forty inhabitants to the square mile, being twenty- two times the number per square mile as has Buffalo County at the present time, or more than thirty times that of Nebraska as a whole, and because of the poor living and low wages paid in the over-populated factory districts many of the laboring class were anxious to emigrate, hoping thereby to better their financial condition.
Many of these people had not the means to pay their passage across the water which separated them from these lands, and so they organized themselves into classes and agreeing to pay a stipulated amount, in some cases 50 cents, in others $1, per month, into a common fund and when the amount paid in was sufficient to pay the transportation charges of a few of their number across the water the members raffled off the chance to be one of the lucky number.
The first members of the colony left Saxony April 5, 1873, and arrived in New York April 19th. That was the year of the great April storms, as remem- bered by early settlers in Nebraska, the storm commencing Sunday, April 13th, and members of the Saxony Colony, crossing the ocean that week, recall that a terrible storm also raged on the ocean causing terror, sickness and great discom- fort to those aboard the vessel. These members of the colony journeyed to Detroit and then into Northern Michigan, in the region of Lake Superior, where it had been planned to purchase a large tract of land to be subdivided into farms and also to establish on the tract a village or other business and social center for the members of the colony.
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