USA > Nebraska > Frontier County > Early history and reminiscence of Frontier County, Nebraska > Part 4
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Town property
53,806.00
Railroad property
122.094.00
'Total
$1.407,571.00
Taxes raised $ 64,656.35
By comparison we find the valuation of property in 1893 was four and one-half times the valuation of 1883 and that the number of polls was more than six times as great. We now have 108 school districts, 115 schools, 3328 children of school age, sevety-two frame schoolhouses. three log and twenty-seven sod buildings Our teachers now number 120. The valuation of our district property is $42,616.68, which is ten times as much as in 1884. Seeing what progress we have made in the past, and knowing the enterprising spirit of our citizens, what could we predict for Frontier County but a glorious future ?
The forty-niner, as he slowly wended his way across these plains, never dreamed they would become great centers of civiliz.1-
40
EARLY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
tion. But the pioneers came in from the crowded East, subdued the son; the railroads attacked the wilderness; towns and cities which the mirage had prefigured have become an accomplished fact. The millions of buffaloes that sometimes impeded the movement of trains have been replaced by tens of thousands of graded cattle, while the unexampled yield of the products of the soil of the Wild West is fast becoming the granary of the United States.
The great achievements of Frontier County have not, like Alad. din's palace, been accomplished at a wish or by magic wave of the mystic wand, but by sturdy. earnest and laborious toil. We therefore cherish a deep and growing pride in the history and prog. ress, socially and financially, of our county.
Finis
SUNSET
When sunset sheds its molter mellow rays Of liquid gold spilling upon the plain, Flowing from crimson fountains in the sky, The heart is filled with rapture; if we sigh At man's failure to measure Heaven's days In recompense, more earnestly we gaze, Then with true vision paradise regain, And strength to grasp anew the higher ways Of God's creation, and the meaning of : "The word was spoken and His will was done." Though man vainly searches for a source And ending, looks for heaven high above, Yet Truth and Life and Love are always one, As timeless as the great Creative Force.
-- Boyd Perkin.
.
37
FRONTIER COUNTY, NEBRASKA
This assessment was made on a 25 per cent of cash value and shows that on an average each taxpayer would be rated at $3,450.00 on personal property, and about $220.00 each on real estate.
At this period the range had all the stock it could support, for it was depended on for both summer and winter. In 1884 there were three hundred forty-five children of school age, fourteen schools, seven teachers and four schoolhouses. In the autumn of 1883 the happy days of the stockmen began to wane. A new era began to dawn in Frontier County. and with the balmy springtime of 1884 came grangers of all races and previous conditions. They came in all conceivable conveyances, by ones and twos and mn large flocks. They brought with them cows, pigs, farming imple- ments, and their merry, joyous children, to help subdue the soil. to fill our schools and become useful citizens to our county an:l State. The granger had come to stay-God had made this land for him. Uncle Sam said he could have it, in 160-acre lots; and in the summer of 1885. when free range and herd law were voted for, by his vote he placed his seal on this county, making it henceforth an agricultural county.
He who has pushed out on the frontier, and has reclaimed the wilderness or the desert, has added to his county, his State, and his nation's wealth. He has also helped fill the world's storehouse with provisions, from the abundance of which its starving millions could be fed. The hope of the agricultural element of this county has been more than realized during the last decade. True. there have been two partial failures in crops; but in the remaining eight years we have raisel such crops that, taking the ten years on an average, we would be able to compete with any county in the State, on an acreage yield.
The soil of Frontier County is deep and exceedingly rich. Wheat, corn, oats, barley, flax and potatoes, in fact all the principal crops, grow here and make a large yield. Receiving such large crops has caused our farmers to become reckless about the preparation of the land and the care of the crop. I will make out a bill of expense showing the amount of labor required by the average farmer for sceding eighteen acres to spring wheat: sowing, one-half day, man and team; cultivating, three days; dragging, one day. We have seen land that received about this amount of work yield from twenty to thirty bushels of wheat per acre
The following is about a fair sample of planting and cultivat- ing seven acres of corn: one day's listing, two days' cultivating; giving two and one-third acres of corn ready for shucking, for one
38
EARLY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
day's work for a man and a team. We have seen a field that had received just this, and no more, yield sixty-three bushels of corn per acre. This was an exceptional crop, and probably twenty bushels above the average of that year.
The above were given to show how large a crop can be grown in good seasons with a very small outlay of labor.
We believe that Nebraska is destined to outstrip its neighbor- ing States, owing to its diversity of resources in agriculture. The sugar-beet industry. with or without legislative aid. will sooner or later become a leading industry of the State. The soil seems espe- cially rich in those elements necessary for the growth of the su- gar beet; and beets grown in this State have been tested, both in this country and in Germany, and have shown that Nebraska can produce beets as rich in saccharine matter as any country on the globe. In 1891 the State Agricultural Society offered a pri- mium of $90.00 for the greatest number of tons of beets, showing the largest per cent of sugar, grown on one-fourth of an acre. Mrs. J. W. Gates of this county received the award.
Alfalfa is another crop that is rapidly gaining in favor in this county. It seems to be the forage plant we have so long need- ed-capable to stand drouth. The number of crops cut from it yearly, the largest yield per acre, and the 'excellent quality of the hay, bespeak for it a place on every farm in the county. East of us cattlemen fat their cattle on corn. West of us cattle are fatted on alfalfa hay. The feeders of this county will soon be able to fat their cattle on corn and alfalfa hay, both grown in the county. Shall we not then be able to compete with any locality cn cheaply fed stock?
BUILDING RAILROAD
In the years of 1886 and '97. the Holdrege Branch of the B. & M. built a railroad through this county. This was a great stimu- lus to the agricultural development of the county. Every farmer near the line of the road could sell corn, hay and surplus provi- sions at good prices. Corn sold readily at forty cents per bushel, and everything else in proportion.
We, who had been going forty miles to trade and taking three days to make a trip, thought then and still think that the railroad was one of the greatest blessings that ever came to the county. It brought to the farmer merchandise, and laid it almost at his door as cheaply as he before could purchase it forty miles away. It placed farm implements in easy reach; it enhanced the value of
39
FRONTIER COUNTY. NEBRASKA
all the land several dollars per acre; it built up four flourishing towns, viz., Eustis, Moorefield, Curtis and Maywood; and best of all to the farmer, it made an outlet for his fat stock in Omaha, in a few hours after it left his pens
From G W. Crosby, general freight agent at Omaha, we learn that in 1892 there were shipped from Frontier County 1469 cars of grain and 258 cars of live stock; in 1893 841 cars of grain and 3S& cars of live stock. In considering these numbers, we must remem- ber that our county is new, that much of the land is unused either for grazing of agricultural purposes. All over this county you may see ten-acre lots of young timber; these are not only an ornament to our already beautiful landscape, but will soon furnish a supply' of timber and help increase the rainfall of our county. Far-seeing was the legislature that passed the Timber Culture Act, fo: men planted to secure the patent to their lands, who would not have planted for crnament or usefulness.
During the short period that has elapsed since our county has become an agricultural one, it has made about as much advance- ment as could be expected under all the condtiions and difficulties with which it has had to contend. Below will be given the record of 1893:
Personal property valuation $ 310,275.00
Real estate
921,386.00
Town property
53,806.00
Railroad property
122.094.00
Total
$1.407,571.00
Taxes raised ..
$ 64,656.35
By comparison we find the valuation of property in 1893 was four and one-half times the valuation of 1883 and that the number of polls was more than six times as great. We now have 108 school districts, 115 schools, 3328 children of school age, sevety-two frame schoolhouses. three log and twenty-seven sod buildings Our teachers now number 120. The valuation of our distiist property is $42,616.68, which is ten times as much as in 1884. Seeing what progress we have made in the past, and knowing the enterprising spirit of our citizens, what could we predict for Frontier County but a glorious future ?
The forty-riner, as he slowly wended his way across these plains, never dreamed they would become great centers of civiliz.1-
40
EARLY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
lion. But the pioneers came in from the crowded East, subdued the sof; the railroads attacked the wilderness; towns and cities which the mirage had prefigured have become an accomplished fact. The millions of buffaloes that sometimes impeded the movement of trains have been replaced by tens of thousands of graded cattle, while the unexampled yield of the products of the soil of the Wild West is fast becoming the granary of the United States.
The great achievements of Frontier County have not, like Alad. din's palace, been accomplished at a wish or by magic wave of the mystic wand, but by sturdy. earnest and laborious toil. We therefore cherish a deep and growing pride in the history and prog. ress, socially and financially, of our county.
Finis
SUNSET
When sunset sheds its molter mellow rays Of liquid gold spilling upon the plain, Flowing from crimson fountains in the sky, The heart is filled with rapture; if we sigh At man's failure to measure Heaven's days In recompense, more earnestly we gaze, Then with true vision paradise regain, And strength to grasp anew the higher ways Of God's creation, and the meaning of : "The word was spoken and His will was done." Though man vainly searches for a source And ending, looks for heaven high above, Yet Truth and Life and Love are always one, As timeless as the great Creative Force.
-Boyd Perkin.
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