USA > Nebraska > Seward County > General history of Seward County, Nebraska > Part 17
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
dently than in the towns.
ADVANCEMENT AS SHOWN BY ASSESSMENTS.
A glance at the assessed valuation of property in Seward county from the first assessment in the county in 1866 to 1885 will disclose the gradual advancement in prosperity. There was a small amount of deeded land in the county in 1866 that was taxable and that property increased at a great rate as soon as the homesteaded land began to change to the personal real estate of those who homesteaded it, but that could not be considered an advancement in prosperity. The most reliable way of computing the amount of increase in prosperity would be from the increase in the assessed value of town and personal property. The amount of deeded land assessed in 1866 was 4,728 acres, the tax valuation being $18,667. Personal property assessments amounted to $ 10, - 880, the total personal and real estate assessments amount- ing to $29, 547. There was no town property assessments that year. The levy on personal property and real estate brought the county $423.00.
Four years later, the 1870 combined real estate and per- sonal property assessments amounted to $ 120, 160, an in- crease of $90,513 in four years. But this increase was al- most entirely due to the fact that many of the early home- steads had been "proven up on," as it was termed at that time, and turned over by the government to the homestead- ers and thereby become taxable real estate. The number of acres of real estate assessed at this time was 33,670, an in- crease of 28,842 acres. And still there was practicially no town property assessed.
During the next five years the 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869 and 1870 homesteads, which amounts to nearly the entire homestead entries, become taxable real estate and there were 275, 204 acres assessed in 1875, the tax valuation be- ing placed at $ 1, 025, 439. Up to this assessment town prop-
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
had not been mentioned, but the increase during the five years from 1870 to 1875 gave town property an assessment showing of $92,091 which, with the assessment of personal property at $412, 335 and the rail road $67,480, was the first indication of real advancement in the county. And it was a great showing. In nine years --- 1866 to 1875 town prop- erty had increased in value from nothing to a little over three times the assessed value of the real estate and personal property at the county's first assessment.
During the next five years, from 1875 to 1880, there was a great advancement along the whole line. The real estate of the county increased 63, 595 acres, the assessed number of acres being 338,799, amounting to $1, 216,669, the valua- tion being fixed at 16 cents less per acre than in 1875. Assessments on town property reaches $ 130,906, personal property $506, 316, and rail road which has an increased number of miles from eleven to fifty-four, is assessed at the value of $ 183, 447, amounting to a total of $2,037, 337, an increase of $540,002 in five year. In estimating the gain in property at this time it must be remembered that the tax levy was reduced considerably during the last five years. The increase in acres of real estate was due more than it had previously been to the fact that more rail road land had become taxable real estate.
In 1885 land assessments amounted to 1, 391, 385 dollars; town property, personal property and rail road assessments made almost an equal showing, amounting to 1, 273, 222 dol- lars, which indicate the county's prosperity advancement in the five years from 1880.
It might be a difficult problem to figure out the gradual increase in all kinds of property from the first of the pioneer . period in 1865 to its close in 1885 by the assessments, yet those assessments point directly to a certain progress which will clearly be recognized by all careful, observing pioneers.
CHAPTER XXX.
A Reflection and Backward Glance at Pioneer Days Gone by.
Looking backwards forty and fifty years to the hardships, troubles, trials and privations of pioneer life in Seward county, it is in accordance with nature to feel that the sacrifice of the comforts and enjoyments of former homes and the pleasures surrounding them was too great for the reward to be gained. But placing those things in the balance with the pioneer freedom, social relation of neighbors and the general absence of dull care, and the seeming sacrifice looses its significance and a longing for an opportunity to live it all over is ever present with us. The human race can live but one childhood and but one youth, those periods in life are never fully enjoyed till they are replaced by more mature years and old age. It is then that one can glance backward with regrets for lost opportunities and sigh for the dear old dead past. And while each and every individual can enjoy those brightest of all periods in life, pioneer life in a new country can be lived only by those who shared its sorrows and joys in pioneer times, and can be lived by them but once. After passing that period known as pioneer days, which might be called the country's birth period, it passes to eternity and beyond recall. And the memoriable events of pioneer life in Seward county is fast passing from the minds of men and women as "one by one" the remanents of that grand community of home seekers and home builders, follow in the footsteps of pioneer days to eternity. Those who remain of that throng that passed through the ordeal of · pioneer life look back upon those days with regrets akin to
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. HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
those of the aged looking back upon their childhood, through gathering tears. The memories of those times which we know are fast fading from even the thoughts of men in the distant past, are realities in life which are eternally lost as they can never be imprinted upon other minds than those who lived them. While they may be printed upon paper as near as words can picture them they have passed in reality to silent rest forever.
In reviewing the past and comparing it with the present I am tempted to quote a little poetry which illustrates to a certain degree the social side of life "then and now" in Sew- ard county. . It is not of western origin, but illustrates the spirit of early days in the west. At that time as at the pres- ent there were some persons who condemned dancing as a sin. Let it be a sin or no sin as it may, by holding the in- terests and contentment of the communities till other con- ditions were reached, those old time social events were the corner stones of society, the foundation upon which Seward county and the entire western frontier built their civilization. They were the approaches to the bridge over which advanc- ed the society and prosperity of today.
THE OLD VIRGINIA REEL.
QUEER, some times, how little happ'nin's, little chances, little things, Comes to free a feller's fancy from its tight-drawn leadin' strings; And just now a little girlie, dressed up mighty fine and gay,
Came to tell her proud old grandpa of her dancing school today; And her talk has set him dreamin', set his mem'ry driftin' back
Down along the tangled pathway where old Time has left his track, Till to him, across the twilight, scraps of music seem to steal,
And he hears the fiddles playin' for the old Virginia Reel.
Till he sees again the faces crowded in the little hall,
Smells once more the lamps that sputter in their brackets on the wall, Hears the ribbons rasp and rustle 'gainst a starchy muslin gown,
And the Sunday shoes a-squeakin' as the feet go up and down; Sees the old folks on the benches lookin' on with happy smile-
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. HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
Dancin' days are past and over-yes, indeed ! but wait a while; Wait until the prompter hollers, as the tunin' fiddles squeal,
"Gentlemen'll choose their partners for the fust Virginia Reel."
Just you watch those benches empty ! How can mother keep her seat When afore her, arm extended, Uncle Jim is on his feet ? See her laugh and drop a court'sy; see his polished cowhides shine, And the wrinkles in his coat-tails as he leads her into line. Father's there with A'nt Sophrony; see her eyes alight with fun, Though there's silver at her temples where 'twas gold'at twenty-one. Notice how she smiles at Mother? Ah, it does 'em good to feel
There's no room for years and worry in the old Virginia Reel. And I wonder-yes, I wonder, if some other feller sees,
Same as I, a road that wanders in and out among the trees,
Where the moonlight flings your shadows-hers and yours-acrost the snow,
And, behind, the talk and laughter sounds so faint and far and low; It's a world bewitched to stillness, like 'twas by a fairy's charm,
And your own good fairy-bless her ! has her hand upon your arm. Can't you smell the snow-hung spruces ? hear the crust beneath your heel ? Walkin' homeward through the moonlight, from the old Virginia Reel ? Well, the time keeps movin' onward and the dancin's different now,
And there's no more prompters callin' "Money Musk" or "Speed the Plough"
And the little bright-eyed girlie, climbin' on her grandpa's knee, Smiles to hear his funny stories of the days that used to be.
But I guess we were as happy, though we hadn't quite the style, And I ain't so sure the "two-step" beats the jig step such a pile; And I'd swap the grace and beauty for the stamp and laugh and wheel That brought youth and age together in the old Virginia Reel. -- Selected. .
In glancing forward from the closing scenes of pioneer life our vision is met with glimpses of the approaching great changes with their overshadowing wings covering and trans- forming the old to the new era, which will be dealt with in the preceding chapters of this work.
CHAPTER XXXI.
The Changes From Pioneer Conditions to Those of the New Era. A Startling Prophetic Vision of the Golden Future Upon the Great Ex- panse of the Western Plains, Saw in 1866.
As to the great and rapid changes which have transform- ed the once wild plains, or "desert," in which is located Sew- ard county, to its present high state of civilization and pros- perity, I am at a loss for language to depict. Perhaps a look from the distant past into the future might reveal the mystry in a measure, of the grand advancements of the past as ac- curately as it pictured the future at that early date. From a work entitled "Turner's Guide to The Rocky Mountains," published in 1866, I quote the following interesting prophecy :
"The traveler from the lakes to the mountains is apt to undervalue that great expanse of territory which he traverses. Political, social, industrial and commercial problems, which have no paralell and as yet have had no solution, crowd up- on him and he strives to outwork them. He recognizes the prophecy of events, but he fails to realize its fullfilment, and it is only when he observes the ever increasing tide of hu- manity rushing into the wilds and establishing out-posts of civilization that he catches glimpses of the golden future. He sees the population of the continent, which in 1854 was but forty millions augmented by the well ascertained rate of increase, to be eighty-eight millions in 1900, and to one hundred and seventy-six millions in 1925. A large propor- portion of this mighty throng he finds domiciled upon the three million square miles over which our flag now floats. The plains and the mountains are teeming with intelligence, industry and busy life. He beholds new cities, new marts of
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
trade and industries. A dozen iron roads instead of one span the continent and carry from ocean to ocean the com- merce of half the world with incredible speed. The political center of our country has passed the Missouri river and the capital of the nation rears its dome almost in sight of the snow capped peaks of the west."
Was this picture of the future very greatly over drawn? It was certainly not a fanciful dream beyond the realm of possibility. The public has only to go back to that date, half a century ago, and view the conditions in Seward county and compare them with those of the present time to realize its true value. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden could not have laid greater claims to having associated with and been wholy governed in their living by nature, with the pos- sible exception of the garments they wore, than could the sod house and dugout inhabitants of Seward county in the sixties and early seventies. They subsisted upon just what nature produced from the Eden like soil, were sheltered from rain, wind, cold and heat by what nature provided and were ·ever dependent upon the scant supply nature gave them of fuel to keep them warm and cook their game, fish and other food.
At the time of the publication of the quoted prophecy, in 1866, there was not a railroad in operation in Nebraska and there was not one completed "iron road spanning the con- tinent" and but one had ever been thought of. There was no sign of the hundreds of modern cities which are now in 'evidence in all parts of the state, with their paved streets and railroads leading in every direction, nor the many beau- tiful villages supplied with electric lights, telephones and modern mail facilities with rural mail routes leading to every farm house. If the casual travelers who passed along the steam wagon and freight routes in early pioneer times through Seward county were conducted over those routes
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
today they would realize their previous inability to "catch glimpses of the golden future" and would recognize the ful- filment of the "prophecy of events." They now see the immense, industrial and commercial advancement and turn the pages of memory in vain to find their paralell .. Upon those pages they see the unbroken: prairie, inviting home- seekers to settlement without price or cost. With the ex- ception of a few cottonwood and other native trees growing along the streams, the scenery is an endless plain and not a switch large enough to chastize a cat with is visible. An occasional sod house or a stove pipe sticking up from a dug- out are the only objects or signs of civilized life to be seen. The wind is constantly sweeping the prairie from first one: and then another direction with furious velocity and feeling .: the old time lonelyness and dispare they close the memorial pages and turn to the present grand and interesting scenes around them. And they behold those once baren plains dotted with groves of timber, the sod houses and dugouts replaced by palatial farm residences and comodious, modern barns everywhere visible, with lines of telephone poles and wires running in every direction. In the distance they see the church steeples and grain elevators and hear the whistle of the locomotive as it puffs along with its train of cars heavy laden with produce from the farms. They turn in every direction to catch the old, familiar blast of air, but it is silent, gone forever and in its stead comes a gentle and refreshing breeze, stimulating the senses and bracing the nerves.
But it is not only the travelers who may be reminded of the vast changes which mark the prophetic vision. Failing to catch "glimpses of the golden future" many homesteaders undervalued their opportunities and immagined that because they got their homes for nothing they were worth nothing, many of them disposing of their land for a trifle while others held on to theirs only because the small amount it would
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
bring was not enough to take them safely out of the "des- ert." And now after a lapse of forty or fifty years all are brought face to face with the fact that the land which cost them nothing and would not bring over one dollar and a quarter an acre in those early days is worth one dollar now for every cent it was worth then and has ready buyers at all times.
In consideration of the ordinary decline of soil from con- stant crop production the land in itself could not be as valu- able after forty or fifty years tilling as when it was new land, therefore the cause for the great advancement in its price must be attributed to something else. And I can find no better solution of the problem than in the fact that the fulfil- ment of the prophecy of events has been realized and the prophetic "under-value of that great expanse" has been re- versed by an industrial period to a foundation of true and real value.
In the foregoing views of "the old and new" I have only partially considered the improvements and advanced condi- tions of the county in fifty years. As stated, at the begin- ing of that period, there was not a rail road in opperation in Nebraska where now the state is well equipped with those necessary methods of transportation. And as was also stat- ed there was not "one iron road spanning the continent" while there are now nearly the prophecied number and busy life and prosperity are everywhere in evidence of prophetic fulfilment. And, again, to these achievements may be at- tributed the adveancement in land values.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Seward County-Its Towns, Postoffices, Schools, Etc., After the Changes From Pioneer Conditions.
The changed state of public affairs in Seward county, by which the general prosperity of its citizens has reached the highest attainment of progressive success in industry, agricultural and intelectual pursuits was not made in a day, month, year nor even ten years, but just grew up with the country. It had its beginning with the earliest settlers and is due to their habitual diligence in sowing the seeds of pro- gress. We have seen them portrayed in this work, building sod house and dugout homes and ever mindful of the inter- ests and welfare of the rising generation, building sod, log and dugout school houses without sufficient means to buy a door or window for their house of instruction, nor pay for hinges to hang the door nor even for a draw-string to the door latch, but the school houses were in early evidence, pointing onward to coming success. The early settlers were industerous, and ever on the alert for that which might im- prove the general welfare of their communities. However the closing of the pioneer period and the ushering in of that period known as the new or modern era, which might be termed "the changes," occurred during the period from about 1885 to 1910.
In the pioneer portray of Seward county, its towns, schools and postoffices, Camden was found to be the earliest and foremost town in the county, but by the location of the county seat at Seward and the advent of the railroad to that part of the county, together with the nearby towns on the rail road in Saline county, Camden was crowded out of existance and its identity as a town is unremembered by its own citizens.
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
But the location of the old town of Camden as well as its immediate surounding sections of real estate is the most attractive locality in Seward county if not in the state of Ne- braska.
SEWARD.
In those interesting days in the birth of the county and the country in general in which it is located, Seward was not a town. It got its name about the time that Camden and Milford were springing into prominence, but as the party who owned the real estate desired for the new townsite hes- itated about having a town built upon his property, the city of Seward was somewhat like the "chicken counted before the egg was hatched." And the town not only had a name, but it got a post office before it had a location which was al- most forced into the log residence of Lewis Moffit and that gentleman conscripted into Uncle Sam's service as post- masster by the enterprising citizens. These matters together with the little log school house, serving the purpose as church, school and county court house have been previously dealt with in the reminiscences of pioneer days in this his- tory, and we have now before us Seward, a modern city.
Seward today with a population of between three and four thousand inhabitants is supplied with numerious daily mails by railway. The Chicago Burlington & Quincy rail road, known as the B. & M., enters the city from the east, west and north, and the Chicago & North Western passes through it from north-east to south west. While the weekly mail -- carried a distance of twenty miles in an army haver- sack by a man on foot-has been supplanted by the daily mails as stated, the log house postoffice has been replaced by an improved structure at an expense of several thousand dollars supplied with a complete set of modern post office fixtures, including eight hundred and forty private mail boxes at an expense of three thousand five hundred dollars. In
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
addition to these facilities for handling the city mail there are six rural mail routes, upon which mail is delivered daily from the Seward post office to several hundred of the farm- ers' homes now occupying the old homesteads of pioneer days.
To meet the requirements of advancing changes in the city, new and expensive high school houses have come and gone smewhat in line with the appearing and disappearing of the sod . and log school houses of pioneer days, until the third commodious school building has recently been built at a cost of fifty thousand dollars.
The modern public improvements in the city of Seward consist of a fine county court house, one of the best in the state, a jail in line with it, a public park, high school build- ing. seventeen thousand dollar city hall and fire department, twelve thousand dollar Young Mens' Christian Associotion building, Carnigie Library building, cost, eight thousand dollars, forty-five thousand dollar city water works, twenty- five thousand dollar light plant. The city has fifty-two blocks of street pavement and more being added, and twenty miles of brick and cement sidewalks. The streets, which in the days of street grain buying, were outlined with invisable corner stakes and a few wagon ruts, are now lined with large forest and ornamental shade trees, telephone and electric light poles while fine, commodious residences fronts them on all sides.
There are eight church buildings in the city. The Ger- man Lutheran is perhaps the finest church building in the state of Nebraska outside of the large cities. It was erected at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars. The M. E. church is also a very fine and imposing edifice, built at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars. The Catholic church was built at a cost of six thousand dollars, and the Congregational near the same amount. The Prysbeterian church was originally
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
built in 1872 and although it has been removed from its first foundation and rebuilt in later design, it can still be called a pioneer church building. And notwithstanding this it is one among the fine church buildings of Seward county. The Adventists, United Breathern and Evangelicals all have good, substantial houses of worship.
One of the most interesting and laudable enterprises in the city of Seward is the German Normal College, which was instituted in 1894 by members of the German Evangel- ical Lutheran Church throughout Nebraska, led by such prominent business men of Seward as Herman Diers, John F. Goehner and O. E. Bernecker. The school was opened in the fall of 1894 in one brick building built that season, with an enrollment of but sixteen students. There has been a gradual growth in this institution and it is now occupying six large school buildings, including a training department and music hall four stories high where several pianos and pipe organs are in daily use. In addition to the six school structures there are eight beautiful private residences occu- pied by the instructors. The estimated cost of this enter- prise is one hundred thousand dollars. The increase in numn- ber of students brought the 1916 enrollment up to one hund- red and forty.
An artificial ice plant, installed in 1912 by Graff, Steven- son & Company at an expense of thirty-two thousand dol- lars, marks the progress of times from the pioneer days. This enterprise is said to be of the greatest benefit to the largest number of people of any establishment in Seward.
Among the many expensive public buildings within the limits of the city is the B. & M. railway depot which was built at an expense of eighteen thousand doilars. It occupies historic ground -- within the boundaries of the pioneer grain market-from the ground upon which it stands, out across the still remaining, well remembered bridge, upon the bot-
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
tom, mounted grain buyers watched for the approach of wagons loaded with grain, each eager to get in the first offer for the load; at the first appearance of a team they were off under whip and spur to meet it. About twenty rods north- west of where the depot now stands, a little up the incline, was the grain office and weighing scales of E. C. Carnes, and just south of it at the track were the two elevators. Up- on the site of the depot stood what was known to farmers as a "shoveling elevator" where they elevated their loads of grain with a scoop shovel, generally upon an empty stomach after a ride of eighteen or twenty miles. Farmers didn't ride in automobiles in those good old times, and felt mighty proud to have a spring seat to ride on. But the "good old times" are gone and with them the pioneer grain market of Seward.
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