USA > Nebraska > Seward County > General history of Seward County, Nebraska > Part 2
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
one, being that of J. J. Ainsworth's younger brother who was suffering with the same dread disease when his older brother induced him to try the treatment of Nebraska atmos- phere. He did so and during his stay in Seward county seemed to be on the road to recovery, but becoming discour- aged and homesick he returned to Ohio where he succumed to his affliction in less than one year. Here is the evidence of two as reliable men as ever came to Nebraska, one on his death bed, lamenting the fact to his brother who visited him that he had not taken that brother's advice and remained in Nebraska, while the older one declares: "I would not go back to Ohio to reside for the whole state of Ohio."
HOMESTEAD LAW AND HOMESTEADS.
The homestead law enacted by the United States govern- ment in 1862 permitted any person 21 years of age, the head of a family or single to enter 160 acres of government land as a homestead, and at the end of five years continued residence upon said land it should become the real estate property of the person making such entry. And it was gen- erally understood that government land could not be secured under any other condition or consideration than by actual settlement and improvement upon it. That these require- ments were for a protection of the land from speculators and a reserve of it for equal distributaion among present and fu- ture settlers. But this understanding was undoubtedly a delusion as the government. after the law was enacted, grant- ed the C. B. & Q. rail road company every odd section, or one-half of the land in a strip forty miles wide through the unsettled portion of Nebraska, which grant took in the entire county of Seward. And as a further evidence of the "delus- ion," Amos Reed, a prominent lawyer of the city of Wash- ington, secured a grant from the government of 2,000 acres of Seward and York cuunty government land. This tract laid along the West Blue river, commencing about three
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
miles east of Beaver creek in Seward county and extending west into York county. While this grant was small com- pared to the one to the railroad company, it detracted more form the homestead privileges, as far as it extended than the latter, as it was an unconditional grant, covering the said number of acres of some of the best land in Nebraska, taking in the timber along the river the entire length of the tract, and not one foot of it being reserved for homesteads. In the matter of the railway grant it was made on condition that the company construct a railroad through the grant, and every other section was reserved for homesteads. It is sup- posed that this deal was made to better the living conditions of the homesteaders by providing them with markets and transportation advantages, but the government did the deal- ing and then robbed the settlers of one-half of their home- stead right to pay for it, leaving them only So instead of 160 acre homesteads. However this did not effect the privileges of soldiers of the war of the rebellion who were permitted to enter a homestead of 160 acres. And in this we see another half honest and half dishonest deal of the government with its private citizens. The right made to the soldiers to enter a homestead of 160 acres was no more than a blind to cover up the government's failure to do with them as it had agreed. We very well remember the flaming posters that were stuck up all over our city of Warren, Ohio, offering inducements to get men to enlist to go in defense of their country, and one of those inducements standing out in very large red letters which could be read at a distance said: "One-Hundred and Sixty Acres of Land will be Given by The United States Govern- ment, to every able bodied man, eighteen years of age or over, who will enlist in the military service of the United States for three years or during the war." And we also re- member that one of those posters decorated the east wall of the room in which we placed our name upon the roll of
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
Uncle Sam's defenders and took the oath to serve three years or during the great war. Of course the fault was in the promise. Had it been fiulfilled there would have been but little land left for homesteads. And to give the soldiers an advantage in the homestead deal was unavoidable and about the only way out of keeping a rash promise. The nation's liberality was shown in the right given the soldiers to homestead 160 acres where the general homesteads were but So acres, and also in permiting a deduction of the time of the soldier's military service from the time required for him to reside upon his homstead, and yet it was short of being a fullfillment of a legitimate contract.
After the close of the war a large number of soldiers be- came home-seekers in the west, many of whom took advan- tage of not only the homestead privilege granted them, but the fine land and promising future, and settled upon the prairies of Seward county. Some of those comrades are here yet, some have passed on to other fields while many are "tenting upon the eternal camp ground," beyond the last river where we must all join them in the near future.
Straggling settlements were made in different localities of Seward county all through the sixties, but the grand rush of home-seekers came in 1869 and 1870 during which period nearly every available homestead was taken and settlement made upon it. The pioneer settlers were sanguine of their ability to make homes of comfort and value. They built sod houses, made dugouts, and occasionally a house of logs or lumber. And it was no uncommon sight in those days to see smoke coming up out of the earth where some enterpris- ing family had fixed up a home. But "vanity of vanities." The notion to improve their homesteads deserted many of them and as soon as they could do so they sold their claims and drifted to other quarters or returned to the "old folks" at the old and longed for home. In that period homesickness
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
was the most prevalent and troublesome disease in Nebraska, and it laid its cold fingers upon some who could not resist it.
The water of Seward county is hard. Even that of the streams and springs is hard, but is of an excellent grade. There are a number of springs of very fine water along the West Blue river. One of the largest of these springs is an "old land-mark" almost in the center of the village of Beaver Crossing. It is located near where Daniel Millspaw's ranch buildings stood, and without doubt furnished many thirsty travelers, in the days of prairie schooner emigration, the first good water they had tasted after leaving the settlements.
The first flowing well of the county to establish any in- terest or faith in the existance of flowing water in the vicinity where it exists, was discovered in Dewit Eager's store in Beaver Crossing by mere accident. That such a discovery should be made within the precincts of a village store may seem strange, but Mr. Eager had a well in his store for the accomodation of his customers and the water had become impure and bad, therefore he employed Ray Virgin of Utica to sand pump the well and sink it deeper to find better water if possible. The work progressed, but the quality of the water did not improve. The well kept getting deeper and deeper; finally the bottom seemed to drop out and the water rushed up with such force that the store cellar was half full of it before it was realized what had happened. This dis- covery created quite an excitement as it was made in the dry season of 1895, and several parties were soon on the anxious seat to try their luck for a well. T. J. Foster was so anxious to see the water shooting up out of the earth at his place that he could not sleep nights, and went around day-times dreamily talking about a flowing well. In a few days he succeeded in securing the services of C. C. Evaus to make him a two inch flowing well. The work on the well com- menced early in the morning and flowing water was struck
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
just a short time before night, and although the well was fully piped, flowing well construction was new business to Mr. Evans. The well was of the large size, the flow very strong and the necessary precautions to prevent an outside flow which came up around the outside of the piping, had not been taken and as a result a nice little river soon sprang into existance. Unfortunatly the river was not all water, be- ing about half quick sand which failed to run off, constantly settling in the passage way and daming the water which shortly formed a small sized lake in the midst of which was Tom's house. Tom had lost sleep over the matter of get- ting a well and as he shoveled sand that night to keep an opening for the water to run off and save his house from be- ing a Noah's Ark, he might have been heard praying for one glimpse of God's token, the rainbow, and that the destruc- tion of the earth by fire might commence while his part of it was too wet to burn. Tom Foster never swears and wheth- er his thoughts on this occasion were solemn or otherwise he certainly had a wonderful well, and one which drove away all doubts in regard to the existance of flowing water under the ground in the locality of Beaver Crossing. This well, when the stream was finally reduced to the size of an ordinary flowing well, threw water to a heigth of twenty-five feet, but the numerous wells which were almost immediatly made in the vicinity, reduced the force of its flow to a con- siderable extent. However the water in most any of the numerous wells in existance today on land on a level with it will rise from ten to fifteen feet above the top of the ground. The territory upon which these wells may be procured ex- tends over the entire width of the West Blue valley and for a distance up and down the valley of about fourteen miles. This seeming to be the extent of the under ground reser- voir of flowing water.
The above represents a flowing well on the farm formerly owned by Henry Cast, east of Beaver Crossing. There was a reduction made in the flow after which the stream of water, as it appears here, was forced twenty-seven feet above the ground where it is located.
One of the first flowing wells of Beaver Crossing. It was located on the old picnic grounds, near the river, known as "Dimery's Park." The well was one of the attractions that drew many people from various parts of the county and state and was viewed by thousands as one of the wonders of Sew- ard County. And it was not a deception. Those wells here represented have proven, in the past, to be of inestimable worth to the localities where they exist, while there is a broad field for the future developement of their many possible ad- vantages to the county which are as yet untested and untried.
CHAPTER V.
The Soil of Seward County. Indigenous People, Wild Game, Fish and Pests. All Disappear Before Approaching Civilization.
The soil of Seward county is immensely rich and extends to such a depth as to appear inexhaustible. Dirt taken out from six to ten feet below the surface will produce any kind of vegetation that is climateable; that upon the bottom lands running to a greater debth than the up-land soil. A pecul- arity is noted in the fact that the last shovelfulls of dirt thrown out from a cellar or dugout seven or eight feet deep in vegetable growing weather; will shortly produce more weeds than can find standing room-the seed from which these weeds spring having been drifted into the earth, pos- sibly a half century ago.
If there is anything in the way of mineral in the earth of Seward county it has not yet been developed. However mineral water is said to exist in some of the springs at Mil- ford. In the days of earliest pioneer settlement an excite- ment was created by the circulation of a report by several citizens that an abundance of coal existed within easy reach of the people in the earth at or near Milford. And Josiah White, a near neighbor to the writer, declared in such em- phatic and positive language that he knew there was no mis- take about it and that the coal was there as stated, that we took his words, as we should a good and kind neighbor's for undefiled Gospel truth and did not miss an opportunity to tell others about the coal at Milford. But noticing the gen- eral incredulous smile that those to whom the matter was mentioned wore upon their faces, an investigating inquiry
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
was made, resulting in the disclosing of the fact that one Mr. Iler, a homesteader at Pleasant Dale, on Middle creek, in the eastern part of the county, a spiritual medium and an evangelist of that creed had been holding meetings and had converted Mr. White and several others, and about the first information the spirits of departed humanity conveyed to the faithful of Seward county was that there was coal to be had for merely the digging at the place named, and near the surface. In their eagerness to roll out a few car loads of the greately needed fuel, they went to work with shovels, picks, muscle and "elbow grease," which was unsparingly applied for several weeks and until some spirit, perhaps told them that the informing spirits were viewing the locality of Milford, Nebraska, from China, on the other side of the earth, when they discovered coal "near the surface." Now, whether this is a true supposition or not, they abandoned the work, but clung to the faith.
A few years farther along in the seventies the second fuel exitement sprang up in N precinct over the discovery of what was supposed to be peat, on the farm of Chris. Les- enby. And so positive was Mr. Lesenby that his peat- bog would boost a large city into existance that he squan- dered considerable of his wealth in laying out a city and building business houses that were never used. The state- ment of A. E. Sheldon in a letter to Cox's history that the name of this phantom city was "Pittsburg" and that he had mail delivered to him for his neighbors in the post office in that city, is undoutedly a hallucination of a boy's mind, as Mr. Lesenby named his city "Peatsburg, " and not "Pittsburg," and there was never any post office established there. And whether there was any peat there or not re- mains a matter of serious doubt. At least the city and the material from which it received its name have both passed into history as a delusion.
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
INDIANS, WILD GAME, FISH ETC.
While there was a time when Indians were the lords and kings on the prairies of Seward county, there never was any record of Indian hostility to white settlers within its borders. Strolling bands of the red beggars frequently passed through the county on begging expeditions until as late as 1876, but the government corralled them about that time and sent them to their reservations. In the early sixties Indians no doubt raised some hair of white women and children in the county, but it was hair that raised through fright. And in those days the redskins were not only beggars, but were thieves also, and the daily passage of white travelers, in armed bands of several hundred along the old freight route through the county, undoubtedly prevented them perform- ing acts of murder. They do not like civilization and when they cannot drive it out of a country they will shrink from it and disappear if there is possibe room to do so.
Wild game occupied a prominent place and was one of the great beneficient factors in the settlement of the whole "wild and wooly west." And Seward county had its share until about 1882. Buffalo was quite plentiful in the early sixties, and elk, deer, antelope, jack rabbits and prairie chickens were numerous all through the seventies in some localities.
The living streams of water in the county were stocked with fine native fish. Cat fish, bullheads, pike and sunfish or mountain bass. But like the Indians and the game, civil- ization aided by the state government with its deposite of rapid increasing and worthless German carp, have about driven the natives out of the streams. And as compensa- tion for this act of folly the state taxes every male person over 21 years of age one dollar for a season's license to sit on the bank of one of the streams and watch a cork dance over the rippling waves. Of course catching fish is not
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
considered in this game of "solitarie, " as a carp won't bite nor let a decent fish do so.
In addition to the wild Indian, wild game and native fish the ground was alive with native pests which remained un- til civilization become well settled when they disappeared in similar manner to the Indians and game. Rattle-snakes were so fearfully numerous as to be more dangerous than Indians, but they left the county about 1890 and it is not to be regretted in the least. Fleas were indigenous pests and torments. It was no uncommon thing to see a man stop on the highway and turn up his pants leg and his sock leg down and pick a flea. Our first homestead residence was a log mansion twelve feet square. It had one door and two win- dows, shingled with Nebraska shingles dug out of a clay- bank near by, and the floor and carpet were of the same kind of material. And when we got out of bed with our bare feet upon that dirt carpet the effect upon our nerves made by those little hoppers jumping upon them and wres- tling for the best places is indiscribable yet not forgotten. A flea's teeth are not more annoying many times than his back and a little bite will not make a fellow feel like swearing half so much as it does to have one crawl up on the inside of his clothing from the bottom to the top with his razor- back turned in while he is listening to a preacher telling what to do to be saved. But this was one of the conflicts of pioneer life in Nebraska, and while its reflections at this late date are unpleasant if not sad, the early passing away of the redskins, rattlers and fleas should fill the land with joy.
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CHAPTER VI.
From What Did the Great American Desert Gain its Name ?- Drouth, Dust or Sand Storms -- Rain and Snow Storms-Wind Storms.
The opinion formed by a few persons and accepted as correct by the general public that the whole vast area of territory, extending from the west shore of the Missouri river to the foot-hills of the Rocky mountains, was a baren desert, without doubt resulted from a mere glance at the great plains during an unfavorable period. There must be many residents of Seward county who can remember the desolate appearing outlines of the "Great American Desert" which marred the face of the maps in the school geographies fifty or sixty years ago. And the laws of the land and the powers that were in those days would not have permitted an author of school maps to outline and describe Seward county nor any other portion of that desert as the most productive land in the world. Had a child in school advanced such an idea he or she would have been summarily punished with the small end of a beech limb and declared too lazy to learn the lessons taught in the books. And here in Seward county today people are inclined by vast reasons to question the sanity of those who everlooked facts and placed a myth or deception before school children in regard to the country they lived in. But in looking up facts they reveal something of a reason for such errors. In those wild times when the buffalo, elk, deer and antelope had full sway, roaming at will over the prairie, they tramped and eat the grass, during the drouth seasons, until the ground in large tracts was as bare as a floor. Especially was this so on the up-lands bordering upon the Missouri river. And the land being of a
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
sandy nature with no timber and nothing to be seen but the bare and parched earth as far as the eye could reach, there was little else to be thought of but a desert. Again the ab- sence of moisture to keep the dust down together with the prevalent winds of that period resulted in almost constant sand storms or dust blizzards.
Although the tilling of the soil and the planting of mill- ions of trees by the settlers aided in drawing moisture, break- ing the winds and keeping the land more settled, those des- ert appearing sand storms were of frequent occurrence up to as late a date as 1880. Dust blizzards were similar to snow blizzards excepting that they followed a drouth or dry spell while a snow blizzard follows a wet season. They were in early times both of three days duration and seldom cut their stay one minute short of regulation time. The clouds of dust which were formed frequently had so much appearance of rain clouds that a person not acqainted with them would expect to see the rain pouring down in torrents in a few minutes. These phenomenal disturbances were many times augmented by the addition of lightening and heavy thunder. There has been many such storms in Seward county and many days when the air was so impregnated with fine, white sand that it was difficult to get a breath of air that was clear from dirt. And this latter condition seemed to have come from other localities as the sand would fall like dew, unac- companied by high wind.
In the spring of 1879, shortly after seeding time, the most disagreable and destructive dust blizzard ever witnessed by the earliest settlers, raged throughout Seward county for the usual period of three days and nights. It had been a very dry year. In fact there had been but little moisture for eight months, the earth being so baked and hard that there was but a small amount of fall plowing, as it was almost im- possible to keep a plow in the ground where it was baked
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
and in fields where it was not baked the soil was so dry and light that a plow as smooth as glass would only push the furrow over without turning it. It is said "there is no great loss without small gain," and in the fact that it had been too dry for weeds to grow, was its blessed reminder. But with the earth in this condition the wind came and the billowy clouds rolled from the earth to the sky, and the frequent flash of lightening and peal of thunder caused many hearts to beat with rapture over thoughts that it would rain; and it did rain, but not the kind that required the token of God's promise that the world should not be destroyed again by
water. And it entered the houses regardless of the tightest walls. Wherever the air went the black dirt accompanied it, blanketing beds and tables and carpeting the floors. The soil was swept from plowed fields as with a broom to the depth of the plowing, and drifted into ridges in hedges and in the high dead grass at the sides of roads similar to snow drifts, many of the drifts of dirt being visible at the present time. The misfortune caused by this storm consisted not only in the seed grain which was swept entirely from the fields, but the labor of sowing together with the lost time, or backset to crops which were re-sowen, in all not easy to estimate. Fortunately there has been a gradual receding from those desert conditions until there has been only a few small reminders of them in the past thirty-four years.
While Nebraska is a dry state it is frequently visited by unparaleled downpores of rain, turning the draws into rage- ing torrents and swelling the rivers until their valleys resem- ble lakes. While Seward county is like a duck's back and surplus water soon runs off, those precipitations of moisture are generally followed by continued drouths. Snow storms of any great magnitude have occurred only occasionally, and each one can readily be recalled to mind by most any of the earlier settlers. W. W. Cox, in his history, gives an ac-
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
count of a disasterous snow storm in the winter of 1864-65, but it appears that the thawing off of the snow accompanied by a forty-eight hour downpour of rain was the greatest cause of misfortune to a few families who had settled upon the river bottom land. But the winter of 1866-67 seems to have been the crowning period for snow storms of which Mr. Cox says: "Of all the hard winters we have experienced in forty-five years of residence in Nebraska, that was by far the most severe. It began to snow on the first day of Decem- ber, and from that time to the first of April it was a succes- sion of storm after storm, and many of them was regular blizzards of the most ferocious character. The snow be- came very deep and was drifted into such huge drifts that communication was entirely cut off between distant settle- ments." It is evident that the little settlements at that time were sorely distressed for the want of food and fuel, and al- so for feed for stock, being almost reduced to a point of starvation. Their scanty supplies had run out almost be- fore there was an opening through the great banks of snow by which they might replenish their stocks, and then the floods following the sudden melting of the snow cut them off from relief for several days. This was, of course, a condi- tion incident to earliest pioneer life in Seward county.
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