USA > Nebraska > Seward County > General history of Seward County, Nebraska > Part 3
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The spring of 1873 was very pleasant and people had made gardens and prospects were so fine for early summer that the ordinary straw stables for stock had been neglected and permitted to become open, the sides having been blown away by the wind, and in fact all precaution and care for the protection of man and beast from the cold blasts of a winter storm had been forgotten. It commenced raining on the tenth of April, the wind blowing gently from the south- east, the rain and wind continuing until the night of the twelveth, the clouds thickening at times would be accom- panied by lightening and thunder. We were living in our
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
twelve foot, pioneer residence with two windows. On that memorable night of the twelfth of April we were awakened by an unusual roaring of the wind and glancing at the win- dows thought the moon was shining, but soon recalled the fact that there was no moon. We got up and opened the door and were a'most instantly made aware of the source from which the disturbance and the light in the windows came. The wind had veered to the north-west and seemed to have the force of a cyclone while the air was so full of snow as to produce an appearance of moonlight. In fact the most terrifying blizzard we had ever witnessed was be- fore our drowsy eyes in all the horrors that could be depict- ed. We did not tarry long to view the panarama as the ruling elements seemed to dictate that we retire and shut the door. This blizzard continued for three days and nights without abatement for an instant and the doleful tones that were ever present in the ears were not relieved when in the refreshing embrace of slumber. And there was scarcely a minute during the seventy-two hours that an object of any dimension could be discerned ten steps distant, and two minutes exposure to the full force of the storm would cause vacant places in a person's clothing to fill up with the cele- brated but not appreciated "beautiful snow." While several of our neighbors saved their cows, horses and mules by tak- ing them into their houses we saved three out of four small hogs and about thirty hens by dividing our twelve foot space with them. We did not bring these animals in until the second day and one of the hogs died in fifteen minutes after being brought where it was warm. Charles Emerson, liv- ing in a sod house on a hill in L precinct, had his horses in a dugout stable at the foot of the hill, perhaps six or eight rods from the house, and the storm was so severe and blind- ing that he did not venture to go and attend to them dur- ing the three days, and after the storm had passed by his
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
heart almost failed him when he opened the half closed door of the stable and found it packed full of snow and not the least sign that his faithful horses were alive. He secured a shovel and after digging a while came upon the horses both standing up, the snow having filled in around them so close that they could not lie down, the warmth from their bodies melting the snow sufficiently to give them breathing room, and both were alive. This storm raged during the 13th, 14th, and 15th of April, the latter being Easter Sunday, and would justly pass to history as the greatest Easter storm on record.
The winter of 1879 and 80 was a record breaker for snow, and the first and only winter when runners superseded wheels on all conveyances in Seward county. That winter sledding came to stay and during three months it was al- most out of style, and impossible to run wheel vechicles. The foundation of this continued sledding came about the middle of Decmber in the way of several inches of snow up- on which there was a heavy fall of sleet, forming an unus- ually stiff crust, and upon this crust there came a heavy fall of snow. This stormy condition lasted about ten days, and although there was a little too much of it for the many that had corn to gather, no one thought much about it, as snow never remained on the ground long in Nebraska. But there came an unlooked for change on the night of December 23d the wind raising to a force of about sixty miles an hour, swept the loose snow on top of the crust into drifts ten and ffteen feet deep at the south and east sides of buildings, hedg- es and in draws and low places in roads; corn fields were full almost to the top of the stalks, and these great banks were pounded and packed so hard by the force of the wind that horses and cattle could travel over them and not break the crust. And while the drifts would bear the hoofs of those animals they would not bear the wheels of wagons.
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
While these conditions cut the farming community off for a time from their source of supplies and mail, there was but little if any suffering for want of real necessities. Our house was short on bread stuff, but we had a good coffee mill and an abundance of wheat and corn and got along fine. The greatest suffering in our neighborhood was due to the fact that nearly every man used tobacco and all had been stretching their plugs to make them reach to the end of corn picking time and were out when the roads became blockaded. And if there ever is a time when a man who uses tobacco can't get along without the stuff it is when he is snowed in.
On the 12th of January, 1888 occurred the fatal bliz- zard that caused so much suffering among children having caught them at the hour of going home from school. The wind was mild from the south-east all forenoon, and until ubout three o'clock in the afternoon. The snow fell very fast all day, being in large flakes and light. Between three and four o'clock the avalanche of snow driven by a terriffic wind from the north-west, poured in upon every exposed quarter with blinding fury. The snow came so thick as to be impenetrable to vision, and many children became blind- ed, bewildered and lost, wandering for hours in the extreme cold. However the storm abated about sun down and the sky became clear. Had it continued the usual time of three days the prairies of Seward county might have been strewn with the dead bodies of children and the story too horrible to tell. As it was a few lost their lives throughtout the state resulting from exposure to the cold, and a few having their limbs frozen were rendered cripples.
And this sums up the severe snow epochs covering a peri- od of fifty years in Seward county, and the severity of those storms was due as much to the unprepared conditions of the country as to the storms. The great Easter blizzard of 1873 was disagreable in the extreme, but had the settlers been
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
prepared with comfortable quarters for their stock it would have carried a much less formidable aspect. The first, sec- ond and third storms mentioned would seem like small affairs in New York, Pennsylvania or Ohio. The last one men- tioned as "the fatal blizzard" of ISS8, was severe, but of short duration and had it occurred at an earlier hour in the day, or when school children were safe at home, it would have soon been forgotten. And we venture the assertion that there is scarcely a section of country in any of the snow zones of the world the size of Seward county that can com- pare with it for mildness in the matter of snow storms during the fifty-two years mentioned. We are not saying that it does not snow every winter in Nebraska, but storms of any great magnitude and worthy of note have occurred on an average of about one in ten years. Snow seldom amounts to even fair sleighing in Nebraska, and has been known to remain as such over three days at a time only once in sixty years. In the winter of 1879 and 1880 there was sleighing from Christmas till the middle of March and the many sleds and runners to take the place of wheels on wagons and bug- gies that were made during that time have become rusty, rotten and covered with moss from lack of usage.
That Seward county is located in a windy state cannot be gainsaid, and until recent years, wind blowing at a rate of forty to fifty miles an hour was only a gentle breeze, and some times it came with force enough to shake the foun- dation of a sod house. But there has perhaps been as little damage and inconvenience from that source in the county as many other sections of the world. And its disasterous wind storms cannot be attributed to the prevailing tendency of the element. They would undoubtedly have occurred in the balmy precincts of Switzerland had the storm conditions been the same in that realm. However the storms are limit- ed to such small numbers that had it not been for the fatal
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
tornado of May 14th, 1913, there would be but little of oc- currence in that line worthy of mention since the earliest settlements. In June, 1875, a wind storm of violent force swept the entire county, coming from the north-west, doing considerable damage to buildings although there was no loss of life. This was a straight wind and might properly be called a cyclone. Living on the prairie where the ap- proaching storm in all of its horrible features could be viewed for many miles, while its appearance was fearful to look up- on, it was as grand a picture of the living but distructive ele- ment as could be produced. A great, black cloud seemed to be rolling along upon the ground while it reached up to
the sky. The fastenings upon our door were not very strong therefore we took the precaution to hold it shut which proved to be a task requiring our entire strength. The main force of the wind lasted but a few minutes, during which time the room was filled so full of black dirt that we could not see any one of the family nor even the windows in the walls. A similar storm occurred in September, 1876, com- ing in the middle of the night with a violent thunder storm. Hay stacks, grain stacks, wind mills and small out buildings were blown down, wracked or damaged in numerous sec- tions of the county. Extending over a period from this date to May 14th, 1913, there were but a few minor disturbances by unusual winds. The tornado of the date just mentioned placed a dark blot upon the pages of the county's history, always to be read with deep sorrow and sadness. The storm came from the south-west, entering the county three or four miles north of its south-west corner and passing north-east through the entire county, destroying farm resi- dences, barns and everything in its path. It struck the west portion of the city of Seward, passing through it, leav- ing death and desolation in its wake, the dead numbering eight residents of the little city, as follows: Mrs. Edward
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
Edmonds, aged 63 years; Mrs. Wm. Hassinger, aged 73 years; Gustav Schulz, 32 years, and daughter Elma, 3 years and 10 months; Samuel Crim, 43 years; Mrs. David Imlay, 63 years; Mrs. C. L. Wasserman, 34 years; and Mrs. David Hoover, 58 years. This sad occurrence fell heavily upon the sympathetic spirit of the city of Seward, its citizens being almost prostrated with grief for many days, in which the entire county joined their sympathies. There were no fatalities out side the city of Seward, due to the course of the storm which passed through the fields on an angle thus avoiding contact to a great extent with dwelling houses. Again people residing in the country districts had an oppor- tunity to see the approaching storm and secure a place of safty.
The property loss in the county from this storm is believ- ed to be conservatively estimated at $ 100, 000.
The relief fund raised for the benefit of the Seward suf- ferers amounted to $9,451.35. All but $1,473.30 of this fund was contributed by Seward county citizens, outside contributions not being solicited, but accepted when sent. The relief committee appointed to disburse the relief fund consisted of Hon. Wm. H. Smith, Wm. Rosborough and W. Q. Dickinson.
CHAPTER VII.
The First Settlement a Result of the Civil War. The Ranchers-John E. Fouse, Daniel Millspaw, William J. Thompson and Roland Reed.
BEAVER CROSSING'S FIRST SETTLER.
Early in the summer of 1862, John Leonard passed over the freight route from Nebraska City with a wagon loaded with freight and drawn by two yoke of oxen, bound for the distant west. After leaving the freight at its destined place John made his way back over the plains, reaching Beaver Creek in the evening he camped for the night. It
will be remembered that at this time the great civil war was the main topic of the day, excitement and fear running high and causing a greater extent of anxiety than at any later period during that terrible conflict. This matter being well embedded in young Leonard's mind it needed but little re- freshing, and shortly after going into camp, parties from the east arrived to share his lodging place. During the course of conversation they told Mr. Leonard that the United States government was drafting men back in the states for the army. John's sleep was some-what disturbed and in his wakeful hours that night he thought the matter over and came to the conculsion that the place where he was then spending the night was good enough for him, and he would stay there, and there he remained, his nearest neighbor be- ing the West families, twelve miles east on the West Blue river. Some time after his settlement his cattle strayed away and in his search for them he became lost and after wandering for several hours he fortunately came upon some settlers on Lincoln creek north-west of the present location of the city of Seward where he received refreshments and
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
the proper directions for returning home where he arrived in due time, finding that his cattle were there waiting for him. In this trip he made a discovery of the second bound- ary of his vast neighborhood, the extension being from twelve miles east to eighteen north-east and not a living soul be- tween them excepting himself. The matter of a young man preferring a life apart from civilized humanity, among wild Indians, ravenous wild beasts and reptiles, to shouldering a musket and keeping step with comrades in defense of his country, illustrates the awful war signs of that time and the fearful view people took of them. But John Leonard made the best of his situation and by industry and enterprise in deals with the freighters and early settlers he accumulated quite a fortune. He built a ranch which he afterwards sold to Amos Reed, and which was occupied by the latter's brother, Roland Reed. Mr. Leonard informed us that he put up about one hundred tons of prairie hay the second year after he settled on Beaver creek, selling it at large prices to people traveling across the plains who bought it in small quantities, paying as high as one dollar for one feed.
John E. Fouse was the next settler at Beaver Crossing, coming in the fall of 1863, or a little more than one year later than Leonard's settlement. He built a ranch, or more
properly, a wild west tavern. It was made of logs, the doors being double-one swinging in while a heavy plank door swung out. The windows were protected also by heavy plank door shutters, all arranged to be instantly clos- ed. It was covered with the ordinary covering, poles, hay and dirt. From three to five heavy timbers were usually placed lengthwise of the building, one in the center and the others at equal distances between the center or ridge pole and the side wall of the building. Upon these timbers small poles would be placed close together and on the poles a thick covering of hay or straw would be made and all cover-
The above is a picture of a high toned ranch, built by John Leonard in 1864 who undoubtedly hewed the logs and possibly made the shingles, as it was unusual in that day to see a roof shingled with anything but clay. It was later bought with a tract of land by Amos Reed, and was conducted as a freighters ranch by Roland Reed from 1866 to 1869. It was Uncle Sam's first postoffice in Beaver Crossing and stood about half a mile east of the original Beaver Crossing, Roland Reed being the postmaster. Although it was that gentleman's home for three years it did not occupy any portion of his homestead. The Roland Reed family appear in the picture. From right to left. Mrs. Reed, Rolland, Eva, John in door, Alice, Charles, J G. Anderson, Horatio, Will.
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
ed with from one foot to two feet of clay. And it might as well be said right here that this kind of roofs made the set- tlement of the west possible. Had the settlers been obliged to procure shingles to cover their temporary dwellings of sod the settlement of the prairies would have been many years behind the times. The covering was not handsome and sometimes a pioneer would crack a tooth on one of the shingles that had accidently slipped through the hay and dropped into his johnney-cake, but it was the best in the market and made a warm roof. Its greatest fault was oc- casionally manifest when there was a continued rain for a few days when it would commence to leak and continue sev-
eral days after it had quit raining. And Fouse's ranch was covered with an extra heavy roof of this kind. The struct- ure was located on the soth-west side of Beaver creek, about six or eight rods from the bank which was quite high at that point. There was a cellar made under it, and from the cel- lar a secret underground passageway was dug leading to the creek, permitting the inmates to escape from the building unnoticed. These precautions were undoubtedly taken as means of safety from Indians, whatever they may have been afterwards used for.
Shortly after Fouse's settlement Daniel Millspaw arrived and errected a ranch four and a half miles south east of Mr. Fouse's and about three miles south-east of the Leonard ranch, the former being on ground now occupied by the western portion of the city of Beaver Crossing.
Mr. Millspaw was soon followed by Wm. J. Thompson a former settler of Otoe county, who raised his tent in the way of a half dugout and half logs at the Walnut creek cross- ing, four miles east of the Millspaw ranch, at the junction of the steam wagon road and the freight route.
Roland Reed, the last one of the ranchers to arrive on the scene, did not leave the old native state of New York
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
until after the close of the civil war, in the spring of 1866, when he took possession of the ranch built by John Leonard which he conducted until the end of that kind of ranch busi- ness.
The ranch mentioned by Cox in his history as that of Dan Millspaw, located in York county and conducted by that gentleman in 1862 while he was conducting one in Sew- ard county was, without doubt a ranch belonging to and managed by Jack McClellan, a son-in-law of Millspaw's. Mr. Cox mentions an incident which occurred in this dug- out ranch while Dan Millspaw was cooking his supper when a dare devil jumped down the chimney into the fire-place scaring Millspaw. It is a very nice story, but any one well acquainted with Uncle Dan, as Mr. Cox calls him, would brand it as an untruth because Uncle Dan would starve be- fore he would cook or do any other kind of work. And be- sides all of this he had an excellent wife who was an excell- ent cook. But the whole story is absurd as Millspaw never lived in York county and his ranch was a double log house in Seward county.
While we have mentioned the ranchers as early settlers they were not such in the full sense of the term. They did not locate particularly to take land and make homes in the new country, but more to speculate in trade with the traveling public. Their mission was to feed the hungry and lodge the weary, and in return expected and received enormous prices and profits. Had it not been for this consideration, with the exception of John Leonard and Roland Reed, none of them would have been known as "first or early settlers." John Leonard's object in settling, as was told by himself to the writer, has been mentioned, and could not be considered as a sufficient reason to hold him as a perminent settler. His attention was entirely turned to speculation in deals with emigrants and freighters and it was not until late in the six-
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
ties that he pretended to make a home upon Uncle Sam's domain. The gift of one hundred and sixty acres of as fine valley land as there was in Nebraska, with abundance of timber, made to him by his brother Amos, together with the homestead privelege was sufficient to induce Roland Reed to settle in Seward county regardless of the consideration named, yet he took advantage of the ranch opportunity as the only one open at that time to make a living for himself and family, which was natural and almost unavoidable. J. E. Fouse, Dan. Milispaw and W. J. Thompson were Seward county settlers for no other purpose than ranch keeping and paid but little if any attention to home selections or home building. They all prospered in their chosen line until the last spike was driven that joined the Atlantic and Pacific by iron rails, cutting off the freight traffic by wagon and the overland travel along the historical routes, thus robbing the ranchers of their patronage. The result of this was that they all turned their enterprising attention to securing homes and bennefiting by the grand opportunities which were then within their reach and all came to the front as model pioneer farmers. All of these land marks except John Leon- ard have long since passed to their final rest.
CHAPTER VIII.
Agriculture in Pioneer Days. Hazardous Experiments Improve Produc- tions of Grain and Vegetables. Disadvantageous Early Markets.
The matter of agriculture and the markets in pioneer days in Seward county could scarcely be depicted more ac- curately than is illustrated in R. G. Ingersoll's portray of when he was a farmer. Mr. Ingersoll was not a Seward county homesteader and knew nothing of the trials of pioneer farm life in Nebraska, but his story is a true representation of the way things were done in those days of long ago. Here it is --- old homesteader --- read it and see if there is any- thing left out :
"When I was a farmer they used to haul wheat two hun- dred miles in a wagon and sell it for thirty-five cents a bush- el. They would bring home about three hundred feet of lumber, two bunches of shingles, a barrel of salt, and a cook stove that never would draw and never did bake.
"In those blessed days the people lived on corn and ba- con. Cooking was an unknown art. Eating was a neces- sity, not a pleasure. It was hard work for the cook to keep on good terms even with hunger.
"The rain held the roofs in percfet contempt, and the snow drifted joyfully on the floors and beds. They had no barns. The horses were kept in rail pens surrounded with straw. Long before spring the sides would be eaten away and nothing but roofs would be left. Food is fuel. When the cattle were exposed to all the blasts of winter, it took all the corn and oats that could be stuffed into them to prevent actual starvation.
"Women were supposed to know the art of making fires without fuel. The wood-pile consisted, as a general thing,
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
of one log, upon which an axe or two had been worn out in vain. There was nothing to kindle a fire with. Pickets were pulled from the garden fence, clap-boards taken from the house, and every stray plank was seized upon for kind- ling. Everything was done in the hardest way. Every- thing about the farm was disagreable. Nothing was kept in order. Nothing was preserved. The wagons stood in the sun and rain, and the plows rusted in the fields. There was no leisure, no feeling that the work was done. It was all labor and weariness and vexation of spirit. The crops were destroyed by wandering herds, or they were put in too late, or too early, or they were blown down, or caught by the frost, or devoured by the bugs, or stung by flies, or eat- en by worms, or carried away by birds, or dug up by goph- ers, or washed away by floods, or dried up by the sun, or rotted in the stack, or heated in the crib, or they all run to vines, or tops, or straw, or cobs. And when in spite of all these accidents that lie in wait between the plow and the reaper, they did succeed in raiseng a good crop and a high price was offered, then the roads would be impassable. And when the roads got good, then the prices went down. Ev- erything worked together for evil."
This is only one side of an exagerated picture of facts. While it is true that plows, wagons, reapers and other farm empliments stood out in all kinds of weather the year round throughuot Seward county it is also true that they were in- dispensible ar icles for which it was impossible to provide covering. Fuel supply was a besetting and difficult problem that required years to solve. However Seward county was fortunate in the line of timber along its many miles of streams well distributed in different localities. But the story about living on "corn and bacon" is carrying that point altogether too far for Seward county pioneers. To tell the unadulter- ated truth we leave out the bacon. Had the old settlers been
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