USA > Nebraska > Seward County > General history of Seward County, Nebraska > Part 7
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The pioneer bridges in the vicinity of Beaver Crossing were similar in construction to J. L. Davison's bridge at Milford with the exception that they were generally made in one season and washed out the next, being the main damage the community sustaind by annual high waters. During the high water seasons citizens residing south of the river exper- ienced much difficulty in crossing the river for mail and other
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
necessaries at the stores in the village. One season about 1872 or 73, there was a continued high water for several weeks and some enterprising genius substituted a wagon box for a ferry boat. This ferry became quite popular and oc- casionally transferred young ladies form one side or the other to attend dances and other entertainments. Two young ladies were being transferred on one of those pleasure trips by a young gentleman and when the craft got about to mid-stream one of the la lies lost her balance and fell over- board. She could not swim an 1 as she was pretty solid in make-up the young man had extreme difficulty, requiring all of his strength an I endurance to rescue her. But strange as it may seem the hero did not marry the girl and it is doubt- ful if she ever crossed the ferry with him again, but she is still a resident of Beaver Crossing.
One of the prominent and familiar objects that is cer- tainly imbeded in the memory of all early settlers of the vicinity of Beaver Crossing is the form of T. H. Tisdale in his accustomed appearance mounted upon a dry-goods box or other elevation upon the arrival of the mails, with his hands full of letters and a crowd of anxious settlers surround- ing him on all sides and silently waiting while he calls the name of the one each missive is addressd to and at the reply "here," tossing it into the audience in the direction from which the response came. At first this was a weekly at- traction, then a tri-weekly and a little later on one of daily occurance. The mail route to Beaver Crossing was from Lincoln and was served weekly until after the arrival of the rail road at Seward in 1873 when it was changed and deliv- ered from Seward three times a week for a time and in due course of time was increased to a daily. Where Mr. Tisdale got his novel mode of delivering the mail we have never been able to learn, but it certainly had some commendable feat- ures. It was convenient and with the limited room in all
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
business buildings of that date the modern way of delivering mail to a crowd of anxions patrons was a difficult matter. It had one advantage, at least, of the later manner of dis- tribution in country postoffices --- the quiet which should pre- vail around the office during the distribution of mails was not disturbed by hoodlums or (?) ladies-everybody attended to their own business and listened to hear their name called.
Marysville in C precinct was a pioneer town early in the seventies with an excellent grist mill built by Luke Auger in 1870. Also a store, postoffice, school and church. A Luth- eran church was established here early, making it a popular place for members of that denomination to gather with their families.
The first and only exclusive saw mill and the only mill to run by steam in Seward county was built at Oak Groves in 1868 by Kirkham & Hughes. This was in H precinct, there being within the precinct an abundance of oak and other excellent saw timber which was an inspiration to the projectors of the saw mill enterprise. In addition to its fine timber supply, Oak Groves were noted for superior lime stone. from which lime was made and sold in different local- ities of the county and state.
Gormantown, in H precinct, on the line of railway from Lincoln to Seward was surveyed and platted into village lots in 1874 by Hiland Fraisure. F. Bick was the first store keeper but was shortly followed by Charles Howland as a mercantile competitor. Its school and postoffice were early establishments. The early postmasters were John Wester- hoff, Benjamin Walker, Charles Fetterman, Charles Hans and L. S. Callahan. An early grain market was opened which was followed by the errection of two elevators.
Utica, in E precinct, fourteen miles west of Seward on the B. & M. rail road is the last village or town in the county that might be termed a pioneer town. It was founded in
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1877 upon the completion of the railroad to the place. The business and future prosperity of the town seemed settled upon advanced lines from its first introduction to the public. The town was laid out by Hon. Geo. A. Derby upon a part of his homestead. Geo. Liggett was an early grain buyer and Oscar Ragan helped this business in the new town. T. E. Stanard was the first postmaster and Joseph Jones open- ed the first store in 1877. Following closely upon the intro- duction of these business enterprises George Goodbrod built a hotel, Fritz Beckard started a lumber yard, Goehner & Wilkens established the second store and C. C. Turner built a blacksmith shop.
THE SEWARD COUNTY HIGHWAYS.
The established roads of the pioneer era were "high" all- most any way the greater number cared to travel. And to stop, or turn that travel to other lines was somewhat like stopping or turning the course of a tornado. Roads on sec- tion lines or straight in any direction were problems to be considered upon the fundamental basis of whether that was the best road or not. Of course the practice of selecting the most choice routes for roads insured as good roads as the country could afford. And it would have been about as dif- ficult to convince a settler that highways would be forced to run on section lines in the near future as it would to convince a wild Indian that the world is round. It didn't appear to be to the interest of any one in those days, to discontinue the short cuts across sections to town, especially when the cross cuts were the best roads. We made a drive from Beaver Crossing to Fairmont in 1873. After we had travel- ed, as we supposed, so far that the town we were looking for ought to be in sight, we met a gentleman near the corner of a section and asked him if he could tell us the road to Fair- mont. He said he thought he could and pointing to the sec-
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 81
tion corner said: "You angle cater cornering across that section and then go west a quarter of a mile and angle cater cornering across the section south-west," and this "angling cater cornering" was the continued instruction until he had us angling about twenty sections. And before we got to our journey's end we concluded he was about right. We have seen teams plowing in fields and trains of loaded wagons "angling cater cornering" right through the plowed ground, and no change could be made for growing crops or blasts of winter. If a farmer had the temerity to place an obstruction in the track to turn the travel in some other direc- tion the teamsters would either get off of their wagons and throw it out of the way or drive around it. While this may seem to be a lawless procedure, in reality it was right. In the wild state of the country when the first settlements were made there was no established system of highways and they become established by general usage. People traveled long distances to mill and to market and were many times in strange localities and to be forced to leave the established road bed and hunt a new way was very discouraging and unjust. Many times in trying to pass around a plowed field the route would prove to be impassable. In those days of "pioneer highways" there was no such thing as road funds, road tax nor work on the roads, but there were no bad roads.
"God made the forets," God made the plains and pioneer roads.
"Man made the towns," and Man made the pioneer bridges.
The pioneer storekeepers are worthy of more than a pass- ing notice. Their stores were all, as W. W. Cox invariably calls each one, "a little store," but little as they were, their mission for wide spread good to the early settlers was as large and boundless as the prairies upon which their enter- prising hands had placed them. They formed one of the strongest links in the chain that connects the settlements of the savage wilds of Seward county with their modern civiliza-
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
tion. No department store of the present day so unselfishly supplies the general needs of the public as did those "little stores" in the almost disparing dark days of pioneer life. They were large enough to supply the needs of their patrons and many times supplied more needs than those patrons had sufficient means to pay for. We have just one of those ben- efactors to the needy homes of Seward county to consider and firmly believe that the one represents the others. Thos. H. Tisdale was never known to turn a customer away empty handed of needed goods regardless of inability to pay. He helped any and all who needed his help and it is to be re- gretted that he so many times suffered loss as a reward for his kindness that he was crowded to the limit of his resour- ces to keep the wolf of dispare and distruction from closing the door of his business. This partially apparent failure was not on account of lack of business ability. Mr. Tisdale was the ablest business man Beaver Crossing ever had and by his wise and careful management extricated himself and bus- ness from the troubles brought upon him by his kind hearted treatment of others with a clean record and good credit. He did more to aid the early settlement in his locality than all others combined and while he reaped a very small reward in this world it is to be sincerly hoped that he has reaped the full measure in that eternal world to which he passed July 7th, 1888. There were no class of men in pioneer times more deserving of kind and thankful rememberance than the early store keepers, now all gone to their final rest.
CHAPTER XIV.
PIONEER SCHOOLS OF SEWARD COUNTY.
The settlements of Seward county during the sixties were scarcely condensed enough to form school districts or build school houses. However, regardless of this condition the prevalent desire of the settlers to have their different locali- ties placed upon a firm foundation for the expansion and growth of knowledge through the channels of public educa- tion seemed to have been bred and born in the mind of every individual homeseeker. In fact the school appeared to be an indispensible part of the home necessities. And we find efforts were put fourth for the forming of school districts and the construction of school houses as early as 1865, and the success gained in the establishment of a school at Camden and at West's Mills that year mark the beginning of Seward county schools. And the establishment of these two first schools also mark the advanced settlement in the foremost localities along the great western highway, the "old freight route." In the great rush of immigration from 1866 to 1872 schools and school houses sprang into existance in every precinct in the county. The greater number of these attain- ments were not gained through acts of state legislatures nor by the aid of public school funds, but through the determind will of an enterprising and public spirited class of citizens. They did not wait for the decrees of government to furnish funds to build school houses, but applied their muscle and ingenuity to the task of erecting their own places of learning and following this with subscription funds to pay teachers. The school houses were rude and homely, but they bore all the assuring signs of the times, pointing onward to the com-
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
ing advancement in the future. "Where there is a will there is a way," and the will and the way were both put into effec- tive practice in school matters in those early days. In view of these facts official records of the amount of money paid, either by the state or county for school purposes, furnish but a very small amount of information of the true condition along this important line of western civilization. The first appropriations were not fully supporting for the small num- ber of schools then in the county and the public funds could not increase in proportion to the increase in the number of schools. The developement in the school system in the county was so rapid that twenty-six organized schools were officially reported in 1870, while several others had been established and not officially organized sufficient to draw any support from the public school funds.
As near as we have been able to learn, the first school in the county was, as previously stated, held at Camden in a frame school house in 1865 and was taught by Thomas Graham. It has been stated, however, that Miss Agnes Baily, (afterwards Mrs. Corneilus West) taught a term of school near West's Mills in 1863, but this was perhaps a pri- vate family school as there is no definite knowldge of any public school organization at that early date. Again there is a question of doubt about the priority in the schools as Miss Englehaupt has the record of having taught the West Mills school in the winter of 1865-66, this leaving but one chance for the Camden school to be recorded first-that it may have been a summer term. In those times a school term was supposed to be three months.
In 1866 the little settlement just north of where Seward is located, consisting of thirteen families had mutually deter- mined that they needed a school and a meeting was called late in the summer to make necessary provisions for its es- tablishment, and as W. W. Cox was one of the principal
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
charactures in this enterprise we will let him tell the story of that pioneer school meeting and its results. "We met on the prairie near Mrs. Spears' present home. We had no school officers, no school fund, no money and no credit. We voted no bonds, but we voted a school house. We tax- ed ourselves each four round logs to be delivered on the ground. Lewis Moffit taxed himself one acre of ground, . worth one dollar and a quarter, and we taxed ourselves with the necessary labor to construct the edifice. We searched our primises to find a few 8x10 window glass and a few rough boards to construct a door and a few benches. We made wooden hinges to hang the door. We used the virgin prairie sod for a floor. We cut willows along the river to cover the structure, then we plowed sod with which to shingle it, and soon rejoiced that we had a place to send our child- ren to school, and that we had a meeting house, a court house and an election booth all our own and not a cent in debt." It is understood that this was Seward's first school house and W. W. Cox was the first teacher.
Another small school house was built upon the present school grounds at Seward in 1870 and H. M. Coleman was the first teacher. The city's first high school building was an artistic brick structure built in 1874.
The first term of school in Milford was taught in a small school house by Geo. B. France in the earliest days of the village's settlement. With the rapid increase of inhabitants the school soon outgrew its house and one of the church buildings was used for school purposes, and the school was advanced to two grades, Mr. France being the principal and Miss Courtright his assistant. At this time Milford had the largest school attendance of any school in the county.
A log school house was built at Oak Groves in 1867 and the first term was taught in it by Miss Sarah A. Scott in the same year. A sod school house was built on the south-east
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
corner of section 32 in B precinct in the fall of 1869. It was the first school house in the precinct and was built upon the donation system, each resident of the locality donating his share of the labor in breaking, hauling and laying the sod. And the door, windows and covering for the building were picked up wherever they could be found in the neighborhood and it required a general search of premises to find them. Seats and desks were furnished by the patrons of the school as their needs required. F. M. Timblin taught the first term of this school and his salary was raised by subscription.
The first term of school in F precinct was taught in a cabin in 1868, but a school house was soon after built which became known as "the Slonecker school house."
The first school house in H precinct was built in 1869 on section 28 and Thomas Cowen was the first teacher. A second sod school house was built in this precinct in district No. 32 in 1872 and Miss Kate Miller taught its first term of school. A school house known as the "Hi Brisbin sod school house," was built in N precinct in 1870. The first term of school in this precinct was taught by Mrs. P. J. Goodrich. A sod school house was built in E precinct in 1870 and Miss Clara Derby taught the first term in it.
A sod school house was built in the John W. McCaulley district, one mile south-west of the present location of Beaver Crossing in M precinct in 1870. Several terms of school were taught in this house and it was also used for a justice's court house and town hall. We were in attendance at one legal trial there in 1871 which was held at night, con- mencing in the evening and continuing till about one o'clock the next morning. Justice J. W. McCaulley presided. D. C. McKillip was the prosecuting attorney and Wm. Wilson conducted the defense. Hot shot was exchanged by those two pioneer attorneys so incessantly that all thoughts of the fleeting time were laid away in the back-ground and the
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
session of that court became as interesting as an old time camp meeting.
A sod school house was built in the village of Beaver Crossing in the fall of 1871 which served for school. church, lodge room, elections, political caucuses and all public meet- ings until the completion of the frame school house in 1874. The district of Beaver Crossing raised the necessary funds to build this new house by a unanimous vote of bonds. The building was completed ready for the seats and desks just before the 4th of July and T. H. Tisdale being the school director and manager of the construction of the edifice, gave an Independance Day ball in the new school house to raise money to buy a school bell. The dance was a success and the bell which was bought with the proceeds has rang over forty years for school and is still serving that purpose. For several years following the placing of this bell, as the first of its kind in Seward county, it rang for church as well as for school in as clear tones as if it had beeu purchased from the funds of church donations. It is a fine bell and should last until the end of time.
A sod school house was built on the south-east corner of the south-west quarter of section twenty-two, on Norman Casler's homestead in L precinct, known as the "T. J. Fos- ter school house," in 1871. It was used for school, elections, politieal caucuses, church and other public meetings for a number of years when it was replaced by a frame which was built on Minyard Foster's homestead half a mile farther east. A second sod school house was built in the north part of L precinct in 1872 which was used for two or three years when it was replaced by a frame. , This house served but a short time when it was destroyed by a prairie fire. The school was then returned to a sod house where it was taught until the completion of the second frame.
A sod school house was built in K precinct in 1871, and
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
was known as "Mound Prairie school house." It was used for school, town hall, church, elections and other public meetings until as late as 1881.
Upon the opening of the Beaver Crossing school the Mc- Caulley school was consolidated with it and the old sod school house in that district went to decay.
This sums up the earliest of the pioneer schools which were mere outlines of the system which followed in due time. School districts were formed in all precincts in rapid success- ion and houses of pioneer architecture were constructed for their accomodation. They were of sod, logs aud dug- outs, all of which have disappeared from view.
While the foregoing list of the pioneer schools of Seward county is incomplete it is perhaps sufficient to display the dominant spirit of those early settlers in the time of their difficult trials in making homes. The number of school houses in the county in 1870 has been unofficially estimated at twenty. Six reported as frame, four logs, seven sod and three dugouts. The number of school children in the begin- ning of 1870 has been reported at 782, and in April 1871 there had been an increase of 465 making a total of 1, 247 children of school age in the county.
A Seward County Thrashing Sreur.
Dathing in the Hirnir Dark at Braver Crossing. This Pond is Supplied with Water From a Flowing Well.
CHAPTER XV.
Ordinary Customs, Habits, Dress and Foods of The Pioneer Citizens of Seward County, Nebraska.
It seems difficult to picture in words the customs and general characterstics of the early settlers in the west. A Wagoner or a Mozart might picture themes in song and classic music with greater vividness. It is a well established and understood fact that settlers upon any portion of the western plains were all traveling towards the one and same objective point in the same sphere and were therefore united in interests as brothers, well as neighbors, in the present and future enjoyment and wellfare of each other. And with very few exceptions the customs and habits became estab- lished along certain lines almost in advance of settlement. All being poor with limited comforts and no luxuries a social sameness prevaled which might be thought providential in transforming pioneer lonelyness to universal contentment. As might be supposed there were a few selfish exceptions to this, but so few that their presence or absence was scarcely taken into consideration in that onward rush with mingled good will and cheerfulness which made life worth living upon the wild frontier.
THE FRONTIER HOMES.
Our abodes consisted, in general, of a parlor, sitting room, dining room, bed room, kitchen and pantry all in one. And this was also used for a smoking room and it was one of the greatest tokens of peace and friendship, when enter- ing a neighbor's mansion, to load a cob pipe out of the said neighbor's tobacco box and have a social smoke. There
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
was nothing offensive about tobacco smoke in those days. Everybody was accustomed to it, and its perfume assisted in driving away dull care.
THE FASHIONABLE PIONEER ATTIRE.
The high prices established during the war of the rebell- ion upon all kinds of dry goods, hats, caps, boots and shoes were still dominant during the pioneer period in Seward county, and of course the pioneers did not dress in silks, satins and fine linens, nor in broadcloth or fine cashmeres, but they managed to replenish their wardrobe occasionally in a very satisfactory manner. Calico was very rich in ap- pearance as well as price, was a fashionable fabric and when made up in the pioneer style of the day, was very attractive. In fact the ladies gowns of calico were beautiful in those days. The calico dress patrens were printed with border trimming along the selvage on one side of the cloth which matched about like border on wallpaper. And the girls made pretty dresses of this material. Balmoral stockings and calfskin shoes were popular additions to the ladies attire while gentlemen felt fortunate to have a jeans suit, with blue overalls, cotton socks, wool hat and a pair of cowhide boots. Our better half made us one pair of pants from a white bed blanket and colored them with sumach bobs. The blanket was brought from the east when we came to Nebraska and cost six dollars, so we had a pair of six dollar pants and they proved to be worth it. With these conditions prominent among the people the fact was well established that "dress does not make a man nor a woman."
FOODS OF THE EARLY PIONEERS.
There can be no reason to complain about variation in the daily bill of fare-it was varid enough-a feast being as a rule followed by a famine. Game was plentiful and with expert hunters there was meat in plenty. But during the earliest years breadstuff was the most difficult to obtain. In
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
those days settlers were forced to face all manner of disadvan- tages to get their grain to a mill to be ground into meal or flour, it requiring in many cases from one to two or more weeks to make the round trip to mill and back, many times encountering all kinds of rough weather and bad roads. But during the early seventies with an abundance of mill facilties nine thenths of the settlers were too poor to afford the luxury of wheat flour, corn meal being the standard bread product. Coffee, tea and sugar were substituted by the use of browned wheat, sage and sorgum molasses. Sometimes a neighbor- ing family would make a day's visit with another expecting to get white wheat short cake and be treated to johnney cake. Gravies and potatoe soupes were substitutes a greater part of each year for butter. And it is not to be thought strange that the butter production during the winter seasons was very scanty in view of the quality of the feed the milk cows got. It certainly was not of the kind to produce good, rich milk. Prairie hay was the food for cattle and horses and while it was excellent for the latter it was poor stuff for milk cows.
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