USA > Nebraska > Seward County > General history of Seward County, Nebraska > Part 8
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But with all the deprivations of both food and clothing, pioneer settlers got enough to eat such as it was and did not get dyspepsia by eating too much of it. And they had sufficient clothing to keep them warm and enough to feel that all were dressed as well as their neighbors. When we wanted to go to a dance or other entertainment we were not ashamed to go with "our girl with a calico dress," nor to go dressed in jeans or blue overalls.
There were no automobiles in those days, and settlers were considered a little high-toned who had even a spring seat to their farm wagon to ride on.
CHAPTER XVI.
Pioneer Horses, Mules and Work Cattle .- Grasshoppers.
Man can talk and write of the hardships and trials of the first settlers upon the wild prairies of the west, but the trials, hardships and never ending toils of the unrewarded dumb beasts passes unremmembered into unwritten history. But the fact that their share of the burdens and deprivations were fully as great as those of their human companions, if not greater, cannot be denied and should not be forgotten. While the latter looked forward to a future reward the poor domestic animals were scantly rewarded with sufficient food to maintain strength to perform the tasks required of them. Food for work animals was, to a great extent, food for men and in times of scarcity of supplies the dumb pioneers' pri- vations were augmented by the appropriating of the food by their more favored and intelligent associates. And many times they performed their labor without food excepting such as they could pick upon the prairie. We have seen animals engaged in the heavy task of breaking prairie with no other food than that which nature had produced in a short growth of prairie grass, and we have seen those starved bodies grow so thin in a short time that they would scarcely make shadows in the sunlight. And after the work animals had completed the seasons heavy burdens they stood during the the cold and stormy season in pole pens, surrounded and covered with straw, the water leaking down upon their un- protected backs while they rested their weary limbs in mud and water every time it rained. And many times those pole pens were unprovided with doors to shut out the winter
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
blasts, the faithful, but helpless animals standing and shiv- ering with cold from night till morning and morning till night.
Flesh and blood could have done no more for the com- fort, welfare and future prosperity of the homesteaders than was done by the pioneer "horses, mules. and work cattle." And flesh and blood could not have made greater, and more unselfish sacrifices to animate the most discouraging period of pioneer life and bring the county of Seward as well as the state of Nebraska to its present unparlelled prosperity than was made by those domestic animals. Many of those fath- ful friends to humanity passed from time to eternity without receiving a reward from their owners of kind treatment or even kind words and the time may come when many will be required to answer the queston "what hast thou done for me?"
Among our kindest friends of pioneer days, long since passed to rest, we hold in memory a pair of obedient horses, Jim and Charley. A glance back into the dim past reveals to us the shining coats, curling mains, elevated heads and kindly eyes of Jim and Charley. And again we see them in many difficult performances of duty, straining every nerve and muscle to accomplish the purpose required of them and we again look back in vain to see the reward we gave and sigh for lost oppotunities. It was not only the labor of a fsithful pair of horses or of one horse or other animal, but also their companionship that is to be remembered with gratitude. We well remember a dismal ride of eighteen miles from Sewad to our home north-west of Beaver Cross- ing when the night was so dark we could not see the horses with no companion but Jim and Charley, they performing the duty of guide and conveyors. From the start upon that never to be forgotten trip we gave up all thoughts of guiding our companions and wrapping the lines around the standard
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
on the front endgate, gathered our garments around us as closely as possible, sat down in the wind and rain and trust- ing in the intelligence and care of those horses, silently wait- ed until they came to a halt within ten feet of our door.
George T. Angell, the great advocate of the rights of those who cannot speak for themselves in a short article in his paper, "Our Dumb Animals," says: "Among the very best society in this world we count good horses, good dogs and good cats, and we are quite sure that four-legged don- keys are much better society than two-legged ones."
THE GRASSHOPPERS.
Here is neither an animal, bird nor insect that Mr. Geo. T. Angell could call "good society." They belong to that class of living things of which there are none good excepting the dead ones and there is no faithful service they could per- form for humanity but to turn over and die. While they are not birds they can fly perhaps farther without eating than any other winged bird or insect. They will emigrate clear across the United States and into the frozen zones of the north with one meal stowed away in their stomachs. We had our first experience with the immigratory breed in Harrison county, Iowa in 1869. For many weeks during the summer a glance with the naked eye towards the sun on any and every clear day would disclose seeming millions of the winged pests flying towards the north-west. They did not travel in single tiers but in masses extending from about one hundred feet above the earth to an almost invisible dis- tance towards the sun. Where they all came from and were going to was a difficult problem to solve, but it is probable that they hatched in the southern sand banks along the southern coasts and immediatly commenced a flight to death in the frozen north. Their mission seemed to be a contin - uous flight and there are but few instances recorded where they have halted in any civilized country and those halts
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
have borne unmistakeable evidence of having been forced by hunger. In that year of our first experience with the pests, along in August when the corn had about passed out of the roasting ear state and began to dent a few millions of that great continuous army got hungry and concluded to take a meal out of the Iowa corn fields and they came down in such great hosts that the earth seemed to be a living mass of creeping insects. Hard as the corn was they eat a lot of it and chewed the weather beaten wood off from the siding on houses and barns and the boards on fences. The wells of Harrison county were the dug by hand kind and generally stood open and the hoppers fell into them in such immense numbers that they were ruined for some time.
This same continuous stream of flying hoppers was known to be flying over Seward county, Nebraska, every summer from 1869 to 1876, making their first descent upon the fields of Kansas and Nebraska in August 1874. There was scarcely a day in summer seasons during that period of seven years when those flying pests could not be seen in motion like a stream of drifting snow by looking towards the sun. Their 1874 raid upon this state and Kansas was un- doubtedly due to a general desire among them for something to eat. And whether they got as much as they wanted or not they were guests, feasting upon the drouth stricken fields of Seward county corn, potatoes, cabbage, onions, tobacco and the decayed sides of log houses obout two hours and having eaten up everything eatable they rose into the air in such numbers as to appear like black clouds of smoke. Wheat, oats and other small grain was about all harvested and was too hard for the hoppers' teeth. The corn crop of Seward county was almost a failure if the hoppers had not touched it, but the short time it required for those grsshop- per to change the appearance of the fields of corn and make them resemble fields of fishing rods furnished good grounds
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
for charging them with having destroyed the corn crop.
Two years after this raid, a little later in the season of 1876 the second and last visit of the flying breed of grasshop- pers was made to the drouth stricken corn fields of Seward county. But they found the fields which bore any corn at all too hard for their grinders and left without doing any ma- terial damage. On this occasion they deposited a few of their eggs in the earth in different localities which hatched out the next spring, but the young ones followed their natural inclination to fly and left as soon as their wings grew without doing any damage.
It has been said that "it is no worse to kill than to scare a person to death." The grasshoppers did not kill anybody, but they scared some people "nigh unto death." A few seemed to think that by the loss of a little sod corn and parched cornfields that would not have made ten bushels of corn to the acre worth ten cents a bushel, life had become so miserable it was not worth living especially in a country sub- ject to grasshoppers. And many of them abandoned their homesteads in short order and fled out of range of the great scourge, carrying with them harrowing tales of the suffering calamity in Kansas and Nebraska. The story spread with rapidity and enlargements all over the United States and a portion of Europe, sinking deep in the sympathetic hearts of the people and a well defined system of aid for the sufferers was shortly inaugurated. Old clothes, old shoes, salt meats, lard, beans, corn meal and everything immaginable was sent into Seward county to relieve the needs of the destitute.
We had rented a farm in L precinct and moved onto it in the fall of that first grasshopper disaster and in a few days a neighbor called at our house, -it was his first call-and surprised us by stating that he had entered our name at the aid headquarters in Seward as grasshopper sufferers for two tons of coal, some lard and corn meal. We told him that
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
we were doing all right without any aid-perhaps as well as we ever had since settling in Nebraska-that we would be very much pleased if he would withdraw the re- quest for us. He undoubtedly did so as we never heard any more about it. This man was undoubtedly a kind hearted neighbor, but he was unnecessarily alarmed the same as those who were scared out of the state. Undoubtedly he would have joined in the flight of nonsense if he had not had so much Nebraska products to carry-about a dozen head of cows and young cattle, a good team of horses, several hogs, his bins full of wheat and oats and was on the list for aid. Added to the wild rumors of the grasshopper calamity put afloat throughout the nation by such exagerating people the Nebraska state legislature placed another advertisement in support of it by appropriating fifty thousand dollars to aid in buying food and seed grain for the hopper sufferers. As to who, among the real sufferers, got any aid from the ap- propriation after the distributing and other "red tape" of- ficials got through with it is not definatly known. But the state got the benefit of a name for charity to its citizens if it did blight many of its brigter attainments and blessings.
Of course the hoppers did a lot of damage, but the set- tlers had faced more difficult prepositions and prospects and lived through it without any aid. Since the grasshopper scare we have witnessed several almost entire failures of the corn crop and no aid has been offered or thought of. It was a little unfortunate that a little hopper excitement was not mingled in with those failures to facilitate the tumbling in of a few car loads of aid. But the grasshoppers are dead.
Some idea of the immense numbers of the flying grass- hoppers may be gained from the hosts that dropped down upon the earth on the three occasions we have mentioned. They were not of a special gathering, but just the number composing the regular ranks that almost constantly winged
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
their way across the country. And in support of our theory that in this flight they were committing suicide, we submit the following facts: In the first place there was a vast and unlimited number of them continually going one direction, and no information had ever been received by civilized peo- ple as to any stopping place while their journey must end somewhere. Again their numbers were so great that had they stopped anywhere short of eternity to feed and live up- on the grain and vegetable producing area of the world they would have starved humanity and depopulated the earth. Those that did stop and feed upon grain fields and then rise and fly away were never heard of again. If they did not go into the ocean or frozen north they would have made a rec- ord somewhere. The last but not least reason to consider in the matter is that their breed has become extinct. The rear guard of that great flying army passed beyond view soon after their last visit to Seward county. To briefly state the fact, they are dead and if they did not kill themselves by in- dulging in their natural inclination to fly, it is difficult to de- termine what did end their existance. God is the only power outside of their own that could have destroyed their lives and saved the human race, and it may be that he in his wisdom provided their self destroying nature.
CHAPTER XVII.
Rail Road Bond Exciting Campaign of 1871.
In attempting to present the ruling features of the conten- tion among the pioneer settlers of Seward county upon the greatest public question that has ever confronted them-the rail road bond issue --- we are met with thoughts of a tripple headed monster in the interests of which certain localities were arranged against others in a bitter strife. The B. & M. rail road company had taken one-half of the land in the county as compensation for the construction of a railway on a certain line passing through the center of the county and after receiving the grant made the road twelve miles south of the proposed route. After the completion of the road and the opening up of farms throughout Seward county the B. & M. company made an effort to again bleed the county, coming before the people under an assumed name with a proposition to make a rail road through the county from Lin- coln to the west line of the county by way of Germantown and Seward under condition that the citizens establish a contract by vote guaranteeing the issuing of bonds by the county to the said rail road company to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; bonds to run twenty years and draw ten per cent interest per annum. To many of the settlers this had the appearance of being a premedi- tated scheme to take advantage of necessity and rob the set- tlers in the time of their poverty. The greater number of them were at a loss to understand even how they were ever going to be able to provide comfortable homes for them- selves. They were living in sod houses and dugouts upon
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
unimproved homesteads on which the proposed bonds were practicially a mortgage for a large part of their then present value while the interest would, to a great extent, offset the advance in value from the improvements. And while the southern precincts would receive no benefit from the rail- way they were to be held for an equal portion of the indebt- edness with the northern precincts through which the line was to run. The rail road company in constructing its linc of railway through the southern portion of its land grant in- stead of through the center of it established unmistakable signs of premeditating its scheme to force bonds from the northern settlements of the grant. Those who viewed the proposition from these points were aroused to indignation against the establishment of such a contract with such a dia- bolical party, therefore a well outlined system of opposition to it was established. On the other hand, with a great many, the anxiety to establish better transportation facilities was the ruling sentiment. The disadvantages were so great that they felt that it was time to sacrifice almost any amount of money and credit to bring about better conditions. And they did not only think it was time to do so but seemed to think it was the only time and did not want to wait a min- ute for a better one. They viewed but one side and saw only the benefit on their part and gave the unjust exactions of the proposition side no attention at all. With a greater number of this class not only the transportation advantages were considered in favor of the bonds, but the increase in value of their property and the business of their town through which the road was to run furnished a large share of their enthusiasm in favor of it. Had it not been for this estima- tion of the proposition there would have been no need for the general uprising that was inaugurated in other parts of the county against it and the proposition would not got the support of one-tenth of the votes of the county. with the
-1.
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
foregoing lines opposing each other the campaign opened up in earnest vigor all over the county. Bond meetings resem- bling the old 1861 war meetings were held by both sides and the most eloquent speakers of the county were drawn into service in the controversy. W. W. Cox, a strong advocate and supporter of the bond proposition, says in his history of Seward county, that speakers were brought in from other counties to help our people settle the matter, but he was mistaken unless there were some brought in by the rail road company, which Mr. Cox would not have mentioned. In fact we do not know what counties the opposition side of the controversy could have went to to get more able speakers than our home tallent among whom were Hon. Benjamin Hunkins, Elder W. G. Keene, Hon. D. C. Mckillip, W. J. Thompson and others. Bond meetings were held in sod school houses, sod dwelling houses and dugouts. We at- tended one bond meeting in the residence of Mr. Overman, father of Elder E. N. Overman who was then a little boy. The house was a sod cabin with a sod floor and sod roof, but it held upwards of seventy-five people. Bennie Hunkins and Elder Keene were the orators and held the attention of the crowded house till well towards the middle of the night. And although this meeting was held in a sod dwelling house enthusiasm could not have ran higher in any place. And if a lisetner had closed his eyes to the surrounding scenes and listened to the wit and eloquent wisdom that flowed from the tougue of Uncle Benjamin Hunkins he might have im- magined he was sitting in a metrapolitan theater listening to an Ingersoll or a Garfield and would never thought of send- ing out of the county for speakers.
The citizens of Camden and Milford took a hand in the fight against the bonds and Gen. J. H. Culver opened fire upon the proposition from the batteries of his paper, The Blue Valley Record and when the final test came in February of
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
that year, the bond proposition was snowed under by a ma- jority of seventy-seven votes. We copy the precinct vote as given by W. W. Cox. Seward For Bonds
North Blue
136
O
Lincoln Creek
..
109
Oak Grove
47
60
Milford
5
147
Camden
6
138
Walnut Creek
IO
I30
Beaver Crossing
2
135
TOTAL
547
624
232
Against Bonds 5
..
This shows the division of the county upon this question. Seward, North Blue and Lincoln Creek were directly on the proposed line of rail road while Oak Grove was only partially to be benefitted. Milford, Camden, Walnut Creek and Bea- ver Crossing were southern precincts that would not receive any benefit from it, not even so much as to hear the loco- motive whistle.
Although this bond proposition was defeated at the poles by an honest casting of ballots, trickery was on the alert as the last resort thought of to burden the tax payers and the Camden returns were filched and concealed from inspection when the canvas of the votes was made by the canvasing board. But this scheme failed of accomplishing its purpose. Indignation ran high and even the citizens of Seward who were so anxiously interested in the county's accepting the bond proposition, held an indignation meeting and passed resolutions condemning shuch dishonoring of the elections of the county. Injunction proceedings were commenced to restrain the county board from issuing the bonds, which were sustained by court and the bond question passed on to a second hearing.
Again the rail road company which called itself the Mid-
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
land Pacific, came forward with a proposition, a little more liberal, being twenty-five thousand dollars below the former requirement, and placing twenty-five thousand dollars of the burden directly upon the precincts to receive the greatest benefit, fixing the balance to be paid by the county at large as follows: seventy-five thousand upon the completion of the road to Seward and twenty-five thousand when it reached the west line of the county. Seward at that time was boom- ing with a rapid increase of population and of course all new comers to the place meant that many votes for the bonds and during the intervening period between the elections its voting strength had increased eighty-one votes. With this gain with perhaps a few changes on account of the new deal favoring the bond proposition the returns from the election, in October, 1872, showed that it had carried by a safe ma- jority. The work on the road was pushed with rapidity and it reached Seward the next season, exhausting the name of the "M. P. Rail Road," not leaving it strength enough to run one car over the road with that name on it.
While this election established the road through Seward county it did not satisfy the B. & M. rail road company. In the first place the company had selected a desirable route passing up the Middle creek valley to Milford and from there up the North Blue to Seward. But with the unconcealed determination of the Milford people to oppose any proposi- tion to incumber the county with debt the rail road company was forced to make its proposition to the sections where it was more sure of support therefor it had laid its track along an unsatisfactory route leaving the desired one open to com- petition. And taking into consideration the fact that the B. & M. had got its route established, its road-bed made and tracks laid from Lincoln to Seward there were but a very few people in Seward county that were prepared to meet the proposition of the second B. & M. offspring under the name
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
of "The A. & N. R. R" as coming only from a competing line. The company had waited five years for the jealousy between Seward and Milford to soften, and in 1878, a good year for suckers, it made a proposition to establish a compet- ing road over the aforesaid B. & M's favorite route to Seward and from there north to the Butler county line for and in consideration of the issuing by the county of bonds to the amount of seventy-five thousand dollars to be paid in similar manner as the previous ones voted to the M. P. Milford and the Middle creek sections and many of the voters in the south part of the county had a change of heart being con- verted to the support of "the competing line," and when the election came off the bond proposition was endorsed by a large majority. As Seward was not so very favorable to this deal it is to be noted that it got its main support from those who had opposed the first proposition. The summing up of the result of Milford's firm stand against the rail road company's effort to get its support to a bond proposition to open a road through that place thereby forcing the company to take the unsatisfactory route may be made with a short pencil and a scrap of paper. Had the company been assur- ed of support it would have asked for bonds to make the last road it did make in the county first on the desired route and been satisfied, the bond question would have been settled and the county fifty thousand dollars ahead. The company would only asked for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the first place to make the road where they wanted it whereas the county gave them two hundred thousand after many of its citizens had rode over the county and froze their noses and frosted their toes that cold 1871 winter to fight the bond issue. They might better remained at home by the fire.
W. W. Cox was a Seward resident, very much interested in the success of the first bond issue and in his history attrib-
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HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
utes the first proposition to the Midland Pacific rail road com- pany, never mentioning the true source from which it came, the B. & M. rail road company, but just read his lamenta- tion after the voting on the A. & N. "competing line."
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