History of Custer County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religous, and civic developement from the early days to the present time, Part 2

Author: Gaston, William Levi, 1865- [from old catalog]; Humphrey, Augustin R., 1859- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western publishing and engraving company
Number of Pages: 1180

USA > Nebraska > Custer County > History of Custer County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religous, and civic developement from the early days to the present time > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

234

CUSTER COUNTY SCHOOLIIOUSES

236

ILLUSTRATIONS

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT BROKEN BOW

244

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT ARNOLD

245

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT SARGENT

246

BAPTIST CHURCH AT BROKEN BOW

250

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT BROKEN BOW

254

BROKEN BOW EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND RECTORY

CHRISTIAN CHURCH AT BROKEN BOW

257 261

CHRISTIAN CHURCH AT ANSLEY

262 265 266

DALE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND PARSONAGE .

CATHOLIC RECTORY AT BROKEN BOW .

268

CATHOLIC CHURCH AT OCONTO .

268

CATHOLIC CHURCH AT SARGENT

268

CATHOLIC CHURCH AND RECTORY AT ANSELMO

269

UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH AT BROKEN BOW

J. M. FODGE

FARMERS' PICNIC NEAR ANSLEY

LAYING CORNER STONE OF MASONIC TEMPLE AT ANSELMO FRANK H. YOUNG

283 284

ALPHA MORGAN .

285

HON. WILLIAM GASLIN

310

CUSTER COUNTY VETERAN MEMBER OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

319

MEMBERS OF STONE RIVER POST, G. A. R., OF MASON CITY

321

CLYDE G. SEIVER

327

JOSEPH ELWOOD PALMER

349

A TYPICAL SOD HOUSE

369

MAMMOTH PILES OF CORN .

370 372 373

THE PALE-FACE CATTLE HAVE TAKEN CUSTER COUNTY

37-

AN EARLY-DAY TEAM .

377

SHEEP INDUSTRY, LEE'S PARK, 1887 .

378

LIVE STOCK ON FARM OF GEORGE CHIPPS 379

382

VIEWS OF LAKE DORIS AND HYDRO-ELECTRIC PLANT . 384-387

COMSTOCK FLOURING MILLS

390

MASON CITY FLOURING MILL

391

MILBURN BRIDGE OVER MIDDLE LOUP RIVER

396

FARM HOME OF JOHN CHERRY, ON THE SOUTH LOUP

397

S. D. BUTCHER AND FAMILY

328

A CUSTER COUNTY ALFALFA FIELD

TWO CROPS THAT NEVER FAIL .

A CUSTER COUNTY EXIIIBIT AT THE NEBRASKA STATE FAIR

270 274 280

CHRISTIAN CHURCH AT SARGENT

CHAPTER I

IN THE BEGINNING

THE FIRST OWNER - IN FAR OFF DAYS -THE PREHISTORIC TRIBES WERE HERE - THE FINDING OF POTTERY - THE INDIANS OF SIXTY YEARS AGO - NO INDIAN ATROCITIES IN CUSTER COUNTY - PROBABLE BATTLES - WELL MARKED RIFLE PITS - THE SIGNS OF BAT- TLE - A FORT IN CUSTER COUNTY COUNTY - NEW HELENA FRIGHTENED - AN INDIAN BATTLE - THE CLARION ARTICLE - WHO WAS THE FIRST WHITE MAN? - DID CORONADO FIND Us? - PLENTY OF WILD GAME - OTHER EXPEDITIONS - GENERAL WARREN WAS HERE IN 1855 - JOHN WILMOUTH THE FIRST MAN HERE - UNCLE JOHN'S STORY

"In the beginning God made Custer county." That is a famous old Hebrew declaration, with a localism attached - a localism which does no violence to the text, nor sins against the truth. In that far off morning when creation was the order, the Great Creator seems to have inspected the product of his hand and in each case, so far as the record goes, pronounced it good. So it is taken for granted that after he made Custer county, he pronounced it good, and there is little doubt in the minds of the thirty thousand people who have their homes in this western county that he was right.

If God made it good in the beginning, he expected the ages to improve it. He seems to have blended soil and climate into splendid conditions for human life and happiness. When, after the lapse of ages, he turned loose upon its virgin prairies the sturdy, progressive young manhood and womanhood who came, red-blooded, from the homes of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and all the rest of the older states, it was charged and surcharged with natural resources and opportunity. They were a tribe of men and women in whose veins flowed the warm blood of energy, and whose characters massed the traits of virtue, strength, and progress. They came to subdue a soil in which opportunity lay in the surface stratums. or protruded in ledges from the hillsides. They came to find, in fine assortment, the elements

of life and growth, a place where energy and thrift could subdue the unplowed sod and find the place for home and sanctuary.

THE FIRST OWNER

France was the first owner of record. It came to France by right of exploration, if not discovery. All that part of North America known as the Middle West, came without dis- pute or protest to the royal house of the Louises. Through the process of some barter, not vital to this story, the Louises ceded it to Spain in 1763. It was some land transaction. A vast wedge of territory, bounded on the east by the Mississippi and ranging irregularly westward until it reached the Oregon shore of the Pacific, went from French to Spanish pos- session. So far as the territory itself is con- cerned it profited little by exchange of owners. It should go unnoticed but that Custer county, then unnamed and unmarked, was in this ter- ritory, and represented then the equity of its present inhabitants. In 1802 Spain and France again became swappers, and possession went back to France. This prepared the way for the transaction of 1803, when Thomas Jeffer- son shied his young republic into the auction ring, from which it emerged with the Louisi- ana Purchase. If former transactions were big land deals, this outranked them all. The extent of land in the Louisiana Purchase was

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

vastly more than the original transaction of 1763. Custer county was in it. however .- it had survived the shuffles and now and for all time it is in the possession of, and is an inte- gral part of, the United States of America.

IN FAR OFF DAYS

Imagination runs, always, back into the far off days and asks a thousand times the ques- tions : "Who was the first human being to sce that spot of earth now known as Custer coun- ty? Whose eyes first beheld its hills and val- leys or swept across its plain, or were there any hills and valleys when the first human eye beheld this region? Was its land exhibiting naught but barren waste, or were its fiells green robed and grassed? Did the scene pre- sent anything that is familiar to this modern dlay? Or was it water covered, a part of an inland sea, in which was housed the masto- donic life of some far off amphibious day ? Or had the waves subsided, leaving exposed to sun and wind flats of silt. and dunes of sand?" All these questions, and a thousand others, come surging into the mind that con- templates the ancient days of the formative period. The great majority of these ques- tions will never be answered. Neither the his- torian nor the geologist brings any message from that distant age.

Did the primitive inhabitants of North Am- erica ever traverse Custer county? Did the descendants of the cliff dwellers ever look for building sites along our river bluffs or can- von breaks? Did the Algonquin Indians of the far east New England ever drift as far west as central Nebraska, or did the Myas and the Aztecs graze their cattle here before they immigrated to Mexico and Yucatan ? When the tribe, to which now the famous Calaveras man belonged, was delighting in a higher civiliza- tion farther west, were any of his kinsmen located in Nebraska? All these questions are hard to answer and it may be that the world will have to wait the results of the archeolo- gists' long search.

THE PRE-HISTORIC TRIBES WERE HERE

Though no traditions came down from the

hoary centuries of the past there is abundant evidence of occupancy by a pre-historic race. Rich discoveries of broken pottery, stone im- plements and many other relics of a forgotten people have rewarded the Nebraska ethnolo- gists and archeologists. Nebraska was once the home of a people who either antedate the American Indian by uncounted centuries or else were the far off ancestors from which he both descended and degenerated.

Nebraska archeology is still in the morning twilight of commencement, yet twenty-four village sites have been discovered, explored, and charted. Along almost every Nebraska stream, stone implements and weapons have been found. Some scientists declare that the possessors of these stone implements had no pottery and belonged to a race which ante- dates the molders of earthen vessels. These are not questions to be settled here. We pass them along to the student and the scientist.

THE FINDING OF POTTERY

The possessors of pottery once lived in Cus- ter county, how long ago no man can tell, but the fact is not disputed. Many stone imple- ments, such as stone hammers, stone toma- hawks. battle axes, stone knives, and arrow heads have been found.

.Al. Morgan, one of the carly settlers, in the vicinity of Cumro, has gathered many curi- ous implements, many of which were produced and used by Indians who inhabited Custer county, perhaps generations before the tribes of a later dáy were found here by the white man.

The molders of pottery once roamed these hills and drank from these springs and streams. It is presumed that this pottery was manufactured by the remote ancestors of later- day Indians. If it is argued that the molders of the pottery and the makers of the flint im- plements indicate a higher civilization than that of the modern red man. the ethnologists reply that these plains and hills were not al- ways covered with buffaloes and elk, and that some time in the remote past the ancestors of the noble red man were grain eaters. Grain eaters rise to a higher degree of intelligence

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

I-Iron arrow-heads used by Indians after they began trading with white men. 2-Indian stone knives and spear-heads. 3-Arrow-heads found in Custer county by A. L. Morgan. 4-Specimens of pottery excavated from Indian grave on the Bentley farm, near Sargent. 5-Indian battle-axe found on the South Loup.

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

and civilization than meat eaters. When the Indian was compelled to find his bread in the soil and gather the harvest of fields'and for- ests he was more enlightened and civilized than his descendants, who found life easy when the buffalo and the elk made it too easy for him to subsist.

The grain eaters needed stone implements with which to grind and dig. and vessels in which to conserve and retain. It required men- tal effort, as well as physical, so evidences of a creditable mentality are found in the ves- sels and implements they have left behind.

The citizens of Callaway attest the finding of broken pottery on the South Loup hills north of the river.

A few years ago Frank Kelley and others found fragments of pottery, each piece clear- ly defined. on the Ed. Neth farm some eight or ten miles west of Broken Bow. All this testifies to the fact of former inhabitants.

In 1916 H. M. Bentley, who lives in section 32, township 20 north, range 17 west, which is located approximately four miles northeast of Sargent in this county, while plowing on a hill top, uncovered some thirty or forty pieces of gray pottery. This pottery had evidently been made by weaving grass baskets and daub- ing clay mud or slime on the inside and then burning them in some kind of an improvised kiln. This process left the pottery with the imprint of the grass basket embossed on the exterior.

The material of the pottery resembles a form of hard gray-blue stone. Two or three of the pieces found are of good size, and one is from the rim of the vessel of which is was once a part, and describes an arc of at least one-fourth of the circumference of the ves- sel. At the same time and in the same place Mr. Bentley uncovered parts of human bones. among which, still clinging to a fragment of a human jaw-bone, was a well preserved hu- man tooth.

The size of the tooth and the bones indi- cates that they belonged to a child of twelve or thirteen years, or else to some diminutive adult. Drs. Bass. Beck, and Mullins, all rep-

utable dentists of Broken Bow, have examined the tooth and declare it to be the upper first molar of the right side. They believe it to be the first or baby tooth, but in this they are not certain, as the tooth gives evidence of much wear, perhaps more wear than a child's tooth would have received. The wear indi- cates that the tooth belonged to a grain eater and, if so, its owner lived at a time when the ancestors of the present Indian families were grain eaters, and a higher intelligence made them manufacturers of ware and implements. Other pieces of pottery and similar relics left by an ancient tribe were found on a high hill on the farm of J. E. Grint, some two or three miles south of the Bentley farm.

Not long since Professor Elmer E. Black- man, curator of the Nebraska Ilistorical So- ciety, visited the scene of these finds and spent some time in making examinations. On this tour of inspection he was accompanied by Judge Humphrey, associate editor of this pub- lication. Professor Blackman believes that these relics were deposited by the far-off an- cestors of the present Pawnee Indians. He further believes that these Indians were not permanent occupants of the region, but that they came here on summer hunting trips, dur- ing a period when the elk and buffaloes were numerous. This would place this particular people, who have so kindly left us the relics, in the transition period between grain-eating and meat-eating Indians. In support of his theory he submits the following statements :

"In relation to the Indian remains in Cus- ter county which I inspected with Judge Hum- phrey, August 20, 1918, 1 may offer the fol- lowing conclusions :

".A little preliminary study of the situation shows that the area of Custer county was part of the land ceded to the United States by the Pawnees on the 24th of September. 1857. The treaty was signed at Table Creek, Nebraska Territory. Table Creek is near Nebraska City, and we have in the museum of the Nebraska Historical Society a photograph of the signing of this treaty, the same showing Pe-ta-Le- Sharu, Samuel Allis. J. Sterling Morton,

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

6-Arrow-heads and human bone and tooth excavated from Indian grave on the Bentley farm, near Sargent. 7- Indian hammers and other stone implements. 8-Arrow-heads found in Custer county and owned by A. L. Morgan, of Cumro. 9-Butt of rifle found on the Westerville battle-field by A. R. Humphrey, during a recent examination of the field. 10-Battle-axes found on the South Loup. 11-Miniature specimen of Indian pottery found at mouth of Deer creek, Custer county, and owned by A. L. Morgan. 12-Indian battle-axe. 13-Indian pipe found on the South Loup.

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

James W. Denver, and others who were pres- ent at the signing. For the full text of this treaty reference may be made to the United States Statutes at Large, Volume Xl. page 729.

"The Republican Pawnees once lived south of the Platte - Pike says he was at their vil- lage in 1806. I find the ruins of their habitat along the Republican river, even west of Or- leans. From the banks of the Republican they chiefly secured the flint which was used for implements. This was easy to get. splendid in quality, and was probably the cause of their residence there. This implement-making ma- terial became the direct cause of the suprema- cy which this tribe gained over their neigh- bors, and which they held until the whites came with firearms and 'fire-water.'

"The area now occupied by Custer county was the abundant buffalo plains over which the Pawnees hunted during the time preced- ing contact with the whites, as well as later ; but the site explored does not show contact with white men, and antedates firearms - hence the reference to the earlier date.

"Both the sites visited may be classed as one. Due east of Sargent are evidences that show this to be the point where the hunting party probably left the Middle Loup river, and thence was afforded an easy trail to the loca- tion farther north and west of this point, which I determine as the location of the camp.

"In the hill-encircled valley near where the farm house stands is a beautiful, level expanse upon which the summer tepees were set up. This was an ideal spot. protected from ob- servation by the hills which separate this shel- tered valley from the Middle Loup river. There was ample timber for fuel, and water from springs. Probably year after year the same tribe came here to secure the meat sup- ply. Doubtless small game was abundant. We know that vast herds of buffaloes roamed this region, and from here the hunters sallied forth to capture the winter supply of meat and hides. while the squaw's remained in the sheltered valley, to dry the meat and dress the hides.

"Some of their people died from sickness or accident, and the surrounding hill-tops ( es-

pecially west of the camp) were the sites for the final resting places of the noble dead.

"The pottery found on the hill-top indicates that these Indians had a custom of placing food and water in the graves, for the use of the departed on their journey to the happy hunting-ground. Many tribes observed the custom. The Pawnees practiced it.

"1 believe this site antedates contact with the whites. This is proven by the absence of any white man's artifacts. I believe it is one of - the sites used soon after the Pawnees migrated to the plains region, because the chips of flint found on this site are from the flint found in the Texas region from which they migrated. I do not doubt but this summer camp was occupied by the Pawnees. First, because the specimens of pottery found are identical with the pottery made by the Pawnees, and, sec- ond, because the flint chips are from nodules which originally were found in the vicinity of the Brazos river in Texas, the land from which the Pawnees originally came.

"The implement-making material brought with them on their migrations north, would be exhausted in time. so. finding the chips from these nodules leads us to believe the camp was used at an early date.

"The small, flint arrow-heads found on the same hill-top as were the pottery and bones. are not so crude or large as those used by the modern red man. They give evidence of a skill and workmanship the latter did not pos- sess. The workmanship declares a degree of civilization, while the barbed flint itself tells the story of the battle and chase in that un- known time. The bow and arrow constituted the equipment of both the warrior and the hunter of this primitive race. The flint-head. well formed. well edged. and sharply outlined. would argue that the arrow to which it was attached. with thong or grass, was skill-fash- ioned and high-grade, and likewise that the bow would be designed and modeled with more skill than those used by the later In- chians.

"The utility of the implement depends upon the degree of intelligence of the user. In the hands of keen intelligence it does better exe-

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

cution and is more deadly than in the hands of the untutored savage. And then, as the workmanship declares the degree of skill and intelligence. we must conclude that these ar- rows were once used by a people who in some degree outranked in civilization the Indians of the present century, and were very effective in their hands. They served their owners well and were the Winchesters of their day. This race used the arrow for the hunt, and if. like

BLACK KETTLE, A CHEYENNE CHIEF

their civilized brethren of to-day, they slaugh- tered each other. they relied for victory over their enemy, upon the same implement, which, like the vendor's liniment, was made for man or beast. This is all we know -it would be useless to add more. Their past is sealed. Their centuries are dead."

THE INDIANS OF SIXTY YEARS AGO

Coming down to the day of maps and rec- ords, we know something about the Indian tribes which inhabited Custer county in the generations next preceding the white man's advent.

The ethnological traces of the red man's genealogy, divide our North American Indians

into five great families, and with glib tongue rattle off the names "Caddoan family, Siouan family, Algonkain family, Shoshonean family. and the Kiowan family."

At least four of these families were repre- sented in the tribal relations of the red man who once hunted and haunted the wild game herds of these prairies.

The Pawnees were here. This was their treaty reservation. It was their legal home. They were owners, in fee simple, and claim- ants by possession. If Professor Blackman is right, they were here for a thousand years before the white man bothered them. The Pawnees belong to the Caddoan family. The Omahas, the Poucas, and the Otoes hunted these plains and here warred with the Paw- necs. These tribes belonged to the Siouan family. An Indian authority says that the domain of the Omahas lay north of the Platte river. That might include Custer county or at least a part of it. If they never lived here they were ofttimes visitors and long-time campers on these hills and river valleys.

Fremont records the Cheyenne Indians as located on the Platte above Grand Island. From this location the buffalo chase would often take them over the South Loup country. The Cheyennes held their family membership with the Algonkains. Mooney, in his eigh- teenth annual report to the bureau of ethnology, says that the Comanches, who have sometimes been called by the Siouan name of Padoucas, once had a permanent home on the north fork of the Platte river and that their ordinary range over the plains was from five to eight hundred miles. A range of less than half that circle would center their hunting field in Cus- ter county. The Comanche belonged to the Shoshonean family.

This is all that is known about our Indian predecessors. Their tepees are down, their camp fires are out. and the bronzed master of the wild herds is gone. When any of his descendants come to Custer county now they wear the white man's garb. - pants, white collar, and a red necktie, or, if the gender is more favorable, a calico skirt. of wall paper pattern, and a silk handkerchief over plaited

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

COPYRIGHTED. JUNE 15.1908 BY SABUTCHER SON.

A FULL-DRESS PARTY

hair. The Indian pony and the Indian dog live only in the pictures of the past; their bones and poverty are forgotten; with hoof beats and yelps they follow the herds no more.

NO INDIAN ATROCITIES IN CUSTER COUNTY

Beyond doubt the early trappers and hunters in Custer county had many exciting times and several of them may have been killed by the Indians, but concerning tragedies of this time we have no records. John Wilmouth, who will be mentioned later, claims to have been

engaged in an Indian battle in the year 1860, somewhere in the vicinity of Milburn. He makes the claim that three or four white men were killed at this time. Mr. Wilmouth is ninety years of age and his memory hardly accurate.

Aside from this there is no statement made, by any one who pretends to know. to the effect that any settlers were disturbed.

PROBABLE BATTLES

Beyond doubt, several battles were fought within the confines of the county during the

AN INDIAN COUNCIL AND WAR DRESS

HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

days when these prairies were ranged by scout- ing parties from the United States forts at Kearney and Hartseff. Old settlers claim that several battle fields have been found in the county : one is located near the present town site of Berwyn, and one on the Forsythe farm near New Helena. On both of these fields arrow-heads, human bones, and other relics of conflict have been found.

WELL MARKED RIFLE PITS

Perhaps the most clearly defined of any battle field in Custer county is the one located in section 16, township 17, range 18, which location is in the school section owned by

and this helped, of course, to form an im- provised breastwork. These pits with their accompanying mounds vary in length from six to sixty feet and if they were ever fully manned, at least four or five hundred white men or soldiers must have been engaged.

In the center of the enclosed area is a de- pression which early settlers say was a water hole when they came to the country. If a stand was to be made by a company of soldiers on ground of their own choosing there would naturally be some provisions for water.

It is claimed that in an early day another such system of breastworks and pits was found near the mouth of Spring creek, on the farm

CUSTER COUNTY'S FIRST DRYING PLANT

Allen brothers and lies three miles north and one-half mile west of the present Westerville store.

After much investigation, in which the ser- vices of the state historian, Professor A. E. Sheldon, and Curator E. E. Blackman have been rendered, it can be stated positively that here a battle of some importance has been fought. Here a line of rifle pits, clearly de- marked, encloses an area of perhaps six or eight acres, the line conforming more nearly to an ellipse than a circle. The pits were probably three feet deep at the time they were dug. The dirt was thrown to the outside,

now owned by Judge A. R. Humphrey. J. J. Douglass, who saw this field, says that or- . iginally a well had been dug in the center of the enclosure. Talking with a former United States soldier who served in the regular army in the days of the early '60s and who for a . number of years, during the '60s, was sta- tioned at Kearney, Mr. Douglass learned that the soldiers of the fort had located in a num- ber of places what they called outposts, where they dug pits, threw up breastworks made in circle form. enclosing water, and marked them, so that in case they were too hotly pressed by the Indians they could make a run for

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History of Custer County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religous, and civic developement from the early days to the present time, Part 2

Author: Gaston, William Levi, 1865- [from old catalog]; Humphrey, Augustin R., 1859- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western publishing and engraving company Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Gaston, William Levi, 1865- [from old catalog]; Humphrey, Augustin R., 1859- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western publishing and engraving company
Number of Pages: 1180