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 50

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 50

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).

Thro' sin and doubt's stormy billows He's bringing both hope and cheer. By every barque when night is dark, Master and King is walking near.

Over the dark sea of deathı He's walking the waves before, O'er silent tides, His footstep glides. Till ev'ry boat shall reach the shore.

CHAPTER XVII

AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

YEARS, TWO SCORE AND ONE - HORSE AND COW PULL THE PLOW - CORN WEARS THE TASSEL AND IS KING - A GREAT ALFALFA COUNTY - CUSTER STANDS AT THE HEAD - DRESSED IN GREEN, CUSTER COUNTY HEADS THE LIST - AN EARLY LIVE-STOCK ASSOCIA- TION - LIVE-STOCK RAISING - CATTLE GRADES IMPROVED - HOGS. BLACK AND RED - THE PORKER PAY'S THE MORTGAGE - THE PURPLE BLOOD OF HIGH BREEDING - SHEEP IN TILE WILD AND WOOLY COUNTY - A CITY MAN MAKES GOOD - A SAMPLE OF CUSTER COUN- TY THRIFT - CUSTER COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY - OUT OF DEBT - RACES TWENTY YEARS AGO - THE LUNDY HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER PLANT - CUSTER COUNTY IRRIGATION - HORTICULTURE IN CUSTER COUNTY - J. D. REAM MAKES A FIND - FRUIT RECEIVED TOO LITTLE ATTENTION - THE MILLING INDUSTRY - THE BROKEN BOW ROLLER MILLS - ELECTRIC LIGHTS EVERYWHERE - TOWNS HAVE GOOD WATER - NO MINING INDUSTRY - HAS DEVELOPED WEALTH SLOWLY - HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NOW - "SINCE HE PAID THE MORTGAGE" - THE FIRST SETTLER TELLS THE STORY OF THE YEARS

No successful pioncer will despise the day of small things. To commence small and to grow, is nature's way. The agricultural and industrial importance of Custer county to-day has been developed from what the easterner would have called "laughing stock" in the days of the '70s. It has been experiment after ex- periment. many of which were costly and heroic. It has been a struggle with but little to struggle with. Naught but indominitable courage and ceaseless effort could have wrought the miracle. The man who saw Cus- ter county in 1874 and has had his back turned ever since, can look again to-day and his first word would be the one last in the sentence above - a miracle.

YEARS, TWO SCORE AND ONE

Two score and one years have passed since the first settlers started the plow to fashion the field. and the spade and axe to fashion the dwelling. Then it was virgin prairie, alto- gether fieldless, and for the most part house- less. The first thing to do was to locate - select the homestead. The level land was first

selected. river bottoms - farms with river fronts. After the claim was selected then came the house. Something to live in, as well as a place to live on. must be provided. If the settler had a covered wagon, he must live in that until he could build or dig a house. The homestead was the first thing. but the house must be second. If the place is on the river or one of the timbered creeks he will build a log house. If he has a breaking plow and a team to haul a few logs from the timber he will erect a soddy. If he is not rich in these commodities he will rustle a spade, dig a dugout and call it "Home, sweet Home." The dugout of that day was the cheapest, and perhaps the most plebian, of the primitive hab- itations. The log house, though hek down with a sod roof, was the abode of aristocracy. The sod house was middle-class and common- place. yet many of those sod houses were com- fortable and cozy. They were warm in win- ter and cool in summer. and if the roof were thick enough to keep out the rain they were not half bad. Generally the walls' were plas- tered with hill clay or a native stucco, which

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

smoothed up better than the clay and most nearly resembled plaster. This, with a coat of whitewash, if lime could be had, made both interior finish and decoration. Some of the first houses were without floor, other than the native earth. One settler, in reciting the hardships of the early day, claimed that the soil was so rich that they had to cut the grass off from the floor of the sod house twice every week, so they could find the baby.

In such houses as these the best citizens of Custer county began their married life. and especially in such houses as these did they launch upon their Custer county careers. In this kind of house many of the present gener- ation, now in ac- tive life. were born. Just such humble dwellings, located on a quarter-sec- tion of unplowed prairie, have since developed into the modern homes and improved farms that are the pride of the county to- day. That fine, white house, with modern light and water equipment : [Photo by S. D. Butcher, 1886] that big red barn : that flock of granaries, sheds, and cribs, to- gether with the hog house, the hen house, the icehouse, and the garage; those productive fields, green in growing time, and gold in har- vest time, with acres of waving alfalfa - all have come from that humble beginning.

A TYPICAL SOD HOUSE

HORSE AND COW PULL THE PLOW

If the early settler had a team, he was not only fortunate. but also the exception. The most of the settlers were teamless. Some had a yoke of oxen, some were provided with only one horse, and in several instances the horse and cow were harnessed together and made up a sort of complex team. Some men had neither horse nor ox, cow nor plow. With just their two hands, alone and unaided, they

commenced the battle of life, and almost a phenomenal success has rewarded their efforts. They began with nothing, and to-day are the possessors of broad acres, equipped with modern houses, and have to their credit in the bank a competency for old age.

There is no country in the world that affords better advantages to the indomitable spirit who possesses youth, strength, and energy ; no place will more liberally reward labor than the hills and valleys of old Custer county. No- where within its borders can you find a man. who has spent here a score of years, that is not singing the county's praises. In fact, most of the old settlers will very cheerfully get up in the night to brag on the re- sources of Custer county. It has been, from the ear- liest day, the poor man's opportunity, the young man's hope, and the old man's haven. Its invigorating cli mate, its altitude. with its almost ex- clusive outdoor oc- cupation. have made it a healthful land. There are no native diseases. Good health has always been universal. The old saying that the early settlers had to kill a man to start a grave-yard, might be true of almost every community in Custer county. In the starting days, when everything was new and the people young, doc- tors were hardly needed, and the first who came to the county would have starved to death if they had depended alone upon poor health and sickness.

The first crop of the first settlers, in which the soil of Custer county had first opportunity to demonstrate its fertility, was sod corn; the second was rye. The settlers of the first year, and they generally came in the spring time, turned over a few acres of sod, planted it to corn, and spent the rest of the time construct-

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

[ Photo by S. D. Butcher ]

Showing mammoth piles of corn raised by G. W. Farmer in 1902, on his farm between Broken Bow and Merna. There are over 6,000 bushels of

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

ing a habitation, and prospecting for water. Some settlers planted beans along with the corn and thus, in the fall, they had demon- strated that the soil was adapted to both corn and beans. In the New Helena country rye was the first fall crop and, nourished by the new, strong soil, made an astonishing yield. We have no record of any oats being sowed until the spring of 1877. From that time forth oats have been one of the standard crops. Spring wheat made its advent about the same time, or perhaps a little before the oat crop. Custer is to-day one of the wheat-producing counties of the state.

The county commenced its wheat industry like most new counties, with spring wheat. The soil was new and rich, and the yield was big. The price, however, prevented rapid accumu- lation of wealth by the wheat-raisers. Fall wheat came later, when weeds and chinch bugs began to challenge the spring wheat, and fall wheat has made a record during the years, the truth of which is expressed in the closing sen- tence of the above paragraph.

CORN WEARS THE TASSEL AND IS KING

The great outstanding crop of this county has always been corn. Several years it has led all counties in the state in its production. All varieties will mature in good seasons, but early varieties are most regular in production. The sod corn of the first settlers was a surprise to the men who planted it. If the crop was not eaten up or destroyed by the ranchmen's cattle, the forage was fine fodder and the yield some- times reached twenty-five bushels an acre. Since the cultivation of land and better metli- ods in farming have come into vogue, Custer has been rated as a corn county. In these days of greater production, every stalk wears a tas- sel, and every ear is wrapped in silk. When the stalk puts off its summer robes of green and dons the autumn tan, the ears turn to gold and droop modestly at the praise of their own magnificence.

The foregoing sentiment may be rated as stilted praise, but Custer corn deserves all that can be said of it. The real story of the corn. however, is told in a few quotations of figures

which go to make up dry statistics. Statistics of any early day are lacking. If records were kept, the state department of agriculture made 110 reports. The following figures are given only to show what the county has done in the banner years of the past. The years of 1905 and 1906 seem to be the banner corn years of all the forty-three years that are passed. In 1905 Custer ranked second in the state in the production of corn. The total yield that year was 7,681,863 bushels. That was a great corn crop. The average per acre throughout the county was 36.5 bushels an acre. The average in the state that year was 37.65 bushels an acre. It was the great acreage in Custer that boosted it to second place in the state. The next year was an even better year for corn in Custer. The acreage increased and, al- though the average yield per acre was just one bushel less than in the previous year, the total crop came to the high figure of 8,251,158. This enormous yield put Custer into first place in the state. In this year the average yield per acre in the state was 35.28 bushels per acre, while in Custer the average yield was 35.5 bushels per acre, which put the county above the average in yield.

The last few years have not been so favor- able for corn and, like with alfalfa, the acre- age has been decreased in favor of wheat. This year's crop (1918) is estimated at 5,000.000 bushels, in round numbers.

The great bulk of the corn crop, and like- wise the great bulk of the hay crop. is fed at home, less than five per cent. of the corn raised being shipped out of the county. It is fed to cattle and hogs and thus made to bring an added profit.

A GREAT ALFALFA COUNTY

The importance of alfalfa as a forage crop canot be overestimated. Alfalfa is one of the standard products, and the one which has done more to bring profit to the farmer than almost any other. The deep-green fields in evidence everywhere, are the gold mines of the county. If the "porker" has been a mortgage-payer. he has had to stuff himself with alfalfa in order to play the role. The dry times reduce

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA

the crop, but it is never an entire failure. The prices have been good at all times -in fact, so good that it is safe to say that no crop has been more profitable than Custer county al- falfa. If corn is king, alfalfa is queen, and to- gether they fatten a royal family of beef and pork. Farmers depend on alfalfa. and raise it with less expense than any other forage. The climate and soil of the county have always contributed the natural elements to make it the hay crop of the middle part of the state.

CUSTER STANDS AT THE HEAD, DRESSED IN GREEN

It took the farmers a long time to realize fully the importance of the alfalfa crop. For

of inducing several farmers in different parts of the county to seed a few acres to the new crop for which so much was claimed. Judge Lavender was perhaps the first man in the vicinity of Broken Bow to try a small field. for hay and pasture purposes. The production of alfalfa was very limited for years. Sced was hard to obtain and the price was almost prohibitive. Alfalfa. like everything else, had to buck its way up hill against a field of oppo- sition. As the years went by. it made progress and to-day it has its place and fame estab- lished. It ranks in importance with corn and is absolutely indispensable to successful stock- raising.

A CUSTER COUNTY ALFALFA FIELD

years it was raised only in small patches, and its value as hog pasture, and as winter hay for calves, milch cows, and stock cattle was hardly known. The first record of alfalfa in the county harks back to 1882. when Virgil Allen, on the South Loup, sent to Sacramento. California, and procured enough seed to ex- periment with four or five acres. The experi- ment was successful. and year by year he added to the field until he had in cultivation broad acres of this imported meat and milk producing hay. Very early in the '80s several experiments were tried in the Middle Loup river valley, and these likewise proved suc- cessful. In 1886 Robert Hunter began the agitation for more alfalfa and was the means

In the years 1907 and 1908 the acreage was largely increased and in the year 1909 the county came into prominence as an alfalfa producing county. The agricultural reports of this year rated Custer as the second county in the state in the production of alfalfa. In 1910 it again forged ahead and went to the top. with 48,419 acres to its credit. This seems to have been the high year. For the next two years the acreage decreased at the rate of one thousand acres a year. In 1913 the acreage is reported as nearly 5,000 less than in 1910. This year, 1918. the county stands in third place. The hard. freezing winters of later years and the pressure used to increase the wheat production for war purposes, have caused the

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

decrease noted. In spite of decreased produc- tion and increases of other crops, the average value of the Custer county alfalfa crop for the last eight years has been over $1,600,000.00.

In the 1918 Nebraska State Fair Custer county alfalfa was awarded eight different pre- miums.

CUSTER COUNTY HEADS THE LIST

The following extract from a 1917 issue of the Custer County Chief shows how the

race for supremacy as a corn producer. with conditions represented by eighty-eight out of a possible one hundred points. Custer county is also in the high rank for oats, with ninety- four points, several counties having the same average. The other counties which are of equal rank in this respect are Red Willow, Buffalo, Hall, and Sherman. Custer county again touches the high mark in the wheat average, it being twenty-seven bushels per acre, with Red Willow county, another wes-

[Photo by S. D. Butcher ]

TWO CROPS THAT NEVER FAIL

county ranks in agricultural products for the year 1917 :

"The bureau of labor has, during the past week, completed the work of compiling the crop conditions of Nebraska by counties, and the report presents some surprises. It was only a few years ago when the eastern part of Nebraska was far ahead of other portions of the state, but things have changed, and this year, to see the finest crops in Nebraska the people have to come to Custer county. In speaking of the report of the bureau of labor, the Lincoln News, of July 3Ist has the fol- lowing :

"'Custer county kicks the high places in the

tern county, a close second. with twenty-five bushels per acre.' "

AN EARLY LIVE-STOCK ASSOCIATION

The first live-stock association of which there is any record was organized in 1878. As the story goes, it was time for the spring roundup of 1878, and a meeting to organize for that purpose was called at Custer, which at that time meant the Young ranch and which was also the county seat, for the purpose of organizing for the roundup and for the added purpose of organizing a live-stock association. There were several large ranches represented, by owners and employes. The meeting had

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

all the characteristics of the early day and wes- Most of the farms are conducted with a view tern stage. The organization for the roundup to handling stock. The abundant grasses of the pasture land are strong and nutritious, and cattle in pastures fatten rapidly. The forage crops of the cultivated lands are sufficient to winter all the cattle that the grass lands will summer. This makes Custer county farming very profitable. was effected by electing Phil Dufrand as cap- tain. With the roundup business out of the way, they proceeded to organize the Custer County Live Stock Association, the object of which was to promote the cattle industry and protect herds from cattle rustlers and those engaged in slaughtering "slow elk." The of- ficers of the organization were: President, 1. P. Olive : secretary, Harry Windsor ; treasur- er, Jacob Boblits ; inspector, J. D. Haskell.

The passing of the great herds that roamed over the country in an early day, when every- thing was ranch and range, has not lessened the number of cattle. If there are no longer

THE PALE-FACE CATTLE HAVE TAKEN CUSTER COUNTY

A committee, consisting of I. P. Olive. S. C. Stuckey, and E. J. Boblits, to draft a set of by-laws and set a constitution, was formed. This was the first cattle or stock association of any kind ever formed in the county. Their roll of membership has not been preserved. nor are minutes of any subsequent meeting obtainable.

LIVE-STOCK RAISING

That much-talked-of, invisible line which divides the grazing from the corn belt runs through Custer county. That makes it incline to both agricultural and grazing pursuits, a combination of farming and stock-raising.

herds of 5,000 head, seventy-five herds of one hundred head each have come to take their place. On the smaller holdings, into which the big ranges have been broken, are better cattle and more to the square mile than in the days when everything was cattle.

CATTLE GRADES IMPROVED

On the small farm, where the herd is sinaller, more care is given to stock and great pains is taken in quality selection for breeding purposes. As a result, cattle are of better grade than formerly. The scrub male no longer heads the herd. In its place is found the king of models, bred in the long lineage

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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA

of purple blood. Fine models of blooded stock are consequently found on every farm.

Virgil Allen claims the distinction of im- porting the first blood in the cattle line. His fancy early ran to shorthorns. By importing thoroughbreds he set for his neighbors a fine example in herd improvement. The influence of the example has not been lost. Everywhere cattle have been improved until it is safe to say that no better cattle are found anywhere in the state. The county is full of shorthorns and white-faces, while Polled Angus and other varieties of polled cattle are not uncommon.

The dairy interests have become enormous and milking strains of Durhams bred for the purpose, the famous milk-producing Holsteins. and the cream-producing Jerseys have come to stay. These milkers are in the dairies and in the one-cow barns of the town people.

The cattle interests of the county are well developed and profitable.

HOGS, BLACK AND RED

When the early settlers came, some of them brought a few hogs with them. It has been, however, almost impossible to ascertain who brought the first hog into the county. The early hog served his purpose. He had to pio- neer and take his chances on short rations, the same as the other stock. The hog was cheap, but the great incentive to raise him spelled lard and bacon.

The first breeder of a pure strain of hogs, of whom there is any record, was J. L. H. Knight, of Lee's Park, who as early as 1885. while only a youngster himself, paid thirty dollars for a pure-blood Poland-China gilt. The offspring of this gilt in after years put good hogs on every farm in the eastern part of the country.

To-day hog raising is one of the great in- dustries of the county. The two and three cents per pound price of the early day has improved as much as the breeds. At the time this page is being written, hogs are worth on the market, in any town in the county, eigh- teen cents a pound. The stock has developed. by select breeding, from the hazel-splitters of pioneer times to the square-blocked types of

Poland-Chinas and Duroc-Jerseys which are found on every farm to-day. These two breeds predominate. They have been found most profitable. They show up best in the pork barrel and in the bank account.

The agricultural reports of the state credit Custer in 1917 with nearly sixty thousand hogs. They constitute one of the greatest as- sets of the county. The hog crop of 1918 is far in excess of 1917.

THE PORKER PAYS THE MORTGAGE

F. M. Currie wrote the following article over seventeen years ago:

Custer county is in the geographical center of the state of Nebraska. Its elevation is about 2,000 feet above the level of the sea, and the average rainfall is not far from twenty inches per annum. It produces a large variety of nutritious grasses, and is well watered. Al- though streams are not very abundant, water is to be found everywhere, in inexhaustible quantities, at various depths, ranging from a few feet in the valleys to four hundred feet on the highest table lands. It was the home of countless numbers of buffalo before the advent of the cowboy. With the coming of the cattlemen, the buffalo were driven out. and it became a veritable paradise for the large cattle ranch. After it was opened for settle- ment. the homesteader claimed its broad and fertile prairies as his right under the law, and the cattle rancher was obliged to vacate. But the number of cattle was increased instead of diminished. In place of a few men owning hundreds and even thousands of head, a large number of men became the owners of small herds, and the total number was increased. Much of the land was broken out, and general agriculture became the occupation of the early settlers. Then it was that a more intensive agriculture became necessary, and the farmers turned their attention to the poor man's friend - the hog. The hog is essentially the friend of the poor farmer, because it requires very little capital with which to make a start. The number of hogs in Custer county has increased very rapidly, until nearly every farmer owns from ten to four or five hundred head. (i course the keeping of hogs necessitates the growing of corn. With the exception of two years- those of 1890 and 1894-Custer county has produced a sufficient quantity of corn to mature most of the hogs raised within her borders. The high altitude, the pure at- mosphere, and excellent drainage of Custer

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county make it exceedingly healthful for both human beings and animals. The animal di- seases which are so common in most parts of the United States, are almost unknown in Custer county. In recent years there has been a slight loss from disease known ( in the com- mon parlance) as hog cholera. but Custer county has never had an epidemic which car- ried off whole herds of swine.

The farmer, unlike his predecessor. the cattle man, usually markets his cattle in a finished condition. The cattle man of the olden times gathered his beeves from the plains and shipped them in large numbers to the market in Chicago or Kansas City. Those that were fat enough to kill were sold to the butcher ; those that were not finished were sold to the feeders in Iowa, eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, and Illinois. The farmer and cattle man of the present day feeds his own cattle and ships them, ready for the block, to the market in Omaha, which is distant about 180 miles. The cost of transportation is about thirty-eight dollars per carload. In preparing his beef. the farmer finds a large saving in the use of the hog. The cattle are put in yards and fed all the grain they will eat ; at the same time hogs are put in the yard to follow the cattle. cleaning up the waste. The cattle usual- ly absorb about one-half of the nutritive value of the corn that passes through their stomachs. the other half would be wasted were it not for the hogs which follow the cattle, and the waste is thus transformed into pork. The hog and cattle industry go together and furnish a considerable profit to the farmer. In good seasons, the average farmer on 160 acres of good land is able to turn off a carload of cattle and a carload of hogs each year. The cattle are pastured on the grazing lands of the county. They are fed in winter on the rough feed produced on the farming land, consisting of cornstalks. straw, millet. etc. The hogs are raised usually during the summer season, and in autumn the two are placed together ; the farmer thus secures the entire profit accruing to the man who raises the cattle, who raises the hogs and who feeds them. Poland-China is by far the most popular breed of hogs, while Jersey Red. Chester Whites, and Berkshires are very abundant.

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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 50

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