USA > Nebraska > Dixon County > History of Dixon County, Nebraska > Part 3
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
Des Moines, lowa. L. T. Hill, the father of the once pros- perous but now defunct town of lonia, is a citizen of Cali- fornia, and D. T. Bramble, who kept the first store in Ponca, removed many years ago to Yankton. And the Hoeses. Adam Smith, James Barrett, Leander Davis and a host more have gone, so that by death and removal, as well as by the constant additions of new comers, one who only knew the country and people in 1856-7-8, would now, if here, find him- self almost a stranger in a strange land.
The number of those who came here in 1857 was much greater than in 1856. In 1857 the Indians assigned their claims to the country and it was surveyed and brought into market and the uncertainties as to title and possession no longer gave trouble. This year, also, there was plenty to do, breaking land, building houses, barns and fences, and labor was in great demand at high prices.
These considerations, together with the promise of good crops encouraged everybody. The general prosperity and the rapid increase of population aroused, during the sum- mer, the ambition of settlers to have a county organization. Ponca, then in Dakota county. but in the northwestern corner of it, hoped to be taken into the new county. as its future in such a new deal, would become more promising. With these ambitious desires in view, the Ponca people at an election, held August 3. 1857. brought forward Dr. S. B. Stough as their candidate for the territorial legislature. Their voting place had been previously and was that year at St. Johns, a town about a mile north of Jackson. St. Johns. though now extinct. was then the largest town in Dakota county and of so much importance that it had recently been nearly successful in an effort to become the county seat in place of Dakota City. In such effort St. Johns received a majority of the votes but not two-thirds, and that being the number required, Dakota City continued to hold the fort. St. Johns did not want Ponca to go into a new county. as it would then make the location of the former too far to one side, and thereby in any future struggle for county seat. be apt to defeat its efforts. On the contrary for the same reasons, residents in the eastern part of Dakota county were anxions to be rid of Ponca and territory enough on the west to bring Dakota City near the center and thus assure its
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
destiny forever as a county seat. Hence Dakota City and Ponca joined hands to elect Dr. Stough to the legislature. knowing that his election would result in the desired law and would be beneficial to both.
At this election, the last at which Ponca had to go away from home to vote. twenty-seven of Ponca's citizens piled into C. F. Putnam's big hay wagon and went down to St. Johns. The voters of St. Johns objected to their voting. and much eloquent wind was expended on both sides. The St. Johns folks challenged the right of the Poncaites to come there to vote and made threats of black eyes and possible annihilation. In fact there were two or three moderate fights, and both sides had coats off and decks cleared for action, and there would have been a desperate scrimmage had it not been for Father Traey, the Catholic priest. He quieted the uproar and poured oil on the troubled waters. The men from Ponea put in their votes and tried their best for Dr. Stough. Dakota City helped all it could. but there were not enough votes, all told. to elect him. Hence the new county project was knocked in head for that year.
Misfortunes come in pairs. That truth was demonstrated on the same day their election resulted so disastrously. Their second misfortune was a grasshopper raid, something the settlers had never seen before. Late in the afternoon as the hay wagon with its twenty-seven closely packed voters was returning from St. Johns to Ponea, a phenomenon was seen entirely new to them. It was a great. dark cloud rapidly approaching from the north. As it came near. they saw it was not a rain or dust cloud. and it was thought to be composed of a great collection of cottonwood seeds floating together high in air. When near them, part of the cloud came to the ground and Putnam and Hoese climbed down from the wagon and made examination.
The new visitations resembled the eastern grasshopper somewhat, and as Messrs. Putnam and Hoese had often heard of the dreaded western variety, they readily determined as to what they were.
When the party arrived in Ponca, they found a sorry state of affairs. The 'hoppers, innumerable hosts of them, had come down and were busy eating the gardens and corn fields.
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
They did not stay long, but diligently improved their time.
Out of this grasshopper raid grew a lawsuit the next day. One. Henniphon, residing up South Creek way, and said to have an inordinate love for his neighbors' property, came before the Squatters Club, and claimed that the cattle of William Jones had destroyed his corn. A committee con- sisting of Messrs. Forney. Hoese and Harrington. accom- panied by Putnam as Sheriff, went out to Henniphon's place to examine the field. They saw no cattle tracks but found plenty of evidence that the damage had been done by the all devouring 'hoppers, and that hence the cause of action was beyond the jurisdiction of the Squatter Court. This little lawsuit episode had for the time, diverted the atten- tion of the settlers from an examination of their own fields. But the sight of Heuniphon's demolished erop, opened their eyes to the tremendous strength and industry of a grass- hopper's jaws, and they made haste with many forebodings. to investigate. They found that this first grasshopper visit. though short, had wiped out the growing crops of every one of them. During the balance of the fall the new county project was subordinate in all minds to the question as to what they would have to eat the coming winter. Really. the loss was not great, as only about two hundred and seventy-five acres were in crops that year, but it was all the people had and though now-a-days the loss of ten times that amount would ent no figure. then it was a most serious matter and foreshadowed hungry days.
Nor were the fears ill founded. With 1858 hard times came in earnest. In 1856-7 money had been plenty, wages from $3 to $5 per day and enough to do. But in 1858 and from that time to and including 1860 there was hardly a dol- lar between Sioux City and Niobrara. Crops were poor and provisions scarce and the ambition of settlers and the prices of land went down to bed rock. Mr. Putnam says that during those unpropitions years a good farm could have been bought for a dollar. The main difficulty in making such a purchase was to get the dollar.
In these first years of Dixon County life. the pioneer had the usual troubles of those who settle in a new country. Generally with a thin purse and little credit, privations naturally followed. At the start it was expensive for
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
settlers to come to the west, and when here to plow and plant, build cabins and stables and fairly get business under satisfactory headway. But such expenses and labors even with the additional disappointments and losses from hard times, grasshoppers, short erops, etc., did not often dis- courge the settlers of Dixon County, especially in the first three years. The pioneer realized that he could well afford to suffer privations. Instead of costing the earnings of a lifetime to purchase a farm, as in the east, he had here a better farm given him. Here was a beautiful country, fertile soil, timber, pure water. and above all a healthy climate. What more could reasonably be asked. What though he might suffer backsets at first and be made to feel the want of many things which in the east were considered indispensable.
Allowing that his purse was empty, his family on short rations, and that a good square meal and a comfortable coat were known to him only in his dreams. These were not calamities but temporary privations which energy and perseverance would cure. But it would have been a ca- lamity to have left his farm with its attendant privations, and go back east, and, no longer the lord of a manor, himself, become a hewer of wood and a drawer of water for others.
The hard times of 1858 did not prevent the settlers from reviving the project for a county organization. This year the election turned out better than it had the year before. and D. T. Bramble, the merchant of Ponca, and naturally greatly interested in its welfare and in the welfare of the country tributary to it, was elected to the territorial legis- lature, the next session of which was held at Omaha. com- mencing September 21, 1858.
At that session an act introduced by Mr. Bramble organ- izing the County of Dixon was passed and duly approved November 1. 1858, with an emergency clause attached. Such act was as follows:
An Act to Organize and Define the Boundaries and Locate the County Seat of Dixon County.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the council and house of representatives of the territory of Nebraska, that all that portion of the territory with the following boundaries. to-wit: Commencing at a point where the township line
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
between townships twenty-nine and thirty strikes the Mis- souri river; thence west along said line to the section line between sections three and four, township twenty-nine, north, range six. east: thence south to the south line of Da- kota county: thence west to a point dne south of the south- east corner of Cedar county: thence north to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river; thence down said channel to the place of beginning. be and the same is here- by organized under the name and style of Dixon County.
SEC. 2. The first election for county officers shall be held in said county on the second Monday in December, A. D. 1858, and shall be conducted in the same manner and gov- erned by the same laws as govern the elections of other counties, excepting that the returns shall be made to the probate judge of Dakota county, who shall issue certificates of election to those who have received a plurality of the votes cast for the respective officers, who shall hold their offices until the next general election.
SEC. 3. At the first election, each qualified voter may designate on his ballot the place of his choice for the county seat of said county. and if any one place receives a major- ity of the votes cast. it shall be the county seat: if not. the county commissioners shall order a new election to be held within twenty days, and they shall give eight days' notice of the same, when the choice shall be between the two places that receive the highest number of votes at the first elec- tion, and the one receiving the majority shall be the county seat.
SEC. 4. At the first election. the polls shall be opened and an election held at Ponca, Galena, Ionia and North Bend. and the same shall be conducted by judges of election ap- pointed by the probate judge of Dakota county, who shall give due notice of the election.
SEC. 5. All acts and parts of acts conflicting with this act are hereby repealed.
SEC. 6. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
Approved November 1. 1858.
The language used in the above act defining the bounda- ries of Dixon county, is not the same as that which the stat- ute now prescribes. It means precisely the same, however. The change of the wording was by an act of the legislature in 1859, "To change and redefine the boundaries of Dixon. Cedar and L' Eau-qui-court counties" and which went into effect January 13, 1860. Under that act the boundaries are as follows:
Commencing at the southwest corner of township
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY. NEBRASKA.
twenty-seven, north, range 4, east: thence east to the line dividing sections thirty-three (33) and thirty-four (34) in township twenty-seven, north, of range six east; thence north to the dividing line between townships twenty-nine and thirty, north, of range six east, thence east to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river: thence up said channel to a point where the dividing line between ranges three and four, east. intersects the same, thence south to the place of beginning.
Up to the time the organization aet took effect. Noven- ber 1. 1858, the government township including Ponca and a strip running north and south, therefrom across the county and three miles wide, had been a part of Dakota county, and it had been expected by many and hoped by all who lived in the western part of the region affected, that the boundary of Dakota county would not be disturbed and that Pouca would remain there.
As heretofore mentioned, two ambitious towns had been started near the mouth of Lime Creek in the northwestern part of that which afterwards became Dixon County. One of those towns, Concord, had a store. post office, a saw mill and four houses, and the other. North Bend, had a mill and a few houses, and in size and population about equalled Con- cord. Concord and North Bend were less than a mile apart and much rivalry existed between them. In the summer of 1858, when the necessity of a county organization became ap- parent, it was generally supposed that none of the territory of Dakota county would be disturbed, but that instead. a range of townships on the west (afterwards included in C'edar county) would be incorporated in the new county. Thus Ponca would be left out and either Concord or North Bend was sure to become the county seat.
There would then be no other place of importance in the county, not considering lonia and Galena, which had but two or three houses apiece, and hence Concord or North Bend would naturally get the prize.
But which of the two was the question. Each wanted it and under no circumstances would consent that the other should have it.
To settle this destructive rivalry the statesmen of the two villages put their heads together and evolved a plan which they immediately put into execution. viz: the towns
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
being but a short distance apart, the land between them was laid out into a new town, and named Dixon. Thus the rivals came into one town and the central part, Dixon was, expected to become the county seat, and its name. Dixon would henceforth be the name covering the whole.
The new name. Dixon, was made the name of the county, but as afterwards appeared, the honor of naming the new county was all that Dixon received. The member of the ter- ritorial legislature in 1858, Mr. Bramble, saw that if Ponea became a part of the new county it would be a powerful and probably successful rival of Dixon. Ponca had already while in Dakota county shown an ambition for county hon- ors. At an election a year or two before to decide the location of Dakota county's capital. Ponca had entered the lists and had received a few votes, and the desire to get rid of the presence of a possible future competitor may have had something to do with Dakota City's ready consent to the loss of that part of Dakota county which included Ponca. Hence the foregoing aet for the organization of the county. was advocated by Mr. Bramble without opposition of im- portance from Dakota county, and none which was effect- ual from the friends of the new town of Dixon.
But while Dakota City was glad to thus get rid of an ambitions neighbor, the fears of the friends of Dixon that the death knell of their town had thereby been sounded. especially as the desired range of townships on the west had not been taken in, rendered their welcome to the new comer anything but cordial. That their fears were well founded. soon after became apparent.
The act organizing the county provided that on the sec- ond Monday of December. 1858. the election of county offi- cers, and the designation of the county seat should take place, and that polls should be opened at Ponea, Galena, Ionia and North Bend.
In the short time between the approval of the law and the holding of the election, every one was busy in behalf of his favorite town for county seat and his candidates for county officers. The combination of North Bend and Con- cord gave them encouraging strength. yet Ponca had eight buildings and about a dozen families, thus equaling the Con- cord-Dixon-North Bend triumvirate in that respect.
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY. NEBRASKA.
Not very metropolitan were these young cities, it must be confessed. but in ambition, hope and good feeling they were equal to many towns that put on more size. The entire population of the county at that time was about three hundred.
When the election came off desperate efforts for success were made by each of the rival localities. It has been said by some that the tremendous array of votes on that occasion indicated that the population of the county had suddenly jumped to greater proportions than ever before or since. Whether voters came from across the river or whether votes were put into the box in behalf of absent eastern friends. as asserted by some and denied by others. can hardly be told at this late day. Nor does it specially matter, as all. if any. re- sorted to the same tactics and the result was probably the same it would have been had the extra votes been left out. So long as it did not affect the result, it did no harm to vote absent friends or even Indians and in fact might have been useful as a showing that Dixon county was rapidly acquiring an immense population.
The result, loudly celebrated in Ponca on election night after the returns were in. was that Ponca had been victori- ous and that its eight buildings were located at the capital of the county. Tradition informs us that on that happy. exuberant occasion. the countenances of its citizens, Messrs. Bisbee. Porter, Stongh, Todd, et al. shone with joy and enthusiasm.
But while Ponca rejoiced. the defeat of Dixon caused it to soon disappear from the map and even from memory. It never had a house, and being on low ground was unfit for a house to stand on. Its only use was to marry the rival towns of Concord and North Bend, and after its mission had been fulfilled and had failed to do them or itself any good. it once more was thought of as a tract of cheap prairie. fit only for hay land. It now is a part of the farm of John Gunderson.
It may be proper to add here that in a few years Concord and North Bend petered out, their buildings were moved away or torn down, and their town sites became farms. Such is the frequent end of western town site enterprises.
The election which transformed Ponca into a county seat
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
also provided its first officers. They were:
Commissioners-John Cavanagh, H. A. Fuller and J. Massinger.
County Clerk Edward Arnold.
County Judge J. B. Denton.
Treasurer John Malone.
Surveyor S. B. Stough.
Sheriff Charles F. Putnam.
Thus Dixon county was finally started out on its official career. Those who were elected were men of integrity, and their careful and intelligent management of county af- fairs showed that the confidence of voters had not been mis- placed.
We do not learn the names of those who were elected at this first election, from any records. There are no rec- ords which we can find here or in the secretary of state's office at Lincoln showing that any election was held at all. In all things therefore relating this election we have been compelled to rely entirely on the memories of a few of those who were present on that occasion.
As will be seen from its metes and bounds. Dixon county touches the Missouri on the north, has the river and Dakota county on the east, Wayne county on the south and Cedar county on the west.
It has four hundred and eighty-six square miles, or three hundred and eleven thousand and forty (311,040) acres. It is a tract of land which is most fortunate in several respects. It has not a single worthless or marshy acre. About one- fourth of it is bottom land. the balance is rolling, and all of it has a rich soil, varying from three to six feet in depth and capable of producing immense crops.
There is no lack of water. The Logan river runs through the southern part, and the Daily, Aoway. West Branch, Tur- key, Powder and Lime creeks in the central and northern parts of the county. In addition are a great number of small tributaries, so that nearly every quarter section in the county has a living stream upon it. Along the Missouri the vast tracts of timber, oak. ehn, black walnut, hickory. etc., warranted to settlers abundant supplies of fire wood and lumber.
Such was the unsurpassed country which by the grace of
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
the general government, the territorial legislature and the industry and energy of the pioneers, became Dixon county and the future home of thousands of prosperous citizens.
After the election of its first county officers and the location of its capital, the new county of Dixon moved forward as hopefully as could be expected. Dixon, by becoming a full-fledged county, did not disturb the equilibrium of the other counties of the state, nor by its growth excite their jealousy. Nor did Ponca under its new honors become unduly swelled with pride and importance, nor bound into notice as a rival of Omaha. Its growth from that time for- ward, was at about the same pace as previously, somewhat slow. yet its future, under the circumstances, seemed more assured than before.
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
CHAPTER IV.
DIXON COUNTY'S PROGRESS ITS OFFICIALS AND THEIR METHODS OF DOING BUSINESS - - FIRST BOARD OF COM- MISSIONERS, THEIR PROCEEDINGS AND RECORDS, AND THE MANY DIFFICULTIES THEY HAD TO ENCOUNTER -- THE FIRST ASSESSMENT OF PROPERTY AND THE POVERTY- STRICKEN DISPLAY OF WEALTH HARD TIMES AND FEW
IMPROVEMENTS FIRST SCHOOL IN COUNTY CALL FOR TROOPS IN 1862 AND ENLISTMENT IN DIXON COUNTY ED. FREEMAN KILLED IN BATTLE OF WHITESTONE HILL IN- DIAN SCARES IN 1863 STAMPEDE OF SETTLERS FROM THE NIOBRARA COUNTRY THE DROUTH IN 1864 AND THE GREAT CROPS IN 1865 - RAILROAD PROPOSITION OF 1869 THE GROWTH OF PONCA AND THE RISE AND FALL OF IONIA.
There are no records in existence of what the first board of county commissioners did. or where they met. Old settlers, however, say that the first meeting was held in Bramble's log store. that the second was in blacksmith Roger's house, and that afterwards and for several years the commissioners met in Davis' tavern (now Bigley's).
As to the other county officers, they did business wherever they happened to be, and carried their records in their hats.
Of the commissioners acts at their first meeting. or during the first year we have but slight information. If they kept any proceedings at all. they were not preserved. It may reasonably be presumed, however, that they came together, swore one another into office, and in some way more or less skillful. commenced turning the new county machinery. They divided the county into commissioner's districts, appointed the metes and bounds of road and school districts, took into consideration two or three proposed roads, and talked about the prospect of raising money in the future by taxes so as to keep the wheels of the county's
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HISTORY OF DIXON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
progress suitably greased. It is not likely that at the first meeting of the commissioners, nor indeed during the first year, many bills were presented. If there were. we may safely assert that none were paid. There were no funds and it was generally understood that any pay for what was done. was, as to the county, a long way off.
The county did not in fact. start out in a very propitions time. The prosperous days of 1856 and 1857 had gone by. Then every one had his pockets full of money and felt rich: now the reverse was the rule. The winter of 1857-8 had been one of tremendous snows and much suffering. In the spring following. hard times, and scarcity of money and provisions had induced many to leave, some to Pike's Peak, others to their old homes in the east. While many left. the few new settlers who came in were not one-fourth as many as in 1856 or 1857. The winter of 1858-9 was also a hard and unhappy winter and the general scarcity of provisions and other comforts of life which had prevailed for more than a year past. seemed to have become chronic. Hence when the commissioners and other officers started in to pilot their new county during the first part of its voyage, the outlook was discouraging. That they persevered and kept up the organ- ization when everything naturally seemed to indicate that the abandonment of the country to the Indians again would be the result in the near future, was certainly in their favor.
In the following spring, '1859) the first assessment of the county took place. It was made by Sheriff Putnam and was one of the most poverty-stricken displays of a county's wealth ever seen before or since. Mr. Putnam tells us that about twenty tracts of land. each of one hundred and sixty acres, were assessed, the valuation being fixed at $1.25 per acre. There were also a few hogs and cattle and half a dozen horses. That was all there was of it. There were no such elaborate inventories of property as are used by assessors now-a-days. There was no need. A trivial array of cattle, horses and hogs, and the few tracts of deeded land com- prised the entire property, the assessed valuation of which, according to Mr. Putnam's recollection was not far from $4.800. It is obvious that the assessment was not a job which occupied any great length of time.
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