History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time, Part 23

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120

USA > Nebraska > Gage County > History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time > Part 23

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The opening of the war had a very depress- ing influence on the affairs of Nebraska, es- pecially the financial and business affairs. Coming as it did after a general failure of crops in 1860, on account of drouth, it found our people with little or nothing to sell and no market for that. It seemed as if the world had come to a stand-still. There were times when produce could not be exchanged for goods at Nebraska City, and even toward the close of the war, when confidence had become somewhat restored, it would take two bushels of wheat to buy a pound of coffee or a yard of brown sheeting, and many other things in proportion. Of course we did not put on much style in dress or live very luxuriously in any way. This state of things drove us from the Missouri river as a market and obliged us to look to the westward for the sale of our products.

There was at the opening of the war quite a large increasing population in Colorado that must be fed with produce from the east, and the people of Nebraska were quick to take advantage of this new market.

To illustrate to what expedients our people were driven during the war, take such in- stances as these. In the fall of 1862, I think

it was, wheat was worth at Nebraska City, thirty-five cents and salt was eight dollars a barrel. How were the people to get salt? This is the way; they hitched up their teams and went to the salt basin on Salt creek, near where Lincoln now stands, scraped up the salt that rises to the surface and is crystalized by the action of the sun, hauled it home, dissolved it, purified it, boiled it down and made a very fine article of salt.

Not only were the people of this section, but of all South Platte, a part of Iowa, and the country westward to the mountains, to a great extent supplied with salt from this source. In fact manufactories of salt of considerable extent and capacity were established there, and quite a town was built up, all of which has long since disappeared.

They could not pay two dollars per pound for tobacco so they raised their own tobacco. They did not use coffee or tea every day. Sorghum syrup took the place of sugar, which was at one time two and a half pounds for a dollar.

Some farmers who had heavy teams hauled their produce to Denver or went into a regular freighting business; others moved on to the lines of travel, and established ranches for the accommodation of the travel, while others staid on their farms and raised produce and hauled to the ranches and sold it, the produce being mostly corn, potatoes, pork, eggs and butter. At this time hundreds of farms were abandoned and left uncultivated in all parts of the territory.

The west was our principal market until the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, which destroyed the market for corn and drove the people of this county to raising wheat, for which we had now a pretty good market east- ward.

The early settlers had the idea that wheat would not do well here until, in 1862 or 1863. some astonishingly large and good crops were raised, but for the want of a paying market very little was raised for sale until about 1866. Since that time wheat has been the principal crop grown for sale, and it was for many years

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considered the surest and best paying crop ruff, and two young men on the Blue whose that could be grown. names are forgotten. These all, with the ex- ception of Charlie Austin, enlisted in the Nebraska regiment and went to the front. None of them was killed in the service except William Shaw, who was killed by an accident, at St. Louis, in 1863.

The war found our people almost unanim- ous for sustaining the government. Some few secessionists were found along the river, but they speedily left Nebraska for more con- genial climes. In this county a few opposed the coercion of the states, but they were gen- erally very mild in the expression of their views.

During the winter of 1860-1861 the legisla- ture passed a law for organizing the militia of the territory into companies, regiments, bri- gades and divisions, for purposes of defence in case of danger. Accordingly an election was called by proclamation, and those persons lia- ble to military duty were required to meet at their respective county seats and organize one or more companies, according to population, by electing officers. In Clay county the able- bodied men met at Austin some day in June, 1861, and organized a company by electing for captain, Delos Mills, of Salt Creek ; first lien- tenant, James Silvernail, of the Nemaha; sec- ond lieutenant, H. W. Parker, of Austin; and a full set of non-commissioned officers.

Clay county had, at this time, a population of about one hundred and fifty or perhaps a trifle more, of whom about forty were voters. At the first election after the organization of the county, Nemaha precinct, composed of about one-fourth of the territory of the coun- ty, cast seven votes, being the full vote of the precinct, and as late as the division of the county the highest number of votes polled was thirteen ; most of the other precincts had more.

We do not know the number or the names of all those who enlisted in the army at the different times under the different calls of the president for volunteers, but Clay county, although a frontier county, furn- ished a large number of soldiers, and the territory kept her quota full under all calls, without resorting to the draft. Among those who enlisted under the first call for three hun- dred thousand, were John Hilman, Jr., William Shaw, Egbert Shaw, James I. Shaw, William Hand, Charlie Austin (who went east and enlisted in an Ohio regiment), William Rud-

Many others served for the defense of the frontier for different terms and at different times, among whom were Thaddeus Hillman, John Stafford, Nelson Adams, two young men named Etherton, on Salt creek, James Iler and several others whose names are not now known, as they were new comers and did not return to the country after their term of ser- vice expired. One son of John Hilman enlist- ed in an Iowa regiment and was killed in the first battle he was engaged in.

A history of this section would not be com- plete without an account of the division of Clay county and the distribution of its terri- tory between the counties of Lancaster and Gage. All history has for its object the in- struction of the present and future by the les- sons and experiences of the past, and for this reason the history of the division of Clay coun- ty must be written.

As early as the fall of 1863, rumors of a plan for dividing Clay county began to reach the people of the several settlements of the county, but this did not arouse much interest, from the fact that no one seemed to know anything definite about it, or where the rumors came from, and further it was well known that scarcely any one in Clay county favored such division. But soon men in Beatrice would drop a hint now and then to feel the pulse of our people in this matter, but they found them all against any such scheme and for some time we heard nothing more about it, and we supposed the thing was dead. But in the fall of 1864 the matter took such shape that there could be no mistaking the fact that there were only two or three in the extreme southern and about the same number in the extreme northern part who favored the plan or assisted in carrying it out; and they were all interested in town-site speculations which the scheme was supposed to favor.

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

At this time Clay, Gage, and Johnson coun- ties formed one representative district, and John Cadman managed to get the nomination for representative from this district. All this was apparent, still but few knew that this was a part of the plan to defraud the people of their rights. The plan was soon discovered, but too late to do anything of any consequence toward defeating Cadman's election. In fact, nothing could have been done under any cir- cumstances.

This man Cadman lived on Salt creek at Saltillo, on the extreme north side of the coun- ty. He owned a town-site further down the creek, where the insane asylum has since been built, and this, if Clay county was divided, would be very near the center of Lancaster and of course would be likely with shrewd management to become the county seat of Lancaster, which was not yet located.

On the south the proprietors and people of Beatrice never felt quite sure that they could hold the county seat of Gage county at that place, because it was within six miles of the north line of the county and considerably to the west of the center of the county, while the geographical center lay on the Big Blue river and was in every way as good a place to build a town as at Beatrice. Consequently the people of that town took an active interest in the conspiracy and worked for Cadman's nomination and election.

A nomination by the Republican party was at that time nearly equivalent to an election, but Cadman did not feel safe to keep still, so he niade a canvass of the three counties, telling the people of Clay and Johnson counties that if elected he would do nothing in the legisla- ture looking to a division of the county unless he had a petition (which he felt doubtful of getting) to present, from at least two-thirds of the legal voters of the county, asking such division. The people of these counties know- ing that there were not, altogether, a dozen people who would sign such a petition, he was elected.

At that time the capital was at Omaha, there were no facilities for travel as there are now, and in the winter we scarcely ever heard

what was going on in the legislature until the session was over. So it was this time. Some time in March, 1865, we learned that the leg- islature had adjourned and one of the acts passed was an act to divide Clay county, giv- ing the territory to Gage and Lancaster coun- ties. The people of Clay county were thun- derstruck. They had not expected such a thing. There had been no petition circulated or signed and the people were unable to con- ceive of such infamy and political rascality as this act revealed. It seems that the legisla- ture had obliterated this county from the map of Nebraska at the demand of a small ring of speculators, without the consent or even knowledge of the people of the county, thus adding insult to the other wrongs consum- mated by this outrage.

In justice to the senators and representa- tives from other parts of the state, it should be stated that, in answer to our reproaches, they said that there was a petition presented properly signed and which appeared to be per- fectly regular, asking them to pass such an act and they supposed that they were doing a favor to the whole people of Clay county - which proves that a forgery was committed.

The people of the county did not propose to submit to such treatment as this, but sup- posed that on a true representation of all the facts to the next legislature, supported by a petition of nearly the whole of the legal voters of the county, that the act would be repealed and the old county restored. Acting upon this supposition and in this belief, in the winter of 1866-1867 some of our people started out and secured the signature of very nearly every legal voter in the old county, but the work was hindered by the inclemency of the weather, by high water in the streams and by lack of facil- ities for traveling over the country, so that by the time the work was done and the petition was ready to send off, the legislature was ad- journed and we were disappointed.

This so discouraged some that, though they most earnestly wished the old county restored, they could not be induced to take any trouble upon themselves for this purpose on the chances presented. Others never gave up their

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hope of remedy or ceased their efforts to at- tain it.

Another effort to obtain justice was made in the winter of 1868-1869, when our petition was denied, at the demand of Lancaster and Gage county delegations. Still another effort was made in 1871, when a petition signed by over four hundred legal voters was presented by Colonel H. Rhodes, representative from Johnson county, while the measure was sup- ported by members from other counties ; but, although the justice of our cause was unques- tioned, we could not offer the inducement to members for votes for our measure, that Beat- rice and Lincoln could for votes against it, and they refused to grant our petition. From that time all hope seemed to have died out until the session of 1875, when another effort was made for the lost cause, but with no better success than before.

In giving a history of the county division and efforts for restoration, through a period of ten years or more, we have neglected many topics of interest, which we will now proceed to take up under separate and appropriate heads.

EDUCATION

As before stated, the cause of education in Clay county looked very discouraging in the early days. The people were poor ; there was no public-school fund to draw from then and very little taxable property, the land being nearly all in the hands of Uncle Sam.

The subject was taken up by the several settlements and treated according to the means and ability of the people. The first step was to form and organize school districts. The first school districts were composed of pre- cints of from three to five government town- ships, each with a township board of education whose duty it was to form sub-districts, the law not permitting the formation of a sub- district with less than ten children of school age.

There was no fund for building school houses, but the people subscribed according to their means and built log school houses, made caves or sod houses in which to teach the young idea how to shoot. Teachers'

wages were low and were paid by subscription or rate bill. There were three districts laid off in Clay county in 1862 - one on the Nemaha, one on Salt creek, and one on Indian creek and the Blue river - which were organized. The one on the Nemaha was divided into three sub-districts in the course of the years, but for various reasons they did not get schools running in any of them until 1864.

The first school taught on the Nemaha was taught, in the old log school house, until lately standing near James Silvernail's, by Miss Carrie Gale, now Mrs. L. T. Griggs, of Beatrice. School cost something in those days when the expense was wholly borne by three or four in each sub-district. Since that time schools have been taught regularly in nearly all the districts, both before and since the county division.

Since 1865 and 1866 the country has set- tled up more rapidly than before, and schools and school houses have been multiplied ac- cordingly, and people coming to this state now need have no fears that their children need go without instruction, as our public schools will compare favorably with those of any state.

SETTLEMENTS

The settlement of this state was very slow during the war; from 1861 to 1864 a few came, mostly from Missouri, being run out by bushwackers or leaving to escape the draft. A few of these stopped in this county but most of them stayed near the Missouri river. They are nearly all gone now, some to one place and some to another. Mr. Isaac Mayo is the only one left on the Nemaha. There are a few yet on Salt creek and near Firth, of whom we may mention the Grims, Jack- sons, Montgomerys and a few others. Also about this time or a little before, came from Indiana Mr. William McLane and brothers and other relatives. Further down Salt creek, Mr. Delos Mills, Mrs. Boydston, Mrs. Warner, Mr. Keyes, D. S. Brown, Fred and Carl Krul, Mr. Huskin and others. On the Nemaha, George Drown, William Curtis, H. C. Barmole, and a little later the Moore Brothers, J. H.

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Lynch, George Lykes and Henry Stoops, and soon after James Sykes.

On Indian creek and the Blue, the settlers were George Grant and sons, who for some time resided at Austin, and who moved to Turkey creek about this time; and near him Robert Nicholas, James and William Pluck- nett, and, on Clatonia and the Blue, William Van Cleit, James Krusie, Alfred Snell, and others.

After the war the settlement was rapid, and your historian was unable to keep an account of all who came, much less to name them. For several years after the war a great many soldiers found themselves, to use a vulgar but significant expression, loose-footed, and the at- tractions of Nebraska as an agricultural state becoming known at the east, Nebraska receiv- ed a large accession of this honored class of citizens from other states.

Through all this immediate section all the claims on the streams containing bottom land or timber, were taken up in 1866 or before, and the next year prairie claims were taken, in fact early all the homestead land in the county was taken.

One thing that delayed the settlement of the section of country about Firth was the with- drawal of large tracts of land from market by the government, for railroad purposes, but this is now seen to be an advantage to the country in keeping it out of the hands of other speculators who are still holding in Gage county large tracts, above the means of set- tlers.

Since 1867 the improvement of the country has been very rapid, embracing the building of towns and railroads, which properly comes under another head, to which we will now refer.

TOWNS AND RAILROADS .

As has been already stated, a number of towns were laid out in Clay county at an early dy, but none of them ever amounted to any- thing. They were generally located without reference to any natural advantages of posi- tion except, perhaps, a beautiful site for build- ing purposes, but as such sites could be had

anywhere, it was not of sufficient importance to build up a town.

There was not at that time, or for many years afterward, anything in the county to build up towns. There was no water power in the county to encourage manufacturing operations, there was but one route of travel overland through the country, viz ; through the Salt creek settlement from Nebraska City to Denver, Colorado, but the travel was too light and too transient to build up the town Olatha. But the principal trouble was that here were not people or capital enough to give anything a good start.

When Clay county was divided, and for years afterward, there was absolutely no town of any kind in the county. Nebraska City was the only town that could be called a market for the people of this section until about 1868.

John Adams, on the Nemaha, used to do some blacksmithing for the neighbors. He got so that he could do a good job of almost any kind, and was always willing to oblige his neighbors. John W. Prey, of Salt creek, used also to do some blacksmith work, and mend plows and wagons for his neighbors. John Stafford, on the Nemaha, made and mended shoes and boots. George Gale used to make ropes and twine, Alfred Gale used to make baskets and John B. Shaw used to make brooms. Aside from these mechanical arts practiced at home, all business had to be done a long distance from home.

After the location of the capital at Lincoln there was a market there for some of the lighter kinds of produce, and most kinds of merchandise could be bought there nearly as cheaply as at Nebraska City, but did not afford us a market for grain or other heavy produce, from the fact that there were no railroads to get it away, and up to the time of the com- pletion of the Midland Pacific Railroad to Lincoln, in 1871, the farmers hauled all their grain to Nebraska City, and bought all or most of their heavy goods, lumber, and build- ing material, salt, hardware, machinery, im- plements, etc., there. The people of this sec-

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tion never did much business at Beatrice until within a few years past.

The first town within the limits of Clay county that was of any use to the people was Bennett, on the Missouri Pacific Railroad. This town afforded a market for grain and made a fair trading point for the farmers of the northeastern section of the old county.

When the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad was built, a little station and trading point was established on Cheese creek, in the northwestern part of the old county, and called Highland. Other little towns were started on the Beatrice branch of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad just outside of the limits of Clay county, and Crete, Wilber, and DeWitt are a great accommodation to many of the people of the county.

Some years previous to this, a mill was built and a town laid out in Johnson county by W. H. Mann, of Sterling, Illinois, and called Sterling, but the town never made much growth until the building of the railroad. It was and still is of great advantage to some of the people of the southeastern part of the county. None of these roads run through old Clay county except to cut across a corner of it.

In 1869 the legislature offered, as a bounty for the building of railroads in Nebraska, to give twenty thousand acres of land to any com- pany who should, by the first of January, 1871, build and operate ten miles of first-class rail- road in Nebraska. About this time a com- pany was formed and incorporated, called the Nemaha Valley Railroad Company, for the purpose of building a railroad from Rulo to Lincoln. This company and several others commenced building railroads and built ten miles of road and claimed the bounty of twenty thousand acres of land.

The legislature being in session at that time, a board of commissioners was appointed to examine and report on the several roads claiming the bounty, and on their report the legislature, while it accepted some of them, rejected the claim of the Nemala Valley Company on the ground that it could not be rated as a first-class railroad. About this

time the company became bankrupt, the work was abandoned, and the hopes of the people were frustrated.

But is was not long that this rich valley was to languish for want of railroad facilities, for a company having the means to do the work took hold of the matter and the result was the building of the Atchison & Northern Railroad from Atchison, Kansas, to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1871-1872, thus opening up the entire valley of the Big Nemaha to the commerce of the world. Be- fore this time this section had become pretty well settled, large farms had been opened and the want of an outlet by rail for the immense quantities of produce grown was severely felt ; and when the road was completed, its benefits were immediately felt and appreciated by the people of the valley. The effects of the build- ing of this road were to cause new farms to be opened, and old ones to be enlarged and im- proved, as well as the building of towns and the rise of real estate along the whole line to the distance of many miles.

Among the towns built on this road are Adams, Firth, and Hickman, all in old Clay county and consequently within the limits of this history. These towns were located and surveyed by the company.

ADAMS

Adams was laid out on the north half of the northeast quarter of section 27 town 6, range 8, in Gage county, in the spring of 1873, John O. Adams giving the company a half-interest in the land. William Curtis built the first house the same spring and this has been used by B. W. Anderson for a store and dwelling to the present time. After harvest of the same year Messrs. Adams and Curtis built the ware- house which is now used by R. A. Kenyon for shipping grain.

In the fall of 1874 R. A. Kenyon built and opened a store and in the fall of 1875 he en- larged his house and moved his family there, where he still keeps a store and does a good business buying grain.

The postoffice was established in 1872, with William Curtis postmaster. Mr. Burget op-

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ened a blacksmith shop there in the spring of 1875. Adams is a good point for business and would do a great deal if the railroad company would improve the facilities for do- ing it.

FIRTH

Firth was laid out on the northwest quarter of section 35, town 7, range 7, in July 1872, on land belonging to the Burlington & Mis- souri Railroad Company in Nebraska, which gave the Atchison & Northern a half-interest in the town.

The company commenced making improve- ments and others commenced building almost immediately. The first building aside from the company's improvements was a small house which was used as a saloon. Then followed the section house and depot, and A, Ellsworth's store, which was the first store in Firth. Then Lyman Wood's dwelling, then Lon Mor- gan's house and blacksmith shop, Cham- pion's dwelling, Clement & Everest's store, Sweeney's dwelling, and Champion's ware- house. Albert Brown was the first sta- tion agent and operator for the railroad com- pany. D. E. Champion commenced buying grain the 30th of September, 1872. Sweeney commenced a few days later and they soon bought together and continued together for about two years, when Champion concluded to retire from business and is not doing anything now except running a livery stable, a land agency, building houses to rent, selling im- plements and machinery, and running a hard- ware store.

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History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time, Part 23

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849- Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company Number of Pages: 1120

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120