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 25

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 25

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In August, 1859, the members of the town- site company, after a mighty effort, raised a thousand dollars to enable Dr. Reynolds, as mayor of the town, an office required by the federal townsite act, to enter the half-section of land comprising the original town of Be- atrice, and to pay the expenses attending the

surveying and platting of the townsite. On September 12, 1859, a certified copy of the plat was filed in the government land office at Brownville and the entry and purchase of the land allowed. Thereafter patent was issued to Dr. Reynolds as mayor and trustee of the townsite company, and deeds and other con- veyances of the lots could then be made. As far as a mere paper townsite goes, Beatrice from that moment had existence. The growth of the town, however, was slow, though con- stant. The county itself, in 1860, contained but four hundred and twenty-one white in- habitants, according to the federal census of that year. Of this number probably twenty per cent. could properly be credited to Beatrice.

During the decade which closed in 1870, though still a pioneer village, Beatrice in- creased its population to six hundred and twen- ty-four inhabitants. The state of Nebraska it- self had come into the Union on March 1, 1867, with a population of 123,993, and the old ter- ritorial organization had passed away. The Union Pacific Railroad was completed from Council Bluffs, Iowa, via Omaha, to the Paci- fic coast. This first great continental railway line traverses the entire length of. Nebraska from east to west. Its construction, together with the conferring of statehood upon Nebras- ka, was a tremendous uplift to every interest of the state. Population flowed in, capital sought investment, towns and villages sprang into existence, institutions of learning were founded, roads established, and all those ele- ments of progress as well as of convenience and necessity, which a high degree of civiliza- tion and refinement implies, had received a mighty impetus throughout the entire state. The construction of the Burlington system, which was ultimately to gridiron a large por- tion of Nebraska, was under way across the state from Omaha to Denver, via Lincoln, to be followed early in the '70s by the building of the line of railway known to the early set- tlers as the Atchison & Nebraska. Not only Beatrice and Gage county, but also all Ne- braska east of the one hundredth meridian, was pulsing with the energy and enthusiasm which a rapidly increasing population and a tremen-

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

dous accession of wealth are apt to excite in a body politic at any time and under all circum- stances. Before the close of 1870, steps were inaugurated for the extension of the Burling- ton Railroad system to Beatrice. Here it is sufficient to say that this extension, together with the other activities of the 70's here mentioned, went far toward realizing the dreams, the hopes, the visions of Kinney, Mc- Conihe, Towle, Reynolds, Weston, Pike, Town- send, Cook, and the other founders of this beautiful city of Beatrice. During this period, as if by magic, there was evolved - from the old steam saw mill, "Pap's Cabin" and the clus-

school building erected in the county, it was the subject of considerable comment by every- body. People came from far and near to look at it, and when school opened that fall, with Oliver Townsend as the teacher, many a man breathed a sigh of relief on reflecting that at last school privileges were in sight for his children.

By the close of 1870, the hardships of pio- neer conditions were rapidly passing away. As a member of the first state legislature, in 1868, Hon. Nathan Blakely had procured the passage of an act appropriating one thousand acres of land in Gage county, the proceeds of

TORE

ATAIGE HE IS

I PHONY

COURT STREET IN 1870.

ter of huts and slab and board shanties that earlier comprised this unknown western ham- let on the very rim of civilization - under the name of Beatrice a beautiful and enterprising little city, destined to attain a position of great power and influence in the state and nation.

During this decade living conditions greatly improved in Beatrice and Gage county. As early as 1862, a small frame school house was erected on the block dedicated by the founders of the city to school purposes, where the Cen- tral grade-school building now stands. This building was a one story, single-room struc- ture, sixteen by twenty feet in dimensions. It was built of cottonwood lumber donated by the townsite company and supplied from its saw- mill, and the labor required for its erection was largely donated. As this was the first

which, when sold, were to be used in erecting a bridge across the Big Blue river at Beatrice. The lands thus donated were a part of a dona- tion of five hundred thousand acres of land by the federal government to the state of Nebras- ka, out of the public domain in the state, to be used for internal improvement. Almost as soon as Mr. Blakely's bill became operative steps were taken to carry its purposes into effect.

On May 22. 1869, the county commissioners, Ticknor, Wickham, and Pettygrew, ordered an advertisement in the Clarion, a newspaper which was printed in Beatrice and which had just come into existence, calling for bids for the construction of a bridge at Beatrice across the Big Blue river, to consist of three stone piers twenty-four feet high, two spans, each

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

one hundred and thirty feet in length and sixteen feet high, to cost not less than six thousand nor more than eight thousand dol- lars, and to be completed by August 1, 1870. The public lands selected by the county board to be applied to the cost of erecting this bridge, were: The northeast quarter of sec- tion 15, township 2, range 6; the southwest quarter of section 1; the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 2; the north- east quarter of section 3; and the northwest quarter of section 12, all in township 4, range 6; and the north half of section 2, township 4 north, range 7 east, Gage county, Nebraska.

There were several bids for this first county bridge. Cyrus W. Wheeler for the wood- work on the bridge bid $5,000 ; Michael Hinne- berry for the piers alone bid $3,000; J. Killian & Son for the complete work, $8,000; Curtis & Peavy, of Pawnee City, bid $7,600 on the com- plete structure and were awarded the contract. This bridge was located where the old Market street ford crossed the river, immediately be- low Black Brothers' mill. It was a high, nar- row structure, with room for only one vehicle at a time, and was perched on abutments which were said to have been filled with straw and stable manure instead of cement. The first spring freshet that took the ice out of the river, carried this bridge down with the flood. But its brief existence taught the public the value of bridges in our county, and this work has gone on until now the annual bridge budg- et of seventy-five thousand dollars makes the Peavey & Curtis appropriation of eight thous- and look extremely insignificant.

During 1870 the old part of what is now the Burwood Hotel was erected by Woodford G. McDowell and his brother, Joseph B. Mc- Dowell, and it was opened to public patronage by a grand ball, on January 1, 1871. Prior to this, however, a frame hotel building of some pretentions had been erected by George Hul- burt, at the corner of Second and Market streets, on lots 2 and 3, block 67 of the origi- nal town of Beatrice, known at the time as the Hulburt House. About 1874 title was ac- quired to this property by the Kansas & Ne- braska Stage Company, who reconstructed the

building into a large hostelry and christened it the Pacific House. For many years this old building discharged the office of a public inn. The spot where it stood is now occupied by the buildings of the Sonderegger Nurseries and Seed House.

In 1868 the government land office was mov- ed from Brownville to Beatrice and for nearly twenty years this city was the center of activ- ity for the entire Beatrice land district. At that time a government land office was an im- portant institution in the settlement and de- velopment of the country. People from long distances were compelled to transact their bus- iness largely with the government officials at the land office. The counties west of Gage at that time were rapidly filling with home- steaders and other classes of entrymen, farms were being opened in all the eleven counties comprising the land district, and particularly in Jefferson, Saline, Thayer, Fillmore, Nuck- olls, and Clay counties. Supplies of all kinds, including farm tools, lumber, meats, groceries, dry goods, and the like, were necessary to the settlers, and Beatrice merchants and business men profited greatly by this temporary trade.

During the time that had elapsed since that July day in 1857 when Judge Kinney directed the secretary of the Beatrice Association, young, scholarly John McConihe, to call the roll of the members of the association on the townsite of Beatrice, to the close of 1870, the people of Beatrice as well as of the county at large had accustomed themselves to the incon- venience under which they rested as respected markets, trade, mails, travel, transportation and the like. The transportation of merchandise from Nebraska City and Brownville to Beat- rice had become so common as to be taken as a matter of course. When wheat became a sta- ple crop in the county, the surplus was hauled to the Missouri river, where water transpor- tation could be had, and the farmer loaded back with lumber, salt and other freight for Beatrice merchants, who were thus enabled not only to supply their trade with better goods and in increasing quantities, but also to carry practically everything demanded by their cus- tomers.

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

The carrying of the mail for Beatrice and practically all of Gage county was at first a neighborhood affair. Those whose business took them to Nebraska City, Brownville or oth- er Missouri river towns where mail was re- ceived for the settlers, brought back with them letters, papers and other mail for their neigh- borhood. But in 1860 a regular mail route was established between Nebraska City and Marysville, Kansas, via Beatrice. Joseph Saunders was the first mail carrier on this route. He first rode into Beatrice with the United States mail on the evening of October 3, 1860. At that time a national election of intense interest was rapidly approaching, and as Mr. Saunders rode up to the postoffice, "Pap's Cabin," he was greeted by practically the entire population of Beatrice, all eager to hear the news. The mail was carried on horse- back and the carrier was frequently forced to swim the unbridged streams. But no one ever heard Joseph Saunders complain of the hard- ship of his task and none ever knew him to fail in the discharge of his duties. He was, in fact, a most faithful and a most efficient public servant. .

In 1868 a regular stage route was establish- ed from both Nebraska City and Brownville, via Tecumseh, to Beatrice. On August 26, 1868, the Blue Valley Record announced that the Kansas & Nebraska Stage Line, of which Martin V. Nichols, Cyrus P. Wheeler and Cyrus H. Cotter were proprietors, was in per- fect working order and made trips regularly to Nebraska City every other day; and later the public received the following announce- ment, in the way of an advertisement in the Record :

Kansas & Nebraska Stage Company, from Nebraska City, Nebraska, to Tecumseh and Beatrice, and intermediate points, carrying United States Mail, Passengers and Express Packages.

Leaves Nebraska City Mondays, Wednes- days and Fridays, connecting at Beatrice with a stage line to Lincoln, the Capital.

Returning, leaves Beatrice on Tuesdays. Thursdays, and Saturdays, connecting at Te- cumseh with the stage line for Brownville and intermediate points, and at Nebraska City with the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad for all points east, north and south.

The Hulburt House, later and better known as the Pacific Hotel, was in those days the Beatrice stage station, and its genial proprie- tor, George W. Hulburt, was the stage com- pany's agent at Beatrice.

But the aspiring entrepôt of southeast Ne- braska was not long satisfied with a tri-weekly mail from Brownville and Nebraska City. Strenuous efforts were made early in 1869 to secure through the stage company a daily ser- vice. In the Blue Valley Record for Feb- ruary 20, 1869, voice is given to this longing in a brief editorial, which reads as follows :

The country needs a daily mail between this point and the river towns. This want, already a pressing one, is growing more so every day, and the increased amount of busi- ness which will be transacted here in the spring, and the rapid growth of the country will render it a demand of such a nature as not to be much longer resisted. The question of having it is only a question of time, how soon we shall have it is one which our citizens can in the main determine for themselves. Petitions should be gotten up and circulated along the route, and we, who are most inter- ested, should be the first to move in it. Brown- ville and Nebraska City have already shown a willingness to assist in having it established, for they well know the importance of having close connections with this country and will not be wanting in efforts to accomplish it. The matter should be attended to at once. The roads are becoming good, the days longer and the trip can be easily made in a day. Let us for once lay aside old fogyism and inhale enough of the spirit of the age in which we live to show some energy in so important a matter.

This agitation was evidently successful, as the first number of Volume I of the Beatrice Clarion, issued on the 8th day of May, 1869, announced a daily mail over the Kansas & Nebraska Stage Line from Nebraska City and Brownville to Beatrice and intermediate points, connecting at Beatrice with the stage line to Lincoln and leaving Beatrice on its return trips every morning at seven o'clock, Sundays ex- cepted, for Brownville and Nebraska City ; and connecting at each point with the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad for eastern, north- ern and southern destinations.

These old advertisements act as little win-

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

dows through which we may see into the very heart of things as they were in those far off pioneer days, half a century ago. Through them we may behold how a little western vil- lage on the bank of the Big Blue river, in a trifle more than ten years from the date of its founding on a trackless prairie waste, in 1857, had become a center for travel and the dis- tribution of the United States mails. Nay more, they show how effectually the pioneers of our county had learned to make the most of such advantages as their surroundings af- forded.

Let us take a last glance at the Beatrice of the '60s. The county officers in 1868 and 1869, most of whom were quartered in Beatrice or near it, were: Probate judge, H. M. Rey- nolds ; county treasurer, Albert Towle ; sheriff, Luther P. Chandler; county clerk, Oliver Townsend ; surveyor, A. J. Pethoud ; coronor, Daniel Freeman; county commissioners, Wil- liam Ticknor, Horace M. Wickham and James M. Pettygrew; while Nathan Blakely repre- sented the county in the state legislature. Al- bert Towle was postmaster, and the following advertisement, undoubtedly prepared by him, correctly exhibits the mailing facilities of the community on February 20, 1869:

MAILS

Arrivals and departures of mails from the Postoffice of Beatrice, Nebraska.

Falls City to Beatrice

Arrives Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, at 6 P. M.

Departs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 6 A. M.

Nebraska City and Brownville, to Beatrice

Arrives at Beatrice Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4 P. M.

Departs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, at 7 A. M.

Beatrice to Marysville, Kas.

Arrives Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, at 6 P. M.

Departs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, at 6 A. M.

Plattsmouth via Lincoln, to Beatrice Arrives Wednesday at 12 M.

Departs same day at 1 P. M. Beatrice to Big Sandy

Departs Wednesdays at 6 A. M.

Arrives Thursday at 8 P. M. Albert Towle, P.M.

The government land office was located on the second floor of Joseph Saunders' brick store, on the south side of Court street, be- tween Third and Fourth streets, in the build- ing now occupied in part by John Pagel's groc- ery store. Henry M. Atkinson was the regis- ter and John L. Carson, the well known banker of Brownville, was the receiver. The office was, however, mainly under the direction of "Jack" McFarland, chief clerk of the office at that time.

A semi-annual report of Mr. Towle, as coun- ty treasurer, of the affairs of his office from April 7 to October 7, 1869, showed total re- ceipts amounting to $9,722.00, with a balance in the treasury of $3,323.18.

The legal profession was represented in Gage county by Jefferson B. Weston, Silas B. Harrington, Nathan K. Griggs, and Hiram P. Webb. Drs. H. H. Reynolds, Levi An- thony, and C. F. Sprague were engaged in the practice of medicine. Blakely, Reynolds & Townsend; LaSelle, Buchanan & Son; and Joseph Saunders were the representatives of the general mercantile business. The drug- gists were George W. Hinkle and George W. Brock; the blacksmiths, Jacob Shaw and A. L. Snow; A. W. Proctor and D. Stewart carried on wagon-making shops, while J. W. Wehn, Jr., had a paint shop at Court and Second streets. Fordyce Roper owned the mill, which was advertised as the finest site on the Big Blue river, and in connection with it, he had a saw mill, a lath and shingle machine, and carried a large supply of all kinds of lumber. Mrs. M. F. Buchanan was the dressmaker and milliner of the town. Heard & Guffy supplied all kinds of cut stone for building purposes, from their Rockford quarry. Samuel Myers and Volney Rhodes were the harnessmakers. Warren E. Chesney was the proprietor of the Beatrice House, the old hotel erected by Is- ma Mumford in 1857. Charles F. Satler and Asher Van Buskirk made boots and shoes for the pioneers ; while Artemus Baker, a cabinet .. maker, supplied the demand for work in his line. William Hagy was just beginning to do a thriving business as a manufacturer of brick for building purposes.

CHAPTER XX

BEATRICE CONTINUED

INCORPORATION OF TOWNS BY COUNTY BOARD -- PETITION TO INCORPORATE BEATRICE - ORDER INCORPORATING BEATRICE -FIRST BOARD OF TRUSTEES - INCORPORATION OF BEATRICE AS A CITY OF THE SECOND CLASS - FIRST CITY COUNCIL - POPULATION OF BEATRICE - INCORPORATION OF BEATRICE AS A CITY OF THE FIRST CLASS - ADDITIONS TO BE- ATRICE - CHANGED TO COMMISSION GOVERNMENT -- FIRST COUNTY COURT HOUSE - LOCATION - OLD "PUBLIC SQUARE" -- DESCRIPTION - COST - ABANDONED - DEMOLISHED - A NEW COURT HOUSE - COURT HOUSE BOND LITIGATION -- COUNTY JAIL - THE NEW JAIL - FIRST UNITED STATES POSTOFFICES - PRESENT POSTOFFICE BUILDING - POSTMASTERS - BEATRICE CITY HALL -

FIRE DEPARTMENT - LIGHTING PLANT - SEWERS - PAVING - CITY WATER WORKS

From the date of its founding, in July, 1857, to September, 1871, Beatrice had ex- isted as an unincorporated hamlet or village. Under the law regulating the incorporation of towns, the county commissioners of any county in Nebraska were empowered, and in fact required, by proper order to incorporate any town within their county whenever a ma- jority of its taxable inhabitants should pre- sent a petition praying for its incorporation. The corporate powers of every town were by law vested in a board of trustees of five mem- bers, to be elected, after the first board, by the qualified voters residing within such town ; and the county commissioners at the time they declared a town incorporated were required to appoint as trustees for the town five suit- able persons, who should hold their offices until their successors were duly elected and qualified. Amongst the qualifications required by law for a town trustee was that he should be a "free, white male citizen of the United States." The law vested boards of trustees of towns with the usual powers possessed by governing bodies of municipal corporations, and contained some provisions not now met with in similar statutes.

Pursuant to the requirements of this stat- ute, on the 9th day of September, 1871, there was filed before the board of commissioners of Gage county a petition praying that body to incorporate Beatrice as a town and to ap- point as trustees thereof, H. M. Reynolds, J. B. McDowell, Albert Towle, William Lamb, and Job Buchanan. Many of the names at- tached to this petition will always be promi- nent in every history of Gage county. For this reason, and because the petition neces- sarily represented a majority of the taxable inhabitants of Beatrice at that time, the names of the signers are here given. They are:

J. B. Weston John G. Davis, M.D.

H. W. Parker

G. H. Gale

S. C. B. Dean C. C. Freil

N. Blakely

L. M. Korner

I. N. McConnell

J. S. S. Wallace

John McGregor, M.D.

John M. Hayes William Hothan

C. G. Dorsey G. W. Dorsey

Byron Bradt

W. J. Pemberton N. K. Griggs

F. T. Clifford Israel Blythe

Oliver M. Enlow

W. D. Knowles

J. F. King

J. Buchanan

H. A. LaSelle

James Van Buskirk

189

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

A. S. Marsh

H. P. Webb

William P. Hess

L. Y. Coffin

G. F. Sprague, M.D. Ford Roper

Peter Terry A. P. Hazard

William H. Walker

M. L. McMeans

C. A. Pease

George W. Place William Hewerkel Blauser Brown H. M. Reynolds

Orrin Stevens Joseph Saunders James Boyd

H. L. Wagner

Artemus Baker

James Charles

Peter Brauner

C. H. Cotter

M. T. Wetherald J. L. Webb, M.D. William Lamb

Albert Towle

William H. Lamb Leroy Tinkham

S. W. Wadsworth

John Yohe

S. Meyers

C. R. Rogers

S. W. Allen

E. H. King

Milton Rhodes

H. Broughton

Paul Hailman

G. B. Reynolds C. Rosenthal

D. E. Marsh

Sherman P. Lester

M. W. Beam

William A. Wagner

A. L. Snow

Of these eighty-three petitioners, as far as known to this writer, all have passed to the great beyond, save G. B. Reynolds, H. A. LaSelle, William H. Walker, Byron Bradt, and George W. Hinkle, of Beatrice; A. L. Snow, of Milford, Nebraska; Sherman P. Lester and J. Fitch Kinney, Jr., of Portland, Oregon ; and Samuel Meyers, of Bassett, Ne- braska.

On the day the foregoing petition was pre- sented to the commissioners - Solon M. Hazen, Horace M. Wickham, and James Pet- tigrew -that body, after declaring that it was fully satisfied that a majority of the tax- able inhabitants of said town of Beatrice had signed the petition and that they had consid- ered the same and were fully advised in the premises, ordered, "That the inhabitants re- siding upon the southeast quarter of section 33 and the southwest quarter of section 34, in

township 4 north, of range 6 east of the 6th principal meridian, Gage county, Nebraska the same being the originally surveyed town- site of Beatrice, and all the legal additions which may now or may hereafter be attached to the said town of Beatrice, be and are here- by declared incorporated, a body politic and corporate by the name and style of the town of Beatrice.

"And it is further ordered that H. M. Reynolds, J. B. McDowell, Albert Towle, William Lamb and Job Buchanan be and are hereby appointed as a board of trustees of said town of Beatrice, to hold their offices until their successors are elected and quali- fied."

The county clerk was instructed to notify forthwith in writing, under the seal of his office, each and all of the board of trustees of their appointment as such and to transmit to them a certified copy of the order.

On the same day the trustees thus appoint- ed held a meeting in the rear room of Hinkle & Pease's drug store, and, having taken the oath of office, as provided by the statute, en- tered at once upon the discharge of their duties by electing Herman M. Reynolds chairman of the board, and appointing William A. Wagner clerk, Albert Towle treasurer, and Gilson H. Gale constable for the term of the trustees and until the successor of each was elected and qualified.

On March 18, 1873, a change was effected from town to city organization by an ordinance of that date, which reads as follows :

WHEREAS, The town of Beatrice, in the State of Nebraska, was organized as such on the 3rd day of October, A. D. 1871, under and by virtue of the provisions of chapter 53 of the Revised Statutes of the State of Nebraska, entitled "TOWNS"; and

WHEREAS, The said town now contains more than five hundred (500) inhabitants ; and

WHEREAS, Said town is desirous of becom- ing incorporated as a city of the second class, under the provisions of the act of the legisla- ture of the State of Nebraska, approved March 1, 1871, entitled, "An act to incor- porate cities of the second class, and to define their powers," and of the amendments there- to; therefore,

C. N. Emery George W. Hinkle J. Q. Thacker J. H. Halliday Daniel Freeman

W. A. Presson George W. Jackson

J. A. McMeans

J. Fitch Kinney, Jr. George L. Lamıkin

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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 25

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