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 5

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 5

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).

"The court then adjourned.

"NATHAN BLAKELY, Co. Clerk."

It is clear from this preamble and these

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

resolutions that active steps had been taken by the county-seat promoters at Beatrice to validate the election of August 3, 1857. A second election had been held March 27, 1859, for the evident purpose of filling the county offices in all cases where the officials chosen at the first election had failed to qualify. Prob- ably at the second election no action was taken on the county-seat matter, as specified in the commissioners' proceedings under date of March 13, 1858. Blue Springs had become an aspirant for that honor, and as both voting precincts of the county participated in the election of March 27, 1859, a contest at the polls over that question appears to have been avoided.

The location of the county seat and the in- sistence of Beatrice on the legality of the or- ganization of the county in August, 1857, by the Beatrice Townsite Company had become so acute a subject of difference between the rival towns, that precinct No. 1, Blue Springs, failed to participate in the annual election held August 2, 1858. At the meeting of the com- missioners' court under date of July 4, 1859. among other things, it was ordered that Albert Towle, Samuel Jones, and Nathan Blakely be allowed and paid $1.50 each as judges of elec- tion at Beatrice, August 2, 1858, and that W. D. Spencer and Myron Newton be allowed and paid a like sum each for acting as clerks of that election, but nothing seems to have been allowed any citizen of Blue Springs or vicinity for acting as a judge or a clerk in precinct No. 1 in this election.

In the spring of 1859, both Blue Springs and Beatrice attempted to assess Gage county, each claiming to have lawful right to perform that service, Blue Springs because of the as- sumed illegality of the county organization claimed to have been effected by Beatrice in August, 1857, and because of her pending ap- plication to the commissioners of Pawnee county for the calling of an election to effect the legal organization of the county ; and Be- atrice, by virtue of the election in 1857, and her assumption of its regularity. The resolu- tions of Commissioners Towle and Reynolds above set forth, under date of April 4, 1859,

put an end to that movement on the part of Blue Springs, and both precincts of the county participated in the election of 1859. To ter- minate the dissension that grew out of this rivalry, the legislative assembly, at its session begun and held at Omaha, December 5, 1859, passed an act entitled : "An act to legalize the first organization of Gage county, the location of the county seat at Beatrice and the official acts of the officers of said county."

There can be no doubt but that the alleged organization of the county by the Beatrice Townsite Company in August, 1857, was ir- regular and probably illegal from its inception. There appears to be no evidence that the en- thusiastic townsite boomers made the slight- est effort to comply with the law then in ef- fect, regulating the organization of counties, and this fact seems to have been recognized by the legislature in passing the above de- scribed act.

The passage of this act destroyed forever the hopes of Blue Springs respecting the county seat of the new county. This unpre- tentious outpost of civilization possessed many advantages which were justly counted in its favor as an aspirant to first place in civic honors. It is a romantic spot, beautifully lo- cated on the Big Blue river, and during all the times here mentioned it was a prospective sta- tion on a projected cutoff from the old mili- tary highway from Fort Leavenworth to the west, which, leaving the main road at Rich- mond, Nemaha county, Kansas, a few miles below Seneca, on the Nemaha river, led north- west from Blue Springs and beyond, inter- secting the main road at some point east and south of the famous Rock Creek Station, in Jefferson county. Blue Springs also was on a main traveled road from Marysville, Kansas, through the Otoe Indian village to Beatrice. It possessed natural advantages for a city which were wanting to some extent in its rival. It was several miles nearer the geographical center of the county than Beatrice, and its few inhabitants were people of worth and char- acter, equal in these respects to the Beatrice colonists. Its most serious drawback was its proximity to the Otoe and Missouri Indian

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

reservation, the north line of which was only two miles distant.

Beatrice may have been more in line with the direct travel both east and west, and it cer- tainly possessed the controlling advantage of a central location as respected the white inhabi- tants of the county at that time. In addition to these things, its destiny was in the hands of men who were fully alive to the advantages that would accrue to them by controlling the organization of the county from the very first, and by this and other methods securing at

Beatrice the county seat. The changing years have probably vindicated their judgment. With its present boundaries, Beatrice is un- questionably the most desirable location as a seat for the government of our splendid county. The animosities which may have been engendered by the county-seat rivalry of more than a generation ago have long since passed away, and the two historic territorial cities of Gage county, their early dissensions for- gotten, for many years have dwelt together in the bonds of unity and friendship.

CHAPTER V

OLD CLAY COUNTY

ACT CREATING - ORGANIZATION - AUSTIN - SETTLEMENTS - PARTITIONING - JOHN P. CADMAN - JOINT MEETING COMMISSIONERS OF GAGE AND LANCASTER COUNTIES

Prior to the passage of the act creating Gage county and defining its boundaries, the first territorial assembly, on the 6th day of March, 1855, passed an act "To define the boundaries and establish the seat of justice for Lancaster county," and on the following day an act was passed creating Clay county and defining its boundaries. Gideon Bennett and James H. Decker, members of the assembly from former Pierce (now Otoe) county, and D. M. John- son, representative from Richardson county, were appointed by the last named act as legis- lative commissioners "to locate the seat of justice for Clay county"; and a third section of the act provided "that the seat of justice in and for Clay county shall be called Cla- tonia." Both of these counties, like Gage, were twenty-four miles square, Clay lying north of Gage and south of Lancaster, but joining each, and consisting of a fine body of land, with an unusual proportion of rich upland prairie.

Clay was duly organized into a county pursuant to the act creating it and defin- ing its boundaries, and entered upon its separate existence as such. No evidence is known to exist to show that any place was ever selected by the legislative commission as a county seat or seat of justice for Clay county. While several towns or villages ap -. pear to have been laid out on paper, there was never in fact any semblance of a town in Clay county. The nearest approach to it seems to have been a group of squatters on the public domain about what was known as Austin's mill, on Stevens (now Indian) creek. Here, in 1857, came Hiram W. Parker, Fordyce

Roper, Edward C., Charles, and Homer B. Austin, also Orrin Stevens, who gave his name to Indian creek at that point - a name which the Beatrice colonists always refused to recognize. Possibly a few other early set- tlers gathered near there on the public domain, and an effort was made to establish a town which could become in the course of time a county seat for the new county. Edward C. Austin had located a claim in the latter part of April or early in May, 1857, in the imme- diate vicinity of the present village of Pick- rell. He had built a log cabin, staked out a forty-acre tract of his claim into town lots, and called the proposed town Austin. Shortly thereafter he purchased and brought to his claim a saw mill and buhrs for a grist mill, and erected the former on the east side of Indian or Stevens creek, on the north side of the present road leading east from Pickrell. A little below the mill, on the east side of In- dian creek, was the surveyed town of Austin. No dwellings or other structures were ever erected on the townsite and the mill itself proved a financial failure, due in part to the fact that it was not on the line of western bound emigrant travel, and in part to the fact that there was scarcely any demand for lumber in that locality, but more to the fact that a saw mill was established about the same time in Beatrice, by the Beatrice Townsite Com- pany. About the year 1862 the buhrs of Austin's mill were purchased by Mr. Fordyce Roper for use in a mill which he was then erecting in Beatrice. This move broke up the prospective town of Austin and nothing more

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

was heard of it. The Austins left the coun- try; Parker, Roper, and Stevens moved to Beatrice, and no one was left to take their places in furthering the interests of this for- lorn hope.

In addition to the projected town of Austin, there was at least one serious effort to found a town in the north half of Clay county. In that section of the county, John D. Prey and family had established a residence near Roca, July 26, 1856. The following year other set- tlers joined them, among whom were J. L. Davidson, W. W. Dunham, and I. C. Bristol. A townsite company was formed, composed of John L. Davidson, Joseph B. Weeks, James S. Goodwin, John G. Haskins, and George L. Bristol; a forty-acre tract of land was sur- veyed into town lots and the prospective town named Olathe. This ambitious project was lo- cated on Salt creek, about three-quarters of a mile west of the ford where the road from Nebraska City to Denver crossed that stream, a few yards north of the spot where the pres- ent bridge at Roca is located. The Olathe quarries were only a short distance away, there was some wood along the creek, and these appear to have been the determining fac- tors in the location of the town. Nothing came of this venture, and at the time Clay county was divided there was not a single town, village, or hamlet within its bounds.

Clay county as thus constituted was large- ly a treeless scope of country, rather poorly watered, especially on the upland, and it was generally thought that there was no desirable central location for a county seat in the county. Its big, rolling, unbroken prairies did not look inviting to men who were wholly dependent for so important a matter as fuel upon timber along the streams. The settlements had been confined to those localities where timber could be had. In addition to the settlement in the neighborhood of Austin's mill, others were made in 1857, in Adams township, along the Big Nemaha river at several points in the north half of Clay county, along Salt creek and its tributaries, and a few squatters on the public domain might have been found in the

southwest corner of the county, along the Big Blue river.

The maintenance of county government in a county whose population was so sparse and so widely separated, would, it was thought, be an expensive and difficult problem under any cir- cumstances, and the early settlers of the county, realizing the situation, were for the most part readily persuaded to embrace a scheme for the division of their county. This movement was started in 1863. John P. Cadman, residing near the village of Lancaster, in the neighbor- hood known as Yankee Hill, where the present Asylum for the Insane, at Lincoln, is located, was that year elected the representative of Gage, Clay, and Lancaster counties in the ter- ritorial legislature. He is said to have carried with him a petition signed by a majority of the legal voters of Clay county praying the legislature to divide that county and attach the north half to Lancaster and the south half to Gage county. Whether this is true or not. a bill was brought forward early in the session of the assembly, which convened at Omaha. January 7, 1864, to effect such division and distribution of old Clay county. Some oppo- sition developed at first to this measure in the legislative body, headed by Mr. John S. Gregory, a colleague of Cadman's. But the obvious advantages of this important measure to all three counties were such that Gregory was finally induced to lend his influence to the act.

The bill, which passed the assembly on the 15th day of February, 1864, was carefully and skilfully drawn by the late P. M. Mar- quette. It was entitled "An act to attach the north half of Clay county to the county of Lancaster and the south half of Clay county to the county of Gage." It covered every possible contingency that might arise from the proposed division. It declared the or- rganization of the county of Clay to be for- ever at an end, and constituted the board of county commissioners of Lancaster and Gage counties "A board to meet at such time and place as they might agree upon for the pur- pose of effecting the division of Clay county

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

pursuant to the provisions of this act." In compliance with the terms of the act, the commissioners of Gage county on July 26, 1864, held a joint session with the commis- sioners of Lancaster county, represented by John W. Prey, at the home of Hiram W. Parker, the county clerk of Clay county, in Beatrice, for the purpose of effecting a set- tlement of the affairs of that county. The preliminary entry on the journal of the rec- ords of the county commissioners of Gage county as respects this meeting reads as fol- lows :

"County Court, July 26, 1864. Commis- sioners of Lancaster and Gage.

"At a meeting of the county commissioners of the counties of Gage and Lancaster, held at the house of H. W. Parker, for the pur- pose of receiving the accounts, books, monies, and all and any other property belonging to Clay county, and for the purpose of a settle- ment of the accounts to and with the officers of the aforesaid county of Clay.

"There were present county commissioners from Gage county, Fordyce Roper, F. H. Dobbs and William Tyler. From the county of Lancaster, John W. Prey."

As illustrative of the meager volume of business transacted by a county in that early day, as well perhaps as the poverty and sim- plicity of the times, the remainder of the rec- ord of the meeting mentioned in the preceding paragraph may not be without interest to the reader or regarded as inappropriate to this history. It reads as follows :

ORDER OF BUSINESS

Ordered 1st .- That the account of H. W. Parker be allowed for services as county clerk (Clay County) from April 4, 1864 to July 28, 1864, 31/2 months at $4.25 per month, $15.00. And that the Clerk of Clay County draw a warrant on the county treasurer for the same.

Ordered 2nd. - That John W. Prey be al- lowed $11.00, his per cent. for collecting Co. revenue and that the Co. clerk of Clay County draw warrant on the Co. treasurer for the same.

3rd. -- That the clerk of Clay County draw warrants on the Co. treasurer for John W.

Prey for $25.80, said amount having been paid out by him for non-assessed sinking fund for the year 1861.

4th. - By an examination of the Clay County record, the total amount of indebted- ness was found to be $211.95.

5th. - The assessed valuation of property in the south half of Clay County for the year 1864 is $13,482.00.

6th. - The assessed valuation of property in the north half of Clay County for the year 1864 is $22,647.82.

7th. - The total amount of indebtedness to be paid by the north half of Clay County ac- cording to apportionment is $185.70.

8th. - The total amount of indebtedness to be paid by the south half of Clay County is $110.75.

Ordered 9th. - That the county treasurer of Clay County pay over all monies in his hands to their respective funds.

Ordered 10th. - That all offices in Clay County be declared vacant from this date, ex- cept precinct officers.

(Signed)

Oliver Townsend,

Co. Clerk for Gage Co.

F. Roper, F. H. Dobbs, William Tyler. John W. Prey.

The reader has now looked upon the closing scene of old Clay county. Seldom have the obsequies of so important an organization as a splendid county been attended with greater simplicity or with less bitterness and dissen- sion. It is easy to read between the lines of the act of dissolution the paramount influence of the rising city on the south and the am- bitious village of Lancaster on the north, so soon to lose its identity in the noblest monu- ment that has yet been reared to the martyr- president, the heroic Abraham Lincoln. Lapse of time has proved that the few heroic spirits of Stevens creek, Pierce, Bear, the Nemaha and Salt, would have been more than justified in persisting to the last in maintaining the separate existence of their county. The traveler who now motors over northern Gage and southern Lancaster counties is charmed with the beauty of the landscape and the fer- tility of the soil. Where once only a few souls gathered in isolation and loneliness along the widely separated streams within these

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

boundaries, he finds a contented, prosperous, and happy population numbering many thou- sands. Where once stretched the silent and, to many, desolate prairies, he beholds wide- spreading fields, meadows and pasture lands. groves and orchards ; he finds also commodi- ous and not infrequently elegant country homes. No finer upland site for an ambitious county-seat town can be anywhere found in the west than that occupied by the present vil-

lage of Cortland, near the geographical center of ancient Clay county. Within the former boundaries of this old county are several other pretty, attractive, and thriving villages, and what was Clay county in the primitive days has evolved into a district supplied with rail- roads, telegraph and telephone lines, schools, churches, banks, magnificent highways, and other institutions and conveniences by which modern living is both embellished and exalted.

CHAPTER VI

TOPOGRAPHY OF GAGE COUNTY

LOCATION - TOWNSHIPS - AREA - HYDROGRAPHIC FEATURES - STONE - CLAY -- COAL - WATER SUPPLY - CLIMATE - TEMPERATURE -- SOIL - THE PRAIRIES

The county of Gage is located in the southern part of the state of Nebraska, its eastern boundary being approximately fifty miles west of the Missouri river. On the north it is bounded by Lancaster county, on the east by Johnson and Pawnee counties, on the south by the state of Kansas, and on the west by Jefferson and Saline coun- ties. It is a rectangular body of land, thirty- six miles in length north and south and twenty- four miles in breadth from east to west. As originally created by the territorial assembly, in 1855, it was twenty-four miles square, but as the reader will remember, in 1864, Clay county, which was also twenty-four miles square, was divided by the territorial assem- bly, the south half being attached to Gage and the north half to Lancaster county, thus giving to both Gage and Lancaster their present di- mensions. The county is composed of twenty- four government townships, which, under article 9 of the constitution of the state of Ne- braska, are each independent corporations - like counties as relates to their own internal affairs. In 1885 the county government was changed from the commissioner system to township organization, and when such change is made, boards of supervisors are required by law to select names for the various town- ships under their jurisdiction, by which they shall thereafter be designated. Pursuant to this provision of the law, the various town- ships of Gage county, beginning with the northeast, are named as follows: Adams, Nemaha, Highland, Clatonia, Grant, Holt, Hanover, Hooker, Filley, Logan. Midland,

Blakely, Lincoln, Riverside, Rockford, Sher- man, Blue Springs, Island Grove, Wymore, Sicily, Elm, Glenwood, Paddock, Barneston, Liberty. With the exception of Blue Springs and Wymore all these townships are approxi- mately six miles square. Originally Blue Springs comprised a full government town- ship, but in 1889, for the purposes of local government, it was divided, on an east and west line through the center, into two town- ships. The south half was named Wymore, and in the same is situated the city of that name; the north half retained the name of Blue Springs and within its limits is the little city of the same name. It is through this di- vision of the original township of Blue Springs that Gage county now has twenty-five town- ships.

The county has a superficial area of nearly 864 square miles, - approximately 552,960 acres. It has an average elevation above sea level of 1,200 feet. Its surface configuration may be described as a plain, tipped toward the southeast, - a construction which is only slightly modified locally by erosion and the di- rection of water courses. When it is consid- ered that the two principal drainage systems of the county flow from the northwest in an almost due southeasterly direction, it becomes evident even to casual observation that the general surface trend also follows that course.

The hydrographic features of the county are very marked and readily traced. The Big Nemaha river enters it from the north- west, near the half-section line running north and south through Section 2, in Nemaha town-

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

ship, and, flowing in an almost due southeast direction across Adams township to the south- east corner of Section 36 in that township, it crosses the county line into Johnson county. With its tributary streams, it drains a large portion of Nemaha, Adams, and Hooker town- ships. At Sterling it receives the waters of Hooker creek, and at Tecumseh those of Yankee creek, both of considerable volume and with headwaters partly in Gage county. At Tecumseh the Nemaha has a volume of water sufficient for milling purposes if properly con- served, and for many years it was the site of a good grist and flouring mill, deriving its power wholly from the river. It crosses the Paw- nee county line into Richardson county a few miles east of Tablerock, receives at Salem the waters of its South Fork from Kansas, and falls into the Missouri river at the southeast corner of Richardson county, discharging into the Missouri a considerable volume of water.

But by far the most important element in the natural drainage of Gage county is the Big Blue river. This beautiful stream also enters the county from the northwest, in Sec- tion 19, Grant township, and, taking a south- easterly course, it flows across Grant, Blakely, Midland, Riverside, Rockford, Blue Springs, and Barneston townships, crossing the state line into Kansas at a point in Section 35 in Barneston township, approximately twenty- eight miles south and seventeen miles east of the initial point. From the west it receives the waters of Swan creek at a point two and one-half miles south of DeWitt, Cub creek near Hoag, Bills creek at Blue Springs, and Big Indian creek at Wymore, with their nu- merous tributaries. From the north and east its waters are augmented by those of Clatonia, Soap, Smake, Indian, Bear, Cedar, Mud, Wolf, Plum, and Mission creeks with their tribu- taries, most of which are living streams, a number carrying considerable quantities of water. Power for all purposes is supplied by the river itself, and its value and usefulness in this respect become increasingly important with every decade. From Barneston the river flows almost due south, through Kansas, re- ceiving the waters of the Little Blue river and

other streams on its course, and, greatly aug- mented in volume and force, it falls into the Republican at Manhattan, Kansas. It is one of the most beautiful and interesting of all Nebraska rivers, and from source to mouth it is approximately three hundred miles in length. - channel measurement.

The drainage of the county is fully ma- tured. From every portion of it the water is led at once by natural depressions, streams and water courses away from the land. So nearly perfect is the drainage that in case of excessive rainfall the surface water is imme- diately conducted into runs, creeks, and streams, and these may become swollen, over- flow their banks and flood the valley and low lands, sometimes washing away the soil, de- stroying fences, bridges, and other structures. and often doing great damage to crops on the bottoms and sloping uplands. Damages from this source could be greatly mitigated if the farmers and other interested parties would avail themselves of the recent drainage legisla- tion of our state, form drainage districts, if necessary issue bonds, and, by ditching, straighten the channels of the streams so as to facilitate the rapid discharge of their waters and prevent overflow. This has been done in Pawnee, Johnson, Lancaster, Nemaha, Rich- ardson, and probably other counties of the state, to the very great profit of the sections concerned.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 5

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