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 6

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 6

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Both the Nemaha and the Big Blue rivers, and particularly the latter, are noted for their wide and fertile valleys. Many of their tribu- taries also present in a marked degree valley formation. Usually the valleys on either hand are bounded by ranges of low hills, beyond which are the uplands, - formerly prairies.

From the time white men first became fa- miliar with southeastern Nebraska, the streans of our county were bordered by lines of tim- ber, which under favorable circumstances often spread out over the lower bottom lands into groves of valuable oak, walnut, hickory. ash, elm, hackberry, cottonwood, willow, and other deciduous varieties of trees common to this latitude. On some of the streams the red cedar is occasionally found. From these natural

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

sources the early settlers of our county ob- tained wood for fuel and lumber, logs and clapboards for building purposes, fencing and other requirements of rural husbandry. Culti- vation of the land, by keeping down disastrous prairie fires and by affording strong protection to the native timber growths, has largely con- tributed to the spread of timbered areas. In later times the use of coal and other fuels, and of foreign lumber, by relieving the demand upon the native woods has likewise greatly augmented the natural resources of the coun- try, so that at the present moment our tim- bered areas exceed by many thousand acres the natural forest resources of the county as known to the pioneers. In addition to these factors tree planting in recent years has given Gage county largely the appearance of a tim- bered country.

There are no mountains and no hills of un- usual size or altitude in Gage county. Its most noted elevation is a round-topped hill on the eastern boundary of Riverside town- ship, a few miles southeast of Beatrice, locally known as "Iron Mountain." Speaking gen- erally, the configuration of the surface of the county is such that a traveler is everywhere met with a panorama of low hills, gentle slopes, short plains, and shallow ravines, all pleasingly diversified by stream and wood.

In may portions of the county a fair quality of building stone is found, and in the neigh- borhood of Blue Springs and Wymore are ex- tensive quarries of conglomerate rock, which for several years have afforded an ample sup- ply of materials for the important rock-crush- ing industries at those points, the products be- ing shipped in quantities over the state and elsewhere. Sand and gravel of exceptional quality are also valuable natural products of this county, as well as clay, both common and vitreous.

Coal has not yet heen discovered in paying quantities anywhere in the state of Nebraska. As far back as 1868, Prof. F. V. Hayden, then at the head of the National Geological Survey, in an address delivered to the citizens of Bea- trice in the old frame school house, cautioned his audience against entertaining any hope of

finding coal in Gage county in workable quan- tities ; and in his report to the secretary of the interior at Washington in 1872, after a thor- ough study and survey of the resources of the state of Nebraska, says: "In regard to finding workable beds of coal within accessable depths in eastern Nebraska by deep boring, I would remark in conclusion that though not pre- pared to discourage all hope of success, it is proper to state that all the known facts are unfavorable."

The intervening years have only served to prove the wisdom and correctness of this eminent scientist's conclusion. Twice in Gage county deep borings have been made for coal, oil, and natural gas. The first effort was about 1875, when a boring eleven hundred feet deep was put down across the alley on the Robertson property just north of the old jail, in Beatrice, with no other result than to de- velop a strong flow of salt water which rose to the top of the ground with nearly artesian force. Quite recently another boring was put down, on the Farlow tract of land which now is incorporated in the golf links and Country Club grounds. A depth of six hundred feet was reached, where salt water was again found. Within a few months from this date several tracts of land in the eastern part of our county have been covered with oil, coal, and natural-gas leases. No borings have yet been made, and nothing has transpired since 1868 to discredit the cautionary remarks of Prof. F. V. Hayden.

The county is well supplied with water other than that afforded by streams. Nu- merous excellent springs are found in many localities. At Barneston, within a stone's throw of the old Agency building, is a splendid spring which during the Indian occupation gushed out of the ancient prairie. For many years it supplied the entire Otoe and Missouri tribes of Indians, as well as the white population at the agency, with pure, whole- some water for drinking and all domestic pur- poses. It has been allowed to fall into disuse and is now so filled with washings from the land and with other debris that is is a mere bog, - so much an object of danger to stock

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

that the owner of the land where it is located keeps a fence around it. With proper develop- ment this spring is capable of supplying a citv of many thousands with an abundance of the purest water, at small expense. At Blue Springs there is a succession of beautiful springs gushing from under steep embank- ments and forming a little stream which is called Spring creek and which debouches a few rods away into the Big Blue river. Here is an unknown quantity but certainly an abun- dant supply of excellent water, capable of meet- ing the demand of a large city. These nat- ural water resources, besides giving a name to the beautiful city of Blue Springs, have been sufficiently developed to meet the demands of both Blue Springs and Wymore. Beatrice, as is well known, draws her entire municipal water supply for her 12,000 population, amounting to over 1,000,000 gallons a day, from what is known as Zimmerman Springs, a few miles northwest of the city, - a supply which under scientific analysis has been found to be almost chemically pure. There are other localities throughout the county where spring water of excellent quality and great purity can be obtained at comparatively small cost. Well water of great volume and purity is obtainable in every part of the county, at depths varying from a few feet in the Blue river bottom lands to much greater depths in the upland regions. There are no natural lakes in the county and no large bodies of water formed by the streams.

The climate of Gage county is moder- ately humid, mild and invigorating. The normal monthly temperature ranges from an average of thirty-two degrees Fahren- heit in January to seventy-six degrees in July. Nowhere in the upper Mississippi valley are the climatic conditions more equable or more conducive to healthy living for man and beast. Here one experiences in the great- est perfection the grand procession of the sea- sons, spring, summer, autumn, winter. The rainfall averages about thirty inches per an- num and is well distributed throughout the period of plant growth, as a rule assuring abundant harvests, bountiful crops. All Ne-

braska, however, is in the region of occasional extremes of temperature caused by excessive drought. Once in each decade, sometimes oftener, crops may partly fail from this cause or from hot, dry southwesterly winds. The winters are sometimes severe, and other ec- centricities of climate common to Nebraska and neighboring states may, and do in fact, manifest themselves in some degree in Gage county. But, all things considered, it would be difficult to find in this latitude of the entire country a more healthful or a more attractive climate.

In the early days fluctuations of temper- ature were more frequent and more marked than now, and the pioneers often suffered severely both from the rigors of winter and the heat and drought of summer. Fearful storms not infrequently swept over the tree- less prairies, endangering the lives of man and beast, both in winter and summer. With the settlement of the country, the cessation of prairie fires, the planting of groves, orchards, and hedgerows, together with many other agencies incident to a large and progressive community, tending to ameliorate the hard conditions of pioneer life, the sudden and fre- quent changes of temperature to which all the northwest is subject summer and winter, have come to be regarded here with great indiffer- ence.

The soils of the county, as of nearly all east- ern Nebraska, are mature and fertile. They contain the essential elements necessary to the growth and production of the fruits, grasses, and grains common to north temperature re- gions, and as a rule, up to the present moment. they respond bountifully to the labors of the husbandman without artificial fertilization or other expensive upkeep.

Soil may be defined as a mixture of fine earthy materials with organic matter produced by the decomposition of vegetation on the earth's surface,-as the stems, roots, and leaves of trees, grasses, and other forms of vegetation. The earthy materials which enter into soil formation are the outer portions of the earth's crust, which, by a process described as weathering, or by glacial action or other

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

drastic force, become decomposed into fine stone, gravel, minerals, clay, sand, and silt. Types of soils are determined by the relative proportions of these materials, organic and inorganic, which by inspection or chemical analysis are found to enter into their compo- sition.

On the basis of their origin, the soils of Gage county may be roughly classed as resi- dual, alluvial, glacial drift, and loessial de- posits. Residual soils are formed from the decomposition of limestone and possibly some other kinds of rock by a process scientifically known as leaching, in which the soluble por- tions of the decomposed mass disappear, and the insoluble or less soluble remain in the placc where decomposition or leaching has occurred. as a sort of subsoil, and by the addition of vegetable or organic mold may mature into rich, fertile soil.

Alluvial soils are formed from sedimentary deposits arising from the overflow of streams, carrying in suspension soils and soil materials from a higher to a lower elevation. The vegetable matter such soils contain often ren- ders them the richest and most fruitful known to man. The valleys of the Nile, the Missis- sippi, the upper Ganges, the Hoang-Ho, the Po, and the Danube, afford fine examples of the strength and wonderful fertility of this kind of soil.

Glacial soils are derived from those deposits which are mainly the product of glacial action, exerted through long ages in the formative period of the earth, though their immediate de- position may have been caused in part by the action of wind and water. Such soils are found as far south as the southern boundary of the great ice cap, which in the glacial or ice age covered to enormous depths the north temperate regions of the world. Soils derived from this source are scientifically described as drift.

Loessial soil is a loessial deposit, very homogeneous in character and rarely strati- fied. It usually contains large quantities of land and fresh water shells as well as the bones of extinct animals. In regions where the loess occurs it is the most recent of the soil

formations. It is regarded as the sedimentary bottoms of ancient fresh-water seas and lakes. Its presence is often attributed to fierce winds which in primordial times carried the fine loamy silt to distant areas and spread it out, often in great thickness. This imperial soil, according to Professor Samuel Aughey, who was the first to occupy the position of geolo- gist at the State University of Nebraska, ve- neers almost the entire glacial drift of the state. It forms the Missouri river bluffs and is thickest there, gradually thinning towards the west. A recent soil survey of Gage county showed the loess to be extensively pres- ent in various areas, principally however on the uplands. It is said to be the thickest and in the highest state of preservation about Cort- land. In common parlance it is spoken of as loam, modified by descriptive terms, as black loam, sandy loam, clay loam, and the like.

To the wondering view of the early in- habitants of this section of Nebraska the ob- ject of the most striking and universal inter- est was the rolling prairies. Extending from the Canadian boundary on the north to the tropical gulf of Mexico on the south, and from the timbered shore of the Missouri river on the east to the foothills of the Rocky mountains on the west, its apparently illimit- able expanse presented great variety of sur- face configuration. In its virgin state it was a source of never-ending curiosity and inter- est. Thickly clothed with verdure, diversi- fied by stream and wood, and shimmering in the brilliant sunshine, the prairies of eastern Nebraska were probably the most beautiful landscape on the face of the earth. At fre- quent intervals were found rivers and living streams of pure water, and the dark foliage of the forest trees skirting them presented a pleasing contrast to the lighter green of the prairies. Such was the fascination which they exerted over the human mind that the first settlers were prone to wander from one high place to another to feast their eyes upon the beautiful panorama which the prairies offered.

The origin of the prairies is involved in some doubt. Even scientific men of character and great learning are not fully agreed upon this

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

important subject. The most plausible theory which seeks to account for the presence of the great level prairies is that they were the sites of ancient shallow lakes, which gradually filled with silt washed down from the Rocky moun- tains, six hundred miles away, and from other sources, -- first becoming marshes, which with the accumulations of vegetable matter ulti-

mately became the high level prairies. The rolling prairies are said to bear evidence to the rush and the recoil of the fresh-water seas that followed the melting of the great ice cap, while the ravines, the hills, and the valleys were formed by the washing away of large portions of the surface in the process of continental draining.

CHAPTER VII

FLORA AND FAUNA

GRASSES - FLOWERS - FOREST AND STREAM - ANIMAL LIFE - THE BUFFALO - ELK - AN - TELOPE - NATIVE BIRDS - FISH - INSECT LIFE - GRASSHOPPERS - EFFECT OF SETTLEMENT

The native flora of our county, like all the southeastern portion of Nebraska, was characterized by many forms of plant life. The most casual observer could readily divide it into the flora of the prairies and the flora of forest and stream. The prairies were clothed with many varieties of grass as well as of plants, some of which were perennial and in their florescence beautiful. The early set- tlers found bottom land along the streams and other depressions stocked with the blue-stem grass, the uplands with bunch grass and other species of succulent grasses, all of which how- ever ultimately yielded to the blue-stem as the country became settled, the uplands pastured. and the ravages of fire diminished, - eastern Nebraska thus became clothed with this the most desirable of all our native forage plants. This process was rapid in Gage county, so much so that within ten years after the first settlements were made the blue-stein could be cut for hay anywhere on the prairies. Mingled with the grasses, which spread a beau- tiful carpet of verdure over the earth's sur- face, were hundreds of flowering plants whose diversity of size, color, and perfume contrib- uted to the beauty and interest of the primi- tive landscape. The graceful wild rose, rep- resentatives of the lily family, buttercups, vio- lets, mallows, primroses, goldenrods, asters, verbenas, morning-glories, and many other well known flowering species bloomed forth over the prairies in their season,- a profusion of delicate colors. In almost no other way have settlement and cultivation wrought such radi-

cal changes as in the plant life of the prairies.

The flora of the forest and stream needs but a word. Unlike that of the prairies, which was native in its origin, the larger forms of vegetation in this portion of Nebraska are wholly due to migration. In the southern part of the state the source of forest growth is readily assignable to the nearby forests along the Missouri river. The distribution of tree, vine, and shrub seeds, of all common for- ests growths in this latitude, has been greatly facilitated by wind, by flood, by beak and wing. a process which has gone on from primordial times to the present moment. Shut off from germination, by the fine, compact soils of the prairies, such seeds, when transported from near by or from distant forests, have found lodgment and favorable conditions of growth in the rich alluvial soils of the streams, thus giving rise to our forests of oak, hickory, elmn, hackberry, sycamore, maple, box elder, red bud, locust, willow, cottonwood, and all the other varieties of timber growth that go to make up our groves and forests. Amongst the shrubs are the plum, chokecherry, hazel nut, prickly ash, wahoo bush, red willow, gooseberry, wintergreen, and some other va- rieties. Of plants and vines the most beauti- ful and important are the strawberry, the blackberry, raspberry, several varieties of wild grape, bitter-sweet, Virginia creeper, sarsaparilla, and other climbing vines.

The hand of man has greatly modified the pleasing aspect which nature wore here in her primitive state, and has added greatly to the

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

stock of forest trees and forest growths by the art and skill of arboriculture, while by ex- cluding fire and other destructive agencies it has greatly increased both the quality of our growing timber and the acreage of our for- ests.

The animal life of southeastern Nebraska when the white man came was varied and interesting. Nearly every form of wild life common to this latitude, whether of earth, air, or water, was represented here, and, in addition, forms which are associated mainly with wide reaches of open prairies. In vast herds, aggregating many millions, here roamed the shaggy buffalo, while the shy and lordly elk in great bands fed upon the natural mead- ows. Both species of the American deer were native here, and droves of beautiful antelope roamed the plains. Not long before the advent of the white man, our plains were probably also the range of the caribou, the moose, and the mountain sheep. The wild fox, the sly coyote, and his large relation, the mountain or gray wolf, the lynx, the panther, the bear, the mountain lion, and other representatives of the carnivorous tribe were all at some time 110 doubt native to our eastern Nebraska. The rodents were widely distributed in forest and plain ; they were the mole, the wood mouse, the ground gopher or ground squirrel, the pocket gopher, the common tree squirrel, the badger, the ground hog, while acres upon acres were included in the villages of the prairie dog. The strictly fur-bearing animals were well represented by the beaver, the otter, the mink, the muskrat, the raccoon, and the skunk. Frogs, toads, and other batracians inhabited the streams and marsh lands, while numerous varieties of snakes,. the prairie rat- tlesnake, the common bull snake, the water moccasin, the puffing adder, and other forms of reptilian life abounded on the prairies and about the woods and streams.

Bird life was in evidence on every hand. The largest species were the wild turkey, goose, brant, crane, duck, and turkey buzzard ; The medium-sized species were the long-billed curlew in vast flocks, the golden plover, the sand piper, several species of hawks, owls, and

crows; the smaller birds and the singers, amongst others, included swallows, wrens, yellow hammers, chickadees, peewees, blue- jays, meadow larks, thrush, bluebird, black- bird, and many other prairie, bush, meadow. and grass species of song and plumage birds. The game and food birds aside from water fowl were wild turkeys in occasional flocks, the quail, and millions upon millions of grouse, or prairie chickens as they were commonly called.

The clear waters of the creeks and rivers were well stocked with all varieties of fish common to this portion of North America. In the smaller streams and in the deep holes in large ravines which were fed in part by springs, were found bullheads, perch, chubs, cat, red-horse, and sunfish. In the rivers and larger streams were the buffalo, pike, pickerel. gar-pike, suckers, croppies, and cat fish. In Gage county in the early days as at the pres- ent time, the Big Blue river was the one re- liable source of the fish supply. In this re- spect it was a very notable stream, as fish abounded in it and were easily taken, and be- fore the wash from cultivated lands had changed their character its waters were clear, sparkling, beautiful as a mountain stream - in deep places as blue as the overhanging sky. A river moss, wherever a stony formation sup- plied points of attachment, spread out over the bottom of the stream, sometimes from shore to shore and several inches thick, cover- ing large areas of the channel, its individual streamers often being many feet in length and all thickly leaved. The swift water imparted a wavy motion to its mass, and its gentle ris- ing and falling was often accelerated by large buffalo fish and other species preying upon the periwinkle, crawfish, and other small acquatic life found attached to the green moving masses of moss.

Insect life, the most numerous and varied of all forms of life, has always abounded in every portion of Nebraska. Flies, gnats, mosquitos, wasps, hornets, vari-colored but- terflies, moths, grasshoppers, cycads, beetles, miriapods, crickets, spiders, bees, locusts, caterpillars, ants, and every other creeping

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

and crawling thing native to the north tem- perate zone finds a natural habitat in eastern Nebraska. Of these native insects the most destructive species are the chinch bug, the army worm, the Hessian fly, the Colorado potato-beetle, and the codling moth. At varying periods of time, under favorable cir- cumstances, great injury has been done to growing field crops by many of these insects, as well as to orchards and gardens.

But the insect that has caused the greatest and most widespread disaster to crops and vegetation in our county, as well as to the state at large and neighboring states, is the Rocky Mountain locust or grasshopper -a migra- tory insect, native to the high, dry plateaus of New Mexico and Arizona, the eastern foothills of the Rocky mountains, and the plains of Wyoming. Idaho, and Montana. Nothing in the natural history of the west has excited such widespread interest as the great locust plagues to which the early set- tlers of our state were frequently subjected and which may again become a menace to our prosperity. Unlike Pharaoh's locusts that came on an east wind, these usually came on a northwest wind, but like them "they cov- ered the face of the whole earth so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees - and there remained not any green thing in the trees or the herbs of the field in all the land of Egypt." [Ex. 8, v. 15.]

It is not known when these pests first ap- peared in Nebraska. Probably before the coming of the white man they may have been here as a mere incident to wild nature. The first actual visitation known to history oc- curred in 1857, when they are described by the Brownville Advertiser as "mowing the prairies." No less than seven invasions are known to have occurred in southeastern Ne- braska before the last, in 1874. They were much alike. In a few instances the corn crop was far enough advanced to escape total de- struction, but in the great invasion of 1874 not a green thing escaped. The leaves on the trees, prairie grass, and herbage of every de- scription were practically laid waste. The

first intimation of disaster would be a few rapidly dropping hoppers out of the sky, mere avant couriers of the myriads of destroying locusts. The observer, glancing toward the sun, beheld the air to a depth of half a mile or more thick with the flying insects, moving with the wind and glittering in the sunshine like flakes of snow. A slight change of the high-wafting breeze or a slackening of its force, caused an immediate descent of the whole dense mass to the ground, and the whole earth, as in biblical times, was covered

GRASSHOPPER SCENE, PLATTSMOUTH, NEBRASKA, 1874

by hopping, flying, creeping, climbing, crawl- ing locusts, and every edible thing perished.

Here in Gage county up to July 16, 1874, crops of every description had never held greater promise. Fall wheat and oats were already harvested, or well matured, but on that day a devastating hot wind swept up from the southwest and the corn crop was blasted in a few hours. The grasshopper in- vasion which followed in the early part of

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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 6

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