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 9

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 9

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tion, and thereafter both points became im- portant milling centers for an increasingly large patronage. These were toll mills, where the farmer delivered his grain at the mill in large or small quantities, divided it with the miller on the proportional basis fixed by law and waited around until his grist was ground. Sometimes this might require several days, as each customer took his turn, like buying tickets at a railway station on an excursion day. Those living close at hand could, and often did, leave their grists and return later for their share of the flour.

Spring wheat continued to be a staple crop here until about 1876, when the chinch bug became so destructive to the plant that its cultivation ceased, and fall wheat was substi . tuted for it with more happy results, while the chinch bug as a pest disappeared. The surplus wheat crop was either hauled to mar- ket at some Missouri river point or made into flour and hauled by wagon loads to the stage stations, ranches, and military posts along the old military highway from Independence,. Missouri, Leavenworth, Atchison, and St. Joseph to Fort Kearney and beyond, where it found a ready sale at good prices, along with the homesteaders' surplus butter, eggs, beef, pork, and corn.

Common salt also was a necessary article that was difficult to obtain through the ordinary channels of trade. At a very carly period in the settlement of our state, the salt basin at Lincoln became a factor of much importance not only to the pio- neers of Gage county but also to large areas of the settled portions of the territories of Nebraska and Kansas and the state of Iowa; for here, under favorable conditions, the set- tler by a few hours' labor could often obtain enough.of this important substance to last an ordinary family for an entire year. Through- out the summer months, in dry weather, a thin crust of salt would be produced every twenty- four hours over the low, flat, semi-dry surface of the basin, and this could be scraped up by wagon loads. At first the settlers hauled their scrapings home and proceeded to cleanse the salt from its impurities. This was done

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

by boiling the mass in sorghum pans or large cast-iron kettles, skimming off the impurities that rose to the surface and evaporating the strong brine in shallow vessels. From a wagon load of scrapings could be produced by this method a barrel or more of clean, pure salt in a few days, the length of time re- quired depending upon the sun and the at- mospheric conditions. Under favorable cir- cimstances ten inches of brine could be com- pletely reduced to high-grade salt in sixty hours.

pelled to return home saltless after camping for several days on the salt flats. For a num- ber of years several enterprising gentlemen managed to make a very comfortable living in this industry, besides enjoying in its season the fine shooting of wild goose, duck, crane, and other water fowl that in myriads fre- quented the salt lake at the basin.

Social intercourse and social diversions amongst the pioneers were on a plane com- mensurate with their lives. To those who are wholly unaccustomed to the conditions

SALT BASIN AND SALT WORKS, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, 1872

Very shortly after the beginning of the Civil war, in 1861, there had been established at the basin a regular industry for producing salt in quantities, by evaporation. People coming from great distances for salt were enabled to exchange flour, corn, eggs. butter, potatoes, and other farm produce for salt ready for immediate use. Or upon the pay- ment of fifty cents per hundred weight they could buy the crude salt which in fair weather had been scraped together in heaps under some sort of shelter, and by subsequent evap- oration at home secure their supply of salt. This was a great convenience, since many a settler after driving for miles to obtain his annual salt supply found the basin black and bare, on account of rain, mist, fog, or excep- tionally high winds, and might even be com-

which a new country, devoid of every convenience of modern living, imposes on its adventurous first inhabitants, the life of a Gage county pioneer may seem cruelly hard and unattractive - a drab existence from which one might reasonably exclaim in the language of the Book of Common Prayer. "Good Lord deliver us." Such persons take small account of the wonderful adaptability of human nature which enables the normal man often to turn to his advantage his most adverse surroundings. And, besides, the pio- neers of a new country are largely in a class by themselves. They possess the prevision of the seer of visions and the dreamer of dreams, and are endowed with the never- failing light of imagination. To such, pioneer life in the early days in Nebraska was any-

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

thing but dull and uninteresting. Its great simplicity and its freedom from those exac- tions which wealth imposes left time for social intercourse. None were rich and few so poor as to suffer by contrast with their neighbors. Amongst the pioneers there ex- isted a far truer sense of equality than can anywhere be found in communities where so- ciety is complex and where prevail social dis- tinctions resting on wealth, ancestry, or posi- tion. Neighbors were few and often remote. but distance was no barrier to social inter- course in those far-off simple days. The settlers were not usually pressed for time and made nothing of traveling, even with slow ox teams, several miles to spend the day with friends. Social gatherings, picnics, Sunday schools and other religious meetings, and even dances, were apt to bring together whole townships. Innocent youthful parties were frequent, where the masculine element ap- peared in its smartest garments, and well greased cow-hide boots; the feminine in its prettiest pink and white, most fetching poke bonnet and newest crinoline. Tag, blindman's buff, drop the handkerchief, and other youth- ful games served to pass the hours. Refresh- ments consisted at all social gatherings of native walnuts, popcorn, and sorghum taffy, while gaiety ruled the happy throng. Danc- ing was always a staple amusement for the youth of the community and even for those of staider deportment and greater age. It was not the fox trot or bunny hug, not often the waltz, polka, or schottisch, but the Virginia

reel or the common square dance, with the fiddles wailing out the "Money Musk," the "Arkansas Traveler," "The Girl I Left Behind Me," and other simple, lively melodies, while some one called to the waiting couples on the floor, "Salute your partners and the opposite lady"; when this act of ballroom courtesy had been performed there would come the sten- torian call, "Forward four," then "Balance all" and "Swing your partners," and so on through the whole set of dancing figures till the call "To your seats" came at last, after several minutes of glorious rythmic motion in time to the rude orchestra. After a few mo- ments of social intercourse, laughter, per- chance a song, the floor manager's call was again heard good and loud, "Choose your partners for the next dance," and if the young swain was fortunate enough to lead forward the girl of his choice, his happiness was un- alloyed, and in the minds of the happy sons and daughters of our pioneers was apt to be eclipsed Byron's description of the great ball in Brussels the night before Waterloo, when

"There was a sound of revelry by night, And Belgium's capital had gathered there Her beauty and her chivalry ; and bright The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men.

A thousand hearts beat happily, and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eye looked love to eye that spoke again, And all went merry as a marriage bell."

CHAPTER X

"HAVE YOU AN EYE," POEM BY EDWIN FORD PIPER - EARLY GAGE COUNTY MARKETS MISSOURI RIVER-OREGON TRAIL - INSUFFICIENCY OF LOCAL MARKETS -HIGH PRICES - MISSOURI RIVER POINTS BEST PURCHASING MARKETS-OREGON TRAIL BEST SELL- ING MARKET - ITS EARLY HISTORY - GREAT SOUTH PASS - JOHN C. FREMONT - ORIGIN OF TERM, "MILITARY ROAD" - STARTING POINT - ROUTE - MARCUS WHITMAN - CHANGES - STATISTICS ON NORTHERN ROUTE - AN EMIGRANT ROUTE - FREIGHTING - NEBRASKA CITY - OVERLAND STAGE - PONY EX- PRESS - BEATRICE ROUTE - GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

HAVE YOU AN EYE?

Have you an eye for the trails, the trails. The old mark and the new?

What scurried here, what loitered there, In the dust and in the dew ?

Have you an eye for the beaten track, The old hoof and the young?

Come name me the drivers of yesterday, Sing me the songs they sung.

(, was it a schooner last went by, And where will it cross the stream ?

Where will it halt in the early dusk, And where will the camp-fire gleam?

They used to take the shortest cut The cattle trails had made ; Get down the hill by the easy slope To the water and the shade.

But it's barbed wire fence, and section line. And kill-horse travel now ; Scoot you down the canyon bank,- The old road's under plough.

Have you an eye for the laden wheel, The worn tire or the new ?

Or the sign of the prairie pony's hoof That was never trimmed for shoe?

O little by-path and big highway, Alas, your lives are done.

The freighter's track a weed-grown ditch, Points to the setting sun.

The marks are faint and rain will fall, The lore is hard to learn.

() heart, what ghosts would follow the road If the old years might return.1

The lack of convenient markets was per- haps as serious a drawback to the early settler of our county as any of his numerous hard- ships. At the very beginning, of course, there was no need of markets. On account of drought, hot, dry winds, grasshoppers, or other calamity, it frequently happened that the set- tler had no surplus, but had to supplement the meager returns from his claim by such food as the streams, woods, and prairies supplied. But in process of time the problem of markets became immediate and insistent.

It was often as necessary to be able to buy in a convenient market as to sell, and for many years here in Gage county merchants were able to supply to only a limited degree the neces- sary demands of the population. Their stock in trade consisted principally of the bare ne- cessities of life, flour, bacon, cheese, crackers, sorghum, and the like, and as they would not usually pay cash for farm products, transac- tions with their customers were largely a mat- ter of barter, - calicoes for eggs, denims for gooseberries or butter. There being virtually no home market where the pioneer could both sell for cash the surplus of his labor and

1 From Barbed H'ire and Other Poems, by Edwin Ford Piper (1917).

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

skill and purchase the necessary articles of consumption for himself and family, he was often compelled to seek distant markets in which to sell as well as buy. Thus many of the commonest things in use, as a hat, a bon- net, a slate, a pencil, a spool of thread, farm machinery, tools, clothing, and the like, could often be had only at some Missouri river town or village. This condition of affairs is toler- ably well stated by the following extract from a letter written from the interior of the ter- ritory of Nebraska as late as January 26, 1866, in which the writer says:

"I will give you, or attempt it,- for nothing could show except the actual living here,- some idea of the life in these western wilds. In the first place we are about as near in the center of nowhere as I care to be. We are fifty miles directly west from Nebraska City, which is the nearest point where one can buy a shoe-string or a spool of thread. Farms here are 'ranches,' cattle yards 'corrals'; there are no fences of any account, people herd their cattle by day, put them in corrals by night, that is they 'corral' them."

From the beginning of our county's history in 1857 until long after the close of the Civil war, until the railroads came, in fact, prices ranged high on all sorts of commodities. This was due to two main causes, namely, a depre- ciated medium of exchange and the absence of anything like a system of rapid transporta- tion.

In 1854, the year which witnessed the first imigration to our county, the whole country was laboring in the slough of a financial de- pression induced in part, if not mainly, by a system of state banks, commonly designated "Wildcat," which sprang into being after the dissolution of the historic United States Bank and its branches, by Andrew Jackson, Presi- dent of the United States, in 1835. These banks were invariably what is known as banks of issue, and their beautifully engraved notes, containing the figure of an Indian, dog, buffalo, tree, cat, or other meaningless device, and in- tended to circulate as money, were so often utterly worthless as to destroy public confi- cence in the entire system. Gold and silver

were at a tremendous premium and difficult to get. All classes of chattels as well as land had an inflated value when measured by this medium of exchange. In every case the value of a bill depended wholly on the rating of the bank issuing it, and this could be shown only by the "National Business Man's Detector," a publication intended to give the financial standing and condition of every bank of issue in the United States. The public was wholly dependent upon such information as to the solvency of the banks of the entire country.

The working of this system of exchange can be illustrated by a concrete example. An immigrant party to the territory of Nebraska, in 1859, tendered the owner of the ferry boat in payment of its passage charge at the point where they desired to cross the Missouri river, a bill issued by a newly organized bank of Indiana. The bank was not listed in the copy of the "Detector" in the possession of the ferryman, and he refused the transportation until he could telegraph to St. Joseph and receive a reply assuring him of the solvency of the Indiana bank. This took from three o'clock until seven o'clock in the afternoon. All business transactions were necessarily con- ducted in the same cautious and cumbersome manner. The National Banking Act of 1864 introduced a stable as well as a uniform mon- etary system, under the general supervision of the government of the United States, and "Wildcat" banking became a thing of the past. But to such a deplorable state had the country fallen that the issuance of the treasury notes and the national greenback currency early in the great Civil war, as war measures, acted upon the business world like the elixir of life, and this even though the greenback currency itself possessed a purchasing power far below its par value. For example, in 1863 one hundred dollars in gold would purchase two hundred and eighty dollars in greenbacks.

As the products of the soil increased, the pioneers, following a natural law of commerce, turned to the nearest cash market in which to dispose of their surplus. This was the great continental highway which was known to the traders, ranchmen, and overland stage drivers

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

as the "Military Road," but which is now more generally and perhaps more properly designated as the "Oregon Trail." The cer- tainty of good cash prices for almost every description of farm produce and live stock along this great thoroughfare not only re- lieved the settlers of the dread and fear of want, but also had the effect of steadying and stimulating prices at home, thereby creating a better home market. Through the agency of this great public roadway eastern Nebraska rapidly filled with immigrants and the slow accumulation of wealth and fixed capital set in. This great national highway was so much

their expeditions to and from the post the Astorians established a traveled, road over most of the distance between Independence and Astoria. Later this dim trail was fol- lowed by the hunters, trappers, and traders whose occupations took them to the northwest, and finally by explorers, surveyors, Mormons, and emigrants making their way to Utah, Oregon, and California.

In 1824 the Great South Pass, at the head of the Sweetwater, a branch of the North Platte river, was discovered, which greatly facilitated western travel. In 1832 Captain Bonneville passed over this route from Inde-

Engraved from pencil sketch in the Frontier Sketch Book of N. P. Dodge A MORMON ENCAMPMENT ABOUT 1846

a part of our county's early development and entered so largely into the life of the pioneers that it deserves a place in this history.

The Oregon Trail has been described as the route of "a national movement"- the migra- tion of a people seeking to avail itself of op- portunities which have come but rarely in the history of the world and will never come again. It was a route every mile of which had been the scene of hardship and suffering, yet of high purpose and stern determination.

The known history of the great trail begins with the establishment of the fortified trad- ing post known as Astoria, on the Columbia river, fifteen miles above its mouth, in 1811, by the agents of John Jacob Astor, head of the American Fur Company. This venture failed and in 1813 it was abandoned, but in

pendence to California, and it is claimed that his was the first wagon train over the great trail. In 1842 John C. Frémont, but recently commissioned lieutenant of a corps of topo- graphical engineers, by the direction of the federal government. led a surveying expedi- tion from Independence, by way of the Grand Island, in the Platte, to the Great South Pass and the Rocky mountains. This expedition was accompanied by the famous Kit Carson, as guide. It consisted of twenty-seven armed and mounted men, together with the young lieutenant and the twelve-year-old son of Colonel Thomas H. Benton, United States senator from Missouri, whose daughter, Jes- sie, was Frémont's wife.

In 1846 Frémont's route was followed by Joel Palmer and party, from Indiana, and by

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

Edwin Bryant and party. In 1843 the Oregon immigration set in, and in 1847 began the great Mormon immigration to Utah, which lasted for several years. The main body of "Saints." some fifteen thousand, led by Brigham Young. set out from Florence, Nebraska, taking the already broken trail up the north side of the Platte river. But from Independence, West- port, and other Missouri frontier points the Mormons followed the southern trail to its confluence with the northern in the neighbor-

JOHN C. FRÉMONT

hood of the Great South Pass. In 1849 came the gold excitement in California and a mighty emigration set in across the plains, along the old trail. The following year General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was afterward com- mander in chief of the Confederate armies, led an armed force of five thousand men along the trail, from Fort Leavenworth to Utah, to sup- press a threatened Mormon insurrection sup- posed to be brewing at the time, and from this circumstance the eastern portion of this great highway was thereafter frequently designated as the "Military Road." In 1859 placer gold was discovered in the sands of Cherry creek,

where the city of Denver now stands, and the following year, placer gold was discovered also in the neighborhood of Pike's Peak. The immigration that followed these several events in our country's history imparted to the old trail tremendous importance in the settlement and development of the west and northwest.

The actual starting point of the Oregon Trail was St. Louis, the entrepôt of western traffic. From there to the mouth of the Kansas the journey could be made by steamboat. But from the Kansas river, the upward course of the Missouri for six hundred miles was al- most directly north, which rendered its further navigation for those bound for Oregon, Cali- fornia, and the Rocky mountain regions unde- sirable. Land expeditions became the recog- nized mode of travel from this and all upper Missouri river points to the far west and northwest. The Santa Fe Trail also had its origin at the mouth of the Kansas river, some years prior to the beginning of overland travel along the Oregon Trail. To accommodate the travel on both these historic thoroughfares the town of Independence, Missouri, first sprang into existence, and, later, Westport, now the site of Kansas City. Here were lo- cated horseshoeing and repair shops, general outfitting and supply houses, horse and cattle markets,- everything in fact required by the caravan trade to Santa Fe and the Oregon country.

From Independence the two trails were at first identical as far out as the neighborhood of the town of Gardner, Kansas, a distance of forty-one miles. Here a signboard was erected, with an arrow pointing toward the northwest and bearing the legend "ROAD TO OREGON." Never before or since those mem- orable days has a wayside sign announced so long or so unusual a journey. Leading on from this point across the country in an al- most straight northwest direction, the original trail crossed the Kansas river at Papin's Ferry. where the state capital of Kansas now stands, eighty-one miles out from Independence. The general itinerary of the early trail from this point to its destination was as follows : Turkey creek, ninety-five miles; Big Vermillion, 160

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

miles ; Big Blue river, 174 miles ; hiere the ford was first near the mouth of the Little Blue, and eight miles beyond the ford Albert Sidney Johnston's "Military Road" came in, bringing the travel from Leavenworth, Atchi- son and St. Joseph ; later the ford was diverted to Marysville, where the junction of the two roads occurred. The trail entered Nebraska a trifle east of the southwest corner of Gage county,- at a point now occupied by a mon- ument ; then on to Big Sandy, 226 miles, near its junction with Little Blue river; Platte river. 316 miles. The trail now led up the immediate valley of the Platte to the junction of the North and South Forks; Lower Ford, on the South Platte, 493 miles, where the road to the headwaters of the South Platte led away from the trail, up the south bank of the river : Ash Hollow, 513 miles; Court House Rock, 555 miles; Chimney Rock, 571 miles ; Scott's Bluffs, 616 miles ; Laramie, 667 miles ; Big Springs, 680 miles; Ford of the Platte, 794 miles ; Poison Spider creek, 807 miles ; Independence Rock, 838 miles ; Devil's Gate, 843 miles ; Great South Pass, 947 miles. This is the most celebrated pass in the entire length of the continental divide. Here the trail passed from Atlantic to Pacific waters. Pacific Springs, 952 miles; Green river, 1014 miles ; Fort Bridger, 1070 miles; junction with Sub- lette's Cutoff, 1146 miles. This cutoff elim- inated the wide detour by way of Fort Bridger ; it left the main road at Little Sandy, 959 miles, and, taking a nearly due west course, reached Big Sandy, 975 miles ; then Green river, 1021 miles ; Bear river, 1093 miles; Smith's Fork, 1149 miles; Thompson's Fork, 1156 miles ; Soda Springs, 1206 miles; Fort Hall, 1288 miles (on the left bank of the Snake river, the third important station on the trail and the first on Columbia waters) ; American Falls, 1308 miles; Salmon Falls, 1439 miles; Fort Boise, 1585 miles; Powder river, 1692 miles; the Grande Ronde, 1736 miles ; Umatilla river, 1791 miles ; Columbia river, 1835 miles ; The Dalles, 1893 miles; the Cascades, 1977 miles ; Fort Vancouver, opposite the mouth of the Willamette, head of navigation on the Colum-

bia and properly regarded as the end of the Oregon Trail, 2020 miles.2

From the time of the Astorians ( 1811-1813) to the beginning of the Oregon immigration ( 1843) travel along the great trail was largely confined to exploring, surveying, and military expeditions and to parties engaged in hunting. trapping, and trade with the Indians. These stopped short of covering the entire distance to the Pacific coast by a direct continuous route, and it remained for Dr. Marcus Whit-

BRIGHAM YOUNG

man to demonstrate to the world the practic- ability of such a highway of travel.

In 1836 this remarkable man had gone into the Oregon country as a missionary-physician, under the auspices of the American Board. In 1842 he returned to the east deeply impressed with the great value of Oregon and strongly opposed to the treaty of 1818, which estab- lished joint occupation of that territory by England and the United States. He visited Washington for the purpose of acquainting the federal authorities with the advantages that would accrue to this country by the abroga- tion of the treaty and the acquirement of the

2 Nota bene: All distances here given are from Independence.

Photographs by John W'right, staff artist.

SCENES AT ASH HOLLOW

The original route of the Oregon Trail from the south fork to the north fork of the Platte river, by way of Ash Hollow, descends northward from the plain, 3,763 feet above sea level, four miles to the river bottom, at an elevation of 3,314 feet. From the head of the Hollow, the trail, still visible, wound to the left about a mile along the sharp-backed ridges. then dropped by a very steep descent eastward into the Hollow, which here widens into a level valley from a quarter to half a mile wide. The spring, a luxury to the emigrants, still bubbles up strongly a quarter of a mile from the mouth of the Hollow, and at the base of a cliff about 100 feet high, as shown in the middle picture. The cedar and ash trees at one time abundant here all have been cut away. Marks of Fort Grattan, occupied as a post in 1855, are visible near the river north of the east side of the mouth of the Hollow. On the west side of the mouth of the Hollow are the modest gravestones of Rachel Patterson, a girl of nineteen, who died in 1849, and of two infant children.

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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 9

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