History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 3

Author: Buechler, A. F. (August F.), 1869- editor
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Pub. and Engraving Co.
Number of Pages: 1011


USA > Nebraska > Hall County > History of Hall County, Nebraska > Part 3


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).


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THE ASTORIAN EXPEDITION


The spirit of commerce that led to the first exploration and civilized occupation of the Northwest, including Nebraska, operated a step further. In 1810 John Jacob Astor 1 of New York organized the Pacific Fur Com- pany for the purpose of colonization and trade at the mouth of the Columbia River.


J. STERLING MORTON


This expedition started out in September, 1810, and founded Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River in the spring of the fol- lowing year. On the 28th of June, 1812, Robert Stuart started from Astoria with five of Hunt's original party on a return over- land trip. In southeastern Idaho he was joined by four men whom Hunt had detached


1 In 1810 John Jacob Astor organized the Pacific Fur Corporation, a partnership including himself, Wilson Price Hunt, Robert Stuart and others for the purpose of colonization and trade at the mouth of the Columbia river. Hunt with a party in three boats left in October, 1810, a month following the party led by the partners who founded Astoria. Hunt's party reached Astoria in February, 1811.


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from the party on the 10th of the previous October. After a journey of terrible hard- ships they established winter quarters on the North Platte River not far east of the place where it issues from the mountains. At the end of six weeks they were driven out by the Indians and proceeded three hundred and thirty miles down the Platte; and then, des- pairing of being able to pass safely over the desert plain covered with deep snow which


JOHN C. FREMONT


confronted them, they went back over seven- ty-seven miles of their course until they found a suitable winter camp in what is now Scotts Bluff County, where they went into winter quarters on the 30th of December, 1812. On the 8th of March they tried to navigate the stream in canoes but found it impracticable, and proceeded further on foot. It is chronicled that they came down the river to "Great Island," where they bought some elk's hide boats. It is possible that this was the first official mention of the future Grand Island. At least the party proceeded to a point about forty-five miles from the mouth of the Platte, and there embarked on April


16 in a large canoe they secured from the Indians.


LONG'S EXPEDITION IN 1819


In 1819, Major S. H. Long travelled with a party of twenty men from the Missouri River up the Platte to the head waters of its south fork near Denver. The most important feature of this trip, as affecting Hall County, is the description in Major Long's journal of the hopelessness of the Platte Valley :


In regard to this extensive section of coun- try, I do not hesitate in giving the opinion, that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by a people de- pending upon agriculture for their subsistence.


Major Long, in his final estimate, after the foregoing opinion was rendered, continued :


Although tracts of fertile land considerably extensive are occasionally to be met with, yet the scarcity of wood and water, almost uni- formly prevalent, will prove an insurmounta- ble obstacle in the way of settling the country. This objection rests not only against the sec- tion immediately under consideration, but ap- plies with equal propriety to a much larger portion of the country. This region. however, viewed as a frontier, may prove of infinite importance to the United States, inas- much as it is calculated to serve as a barrier to prevent too great an extension of our pop- ulation westward, and secure us against the machinations or incursions of an enemy that might otherwise be disposed to annoy us in that part of our frontier.


In a similar vein is the comment of Dr. James, another narrator of the same expedi- tion :


We have little apprehension of giving too unfavorable an account of this portion of the country. Though the soil is in some places fertile, the want of timber, of navigable streams, and of water for the necessities of life, render it an unfit residence for any but a nomad population. The traveler who shall at any time have traversed its desolate sands, will, we think, join us in the wish that this region may for ever remain the unmolested haunt of the native hunter, the bison, and the jackall.


Could Major Long see the Platte Valley in 1919, one hundred years after his observa- tion, he would, to say the least, request an- other guess. During the years 1808-1820, Digitized by Google


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Manual Lisa, of Spanish descent but a citizen Great Platte rivers." This was accomplished of the United States, became the leading fur trader and explorer of the Nebraska region.


CHANGES IN THE TERRITORY, NOW NEBRASKA


The Nebraska region was part of the terri- tory of Indiana from October 1, 1804, until July 4, 1805. On March 3, 1805, Congress changed the district of Louisiana to the ter- ritory of Louisiana and it remained a portion of that territory with the capital at St. Louis, until, in June, 1812, when by act of Congress, the territory of Louisiana became the terri- tory of Missouri. January 19, 1816, the legis- lature governing this territory passed a law making the common law of England the law of the territory. On March 2, 1819, Congress. created the territory of Arkansas out of the Missouri territory, and preparatory to the ad- mission of Missouri to statehood, and on March 6, 1820, an act was approved author- izing the people of Missouri territory to form a constitution and state government. After Missouri became a state Nebraska was a part of an unorganized "Indian country."


June 30, 1834, by an act of Congress all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi and not included in the states of Missouri and Louisiana or the territory of Arkansas was taken to be "Indian country" and its status specifically defined as between Whites and Indians. In 1832, Captain Na- thaniel J. Wyeth led an expedition over the Oregon Trail, and from then on numerous ex- peditions crossed this trail which took them very near to the present borders of Hall County.


FREMONT'S DESCRIPTION OF GRAND ISLAND


The most important of the explorations of the Northwest, under the auspices of the gov- ernment, were those of General John C. Fré- mont. His first party to pass through Ne- braska by the Oregon Trail was in the sum- mer of 1842, an expedition of twenty-seven men. Frémont's orders were "to explore and report upon the country between the frontiers of Missouri and the south pass in the Rocky Mountains and on the line of the Kansas and


by the middle of August, and the party re- turned by the same route, reaching the junc- tion of the north and south forks on the 12th of September. The part of Frémont's journal that applies to Hall County is told in his own language, as follows :


On the morning of the 15th we embarked . in our hide boat. Mr. Preuss and myself with two men. We dragged her over the sands for three or four miles, and then left her on


STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS


the bar, and abandoned entirely all further attempts to navigate this river. The names given by the Indians are always remarkably appropriate ; and certainly none was ever more so than that which they have given to this stream -"The Nebraska, or Shallow River." Walking steadily the remainder of the day, a little before dark we over-took our people at their evening camp, about twenty-one miles below the junction. The next morning we crossed the Platte, and continued our way down the river bottom on the left bank, where we found an excellent plainly beaten road.


On the 18th, we reached GRAND IS- LAND, which is fifty-two miles long, with an average breadth of one mile and three quart- ers. It has on it some small eminences, and is sufficiently elevated to be secure from the


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annual floods of the river. As has already been remarked, it is well timbered, with an excellent soil, and recommends itself to notice as the best point for a military position on the Lower Platte.


INITIAL STEPS IN THE FORMATION OF NEBRASKA General Frémont, then Lieutenant Frémont,


[proposed] territory." The first real bill to organize the new Nebraska territory was in- troduced in Congress December 17, 1844, by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. This bill failed to pass. In 1848 Douglas introduced a second bill, which also failed. In 1853 a third bill was likewise defeated. In 1854 a fourth


FRANCIS BURT, FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEBRASKA TERRITORY


in his reports, as hereinbefore indicated, spoke of the "Nebraska River," using the Otoe In- dian name for the Platte, from the Otoe word "Ne-brathka," meaning "Flat Water." Secre- tary of War William Wilkins, in his report of November 30, 1844, says: "The Platte or Nebraska River being the central stream would very properly furnish a name to the


Nebraska bill, now called the "Nebraska-Kan- sas bill," was passed after a prolonged and bitter struggle and signed by President Frank- lin Pierce on May 30, 1854. In the Congress that had assembled in 1851-52, Willard P. Hall, a representative from the state of Mis- souri, had offered a bill having for its object the organization of the "Territory of the


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Platte." A bill offered in February, 1853, ally determined in favor of Omaha by Acting called for the organization of the "Territory of Nebraska,". and when the final measure went through, it bore the name of "Nebraska."


TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT PRIOR TO 1858


Francis Burt, of South Carolina, was the first governor of Nebraska territory. He ar- rived at Bellevue, October 7, 1854, and died there October 18. He had taken the oath of office on the 16th, before Chief Justice Fergu- son, so was governor only two days. Thomas B. Cuming became acting governor. On No- vember 23, a proclamation was issued ordering an election of delegate to congress and legis- lators. This first territorial election held on December 12, 1854, was too early for Hall County, but not very many years too early at that. On December 20 Acting Governor Cuming issued a proclamation fixing the time and place of holding the first session of the territorial assembly. The struggle between the new town of Omaha and the old town of Bellevue for the territorial capital was practic-


Governor Cuming's call to the legislature to meet in Omaha on January 16, 1855. Gov. M. W. Izard, successor to Governor Burt, took office on February 23, 1855. Governor Izard resigned on October 25, 1857, and the vacancy was filled by Secretary Cuming. From Jan- uary 12, 1858, to December 5, 1858, William A. Richardson was governor. He resigned on December 5, and the vacancy was filled by J. Sterling Morton, secretary, until May 2, 1859, when the new governor, Samuel W. Black, arrived. The organization of Hall County had been authorized on November 9, 1858, and on December 9th Acting Governor Morton per- formed one of his first official acts when he wrote the letter transmitting the appointments he had made for offices of the new county. From this point on, the matters pertaining to the territorial and state government that have particular application to Hall County will be treated mainly in the chapter on "Hall County's Part in the State and Federal Gov- ernment," and incidentally in other chapters.


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CHAPTER II


SETTLEMENT OF HALL COUNTY


NAMING AND SETTLING THE COUNTY - FRED HEDDE'S NARRATIVE - THE ORIGIN OF THE IDEA - THE COLONY STARTS IN 1857 - NEBRASKA'S FEW INHABITANTS -THE PLATTE VALLEY, FREMONT, AND COLUMBUS - GRAND ISLAND SETTLEMENT - THE COLONY ON HALF RATIONS - THE FIRST WINTER - A SECOND COLONY - THE FAILURE OF THE DAVENPORT COMPANY - "PIKE'S PEAKERS" - EXTENSIONS OF SETTLEMENT - WOOD RIVER'S FIRST SET- TLERS - MORMON WAY STATION - INDIAN SCARE OF 1864-THE GRASSHOPPER YEARS - WHEN THE UNION PACIFIC CAME - GRAND ISLAND CITY - RETURNING PROSPERITY - THE REMAINING PIONEERS - AN EARLY HALL COUNTY BRIDAL COUPLE, BY CHRISTIAN MENCK - 1857-1869- THE DREAM OF FUTURE NATIONAL CAPITAL, BY WILLIAM STOLLEY - ORGANIZ- ING THE COLONY OF 1857 - TERMS OF EXPEDITION - PERSONNEL OF COLONY - THE AD- VANCE PARTY - DECIDE TO BUILD - SECOND COLONY - MARKET FOR CORN - DAVENPORT COMPANY FAILS - SOME OF THE FIRST THINGS - HUNTING IN 1860 - INTERRUPTION OF A PRAYER - GARRISONS CALLED AWAY - FIRST MASSACRE BY INDIANS - PANICKY FEELING RESULTS - "FORT INDEPENDENCE" - THE SETTLEMENT PROTECTED - SOME PAWNEES TREACHEROUS - DISCOVER ENEMY IN TIME - GOETTSCHE-FRAUEN MASSACRE - GOVERN- MENT MAKES SURVEY - CONTRACTORS TAKE TIMBER - THE GRASSHOPPER SCOURGE - ASK CONGRESS FOR HELP - APPEARS BEFORE GARFIELD - CALLS ON MAGNATE (JAY GOULD)


Hall County is the name given to one of the fairest political divisions of Nebraska. Though Judge Augustus Hall was a member of the territorial supreme court and chief justice of the same in 1858 and 1859 when the legal steps were taken and carried out that formed this county, the name "Hall" is attributed in the early lore of local history to have been taken from the surname of a man named Hall, who was an early partner of William M. Spiker in business here and who afterwards lived in Colorado.


In 1857, when the spring sun rose over the prairie there was not a white man within the present boundaries of Hall County. Dur- ing that year a little band of thirty-five peo- ple arrived and located in the great solitude. A year later the legislature gave to the locality a name and a local government.


The story of the settlement and the strug-


gles of the first pioneers cannot be told by those of the succeeding generation with any- thing approaching the accuracy, detail, or rea- lism that has been employed by several of that little band of thirty-five who, fortunately for the succeeding generations of Hall County citizens and Nebraskans in general, preserved that wonderful story during their lifetime. Therefore, this chapter on the settlement of Hall County and its first colony will be given to our readers in the words of three of the leading spirits of that colony, Frederick Hedde, Christian Menck, and William Stolley.


NARRATIVE OF FREDERICK HEDDE WRITTEN IN 1897 .


The first discussions in Congress in ante- bellum times about the construction of a trans- continental railroad, which to all expectations


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would have to run along the Platte River turned to Davenport, and Fred Hedde then Valley, with branch roads to join the main led this party from Omaha to the place in the interior of Nebraska, which afterwards was selected for this settlement, the surveying party being about a day's travel ahead. road a distance west of the Missouri, started the idea among some gentlemen in Davenport, Iowa, to form a settlement and lay out a city in the then new territory of Nebraska, at a point in this valley where it was hoped that NEBRASKA'S FEW INHABITANTS junction of the three roads would take place.


A company was formed to furnish the financial means for the existence of the settlers in the uninhabited wilds of Nebraska, and for making improvements in the intended city, and a party of thirty-five persons were engaged for the formation of the settlement under the main leadership of the civil en- gineer, R. C. Barnard. Mr. Barnard and four others were native Americans, all others Germans, mostly from the Schleswig-Hol- stein territory, who had been a few years in the United States. Quite a number of the latter had been in the military service in Ger- many, some during war time. In Davenport this expedition was considered as a fool-hardy undertaking, as the middle of Nebraska was entirely without any inhabitants except Indians, who were considered very dangerous. But our prospective settlers did not allow themselves to be scared out of their plans. Five of them even took their wives along with them, and a young girl was also enterprising enough to accompany her brother and sister- in-law.


THE COLONY STARTS IN 1857


In the spring of 1857, as soon as there was grass enough for the teams, the future set- tlers of Grand Island started from Davenport. A surveying party started a few days in ad- vance of the main party under the lead of Surveyor Barnard. This party consisted of his four American friends, the narrator, Fred Hedde, and Christian Menck, the latter two being the only participants of this expedition who yet live in the city of Grand Island. This party traveled with a four-mule team. The other large party followed in four wagons drawn by several yoke of oxen each, under the lead of William Stolley, who brought the same as far as Omaha. From here he re-


Nebraska was at that time a very new territory with perhaps 20,000 inhabitants, mostly settled along the Missouri River. Omaha, which was reached June 18, was at that time about three years old and had a population of about 2,000, although they claimed a good many more. It had a lively rival in Florence, originally a Mormon set- tlement, a town of about 1,000 inhabitants. Each boasted of becoming the great city and of annihilating the other. But when seven years later the Union Pacific railroad was located at Omaha, many of the Florence es- tablishments were moved to Omaha, and others collapsed, a very little village remaining there, while Omaha grew to the great city it is today.


THE PLATTE VALLEY, FREMONT, AND COLUMBUS


A few settlers had at the time gone into the Platte Valley, and had crossed the Loup River which empties into the Platte about 85 miles west of Omaha. About every four or five miles, a house was found, some with canvas roofs or otherwise unfinished. But generally a great city was attached to the house, adorned with a big name, painted on a sign that was fastened to a tree. The only two young embryos of future cities were Fremont and Columbus, each consisting of about a dozen block houses. All the other imaginary cities of those days have never come into existence.


At Columbus, also a German settlement, the settlers tried to persuade our pioneers to stay and settle with them, but the latter all preferred to go farther. As at this place the Loup River could not be forded and there was here neither bridge nor ferry, they crossed the river about ten miles above this point, where there was a sufficiently good ford and a Mormon settlement.


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From here they went about 65 miles farther and when we had no more hope of their re- west until they struck Wood River, and about .ten miles from the point where this little river emptied into the old narrow north chan- nel of the Platte River, opposite the large island in the Platte called Grand Island, the new settlement was located July 4th, 1857.


GRAND ISLAND SETTLEMENT


The Island was formed by a very narrow channel branching off from the main Platte about fifty miles above, and joining the main river again about ten miles below the new settlement. This little branch was fringed with a narrow strip of cottonwood trees, fur- nishing logs for buildings and firewood. On account of its timber, at other places in the valley very scarce, the name of this island was already well known, and gave the settle- ment the name of Grand Island settlement and the later city the name of Grand Island.


Our pioneers then went to work putting up some log houses near the present dwelling houses of the Menck and Stuhr farms, a little east and south of the present city, so near together that they could protect each other in case of trouble with the Indians. And they broke as much land as the late season would allow. Our surveyor succeeded in laying out a town, which covered the southern portion of our present city of Grand Island but never advanced beyond the char- acter of a paper town, because the Davenport company which had started the enterprise, and which was bound to make improvements in the new town, in consequence of the crisis of 1857 broke up, about a year later, and con- sequently abandoned their scheme.


THE COLONY ON HALF RATIONS


Before this happened another danger threatened the new settlement with speedy dissolution. Two loads of provisions had been hauled out by hired teamsters to the place of the new settlement, accompanying the pioneers, and they were sent back to Omaha, where a large amount of provisions belonging to the company was deposited, to bring out two more loads. But they never came back,


turning, and the provisions began to be scarce, something had to be done. Fred Hedde, who had charge of the distribution of the pro- visions, saw there was not a sufficient amount left to keep the settlers fully provided; and since Mr. Barnard, the main agent, made no adequate arrangements, took it upon himself to send some of the settlers to Omaha with their ox teams. Such a trip, over 300 miles going and returning, took at least from seven- teen to eighteen days and there was not enough of provisions left here if everyone, as before, received as much as he wanted. Mr. Hedde presented the situation to the men, proposing that only half rations be issued in the future, in which case the rations would last about twenty days. They all agreed with the exception of Barnard and his few friends, who wanted whatever they liked. But they were made to obey. Thus the pioneers pa- tiently stood nearly three weeks of hunger without being starved; and when at the end of this trying time the men with their loads of good things arrived there was great rejoic- ing, because there was once more plenty and the settlement had been saved.


THE FIRST WINTER


With renewed vigor all preparations for the coming winter were then made. In No- vember a heavy snow storm set in quite sud- denly while two men, a stranger who stayed with our settlers and one of the latter, Henry Joehnck, had gone out to Prairie Creek on a hunt. They could not find their way back to the settlement, and when they were discovered by the men who had started for their rescue, the strange man was already dead, while Joehnck's life was saved with difficulty.


After this storm the weather throughout the winter was exceedingly mild, a kind of continual Indian summer, and very favorable for the winter work of the pioneers, who were sufficiently protected in their houses. Though they lived sixty-five miles from the last traces of civilization and never saw any travelers excepting once in the late summer of 1857, when a party of Californians returned along


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the Platte Valley, they enjoyed that lonely time in peace and happiness.


A SECOND COLONY


At the end of the next spring, 1858, an accession came, a second colony, from Daven- port, all Germans. They joined the Grand Island settlement and later others came from other parts of the United States and from Germany directly to this settlement. The settlers spread out, each taking up his own farm, and going over from the main land of the valley to the big Island. This is the reason that the neighborhood of the present city of Grand Island, for five miles down and six or seven miles up Wood River, and nearly the whole island is settled almost exclusively by hard-working German farmers, nearly all of whom are well-to-do, and some of whom are rich, owning from 1,000 to 2,000 acres of land and from 100. to 300 head of cattle, though all of them, with great perseverance, had from time to time to withstand hard years.


THE FAILURE OF THE DAVENPORT COMPANY


The first misfortune came over the settle- ment when, in the winter of '57-58, the Dav- enport Company, in consequences of the crisis of 1857, broke up. Then, of course, no more provisions were furnished and all hope for improving the town site was gone. That, however, did not discourage our settlers. A large number of the younger ones found em- ployment at good wages at Fort Kearny, about forty miles up the river and situated on the other side of the Platte. The others attended to their fields and new breaking.


Late in the fall of 1858 another misfortune befell the settlement. Traveling teamsters set fire to the prairie while the grass was long and dry, and the houses of the settlers were not well protected against such occurrences. Seven of the new houses were consumed, but even that did not dampen their courage. New houses were built and hopes sustained for the better times which they saw coming. And they came.


"PIKE'S PEAKERS"


In the fall of 1857 the first rumors came


from the west about gold being discovered at Pike's Peak, the Colorado mountain not far southwest of the present city of Denver. At first the reports were not credited, but in spite of this doubt in the next spring quite a number of gold-seekers started along the Platte Valley for the new Eldorado, the em- bryo of Denver and the state of Colorado, and though many of them returned in the fall, disappointed and sad, the stream of emigra- tion, not only to Colorado but also to the other gold countries of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and the Pacific coast, yearly increased, so that for seven or eight years hundreds of parties, some of them with a number of wagons and teams, passed daily and camped on the Platte near our settlement. These gold fields and the march of the "Pike's Peakers" as they were called, had no attraction for our pioneers, who did not suffer with the gold fever. But this continuous moving mass of gold hunters was of great advantage to them. Our settlement was nearly the last place where the travelers could buy anything, and in con- sequence the pioneers had a splendid oppor- tunity to dispose of their hay, corn, oats, garden vegetables, and some provisions at high prices. From $1.00 to $1.50 for a bushel of grain was an ordinary price, and upon ex- traordinary occasions the price went con- siderably higher. Some contracts of several thousand bushels were taken by the settlers from the commanding officers of Fort Kear- ny, to be delivered there at $2.04, about half the price the government had previously paid for their corn which had to be delivered to them from St. Joseph, Missouri. The Grand Island settlers had no large fields as yet, and their crops were small crops, paid better than large crops now, and gave the settlers an ex- cellent start, putting them in good condition as they were generally saving as well as in- dustrious.




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