History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 31

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

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Everybody suffered immense hardships or inconvenience in this terrible storm, but none suffered more keenly than did the occupants of the prairie schoolhouses. Innumerable stories stand out in Nebraska history from this event, but none more lasting nor worthy of our digression to mention here than those of three Nebraska country school teachers-Loie Royce of Plainfield, Etta Shattuck of Holt . county, and Minnie Freeman of Mira Valley, who were the subjects of: much newspaper writing.

Minnie Freeman Penney. in Nebraska Pio- neer Reminiscenes has told these three stories in such compact form that we can well afford to record them here, in her words :

Miss Royce had nine pupils. Six went ·home for luncheon and remained on account of the storm. The three remaining pupils with the teacher stayed in the schoolhouse until three o'clock. Their fuel gave out, and as her boarding house was but fifteen rods

away, the teacher decided to take the children home with her.

In the fury of the storm they wandered and were lost. Darkness came, and with it death. One little boy sank into eternal silence. The brave little teacher stretched herself out on the cold ground and cuddled the two re- maining ones closer. Then the other little boy died and at daylight the spirit of the little girl, aged seven, fluttered away, leaving the young teacher frozen and numb with agony. Loie Royce "hath done what she could; angels can do no better." Miss Royce lost both feet by amputation.

Etta Shattuck, after sending her children home (all living near) tried to go to her home. Losing her way, she took refuge in a haystack, where she remained, helpless and hungry Fri- day, Saturday, and Sunday, suffering intensely and not able to move. She lived but a short time after her terrible experience.

Those who knew Minnie Freeman say she was not seeking any newspaper notoriety, yet it is not amiss to quote from the Lincoln Daily Star of June 17, 1905, which remarked "That as Iowa has her Kate Shelley so Nebraska has her Minnie Freeman," we may add Minnie Freeman Penney's own account of this storm without it seeming to be any inclination on her part to claim undue glory :

Minnie Freeman was teaching in Mira Valley, Valley County. She had in charge seventeen pupils. Finding it impossible to re- main in the schoolhouse, she took the children with her to her boarding place almost a mile from the schoolhouse.

Words are useless in the effort to portray that journey to the safe shelter of the farm- house, with the touching obedience to every word of direction - rather felt than heard, in that fierce winding sheet of ice and snow. How it cut and almost blinded them! It was terrible on their eyes, They beat their way onward, groping blindly in the darkness, with the visions of life and death ever before the young teacher responsible for the destiny of seventeen souls.

All reached the farmhouse and were given a nice warm supper prepared by the hostess and the teacher, and comfortable beds pro- vided.

Minnie Freeman was unconscious of any- thing heroic or unusual. Doing it in the simple line of duty to those placed in her care, she still maintains that it was the trust placed in

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the Great Spirit who guides and cares for His own which led the little band

Through the desert and illimitable air, Lone wandering, but not lost.

LATER STORMS

The winter of 1909-10 was unique in that sleet visited Nebraska in the later part of November, covered the roadways and walks, and in many places remained on the ground until early spring. A similar condition had existed in the winter of 1903-1904.

In March, 1913, one of the worst storms in many years occurred. The snow piled up so that many engines were stalled in the Grand Island yards, though the situation was worse at North Platte and Sidney than here. A bad wreck occured during this storm a few miles west of Sidney, on the Union Pacific. All the railroads were tied up for several days, and for almost three days, no mail or freight was received.

In February, 1919, a bad storm blocked the Burlington railroad at the cut near Phillips, a short distance southeast of Hall County line. This line was out of commission for about four days, though the Union Pacific was kept open at all times.

CYCLONE AUGUST 12, 1919

A cyclone that demolished farm buildings, killed stock and cut a pathway through big groves, telephone lines and fences, swept north of the city about 7 o'clock Tuesday. evening, August 12, 1919. Though a number of people were in the path of the tornado no report was received of anyone being hurt.

The cyclone developed during a heavy wind, rain and hail storm that lasted about half an hour. The cyclone cloud was visible from Grand Island and was seen by many people. First reports reaching here were of much damage. Grand Island apparently was on the outskirts of the storm. A strong wind raised much dust here, but no rain fell. St. Libory on the north also was at the edge of the storm, which traveled between the two towns.

Rain and hail accompanied the cyclone, but the path of destruction was small. The dis-

tance between the point where the cyclone first hit the earth and the point where it lifted evidently was about four miles. The width of the path of the cyclone was from 200 to 300 feet most of the way.

The tornado traveled from northwest to- ward the southeast. It first touched the ground in the pasture on the Henry Brabander farm a half mile west of the Martin Grotz place, which is twelve miles northwest of the city, according to Mrs. Grotz. It swept through the William Franssen farm, the Charles Rob- ert place and the Henry Mohr place, doing much damage at each place, but wrecking its greatest fury on the Mohr place. About a half mile east of the group of buildings on the Mohr place the cyclone lifted, doing practical- ly no damage to a large grove of trees planted there, but passing above them.

August Hamann, who lives several miles north of the city on the road that runs on the east side of the Soldiers' home, saw the cy- clone from a distance. He gave a vivid de- scription of its appearance. He said the funnel shaped cloud seemed to form northwest of his place, and he presumed it began somewhere in the vicinity of Cairo. It moved southeast and when it reached the vicinity of the St. Paul road it was sucked up: His estimate proved wholly correct so far as the finish of the cyclone, as it left the ground a quarter of a mile west of the St. Paul road. The path of the cyclone was approximately along the county line, Mohr's place being near the line.

Mr. Hamann was in the field during the storm and was watching it. "First I noticed a large amount of dust being raised," he said. Then I stopped work to watch it. It was the closest I ever saw such a cloud. The bottom of the funnel-shaped cloud seemed to rest in a cloud of dust on the ground. I judged the thickness of the funnel at the ground to be about 300 feet, Clouds and dust whirling around in a circle gave the funnel-shaped ap- pearance. The funnel widened gradually from the ground up, the difference in width not being great. At first the top of the funnel seemed only about 200 feet from the ground. It gradually lengthened until it extended to

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the storm clouds. From the mass of storm clouds above, another cloud which also had a funnel shape, hung down a ways and seemed to remain just above the other funnel, and finally it seemed as if the cyclone was sucked up into this cloud.

People in the city who had good vantage points from which to watch the cyclone cloud say they noticed clouds of dust near the ground.

Just after the cyclone formed it struck the William Franssen place. The big windmill was torn down. The large barn was moved from its foundation and the chicken house and sum- mer kitchen were upset, according to the farm- ers who visited the Franssen home.

East of the Franssen place the cyclone hit the farm property of Charles Roberts. Three head of cattle were reported killed in the pas- ture and several head crippled. As many trees were blown down in that vicinity it is pre- sumed the flying limbs caused the fatality among the cattle.

A thick grove of trees that stood just west of the house about fifty feet was entirely lown. Trees two feet thick were broken off nd uprooted. The whole formed a mass of angled trunks, limbs and leaves that lay with he ends touching the house. The summer itchen, just outside of the house to the west, ut built separate from the main building, was hoved four feet from its foundation and wisted around. The house itself appeared ot to have been moved.

The barn, 54 x 48 feet, about 100 feet east f the house, was entirely gone. Just before

the storm ten cows and three calves had been put in the barn and preparations were being made to milk. A steer, which had been suffer- ing from a kick, also was in the barn. When the family emerged from the house they found all the cattle standing on the ground inside the barn foundation just where they were before the storm. The barn was gone, however. Part of the barn was found in a pasture forty rods away. The main part had been moved twenty-five feet north of the foun- dation and lay on the ground, a twisted heap of ruins.

Almost outside the front door of the house a pet dog lay dead, killed by a blow from flying derbis. A corn crib and machine shed south of the house was blown away, part of it being found in a meadow 160 rods distant. The roof was lying near the foundation. The granary east of the house a short distance was moved a rod and a half from its foundation. Before the storm the granary faced the south and after the storm it faced the west. The chicken coop was not touched.

The cattle shed and the hog pens were torn down and lost somewhere. John Mohr said he had not found any trace of them. A steer that was in the yard had a leg broken. It was estimated that scores of chickens were killed under the trees. The windmill was down.

John Mohr stated that two acres of trees, standing not more than ten feet apart, were destroyed, being stripped of foliage and limbs and in many cases being uprooted or broken off near the ground. These trees were just west of the house.

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CHAPTER XII

THE TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL SURVEY OF HALL COUNTY

. DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA - NATURAL TRANSPORTATION ADVANTAGES - SOILS - HALL SILT LOAM - HALL VERY FINE SANDY LOAM - HALL FINE SANDY LOAM - HALL SANDY - LOAM - HALL CLAY LOAM - CASS SERIES OF SOILS - GRUNDY SOILS - MARSHALL LOAMS - COLBY SERIES - VALENTINE SAND - O'NEILL SANDS - O'NEILL LOAM - LAMOURE LOAMS - GANNETT SOILS - SUMMARY OF CLASSES OF SOILS - RAPID RISE IN VALUES IN 1919

DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA 1

Hall County is situated in the south-central part of Nebraska. Grand Island, the county seat, is 154 miles west of Omaha. The county is bounded on the north by Howard County, on the east by Hamilton and Merrick counties, on the south by Adams County, and on the west by Buffalo County. It is nearly square, being approximately 24 miles long from north to south and 23 miles wide east and west. Its total area is 528 square miles, or 337,920 acres.

Hall County lies near the eastern margin of the Great Plains. In general the surface is smooth, and there is no conspicuous topo- graphic relief. The Platte River crosses the county in a northeasterly direction, flowing through a shallow valley 12 to 15 miles wide. About 6 square miles of territory in the ex- treme northwestern corner is included in the South Loup River Valley. The upland consists of two small triangular areas, one in the north- western part of the county and one in the southeastern part. These upland areas repre- sent remnants of an originally continuous east- ward-sloping plain.

The Platte River flows near the southern side of its valley, in a number of widely separated channels which inclose a great num- ber of low-lying, elongated islands. The bot- tom land in general lies only 5 to 10 feet above the water, and there are many poorly

drained depressions representing the sites of old channels. To the north of the first bot- toms is a very extensive nearly level alluvial terrace, lying 15 to 40 feet above the flood plains. The city of Grand Island is situated near the southern border of this terrace, which for convenience in reference may be called the Grand Island terrace. The dividing line between the first bottoms and this terrace is a low bluff extending southwesterly from Grand Island and lying 1 to 2 miles south of the Union Pacific Railroad. The terrace reaches a width of 6 to 13 miles, and is the largest topographic division in the county. Its sur- face has scarcely been modified. In a few places the wind has heaped up low hummocks of sand, but there has been little stream ero- sion. ' There are a few small eastward-flow ing streams on the terrace, but they folld sluggish, winding courses and occupy relativ ly deep, canallike channels, without trib taries. There are also a few winding sloug like depressions, which seem to represent t abandoned channels of present streams.

The upland areas lie 50 to 150 feet abo

1 Much of the text matter and the bulk of t statistics set forth in this chapter were prepared J. O. Veatch, of the U. S. department of agricults and V. H. Seabury, of the Nebraska soil sur (based upon inspection made by Thomas D. R. and first published in advance sheets of Field Opd tions of U. S. department of agriculture, Bureau Soils, and offered for information of Hall Com people generally.

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the Platte Valley floor. The surface in general ranges from slightly rolling to nearly level and flat, but in places near drainage ways there are narrow zones of broken and eroded land. About 30 square miles of upland in the north- ern part of the county is rolling and uneven, owing to the heaping up of loose sand into irregular, low, rounded hills and dunes by the wind. This area forms a narrow divide be- tween the Loup and Platte valleys and is known as the "sand hills." A similar but much less extensive line of low hills occurs along the margin of the southern upland area facing the Platte Valley.

The elevation of the first bottoms and ter- races of the Platte River ranges from 1,800 to 2,000 feet above sea level. There is a gradual slope eastward of about 9 feet per mile. The elevation of the Loup River Val- ley in the northwestern corner of the county is about 1,900 feet above sea level. The up- land in the northwestern part ranges from about 1,940 to 2,100 feet. The elevation of the southern upland area ranges from about 2,060 feet above sea level on the west to about 1,900 feet along the eastern boundary of the county.

The Platte River drains the entire county except a small area in the northwestern part which is drained by the. South Loup River. The Platte is heavily loaded with sediment, and is engaged in aggradation and in lateral cutting rather than in deepening its channel. All the longer streams have low gradients. Most of the streams are intermittent. Even the Platte River frequently becomes dry for short periods during the summer. There are many nearly level areas which have no well- defined drainage ways and in which there has been little modification of the original con- structional plains surface. The rainfall, how- ever, is comparatively light, and many of the soil types have porous subsoils and are well underdrained, so that areas with only a very moderate slope may be naturally drained suf- ficiently for farming. The only areas that are markedly deficient in drainage are small depressions in the upland and the lower lying bottoms along the Platte River, aggregating

not more than 6 per cent of the total area of the county.

The first settlement in this territory was made about 1857, by a colony of Germans, and the county was organized in 1858. Its popu- lation in 1880 was 8,572, and in 1910, 20,361. Approximately 86 per cent of the population consists of native white persons and 13.6 per cent of foreign-born white persons, principally Germans. All the population outside Grand Island, or 49.3 per cent of the total, is classed as rural, and averages 19 persons to the square mile. All parts of the county are settled, but the density of settlement is slightly greater in the central-valley part along the Union Pacific Railroad.

Grand Island, with a population in 1910 of 10,326, is the principal city and county seat. It has a number of manufacturing industries, and is one of the largest horse and mule mar- kets in the west. Doniphan, with a population of 399, in the southeastern part of the county ; Wood River, with a population of 796, in the southwestern part; and Cairo, with a popu- lation of 364, in the northwestern part, are important local trading points and grain markets.

NATURAL TRANSPORTATION ADVANTAGS

Lines of the Union Pacific and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroads and the St. Joseph & Grand Island railway traverse the county and afford excellent transportation facilities. No farm is more than ten miles from a railway station. The public highways are all earth roads, but they are generally maintained in good condition by frequent grad- ing and dragging. Roads have been laid out on practically every section line except in a few square miles of rough sand-hill uplands and also in some parts of the Platte River bottoms, which are difficult of access on ac- count of the numerous channels. Rural mail delivery routes reach all parts of the county, and practically all the farmers have telephone connection with Grand Island and other near- by towns.

Hall County lies on the national transconti- nental route, the Lincoln Highway. This route

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from New York to San Francisco passes through the country almost parallel with the transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific. A mile of road east of Grand Island was prepared a few years ago with hard ce- ment surface. Plans are laid in 1919 to pre- pare at least another mile of macadamized or hard surfaced road. The program for 5,000 miles of state-aid permant highways for Ne- braska, enacted by the 1919 legislature, gives Hall County a net-work of state highways to every corner. From east to west runs the Lincoln Highway. From the southeast corner of the county to Grand Island the Seward- York-Aurora Highway, which is included in the route of the proposed Pershing Memorial National Highway from New York to San Francisco, via Indianapolis, La Clede, and St. Joseph, Missouri, to Lincoln, Nebraska, and to Grand Island, the proposed junction of the Lincoln and Pershing transcontinental high- ways; from Grand Island, through Cairo and on past the northwest corner of the county, the Potash Highway, leading to the Black Hills; from Grand Island north to St. Libory and on to St. Paul and Loup City, the north route starts to the Loup Valley, and the Hall County part of this state road may soon be- come part of the Grainland Highway from Sioux City to Kansas; as also may the state- road leading from Grand Island through Doni- phan to Hastings and south. Thus does Hall County naturally become the hub of the cen- tral part of the state, on its two great means of transportation, railroads and permanent highways. Recently the federal government has assigned forty large motor trucks for road and highway work in this vicinity and loca- tions have been selected near Grand Island for gravel and sand pits to furnish material for road construction.

SOILS

Hall County is situated in the east-central part of the Great Plains region. The soils have been influenced by a climate intermediate be- tween that of the north-central Mississippi Valley and that of the semi-arid High Plains. However, they partake more of the nature of

soils of humid than of semi-arid regions. The greater part of the soils has been derived from old and recent alluvium laid down in the valley of the Platte River. The soils of the upland, which constitute a little less than one- third of the county, are derived mainly from the un- derlying formations, which consist of silt, sand, and sandy clay. These are mainly of Pleistocene age, but some of the material is possibly late Tertiary.

The principal deposit on the upland is a pale-yellow or grayish, loosely consolidated material consisting mainly of silt and very fine sand. In structure and chemical char- acteristics it is similar to the loess along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. It is part of an extensive formation, probably Pleistocene in age, which underlies a large part of central and eastern Nebraska and is known geologic- ally as "Plains Loess." The silt formation in this county is overlain by a thin deposit of yellow fine and very fine sand. This super- ficial sand deposit is not uniformly distrib- uted over the whole upland and in places it has been largely removed by erosion, but it has had an important influence on the char- acter of the soils. The sand generally is not more than 10 feet in thickness, but in places it has been heaped by wind action into hills 25 to 30 feet high.

In the following pages of this report the various soils mapped in Hall County are des- cribed in detail and discussed in their rela- tion to agriculture.

HALL SILT LOAM AND FRIABLE SOIL (69,253 acres, 20.2%).

The soil of the Hall silt loam is uniformly a very dark brown, friable silt loam, high in organic matter, to a depth of 8 to 12 inches, underlain by a somewhat lighter brown, more compact silt loam which continues to depths ranging from 15 to 24 inches. The surface soil contains only a very small percentage of particles coarser than very fine sand. There is generally a fairly abrupt change to the subsoil, which consists of 6 to 8 inches of dark-yellow clay, tough and plastic when wet and very hard and impenetrable when dry,

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underlain by less plastic silty clay to a depth of 36 to 40 inches. The lower subsoil usually contains sufficient lime to effervesce freely with acid. The lime content apparently is not high in the surface material, although there is no evidence of a deficiency. The sub- stratum is a pale-yellow or grayish, friable silt loam and very fine sandy loam, extending to depths of 10 to 20 feet.

The Hall list loam occurs principally in one large area west and north of Alda and Wood River, in the central-western part of the county. This area includes practically all of Harrison township; and with the fria- ble subsoil phase, all but a part of the north- west quarter of Cameron township, and ex- tends into southeast four sections of South Loup, two south tiers of sections in May- field and a few sections in west end of Center township.

There are two very small, isolated areas, one in Lake Township north of Grand Is- land and one a short distance northeast of Doniphan. The typical soil covers 16.7 per cent of the county. The principal area, on the Grand Island terrace, lies 20 to 40 feet above the first bottoms of the Platte, and about 1,900 feet above sea level. There is an imperceptible eastward slope. The surface varies from flat to fairly undulating. The area is traversed by a few winding, sluggish creeks, with deep channels, and there are a few narrow, winding ditchlike depressions, which represent remnants of old stream chan- nels. The soil is nowhere subject to stream erosion. Except in a few shallow depressions the natural drainage is adequate for farming in normal years.

Because of its large extent and high average productiveness the Hall silt loam is the most important soil in the county. About 90 per cent of it is under cultivation. Some of the more poorly drained areas are used for pas- ture. Corn, wheat, alfalfa, and oats are the principal crops grown. Barley, millet, sorg- hum, and kafir are grown in occasional small fields. On account of the very small acreage of pasture on the average farm, little live stock is kept. A small number of farmers

are engaged in stock feeding, using the sur- plus grain and hay produced in the neighbor- hood. A very small percentage of the farm- ers keep dairy herds, and sell both milk and cream. The average yield of corn is about 28 bushels per acre, of wheat 23 bushels, of oats about 40 bushels, and of alfalfa, as a total of several cuttings, between 31/2 and 4 tons. Alfalfa probably gives better results than on any other soil in the county.

Under favorable moisture conditions this soil is easily worked and maintained in good tilth. It is somewhat heavier than most of the terrace soils, and if worked when wet it tends to compact and clod, so that rolling is often necessary to work up a good seed bed for wheat. Four-horse teams are commonly used with gang plows turning two furrows to a depth of 6 or 7 inches. Owing to the level character of the surface, tractors can be easily used in fall plowing.

The greater part of the Hall silt loam had a selling price of $100 to $125 an acre up until 1919.

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History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 31

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

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