History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 4

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 4


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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EXTENSIONS OF SETTLEMENT


During these years the Grand Island settle- ment extended to the east and west, almost exclusively Germans from the northern part of Germany joining it, and all were busy in spring, summer, and fall in their fields, They Digitized by Sgle


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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA


also, until large stores were established here, had to make one or two trips yearly to Omaha to buy and transport hither, with their teams, the necessary provisions, and they had, in winter, to go frequently to Ft. Kearny for the delivery of the contracted grain. Since at Kearny the broad and somewhat danger- ous Platte had to be crossed these trips were sometimes very disagreeable, but, going in companies, the men helped and cheered each other, and when the weather was good they really enjoyed it.


WOOD RIVER'S FIRST SETTLERS


In the course of time the country settled up somewhat more rapidly. There were some settlers between Columbus on the Loup and Grand Island, and people had also settled west of Grand Island along Wood River, a little stream which for a long distance runs almost parallel with the Platte. The first settlers on Wood River, in the neighborhood of the pres- ent village and station of Wood River, were the two brothers, Pat and Alex Moore, who were soon joined by their brother-in-law, O'Brien. The Moores were Americanized Irishmen, and after some years a large num- ber of Irish people settled around them. They were good, hard-working men, who got along well, and with whom our Grand Island pio- neers lived on terms of friendship. Between them and the Grand Island settlement a num- ber of Americans took claims. Most of these, however, left again.


MORMON WAY STATION


Beyond this Irish settlement, not far from it, there was also for some years, a Mormon colony, a way station for the Mormon emi- grants, who sometimes with wagons and teams and drawn by the travelers themselves, marched on their tiresome road to Salt Lake. These people were full of fanaticism, ad- monishing us to go with them if we wanted to be saved from worldly and eternal des- truction, which we could not avoid here. This they believed because their prophet had said so. But no one followed them.


INDIAN SCARE OF 1864


The Sioux Indians formerly had come


through our settlement many a time to fight the Pawnee Indians, who lived nearly one hundred miles east of us in the Platte Valley, opposite Fremont; and though these Sioux had so far always behaved peaceably, they had during the Civil War become unruly, stirred up by the rebels. Roving bands com- mitted some murders in the Wood River coun- try and south of the Platte River, where some white people had settled. But they never troubled the Grand Island settlement, prob- ably thinking it too strong.


At the end of the spring of 1864 there be- came current a rumor that the Sioux would come down in force and clean out the whole Platte Valley, and the people had their imag- ination worked up to such an extent that nearly all Wood River people in long pro- cessions marched, with all they could carry with them, through our settlement down below Columbus and some did not stop before they reached Council Bluffs. No Indians ap- peared and when the fugitives came back their cornfields were full of weeds and their crops lost. Only a few remained at that time on Wood River.


The Grand Island settlers gathered mostly at the O. K. Store, centrally situated in the settlement, erected there some fortifications, ready to defend themselves, and stayed there a few days. But they soon returned to their farms, attending to their work and losing nothing. The scare blew over as a wind storm without doing great damage, and peace reigned apparently. But soon a more danger- ous enemy appeared.


THE GRASSHOPPER YEARS


Some time later swarms of grasshoppers came, something never yet seen by our settlers. They went from south to north, alighted here awaiting a favorable wind. When they left they had destroyed a good portion of the crops and what they had not eaten was liable to spoil. Such an attack was worse than an Indian attack as there was no defense possible against it. These numberless swarms, which when in motion high in the air looked like a kind of snow storm, wandered north and east, up to Minnesota and beyond the Mississippi


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River. They troubled this country more or less for a number of years, but have during the last twenty years not put in an appearance. They came from the Rocky Mountains and probably emigrated from there when espec- ially favorable circumstances caused an over- production of their tribes. During these grasshopper times the farmers suffered con- siderable losses. But their often-tried cour- age did not fail them. Most of them could already stand a loss.


WHEN THE UNION PACIFIC CAME


Since 1862, when the first larger store was erected southeast of the present city by Henry A. Koenig and Fred Wiebe, which was followed in 1864 by the opening of Fred Hedde's store five miles further west, on his farm, and by Jim Jackson's Wood River store, the old custom of making trips to Omaha for buying provisions ceased, and by and by reg- ular trade was established right here. All these stores were kept right on the old emi- grant road to catch the emigrant trade, no city as yet existing.


But in 1864 the construction of the Union Pacific railroad commenced and when it reached our settlement in 1866 a small town was laid out by the railroad company, receiv- ing the old name of Grand Island, and cover- ing a considerable portion of the old aban- doned town. Now the solitude was gone, and the old relations were more or less changed.


GRAND ISLAND CITY


A number of settlers moved into the new town, the stores went away from the former emigrant road. The farther the railroad ex- tended the more the old travel disappeared on this road until it finally stopped entirely and the old profitable trade with the gold hunters was. entirely gone. But the farms in the meantime were enlarged, the acres were broadened, and large crops at smaller prices replaced the old high prices of small crops.


The city grew, but slowly only, until 1869 when the Union Pacific and the Central Pa- cific railroads were finished. This great event started a large emigration into Nebraska from all parts of the United States, of which Grand


Island and its neighborhood received its due share. Until then most all of the newcomers had settled in the Platte Valley, but from 1869 on they went north from Grand Island to and beyond Prairie Creek and Loup Fork and began to fill the valleys of the Loup. Grand Island was for a number of years the center of trade for this whole country and grew fast. It was then the shipping point for their pro- duce, sending it to east and west, and supplied them with all the goods necessary for their settlements. Grand Island's trade reached out for more than a hundred miles.


The trouble with the grasshoppers which had commenced in the 'sixties continued dur- ing the first years after 1870, but then dis- appeared fully. And city and country had a continual, healthy growth until 1892, when the wild wave of free trade struck and re- duced the city in population, depressed busi- ness, and ruined many firms totally. In addi- tion to this misfortune there came, in 1894, that unfortunate year of drouth.


All Nebraska, with few exceptions of favored localities, suffered from an unusual drouth, which deprived most of the farmers of our neighborhood of their crops. Most of our farmers were, however, in such good financial condition that they could stand it without material injury, and the business men of Grand Island felt the injury perhaps keener than the farming community. However, the following years of bountiful crops, especially the last two, made amends for the short- comings of that bad year of 1894.


RETURNING PROSPERITY


Since that time the farmers had to build new additions to their cribs and store rooms, and the good prices have made them so inde- pendent that large amounts of mortgages have been paid off, though great quantities of grain are still in the hands of the farmers. The city has also felt the effect of the good times which began after the fall election of 1896 and have made prosperity return. All business has re- vived, vacant houses are inhabited again, the people have regained courage and have taken in hand the work of improving the business prospects and favoring the growth of the city.


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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA


Grand Island is now again on the up grade and probably will make fast progress.


THE REMAINING PIONEERS


Of the original pioneers who came here over forty years ago not many yet remain in our city and county. Barnard and his friends lived here only a few years. The German pioneers had better staying qualities, but now


stout young oak that sprung from a little acorn, bound to grow and live for ages,


Nearly all of the men and women who came here in the beginning were poor in a financial point of view. But they were rich in courage, energy, perseverance, industry, honesty, and frugality. They acquired a competence and laid the foundation of a prosperous city and county.


Semi-Centennial Celebration of


the Settlement of Hall County,


1857


1907


at Grand Island.


July 4th, 1907


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EIGHT SURVIVORS OF ORIGINAL, COLONY FIFTY YEARS AFTER


and then a number of them left for other parts AN EARLY HALL COUNTY BRIDAL of the country and a goodly number of them COUPLE have died. At present there live, in the city . BY CHRISTIAN MENCK of Grand Island, only Fred Hedde and Christian Menck, a retired farmer, and in the When in the year of 1857, on the 4th of July, we located here, with thirty men, six women and one child, we had seventeen yoke of oxen (five teams) and one team of mules. The latter was purchased by the company which provisioned the colony for the purpose of transporting supplies for us from Omaha. Mr. Barnard was the engineer and chief of the company and Mr. Hedde the leader of the Germans in the colony. county of Hall there are still living, on their farms, Wm. Stolley, Wm. A. Hagge, Kai Ewoldt, Marx Stelk (who passed away be- tween the writing and first publication of this sketch), Hy. Joehnck, Sr., . and two ladies, Mrs. Joehnck, wife of Hy. Joehnck, Sr., and Mrs. Anna Thomssen, wife of John Thoms- sen, Sr.1 In Howard County, near Dannebrog, lives Joach. Doll. That is all.


This historical sketch shows how from a small beginning our present fine and promis- ing city of Grand Island has grown, like a


1 The above paragraph the reader will note refers to 1907. In 1919 the only surviving members of the colony are Hy Joehnck, Sr., Wm. A. Hagge, and Mrs. Anna Thomssen.


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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA


After we were here a week or ten days we began to wonder why Mr. Barnard did not send the team back to Omaha for the supplies. Mr. Hedde, therefore, and the writer, went to Mr. Barnard to take up the matter with him. Mr. Barnard was of the opinion that the mule team was not good enough and had appointed the man who had come out with him to bring a load of provisions out. When Mr. Hedde inquired what security he had for the man - that he would return - Mr. Barnard was of the opinion that he was a gentleman. Mr. Hedde was not satisfied, however, with this and thereupon four men were sent with an ox team to get provisions from Omaha. When our four men arrived at Omaha they ran across the man who had promised to bring out the provisions, walking on the streets. He excused himself by saying that his horse was taken sick.


In the settlement all provisions were brought out of the wagons, in the meantime, in order to make inventory of what there was left and to gauge the use of them accordingly. It was estimated that at least fourteen days would be required before our team could re- turn. Rations were reduced to one-third of one pound of flour per day for each person or we would have suffered from hunger the first four weeks of our settlement here. Mr. Hedde, thus, from the beginning, came to be the adviser of the settlement.


We thereupon began to cultivate the land and to prepare for permanent occupancy by building houses on the four adjacent corners of forty-acre tracts about a mile southeast of the business center of the present city of Grand Island, the purpose being to be close together, in the event the Indians should be- come troublesome.


When, in September, our team was again sent to Omaha to secure provisions for the winter and when the party going with it arrived in Omaha there were no provisions for us, and the money which the company had deposited in the Omaha bank for the use of the colony had been used by Mr. Barnard, our captain, and his four colleagues. Mr. Hedde, who was one of our party, had in-


tended, after loading the wagon with pro- visions, to go to Davenport to spend the winter there. But when we found that there were no provisions for us Mr. Hedde hurried to Davenport for the purpose of reporting the condition of the settlers. He did so and urged that the company as speedily as possible send some money to Omaha or he would have to return immediately in order to secure other means to prevent hunger and suffering. Finally the company sent a man with money to Omaha with instructions to buy provisions, but in the meantime another month passed by. When finally the wagon had been loaded and when it reached Columbus the river was full of floating ice, and the ferry boat had, furthermore, been washed down the river. The team was driven to Genoa, where there was also a ford, but here the same trouble presented itself. In the meantime the settlers fortunately sent another team east, as far as Columbus. A small boat, which had been made here, was taken along in order to get provisions across the river - for the condi- tions of the river could be gauged here - and, the other team returning from Genoa, pro- visions were finally brought across. When the provisions finally arrived it was the 24th day of January, 1858, five months after the start had been made.


During this winter there were many snow storms and the Indians in the winter began the practice of hanging around the settlement. They wanted our provisions, saying that we were on their land and owed it to them. We had, however, no serious trouble.


It was about the beginning of July that Mr. Hedde returned from Davenport and, later, Mr. Stolley, Henry Vieregg, August Schern- ekau, now of Astoria, Oregon, John Hann, - Hoeppner, Bohnsack, and somewhat later John Vieregg and Fred Moeller. Mr. Stolley returned after two weeks to Daven- port. In the early part of September Mr. Schernekau and the writer went to Omaha to bring Mrs. Hedde and my wife-to-be to the settlement. Mr. Hedde was sick and could not undertake the trip. Mrs. Hedde took the stage to Grand Island. Mrs. Menck and I


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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA


were united in wedlock at Omaha and for our wedding trip went to Grand Island - per ox team. But we always look back to the happy days, notwithstanding their hardships, with pleasure.


About the middle of January, 1859, we had the first fire. It was a big fire in those days and we refer to it still as a big fire because it destroyed several houses - all but one of the immediate settlement. Several others, in the . course of construction, were also destroyed. My own household was almost entirely des- troyed. We saved only enough bedding for one bed. We had provisions for the entire winter and clothing for several years. It all went. The fire was incendiary in origin. The vagabond who set the prairie afire above us did it, as he boasted, because the "damned Dutch had no right to establish a settlement here." The incendiary's name was Tottel, or Tailes. Our captain, Mr. Barnard, went to Fort Kearny to see if he could not do some- thing for those who had been burned out but the colonel of the fort said he could only give fourteen days' rations. And we had to get along as best we could with this help.


In the summer of 1859, 1,500 Sioux passed through our settlement, but they were friendly to us. As a matter of course we had quite a large number of Indians about us every winter, in those early years.


In 1862 Mr. Schernekau enlisted in the war of the rebellion, so that even this frontier settlement, doing the battle of reclamation of the wilderness, furnished a member of the Nebraska volunteers. He was a member of the first Nebraska regiment and was wounded in battle.


In 1864, when the Indian trouble took place on the south side and above Fort Kearny, we built a fort, in order to be more safe. It was for many years used as the O. K. store. Our American colonists and neighbors, be- lieving Indian troubles to be sure, left for the east. Later a militia company sent us a cannon - the one which is now in the charge of the county authorities and which, for sev- eral years, stood in the old court house square.


In 1866, the Union Pacific was built to


Grand Island and in the same year the first houses in what is now Grand Island city were built. We lost one of our oldest settlers through accident in this year. His name was John Hamann. He was run down by a loco- motive- in just what way the engineer did not himself remember, but it was in connec- tion with a fractious team of horses.


In the winter of 1866 to 1867 we had at least twenty snowstorms, each of them as a rule lasting three days.


In 1868 I sustained the loss of my horses, through theft. I never learned anything of their whereabouts.


On July 14, 1869, our little house was struck by lightning and brought with it our first great sorrow. I was compelled to carry our little child, a boy of six years, lifeless from the home and my wife was rendered un- conscious, but, fortunately, soon recovered.


For thirty-three years we remained on the original farm and still retain "the old home- stead" though, of course, it was not a home- stead under what is commonly known now as the homestead law but the taking up by pur- chase of government land. For the past seventeen years we have taken life more easily and have lived in the city, watching, with ap- preciation, its gradual development, and im- provement.


THE DREAM OF FUTURE NATIONAL CAPITAL


DETAILS OF ORGANIZATION - EARLY REMINISCENSES


By WILLIAM STOLLEY Written in 1907


It was in the winter of 1856 and '57 when A. H. Barrows of the banking house of Chubb Bros. and Barrows of Davenport, Iowa, a branch house of the banking house of Chubb Brothers and Barrows of Washington, D. C., called on me, to participate in the location of a settlement somewhere in the central portion of Nebraska in the Platte Valley.


Mr. Barrows alleged that influential and wealthy parties, among them members of Con-


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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA


gress would back and support this enterprise, gaged by the town company was, that parties with the expectation that sooner or later a railroad must be built up the valley of the Platte River, crossing the continent, and that eventually the national capital would have to be moved from Washington City to a centrally located point.


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The object of these speculators was to locate a town as near the central part of the continent as possible, there to secure a large tract of land, and attempt, in the course of time, to have the national capital located in that place.


They contemplated sending a surveyor and four or five persons to locate and start a town in the then unsurveyed country, as the govern- ment survey did not extend in those early days west of Columbus on the Loup River, and the country on the north side of the Platte River had but recently been ceded by the Pawnee Indians to the government of the United States, while the Sioux Indians claimed to be the owners of all of the land on the south side of the Platte River, including all the lands along the Blue and Republican rivers.


While I declined to become a partner in the town company, I agreed to participate personally in making the settlement, and con- sidering the dangers the first settlers would be subjected to on account of the hostile Indians I proposed that in addition to those four or five persons a body of able-bodied young men, numbering from twenty to thirty, be engaged by the company to afford suffi- cient strength for self-protection in case of Indian attacks.


The proposition was accepted by the com- pany. The town company, as far as known, consisted of A. H. Barrows, W. H. F. Gurley, and B. B. Woodward.


By a territorial law, then considered con- stitutional by the people but which proved to be unconstitutional afterwards, every settler was entitled to claim and hold three hundred and twenty acres of land.


TERMS OF EXPEDITION


The conditions under which the pioneer settlers of Grand Island settlement were en-


were to claim and hold three hundred and twenty acres of land each, wherever the com- pany surveyor would direct them, that the town company was to furnish all the funds for the final purchase of the land, and that in consideration of this the settlers should deed half of the land claimed by them to the town company, while the other half of the land claimed by them, that is, one hundred and sixty acres each, should remain the prop- erty of the settlers, and besides this the settlers were to get ten town lots each, in the town to be located. Parties who had not the means were to be provided with provisions for the first twelve months by the town company, but were to reimburse the town company as soon as circumstances would permit.


. These are the main features of the original arrangement as between the town company and the pioneer settlers of Hall County. The following persons participated in the enter- prise as actual settlers :


PERSONNEL OF COLONY


R. C. Barnard, surveyor from Washington City, D. C.


Lorens Barnard, his brother, Washington City.


Joshua Smith, Davenport, Iowa.


David P. Morgan, Davenport, Iowa. William Seymour, Davenport, Iowa.


The above were the five Americans.


William Stolley, of Holstein, Germany. Fred Hedde, of Holstein, Germany.


William A. Hagge, of Holstein, Germany. Henry Joehnck and wife of Holstein, Germany.


Christian Menck, of Holstein, Germany.


Kai Ewoldt, of Holstein, Germany. Anna Stehr, of Holstein, Germany.


Henry Schoel and wife, of Holstein, Ger- many.


Fred Doll and wife, of Holstein, Germany. George Shultz, of Holstein, Germany. Fred Vatje, of Holstein, Germany.


Johann Hamann, of Holstein, Germany. Detlef Sass, of Holstein, Germany. Peter Stuhr, of Holstein, Germany. Hans Wrage, of Holstein, Germany. Nicholas Thede, of Holstein, Germany.


Cornelius Thede, of Holstein, Germany. Henry Schaaf, of Prussia.


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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA


Matthias Gries, of Prussia. Fred Landmann, of Mecklenberg, Germany. Herman Vasold, of Thuringen, Germany. Theo. Nagel, of Waldeck, Germany.


Christian Andersen, wife and child 4 years old, of Schleswig, Germany.


Thus the parties participating in the first settlement of Hall County, when the entire country west from Columbus on the Loup River to California was uninhabited by whites, the garrisons at forts and the Mormons ex- cepted, consisted of : five Americans, twenty- five German men, five married women, one single woman, and one child four years old - thirty-seven persons in all.


THE ADVANCE PARTY


The surveyors' party, consisting of R. C. Barnard and the other four Americans, Fred Hedde, Christian Henck, with a company mule team left Davenport, Iowa, a few days ahead of the main party. Wm. A. Hagge and Theo. Nagel were detailed to proceed by the river to St. Louis, to purchase a supply of provisions, firearms, ammunition, blacksmith tools, etc., and have it shipped up the Mis- souri River to Omaha in time for the arrival of the main party there.


On the 28th day of May, 1857, five heavily loaded wagons drawn by sixteen yokes of work oxen, the remainder of the colonists named, left Davenport in my charge. After a pleasant trip across the state of Iowa our train arrived in Omaha on the 18th day of June, 1857.


From here the expedition proceeded west- ward on June 19th, headed by this surveyor, Barnard, since I was compelled on account of business to return to Davenport.


Henry Egge, who kept the daily account says, in the diary: "Our train passed Fre- mont June 23d, which town at that time had ten log houses; arrived at Columbus, which had eighteen log houses, on June 26th; crossed the Loup River June 27th at Genoa about twenty miles up stream from Columbus, and on July 2nd Wood River was reached, over the wild prairies of the valley, where the pioneer train of Hall County made the first wagon trail."


DECIDE TO BUILD


A meeting of all settlers was then called and it was resolved that four log houses would be first built, each 14x23 feet and the inside divided by two partitions, thus making two rooms of approximately 14x12 feet each and an entrance large enough to answer the pur- pose of a door.




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