History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 47

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 47

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).

WOOD RIVER BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATION

The Wood River Building and Loan Asso- ciation, temporarily organized in June, 1889, wes permanently organized January 1, 1890, with F. M. Penny, president, W. W. Mitchell, vice-president, W. L. Sprague, secretary, and Edward Baldwin, treasurer. The directors were F. M. Penny, W. W. Mitchell, R. Wes- coatt, George H. Howard, John R. Jewett, Henry Kuntz, William Thorp, J. Smoot and A. L. Johnson. M. J. Costello was early attorney for the association.

The last statement to the state banking board shows a capital stock of $62,106.88, and loans amounting to $66,700.00.

The present officers are S. M. Nelson, presi- .dent, J. E. Hoye, vice-president, W. L. Sprague, secretary, M. C. Wingert, treasurer, and directors, S. M. Nelson, J. E. Hoye, L. P. Mullen, D. V. Mc'Kee, W. S. Warren, C. T. towne, J. E. Ayer and J. W. Cunningham.

This association has always met the building demands of its community and has paid regu- lar dividends to its stockholders.

OTHER EARLY FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

There were numerous financial institutions, other than those heretofore mentioned, which were flourishing locally or represented by en- ergetic and enterprising agents here. Most of these disappeared or moved away during the stringent period of the middle 'nineties. Some of these institutions or concerns were :

The Grand Island Savings & Loan Co., with offices in the Citizens Bank Building, of which

O. A. Abbott was president, Wm. A. Hagge treasurer, and O. B. Johnson secretary.

The Home Building and Savings Associa- tion located here in 1893 with John W. West, president, B. S. Moore, vice-president, E. C. Hockenberger, treasurer and L. M. Bryan, secretary.

Morrill Land Co., H. H. Dorsey, president and Geo. H. Thummel, secretary-treasurer. Oxnard Land Co., T. O. C. Harrison, presi- dent, G. H. Thummel, secretary-treasurer, and Platte Valley Land Co., H. G. Leavitt, presi- dent, and O. A. Abbott, vice-president were concerns whose titles are almost self-explana- tory of their purposes and aims.

The Union Investment Company, The Na- tional Building, Loan and Protective Union, Anglo-American Loan and Trust Co. (D. C. Zink agent in 1890), all did a large business here in the late 'eighties. About 1890 H. E. Clifford, Dill & Huston, Thummel & Platt. Dings & Reaugh, Charles Rief, Thompson Brothers, T. A. Hathaway, Frank & Williams, W. S. Hayman, L. J. Traynor, W. A. Whit- ney, C. H. Bailey, and others were then en- gaged in the money-loaning business or agen- cies.

GRAND ISLAND LOAN & TRUST COMPANY

In the past quarter-century a very potent factor in the financial world has developed in the modern trust company. In Nebraska the wonderful growth of the Peters Trust Co. and Lincoln Safe Deposit & Trust Co. of Lincoln have pointed the way to what can be accom- plished by such an institution in this state. So on Nevember 15, 1917, the officers and some stock-holders of the Grand Island National Bank, and some business associates who agreed with their plans, organized the Grand Island Loan & Trust Co. The first officers of this concern were C. C. Hansen, president, George H. Thomas, vice-president, T. J. Han- sen, secretary, W. H. Luers, treasurer, C. E. Grundy, assistant secretary, and Wm. Suhr. attorney. Recently C. J. Miles has become president and C. E. Grundy secretary.

This company is exercising the functions

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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

and powers of a trust company as executor, co-executor, guardian, trustee in estate and other property matters. It specializes in mak- ing and selling farm loans, and has recently extended its department for brokerage of mortgage bonds, to the marketing of certain reliable issues of stocks. One of the first of such stocks this firm has undertaken to offer to the local and central Nebraska market is an issue of the Fairmont Creamery Co., the second largest creamery concern in the world. This concern will undoubtedly grow and open a field which it will develop along with future concerns that feel the field here is large and important enough to develop further.

NEBRASKA LOAN & TRUST CO.

A new financial institution organized in July, 1919, is the Nebraska Loan & Trust com-

pany formed with the following incorporators : James R. Hanna, Addison E. Cady, A. J. Guendel. B. J. Cunningham, and E. R. Guen- del. The principal place of business is Grand Island. The company will do a general loan . and trust business. The capitalization is $100,000, with $50,000 paid up. The term of incorporation is fifty years. The president is J. R. Hanna, while A. E. Cady is vice presi- dent and secretary, A. J. Guendel is treasurer, and B. J. Cunningham is attorney. The directors are Hanna, Cady, E. R. Guendel, A. J. Guendel, R. D. Kingsbury, Herman W. A. Hehnke and B. J. Cunningham. The offices are in the Nebraska State bank and business already has begun. Mr. Cady states the rea- son for organization is the heavy demand for real estate loans and other business which was in excess of the ability to handle.

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CHAPTER XVII

THE RAILROADS OF HALL COUNTY

IMPORTANCE OF THE RAILROADS - "HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC,"BY GENERAL GREN- VILLE M. DODGE - "WHAT THE ENGINES SAID," BY BRET HARTE - EARLY SERVICE AND TAR- IFFS - LOCAL MANAGEMENT OF UNION PACIFIC - SUPERINTENDENTS - TRAINMASTERS - MECHANICAL DEPARTMENTS - MASTER MECHANICS - DISTRICT FOREMEN - TRAIN AND EN- GINEMEN IN SERVICE OVER TWENTY YEARS - STATION AGENTS - ST. JOSEPH AND GRAND ISLAND RAILROAD - UNION PACIFIC BRANCHES - THE BUR- LINGTON RAILROAD

That the history of the railroads of a county is not only an important part of any county's history can readily be established by a casual glance at the map of any state. Along the lines of the established railroad systems will be found innumerable towns, between the lines on the maps that mark railroads will be found fewer towns. A comparison of the size of those having railroad facilities and those with- out such advantage will drive the fact home even more quickly. Another observation at the map, picking out those points which indi- cate a junction between a main line and a branch line, or even between two branch lines will emphasize that much advantage to any town. Add to this a division point on a through main-line system. Give a town two railroads and even a greater position of pres- tige falls to its lot. Give it a third railroad and you have already a town with the oppor- tunity of becoming one of the important cen- ters of its state. All of these advantages have fallen to the lot of the capital and seat of jus- tice of Hall County. The first railroad to reach Grand Island and traverse the entire width of Hall County was the Union Pacific, which came about nine years after the original colony of 1857 selected Hall County as their home. Selecting Grand Island as its division point in central Nebraska, and later establish- ing to the north a branch or rather a series

of branches radiating from Grand Island to Ord and Loup City and connecting with branches built by the Burlington, this railroad has meant more to Hall County than it is pos- sible to set forth in this chapter. The story of the building of this pioneer railway of the West is not only an incident in the history of Hall County but one of the most charming though turbulent chapters of American in- dustrial history. It will be more than appro- priate to connect this story with Hall County by giving it in the language of a man whom Hall County has honored by bestowing his name upon the first important schoolhouse of her main town, the Dodge School of Grand Island.

Major-General Grenville M. Dodge, chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railway from 1866 to 1870, the period of its most active con- struction, has narrated the story of' "How we built the Union Pacific Railway" in such form that it consumes forty printed pages, so that the portion of it quoted hereafter will form but a small part of his narrative:

In 1836 the first public meeting to consider the project of a Pacific railway was called by John Plumbe, a civil engineer of Dubuque. Iowa. Interest in a Pacific railway increased from this time. The explorations of Frémont in 1842 and 1846 brought the attention of Con- gress, and A. C. Whitney was zealous and efficient in the cause from 1840 to 1850. The

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first practical measure was Senator Salmon P. Chase's bill, making an appropriation for the explorations of different routes for a Pacific railway in 1853. Numerous bills were intro- duced in Congress between 1852 and 1860, granting subsidies and lands, and some of them appropriating as large a sum as $96,000,- 000 for the construction of the road. One of these bills passed one of the houses of Con- gress. The results of the explorations or- dered by Congress were printed in eleven large volumes, covering the country between the parallels of latitude thirty-second on the south and forty-ninth on ,the north, and demonstrat- ing the feasibility of building a Pacific rail- way, but at a cost on any one of the lines much larger than the Union Pacific and Central Pa- cific were built for. It is a singular fact that in all of these explorations the most feasible line in an engineering and commercial point of view, the line with the least obstacles to over- come, of lowest grades and least curvature, was never explored and reported on. Private enterprises explored and developed that line along the forty-second parallel of latitude.

This route was made by the buffalo, next used by the Indians, then by the fur traders, next by the Mormons, and then by the over- land immigration to California and Oregon. It was known as the Great Platte Valley Route. On this trail, or close to it, was built the Union and Central Pacific railroads to California, and the Oregon Short Line branch of the Union Pacific to Oregon.

In 1852 Henry Farnum and Thomas C. Durant were building the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, a line westward across the state of Iowa as an extension of the Chicago and Rock Island, then terminating at Rock Island, Illinois. They desired to end that line at the Missouri River where the Pacific Rail- road, following the continent forty-second parallel of latitude would commence. Under the direction of Peter A. Dey, who had been a division engineer of the Rock Island and was chief engineer of the M. & M. in Iowa, I made the first survey across the state of Iowa, and the first reconnoissances and surveys on the Union Pacific for the purpose of determin- ing where the one would end and the other commence, on the Missouri River. I crossed the Missouri River in the fall of 1853 and made our explorations west of the Platte Valley and up it far enough to determine that it would be the route of the Pacific road.

General Dodge speaks of the Platte Valley "then tenchief thoroughfare for all the Mor- mck" at Prcia, and Oregon overland immi-

gration." Detailing an interesting incident of the last above referred trip, he states :

My party crossed the Missouri in the fall of 1853 on flatboats. The Omaha Indians occu- pied the country where we landed, and after obtaining a line rising from the bluffs west of where the city of Omaha now stands, I gave directions to the party to continue the survey while I went on ahead to examine the country to the Platte Valley some 25 miles farther west. I reached the Platte Valley about noon the next day, and being tired, I lariated my horse and laid down with my saddle as a pil- low and with my rifle under it, and went sound asleep. I was awakened by the neighing of the horse, and when I looked up I saw an Indian leading the horse toward the Elkhorn River, pulling with all his might and the horse holding back, evidently frightened.

I was greatly frightened myself, hardly knowing what to do, but I suppose from in- stinct I grabbed my rifle and started after the Indian, hollering at the top of my voice. The Indian saw me coming, let the horse go, and made his way across the Elkhorn river. This Indian afterwards was an enlisted man in the battalion of Pawnees that served under me in the Indian campaigns of 1865, and he told Major North, the commander of that battal- ion, that he let loose of the horse because I hollered so loud that it frightened him. On obtaining my horse, I saddled up and made my way back to the party that was camped on the Big Papillion on the emigrant road lead- ing from Florence to the Elkhorn. The camp was full of Omaha Indians and they had every man in the camp cooking for them. I saw that we would soon lose all our provisions, and as the party was armed, I called them to- gether and told them to get their arms. I only knew one Indian word, "Puckechee" which meant get out. That I told them, and while the Indians were surly they saw we were determined and they left us. I don't believe there was anyone in the party that had ever seen an Indian before or had any experience with them. We were all tender- feet. It taught me a lesson, never to allow an Indian in my camp or around it without per- mission, and this was my instructions to all our engineering parties. Those who obeyed it generally got through without losing their stock or lives. Those who were careless and disobeyed generally lost their stock and some of their men. As soon as we had determined the line from the Missouri River to the Platte we returned to . Iowa City, which was the headquarters of the M. & M. Railway.

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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

General Dodge's relation of the events oc- rant, who paid out of their private funds for curing in the next few years had an impor- all of my work. tance upon the future of Hall County that it is In 1854, when Nebraska was organized, we moved to its frontier, continuing the explor- ations under the patronage of Messrs. Far- num and Durant, and obtaining all valuable information, which was used to concentrate the influence of the different railways east and west of Chicago to the support of the forty-second parellel line. almost impossible to estimate, even as one looks back upon it from the viewpoint of fifty to fifty-five years later. For had he failed to locate the Union Pacific railroad where it eventually did run, much of the history of Hall County would have been essentially different and the bulk of Hall County's history probably would have been much less.

General Dodge narrates a visit to New York in 1857 or 1858 when he was called to the office of the Rock Island Railroad to explain and present to the directors of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, the report he made. Before the secretary had it read through, he narrates that every one left the room except himself, Messrs. Durant and Farnum who still had faith that it was feasible and a stimu- lation of interest in the Pacific railroad along that line would enable them to raise funds and finish their line across the State of Iowa. General Dodge continues :

In 1861 we discontinued the railroad work because of the civil war. The passage of the bill of 1862, which made the building of a transcontinental railroad possible, was due primarily to the persistent efforts of Hon. Samuel R. Curtis, a representative in Congress from Iowa, who reported the bill before enter- ing the Union service in 1861. It was then taken up by Hon. James Harlan, of Iowa, who succeeded in obtaining its passage in March, 1862.

In commenting upon how this road obtained its name, General Dodge narrates that various lines proposed had received the names of the "North Route," "Buffalo Trail," "South Route," but that in 1858 a bill was fostered that gave out the name "Union Pacific." One of the arguments advanced for the bill that eventually passed was that the route proposed would tend to hold the people of the Pacific coast in the Union. He adds :

Lincoln advocated its passage and building. not only as a military necessity, but as a means of holding the Pacific Coast to the Union. This bill became a law in 1862, and there is no doubt but what the sentiment that the- building of the railroad would hold the Union together gave it the name of the Union Pacific. 0 1850.

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The times were such that the work on the M. & M. Railway was suspended for some years. Meanwhile I located at Council Bluffs, continuing the explorations under the direc- tions of Messrs. Farnum and Durant and ob- taining from voyagers, immigrants, and others all the information I could in regard to the country farther west. There was keen compe- tition at that time for the control of the vast immigration crossing the plains, and Kansas City, Fort Leavenworth (then the government · post), St. Joseph and Council Bluffs were points of concentration on the Missouri. The trails from all points converged in the Platte Valley at or near old Fort Kearny, follow- ing its waters to the South Pass. A portion of the Kansas City immigration followed the valley of the Arkansas west, and thence through New Mexico. The great bulk of the immigration was finally concentrated at Coun- cil Bluffs as the best crossing of the Missouri River. From my explorations and the infor- mation I had obtained with the aid of the Mormons and others, I mapped and made an itinerary of a line from Council Bluffs through to Utah, California and Oregon, giving the camping places for each night, and showing where wood, water and fords of the streams could be found. Distributed broadcast by the local interests of this route the map and itin- erary had no small influence in turning the mass of overland immigration to Council Bluffs, where it crossed the Missouri and took the great Platte Valley route. This route was up that valley to its forks, and then up either the north or south fork to Salt Lake and Cali- fornia by way of the Humboldt, and to Ore- gon by the way of the Snake and Columbia rivers. This is today the route of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific to California and the Union Pacific to Oregon.

After collecting all the information we could as to the best route for a railroad to the Pa- cific, I reported to Messrs. Farnum and Du-

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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

As to the organization of the road, and its commencement :

In 1862 the Union Pacific Railway was · organized at Chicago, and soon after Mr. Peter A. Dey continued the explorations, and in 1863 he placed parties over the Black Hills and in Salt Lake and over the Wasatch in Utah. In 1863 I was on duty at Corinth when I was called to Washington by Mr. Lincoln, who had met me in 1859 at Council Bluffs and had questioned me very systematically as to the knowledge I had of the western country and the explorations I had made there. Re- membering this he called me to Washington to consult with me as to where the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railway should be. I explained to him what my surveys had determined, and he fixed the initial point of the Union Pacific, (at Council Bluffs). At this interview with Mr. Lincoln he was very anxious to have the road constructed. It was my opinion then that it could not be con- structed unless it was built by the Government, and so I informed Mr. Lincoln. He said that the United States had at that time all it could handle, but it was ready to make any conces- sion and obtain any legislation that private parties who would undertake the work would require.

I then went to New York City and met Mr. Durant and others connected with the Union Pacific and informed them of what Mr. Lin- coln had said. It gave them new hope and they immediately formulated the amendments to the law of 1862, which was passed in 1864 and enabled them to push the work.

The ground was broken in Omaha in De- cember of 1863, and in 1864 about $500,000 was spent in surveying and construction, and in 1865, 40 miles was completed to Fremont. Mr. Dey, who had charge of the work as chief engineer, resigned, and stated in his letter that he was giving up the best position in his profession this country had ever offered to any man.

In May, 1866, I resigned from the army, came to Omaha and took charge of the work as chief engineer, and covered the line with engineering parties from Omaha to California, ind pushed our location up the Platte Valley. In 1866 we built 260 miles.

This takes the Union Pacific on beyond Hall County.

The construction of the road continued until he meeting and joining of the two "ends of rack" at Promontory Point, Utah, on the

10th day of May, 1869. Governor Leland Stanford, of California, president of the Cen- tral Pacific, arrived with his party from the west. Vice-President Durant and Directors Duff and Dillon, of the Union Pacific, with other prominent men and a · delegation of Mormon saints from Salt Lake City came in on a train from the east.

The ties were laid, about one hundred feet space left open for rails, and while the coolies from the west laid the rails from one end, the paddies from the east laid them at the other, until they met and joined. The "last spike" remained to be driven. Telegraphic wires were so connected that each blow of the descending sledge would flash the report to cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Spikes of gold, silver, and iron were presented by the officials of Arizona, Nevada, and Cali- fornia, and when the last spike of gold was driven with the sledges of silver by President Stanford and Vice-President Durant, the word "DONE" flashed over the wires. The Central Pacific train backed up, and the Union Pacific locomotive, with its train, passed slowly over the point of junction and back again. What this meant to Nebraska, to the nation, to Hall County, is told by Berte Harte :

WHAT THE ENGINES SAID

What was it the Engines said, Pilots touching - head to head, Facing on the single track, Half the world behind each back ? This is what the Engines said, Unreported and unread.

With a prefatory screech, In a florid western speech, Said the Engine from the West, "I am from Sierra's crest, And, if· altitude's a test, Why, I reckon, it's confessed, That I've done my level best."

Said the Engine from the East, "They that work most talk the least, S'pose you whistle down your brakes ; What you've done is no great shakes, Pretty fair - but let our meeting Be a different kind of greeting. Let these folks with champagne stuffing, Not their Engines, do the puffing.

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"Listen! Where Atlantic beats

Shores of snow and summer heats, Where the Indian autumn skies Paint the woods with wampum dyes, I have chased the flying sun, Seeing all he looked upon, Blessing all that he had blest, Nursing in my iron breast All his vivifying heat, All his clouds above my crest ; And before my flying feet Every shadow must retreat."

Said the Western Engine "Phew !" And a long, low whistle blew,

"Come now, really that's the oddest Talk for one so very modest.

You talk of your East! You do? Why, I bring the East to you ! All the Orient, all Cathay,

Find through me the shortest way;

And the sun you follow here Rises in my hemisphere.

Really. - if one must be rude, -

Length, my friend, ain't longitude."

Said the Union, "Don't reflect, or I'll run over some Director."

Said the Central, "I'm Pacific,

But, when riled, I'm quite terrific. Yet to-day we shall not quarrel. Just to show these folks their moral, How two Engines - in their vision -

Once have met without collision." That is what the Engines said, Unreported and unread;

Spoken slightly through the nose, With a whistle at the close.

EARLY SERVICE AND TARIFFS

Some indication of the development of ser- vice upon this great line can be gained by the contrast between the Omaha to Kearney ser- vice of this road in 1866 and today. Here are the time tables and passenger tariffs in effect in 1866:

FIRST THROUGH PASSENGER TIME TABLE Thursday, August 23, 1866, 1 o'clock P. M.

GOING WEST

Train No. 1

Train

Distance

Omaha

Distance

Kearney

Train No. 2

Train No. .

1:00 P.M.

7:00 P.M.

2:10

8:15

1916

Omaha .. Papillion

177%

2:10

9:08

8:45

10:00

28%

.Elkhorn ..

116%

1:00

7:50

5:15

11:45 "

4616

Fremont.

14316 11:45 P.M.

6:50

6:30

1:00 A.M

North Bend

12834 10:55

5:25

7:45

2:00

751%

Shell Creek

1143% 10:00

4:25

9:00

3:15

91%

.Columbus

98% 9:00

3:18

10:40

4:45

109

Silver Cre'k

7:45

3:00

12:20 A.M

6:20

13115 .Lone Tree

5836

6:10

12:20

2:10

8:10

153% Grand IsI'd

3616

4:85

10:50 2.M.

5:40

9:40

1711% WoodRiver

183%

5:20

9:80

5:10

11:10

190

.. Kearney

2:00

8:00

The full-faced figures denote meeting places.

SAM'L B. REED, General Superintendent.

-(Joseph Nichols' History Union Pacific Railway.)

PASSENGER TARIFF OF UNION PACIFIC R R.

July 16, 1866.

DISTANCE FROM OMAHA

VEVKO

124

$1 25

PAPILLION

28 3%

2 85

$ 1 65

ELKHORN

46 1%

4 65

3 40

$ 1 75

FREMONT

61 14

6 15

4 90

3 25

$ 1 50

NORTH BEND

75%

7 55

6 35

4 65

2 90

$1 45

SHELL CRE'K

914

9 15

7 90

6 25

4 50

3 00

$1 55

COLUMBUS

109

10 90

9 70

8 00

6 25

4 80

3 35

SI 80

SILVER CR'K

181%

13 10

11 95

10 25

8 50

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History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 47

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