USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 11
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 11
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1853. This brings us to the year before the organization of the territory, with only Bellevue and perhaps Fort Calhoun and Nebraska City, then Fort Kear- ney, as what might be called permanent settlements. In the year 1853 several events took place forerunning the wave of settlement that began in 1854. A trading post was established in the southern part of Nemaha County, and the town of St. Deroin laid out. Robert Hawke, a merchant from the Nebraska City or Fort Kearney settlement, built a house and opened a store there. This was before the extinguishment of the Indian title and can hardly be regarded as more than an Indian post, rather than a new town. Conneil Bluffs had become a city of some two thousand by this time, and in June, 1853, a ferry was established by William D. Brown between Council Bluffs and the Nebraska side. The company was composed of William D. Brown, Joseph Street, Jesse Williams and Enos Lowe. Though these gentlemen frequently visited the Nebraska side, and attempted to "squat" claims, as the Indian title was not extinguished until the next year, permanent settlements on site of Omaha cannot be said to have commenced until
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1854. Alfred D. Jones, a surveyor, who had shortly theretofore located the town of Winterset, Iowa, came over about this time and spotted the claim which he intended to and did file upon as soon as the opportunity offered. In the spring of 1853, Samuel Martin, having first obtained the necessary permission from the Government to establish a trading post in the Platte Country, crossed the river and erected a two-story building at the point on the south branch of the Platte River, near its mouth, where city of Plattsmouth was later located. Except for the temporary settlement of Stephen Story in 1844, in what is now Richardson County, where he stayed until 1850, this practically completes the roster of pre- territorial settlements in Nebraska. Two other trappers and hunters, Charles Martin and F. X. Dupuis, had also made temporary settlements in Richardson County in that period.
1854. This year not only marks the arrival of Governor Burt and the beginning of fixed territorial government, but the influx of settlers who established on a perma- nent basis most of the early communities.
Omaha. Early in the spring when it became a certainty that the territory would be organized and thrown open to settlement a number of men crossed from Conneil Bluffs and took up elaims in and around the present Omaha. Among those whose names have been preserved are :- A. D. Jones, J. E. Johnson, Robert B. Whitted, William Clancy, Jeffry Brothers, J. C. Reeves, James Hickey, Benja- min Leonard, A. R. Gilmore, (. IT. Downs, W. P. Snowden, O. B. Seldon, J. W. Paddock. William Gray, John Withnell, George L. Miller, A. J. Poppleton, Loran Miller, J. G. Mageath. A. B. Moore and O. D. Richardson. The first building was completed by A. D. Jones, on May 28, 1854, just two days before President Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. A townsite was selected, surveyed and platted, and named "Omaha." The history of Omaha alone would fill more than a volume, so space in this work will not permit of going very much into detail in the development of this, or any other community in this state, except the par- ticular communities selected to be treated completely in the latter part hereof.
Brownville. In this year, Richard Brown came to Nemaha County, and Joeated the spot where Brownville was developed. This town not only served for a time as county seat of Nemaha County but became in its haleyon days of the steamboat traffic, a really important town in early Nebraska. But with the arrival of railroads and decline of steamboat traffic, it deteriorated until it is now but a village of some five hundred inhabitants, after sixty-six years of existence. Ex-Governor Furnas was an early resident of this community. A great deal of interesting early history of this community could be given here if space permitted.
Nemaha City. Another community was established in Nemaha County this same year, at Nemaha City, four and a half miles below Brownville. Albert L. Coutt and Doctor Wyatt are believed to have been the first settlers. A ferry was chartered the next year, and later, in 1863, a toll bridge built, which was later superseded by a permanent county bridge. After some sixty-five years of existence, this community remains as a village of about four hundred inhabitants, with memories of an important part played in the early development of the state.
Plattsmouth and Nebraska City were formally platted, surveyed and laid out in this year, and took their place among the permanently established communities of the state. A few years later, both were bitter, earnest contenders for the state capital, but neither won that prize. Both developed into important railroad con-
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ters, and Nebraska City into an industrial center of some repute. In 1920, both rank as important eities in the second group in population.
Cincinnati was a village laid out in Pawnee County this year, the first real manifestation of permanent settlement in that county.
Archer and Salem were laid out in Richardson County this year; the former. incorporated the next year was designated as the first county seat of that county, and some years later, Salem won that prize for a few years' possession, until it lost it to Falls City, a town three years its junior.
Going north of Omaha, numerous settlements were projected and laid out in 1854. Among these were Fort Calhoun, on a permanent basis; Fontanelle, De Soto and Cuming City, all in Washington County.
1855. Though a claim had been staked the previous year, this year saw Tekamah in Burt County laid out.
From this point on, this survey does not, by any means, purport to record the settlement of every town and community in the state, but only selects the more prominent towns, for the purpose of showing how much farther and in what directions the new settlements have progressed each year.
1856. This year found Decatur in Burt County established. To the north, appear Dakota City and Niobrara ( Knox County ) and Ponca, the latter established by Doctor Stough in 1856. Spreading to the west, appear two towns destined to become important cities of the state, Columbus and Fremont. Dodge County also produced North Bend in this year.
Columbus. This town was founded by the Columbus Town Company, which had sent Fred Gottschalk, Jacob Lewis and George Rausch out from Omaha as advance agents in April to locate a site. On April 27, 1856, Isaac Albertson and E. W. Toncray located on Shell Creek, and attempted to found a town named "Buchanan" in the part of Platte County that became Colfax County later. Columbus was outlined and started on May 29, 1856. As remarked before, Albert- son and Toneray, with General Estabrook and Col. Loran Miller attempted this year to start Buchanan, some four miles east of present Schuyler. As has been re- marked, though in the realm of national polities Buchanan, as a presidential eandi- date, defeated Fremont in 1856, as a town, Fremont most certainly permanently eclipsed Buchanan, for today, the Fremont established in 1856 by contract with Pinney, Barnard & Co., is one of the important cities of Nebraska and Buchanan is as forgotten as the President for whom it was named.
Columbus was carried on in its upbuilding by a consolidation of the Pawnee City Company, the Columbus Town Company and a bridge company. It was in- corporated as a town in 1865, and became a city of the first class in 1873, and in 1920 has reached a population of approximately six thousand.
Fremont is an important railroad and industrial center. In 1860 it became the seat of justice for Dodge County, and was incorporated as a city of second class in 1871. It is the outlet or market place for products of the rich valleys of the Platte for a long stretch and of the Elkhorn. Its first church, the Congregational, was organized in 1857, and it had a school in 1858. The 1920 census shows it to be a city of almost ten thousand population.
1857. This year saw Tecumseh, located in Johnson County, another move in the trend of settlement away from the river counties. Falls City and Rulo were laid out in Richardson County. Two more communities were established in this
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year that were destined to take front rank among the cities of Nebraska, Beatrice and Grand Island.
Beatrice, the county seat of Gage County, is pleasantly situated on the Blue River, about fifty miles south of Lincoln. It was founded by a colony of emigrants in 1854 and named in honor of the daughter of Judge Kinney, a member. It was made the county seat upon the organization of the county and still holds that honor. Since the arrival of the first railroad, the Omaha & Southwestern. in 1871, numerous other lines have built in and it has become an important railroad center as well as industrial city, made especially famous by the Dempster Mills. The first church organized was the Methodist in 1857 or 1858, and a school was built by 1862. Blue Springs was another town started in Gage County this same year.
Grand Island. On July 4, 1857, a colony of thirty-five hardy pioneers arrived in what is now Hall County. Sent out by A. II. Barrows of a Davenport. Iowa. banking firm, upon well defined terms of financing and duties of cultivation and production, this courageous band passed by the infant settlements at Omaha. Fremont and Columbus and ventured out into the fathomless prairies of Central Nebraska, where there were then no settlements of white men, except clustered at Fort Kearney, to the southwest of where they stopped. They came to the "Great Island" referred to by Fremont, in the Platte River, and some two miles and a half below the present city of Grand Island. located a settlement. They built the O. K. Store and a few other establishments, but little in the way of a town was accomplished until the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1866 and establishment of a division point upon the site of the present Grand Island, when the name was transferred to the new site. the community mainly moved over and the present city began. It has grown until it has reached a safe place in the 1920 census as Third City of Nebraska, showing a population of around fourteen thousand. Not only possessing the largest shops of the Union Pacific in Nebraska, outside of Omaha, this community has achieved a considerable industrial reputation as being the site of the first beet sugar factory in America; the second largest horse and mule market in the United States and a recent local survey showed some three hundred articles manufactured in this eity. A land office was located here in 1869, the town incorporated in 1873, and schools and churches were started right after the establishment in 1866.
1858. In the southeastern part of the state, St. Deroin was resurveyed, this also being the year in which the founder, Deroin, was killed by a man named Bedlow in a quarrel. Bedlow was acquitted upon trial. Falls City was incor- porated. Table Roek, which had been surveyed in 1855, was incorporated and its rival in Pawnee County, Pawnee City, was projected, but the latter was not really organized until 1871. To the northeast. St. Helena sprang up in Cedar County and Oakland to the south of there, in Burt County.
But the main marks of progress in this year was the extension of settlement to the west along the Platte. A station was established at Lone Tree station in Merrick County by the Western Stage Co. This was the beginning of the present town of Central City, though that town began its real existence about 1825. In Hall County, Mormon settlers located in the west end of the county, at a point that started the settlement of Wood River some ten years later. In eastern Buffalo County, the community of Wood River Center was settled by the Mormons, and a
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town started that later developed into the present Shelton, a change of name being necessary after the town of Wood River started a few miles to the east in Hall County.
1860. A settlement was made at Genoa, which later became the location of an Indian school and a town of some repute. The location of a ferry across the Loup at this point hastened the location of a community in this vicinity. Franklin, which later became Jackson, was located near Dakota City.
In the next few years but little was accomplished in the direction of new settle- ments.
1863 saw the establishment of Fort MePherson in Lincoln County, and Elder J. M. Young settled at Lancaster, which sprang up and retained that name until the establishment of Lincoln, the new state capital, some four years later. In 1864, a postoffice was established at Milford, in Seward County, and in 1866 a mill was started there, on the Blue River. After the Civil war was over and the Indian scares of 1862 to 1865 had subsided, new settlements began to appear.
1866. The extension of the Union Pacific built up the Lone Tree station in Merrick County ; moved the settlement of Grand Island over to the present site ; and brought about the establishment of Kearney Station, which later became Buda, it being some five years later before Kearney Junction, the present city of Kearney reached the postoffice stage. The most important step forward of this year was probably the location and establishment of North Platte. This place is located approximately three hundred miles west of Omaha. Upon its establishment in 1866, a post- office was located, and a newspaper, The Pioneer on Wheels, started. In 1867 it be- came the county seat of Lincoln County, and the same year the Union Pacific began the erection of machine shops there. For some thirty years it enjoyed a steady growth and in 1910 showed a population of 4,792. But in the past decade, with the rapid and wonderful development of the North Platte Valley in the western end of the state, it has become the industrial center of that vast new empire of irrigation. sugar beets and general production and forged ahead to a population of past ten thousand, and is now the fifth city in the state.
1867. As this year saw the completion of the Union Pacific railroad to prac- tically the western border of the state, another division point west of North Platte. and still in Nebraska, became necessary, so the town of Sidney was started, at the location of a military garrison of that vicinity. This town became the point where travelers left the Overland highways to go north to the Black Hills, and when gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1876, became a very important, as well as notorious, place. It was here that the wild life of the frontier probably appeared more markedly and more true to "dime novel" and "western film" portrayals than any other place in Nebraska.
In this same year, 1867, the location was selected for the new state capitol, and the City of Lincoln given birth. By coincidence, in the same year, a small town was laid out in Washington County, named Kennard, in honor of one of the three commissioners who chose the site of Lincoln, Thomas P. Kennard. By fur- ther coincidence, in the recent weeks of the summer of 1920, occurred the deaths of Mr. Kennard, one of the founders of Lincoln, and Dr. George L. Miller, one of the original builders of Omaha, both hovering around the ripe age of ninety years.
1868 marked no organized advance of settlement. In this year, Ulysses in
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Butler County, Wood River in Hall County and North Auburn in Nemaha County, received a start.
1869. This year saw some advance in addition of permanent communities to the state's roster. Hebron, county seat of Thayer County, was platted, Weeping Water, Cass County, which had been settled since 1855 took form, Arlington was laid out in Washington County. Papillion, county seat of Sarpy County, had its first house built, and five other towns, four of which were destined to become county seats and two of which are among the dozen most important towns of the state, were started in this year.
Schuyler, in Colfax County. The railroad station and section house had been built shortly before, but in 1869 L. (. Smith and brother opened the first store, and the town was platted on April 6, 1869, by H. M. Hoxie and Webster Snyder, officials of the Union Pacific Railroad. It has grown to be a good town of popula- tion in the neighborhood of two thousand five hundred, and especially noted for having one of the largest flour mills in the West, the Wells-Abbott-Nieman mills, manufacturers of Puritan and other brands of flour, sold all over the United States.
Wahoo grew from settlements made in this year by J. M. and J. R. Lee, and in the following year a company composed of these two men and Wm. B. Lee. H. Dorsey. E. H. Barnard, J. J. Hawthorn and Mr. Miner surveyed the town and subsequently became proprietors of the village. This town was destined later to capture the county seat honors of Saunders County from Ashland, and also to become an important trading center of the territory between Lincoln and Fremont.
Blair, the permanent seat of justice of Washington County, was located in this year. It is situated twenty-five miles north of Omaha, on a beautiful plateau about two and a half miles west of the Missouri River, and became the crossing of the C., St. P., M. & O. lines to Sioux City, and the main lines of the Northwestern system from Iowa to Fremont and on to the Black Hills. This plateau had been settled in 1855 by three brothers, Jacob, Alexander and T. M. Carter. The town was founded in 1869 and became a city of second class in 1822. It has developed into an important industrial center, with a canning factory, horse collar factory, Danish Publishing House, seat of Dana College, Danish Educational Institution for the nation, and an important trading center despite its close proximity to Omaha and Fremont.
Fairbury, the permanent county seat of Jefferson County, was laid out in 1869 by Messrs. McDowell and Mattingly, though its real period of growth commeneed in 1872 with the arrival of the St. Joe & Denver, now the St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad. Its name, Fairbury, Mr. McDowell chose from that of his former residence, Fairbury, Ill. Close to the Otoe reservation and in a commanding position as the junetion of the St. Joe and Grand Island and Rock Island lines over an extensive, fertile territory, it has built up to a status as one of the best smaller cities in the state.
Norfolk, in Madison County, was laid out in this year, by Colonel Matthewson, who completed the Norfolk mills in 1870. Ile also built the first store in this town in 1869, and the first frame house, which stood at present corner of Main and First streets. This pioneer founder died in 1880. But the town he started kept on growing until it has reached a place among the ten largest towns in the state, and from its strategie location is destined to make very rapid growth in the future. An important railroad division point on the Northwestern system and junction,
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point of different lines, it is also becoming one of the very important industrial and wholesale centers of the state.
1870. This year saw a rapid development in the territory between Lincoln and Grand Island. Seward, developing from a settlement made two years before, was incorporated. York grew out of the development from a pre-emption claim taken in 1869 for the South Platte Land Co., and was surveyed and platted in October, 1869, with the first store built in the following year. Crete was projected in this year by J. C. Bickle, and a rival town, Blue River City, started, but vanquished later by Crete. Orville, which became the first county seat of Hamilton County, started in this year. Dorchester also sprang up in Saline County; Sterling, down in Thayer County, and Inland, to the southwest, in the west edge of ('lay County, was projected. A town was started three miles from the present site of Osceola, which became Osceola in 1821. Further west, the settlements in the Republican Valley opened in this year, with Red Cloud and Guide Roek projected in this year. In the older territory, town of Pierce started.
1871-1872. These two years witnessed a startling array of new settlements in the state, and a survey of the geographical trend is almost as enlightening as the roster of the new towns. In the well established eastern and northeastern part of the state, towns added to the list in these two years were: Madison, which became the county seat of Madison County ; Syracuse and Unadilla in Otoe County ; Wisner was platted, in Cuming County, and Lyons started ; Scribner and Hooper in Dodge County appeared ; Homer in Dakota County and Creighton in Knox County started in 1872; as did Oakdale in Antelope County.
Moving westward, in these years numerous settlements were projected in Lancaster County, at Bennett and Waverly ; in its neighboring counties to the west, Saline produced Wilber, its eventual county seat; DeWitt and Friend in 1872. The latter started when the railroad came through in 1871, but got its real impetus in 1873, and Thayer County bristled out with Alexandria in 1871, and Davenport, Carleton and Belvidere in 1872. Clay County began its town growth in earnest, with Harvard and Sutton in 1871 and Fairfield in 1872, and Edgar was surveyed in 1872. Fillmore produced Geneva, Fairmont and Exeter in 1871 as well as Grafton, which indulged in a most picturesque railroad and trade war with Sutton, when the railroad attempted to pass up Sutton and locate the depot and shipping facilities at Grafton. Unlike many of these scraps, in this instance both towns survived and became good trading eenters.
Adams County showed unusual development. A small settlement in vicinity of Hastings, headed by the filing of Walter Micklen upon the future townsite started the venture. The Hastings Townsite Company organized by Walter Micklen, W. L. Smith, T. E. Farrell, W. B. Slosson, Samuel Slosson and J. D. Carl, laid Micklen's land out into town lots and projected the future city. Samuel Alexander came from Lincoln in 1872 and erected the first store, before the arrival of the railroad, and when the goods had to be hauled from Inland, a town then the terminus of the Burlington, six miles east of Hastings. The postoffice was estab- lished that fall, with Alexander as postmaster. The new town had a rapid growth, in 1877 became the county seat. In April, 1874, it was incorporated. It has grown and developed, as a wonderful railroad center, with seven railroad lines radiating in every direction, and such commercial, industrial and manufacturing attainments that it holds a place as the fourth largest city in the state according to
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the 1920 census. In 1871-2, Adams County also produced Juniata and Kenesaw. Continuing west to Kearney County, Lowell was started in 1822. To the northwest, along the Union Pacific line and Platte River territory, Kearney Junction now city of Kearney and Plum Creek, which was later changed to name of Lexington, were started in 1871.
Kearney was started from Kearney Junction postoffice in 1871; the town surveyed in 1822, and both the Union Pacific and Burlington railroads were then completed to this new town. By the spring of 1873 it had some twenty buildings and was incorporated as a town in April, 1874. Its first church was the Methodist Episcopal, organized as early as 1871 by Presiding Elder A. G. White and Rev. A. Collins, at the residence of the latter. Its first school was taught in 1822 by Miss Fanny Nevins. This city has grown in commercial and industrial importance until it has approximately seven thousand residents, and is one of the most beautiful cities in the state. It is a great center of schools and public institutions.
Plum Creek, or Lexington, the county seat of Dawson County, has developed into a very important town of its class. Lowell, mentioned a short space back, played a very important part in early days of central Nebraska, but has fallen back to about one hundred inhabitants. Gibbon in Buffalo county started in 1872, and has become a very enterprising small town, with very nearly a thousand popula- tion. The settlements in Franklin, Harlan and Furnas counties, first made here and there in 1870, were also concentrating into the development of towns in this period of 1821-2. Bloomington, in Franklin County; Alma, in Harlan County, and Beaver City, in Furnas County, all destined to win the county seatship in their respective counties blossomed forth in 1872. In Franklin County, Blooming- ton was not alone, but had as early rivals, started at the same time, Franklin City, which became Waterloo, and eventually Franklin displaced it; Riverton and Naponee. Arapahoe was started, and well rivaled Beaver City, in Furnas County. Orleans, Melrose and Republican City started to contest with Alna, in Harlan County.
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