USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 15
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 15
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FRANKLIN COUNTY
Franklin County is in the southern tier of counties, 175 miles west of the Missouri River, and has an area of 578 square miles. It was settled in 1820 by a colony from Omaha, among whom were Wm. C. Thompson, Jas. W. Thompson, Richard Beckwith, John Corbin, Isaac Chappel and Barnett Ashbourne. In the following year practically every man in the colony joined a military company. formed to protect the settlements against the Indians. The county was formally organized in September, 1871. Bloomington, the county seat until 1920, was laid out in 1822. The Burlington Railroad line came in during 1829. The original Thompson party located at a point that later became Riverton, where the postoffice was established in 1841. Naponee was made a postoffice also in 1821. Franklin C'ity was the earliest settlement that made a town, but another town which was first called Waterloo, was laid out, and always known as Franklin. and this place held the county seat until 1874, when Bloomington captured it. and in 1920 Franklin recaptured this coveted prize. In 1879. a town was laid ont by the railroad company between the two Franklins, and it was that town which eventually captured the name. An academy, started in 1881 at Franklin, is an educational institution of wide repute. In the north part of the county along the Burlington branch to Curtis, the thriving towns of Campbell, Upland and Hildreth, have built up. Macon is still an inland point. and points that used to play a part in Franklin County affairs were Moline, Ash Grove, West Salem, Stock- ton, Amazon, Langdon. Marion, Clyde, Sand Hill, Freewater and Orange. The Republican River traverses the county through the southern tier of townships.
FRONTIER COUNTY
Frontier County is situated well toward the southwestern part of the state, in the second tier from the south, and with two counties yet west of it. It has an area of 995 square miles. The county was organized in January. 1872. At that
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time there were several stock raisers, and two permanent settlers, Henry C. and Mortimer I. Clifford, who had married squaws and settled on the Medicine, a short distance from where Stockville was later located, and lived in lodges there. Stockville, very nearly in the center of the county, was the first settlement pro- jected, and became the county seat. Curtis is the principal town in the county, and in 1911 seenred the new State Agricultural College, to be located in the central or western portion of the state. Three other towns have built up along the Burling- ton Railroad in this county, besides Curtis. These are Maywood, Moorefield and Eustis. Besides Stockville, the only well-developed inland towns, are a number of inland points for postoffices or trading purposes, among these being Osburn, Counterpoint, Havana, Freedom, Essex, Quick, Stevens, Orafino and Earl. Laird, Stowe. Afton and Equality were formerly such inland points on this county's map that no longer seem to be on the scene of action.
FURNAS COUNTY
This county lies in the southern tier of counties, with three more counties to - the west. It contains 221 square miles. The first settler is reputed to have been Benjamin Burton, who located there in 1820, Galen James made his way up the Republican Valley about this same time, to near Melrose and located at the junction of Sarpy County with the Beaver, which is a point practically on the present Furnas- Harlan county line, but in what was then known as James County. Theodore Phillips came in 1821 to a locality that became the settlement of New Era. Burton's Bend was started in 1821 by J. B. Burton at a point five miles west of Arapahoe. Arapahoe was surveyed in 1822. The first store in Beaver City, was started in 1873, but the town was settled in October, 1872. Arapahoe had been started through the efforts of a townsite company organized at Plattsmouth, in 1871, with Capt. F. B. Murphy, Charles Brown, Geo. W. Love, John Fitzgerald, Dr. W. E. Dowland, D. H. Wheeler, H. M. Crum, George W. Colvin, and A. Lashley as lead- ing spirits. In the first elections with Arapahoe and Beaver City contesting for the advantage of being county seat, Beaver City had the most votes, but its returns did not arrive in the office of the secretary of state until the day after the canvassing was set, and as only Arapahoe's votes were counted it won, for the time being. But at the first general election in the county, in 1823. Beaver C'ity won the prize, and has since retained it. Wilsonville was settled in 1842 and established as a post- office in 1823. Hendley was established by a Hastings townsite company in 1888. Other towns along the Imperial branch of the Burlington. besides Arapahoe, are Oxford, Edison, Holbrook and Cambridge and all four of these have developed into very well known trading and shipping centers. Only Springgreen and Precept remain actively on the list of inland points, which formerly some forty years ago also included Wilmot, Midway, Richmond, Sherman, Rockton, Coldwater, Carisbrook, Lynden, Whitney, and Rexford, and it might also be noted that in the early '80%, Beaver City and Wilsonville were, of course, also inland points.
GAGE COUNTY
Gage County is in the third tier of counties west of the Missouri River, and is the only county between Lancaster (Lincoln) and the Kansas line, and contains
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832 square miles. The first settler was David Palmer, who came to the county in 1854, or 1855. Mr. Palmer was drowned in 1826 while swimming in the Blue River. On the morning of April 3, 1852, thirty-five persons on board the steamer Hannibal, then plying the Missouri between St. Louis and Nebraska City, organized themselves into a colony, which formed with a written constitution and by-laws, and upon arrival in what is now Gage County they chose a site and started the town of "Beatrice" so named after a daughter of Judge John F. Kinney, of Nebraska ('ity, one of the leaders of the colony. Other leading spirits were J. B. Weston, later state auditor : G. T. Loomis, J. R. Nelson, Albert Towle, Dr. H. M. Reynolds, Bennett Pike, John McConihe, H. F. Cook and Dr. Wise. In the same year another settlement was made seven miles north of Beatrice, and still another at Blue Springs, ten miles southeast of Beatrice. The former, on Steven's ('reek was in what was for a while Clay County. This settlement, which later took the name of Indian Creek was eclipsed by Beatrice in a commercial way. The Indians caused some trouble in the early history of these settlements. but treaties with the Government soon quieted down this situation. To a citizen of Gage County fell the honor of securing the first homestead entered in the United States. The homestead law went into effect in January, 1863, and he was ready the night before to seeure his filing, stopping on his way to military service in the pending war. His patent is numbered 1, and is recorded in Volume 1, page 1 of the records of the general land office at Washington. The B. & M. reached Beatrice through the valley of the Blue in 1871. The Atchison & Nebraska, cuts across the north- east corner of the county, with about ten miles of line and one station, Adams. The Rock Island across the northwest corner of the county has Clatonia, and its branch east and west across the county, through Beatrice, has Virgina, Rockford and Ellis. The Burlington branch across the county east and west through Beatrice has Filley, a station also for Rockford, and Hoag. The Union Pacific line from Lincoln to Manhatten, north and south through the county, through Beatrice, has as stations, Cortland, and Pickrell, north of Beatrice and to the south, Putnani, Blue Springs, Wymore and Barnestou. Another B. & M. line across the south edge of the county, which makes junction with the U. P. at Wymore, has developed the towns of Liberty, Kriders, Odell, Odell Junction and Lanham on a branch that breaks off at Odell Junction. Thus it will be noticed that Gage County is well honeycombed with railroad lines. Holmesville and Blue Springs Junction are on another spur of the Union Pacific. Only Hanover and Townsend appear to be actively on a list of inland points that forty years ago included Reserve, Dover, Wild Cat, Cottage Hill, Bear Creek, Melroy, Greer. Freeman, Roperville, Blaine, Barkey, Merserveville, and Silver. The old Otoe Indian reservation occupied the four townships in the southern tier of the county. The Otoe Ageney was near the site of present town of Liberty.
GARDEN COUNTY
This county was cut off From Deuel County in 19to and its history is mainly wrapped up in that of Denel since 1888, and before that in the great mother county. Cheyenne. The principal permanent settlements, except for the early ranching activities of the great cattle ranchers, materialized late in the '80s and early '90s. Forty years ago there was not a settlement in this county and the only points charted
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on maps were Rocky Point, Swan Lake and Beaver Lake. But this county has a number of very prosperous and thriving towns along the branch of the Union Pacific that comes up from North Platte, and goes on to the western edge of the state. Oshkosh is the county seat, and Lewellan, Lutherville, Penn, Lytle and. Lisco, the other towns. To the south, the only inland point is Kowanda. The Platte River traverses the county, south of the railroad line. To the north a few inland points have sprung up, being mainly at Goodland, Velma, Warren, Lakeview, Tippets, Rackett, Mumper, Orlando, Pawlet, Sterbins, Moffit and Thelma. On division, this county took 1652 square miles of territory and left Deuel with only 439 square miles of area.
GARFIELD COUNTY
The beginnings of Garfield County were laid in November, 1822, when Charles H. Jones, who came from Allegan, Michigan, after two years of rougbing it, in the lower Loup Valleys, went up into the present Garfield County territory, and became the founder of the Willow Springs settlement. It is reputed that Trueman Freeman arrived very soon after Jones had squatted at the mouth of the cedar canyons. With him came Thomas MeClimans, so the latter may be considered the third settler. William Pierson and A. R. Harper arrived in February, 1823, and soon after came Richard MeClimans, the Messengers, William Draver, William Smith, Mrs. Bumpus, George Leffingwell, Captain Alger, Frank Webster, L. W. White Geo. MeAnulty, Ike Bartholomew, Geo. Horton, Stephen Chase, Wm. Wertz, A. A. Alderman, and Ross and Win. Woods. Garfield County is immediately sonth of Holt County and eighth county to the west from the Missouri River, and has an area of 575 square miles. The Battle of Pebble Creek in 1874 was the crux of Indian troubles the early settlers experienced, for in 1876 relief eame in the estab- lishment of Fort Hartsuff, the famous military post of the Loup region, within the borders of this county. For more than eight years after settlements began, Garfield County was in what was known as the "Unorganized Territory." For judicial and taxation purposes it was attached to Valley County. But in 1881, it was a part of the newly organized county of Wheeler, which had been established by the Legislature of 1877. In 1884, the actual division took place and Garfield County was separately organized. Burwell was proclaimed by the Governor as the first county seat-and at the election on December 30, 1884, there were three bitter contestants, Willow Springs, Burwell and Midvale. Midvale received the smallest number of votes, Willow Springs the highest, and another election was held on January 30, 1885, which resulted in Willow Springs leading by seven votes, but upon a recount in April, Burwell won by twenty-three votes and captured the prize. But a very interesting fight ensued for Willow Springs got the certificate of election. In 1887 the Burlington Railroad extended its grade to Burwell and on to Butka on the Calamus. The railroad never extended beyond Burwell, but that was the death blow to Willow Springs. So in an election in 1890 the county seat question was permanently settled in Burwell's favor. This county has several inland post- office points, namely : Easton, Erina, Gables, Rosevale, Deverre, Dumas, Blake and Ballagh, but bears the unique distinction among Nebraska counties of having only one actually developed town, Burwell. Another distinction borne by Burwell is that it was laid out with a public octagon, with the side streets diverging from the
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centers of the sides, instead of the corners of the square. Then by a failure to preserve the central octagon for a park. business houses have built up on it and disfigured it, so Burwell has a square with business houses on both sides of the street, instead of a park or court house in the center, and the streets meeting the square in the middle of the sides.
GOSPER COUNTY
Gosper County is in the western part of the state, four tiers east of the western Colorado edge, and in the second tier north of Kansas line. It contains 464 square miles. Otto Renze made the first permanent settlement in the county, in the fall of 1871. Others soon followed and left the Republican and Platte Valleys on either side, and came to Plum Creek, or to Muddy, Elk or Turkey Creeks in the southern part. The organic election was held, near the geographical center of the county, in May. 1823. The county was named Gosper in honor of John J. Gosper, then Secretary of State. Daviesville, in the southwest part of the county was the early town, and county seat. Phim Creek, Vaughan's and Judson's ranches secured postoffices and stores before 1880. These places have all disappeared from the modern map. and upon the advent of the Burlington line from Holdrege, Nebraska, to Sterling, Colorado, Smithfield and Elwood, the latter now the county seat of the county, sprang up. Gosper and Ceryl are now inland points. The activities of the county, agriculturally, are a combination of crop and stock raising. Much of the trade of the southern section of the county goes to the Furnas County towns of Holbrook, Arapahoe, Edison and Oxford, which are nearer to southern Gosper County farms than Elwood and Smithfield.
GRANT COUNTY
This is the westerly of the four "sandhill" counties bordering vast Cherry County on the south. It has an area of 726 square miles, but is almost entirely a ranch country, only valley lands in small tracts being cultivated to erops. Hyannis, the county seat, was laid ont with the arrival of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, then B. & M. railroad line, through northwestern Nebraska in 1888. The first settler was John Dellinger, who took the flat east of the present town. A Mr. White had the flat west of town shortly after this. W. M. Alden, who became the first business man in the town had a pre-emption here in 1888 which he sold to the Lincoln Townsite Company. Mr. Alden opened his store in July, 1888. Whitman was another town which soon built up, after the settlements began. For a time, about 1884. this town was the terminus of the railroad, pending its further exten- sion. Even for a long time after that, it maintained its reputation of being a "real frontier" town with all of the trimmings that the movies now love to portray as belonging to cowboys, western "woolly" villages and ranch life. Ashby is the main town in the county to the west of Hyannis, and there are flag stations at Sand Cut and Duluth. Benewa, Lucky and Elva are the only inland points.
Grant County is the center of the catttle-ranching industry of Central Nebraska. Hyannis ships from 500 to 600 loads of cattle a year, and Whitman practically equals or occasionally excels this mark, and approximately 1200 loads of eattle are shipped out of this small county annually, though much of it comes from the
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ranches to the north in Cherry County. Hyannis has ranked as the wealthiest town per capita in the United States, as this little town of less than 400 people has two banks with deposits in excess of $400,000 not considering the other banks in the county, but roughly estimating it, giving this town a bank deposit per capita of $1000 per person. Even allowing for the people concerned in this estimation who live outside of the town, or even county, contrasted with the $57 per capita for the United States, a per capita deposit of $600 per person for Grant County shows the status of this community and county. Before the separate organization of the county, about 1888, it was a part of the Unorganized Territory, and of Big Sioux County.
GREELEY COUNTY
Greeley County is situated in the sixth tier of counties west of the Missouri River, in the central part of the state, north to south, containing 521 square miles in area. Its original settlement dates back to 1871, when S. C. Scott, A. Shepard and J. G. Kellogg, came from Illinois and located on Shepard Creek, on the north side of the Loup. Settlements followed on Fish Creek in November, 1871, Cedar Creek in 1872, Spring Creek in 1874, where a postoffice was established, but the first postoffice was established at Lamartine, on the Loup, in 1843, with Mr. 1. Fish in charge. The county was organized on October 8. 1872, and the county seat located at an election in November, 1874, as at Scotia. The county was named after Horace Greeley. An Irish settlement was established near the center of the county in 1877, a town laid out, platted and named O'Connor, in honor of Bishop O'Connor, who was a member of the Catholic Colonization Association that fathered the colony. The Irish Catholic Association selected another site in the northeastern corner of the county, on the Cedar, and Spalding was opened up about 1881, when the first store was located. Forty years ago before any railroad had come into the county, the towns and postoffices were Scotia, O'Connor and Spalding, with Lamartine, Summit, Chase, Ellsworth, Floss, Leo Valley. When the Union Pacific branch from Grand Island to Ord was built, it touched at Scotia Junction, and land was given to the railroad on condition that it would run a sideline over to the town of Scotia and run all of its trains into Scotia, and all passenger and regular freight trains make that side-trip of a mile away from the direct line through the corner of the county. The Burlington built a branch in 1887 through the county, from Aurora, on to Ord and Burwell, and on this line sprang up the towns of Wolbach, Brayton, Greeley Center, which later became the county seat of the county and the largest town in the county, and Horace. A branch line of eighteen miles built about the same time, runs from Greeley Center through Belfast and Horace to Ericson, just across the line into Wheeler County. O'Connor and Parnell remain as the inland settlements of the county. This county has developed into a thriving and prosperous county, with a showing of freight shipments, bank deposits, and such criterions that hold it up even with its neighboring Loup Valley counties.
HALL COUNTY
Upon the 4th of July, 1837, the little colony of thirty-five brave pioneers, from Davenport, Iowa, arrived at Great (or Grand ) Island in the Platte, and about two
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and half miles below the site of the present city of Grand Island, and on the Platte banks founded the only white colony in the state, then west of Columbus, except the military reservations to the west, at Fort Kearney. This colony com- prised five Americans, R. C. Barnard a surveyor, and his brother Lorens Barnard of Washington, D. C., and Joshua Smith, David P. Morgan and William Seymour, of Davenport, and the following German-Americans, mainly from Holstein, Germany, originally ; William Stolley, Fred Hedde, Christian Menke, William A. Hagge, and Henry Joehnch, the leading spirits among the band; Kai Ewoldt, Anna Stehr, Henry Schoel and wife, Fred Doll and wife; George Shultz, Fred Vatje, Johann Hamann, Detlef Sass, Peter Stuhr, Hans Wrage, Nicholas and Cornelius Thodel, Henry Schaaf, Matthias Gries, Fred Landmann, Herman Vasold, Theo. Nagel, Christian Andersen, wife and child of four years. The first settlement built up some business places, fortified itself well, and withstood the Indian scares of 1864 without leaving or losing any lives, though Indians com- mitted other depredations in this county, narrated more fully in the Indian section of this review. When the railroad came through in 1866, the present town of Grand Island was laid out, and business activities moved over. Here the county seat was formally established, though the county had been organized and functioning in its local government in a rather disjointed manner sinee 1858. The settlement in the west part of the county, at Wood River, moved over to the railroad in 1868, from that site two and half miles west of the present town where a depot and James Jackson's store were located, moved to the present location in 1874. Alda started soon after the railroad went through, being on the Union Pacific between Grand Island and Wood River. Doniphan started on the St. Joe and Grand Island route in 1879. Cairo was located in 1886 when the Grand Island & Wyoming Railroad, now the Burlington line, went through the northwestern part of the county. Former inland points in the county were Mar- tinville. Orchard, Cameron, Berwick, Spencer, Rundlett, and Runelsburgh. Now Cameron is practically the only inland eenter remaining. The industrial progress of Grand Island has been noted elsewhere. and that bespeaks the commercial growth of the county.
HAMILTON COUNTY
Hamilton County is the first county east of Hall County and lies on the south side of the Platte River. Its area is 538 square miles, ten square miles in excess of that of Hall. The first permanent settlements were made in 1866 by Jarvie Chafee and George Hieks. The famous Deep-Well ranch, thirteen miles west of the first ranch in the county, that of David Millspaw, established in 1861, followed the Millspaw ranch in 1862. These were famous stopping places along the "Old Mormon Trail" until permanent settlements eame. The county was organized in 1870, by proclamation of Governor Butler, and its name had been given by legislative enactment. Orville City was located on the West Blue, surveyed and recorded in 1870 and selected at the election of 1871 as the county seat, which honor was wrested from it in 1876 by the town of Aurora, which had been established in 1872. Hamilton was established on the prairie in 1824. Other early settlements, at inland points, of course, were at Farmer's Valley, Mirimichi, Williamsport. Lerton, Shiloh, Stockham, Buckeye, Cedar Valley, Otis, Avon.
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Leonard, Bunker Hill, Alvin, St. Joe, and Penn. The Burlington road first built in from York, Seward and Lincoln and turned north from Aurora to Central City, and then in 1884, extended onward to Grand Island and Northwest. Hampton was platted in 1879, as the railroad came through to Aurora, by Joshua Cox. The other railroad towns in Hamilton County now are, Marquette to the north of Aurora, Murphy and Phillips to the west, Giltner to the southwest and Stockham in the southeastern corner of the county.
HARLAN COUNTY
This county is located on the middle, southern border of the state. As late as in the summer of 1869, Buck's surveying party were attacked in this particular territory and slain by Indians. The original settlers of this county, about forty in number, arrived in what is now Harlan County, but was then part of Lincoln County in August, 1870. Among these men were J. W. Foster, F. A. Bieyon, Gen. Victor Vifquain, John Olson, Frank Hofnagle, V. Toeppfner, S. Watton, Henry Melchert, N. Peterson, G. Hanson, J. B. Mitchell, Lewis Lorson, Geo. F. Jonas, Joseph and Lewis Hubner, and Andrew Rubin. Lots were cast for the selection of claims, and while not the first in order of choice, Vifquain and a few others slyly selected the old townsite of Napoleon, near Orleans. Vifquain, failing in the successful projection of the first "paper" town in Harlan County, returned to the eastern part of the state, and Judge William Gaslin later secured proprietorship of this townsite. In December, 1871, when Judge Gaslin returned to his homestead, from Omaha, he brought with him Warren M. Fletcher, who homesteaded the future site of Orleans. D. N. Smith, the noted townsite locater for the Burlington decided to locate a town in this vicinity and this site was chosen, and the town got started by 1872. The townsite of Alma was chosen in 1871 by Mark Coad, N. P. Cook and others, and named "Alma" after a daughter of Mr. Cook. The first store was erected in 1872. After an election in July, 1821 for purpose of organizing the county, Alma was chosen as county seat. Another town, Republican City, was laid out in 1871. Melrose was really the first town in the county, having been planned in 1870 and secured a store early in 1871, but it never successfully flourished, after losing the county seat fight, first to Republican City, which in turn lost to Alma, and Orleans supplanting Melrose in a commer- cial way. Early inland points in the county were Graft, Bainbridge, Scandanavia, Grand View, Spring Grove, Garber and Pleasant Ridge. Spring Hill and Watson were formerly railroad stations. Stamford and Republican Junction have grown up in more modern times. A branch now runs from Orleans up to IToldrege, upon which Carter, Oxford Junction and Mascot are located. Another branch from Alma up to Minden has Huntley, Everson and Ragan.
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