USA > Nebraska > History of Nebraska > Part 19
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CEDAR COUNTY.
Cedar County was organized by an Act of the Territorial Legis- lature, approved February 12, 1857. It lies on the Northern border of the State, and is bounded on the North by the Missouri River, East by Dixon, South by Wayne and Pierce, and West by Pierce and Knox Counties, embracing an area of about 792 square miles.
WATER .- The Missouri River washes the entire Northern boundary, flowing in a general Southeasterly direction. Its prin- cipal tributaries in this county are East, Middle and West Bow, and Beaver Creeks. The water runs over gravel and is very pure. The main Bow is an excellent mill stream, and has three first-class flouring mills on its banks, aggregating ten run of burrs.
Logan and Middle Creeks and several branches of the north fork of the Elkhorn River water the Southern portion of the County. There are numerous springs. Well water is obtained at a depth of from twelve to seventy feet.
TIMBER AND FRUIT .- In the Missouri Bottoms elm, bass, hack- berry, box elder, soft maple, ash, hickory, black walnut, coffee tree, red cedar and red and white willow are to be found. All the creeks are tolerably well skirted with timber, and occasionally fine groves are to be met with. Wild grapes and plums grow luxuri- antly on the banks of all the streams. Of late years much at- tention has been given to forest tree planting, especially on the upland, and all the choice varieties of fruit trees have been tried and found to thrive well. In 1879 851,437 forest trees, 1,310
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apple, twenty-six pear, 159 peach, 130 plum, sixty-one cherry, three acres of grape vines and five and three eighth miles of hedging were reported under cultivation in the County.
STONE .--- A soft chalk rock is abundant in the bluffs of the Missouri. It hardens some by exposure, and is used to a consid- erable extent for building purposes and making lime.
CHARACTER OF THE LAND, ETC .- In the Southern part of the County the land is exceedingly fine, being nearly as level as a house floor, and yet well drained, in consequence of the peculiar nature of the soil. In the Northern part the surface of the upland is more rolling and somewhat hilly, yet very little of it too much so for cultivation.
The soil is rich and highly productive almost everywhere. About forty per cent. is valley and bottom land. The valleys of the Bows and Beaver Creeks are exceedingly rich and beautiful, and splendid crops are always gathered.
FIRST SETTLEMENTS .- During the year 1857 the first settlers arrived in the County and located in the neighborhood of the present town of St. James, among whom were C. C. Van, James Hay, O. D. Smith, Saby Strahm, Hanson Wiseman, John Andres and Henry, Ernest, Gustavus and Herman Ferber, with their venerable father, Paul Ferber, who still reside in the County. This colony emigra- ted from Harrison County, Iowa.
In the Spring of 1858 the settlements of Wancapona and St. Helena were commenced. Among the first settlers of Waucapona, who are still residents of the County, are Warren Saunders, George A. Hall and Amos S. Parker. L. E. Jones Surveyed and platted the town site of St. Helena, in July. C. B. Evens and sons, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, located there that Summer, and in the Spring of 1859, Henry Felber and sons, Henry, Jacob and William, Peter Jenal, Sr., Peter Jenal, Jr., and Mr. Jones and family arrived by boat from St. Louis.
Immediately after the settlement of St. Helena, Saby Strahm and a few others began the present prosperous settlement of Strahmburg, in the northwest corner of the County, nearly opposite the now flourishing town of Yankton, the Capital of Dakota.
The first meeting of the County Commissioners took place at St. James, October 4, 1858.
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JOHNSON'S HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.
The first County Clerk was George L. Roberts; the first Treasurer, George A. Hall.
In the Spring of 1858, L. E. Jones commenced publishing a weekly newspaper called the St. Helena Gazette, the first nine numbers of which were printed at St. Louis, and dated ten days later than the day of publication, as it usually took that length of time for the mail to reach St. Helena. After the removal of the publishing office from St. Louis to St. Helena, in July, it was con- ducted for a few months by A. Nette, when it died a natural death for want of support.
The first saw mill in the County was a steam mill brought by the colonists who located at St. James in 1857. By the same power they also run a small corn grinder, which was highly appre- ciated by the settlers, as corn bread was their main sustenance in those days. Wheat flour could not be got nearer than Sioux City.
In the Summer of 1858 L. E. Jones located another steam saw mill at St. Helena. In the Spring of 1860 this mill was nearly destroyed by fire, but it was rebuilt at once, and has been running ever since.
There are at present one water and four steam saw mills, and three ftouring mills in the County.
Three chartered ferries are in operation between this County and Dakota Territory. The steam ferry between Strahmburg and Yankton does a large and lucrative business.
In 1872 the County authorities purchased a pile driver and up to the present time about two hundred pile bridges have been con- structed over the numerous streams at all the principal crossings,
At a general election held on the 8th of April, 1876, the citizens of the County voted bonds to the amount of $150,000 to aid in the construction of the Covington, Columbus & Black Hills Railroad through the County. Work on the road is being pushed with vigor, and it is now completed to within a few miles of the east line of this County.
Educational matters were almost entirely neglected by the early settlers, and it was not until 1867 that the first public schools were opened-one at St. Helena, and one at St. James. Private schools, however, had been taught at both of these places in 1860-61, by George L. Roberts, T. C. Bunting and P. Clark. In 1879 the num-
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JOHNSON'S HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.
ber of school districts in the County was twenty-nine; number of school houses, twenty-eight; children of school age, 1,096-males, 569; females, 527; whole number of children that attended school during the year, 727; number of qualified teachers employed, forty- three-males, twenty-seven; females, sixteen; amount of wages paid male teachers, $4,763.24; paid female, $1,480; value of school houses and sites, $15,824.75; of books and apparatus, $779.
The number of acres of land under cultivation in the County, reported in 1879, was 13,568. The acreage in cultivation and yield of the leading crops was as follows: Winter wheat, 2832 acres, 6,432 bushels; rye, 2,677 acres, 35,453 bushels; spring wheat, 36,235 acres, 375,943 bushels; corn, 72,133 acres, 2,826,259 bushels; barley, 6,384 acres, 181,260 bushels; oats, 19,028 acres, 163,582 bushels; buckwheat, forty-five and three-fourths acres, 339 bushels; flax, sixty-one acres, 400 bushels; broom corn, fifty acres, eighteen and one-half tons; potatoes, 148} acres, 19,163 bushels; onions, eight and seven-eights acres, 2,636 bushels.
The taxable property of the County as reported by the Assess- ors for 1879, is as follows : Number of acres of land, 329,946; aver- age value per acre, $2.26; value of town lots, $17,547.00 ; money used in merchandise, $11,530.00 ; money used in manufacture, 11,500.00; number of horses, 1,201, value, $38.992; mules and asses, 63, value, $1,935.00; neat cattle, 6,245, value, $48,301.00; sheep, 2452, value, $1,937.00; swine, 1,412, value, $1016.00; ve- hicles, 544, value, $7.948.00 ; moneys and credits ; $14,265.00 ; mortgages, $2,000.00; furniture, $2,654.00; libraries, $45; prop- erty not enumerated, $8,791 ; total valuation, $912,469.00.
The voting precincts is numbered from one to eleven, inclus- ive, the population of each in 1879 being as follows: No. 1, 335; No. 2, 611; No. 3, 478; No. 4, 194; No. 5, 348; No. 6, 101; No. 7, 143; No. 8, 117; No. 9, 67; No. 10, 131; No. 11, 260.
Total population of County, 2,775, 1517 being males, and 1,258 females.
ST. HELENA,
the County Seat, is situated on the banks of the Missouri in the center of the County from east to west. The County Seat was re- moved to this place from St. James, by vote of the citizens, in the fall of 1869. It has a population of 300, and is gradually improving
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JOHNSON'S HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.
in size and importance as a business point, being now the center of trade for the County. Business is represented by a weekly newspaper-the Bulletin, a bank, dry goods, clothing, grocery, boot and shoe, drug, implement, and several general stores, a lum- ber yard, carpenter and blacksmith shops, lawyer and doctors' offices, etc. It has a convenient Court House and good school and church advantages.
ST. JAMES,
Located on the Missouri, six miles east of St. Helena, was the first County Seat and while it remained such was a very promising town. Latterly its progress has been slow. It contains about two hundred inhabitants, a Methodist Church, school house, hotel, sev- eral stores, etc.
GREEN ISLAND, OR STRAHMBERG,
Is situated about eight miles west of the County Seat, on the banks of the Missouri, opposite the city of Yankton. An excellent steam ferry connects it with the latter place and attracts to it a large trade. It is a prosperous village and now numbers 200 inhabi- tants.
SMITHLAND, LOGAN VALLEY, ST. PETERS, CENTER BOW, Bow VALLEY and MENOMINEE are Postoffices in the County having a store, school, etc.
COLFAX COUNTY.
Colfax County was organized by Act of the Legislature, in February, 1869, and was named in honor of Schuyler Colfax, at that time Vice President of the United States. It is located in the middle-eastern part of the State, in the third tier of Counties west of the Missouri River, and is bounded on the north by Stanton and Cuming Counties, east by Dodge County, south by the Platte River which separates it from Butler County, and west by Platte County, and contains about 414 square miles, or 264,960 acres, at an aver- age elevation of 1,335 feet above the sea level.
WATER COURSES .- The Platte River washes the entire southern border of the County, flowing in a general northeasterly direction.
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JOHNSON'S HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.
Shell Creek, a large beautiful tributary of the Platte, and a splen- did mill stream, flows from west to east across the southern portion of the County. It already furnishes power for three very large first- class flouring mills, and has available sites for dozens more. North and South Maple Creeks are fine, clear streams, having numerous branches, which meander through and drain the central and north- ern townships. There is not a township in the County without running water, and springs are abundant.
TIMBER AND FRUIT .- At the time of the first settlement of the County the streams were all tolerably well wooded, and there is yet considerable cottonwood, box elder, aslı, elm, etc., along the Platte Bottom, and on Shell and Maple Creeks. The artificial timber is far advanced, and as every farmer planted more or less at an early day, beautiful groves now dot the country in every direction. Fuel is no longer a scarcity. Of late years many orchards of choice fruit trees have been planted also, and are promising finely. In 1879 there were 961 acres of forest trees under cultivation in the County; also 4,683 apple, ninety-five pear, 788 peach, 444 plum, and 868 cherry trees, besides 1,053 grape vines and eight miles of hedging.
PHYSICAL FEATURES .- The uplands are gently rolling, with but few breaks or untillable places. The southern portion of the Coun- ty is embraced within the famous Platte Bottom, which reaclies to the northward in fine undulations for a width of several miles; then comes the beautiful Valley of Shell Creek, and to the north and east a few miles further, the smaller valleys of the Maples. The bottoms of Shell Creek have an average width of two miles, with a gentle slope toward the stream; and those of the Maples, though narrower, are very fine.
SOIL .- The soil of the upland is a deep, black, rich loam, and of the bottoms a deep alluvial. All crops common to the latitude are grown to perfection. Large quantities of hay are annually put up on the meadows and prairies, and finds a ready market at the railroad towns.
HISTORY .- Isaac Albertson has the honor of being the first settler within the present limits of the County, locating, where he still resides, near the mouth of Shell Creek, on the 26th of April, 1856. Daniel Hashburger was the next permanent settler. For
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JOHNSON'S HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.
the next year or two very few settlements were made, but in 1859 and 1860, when the Pike's Peak excitement was at its height, the travel through the County was very great; ranches were established along the Platte Bottom, and many claims were taken in the north- eastern part of the County, especially along and near the mouth of Shell Creek. It was in these palmy days that Col. Loren Miller, General Estabrook, a Mr. McField and several other gentlemen from Omaha, established a town near the mouth of Shell Creek, which they named Buchanan, in honor of the then Chief Magistrate of the nation, but its existence was brief, and soon no trace of it remained.
For many years Omaha, over seventy-five miles away, was the nearest point for obtaining supplies, and Fort Calhoun, on the Missouri, the nearest mill. The settlers who passed the memora- ble winter of 1856-7 on their claims were reduced to the severest trials, the whole country being covered with snow to the depth of three feet on the level for over two months and the weather keep- ing intensely cold. Their flour, and in fact, provisions of all kinds, were exhausted long before the snow melted; but fortunately game was abundant, and by that means they were saved from starving.
Daniel Harshburger was the first Postmaster in the County.
The first general election was held on the 12th of October, 1859, at which time a full board of County officers were elected, and the County Scat permanently located.
In 1871 a substantial bridge was built over the Platte, at Schuyler, costing $65,000. At present good bridges span all the streams at the principal crossings.
The Schuyler Register, the first newspaper in the County, was established on the 30th of September, 1871. The name has since been changed to the Schuyler Sun.
The Western Union Telegraph was built through the County in 1860, and the Union Pacific Railroad in 1868 .- Length of road in the County, eighteen miles.
There are three flouring mills in the County, located on Shell Creek, which do a large amount of business.
LAND .- The government land is all taken, but the Union Pa- cific Railroad Company owns 20,000 acres in this County, for which from $3.00 to $10.00 an acre is asked.
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JOHNSON'S HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.
SCHOOLS .- The number of school districts in the County in 1879 was fifty-one; school houses, forty-eight; children of school age, 2,169-males, 1,017, females, 1,152; whole number of children that attended school during the year, 1,302; wages paid teachers during the year, $9,797.74; value of school houses, $22,913.88; value of school house sites, $604,00; value of books and appara- tus, $1,484.85.
CROPS .- The crop returns for 1879 show the number of acres under cultivation in the County to be 54,595. The acreage sown and the yield of the principal crops was as follows: Spring wheat, 25,297 acres, 307,847 bushels; rye, 2,853 acres, 44,556 bushels; corn, 13,484 acres, 414,392 bushels; barley, 913 acres, 22,192 bush- els; oats, 4,987 acres, 160,085 bushels; sorghum, twenty-six acres 1,763 gallons; flax, 1,787 acres, 13,328 bushels; potatoes, 323 acres, 23,345 bushels.
TAXABLE PROPERTY .- The taxable property of the County, reported for 1879, was as follows : Number of acres of land, ₹19,378; average value per acre, $3.84; value of town lots, $98,- 895.00; money used in merchandise, $41,214; money used in manu- facture, $2,050.00; number of horses, 2,308, value, $69,479.00; mules and asses, 171, value, $5,215.00; neat cattle, 6,255 ; value, $56,600.00; sheep, 4,611, value, $5,335.00; swine, 8,273, value, $6,177.00; number of vehicles, 843, value, $13,566.00; mortgages, $17,599.00; furniture, $3,997.00; libraries, $800.00; property not enumerated, $25,375.00; railroads, $186,588.00; telegraph, $1,530,- 00 ; total, $1,376,724.00.
POPULATION .- There are eleven Precincts in Colfax County, the population of each in 1879 being as follows: Richland, 362; Shell Creek, 455; Wilson, 340; Stanton, 213; Schuyler, 1,160; Grant, 539; Midland, 603; Adams, 383; Colfax, 523; Maple Creek, 500; Lincoln, 512. Total population of the County in 1879, 5,960. In 1875 the population was 3,651, showing an increase in four years of 2,309.
SCHUYLER,
The County Seat, is the chief town in the County. It was laid out in April, 1869, and is located in the south-central part of the County, on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, and has 900 inhabitants. It is a prosperous town and does an immense ship-
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ping business, having large elevators, warehouses, stock yards and all the conveniences for the handling of grain and stock. Since the completion of the splendid wagon bridge over the Platte River at this place, it has also been the shipping point for the grain and farm products of the northern part of Butler County. Business is generally well represented. It has some very fine stores, good hotels, real estate offices, lumber yards, agricultural implement warehouses, various mechanics' shops, etc. Two weekly news- papers are published here, the Sun and the Democrat, and both are well supported, the Sun being the first paper published in the County. A brick Court House, costing $20,000, was erected in 1871. The High School building is an elegant and commodious structure. The Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians each have a house of worship.
Rogers and Richland are shipping stations on the Union Pacific Road, the former east and the latter west of the County Seat.
Several small villages, with a postoffice as a nucleus, have sprung up in different parts of the County.
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CUMING COUNTY.
Cuming County was established and the boundaries defined by an Act of the first Territorial Legislature, approved March 16, 1855. The same Act also located the County Seat at Catharine. By an Act approved February 12th, 1857, the boundaries were re-defined and the name of the County Seat changed to Manhattan. By a special Act approved February 12, 1866, the boundaries were fixed as they exist at present.
The County was named in honor of Thomas B. Cuming, the first Secretary and Acting Governor of Nebraska. It is located in the northeastern part of the State, and is bounded on the north by Wayne County and Omaha Indian Reserve, east by Omaha Indian Reserve and Burt County, south by Dodge and Colfax, and west by Stanton County, embracing 576 square miles, or 368,640 acres of land.
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WATER COURSES .- The principal stream in the County is the Elkhorn River, which flows southeasterly through the central portion, furnishing an abundance of water power and many superior sites for the location of flouring mills and other manufacturing enterprises. Logan Creek, with its branches, waters the eastern portion of the County. It is next in size, and is also an excellent mill stream. Plum Creek enters the County from the northwest and joins the Elkhorn in the central portion. Rock, Cuming, Fisher and Pebble Creeks, tributaries of the Elkhorn, meander through different portions of the County, and are all clear, beautiful streams. Springs are abundant. Well water can be had anywhere at a depth of from ten to fifty feet.
TIMBER AND FRUIT .- There is a moderate supply of natural timber on the Elkhorn River, Logan and Plum Creeks, and an occasional small grove is met with. An immense amount of artificial timber was set out at an early day, and thrifty groves, now sufficiently grown to supply all the fuel needed, adorn a great many farms. Grapes, plums and other wild fruit grow in profusion along the streams. There are a number of orchards of choice fruit trees under cultivation in the County, but no report has been made of the kind or quantity of trees planted.
CHARACTER OF THE LAND .- At least thirty per cent. of the land in this County consists of valley, and the balance of rolling prairie, with very little bluff or waste. The Valley of the Elkhorn is from three to seven miles wide, rich and beautiful. Logan Valley, at this point, is scarcely inferior to the Elkhorn. Plum and the larger creeks all have fine wide bottoms, on which from one to three tons of hay are put up to the acre. Timothy and blue-joint grass grow luxuriantly. The soil on the uplands is a black loam, from one to four feet in depth. There is an abundance of the finest grasses for pasturage. Sheep raising is carried on to a considerable extent. In 1878, 34,561 acres were cultivated in the County; 52,855 bushels of wheat and 69,920 bushels of corn were raised. No crop reports for 1879.
HISTORICAL .- In the summer of 1856, Benjamin B. Moore left Hillsdale, Michigan, with his wife, daughter Kate, and three sons, Abram, George and Oscar, and coming to Nebraska, located a claim, and made the first settlement in Cuming County
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at Catharine, or Dead Timber, where they immediately erected a cabin.
The winter following was an unusually severe one, the snow falling to such a depth that it was impossible to drive a team, and Mr. Moore and his sons were compelled to haul their provisions from Fontenelle, a distance of twenty-five miles, on a hand sled. But fortunately wild game was abundant that winter, the Elkhorn Valley being literally alive with deer, antelope and elk. These animals flocked to the friendly shelter of the timber on the bot- toms, and during that winter Mr. Moore and his sons killed not less than seventy-five of them close to their home.
In March, 1857, Uriah Bruner, John J. Bruner, Henry A. Kosters, William Sexaner, Andrew J. Bruner, Peter Weind- heim, Henry Eike, Charles Beindorf and others of Omaha, associ- ated themselves together under the name and style of "The Nebraska Settlement Association," and appointed a committee to go up the Elkhorn Valley and select a town site. Uriah and John J. Bruner, with several others of the company, immediately started up the valley on a prospecting tour, and arriving at the present site of the town of West Point, they were so favorably impressed with the general appearance of the country, the apparent richness of the soil, with the beautiful stream that so gracefully wound its way down the broad undulating valley, and the excellent facilities it afforded for manufacturing purposes, that they determined to locate their town there. Returning at once to Omaha they reported to the Association, who approved of the selection they had made, and measures were immediately taken to establish and lay out a town thereon. A steam saw mill was purchased by the Company which arrived at the town site in June of that year. Log houses were erected, and during the summer the town site was surveyed by Andrew J. Bruner. The town was christened Philadelphia, but the name was soon changed to West Point.
In March, 1858, John D. Neligh and James C. Crawford, of Pennsylvania, and Josiah and John McKirahan, of Ohio, took claims near West Point, built houses and commenced breaking prairie as soon as the season opened. Messrs. Neligh and Craw- ford that summer bought and put in running order the saw mill of the " Nebraska Settlement Association," and also its claim to the
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town site. A postoffice was established at West Point, with J. C. Crawford as postmaster.
Mrs. John Gaul died early in 1858, being the first death in in the County.
The first election for County officers occured at West Point on the 12th of October, 1858, and resulted as follows: W. R. Artman, Probate Judge ; James C. Crawford, Treasurer ; G. W. Houser, Clerk; John D. Neligh, Register ; Henry Cline, Sheriff, A. A. Arlington, John Bromer and J. McKirahan, Commissioners.
At this election West Point was chosen as the County Seat, and an old log house became the official headquarters.
The following persons voted at the first election : Aron Arlington, Henry Cline, J. D. Neligh, J. C. Crawford, George W. Houser, John McKirahan, Josiah McKirahan, W. R. Artman, John Roggansock, Jergen Roggensock, George Weikel, B. B. Moore, A. L. Ward, Amasa Babbit, John Bromer, E. C. Dallon, J. S. Walters, John Freeburg and Mr. McCrea. Nineteen votes were cast.
In the latter part of June, 1859, about three thousand Pawnee Indians came up the Elkhorn Valley, ostensibly on their way North on a hunting expedition, but, as the sequel proved, their main errand was to plunder the whites. They seemed to be in a half starved condition, and, in order to satiate their hunger, com- menced a systematic warfare upon the settlers' pigs, poultry, and stock, whenever a favorable opportunity offered. They made their appearance in the vicinity of West Point on the 29th of June, and butchered a heifer belonging to Mr. Clemens. The Indians having committeed numerous depredations further down the valley, the citizens organized and started in pursuit. About sundown on the 29th, a Company of volunteers from Fontenelle and vicinity, com- manded by Captain Kline, arrived at West Point. The next day a number of Indians made their appearance across the river, opposite the saw mill, and the Germans, seeing their approach, concealed themselves between the saw mill and river, with a view of sending some of them to their " happy hunting grounds." Their guns. however, missed fire, and the Indians, discovering that danger was brewing, retreated. Upon discovering that a strong force was rendezvoused at West Point, the Indians moved up the river, and
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