USA > Nebraska > History of Nebraska > Part 43
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ASHLAND,
Located in the southeast corner of the County, on the line of the Burlington and Missouri Railway, has 950 inhabitants. It is beautifully situated on both sides of Salt Creek, about two miles from its junction with the Platte River. Ashland is the oldest town in the County, and was nntil 1873 the County Seat. Archibald Wiggins located here in 1857, and was the first settler upon the town site. Samuel Hahn, Martin Hall and Wm. B. Warbritton, located here at an early period. Fuller & Moe erected the first frame building, in which they opened a store in the spring of 1863. During the same year Joseph Hume and a Mr. Border
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built a dam across the creek and ereeted a saw mill. In 1864. Dennis Dean erected a large saw mill, and also a grist mill with one run of burrs. Ashland now contains two first-class flouring mills, one windmill manufactory, one machine shop, ten general merchandise, three grocery, two hardware, two drug, two book, two boot and shoe, two furniture, and three agricultural implement stores, five grain warehouses, one bank, two meat markets, stock yards, and numerous other business establishments. The Saunders County Reporter, an old established weekly newspaper, is pub- lished here. An elegant school house was erected in 1871, which cost, with furniture, $16,500. There are four handsome Church buildings in the city, viz .; Methodist (the first in the County erected,) Episcopal, Baptist and Congregational.
ASIILAND HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, SAUNDERS COUNTY.
VALPARAISO
Is a prosperous and growing town of 350 inhabitants, located on the Omaha & Republican Valley Railroad, in the southwest corner of the County. It contains several stores, and transacts a large grain and stock business. The extension of the railroad between
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Valparaiso and Lincoln is now about completed, and new dwellings and business houses are springing up rapidly.
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CLEAR CREEK,
The first Station on the Omaha & Republican Valley Railroad, in Saunders County, has a population of 200. Various branches of mercantile business are represented.
ALVIN and WESTON are small villages on the railroad, the for- mer east, and the latter west of Wahoo.
Ithaca, Rose Hill, Ceresco, Bradford, Milton, Swedeburgh, Headland, Isla, Colan, Esteina, Sand Creek, Platteville, Clayton, Cedar Bluffs, Benton, Cedar Hill, Willow Creek, Rescue, Newton, and Chowder, are Postoffices in the County.
SARPY COUNTY.
Sarpy County, named in honor of Col. Peter A. Sarpy, was or- ganized by Act of the Territorial Legislature, approved February 7, 1857, previous to which it was a part of Douglas County. It lies on the middle eastern border of the State, and is bounded on the north by Douglas County, east by the Missouri River, and south and west by the Platte River, which separates it from Cass and Saunders Counties, and contains about 275 square miles, or 176,000 acres.
WATER COURSES .- The Missouri River washes the eastern border of the County, and the Platte River, flowing in a general southeasterly course, the western and southern borders. The Elk- horn River empties into the Platte in this County, after passing through the northwestern township. Big Papillion River, a very fine stream furnishing sufficient water for mills, drains the eastern portion of the County, flowing in a general southeasterly direction into the Missouri. Little, or West Papillion Creek, a tributary of the Big Papillion, with its branches, drains the northern tier of townships. Numerous small creeks, having their rise in the central portions of the County, flow in a southerly course into the Platte, the most prominent being Buffalo Creek.
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JOIINSON'S HISTORY OF NEBRASKA.
TIMBER .- There is a great deal of fine native timber in this County. Through the central portion, running from east to west, there are several large, beautiful groves, the varieties consisting principally of hardwood, such as hickory, oak, walnut, ash, elm, and hackberry. Considerable cottonwood, ash, elm, willow, and other varieties, are found along the Missouri bottoms and ravines adjacent; also in the Platte bluff's, and on the large islands of that stream. 872 acres of forest trees, and 1314 miles of hedge fencing, are reported under cultivation.
FRUIT .-- 27,512 apple, 810 pear, 6,297 peach, 1,127 plum, and 4,305 cherry trees, are returned, besides 9,834 grape vines.
BUILDING STONE .- There is an abundance of the best quality of limestone in this County. Extensive quarries have been worked here for many years.
TOPOGRAPHY .- Twelve per cent. of the County is valley, and the remainder rolling prairie, with high bluff's skirting the rivers. The first mile or two westward from the Missouri, the surface is broken in wave-like ridges which gradually give place to gently undulating prairie, extending to the south and west until the wide bottoms of the Platte and Elkhorn Rivers are reached. The Big Papillion, in the eastern portion of the County, has a beautiful valley varying from two to five miles in width.
CROPS .- Area under cultivation, 43,521 acres. Winter wheat, twenty-five acres, 366 bushels; spring wheat, 7,440 acres, 85,782 bushels; rye, 792 acres, 8,418 bushels; corn, 27,756 acres, 1,062,210 bushels; barley, 937 acres, 20,171 bushels; oats, 5,576 acres, 266,- 633 bushels; buckwheat, eleven acres, ninety-five bushels; sorghum, 152 acres, 1,401 gallons; flax, five acres, fifty bushels; potatoes, +13 acres, 31,334 bushels.
Large quantities of hay are annually put up on the broad meadow lands of the County. The soil on the uplands is a rich loam, the same as in Douglas County, and is seldom less than two feet in depth.
HISTORICAL .- The Expedition of Lewis and Clarke reached the month of the Platte River on the 21st of July, 1804, and on the evening of the 22d, it encamped on the beautiful plateau on which the old town of Bellevue now stands. In 1805, it is stated, Man- uel Lesa, a Spanish adventurer, visited this site, and upon viewing
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the magnificent panorama spread ont before him, exclaimed with a burst of admiration, " Bellevue!" (or beautiful view), a name by which it has since been recognized.
In 1810, the American Fur Company established a trading post at Bellevne, and appointed Francis De Roin, Indian Trader, who was succeeded by Joseph Robideaux, who served a term of six years, when his place was supplied by John Carbanne, until super- seded, in 1824, by Col. Peter A. Sarpy, the distinguished Indian Trader of the Upper Missouri, who continued in that capacity for about thirty years.
In 1823, the Council Bluffs Indian Agency, at Fort Calhoun,. was removed to Bellevue, and included in its limits the Omaha,. Otoe, Pawnee, and Pottowattamie tribes. In 1834, Rev. Moses. Merrill, a Baptist Missionary, erected a Mission House among the Otoes. Mr. Merrill died at his post in 1835, and was buried on the Iowa side of the river. In the fall of 1834, Samuel Allis and Rev. John Dunbar, under the direction of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, arrived at the Agency at Bellevue, in Company with: Major John Dougherty, Indian Agent to the Otoes, Omahas, and. Pawnees. Messrs. Dunbar and Allis opened a school among the Pawnees, at Council Point, a short distance up the Platte River, and when that village was abandoned on account of the hostility of the Sioux, they returned to Bellevue, and taught the children. of the Pawnees at the Agency.
General Fremont's exploring party stopped at Bellevue, in. 1843, on their return from the West, when they sold their mules and wagons at auction, and then descended the Missouri in boats. to St. Lonis.
In 1846, Rev. Edward McKinney, acting for the Presbyterian. Board of Foreign Missions, selected a site on the southeast part of the plateau at Bellevue, for a Mission house and school for the Pawnees. The buildings were commenced in the fall of 1847, and completed in 1848.
In 1847, the Mormons, under Brigham Young, reached the Missouri River nearly opposite Bellevue, afterwards called Old Trader's Point, on their journey to Salt Lake, in a weak and desti- tute condition, but were relieved by the generosity of Col. Sarpy,. who furnished them supplies, sheltered them from the storms of
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winter, and in the spring crossed numbers of them over his ferry free of charge.
In 1849, the Nebraska Postoffice, at Bellevue, was established. This year, Col. Sarpy's ferry-boat from St. Mary's to Bellevue was constantly employed in crossing over gold-hunters on their way to California.
In 1852, Major Barrows, Stephen Decatur, and others, pro- jected a town organization at Bellevue, which seems to have existed only in name.
June 6, 1853, Rev. William Hamilton arrived with his family, and took charge of the Presbyterian Mission House. During this year, the Agency buildings and blacksmith shop were erected on the plateau south of the Mission lands, under the direction of Ma- jor Gatewood, Indian Agent.
On the 9th of February, 1854, the Bellevue Town Company was formally organized, with Col. Peter A. Sarpy, Stephen Deca- tur, Hiram P. Bennett, George Hepner, James M. Gatewood, Geo. F. Turner, P. J. McMahon, A. W. Hollister, and A. C. Ford, as the original proprietors.
The 4th of July, 1854, was observed with much enthusiasm at Bellevue. An immense vine-clad arbor was erected near the Agency buildings; the star-spangled banner floated in the breeze; and a salute was fired for each State in the Union, including one for the new Territory of Nebraska.
Bellevue has the credit of publishing the first newspaper in the Territory; which appeared on the 15th of July, 1854, and was entitled the Nebraska Palladium; Dr. E. Reed, editor and pro- prietor. It was printed at St. Mary's, Iowa, until the middle of November, 1854, when the office was transferred to Bellevue. Dr. E. N. Upjohn struck off the first paper, and Thos. Morton set up the first column of type. It died a natural death in April, 1855.
The first Claim Club north of the Platte River was organized at Bellevue, in the fall of 1854, with Judge William Gilmer, as President.
At the first Session of the Legislature, Bellevue was incor- porated as a city. In the latter part of January, 1855, D. E. Reed was appointed Postmaster. The Postoffice was held at the Mission 35
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House, where the Doctor's wife taught the first white school in the Territory.
Nebraska Lodge No. 1, of A. F. &. A. M., was instituted at Bellevue, in March, 1855, although meetings were held at the old trading post in 1854.
It was not until June, 1855, that the Omaha Indians left for their new reserve, about a hundred miles further up the Missouri. They were loath to leave their old hunting grounds, and expressed dissatisfaction with the Government in sending a weak and de- fenceless tribe of less than one thousand souls, to a country where they would be at the mercy of their hereditary foe, the Sioux, having thousands of warriors.
Hon. S. D. Bangs, in his Centennial history of Sarpy County, in speaking of Logan Fontenelle, the celebrated Chief of the Omahas, says: Logan Fontenelle was a half-breed, his father being French. He was educated in St. Louis, spoke English fluently, and was at this time about thirty years of age; of medium height, swarthy complexion, black hair, and dark, piercing eyes.
" In the middle of the summer of 1855, a procession might have been seen winding its way toward the old home of Logan Fontenelle, on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri, above the stone quarries at Bellevue. It moved slowly along, led by Louis San- so-see, who was driving a team with a wagon, in which, wrapped in blankets and buffalo robes, was all that was mortal of Logan Fontenelle, the Chief of the Omahas. On either side the Indian Chiefs and braves, mounted on ponies, with the squaws and relatives of the deceased, expressed their grief in mournful outeries. His remains were taken to the house which he had left a short time before, and now, desolate and afflicted, they related the inci- dents of his death. He had been killed by the Sioux on the Loup Fork, thirteen days before, while on a hunt with his tribe. Hav- ing left the main body with San-so-see in pursuit of game, and while in a ravine that hid them from the sight of the Omahas, they came in contact with a band of Sioux, on the war-path, who attacked them. San-so-see escaped in some thick underbrush, while Fontenelle stood his ground, fighting desperately, and killing three of his adversaries, when he fell, pierced with fourteen arrows, and the prized scalp-lock was taken by his enemies. The Omahas
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did not recover his body until the next day. It was the wish of Col. Sarpy to have it interred on the bluff's fronting the house in which he had lived, and a coffin was made which proved too small without unfolding the blankets which enveloped him, and as he had been dead so long this was a disagreeable task. After putting him in the coffin, his wives, who witnessed the scene, uttered the most pitious cries-cutting their ankles until the blood ran in streams. The impressive funeral service of the Episcopal Church was read over the grave by Stephen Decatur."
On the afternoon of April 20, 1855, Geo. Hollister, a young man of considerable promise, while engaged in surveying on a high piece of ground overlooking Bellevue, was shot and killed by Dr. C. A. Henry. It appears that Dr. Henry and a man named But- terfield, had been ont hunting along the Papillion that afternoon, and coming up with the surveying party, he had some angry words with Hollister in regard to claim lines, during which his gun was discharged, shooting Hollister in the abdomen, from the effects of which he died shortly after. Dr. Henry claimed that the shooting was wholly accidental, that the hammer of his gun caught in the heavy binding of his coat and was discharged. He gave himself up, and was confined in Sheriff Peterson's house at Omaha to await trial, but the grand jury failing to find an indictment against him, he was discharged. During the Doctor's confinement he frequently visited and prescribed for the sick of the city, in company with Sheriff Peterson, and upon his liberation he became one of Omaha's most active and influential citizens.
In January, 1856, the Mission Reserve was incorporated within the limits of Bellevue by Act of the Legislature, being a section of land reserved in the treaty with the Omahas to the Pres- byterian Board of Free Missions, and for which the Government afterwards granted a patent. The Presbyterian Church was com- pleted this year, and Rev. Wm. Hamilton installed as minister.
The Fontenelle Bank was incorporated in 1856, and trans- acted business at Bellevue until the financial crash of 1857.
During the year 1856, the Benton House was completed and kept as a hotel by Geo. Jennings, and the old Mission House was also converted into a hotel, known as the Omaha House, which was kept by Jos. Allen. A city organization for Bellevue was
.
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effected by the election of Reuben Lovejoy, Mayor, and W. D. Rowles, J. T. Allen, and A. H. Burtch, Aldermen. The Young America newspaper figured about this time, but was short lived. It was succeeded by the Bellevue Gazette, edited by Hon. Silas A. Strickland, which launched its first number to the public October 23, 1856.
At an election held in November, 1856, Gen. L. L. Bowen, and J. S. Allen, were elected Councilmen of the election district, and S. A. Strickland, C. T. Holloway, John Finney, and Joseph Dyson, Representatives; and through their exertions Sarpy was set off from Douglas County by Act of the Legislature, approved February 7, 1857.
Messrs. Bowen, Holloway, and Strickland were the Commis- sioners appointed to locate the County Seat, and Bellevue was selected.
The first election after the organization of the County, was held May 25, 1857. Wm. H. Cook was elected Probate Judge; C. D. Keller, Register of Deeds; S. D. Bangs, County Clerk; W. F. Wiley, Treasurer; H. A. Longsdorf, Superintendent Public Schools; W. H. Harvey, Surveyor; John M. Enoch, Sheriff; and John B. Glover, Robert McCarty, and Philander Cook, County Commissioners.
At this election, Hon. Fenner Ferguson, of Sarpy County, having received the highest number of votes, was elected delegate to Congress. Judge Ferguson resided at Bellevue until his death, which occurred November 11, 1859.
The original town of La Platte, laid out in 1855, on the Mis- souri, between the Platte and Papillion Rivers; Papillion City, laid ont in 1857, at a point about two and a half miles northeast of the present town of Papillion; and Plattford and Hazleton, towns organized at an early day, have long since been abandoned.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS .- The number of districts is thirty-six; school houses, thirty-five; children of school age, males, 858, females, 706, total, 1,564; whole number of children that attended school during the year, 1,183; qualified teachers employed, males, twenty-eight, females, thirty; total wages paid teachers for the year, $8,800.10; value of school houses, $35,383; value of sites, $1,710; value of books and apparatus, $1,508.25.
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TAXABLE PROPERTY .- Acres of land, 142,528; average value per acre, $5.17; value of town lots, $60,343; money used in merchandise, $15,954; money used in manufactures, $1,420; horses, 2,734, value $78,842; mules and asses, 165, value $5,369; neat cattle, 7,176, value $70,545; sheep, 438, value $247; swine, 11,013, value $11,357; vehicles. 701, value $13,817; moneys and credits, $12,724; mortgages, $19,017; furniture, $12,152; libraries, $115; property not enumerated, $36,450; railroads, $218,883.28; telegraph, $1,071; total valuation for 1879, $1,295,780.28.
RAILROADS .- Two railroads traverse the County, the Union Pacific, through the northeastern townships, a distance of 12.60 miles, and the Burlington and Missouri River, from north to south along the Missouri River, a distance of 10.99 miles.
LANDS .- Improved lands range from $8 to $35 per acre. The Union Pacific Railroad Company owns several thousand acres in the western part of the County for which they ask from $5 to $10 per acre.
POPULATION .- The following is the population of the County in 1879, by Precincts: Bellevue, 905; Papillion, 1,048; La Platte, 374; Forest City, 416; Richland, 496; Fairview, 622; Plattford 531.
Total, 4,392,-males, 2,431, females, 1,961.
PAPILLION,
The County Seat, is a prosperous town of 800 inhabitants. It is finely located on the Little Papillion Creek, in the northeastern part of the County, and is a station on the Union Pacific Railroad. The valley of the Papillion at this point is beautifully undulating and about a mile wide. The first building on the town site was erected in November, 1869, by Dr. D. E. Beadle, who also opened the first store in January following. The town site was surveyed and platted in January, 1870. Papillion is now an excellent market center, and contains several well stocked stores, a hotel, flouring mill, grain elevators, etc., and an able weekly newspaper,-the Times, established in November, 1874. The Court House and school house are both handsome brick structures. There are five Church buildings, viz .: Methodist Episcopal, Catholic, Presby- terian, Episcopal and Baptist.
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BELLEVUE,
The oldest town in the State, which at one time boasted a popula- tion of over 2,000, has now only about 200 inhabitants. It is located on the Missouri River, near the center of the County from north to south. The County Seat was removed from here to Pa- pillion, by vote of the people in 1875. It contains at present three or four general merchandise stores, a hotel, grain warehouses, two Churches, a school house, and some elegant private residences.
LA PLATTE,
A village on the line of the B. & M. Railroad, in the southeastern part of the County, was laid out in 1870. It contains a hotel, grist mill, general store, blacksmith shop, etc. Near the town, a splen- did limestone quarry gives employment to a large number of men.
SARPY CENTER
Is a village situated near the geographical center of the County. The town site was surveyed and platted in 1875. It contains a hotel, two merchandise stores, a drug store, harness, and black- smith shop etc.
GILMORE
Is a small town on the Union Pacific Railroad, in the northeastern part of the County. It is the shipping and trading point of a well-settled farming country.
FOREST CITY, PLATTFORD, XENIA, and NASBY, are Postoffices.
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SALINE COUNTY.
Saline County was created in 1855, and organized in 1862. It is located in the southeastern part of the State, in the third tier of Counties west of the Missouri River, and is bounded on the north by Seward, east by Lancaster and Gage, south by Jefferson, and west by Fillmore County, containing 576 square miles, or 368,640 acres.
WATER COURSES .- The Big Blue River flows from north to south, through the eastern tier of townships, and furnishes most excellent water-power. The West Blue River joins the Big Blue
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in the northeastern part of the County. Turkey Creek, also a good mill stream, flows in a sontheasterly course entirely through the County; besides which there are Swan, Walnut, Plummers, Dry, Brush, Spring, Johnson, Squaw, and many smaller Creeks and rivulets. The splendid water-power of this County is an ele- ment of great wealth, and only awaits development. Six grist mills are now in operation.
TIMBER .- The Big Blue and its tributaries are well timbered along their banks, with oak, cottonwood, ash, walnut, etc. Large artificial groves adorn almost every farm, while many are sur- rounded with honey-locust and Osage-orange hedges. The amount of forest timber planted is 1,835 acres; hedge fence, 174 miles.
FRUIT .- There are many thrifty orchards and vineyards in the County, bearing the choicest fruits. 32,128 apple, 854 pear, 28,659 peach, 3,509 plum, 9,135 cherry trees, 5,564 grape vines, are re- turned.
BUILDING MATERIAL .- Magnesian limestone of the finest qual- ity is abundant. Large quarries are being worked near the center of the County, where there are also extensive kilns for burning lime, much of which is shipped abroad. Building sand, and clay for the manufacture of brick, are plentiful.
TOPOGRAPHY .- In the northern portion of the County, there are broad stretches of nearly level prairie; in the central and south- ern portions, the surface is gently undulating, with a gradual rise to the westward, the eastern border of the County being about 1,330 feet, and the western border 1,550 feet above the sea level. The streams all have wide bottoms on each side, the land being rich and dry, and not subject to overflow. The Valley of the Big Blue, which runs a distance of about twenty miles through this County, is famous for its beauty and fertility. The Valleys of the West Blue, Turkey and Swan Creeks, are also very fine throughout their whole length.
CROPS .- The area under cultivation, reported for 1879, was 100,986 acres. Winter wheat, 281 acres, 5,500 bushels; spring wheat, 47,720 acres, 579,602 bushels; rye, 1,759 acres, 28,699 bushels; corn, 35,101 acres, 1,491,850 bushels; barley, 7,648 acres, 189,573 bushels; oats, 7,295 acres, 138,403 bushels; buckwheat, twenty-eight acres, 2,789 bushels; sorghum, thirty-seven acres,
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3,700 gallons; flax, 108} acres, 911 bushels; broom corn, fifty-one acres, twenty-one tons; millet and Hungarian, 363 acres, 869 tons; tobacco, five acres, 3,783 pounds; potatoes, 556 acres, 70,707 bushels.
HISTORICAL .- General Victor Vifquain, who located with his family near the Fork of the Blue, on the first of May, 1858, has the honor of being the first settler in the County. For nearly a year, his house was the only habitation in all that region of coun- try. Among the first settlers to follow him were E. Frink, W. Remington, C. Haynes, T. Stevens, J. Bickle, Tobias Castor, Wm. Stanton, and James Johnson.
From 1858 to 1860, the country was very much overrun by Indians. In August, 1857, the Comanches and Kiowas, under command of Yellow Buffalo, had a great fight with the Pawnees, commanded by Peternasharrow. The Pawnees were defeated and driven to their reservation; the Comanches and Kiowas fell back on General Vifquain's farm, where, after hostile demonstrations, they were pacified by the gift of an ox. For two years, General Vifquain had his house mined, ready to blow up in case of Indian capture; but fortunately the occasion never arose. The General was a great friend of Peternasharrow and other head Chiefs of the Pawnees; and that tribe used to make his farm their headquarters on their trips to the buffalo grounds-as many as 1,900 camping in his timber at one time, but never doing him any injury.
A panic occurred among the settlers in 1862, on account of In- dians; and the only farm not deserted was Vifquain's, where Mrs. Vifquain and hired help remained, the General being in the army at the time.
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