USA > Nebraska > Richardson County > History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions > Part 3
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1068
Page, James R. 1171
Pock, Cleon 1206
Percival, William 1306
Peters, Fulton '923
l'etersen, Leroy T., M. D. 1212
Phillips, Clifford F. 1030
Philpot, John 850
Philpot, Ralph R.
1131
Pittock, Henry P. 1278
956
l'oilard, Perry
1024
Porr, Leopold
Power, William S. 1040
Skalak, Wenzel
1348
Slagle, William E. 1389
774
Smith, Charles
1144
Smith, Julius
912
Spickler, Joseph W.
998
Spragins, Judge John D.
765
Staver. Hon. Hugh Q.
1280
Steele, Edwin F.
1152
Steele, Joseph
1152
Steele, Robert Edwin 1152
Stephens, William L. 933
Sterns, Bernard W. 1322
Stettler, Alfred 980
Stitzer, Henry 1156
Stoltz. Charles E. 1114
Stoltz, William F.
917
Strawn, Charles A.
1112
Suess, Louis M.
1210
Rife, William M,
Slocum, James L ..
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX.
V
Vandeventer, Morgan H. 868
Vogele, Edward C. 1175
Von Bergen. J. Louis 906
W
Waggener, J. A. 965
Waggoner, Riley D. 896
Wahl. Samuel 1078
Watkins, George
1262
Weaver, Hon. Archibald J. 1272
Weaver, Hon. Arthur J. 1328
Weaver, Paul B. 1413
Weber, Daniel H. 1020
Weddle, John F. 1028
Weddle, William M. 1054
Weick, Charles F. 1044
Wheeler, James M.
888
Wheeler, William H. 786
Wickham, Ernest
1368
Wilhite, James R.
1014
Wilkinson, Thomas M. 832
Williamson, Charnock W.
1363
Williamson, J. Rock 914
Wilson, Frank P. 1327
Wilson, Lester C. 1022
Wilson, Millard L., M. D. 768
Wiltse, John 874
Windle, Grant L. 1307
Windle, Joseph 1127
WVissinger, Jacob F. 1317
Wissler, John E. 962
Withee, Francis 1058
Wittwer, Frederick 1050
Wixon, John W. 1064
Wuster, Christ 1149
Wuster, Thomas F. 927
Wyatt. HIenry E. 1312
Y
Yutzy, Josephi C., D. D. S.
885
Z
Zimmermann, Ernest 1399
Zimmermann, Gust.
1415
Zoeller, Henry C.
1396
HISTORICAL
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, ETC., OF RICHARDSON COUNTY.
The rolling prairies of which Richardson county is largely made up, are an alluring feature which did not escape the eye of the early settler in quest of a home in this new country. The recurring prairie fires of the period when it was only inhabited by Indians had retarded the growth of the timber to a great extent in large portions of the county, and those coming across the Missouri were so impressed with the openness of the country that it was long known as a portion of the Great Plains.
It is traversed from west to east by streams of living water, the banks of which are well timbered. Upon the coming of the white man and the breaking up of the soil, the prairie fire disappeared and the trees thus pro- tected, together with those set out and planted by the thousands, now give the country the appearance of a woodland and especially is this noticeable in and about the towns, rivers and creeks, and farm homes throughout the county. This fact is now so prominent, that to the traveler passing through the country nor to those residing therein, does the word "prairie" have any significance in a descriptive way and indeed it is no longer used in the vocabu- lary of the people. The prairie in the old sense is gone forever.
The forest groves are made up of box elder, maple. cottonwood, walnut. oak, elm, ash, hickory and willow. In the east end of the county the Mis- souri river bluffs have always been and are today heavily overgrown with timber, and in later years extensive orchards are replacing cleared portions and rank in productive capacity and quality and quantity of fruit with the best in the United States.
The valleys and low lands adjacent to the streams were the first choice with the early settler and in the earlier years of less rainfall were most profitably worked as farms, but the heavy rainfall of more recent years has
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34
RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
necessitated extensive drainage systems for relief from overflows. The uplands or early prairie farms have proven most valuable for all purposes and are the most desirable of all and most productive at this time.
Inexhaustive quarries of first-class building stone are available in many parts of the county and of easy access near the surface of the ground. Coal in numerous places over the county has been found, but never, so far, in sufficient quantities to serve any great number of the people as a fuel.
The lowest altitude is found near Rulo, in the extreme southeast corner of the county, where but eight hundred and seventy-five feet above sea level is registered. Passing toward the northwest and west end of the county a gradual and gentle rise is noted.
The county is now eighteen miles wide, north and south, and thirty-six miles long. east and west at the southern, and twenty-seven miles at the north- ern boundary, containing in the aggregate in round numbers, five hundred and fifty square miles, or three hundred fifty-two thousand six hundred acres. The townships, except in the eastern portion are six miles square and con- tain thirty-six sections. Within this area the land is all tillable, except on the lowest river bottoms, which is now used as pasture and grass lands. So it may be stated that there is but a very small per cent of the land which may not be utilized.
The Great Nemaha river, which traverses the southern precincts, east and west, and empties into the Missouri river near Rulo, in its meanderings, prior to numerous cut-offs made by the drainage ditches to shorten it, was one hundred miles long. It is now reduced to less than half that dis- tance and is fed by numerous small streams from a vast watershed. The Muddy creek drains the east precincts, being fed by many small streams and empties into the Nemaha in Jefferson precinct.
The most extensive valley is that of the Great Nemaha, which varies from one to three miles in width and, being the repository for the rich soil of the uplands, is most fertile.
QUALITY OF THE SOIL.
There is excellent clay for the manufacture of brick, which on account of the absence of saw timber and the distance from the lumber regions, has been extensively used as the principal building material and much of the out- put is in great demand at points outside the state.
The soil of the hills is perfectly adapted for fruit culture and extensive orchards of apple, of all kinds, peaches, pear, plum and grapes are success-
35
RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
fully grown. The soil is a deep black loam from eighteen to thirty-six inches in depth. The "black land farm" is a reality the county over and its well- known richness, after fifty years continuous usage, precludes the necessity for fertilization so much in vogue in Eastern states. Small grain of all kinds is raised in abundance, and farming here is a pleasure rather than a drudgery, and well it may be, for the soil is easily worked, and the farmer has every assurance of a crop annually.
1417466
TRIBUTARIES OF THE GREAT NEMAHA RIVER.
The Great Nemaha river, of Richardson county, enters the Missouri near the southeast corner of the county and traverses its entire length. The river forks near the center of the county (near Salem), one branch coming from the Northwest. called the North Fork and the other heading in Nemaha county, Kansas, called the South Fork of the Nemaha.
Muddy creek comes also from the northwest, running parallel with the Nemaha, which it enters four miles east of Falls City.
The principal tributaries of the Nemaha and Muddy in this county are Walnut, Long Branch, Four-Mile, Rattlesnake, Easley, Sardine, Half-Breed and Harvey Creeks.
The Nemalia and Muddy are mill streams, and there is timber on all the branches. It will thus be seen that Richardson county is the best tim- bered as well as the best watered county in Nebraska.
Good limestone for lime and building purposes abounds on the streams and coal of good quality has in other days been found on the Nemaha and its tributaries, the latter in quality as good if not better than that mined stic- cessfully for years in the vicinity of Leavenworth, Kansas.
The county as a whole is most highly improved and has more good farms and farmers than any county in the state.
All the grains of this latitude flourish here, and it is without a doubt the best adapted for fruit, which is now being produced on a larger scale than in any section of the state.
Both spring and fall wheat do well, and it is doubtful if there be a better corn-growing region west of the Missouri. Oats, rye. potatoes and other vegetables produce finely.
36
RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
SOIL SURVEY OF RICHARDSON COUNTY.
By A. H. Meyer, of the United States Department of Agriculture, in Charge, and Paul H. Stewart, and C. W. Watson, of the Nebraska Soil Survey .- Area Inspected by Thomas D. Rice.
DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA.
Richardson county is situated in the extreme southeastern part of Ne- braska, about fifty-four miles south of the Platte river. It is bounded on the north by Nemaha county, on the east by the Missouri river, which forms the state line, on the south by Doniphan, Brown, and Nemaha coun- ties, Kansas, and on the west by Pawnee county, Nebraska. The county is approximately rectangular in shape, with one irregular side, its greatest length from east to west being thirty-six miles and its width from north to south eighteen miles. It has an area of 545 square miles, or 348.800 acres. The northwestern corner of the county is about seventy miles from Lincoln and the southeastern corner approximately halfway between Omaha and Kansas City.
The surface features of the upland, which constitutes far the greater part of the county, are variable, though in general the topography is rolling. In the southwestern and extreme western parts of the county the drainage system is intricate and the surface is marked by numerous steep and pre- cipitous slopes, largely the result of high rock ledges. The steep slopes occur largely along the stream courses of the Nemaha river drainage system. How- ever, there are in this section gently arched divides or plains and gently sloping areas. The remainder of the county, except the bluff zone along the Missouri river, is gently rolling to rolling, with no abrupt slopes. The divides are gently sloping to almost flat, and in a few instances attain the elevation of the original constructional surface of the loess plains. These topographic features occur mainly between the Nemaha and Little Muddy Creek drainage systems, with their best development in Franklin town- ship. In the eastern part of the county the upland merges through a har- row strip of hilly land into the Missouri river bluff zone, which in some places is two and one-half miles in width. This strip is characterized by V-shaped valleys with a depth of about three hundred and fifty feet. The roughest and most dissected topography occurs in the northeastern and southeastern parts of the county.
There are some alluvial terraces in the county, but they are of very small extent and occur only in the southwestern section. They vary from
37
RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
five to ten feet above the present flood plain of the streams. The terraces are flat, benchlike, and uneroded.
The greater part of the first-bottom land occurs along the Nemaha river and its branches. The Missouri river flows so near the west side of the valley that there is scarcely any first bottom along the course in this stream within the county. The surface of the bottom-land areas is level, except along the Missouri river, where the topography is relieved by low ridges with intervening depressions, sloughs, and ox-bow lakes.
The upland has an average elevation of about 1,100 feet above sea level. The highest point, 1,220 feet, occurs in the northwestern part of the county. The average elevation of the bottom land is about 900 feet above sea level and the lowest elevation is about 850 feet. The general slope of the county is southeastward.
The Missouri river flows along the eastern boundary and receives the drainage of the entire county. The Nemaha river is the only tributary of any consequence, and drains practically all the county. It flows in a southeasterly direction through the area. The north fork and south fork of the Nemaha unite at Salem. Muddy creek is an important branch of this stream. The Nemaha river and its tributary streams are winding and rather sluggish, and have reached base level. The Missouri river is navig- able. The streams in this region are not used for power development.
There is a complete system of drainage ways in the county, and adequ- ate drainage is provided for all sections. Springs are numerous in the southwestern part of the survey, and on many farms furnish most of the water for the stock. All the first bottoms are overflowed annually, but rarely are the overflows of a destructive nature, and the water seldom re- mains more than twelve hours on the surface of the flood plain. However, in the season of 1915, a number of destructive floods occurred, and practi- cally no crops were harvested.
The first permanent white settlements in Richardson county were made in 1855, about a mile north of Falls City, by settlers from Tennessee. The county was created in 1854, and reorganized in 1855 by the first territorial Legislature. When first created the county contained a large part of the area now included in Johnson and Pawnee counties, but within a few years it was reduced to its present size. Most of the early settlers came from Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, and the New England states. Later some foreigners, including Germans, Swedes, Welsh, Bohemians, Irish, Eng- lish and French settled in the county. Less than eight per cent of the popu- lation, however, is of foreign birth.
38
RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
CLIMATE.
The mean annual rainfall of Richardson county is 32.71 inches, the highest mean annual precipitation recorded in the state of Nebraska. From seventy-five to eighty per cent. of the rainfall occurs during the growing season, from April to September, inclusive. About forty-five per cent. falls during the months of May, June, and July, with the maximum during July. December, January and February are the driest months, with a total precipitation of 2.53 inches.
Most of the rainfall in the summer occurs in the form of thunder showers, and the precipitation is very heavy within short periods of time, ranging from one inch to six inches in single storms. Something over one-half the rainfall of May, June, and July occurrs in quantities of one inch or more in twenty-four hours. The rainfall in May and June usually is well distributed, and droughts in these months are practically unknown. In July the distribution is not quite so favorable, though on the average rain falls at least once every four days during the months of May, June, and July. During August and September the precipitation is lighter and less favorably distributed. Periods of drought, of only occasional occur- rence, are chiefly confined to July, August, and September. The average annual snowfall is about twenty inches. Little snow falls before December or after March.
The mean annual temperature is about 53 F. January and February are the coldest months, with an average temperature of about 272. July is the warmest month, with an average of 77". The lowest temperature recorded at Dawson and Falls City, Nebraska, is 30° below zero, and the highest 111º F. The average date of the first killing frost in the fall is October 8, and of the last in the spring. April 24. The date of the earliest recorded killing frost in autumn is September 12 and of the latest in spring. May 27. There is an average growing season of about one hundred and seventy days, which is sufficiently long for the maturing of all the ordinary farm crops.
The winds are prevailingly from the northwest. During the months of June. July, and August, however, they are mainly from the south and southeast. The average velocity of the wind at Omaha is about nine miles per hour. In storms winds of thirty to fifty miles per hour are common. Tornadoes are of rare occurrence.
The relative humidity is quite regular. the average for the year being
39
RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
about seventy per cent. The humidity is about seventeen per cent. lower at eight o'clock in the evening than at nine o'clock in the morning. On the average there are one hundred and seventy to one hundred and eighty clear days and eighty to ninety cloudy days during the year, the remainder being partly cloudy.
The following table, compiled from the records of the weather bureau, gives the normal monthly, seasonal, and annual temperature at Dawson and precipitation at Dawson and Falls City.
Normal monthly, seasonal, and annual temperature at Dawson and precipita- tion at Dareson and Falls City, Nebraska.
-Temperature .-
-Precipitation .- Total
Total driest year wet. year (1901). (1902).
Mean. ºF.
Abs. max. Abs. min.
Mean.
Inches.
Inches.
December
29.7
67
-15
0.73
0.53
1.38
January
28.4
66
-23
.75
.55
.84
February
25.8
70
-30
1.05
.81
T.
Winter
28.0
70
-30
2.53
1,89
2.22
March
41.3
95
- 2
1,69
2.08
1.25
April
52.8
96
10
2.88
1.46
1.03
May
63.4
.94
24
5.17
5,29
5.34
Spring
52.5
96
- 2
9.74
8.83
7.64
June
72.5
104
40
4.36
2.46
6.73
July
77.0
111
44
4.73
1,22
. 12.51
August
76.7
105
4.
3.86
2.52
3.44
Summer
75.4
111
40
12.95
6.20
22.68
September
69.1
100
27
3.34
2.31
3.97
October
57.5
96
21
3.04
3.89
3.79
November
42.5
80
- S
1.11
1.08
2.76
Fall
1
56.4
100
7.49
7.28
10.52
Year
53.1
111
30
32.71
24.20
43.06
ºF.
ºF.
Inches.
SOILS.
Upon the basis of physiographic position, the soils of Richardson county may be divided into three groups, upland, terrace, and first-bottom soils. The upland group embraces the Marshall, Grundy, Knox, Carrington, and Shelby series, and Rough stony land; the terrace group includes the Wau- kesha series; and the first-bottom group the Wabash, Cass, and Sarpy series and Riverwash ..
Practically all the soils are derived from transported material, except
1
1
I
40
RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
most of the Rough stony land. The upland originally was covered with a thick veneer of plains loess, which has been almost entirely removed by erosion. Where erosion has progressed enough to give rise to a rolling topography, as in the eastern part of the county, the loess subsoil as well as soil is loose and friable. Along the bluff line of the Missouri the loess has been modified by material blown from the sand and silt bars of the river. The loess beds vary in color from yellow or pale yellow to light gray, and are always more or less calcareous and blotched with iron stains. It is thought by the state survey that the plains loess was laid down in sluggish waters as outwash from the glaciers to the north.
Only two remnants of the original constructional surface remain, and they are located in the northwestern part of the county. Owing to the flat to slightly undulating topography in that section, the clay has not been carried away by rain waters, but has been washed down into the subsoil, forming a hardpanlike layer.
Below the plains loess lies the upper or weathered phase of the Kansan drift, which is very similar to the loess. The material is yellowish brown or pale yellow to light gray, and is smooth and silty, and contains fewer lime concretions than the loess. It also contains some sand and a few small pebbles, which are absent from the loess. In a vertical section there is 110 well-defined line of demarcation between the loess and the weathered drift. However, the loess has a more decided tendency to weather in perpendicular walls than the drift. The soil derived from this phase of the drift has a heavier and more compact subsoil than that derived from the eroded loess.
Below the weathered phase of the drift is the Kansan drift proper. There is a sharp line of demarcation in color and texture between these two divisions. The upper part of the Kansan drift is thoroughly oxidized, showing that it has been subjected to weathering. The Kansan sheet is distinctly till, and consists of a heterogeneous mass of clay, silt, sand, gravel, and bowlders. The upper part of the till varies in color from yellowish brown or brown to reddish brown, and the lower part from light gray to pale yellow, with numerous iron stains.
Below the Kansan drift lies the Aftonian material, which consists largely of stratified sand and gravel, with a few bowlders. This does not occur as a continuous stratum, but as sand or gravel trains. The material outcrops west and northwest of Humboldt and northeast of Salem. It has given rise to local sandy spots in the drift soils.
The lowest drift sheet, the Nebraskan, consists of blue clay, contain-
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WILLIAMSVILLE.
41
RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
ing smell pebbles and large numbers of bowlders. It is exposed only in deep-cut banks. It may be seen north of Rulo and also west of Rulo in the railroad cut.
The loess and drift beds lie on a very uneven surface of bedrock belong- ing to the Pennsylvania division of the Carboniferous system. In many places the streams have cut through the loess and drift and exposed large areas of bedrock. Most of these are in the southwestern part of the county. In the northern and eastern parts of the county, the mantle of rock is from fifty to one hundred feet deep, with only local outcrops. The upper layers of the bedrock consist of well-defined beds of shale and limestone ; in places the shale is wholly composed of clay and in other places it grades into sandstone. The rocks dip northwestward in the southeastern corner of Rich- ardson county, then flatten out to near Salem, beyond which they are nearly level in an east-west section, remaining so to a north-south line just west of Humboldt. Between this line and Table Rock there is a sharp rise of the beds amounting to about four hundred feet, and some of the formations exposed in the eastern part of the county are again brought to the surface. The most important rocks are the Cottonwood, Falls City, Aspinwall, Tarkio, Preston, Fargo, Burlington, and Rulo limestones.
The lower limestones named above outcrop near Rulo and in an anticline southwest of Humboldt. The limestones are of use for building purposes, and are of value in road making. There are about thirty-five square miles of bedrock exposed, giving rise to a thin, stony soil, seldom more than two to ten inches deep.
The terraces .of Richardson county are very inextensive. The ma- terial forming them consists largely of silt, known in the State of Ne- braska as valley loess. It was deposited at a time when the streams were flowing at a higher level. The material was largely derived from the plains loess and finely divided drift debris.
DISTRIBUTION OF ALLUVIAL.
The main areas of alluvial soils occur along the Missouri and Nemaha rivers, with small areas widely distributed throughout the county. They are of recent origin and are constantly receiving additional sediments front the overflow waters of the streams. The material along the Missouri river represents waste mainly from the glacial and loessial Rocky Mountain and Great Plains provinces. The soils along the other streams represent re- worked and deposited loessial and glacial material.
42
RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
The Marshall series includes types with dark-brown to black surface soils and a lighter, yellowish-brown subsoil. This series comprises the dark- colored upland loessial soils which predominate in the prairie region of the Central West. The soils are characterized and distinguished from those of the Knox series by the large quantity of organic matter in the surface soil. The topography is level to rolling. The series is represented in Richardson county by a single type, the silt loam.
The soils of the Grundy series are dark brown to black to_an aver- age depth of about eight inches. The soil becomes somewhat heavier with depth, more rapidly as it approaches the subsoil. The transition from soil to subsoil, however, is not abrupt. The upper subsoil is mottled, heavy, and rather plastic when wet and hard when dry. The mottling consists of dark drab and yellowish brown. This layer is six to ten inches thick and passes gradually into material of somewhat lighter color and texture. As a rule the mottlings are not well defined in the lower subsoil. This series is derived by thorough weathering from silty material overlying the Kansan drift. The silt loam is the only representative of this series in the county.
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