History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 49

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742

USA > Nebraska > Richardson County > History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions > Part 49

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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

county clerk, Lawrence A. Ryan ; sheriff, T. C. Cunningham ; deputy sheriff. G. R. Summers; county surveyor, T. V. Wilson; deputy county surveyor, A. J. Currance; coroner, N. B. McPherson; superintendent, F. W. Wil- liams; county commissioners, H. E. Moritz, Alfred Page and George W. Peck.

FIRST FALLS CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT.

What was known as the Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company No. I of Falls City was organized with fitting ceremony on June 30, 1873. The "fire laddies" held a parade wearing their new uniforms, and were addressed by the mayor, August Schoenheit. The following officers and members then appears on the rolls :

President, George Van Deventer; vice-president, Charles H. Rickards ; recording secretary, Oliver W. Brown; secretary, J. P. Holt; treasurer, J. R. Cain; George E. Powell, foreman; first, assistant, L. C. Gore; second assistant, George H. Geduldig; honorary members, J. H. Burbank, D. R. Holt, J. H. Good, Howard Leland and John Hinton. Active members, W. J. Ralston, A. C. Jennings, B. Simanton, Bennet Sperry, T. C. Coleman, J. A. Whitmore, W. M. Maddox, William Gossett, A. C. McPherson, C. Sheehan, J. H. Franklin, N. McNulty, T. M. Tallman, A. W. Southard, G. R. Summers, George A. Merrill, Robert Clegg, L. A. Ryan, J. M. Robert- son, Alex Minnick, A. L. Hofer, William Casey, William Casey, Jr., George A. Bell, A. Lovett and Chris Hershey.

The company moved down the street (Stone street) and assembled in front of William Giese's art gallery, where they were photographed. Their uniforms were black caps, red shirts, with white figure "No. I" on breast. black trousers, leather belt (black) with "P. H. & L. Co. No. 1," printed thereon. The notable part of the affair was that the equipment used, ladder cart, ladders, etc., were manufactured almost wholly in Falls City and ren- dered efficient service for many years.

FALLS CITY, 1869-70. From the Nemaha Valley Journal of August 18. 1870.

What was Falls City twenty months ago? This question can be easily answered. It was a village of about three hundred and fifty inhabitants. with four merchandise firms, one harness, one wagon, one blacksmith, and one boot-and-shoe shop, two ordinary hotels, i. e., the houses were of an ordinary character-one. church, one school house, one newspaper, two

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saloons, six lawyers and two doctors. Business at this time was very dull, and the future prospects of Falls City were indeed gloomy. The Legisla- ture was in session at Lincoln, and about this time a bill was passed making liberal grants of valuable public land for the construction of railroads within the limits of the state, with a proviso that ten or more miles distant of each railroad line should be completed within one year to be entitled to the benefit of the act. The news of this wise legislative act aroused our busi- ness men-they resolved to put forth every effort to profit by the land grant. There were 2,000 acres of land per mile for building a railroad, but how the road was to be built without money was the great problem to be solved. The time allowed for securing the land was very short and something must be done. They at any rate called a meeting of the citizens for the purpose of having a general talk on the subject. A few speeches were made and ultimately the plan of building a railroad from Rulo up the Nemaha Valley, was conceived, and a company was organized under the title of "Nemaha Valley, Lincoln and Loup Fork Railroad Company," with Maj. John Loree, father of our townsman, Charles Loree, as its president. The necessary papers were immediately filed in the state department and a charter secured. Money was then subscribed and a preliminary survey had. They then circulated a petition for signatures, praying the county commissioners to call an election on the question of appropriating $215,- 000 in county bonds, to the building of this road. On the 3rd day of May the attention of the board of commissioners was called to the matter and they consented to "put the question."" It was soon apparent that there was strong opposition to the measure, and that the only conceivable remedy was a thorough and persistent canvass in every part of the county. Accord- ingly the forces were mustered and operations commenced on a systematic scale, each invididual having his particular territory in which to operate. The principal actors in this canvass were Colonel Glick, of Atchison, Kan- sas; Judge Kinney, of Nebraska City, Nebraska; W. D. Scott, of Rulo; Maj. John Loree, Falls City ; August Schoenheit. Falls City ; Edwin S. Towle. Falls City; Colonel May, Falls City; S. A. Fulton, Falls City; A. J. Weaver, Falls City, and J. D. Gilman, Falls City. Had it not been for the untiring efforts of these gentlemen the proposition would have been defeated by at least two hundred majority, whereas it was barely carried by six majority.

The bond question settled, the Nemaha Valley Company found them- selves entitled to three thousand five hundred dollars in county bonds per mile of road, and to twenty thousand acres of state lands when they had completed ten miles and put it in readiness for the rolling stock. But where

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was the money to commence the work? was still the barrier. Different capitalists were asked to advance money, but none seemed inclined to in- vest. September came and the friends of the road had almost lost all hope of seeing the land grant secured. Some time in this month, however. Hon. Joshua Tracy, of Burlington, Iowa, come through this county pros- pecting for a line for a road from Burlington, southwest. He accepted the franchises of the Nemaha Valley Company from Rulo to Humboldt, with a provision that the Nemaha Valley Company might at any time have the use of the Burlington & Southwestern railroad for any distance it might occupy their line, should they wish to build their road to Lincoln.

The Burlington & Southwestern Railroad Company then. as a guarantee of good faith on the part of the people of Richardson county, that the bonds would be issued according to the' provisions of the vote, asked Rulo, Falls City and Salem to guarantee to each pay to the company $10,000 and accept in lieu the county bonds as soon as sufficient work was done to entitle them to receive that amount, to which each of those towns agreed. and by the middle of November work was commenced at Rulo, and the ten miles was ready for the rolling stock and were accepted by both the state and county commissioners by the 15th of February. This brought the road within two miles of Falls City, which, though there was no locomo- tive on it, gave new impetus to the town. The business men of the place began to build, and immigration flowed into the town and county, till Falls City had more than doubled her population since January, 1869, and now boasted of three dry-goods houses, one hardware, three drug, and two ex- clusive grocery stores, one merchant-tailor shop. one church and another in the course of construction, two hotels, one three-and-a-half story and base- ment and the other two-and-a-half story-one school house, one livery stable, two saloons, one harness, one blacksmith, two boot-and-shoe, three carpenters and one wagon shop, a furniture store and cabinet shop, two ministers, four physicians and nine lawyers, one newspaper, one confectionery, one sewing- machine firm, one bakery, one dealer in agricultural implements, and a bank- ing house which will be opened the first of September. Many new houses are now in the course of construction and under contemplation. We had about one hundred mechanics, and seven hundred and fifty of as moral and intellectual people as could be found in this or any other state. A portion of these people lived in first-class houses, while the remainder occupy cot- tages of a neat, confortable, commodious and substantial character, and suf- ficient in every respect to answer all practical purposes.

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Taking in consideration the beautiful location, her rapid and substantial improvement with the past eight or nine months, the intelligence and morality of her inhabitants, her flattering prospects of being the railroad center of Nebraska, Falls City certainly offers the greatest inducements to capital and labor of any town in the state-Lincoln not excepted.

The Burlington & Southwestern railroad is now graded from the Mis- souri river to a point on the north fork of the Nemaha river, eight miles west of Falls City, and will. beyond any probable doubt, be completed to Pawnee, thirty-five miles west of this place, by next June.

The Southern Nebraska & Northern Kansas railroad, from Hiawatha north to Nemaha City, will be built inside of one year, no one we think has any doubt. This precinct has just voted $10,000 in aid to the enterprise, Irving township ( Kansas) will give twenty-five thousand and Nemaha will raise the donation about $25,000-near $2,000 per mile. When these two roads are completed we can go north, south, east and west by rail.

The Nemaha river and its two forks, and the Muddy furnish all the water power necessary for an indefinite number of merchant flouring-mills and factories of different and extensive character.

A good quality of coal is cropping out of the bank of the Nemaha only two miles from town.

STORY OF CHANGES IN FALLS CITY IN SIX YEARS. From the Falls City Press of November 11, 1875.

Six years have wrought many changes in the appearance of our town as well as the surrounding country. Six years ago three merchants did the business for our town, in pinched-up houses, handling small stocks, and supplying only a scope of country for a circuit of a few miles round, re- ceiving goods from St. Joseph by river in the summer and by wagons in the winter; now we have twenty most enterprising merchants, doing busi- ness on a large scale, in well-arranged rooms, and receiving goods by the carload.

Six years ago our citizens hauled lumber from Brownville and other places on the river ; now Falls City has the largest lumber firm outside of Omaha in the state of Nebraska.

Six years ago the railroad was considered far in the distance. 110W the gentle voice of the iron horse is heard as he brings in manufactures and carries out our surplus of grain and produce, with the assurance of another road within six months, and a third within a year, thus making Falls City the commercial center of southern Nebraska.

INTERIOR PUBLIC LIBRARY, FALLS CITY, BEFORE REMODELING.

PUBLIC LIBRARY, FALLS CITY

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Six years ago our grain was ground in a little mill at the Falls of the Nemaha known as Nemaha Falls, run by the Stumbo boys; now a large and well-appointed mill has taken its place, and two others have been built in this neighborhood, all doing an extensive merchant and custom business.

Six years ago there was a narrow road running up the middle of our street resembling an Indian trail, with grass and weeds growing on either side, and an occasional horse or team hitched to the fence; now our well- paved streets are scarcely able to contain the teams that throng them daily.

Six years ago we had a small blacksmith shop where "Gib" Shockley would shoe your horse, sharpen your plow, mend your wagon or fiddle for your dance; now we have three shops employing a dozen men and doing work in as good style as can be done in any city in the country. .

Six years ago it was considered nonsense to talk of making brick; later years have demonstrated the fact that brick can be made by expe- rienced hands, and of a quality excelled nowhere.

Six years ago our houses were all frame; now we have brick and stone buildings, with iron fronts and cornices, that are up to Chicago or St. Louis as to architecture, beauty and convenience.

Six years ago John Hanna and Anderson Miller supplied the people with beef at their doors; now we have two of as good meat-market houses as any town of double the size.

Six years ago our children went to school in a little frame house eighteen by twenty-four feet, where "Jim" Rhine wielded the rod; now we have four large rooms well filled, a good substantial frame building, with a twenty-thousand-dollar brick under construction.

Six years ago there was but one church in our city; now we have five edifices and two denominations who hold services in the school house. .All are well attended.

Six years ago "Jake" Good fed the hungry in his little shanty; now Jacob boasts of the largest hotel south of the Platte in Nebrasaka, where he does his part of the business, while Maj. John Loree, of the Commercial, serves his patrons in a way that insures a second visit by all who try him.

Six years ago we had no furniture store: now we have large rooms well stocked at low prices.

Six years ago glass, paint, oil and drugs were handled on a small scale, by our merchant, Cameron; now Falls City supports three large drug stores. carrying heavy stocks and doing a good business.

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There are other changes that these few short years have made, among which are: Ayers, the tobacconist; Brill, stationer; two jewelry stores, three livery stables, two harness shops, three barber shops and a tailor shop, besides many others scarcely thought of six years ago, that are doing much to make Falls City one of the best places in the West.

OPENING OF HINTON PARK.

The citizens of Falls City had much to celebrate on July 4, 1882, as many Richardson county people will still remember. It was at this time that Hinton Park, later to become one of the most noted pleasure resorts in the county was, after being three years in the course of preparation, finally opened in a formal way to the public.

The park, which included a very beautiful artificial lake used for bath- ing and boating, was the property of John Hinton. It contained thirty acres, thirteen of which contained an elegant grove of walnut trees and was well sodded with blue grass. The balance was devoted to a race track, stables, lake, etc. The race track was exactly one mile in length and one of the finest in the state. The entire grounds were fenced and comfortable seats were well distributed about the grove. This playground, located as it was directly south of the city and near the Nemaha, was long ( for nearly fifteen years) the resort of picnic parties, horse-racing meets, baseball matches, shooting tournaments, agricultural fairs, political gatherings, religious meet- ings, etc. The Hinton park was widely known over the corners of the four border states and was a highly popular resort. It was a purely private undertaking and a small admission fee was charged for admittance, yet at all times it was largely patronized by Richardson county people.

Unfortunately, however, its location was its undoing, because of great overflows and floods in the valley of the Nemaha, which alone, as time has proven, would have ruined it; but its complete destruction was brought about by a flood and cyclone which so thoroughly damaged the trees, lake, buildings, etc., that it was never rebuilt.

On the occasion of its opening, July 4, 1882, more than five thousand people were present. The day dawned cool and clear and the city along Stone street was gaily decorated with the stars and stripes and other patrio- tic emblems, showing that American deliverance from England's tyranny had not been forgotten in the one hundred and six years intervening.

More than three hundred Hiawatha (Kansas) citizens came up on the then new Missouri Pacific railroad, whose passenger trains had just com-

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menced entering Falls City. The Burlington & Missouri railway brought hundreds of holiday visitors from White Cloud, Kansas, and intermediate points on the line. In a monster procession paraded about the city, fully one thousand wagons, buggies and carriages participated, including one hun- dred mounted Iowa and Sioux Indians. At the grounds in the park where the celebration took place the Declaration of Independence was read by Hon. Francis Martin, after which the speaker of the day, the Hon. John L. Webster, of Omaha, was introduced by Hon. Isham Reavis, of Falls City.

The amusements of the day included horse racing, a shooting tourna- ment and a grand parade by a flambeau club in the evening, which latter was one of the finest exhibitions ever given in the city. This club was organized under the leadership of William E. Dorrington and was composed of about forty members. They marched north and south on Stone street from the Jenne Opera House to the Union Hotel, back and forth amid a shower of golden and crimson fire, flying rockets and glistening stars, to the music of the Falls City Cornet Band until the last rocket had floated heavenward, and lost its fiery tail in the depths beyond.

This was more than was expected of a town of this size at that time, and brought forth storms of applause from the delighted spectators. This exhibition alone was worth coming miles to see. The fireworks used in so brief a time cost more than five hundred dollars. The night was spent by the young people in dancing at the opera house. The success of the entire program was very largely due to the untiring efforts of Thomas Mc- Lane, who for more than four weeks had labored incessantly that it might be a success. Thus ended the one hundred and sixth anniversary of the nation's independence, as celebrated by the people of Richardson county, who had very largely journeyed thither.

EARLY FIRE RECORD.

Falls City has been singularly and to a marked degree free from the ravages of fire. In the early town built largely, or almost entirely of wood, as were all the towns of the then new West, such exemption had been exceedingly rare. Nearly every town in the county had chronicled some "bad fires" which had swept a large part of its business section. On the night of April 12, 1877, flames were discovered shortly after II p. m. issuing from the rear of a frame building owned by Mrs. Anna Reavis and occupied, on the ground floor, as a flour-and-feed store by Frank Muir and above, for private purposes. In a very short time, the combustible

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building was a mass of fire, and the flames had communicated to six other buildings, which all blazed fiercely.

As the town possessed no fire apparaus other than a supply of ladders and buckets, the main efforts of the crowd that had gathered were devoted to saving goods, while they looked at the doomed buildings, powerless to save them. Many buildings at various points were set blazing by flying embers, and with difficulty saved, and the office of the Falls City Press was only saved by the use of ladders and the bravery of the bucket brigade.

Within an hour from the breaking out of the fire the seven buildings were level with the ground. The losses by the fire aggregated $15,000, distributed as follows: Mrs. Anna Reavis, $900; F. Muir .. $300: Richard Smith, $600; John King, $200; T. C. Coleman, $600; F. C. Fisher, $200. and George Kaiser, $300. L. A. Ryan was the owner of a frame building located on the northeast corner of the block facing Stone street. on the site now used by the V. G. Lyford store. The frame building had been occupied by James Ralston for a saloon and was destroyed in this fire. On the fol- lowing morning Mr. Ryan had lumber on the street, near the smouldering fire, ready for the erection of a new building, but the city council took the matter in hand and passed an ordinance prohibiting the further erection of frame buildings in the business section of the city, and from that day until now this policy has been strictly adhered to. The aggregate amount of the loss is trivial in the light of present-day fires, from the same cause, of from fifty thousand to ten times that amount. Yet the citizens, with the pluck that was characteristic of the people of those times, set themselves at work at once to rebuild that part of town in a more substantial way.

FALLS CITY HOTELS.

The first hotel erected in Falls City was built from parts of an old house that had stood near the banks of the Missouri at Yankton, an ob- solete village about a mile north of Rulo. This was the property of Jesse Crook and was put up in the winter of 1857-58. It stood on lots 23 and 24 of block 70, facing the west. on the present site of the Richardson County Bank, just south of the court house. Three rooms downstairs and two above furnished accommodation for the traveling public. In 1859. before the house was fairly completed, John Minnick purchased it and soon added to it a house he had moved from Doniphan, Kansas. Minnick's opening of the hotel was practically the first, although it had been conducted for a

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few months in the preceding summer by Henry Warneke. The building enlarged and otherwise remodeled stood for years and was known as the City Hotel. During the long feud incident to the location of the county seat of justice in Falls City it was the scene of many broils and fights, and in 1860 was the scene of the tragedy which ended in the death of Meeks and Davis, mentioned elsewhere in these pages.

The Union Hotel, the first of that name, was built in 1861 on the site occupied by the present structure. Like most of the taverns of its day it was an insignificant structure, one-and-a-half stories in height and twen- ty-four by twenty-four feet on the ground. It had also an L devoted to the kitchen work. The building used was removed from Winnebago. The new Union Hotel was built by the same person, Jacob G. Good, in 1870, on the site of the old hotel. Strictly speaking the new hotel was erected around the old one, and the last work done was the removal of the old part. The house stands on the corner diagonally across the street from the northwest corner of the court house square. It is four stories high and has had additions in later years. It was originally built at a cost of twelve thousand dollars. It continued under the management of Mr. Good until March, 1882, but since that time has been in charge of a number of different landlords. It is now owned by Morehead, Weaver & Miles.

The oldest and most centrally-located of the first hotels in . Falls City was the "National" located on the corner of Seventeenth and Stone streets. the present site of the Richardson County Bank building. The history of this hotel dates back to the foundation of the town. It was in size fifty by sixty feet, two stories-and-a-half high. It was built in 1859 and was called the City Hotel by Jesse Crook, who, in 1868, sold it to Isaac Min- nick. In 1870 Minnick & Collins became proprietors and in the same year T. J. Collins succeeded Minnick & Collins. In 1872 Isaac Minnick & Son assumed the management, and the year following leased it to Charles II. Rickards, who changed its name to the National Hotel, and again the same year leased it to J. W. Minnick, who conducted it for some time.

The Empire House occupied the site now utilized by the H. M. Jenne shoe store at the corner of Sixteenth and Stone streets on lot 13 of block 70. It was two-stories-and-a-half high, with ground plan of thirty by fifty feet, containing nineteen rooms and a basement, kitchen and dining rooms, twenty by twenty-eight feet. and was built in the winter of 1870-71 by its proprietor. S. W. Harden, at a cost of four thousand five hundred dollars. It continned for many years as one of the popular hostelries of the city.

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FIRST UNDERTAKER AT FALLS CITY.

In 1857 David Dorrington, who was then direct from England, opened up the first undertaking establishment in Falls City, a one-room affair with barely enough room for one man to turn around in. This served as the manufacturing establishment and sales room. "Uncle Dave," as he was known to the old-timers, made the first coffin out of hand-sawed native wood, obtained from the timber nearby, in which one of our pioneer citi- zens, Philip Bremer, was buried. This was in 1857. It was the first burial in the old Falls City cemetery, just west of the city limits and south of the present Steele cemetery. Uncle David Dorrington continued un- interrupted in the business until after the coming of the railroad in 1871- 72, when he sold the business to his son, William E. Dorrington, who became associated with W. H. Stowe. It was this year when the first factory-made caskets came to Falls City. At that time freight was two dollars per hun- cired from Cincinnati to Atchison and six dollars per hundred from Atchi- son to Falls City. In 1875 Stowe sold his interest in the business to Wil- liam M. Wilson and the firm, long known to Falls City, of Dorrington & Wilson came into being. Keeping abreast of the rapid advancement of the town this firm erected a brick building on Stone street, which estab- lishment was then considered long in advance of any such place between St. Joseph and Denver. In 1887 David D. Reavis, named for and a grand- son of David Dorrington, the founder of the business, accepted service with the firm of Dorrington & Wilson at the rate of five dollars per week. In time he became the owner of the business, in which he is still interested as the senior member of the firm of Reavis & Son. Thus the business has been kept in one family since the laying out of the town in 1857.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 49

Author: Edwards, Lewis C Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1742

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742