USA > Nebraska > Richardson County > History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions > Part 55
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to the requirements of an up-to-date, regularly graded high school, which, from the start, took a prominent place among the high schools of the state for general efficiency. . With a high school under the supervision of a most upright and conscientious educator, the patrons and friends of the schools congratulated one another that at last every obstacle was surmounted, and that for the future clear sailing was in store for the devoted friends who incessantly labored to get the schools on a firm basis.
But unfortunately for their aspirations, with the installment of -a new heating plant the building through some defect caught fire, just previous to the Christmas vacation in the winter of 1900, and in a few hours it was a smouldering ruin. Although the pecuniary loss to the citizens of the district was no small matter, yet the loss most keenly felt and regretted by all was the temporary disarrangement to the schools that were a source of pride to the community. It was a pathetic spectacle, the morning after the fire, to witness groups of sorrowful children searching the blackened debris for some little souvenir to serve as a reminder of happy school-day comradeship.
Without one word of censure or repining, an impromptu school meet- ing was called at the scene of the fire, and by the light of the burning ember. it was unanimously voted to authorize the school board to proceed at once and devise the necessary facilities for opening school as soon as possible after the regular Christmas vacation. At this time the board of education con- sisted of N. B. Judd, Dr. J. A. Waggener, William Fenton, Joseph and Henry Heim, and in compliance with the vote of instruction the schools were ten- porarily installed in the opera house and city hall until the completion of the present substantial edifice.
While the plain, old-fashioned founders of our town school had no other aim in view than to provide the facilities for a sound, common-school educa- tion for their children, that would tend to making of useful and upright citi- zens, those who compute everything from the standpoint of dollars and cents can figure for themselves the gain to a home community of a three-years course of high school attendance for one hundred and fifty-six students- the number graduated from the Dawson high school; not to mention the incalculable blessings of home environments during the important habit-form- ing stage of young people's lives.
Nothing hitherto had stirred up such heated contention among the early settlers as did the effort to create a town school district; the village being located in the center of the township-Grant-the formation of a town dis- trict meant a general rearrangement of the boundary lines of half a dozen school districts, and it required the utmost diplomacy to get many to concede
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the needed territory for the contemplated new district. After a summer of all manner of conferences and compromises with the outlying districts, the present school district No. 59, was at last established, and in the fall 1878, with William Fenton, S. C. Barlow and E. D. Webb, members of first school board, and hall, and in the year 1880 a commodious two-story four-room building was occupied for the first time, and it is to the credit of the citizens that ever since then they were a unit in generously providing every necessary equipment, and as a result of such whole-hearted support, the Dawson high school has long enjoyed such an enviable reputation among leading educators that it has come to be considered an honorable distinction to be one of its graduates.
TOWN OF DAWSON.
About three-quarters of a mile south of town stands the mill from which Dawson received its name. The building was erected by Joshua Dawson in 1868, who soon after its erection obtained a postal service and this postoffice was naturally known as Dawson's Mill postoffice.
The townsite was surveyed on the 26th and 27th of February, 1872, and the plat filed for record in the office of the county clerk on March 4th, 1872, at II o'clock a. m. The surveying of the site for the village was done by I. W. Beckwith, a surveyor well known in the county at that time and whose services were also used at Humboldt. The site for the city was dedicated by William F. Draper, who owned the farm in section No. 15, township No. 2, north, of range No. 14, East, of the sixth principal meridian. Dawson was originally named Noraville in honor of a daughter of the owner of the townsite. The name was never legally changed, but the change seems to have been made first at the time the mail was being received as above stated.
The first building, which was erected on the townsite, was used as a store and was built for William Till, and the postoffice was soon moved to that place. "Mr. Till was postmaster for some time and was succeeded by B. S. Chittenden, who was later succeeded by S. C. Barlow.
The first blacksmith shop was erected by Daniel Tignor, down on the Nemaha, south of the village, but was soon removed to the townsite.
In 1878 a school was opened, with W. D. James as teacher, who was followed by others.
The first child to see the light of day in Dawson was C. Till, who was born in 1873. In 1874 the mother died after a short illness.
The "Warner House" was the first public hostelry and was erected in 1876 by Christopher Warner and cost seven hundred dollars. It was run
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until 1878, when J. H. Hanna built the "Commercial," which was a more expensive place. The "Commercial" was later purchased by W. A. Albright.
In 1873 Ed P. Tinker, a resident of Humboldt, started a lumber yard at Dawson. After the yard had changed hands several times, it passed to B. S. Chittenden, who operated it for many years.
NEWSPAPER HISTORY.
In the spring of 1888 Dawson was enjoying a marked degree of pros- perity and was making rapid strides in progress, and the village then was well represented with all lines of business usually found in a town in Nebraska at that time, excepting a newspaper. E. W. Buser was at that time engaged in business and was wideawake to the best interest and advancement of the thriving village. He purchased the necessary equipment with which to publish a newspaper and founded the Dawson Newsboy, which he conducted success- fully and satisfactorily for a year, when he sold the plant to Arthur Gird, who directed the destinies of the paper but a short time, when the plant, together with a number of other business houses, disappeared in smoke. Nothing whatever of the Dawson Newsboy plant was saved, and as little or no insurance was carried, and as Mr. Gird, unfortunately, had no reserve fund, he was unable to replace the outfit, consequently for several months Dawson was without a newspaper when Mr. Buser purchased another news- paper outfit and re-established another paper and in a few months he again sold out to Henry Scheidegger, who conducted the same for a time. William Fenton then purchased the plant and together with his daughter, Mamie, pub- lished the Newsboy for a period of nine years, during which time they estab- lished a reputation for their publication as being one of the neatest, best and newsiest little papers in this part of the state. After the marriage of his daughter, Mr. Fenton decided that his age and lack of knowledge of the typo- graphical work in connection with the paper were against him and therefore sold the plant to a Mr. McCoy, who conducted the same for a couple of years, when it passed out of existence. Mr. McCoy sold the plant to the Morehouse brothers, who were unable to successfully pursue their methods of doing busi- ness in Dawson, and their sojourn was for but a short time.
Reverend Mr. Wilder, who made the mistake of expounding his personal views through the columns of his paper and ignoring news features, met with a great deal of dissatisfaction among his subscribers, and he, too, soon found himself in the same embarrassing position as his predecessor, and being unable to secure a buyer he persuaded some of his friends to lend him financial aid
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4
VIEWS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN DAWSON.
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and he purchased the Falls City Tribune and moved the two plants together at Falls City. It was but a matter of a short time until the Tribune. met the same fate as did the Newsboy-it passed out of existence and the publisher scon migrated.
For a short time a paper known as the Outlook was printed at Salem and mailed to Dawson, but the publishers, the Ross brothers, found it more of an undertaking than they had figured on and the Outlook was a very short- lived paper, and Dawson was without even an excuse for a newspaper for a period of over two years when Willis Hanner, of Fillmore, Missouri, moved the Gazette plant to Dawson and founded the Dawson Reporter. He remained in Dawson less than a year, when he passed on to other fields and the paper passed into the hands of the present owner, J. H. Harrah, who pursues the work of getting out one of the best little papers published in the county and one greatly appreciated by his subscribers and the people generally of Grant township.
DAWSON'S REAL NAME.
The town of Dawson is well known to the people of Richardson county and yet, legally, there is no such a town in the county. But time and custom, together with popular usage, have got in their work and Dawson is as well known as Falls City, or Humboldt or Stella, and yet if a person went to the depot in Falls City and asked for a ticket to Noraville, Richardson county, Nebraska, the agent would tell them that there is no such a town on their lines. But the fact remains that the real name of Dawson is Noraville and it has never been legally changed.
In 1871 when the graders of the Atchison & Nebraska railroad reached that point a town was laid out by W. I. Draper on his farm adjoining the right of way and it was named Noraville. But today the town is known as Dawson, and the reason lies in the fact that in 1868 Joshua Dawson had built a flouring-mill on the Nemaha opposite the present townsite to the south. Shortly afterward and about the time the town was established, Mr. Dawson secured postal service and his office soon became known as Dawson's Mills. When the town was established the postoffice was removed there, but the name still chung to it-in fact it was only in more recent years that the word "mills" has been dropped and the town known as Dawson.
The Dawson of today is a thriving and prosperous village, located in the midst of a fine farming country and furnishing a market for a large extent of farming country. The growth and improvement of the town have been remarkable in the last few years.
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There are several two-story brick blocks that are a decided credit to the town and would be to a much larger place. These business houses furnish quarters for the merchants who take great pride in keeping their stores models of neatness and completeness. . All lines of business are well represented and vet nothing is overdone. That the business interests of Dawson rest upon a firm foundation is shown by the fact that there have been but very few failures in the town.
Passing into the residence section of the town, many substantial and very beautiful homes may be found. These are the dwelling places of the men of Dawson, and here they live contented and happy, and well they may be so.
The people of Dawson take great pride in their public schools, and a commodious two-story school building furnishes accommodations for teach- ers and pupils. Statistics show that the Dawson schools are thoroughly mod- ern in their methods and excellent results are produced by a competent corps of teachers.
Another object to which the people point with pride, and justly so, is St. Mary's Catholic church. When the old edifice burned, the people of the parish determined to erect a church that would be a credit to the town and furnish them a creditable place to worship for years to come. The result of their labors took the form of a magnificent brick church erected at a cost of twelve thousand dollars. It would be an ornament to cities of much larger size. In the recent past this parish has erected a commodious brick school building near the church property, where the younger members receive edhu- cational advantages.
CHAPTER XXIII.
DEFUNCT TOWNS OF RICHARDSON COUNTY.
Richardson county has had an unusual number of towns, whose sites are now broad acres upon which are raised a variety of crops, or upon whose rocky hills are raised magnificent orchards and vineyards, whose projectors confidentially expected that they would become large and important commercial centers. Many of these have passed from the minds of even the oldest inhabitants, or have a place only upon the maps of their day.
We have before us a map made by Mr. McManus, surveyor, away back in 1856, that gives many of these now defunct towns. The first of these was a townsite situated below Rulo, at a point on the Missouri river near the south side of the county and close, called Mt. Roy, here also was a ferry by the name of Roy's Ferry; both alike have passed away and their memories are kept green alone upon the face of the old map. Just above Rulo and on a line due east of Archer, then the county seat, was Yankton, and two and one-half miles farther north was the townsite of Winnebago. This was two miles below Arago. While old St. Stephens was what we might say a suburban portion of Arago, but it seems that Arago had absorbed the business soul and enterprise of both these towns. Arago still remains quite a business center, while both the other towns have passed away with the years in which they were born. Away up towards the north side of the county was laid off a town "christened" as "Sherman," and about one and one-half miles northeast of where Barada now is, was a "future great" called Cabana, but all we know of either of these towns is that their names appear upon the ancient map. South of Barada, about eight miles. was Archer, the ancient capital of Richardson county, now desolate and forlorn. Her walls have been torn down, her houses razed to the ground and her children apportioned to strange tribes; of her it was written, "weighed in the balance and found wanting". Where Archer stood, in all her regal pride, "the queen city" of her day, is now heard the bleat of the lamb, the coo of the kine and the merry whistle of the farmer boy as he leisurely drives the cows homeward from the pasture at eventide. From this old map we may learn, too, that some person who had an eye to business,
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had laid off a town on the south side of the Muddy, near the old Harken- dorff farm, or on the Hitchcock farm, about half-way between where Falls City and Verdon now stand, and called it "Shasta"; but like the others, the name is all that remains of the town. Farther to the northwest and in the exact geographical center of the county, in the early days, was a town of some little importance, and in the county seat disturbances of 1855 to 1860, Geneva was a rival of the other towns of the county, of no mean pretentions, but after the location of the county seat at Falls City, it fell into decay, and now all that marks where the city stood is two small trees and the fast-filling excavations of some old cellars. And then there was Cottage Grove, Flowerdale and Dorrington, as well as the old town of San Francisco, that have all passed into history as towns that were and are not, "unwept, unhonored and unsung." There may have been others; but if so, the map maker failed to put their location upon it.
YANKTON.
Yankton could at one time boast of being the one mining town of Richardson county. It was located at a point about three miles north of Rulo, on the banks of the Missouri river, about midway between Rulo and Arago. It had at one time three general stores, three saloons and one blacksmith shop.
A bluff nearby caved into the Missouri river, disclosing quite a vein of coal suitable for all common needs, which was mined until exhausted. Everyone who would have coal from this mine must perforce be his own miner.
Armstrong Brothers conducted the principal general merchandise store in the town and Henry Goulet catered to the wants of those desiring amuse- ment by the operation of one of the first bowling alleys ever brought west of the Big Muddy.
Huston Nuckolls was an enterprising real estate agent and Daniel Brown was the lawyer of the town. He afterwards joined the Confederate army and no word has been heard of him since his departure to join the colors of the South. J. H. Davis, who later figured in the great tragedy resultant from the county-seat fight, in which himself and a man named Meek lost their lives at Falls City, was the resident physician of the town. The town also contained a hotel or boarding house.
The village attained the height of its glory in 1857, when it numbered its population at about two hundred. The Armstrong store building was
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
purchased by Judge Elmer S. Dundy, who removed it to Falls City, where he remodeled it into a dwelling house, which stood on the location now occupied by the Cleveland store on Stone street. It was later moved to the lots immediately west, facing Chase street, and stands there at this time, being a tenant house. The inhabitants fearing the encroachments of the river at that time moved to other towns in the county and Yankton was no more. At this time, however, the Missouri river is as much as a mile to the east of the old Yankton townsite.
A PIONEER RELIC.
(Taken from Vol. 4, No. 1. of the "Pioneer Record" of July, 1897.)
C. C. Hollenbaugh handed us one-half of a copy of the Southeastern Nebraskan, printed at Arago, Nebraska, July 2, 1867, by N. O. Price. It · is a seven-column folio. Its motto is "Independent in all things and neutral in nothing." A two-column advertisement states that Arago will celebrate the Fourth of July as has never yet been celebrated in Richardson county. · Orations will be given in both German and English, the festivities to end in the evening with a grand ball. Its leading editorial is upon the removal of the state capital from Omaha to Lincoln, and in this article we find the following in regard to the other state institutions :
"As near as we can find out that county wanted the whole outfit. For instance, Rulo wanted the penitentiary; Falls City, the deaf and blind asylum; Salem, the lunatic asylum, and Arago, the State University."
In another article the beautiful mail system of Arago is described thus: "Our mails from the south leave St. Joseph in the morning and arrive (during good roads) at Rulo in the evening of the same day. Rulo is eight or ten miles south of Arago. Here it lies all night and starts early in the morning for the north and passes within a couple of miles of Arago and stops at Stump's Station, some four miles distant, until the down mail arrives, when it is brought to town from nine to twelve o'clock at night."
Another article goes after the agricultural society for making an iron- clad constitution, so that the fair cannot be removed from Salem.
A local states that Judge Elmer S. Dundy arrives on the "Colorado," (a steamboat on the Missouri river), from Omaha a few days previous.
Among the professional cards are observed those of Edwin S. Towle. . August Schoenheit, Isham Reavis, and J. J. Marvin, as attorneys-at-law at Falls City; E. F. Gray, attorney at Rulo; James Cameron, notary public. (37)
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at Falls City; Adam Michaelis, county surveyor, his residence being four miles northwest of St. Stephens and his postoffice, Arago: Dr. R. Peery, is physician at Arago: Dr. C. R. Baker, has his shingle out at Aspinwall; the City Hotel at Arago is run by Story & Ogden; N. Lippold is proprietor of the Union Hotel at Arago; J. J. Good advertises the Union House at Falls City, and Isaac Minnick is proprietor of the Minnick's Hotel at Falls City, located on the present site of the Richardson County Bank.
WINNEBAGO.
Winnebago was located about three miles south of Arago, but a mile or two back from the river. It was laid out on land belonging to Joseph Piquoit, a half-breed Indian. Winnebago at one time had two general stores, one managed by H. J. Vandall, a son-in-law of Piquoit; a saloon that did a thriving business, a blacksmith shop and a hotel and boarding house. This town was settled almost entirely by French, Indians and half- breeds; but the dwelling houses, of which there were eighteen or twenty, that were built here, were much better than the average of those of other towns. George Mayfield was the principal carpenter and builder of the town.
ARCHIER.
Archer was located on the Muddy about two miles north and east of the present court house at Falls City, was at one time the county seat of the county, but it never had any county buildings, or even the foundations for them. The town was laid out by J. L. Sharp, Ambrose Shelley, Joe Yount and H. Nuckolls. Abe Kirk built the first store and John Welty, the second. About ten houses were all that were ever built. A double log house was used as a hotel and kept hy John C. Miller, the first county judge of the county, who held court at his residence, and who was also postmaster. The first school taught at Archer was taught by Miss Catherine Samuels, a one-armed lady. It was a subscription school and composed of the fol- lowing families of children: Catrons. Millers, Crooks, Wiltse Maddox and Trammel. T. C. Sicafoose taught the school in the winter of 1860. John Johnson was the first doctor who located in the county at Archer in 1856. Mrs. Sally Dodge, wife of Levi Dodge, being an extra good nurse and having a good knowledge of herbs, was employed a good deal as a doctor among the early settlers. Joseph Yount ran a saw- and grist-mill. Upon a re-survey of the Half-Breed tract. Archer was found to be located on
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Indian land, and that was the cause of the death of Archer. The county records were then moved to Salem in 1837 and that town had the honor of being the county seat for a short time.
WEST ARCHER.
West Archer was laid out on forty acres of land about three miles; southwest of Archer, on land later owned by William Maddox. It was. platted about the time it was discovered that Archer was on land allotted to the Indians, in what is known as the Half-Breed tract. It only consisted of the house owned and occupied by "Big" Parker. At the downfall of Archer, Falls City sprang into existence.
STUMPS STATION.
Stumps Station, afterwards Williamsville, named in honor of Alf Stump and afterwards in honor of Prof. F. M. Williams, who was one of the first county superintendents of public instruction, was located one mile north and six miles east of Cottage Grove, where the precincts of Barada, Muddy. Liberty and Ohio corner with each other. It was started as a stage station. to change horses on the stage line from St. Joseph, Missouri, Rulo, Aspin- wall, Nemaha City and Nebraska City. The first government telegraph across the continent lay along this route. It was a government postoffice. A brick church, of the German Lutheran denomination, was built at this place. It was the only town in the county where a church was one of the first buildings and this church is all that remains of the town today. An unsuccessful effort was once made to hold up and rob the stage between Rulo and Williamsville.
SHASTA.
Shasta was a traveling postoffice for the convenience of the neighbor- hood, and changed its name with nearly every administration. It began its existence in a claim house on the southwest corner of section 20, town- ship 2, range 15, on the south side of the Muddy, near John C. Hasen- yager's farm, in the forks of the Hickory Branch and the Muddy about a inile east of Isaac Clark's home on the Liberty precinct line. A man by the name of Squire Arnett owned this land at that time and was not adverse to selling corner lots to any who wanted them and would pay for them. . As he found no buyers, no lots were sold, and no town was laid out. The office
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was soon removed to the home of L. B. Prouty, on the John Lewis ( father of our townsman, E. O. Lewis), farm, adjoining the Goolshy school house corners in Ohio precinct, and the name of Shasta changed to that of Elmore, in honor of Elmer S. Dundy, later United States judge in this state. It was moved from one house to another, as different persons held the high and honorable position of postmaster, until it finally drifted to Cottage Grove, where its name was again changed. A graveyard with a few graves still marks the townsite of Shasta.
ELMORE.
L. B. Prouty was postmaster at Elmore until 1869; then Isaac Cooper held the honor until R. M. Zumbrum was appointed, who held the office until 1876. Mr. Zumbrum had a small drug store in connection with the office. The salary of the postmaster at that time was only about five dollars per year. Herman Lutz had the office after Zumbrum. Ben F. Stump, a brother-in-law of Lutz, was deputy postmaster and ran a small grocery store in connection. Upon the death of Mr. Lutz, Mr. Mayfield was appointed postmaster, who held the office only for one year, when H. L. Merriam was appointed. About this time Doctor Rockwell had high hopes that Cottage Grove would soon become a city and Elmore was discontinued and Cottage Grove established, with Rockwell as postmaster, mail carrier and proprietor of the Cottage Grove grocery store. After Verdon started, Cottage Grove was abandoned.
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