USA > Nebraska > Richardson County > History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions > Part 57
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
than St. Stephens had been ten years before and more important in many ways. The founders of Arago had great hopes for its future greatness.
FIRST TOWN IN COUNTY TO BE INCORPORATED.
Arago was the first town in the county to be incorporated as a city, requiring a special act of the Territorial Legislature to accomplish this fact. The act was passed and approved on January 10, 1860, and the following territory was included within its limits :
"The whole fractional section No. 12; the southeast quarter of section No. II and the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section No. 13. all in township No. 2, north of range No. 18, east of the sixth principal meridian, and situated in the county of Richardson and state of Nebraska. together with all additions that may be made hereafter thereto, according to law, is hereby declared to be a corporation by the name of Arago, and the east line of said city shall extend to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river."
The above city limits included two hundred and forty acres besides the whole of the fractional sections. The officers of the would-be city, accord- ing to the act of incorporation, were to consist of a mayor and a board of six aldermen, an assessor, treasurer, marshal, three inspectors of elections, clerk, collector of taxes, street commissioner, clerk of markets, city super- visor, health officer, and other such officers as it may deem advisable. At the present time the entire population would not be enough to fill the offices of the ancient village as there are perhaps less than a dozen all told.
Section No. 26 provided that the council had power to organize fire companies and provide them with fire engines.
Section No. 30 gave the council power to regulate a system of cartage and drayage, hacks and omnibuses within the city.
Section No. 41 of the act of incorporation gave the council full control of the streets, alleys, wharves, public grounds, square, parks and commons of the city, and may cause sidewalks to be paved. It required forty-eight sec- tions of the act to incorporate Arago, while Falls City was incorporated three days later, January 13, 1860, with only sixteen sections to its act of incorpora- tion.
We have dwelt at length on Arago as typical of thousands of young western towns that started with bright prospects, but the fates were against them and their downfall was as low as their prospects were bright.
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
About seven thousand dollars was expended by the citizens of Arago during the heyday of its prosperity to make a cut twenty-five to thirty feet deep on a wagon road through the hill to the west just as Arago is reached.
EARLY EXPERIENCES AT ARAGO. By John C. F. M'Kesson.
I came to the Territory of Nebraska with my parents in April, 1864, from the state of Kansas, where my father, Samuel W. M'Kesson, had been sent by the conference of the Evangelical church for the state of Iowa. My father was an itinerant preacher, and our moving anywhere was not specially for the purposes of settlement, but for the purpose of being as near and con- venient to such religious charges and missionary work as might be laid out for him. During the two years previous to moving into the territory, the field of his labor was largely marked out for him by a missionary department of the conference, and in this case was not confined to county or statewide boundaries. And so, prior to our moving into the territory, father had made frequent circuits within its boundaries.
We moved to Arago, in Richardson county, on the banks of the Mis- souri river. It is not now an organized town, having been abandoned and its place taken by the town of Fargo. Although the town is situated on the banks of the Missouri river, it had no ferry boat connection with the Mis- souri side of the river. The manufacturing industries were a brickyard, a shingle saw-mill and a brewery. The town was quite prosperous and pro- gressive. The bluff had been dug down half for the cutting through of streets, and the ravines were filled and leveled. Besides the manufacturies and residences. many of them quite respectable wooden structures, the town supported a public school, and an Evangelical church, a Catholic church and school, and several saloons. Not much of interest occurs to me during the first year of my residence at Arago. I remember seeing boats paddle up and down the Missouri river and stop to load and unload their cargoes of mer- chandise and to let off and take on passengers. The names of some of these river boats were the "Denver", "St. Mary's", "St. Joseph", "West Wind", and "St. Louis". They were of various sizes, some side wheelers, some stern wheelers, some with single smoke stacks and some with double smoke stacks, but with all with fog horns whose noise was anything but musical.
It was in this year also that I saw and tasted my first cherries. I accom- panied father on a missionary tour into Pawnee county, immediately west.
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
where we stopped at a house in the country for a noonday lunch. An elderly inan was shaving shingles on a shaving horse under the shade of a cotton- wood tree. While father was talking with him I was standing close by, and I pulled his coat-tail and asked him what those little red things were, pointing to the cherries. He smilingly called the man's attention to my inquiry, and he stated that they were cherries and good to eat, and for me to climb up and help myself, which I did.
SCENES AT WAR'S TERMINATION.
In the spring of 1865 the news of the termination of the war and the victory of the Union army had scarcely reached the territory, until the news of the assassination of Lincoln was also received. I remember the sorrow- ful day when men and women congregated in little groups, many of them with tears streaming down their faces, exclaiming, "President Lincoln is killed." His death appeared to be a personal grievance to the people. Shortly after this, I remember seeing the soldier boys returning. They were met by their parents, relatives and sweethearts with open arms and cheers. Public receptions were also given them and on one occasion, I remember that a barbecue was held in honor of their return, at which roast ox was served, prepared over a pit improvised for the occasion, of cobble stones, over which slats of iron picked up from the rear of the blacksmith shop were laid. Anvils were fired and a general holiday held. The march to the front of the soldier and his return seemed to create like feelings in the breasts of men.
FIRST CIRCUS AT ARAGO.
It was in this year also that I saw the first circus come to town. Of course, this was special interest, and I note it here that we may know that the early settlers were not without this feature of amusement. The menagerie was not so complete as now, but the performances were of similar character to those in vogue now and were more enjoyed by the early settlers, because in his ordinary life on the frontier, he had probably seen mountain lions, wild cats, deer and antelope.
On the day of the circus in a runaway accident, father's leg was broken. On account of poor surgical treatment in the setting of the bone he was con- fined to the house, most of the time in bed, during the summer, which was a very hot one. It was late in the fall before he got to visit, still on crutches, some of the nearby charges.
(38)
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
The following winter we were visited by my father's brother, John M. M'Kesson, whom he had not seen for twelve years, a physician and home- steader, adjacent to the townsite of Lancaster, Lancaster county, Nebraska (now Lincoln). I remember the glowing accounts given by my uncle of a prosperous settlement out at Salt creek. This was the first we had heard of such a place in what, to us living on the Missouri river, was the far interior, inhabited by the Indian. the buffalo and the coyote. In addition to a pleasant visit the Doctor held several semi-public meetings-to acquaint the people with the great promise of the new colony, which had been established at the salt basin and the great work which the Lancaster Seminary, which had also been founded, was doing for the education of the young ladies of the terri- tory. This was offered as an inducement to all those who heard it to flock to the new settlement. Among others this appealed to a widow with a little girl living in the neighborhood, who a year or more later had an oppor- tunity to come with us to this new colony, where she found a place to educate her child and where she also found a home by marrying John Giles, one of the homesteaders, on the southwest quarter of section No. 26, afterward a part of the original townsite of Lincoln.
EARTHQUAKE IN RICHARDSON COUNTY.
In the spring of 1866 an earthquake shock was felt at Arago. The shock was very perceptible, but of short duration. My mother and I were raking up the rubbish in the back yard when we heard a dull sound like the beginning of wind or the rushing of waters. We stopped our work and looking about us and noticed that the board division fence between our lot and the neighbor's, was wabbling, and then that the house, which was a one- and-a-half story building with the gable fronting us, seemed to vibrate about a foot at the top. The ground beneath our feet, too, seemed to wave, almost unbalancing us. A woman and two children were engaged in a like occupa- tion in an adjacent lot to the south. Gathering her children in her arms the woman started for the house, screaming as she went, "Earthquake! earth- quake!" No serious damage came from the shock, practically the only evi- dence of it we could find were the disarranged and nicked dishes in the old- fashioned, high cupboard.
CHOLERA VISITS ARAGO.
Something more fatal and disastrous occurred later in the summer in 1866, the dreadful scourge of cholera breaking out in the little town of
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Arago and nearly depopulating it. The first death was that of a child five or six years of age, of the shingle-maker, who died suddenly on Wednesday and was buried on Friday. On Friday night the infant child of the shingle- maker died, also suddenly, and was buried on the following Sunday. The two deaths occurring in the same family and so closely together, aroused suspicion on the part of the people that they had been poisoned and the father and mother were arrested. The stomach of the infant was removed and before its interment on Sunday the body of the other child was exhumed and the stomach also removed at the cemetery in the presence of the people gathered there for the burial. Both stomachs were to be sent to St. Joseph for analysis. One of the grounds for suspicion was the fact that the mother of the infant was the shingle-maker's second wife. On the following Wednes- day the man died suddenly and on the same night or the next day several other citizens died in like manner. This changed public sentiment and aroused the people of the town to the fact that a scourge was upon them. One very pathetic incident occurred. A woman, the wife of a Kansas home- steader, and her two little children were stopping at our house at the time, and being fearful, father sent a courier to notify her husband to come and get her. He came several days afterward, but the night before they intended to go home the wife and those children died and were buried here. Father had charge of the services at most of these funerals and mother and I invari- ably accompanied him. Many opinions were advanced by the people as to the cause of the malady, among them that the disease was brought there by someone who got off of a boat.
In the fall of 1866 a merchant in the town named Allegewahr built a temporary plant for packing pork on the river bottom, not far from the river During the winter of 1866 and 1867 the hogs were slaughtered here and the pork packed in dry salt. The packing was not as modern as now, though the packer had a sure control as the packer of today. The meat was packed in layers, two men walking around on top, sprinkling a layer of salt and then a layer of pork. The intention, of course, was to ship this meat down or up the river where markets might be found in the spring before the hot summer months. While the packed meat was to be used for the sustenance of the white men the Indians came in droves and helped themselves by carrying away all of the offal.
COMING TO THE SALT BASIN.
In the spring of 1867 the Kansas conference of the Evangelical church delegated to father the duty of visiting the various outposts of settlement in
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
southern Nebraska, among them chiefly the Lancaster colony. on Salt creek, for the purpose of establishing churches among them.
We drove with a team of ponies and spring wagon with a light riding buggy tied behind and one loose pony following from Arago to Brownville, from there to Nebraska city and then on to Lancaster, over what was then called the "steam wagon-road." This road started at Nebraska city and had been mapped out and designated through to Palmyra and there forked, one road leading toward Beatrice and other passing through Roca and Saltillo to Yankee hill on Salt creek, and from thence west, touching Middle creek not far from the homestead of James Iler, near Pleasantdale, where the road again forked. one branch leading south to Camden on the Blue, the other fol- lowing west toward Ft. Kearney. Beside the road this side of Nebraska city, not far from the J. Sterling Morton homestead, the steam wagon was then standing. It was not a success as a means of transportation and the project was abandoned.
On this road in 1866 a Mormon train of about two hundred and fifty- five wagons moved westward to a place then called half-way slough, located two miles south of Emerald and almost a half mile west. While in camp one of the members of the train force died and was buried on the east slope of the long hill just after crossing the slough. This grave is now close to the middle of the east line of the northwest quarter of section 34, township 10, range 5, Middle Creek precinct. The land is now owned by Harry W. Lee.
FRANKLIN.
The town was surveyed by A. L. Coate. Plat dated March 29th, 1858. Town of Franklin located as follows: Beginning at quarter section corner on . section line between sections 20 and 21 in township No. 3 north of range No. 13 east, and running east one chain and thirty-six links to the west side of Iligh, thence north, measuring block 4 and First street one chain and twenty- one links and all other streets the same width.
The town consists of and is laid off and occupies the east half of the northeast quarter of section twenty and the northwest quarter and the west half of the northeast quarter of section twenty-one in township three, north of range No. 13, east of the sixth principal meridian, in Nebraska Territory, containing three hundred and twenty acres. Dated March 29th, 1858.
Franklin Ferguson and John McPherson were the proprietors of the town of Franklin and the town was named Franklin for the former.
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
YANKTON.
Yankton is situated on the Missouri river in Richardson county, Ne- braska Territory, on the west fractional half of section 5 in township No. f, north of range 18th east and on the fractional lots east and south thereof. All of the streets are eighty feet wide, except Broadway, which is one hun- dred feet. The alleys are sixteen feet wide. The lots are all fifty feet by olie hundred and fifty, except those on the levee. Lots 7 in each block front- ing the levee are thirty-six feet by one hundred and fifty feet, and lots &. 9. 10 and II, 12 and 13 in those blocks are forty-four feet front.
The town is laid off north 22 east at a variation of ten degrees fifty min- utes cast.
Located in sections No. 5 and 8, township one north, of range No. 18 east of the 6th P. M. Richardson county, Nebraska Territory, September 8th, 1857.
P. S .: From Articles of Incorporation of the Yankton Town Company : "Know all men that Stephen F. Nuckolls, of Nebraska City, Heath Nuckolls, Henry Goulet, William Cook, Jr., Houston Nuckolls, Leon Gonger, Robert F. Armstrong, A. D. Brown, N. J. Sharp, of the town of Yankton, county of Richardson, Territory of Nebraska, and Henry Douglas, of St. Joseph, John W. Smith, of Atchison county, Missouri, and their associates have asso- ciated and incorporated themselves together under the name and style of the Yankton Town Company.
GENEVA.
Know all men by these presents: That we Joseph Embody, Franklin Spurlock, David Spurlock, C. L. Cornell, John Cornell, and A. D. Kirk, Pro- prietors of the Town of Geneva have caused to be surveyed staked and plat- ted as a Townsite the North West Quarter of Section Twenty-Two and the Southwest Quarter of Section Number ( 15) Fifteen in Township Two, North Range Fifteen East of the 6th Principal Meridian N. T. The streets and alleys squares & as above shown by the plat as drawn and certified by Josiah Leebo are set apart for the uses and purposes therein mentioned.
A. D. KIRK JOSEPH EMBODY FRANKLIN SPURLOCK DAVID SPURLOCK C. S. CORNELL J. CORNELL.
January 9th, 1858.
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
OTHER FORGOTTEN TOWNS.
In an early day many towns were started in Richardson county that are no longer more than memory with the oldest inhabitants. The Missouri river was the only open means of communication with the markets of the world, and outside of the stage lines and overland trails there were no certain and permanent lines of travel that called for the existence of towns. Yet many were started back from the river in the hope of being chosen the county seat or being on the line of the railroad when it came. Nearly every good location on the west bank of the Missouri river became a prospective town. Rulo alone remains of the river towns in this county. Here follows a brief statement from the Pioncer Record of what became of two of the early day towns.
STUMPS STATION.
Stumps station, afterward Williamsville, named in honor of Alf Stump and afterward in honor of Prof. F. M. Williams, now living near Verdon and who was one of the first county school superintendents, 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, Rulo, Aspinwall. 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 is the only town of 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 made to hold up and rob the stage between Rulo and Williamsville.
WINEBAGO.
Winebago 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. Winebago 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 or 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.
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
OLD ST. STEPHENS IN 1917.
Robert A. Neitzel and L. C. Edwards enjoyed what they say was one of the most interesting trips they have ever made to the country northeast of Falls City on Thursday, August 30, 1917. They were accompanied by Mr. C. F. Cain, the father-in-law of the former, who was at Falls City on a visit from his home in Florida.
-Mr. Cain was for many years a merchant in Falls City and is a pioneer resident of the county. He came from Platte county, Missouri, with his parents, William R. Cain and family, in 1855, and settled at St. Stephens, where he grew to manhood, attending school, farming and later teaching school in that vicinity. He had not been in the city for a number of years and desiring at this time to visit the scenes of his early boyhood days took this occasion to traverse the ground and view the old time places he had not before visited in thirty years.
The old townsite is located on a high bluff overlooking the Missouri river about a mile north of the site of Arago, but in reaching it the party went to the Lee ranch, where they left their auto, being compelled to make the remainder of the journey on foot, going south. After passing up over some high bluffs the old cemetery is first reached and there may be found a number of ancient monuments giving the names of people who had formerly been residents of the old town. Some of these bear dates of 1855, 1856 and 1859. When Mr. Lee came into possession of the ranch a few years ago, it is said, he offered to furnish the material to anyone who might care to fence the cemetery and keep it free from stock pastured there, but no one has appeared interested enough to undertake the work necessary and hence the stock has frec range about the cemetery. Passing on south, from the cemetery, some distance the old townsite is reached. With this, Mr. Cain was thoroughly familiar and was able to pilot the others to the site of nearly every cabin and business house which made a part of the old town At every depression which gave evidence of the cellars of these ancient homes were found brick or rock which had been used in the cellars as foundations or for chimneys and pieces of window glass and parts of cooking utensils, etc. At some of these places was still standing cedar trees that had been planted by early residents. At one place was pointed out the site of Doctor Whitmire's home, he being one of the very first physicians to practice in the county, and at another place the site of the home of the Dixon family. who had come as refugees from Missouri dur- ing the war. Mr. Cain traced out the old roads and streets, remarking at
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RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
one place that no brass band was ever seen by him to pass that way but there he had heard many a man "Hurrah for Jeff Davis" during the war and, con- tinuing, observed that many of the boys of those days were in the habit of carrying revolvers with them to school. He found the site of the old school house he had attended as a boy and walked about the old time playground, showing where they had played ball and indicated the spot where the old- time boys were in the habit of meeting their "ladies fair" and would escort them home after school hours. The school house had been built by Stephen Story, the founder of the town, and was used for a general meeting house, for school, church, when there was any held, and as a public hall for all gath- erings of a public nature. At another place he found the site of the Crane & Lewis store where as a boy he had purchased coal oil at a price of sixty cents per gallon and at another place pointed out the site of a store, where for the first time in his life he had seen lemons and said the same had been brought by a steamer and were sold to the pioneers for one dollar per dozen. After rambling over the townsite seeing every point of interest the party went on in southeasterly direction to view the one remaining house on the site of the old time pioneer village.
OLDEST HOUSE IN RICHARDSON COUNTY.
This house is located in the south part of the old town and has been con- tinuously occupied since it was built in 1855-sixty-two years ago-and is occupied at this time by Leonard Buckminister and family. It has weathered all the storms that have visited Richardson county since the coming of the first pioneers and was a tenanted house when this country was in its infancy and first known as the Territory of Nebraska, and when the county was but newly organized under a proclamation by the first territorial governor and. for that matter, when Mr. Cain was in swaddling clothes as an infant of two months. It was built by Michael McManus, a pioneer deputy surveyor in the employ of the government, who as such, assisted in the first surveys made in the county, which preliminary was most useful to the early settlers in the matter of determining the locations of corners to the lands they sought to occupy as homes. Mr. McManus surveyed Arago township in 1856, during the month of June.
The house stands on an eminence overlooking the Missouri river and not a great distance from a large tree on which a culprit of the pioneer days paid the penalty with his life for stealing horses from the settlers. The house and
EARLY SOD HOUSE.
FIRST COURT HOUSE IN RICHARDSON COUNTY.
IRON MONUMENT. SOUTHEAST CORNER OF RICHARDSON COUNTY, SET BY GOVERNOR IN 1854.
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