USA > Nebraska > Seward County > History of Seward County, Nebraska, and reminiscenses of territorial history > Part 11
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When the votes were counted it is discovered that Seward had a clear majority of ten votes, but Mr. Reed, as county clerk and by virtue of his office. was the one to choose the canvassers and right here the trouble began, that led to almost endless litigation. Mr. Reed wanted Milford to win and he saw well to it that nothing should be lacking. He of course saw that Milford friends should be well represented on that canvassing board. They saw fit to throw out twelve Seward votes, claiming they were fraudulent, thus giving Milford two majority. We were never able to learn what twelve votes were thrown out nor on what specific grounds, and more we were never able to learn that there were any illegal votes cast, but we will not cast a reflection on the board for we do not know what evidence influenced their action. Now the trouble begins in earnest.
At the next meeting of the county board a general wrangle issued, with Parker and Imlay pulling together and
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Thompson and the Clerk pulling the other way. They con- tended and talked and almost quarreled and finally adjourned as Parker and Imlay assert. but in making the record of the meeting Mr. Reed said a resolution had been passed that the County Clerk be instructed to post notices in each precinct of the location of the County Seat. This meeting was held December 2nd, 1876.
At the next meeting of the Board, which was held at the County Clerk's Office in the little old mill at Milford, Mr. Imlay offered the following resolution:
"That so much of the record of the proceedings of the meeting held December 2nd as relates to posting notices of the location of County Seat be expunged from the record."
Imlay and Parker supported the motion and insisted that no such resolution had been passed. Mr. Thompson voted in the negative and the Clerk also assumes to record his vote in language following, "and so saith the County Clerk."
This remarkable assumption of the Clerk is recorded in his own hand in the records of 1876, and stands out in history as one of the curiosities of a peculiar epoch in our history. At this meeting Mr. Reed had fortified himself with an attorney and was prepared for a fight. Major Tullis, from Salt Creek, was on hand to see that Milford had a fair show. At this moment a state's warrant was served on Mr. Imlay on some hatched up charge. (We have nearly wrecked our brain trying to remember what that charge was but to no avail.) This warrant was issued by an old farmer Justice of the Peace, living near Milford, by the name of Harrington, that knew about as much about law as a pig knows about a latin grammar. The Commissioners' meeting came to an end in the midst of great excitement. Sheriff Wallingford was on hand and arrested the Commissioner and when the curtain again rises it is at the country office of his honor, Squire Harrington. The only legal counsel Mr. Imlay had on that occasion was this unsophisticated, backwoods Author, but that made no difference for if Rufus Choate or Dan Webster had been there it would have been just the same. Mr Har- rington was a fast friend of Milford. Mr. Imlay was bound over to court, but some how the court to try his case never convened. It is rather a sad commentary on the courts in
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all this region round about that they were so biased in this embrolio that the Seward party stood no earthly show with a court in the southern part of the county, and just the same on the other hand. The Milford party, in rough language of another, "might as well be in H - without claws," as to fall into the hands of a court in the northern half of the county. Human nature is pretty much the same the world over.
Now it comes the Seward fellow's turn and articles of impeachment were filed against the Clerk for falsifying the record. Mr. Reed was arrested and brought to the north midst the chilling blasts of an arctic climate. At least a score of his friends came along to see him through. He, having the right to a jury, had some show although he was in the land of the enemy. Our little, old, log school house served as a court room. Just at dark, on a bitterly cold, winter night, the prisoner was brought in. A jury of very worthy intelligent men were chosen and sworn, but remember that they were not "Angels." Some were Sewardites and some were Milfordites. Well, while the wind whistled and the snow drifted that cold, stormy night, that interesting trial proceeded until the stars ceased to shine in in the morn- ing. Oh! what flights of oratory were heard by that excited audience, court and jury as it came in living streams from those young attorneys. It was a drawn battle; of course the jury disagreed as might be expected.
Now the case was set for another hearing and the next time it was agreed to make the jury to consist of three men and the next trial was held at Camden, in their school house. This time the jury concluded to end the matter by giving a verdict of acquittal and here the first chapter, of the ridicu- lous proceedings, ends with a round cost bill of seventy-five dollars for the Seward fellows to pay for their fun they had, besides a large attorney fee.
Milford held the County Seat now for a time, but found it rather an expensive Seat. In another chapter we will fol- low up this embrolio to the final conclusion.
CHAPTER VIII.
Desperate winter-Snow bound-Starving stock-A trip to Milford --
Homeward through a blizzard-The floods of spring-Terrible straits of settlers-Nebraska admitted-Brighter days-Blue valley ex- amined-Nebraska City's mistake-Good markets-Hauling stone- Lincoln people hungry-Seward surveyed -- Beaty and Davis store- The cyclone-Tuttle's hotel-The saw mill-We celebrated-Parker defeated-County seat fight waxes warm-Seward out-generaled -- Hon. D. C. McKillip-Free hotels-Looking after new comers- Seward had seven houses-No public roads-No bridges-The old well in the square-Settlements extended- First railroad bond pro- position-Episodes of the embroglio-Records lost-Cadman's court- The house was searched -- Court at Lincoln-Reed's arrest- Brown hid-Dan got mad.
The winter of 1866 and 1867 was most memorable. Of all the hard winters we have experienced in forty-five years of residence in Nebraska, that was by far the most severe. It began to snow on the first day of December, and from that time to the first of April it was a succession of storm after storm. and many of them were regular blizzards of the most ferocious character. It was a providential circumstance that settlements had not yet penetrated the great prairies, but were confined to the valleys along the streams where the timber was plentiful.
The snow became very deep and was drifted into such huge drifts that communication was entirely cut off between distant settlements. Long before spring the meager stock of grain had become exhausted and the supply of hay was limited. This resulted in great loss of stock. Many cattle actually starved.
To demonstrate more fully the severity of the weather, we must relate our personal experience. There was a little ravine between our house and a grove where there was a quantity of dry wood which we were anxious to secure. The ravine was drifted full and we shoveled a road through that drift many times with the hope that we might cross it with
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the team, but before we could get home, yoke the oxen and return, our road would become impassable, and for three months we could not get a team across that ravine. We were completely shut in from the outside world. The game nearly all perished. What horses there were in the country were walking skeletons. On March 15, neighbor Ellis and the writer concluded to make a tremendous effort to get some bread stuff. 'That morning was fairly pleasant. Ellis
hitched up the horses, and what horses! They were just a lot of bones with old dry hides stretched over them. We had a pretty good home-made sled armed with some empty sacks, and a couple of shovels we struck down the river just at daylight, and reached the Rogers settlement in time to share their dinner. We bought all the corn he would sell us, two bushels each, and made our way on to Milford by the time darkness came on. Uncle Billy Reed lived in the mill. He made us welcome although we were from the land of the enemy. He ground our grist during the evening while we talked over matters. It had begun to thaw on the fifteenth, and the roads began to be slushy, but on the morning of the sixteenth it began to snow and turned cold. We took an early start for home, but were compelled to halt at Uncle Sammy Brown's to thaw out. There we met two of Rev. Clark's daughters who had somehow made their way from Nebraska City on their way home. They wanted passage homeward, and we took them in. The storm increased in fury. We reached the Clark home (where Schuyler Clark now lives) at 4:00 p. m., nearly frozen. After warming up we pushed on to Moffitt's cabin on the future town site. Mr. Moffitt invited us to remain for supper and while his good wife was preparing supper we were invited to go down into the timber and help him lift to their feet a lot of cows that were about ready to bid this vain world farewell.
This pleasant task accomplished, and supper over, we set out on the home stretch. Our way lead across where Seward was not yet, and across the bottom toward home, through snow two feet deep through which the poor horses floundered at every step. This last three miles was among the most perilous trips of a life time. It seemed that in spite of every effort we would perish; but at 11,00 p. m., in
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a half frozen condition. we reached home with our two sacks of meal.
The snow did not melt sufficient to begin to get into the river until April 6. Then it let go all holds at once, and such a river as we had .. No other high waters since that April have been seen in this valley. A good sized steam- boat could have run with safety anywhere on the low bottom land. Where our cereal mills now stand the water was at least ten feet deep. The water backed up to Richard Sampson's door yard, and within a few rods of E. L. Ellis residence. In places the little river was a mile wide. It drove many of the settlers out of their homes. In our set- tlement Rev. E. L. Clark's family and E. B. Shafer's were driven out of their homes at night. Old Mother Rogers had to be carried out from her home on her dying bed and taken to Milford where she died within a few days.
It was one of the grandest sights of a life time to stand and watch the waters roll down the depressions from the highlands. Vast sheets of water, some of them from twenty to forty rods wide, were rolling down like little Niagaries, sometimes moving great snow drifts with an irresistible force.
This vast bed of snow left the ground in excellent con- dition for crops. Grass sprang up under the warm April sun as if by magic. Wheat sown that spring brought an abundant harvest. The spring of 1867 brought in a host of settlers into all localities where settlements had been started.
While the wild waters were holding high carnival, there was much suffering in the valley. Breadstuffs were com- pletely exhausted, and people had to resort to all sorts of schemes to exist until communication was restored. Some lived for days on boiled wheat, and some on hominy. Some lived largely on the fat of their ribs, and they were not very fat either.
This summer Nebraska was admitted to the sisterhood of states and there was a general awakening as to its won- derful possibilities. As provided by act of congress. the first session of the new state legislature convened in Omaha in the early spring, and its most noteworthy act was the passage of the capital removal bill. The bill provided for a
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board of commissioners composed of state officers to select a point where a section of land would be donated somewhere within the boundaries of Saunders, Butler, Lancaster or Seward counties. The commissioners. headed by Gov. Dav- id Butler, took a regular junketing tour, visited Ashland, various points in Butler county, then took a general survey of the valley from Ulysses to Camden. Our people tried hard to get the board to fairly consider section 16, the school section just north of the present city of Seward. They laud- ed our location to the skies, but they didn't give us a ghost of a show. They went to Milford and to Camden and had lots of good things to say for them also; then they went over to Yankee Hill, the home of the prime mover of capital re- moval bill, Hon. John Cadman. They talked very pretty to the Hon. John, but somehow the whole thing had been fixed by a "power behind the throne" at Nebraska City. The business men had lent every energy in dealing what they thought to be a death blow to Omaha and had secured one point and now they proposed to have a say as to where the capital city should be built. They thought the salt interest would be an important factor and their intention and expec- tation was to build a city that would be tributary to Nebraska City and that the consequent development of the country would cause a tremendous boom at their city. They wanted the capital close enough so they could command all the bene fits of the location. Little did they dream that Lincoln would soon overshadow their city and destroy its opportunity to ever become a metropolitan city and not hurt Omaha in the least. Yet subsequent developments show that the move- ment did not injure Omaha, but effectually shut the gate against the possibility of Nebraska City's growth.
Had Lincoln been located in the Blue valley it would not only be more central in the state, but Nebraska City would to-day be a much more important city.
But Lancaster got the capital and it remained for us to make the best of it. Immediately upon the location a great host of land seekers swarmed our prairies. Homesteads were taken by the thousands all over these counties near the new city. A new life had come to the country and every- thing was on the boom. Whatever a pioneer settler had to
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sell found a ready customer. At this time the reader must remember that there was not an iron rail in all south Nebras- ka. A city was looming up on the wild prairie, where every pound of provisions, building material, etc .. had to be freight- ed with teams. The stone for our first capitol was hauled by ox teams from Beatrice quarries.
The first two years fuel was hauled from Seward county groves north of Germantown. Those fellows that laid the foundations at Lincoln had good appetites and seemed to have plenty of cash. They would just buy anything to eat, good, bad or indifferent and pay most any price.
Wood was ten dollars per cord, butter fifty cents per pound, potatoes $1.00 per bushel, hay $10 to $15 per ton, fresh pork, dressed pigs 123 cents per pound and everything in proportion.
During the spring of 1868, Hon. Thomas Graham was employed by Lewis Moffitt to survey the north half of the southwest quarter of Sec. 21, town 11, range 3 east, into a town site and fit it to the name adopted two years previous- ly (Seward) and in June of that summer the firm of Beaty and Davis opened a little store. Shortly after this W. H. Tuttle built the first section of the old commercial hotel that has recently been torn down and then Dr. Leland Walker met with a disaster with his frame house on the claim on Sec. 11, town 11, range 3 east.
A young cyclone had come his way and scattered his house all over the prairie. The doctor gathered up the frag- ments and built a residence where the opera now stands. Soon thereafter Wm. O. Pierce built a small frame dwelling and in these glad days Seward began to be a town. H. L. Boyes and son had just got a little saw-mill in operation just below town.
Seward grew a little right along and by the Fourth we were anxious to celebrate, and we did and an extended ac- count of our first celebration is given on another page.
In the autumn of 1868 H. W. Parker of Cainden, a strong partisan of Seward, secured the nomination by the republican convention in this representative district for member of the Legislature. The district was composed of Saunders, But-
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ler and Seward Counties and it was at the time strongly re- publican.
Marcus Brush, a bright young lawyer of Ashland, was the Democratic nominate. The Seward people looked for- ward for relief at the hands of the coming legislature. Could Parker be elected it was almost certain that such legislation would be had that the county seat embroilio could be settled by a majority vote. The contest was spirited and bitter. The Milford people all agreed that Parker would be a dang- erous man and they would not dare to trust him a minute, and about the solid vote of that large locality was given to Brush, although four fifths of the voters were republicans. Other parts of the county divided on party lines. Parker was defeated and Brush, a rank democrat, represented a strongly republican district and in this Milford gained a strong point.
Every effort to get Reed's canvassing board's decision overruled by the courts had proved unavailing, and now our hopes of relief from the Legislature had gone glimmering. we were in a rather sad dilemma. It was considered entirely un- safe to attempt the removal by a two-thirds vote. The sum- mer of 1868 was full of contention. Parker's term of office as commissioner expired and J. L. Bandy a strong Milford par- tisan was elected to take his place and now for a time.
Milford had a majority of Commissioners, the County Clerk and held the county seat with a firm grip. In the mean time the county seat had attracted a young lawyer that gave their cause material help. Hon. Daniel C. McKillip located at Milford during the summer and was ready to take a hand in the contest.
During this year Seward had been completely out-gen- eraled and was compelled to hold an empty sack. However Seward was growing and the north half of the county was settling up rapidly and as Seward was much nearer the cont- er of the county we were gaining steadily on our rival. Some how we had gained favor with the people of Lincoln the new capital city, and they lent us a helping hand in pointing out our locality to passing immigrants; yet at this time and up to the end of 1869, Milford had many advan- tages over Seward. It was the recognized county seat. It
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was on the great overland trail where tens of thousands of immigrants were passing and giving trade to the business men and furnishing a ready home market for everything the farmer had. It had a grist mill in operation. It had such stalwart men as J. L. Davison, Wm. H. Reed, Henry Wor- tendyke and Dan McKillip to lead. These men were all 'up to snuff, " and they made it most interesting for us.
In those good old days the country was full of hotels. Some were built of logs, some of sod, but they were all free and the "latch string" was always hanging out. Strangers were always given a hearty welcome. When a prairie schooner was sighted in the distance people would make haste to go out and meet it and extend a warm welcome. They were ready at all times to go and show vacant land and lend every encouragement and of course show all the su- perior features of their locality and when they had secured the settler to their neighborhood he was at once an enthu- siast for his town as against the other. The wonderful ad- vantages of each part of the county was shown to the world at large through the state papers and in Eastern papers. Every settler was a host in the struggle for supremacy.
The lands of each locality were equally rich and fertile, equally beautiful and the farmer could make no mistake as to quality of land. Seward was growing and Milford was growing. When the snow began to fall and winter began in December, 1868, Seward had seven small buildings as follows: Beaty and Davis' Store, the little Tuttle house, Beaty's resi- dence where the Windsor now stands, W. R. Davis' residence, Dr. L. Walker's residence, Wm. O. Pierce's residence and Lewis Moffitt's log cabin. The old school house was not on the town site, neither was the dugout of the Boyes family. There was not a legal road leading into or out of the town. The side-walks were of prairie sod. There was just one low water bridge north of Milford and that was about eighty rods up the river from the old iron bridge west and north of the city at the Castle farm.
The water supply of the town was from a well in the center of the public square, which was dug by E. L. Ellis and paid for by subscription. Farmers helped in this matter. Some paid their part by turning the windlass, hauling up the
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dirt, some furnished lumber for curbing, etc. A windlass and the "old oaken bucket" served the people for a time but after a while there appeared in our community a "farmer that was not all a farmer." This enterprising citizen was A. L. Strang, who had bought Sec. 9, "G" Town, now known as the Jones farm, and he had put up an old fashioned Hali- day windmill at his farm and although the first windmill to flap its broad wings in all this mighty west, it seemed to be right at home playing with our gentle breezes.
Mr. Strang was a wide-a-wake business man and ready to grasp an opportunity. So he came down to the town with a proposition to place a windmill and tank at the public well. Mr. Strang headed the list of subscibers with a liberal sum and the "thing of beauty" was soon on it pegs and proved a joy to all thirsty people. This was the beginning of a great enterprise, for the fame of that mill spread far and wide and before many years had come and gone the name of A. L. Strang, General Agent, could be seen everywhere that civil- ization extended on our vast prairies and was numbered by the thousands.
While the people in all parts of the county were busy breaking prairie, building sod houses and preparing homes, the county seat problem was not forgotten. The spring of 1869 brought in a great host of settlers and every section of the county got a share. Quite a goodly number settled in the hill country to the eastward of both Seward and Milford. The northern tier of townships had become dotted over with new made farms. "M," "N" and "O" precincts got a fair share; "F" and "K" also had made a good beginning; "J" and "I" had gained many; "P" and "G" precinct had also forged to the front. The little village was steadily growing. Special features of the growth of the village will be noted in another chapter. On the 20th of September of this eventful year, 1869, the people of the county were called upon to vote on their first rail road proposition.
This was a proposition of the Midland Railway company to build their road to the west bank of Blue river in Seward county provided the county would issue to them on the com- pletion of said road fifty thousand dollars in ten per cent twenty year bonds. The proposition was very indefinite
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and somehow it created neither enthusiasm or opposition. However it carried by a majority of fifty-two votes. The company failed to build the road as per agreement and our railroad matters rested quietly for a time.
In the Legislature session in the winter of 1869, we, that is the Seward people, tried to get a bill of relief through granting the people the right to settle the county seat con- test by a majority vote, but our Milford friends had secured a fast friend in Representative Brush that they had assisted in his hour of need. He effectually blocked our little game. This only tended to inspire the Seward fellows to a more de- termined effort. There were many interesting episodes of the period. Somethings occurred that have never been re- corded and in undertaking to relate them from memory mis- takes are liable to occur. One very strange feature we have to contend with after a most diligent search in the county clerk's office, we fail to find the most interesting book of com- missioners' records the county ever had, the record during W . H. Reed's tenure of office. That priceless treasure seems to be lost in the shuffle. We wonder if Mr. Reed took it with him across the dark river. There were numerous lawsuits that it would be most entertaining to the reader if the whole story could be told. One little story must be told even if we can't just tell what the bone of contention was at the time. Hon. John Cadman was Probate Judge of Lancaster County and that meant a great deal. It seemed to give him jurisdiction over all these prairies.
A complaint was made by some to the Milford friends against Commissioners Parker and Imlay for some high crime and misdemeanors. Major Philot and Hon. D. C. . McKillip were attorneys for the prosecution. The complaint was lodged in Judge Cadman's court and warrants were is- sued for the arrest of defendents. Sheriffs never went alone in those days in that county seat matter no more than a sher- iff now days would attempt the arrest of a gang of train rob- ber without help. Mr. Sheriff took his posse and his brace of young attorneys, Geo. Merium and many other brave Milford boys.
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