USA > Nebraska > Seward County > History of Seward County, Nebraska, and reminiscenses of territorial history > Part 19
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The first school was taught by Miss Sarah A. Scott on the Jack Royce place in a little sod schoolhouse in 1867. Rev. George Clapp preached the first sermon in the old log school house in the same year. Rev. Robert Rowbottom or- ganized the first church (M. E.) in 1875.
Until 1869 we had to go to Lincoln for our mail. At that time an office was established. G. B. Hardenburg was our first postmaster, and held his office in the old house of Mil- ton Langdon on section 21. A steam saw-mill was es- tablished in 1868 by Kirkham and Hughes and proved a great help to the people. Our mail was carried by a buck- board at first, later by a stage.
Our growth and progress have been slow but sure. Our
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growth has been steady. Quite a number of the first settlers have passed off the stage of action, among whom were Mil- ton Langdon and wife, Mrs. Gillman Garland, David Haw- kins, J. D. Maine and wife, and Simeon Munn.
This region has always been known as Oak Groves, and it is quite historic ground. It is unlike any other portion of the county. The land is what we term rough or broken, has many quite deep canons, and each of these has a beautiful rippling brook of clear spring water. Excellent springs are numerous. When the settlement began in 1864, these canons were all thickly set with oak timber. This timber was hauled to the salt works as fuel, and to the tablelands for all pur- poses, and finally, when the capital was located at Lancaster (Lincoln), scores of teams were kept busy hauling wood, and before the cars had reached the new city, these fine groves were all, or nearly all destroyed. There was a vast amount of valuable timber all through this section of country, and it seems sad that it should have been so ruthlessly destroyed. Many of these hills are full of a very superior quality of limestone. Many kilns of lime were burned, and the lime found a market at Lincoln, Seward, and throughout the farming region round about. While this is not deemed as desirable for farming purposes as the level plain to the west- ward, yet we have very many excellent farms in the valleys, and for stock purposes our advantages are unsurpassed.
We have three railroad stations within easy reach-Ger- mantown on the B. & M., Raymond on the U. P .. and Bee on the Northwestern.
Our soil is excellent, our water is of the very best, and abundant, and we generally have happy and comfortable homes.
How we got our start in hogs was related by Mr. Cox, the author of this book. There was an old Missourian, we forget his name, who wanted to get his hogs out of reach of the soldier boys in war time, so in about the spring of 1863, he drove forty or fifty shoats up to the Groves, moved his family along with them, and sojourned there while the war clouds hung heavily over Missouri. The hogs, like the fam- ily, ran wild, and were rather more untractable, and when the old man found it convenient to move again, the hogs
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were faring so well in the timber and tall weeds that they concluded not to move on uncertainties; they would rather stay, and they did stay. So the early settlers found the timber full of fat hogs and so did not suffer for meat; and frequently an old sow with a fine litter of pigs was captured, and a start of hogs was secured.
CAMDEN SETTLEMENT
MRS. H. W. PARKER
BEATRICE, NEB., NOV. 28. Mr. W. W. Cox:
DEAR SIR AND FRIEND-Mr. Parker received your let- ter, and being very much engaged in a public way, as city councilman, etc., and just on the eve of his departure to California on a visit, he has delegated me to answer yours.
I am truly interested in your letters of "Then and Now," and am very willing to contribute my remembrances if they will add interest to your work, but I have forgotten exact dates, and have not the faculty of condensing and making brief my letters, so as to be suitable for publication, but I will do the best I can.
At one time (perhaps you can remember), the Camden Mills was a popular resort for social and Christmas parties, dances and New Year's gatherings, etc. One time at a large dance, when there were more than one hundred and fifty present, after the dance Major Strunk read a beautiful poem, after which he read a notice which a Methodist circuit preacher then handed me, giving notice that there would be preaching at the Mill two weeks from the following Sunday, and requesting as large a turnout as was there on the present occasion. The result was we had a large congregation, but it was hard to get a second audience, for in those days they came from ten miles distant and seemed to be attracted by amusement and recreation, rather than stale would-be preaching; but we were all interested in having good sing- ing and enjoyed that part immensely. In those days there
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were no paid chorister or select singers, but all the audience joined in whether they could sing or not. Ha! Ha!
Raising the mill, the washout, the high water, the losing of all our lumber, so that we had to live in a dug-out two years more, made a deep and feeling impression on my mind; also propping up the roof with six or eight posts inside to keep the roof from falling in and burying us with the wagon loads of sod and soil that formed the roof.
For six months I know I suffered torture enough to atone for the sins of a lifetime. Did I believe in eternal punishment, I should say fleas had filled the bill.
The venison, elk, and antelope meat were pleasant at- tractions with our Indian friends, who camped one winter for about three months near Camden. The squaws used to come over and cut wood for us. At one time I had two chopping wood at the door, and had the papooses strapped on their boards and kept inside for me to watch. When they cried, the squaws would motion me to tilt the board, and the little fellows would go to sleep.
There were many little incidents of interest, but it was so long ago that I cannot remember them well enough to fix them up in shape to print. I forget their proper connections.
It was not me that lawyer P. pulled the bed clothes from, but my hired girl, Miss Anna Bingham, now Mrs. Dan. Harris. I had not yet retired, but I was terribly frightened that night, and I have had a dislike for some of those folks ever since.
Fordyce Roper and my husband (Hiram W. Parker) built the first saw and grist mill in the county in 1865-6 at a cost of $15,000. High water delayed the completion of the grist mill by washing out the dam and cutting out a perfect race around the mill, submerging their lumber yard, carry- ing down the river $2,000 worth of lumber. But with in- domitable energy and will to overcome obstacles, such as losses, high prices of machinery, etc., the mill was finally completed and in successful operatiou, turning out good flour, which caused the general rejoicing of all the settlers for many miles around, who had been compelled to go from fifty to sixty miles to mill. We had to board mill-wright,
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carpenters, and other hands more than a full year, instead of three months as we had expected. Produce was extremely high; I remember we had to pay $3.00 per bushel for pota- toes; 40 cents for butter, and I remember we had to pay Un- cle Billy Stanton 27 cents per pound for bacon; coffee, sugar, flour and all other provisions in proportion. We paid the commonest carpenter $2.00 per day and board, and the mill- wright much more, and this was what swelled the expense of the mill. We paid $3.00 per day for our sawyer and $3.00 per week for kitchen girl, and we had no spacious mansion, our home being a dug-out. I do not remember the date they got to making flour. I know they had just succeeded in getting the three-story frame up the day before the ice went out of the river, March, 1866. I know they felt safe, as the river was clear of ice, but the water kept rising for three days, which we could not account for, but when weeks had elapsed, news reached Camden that there had been con- tinuous rains on the heads of the river. This was explained too late for us to remedy the destruction of the property by the flood.
WEST MILLS SETTLEMENT
I. M. K. JOHNSON
Thomas West and family, consisting of his wife Catha- rine, and sons Cornelius, Thomas, John, Charles, and James, and daughter Isabella settled at West Mills on the West Blue in the spring of 1860. They had many hardships to endure in 1861; their log cabin, together with about all their world- ly goods except a few cattle were burned by the Indians, supposed to be Omahas disguised as Sioux. This was in the fall, and the family suffered great hardships during the fol- lowing winter. The Indians were very troublesome, and stole much of Uncle Tommy's crops of that year. With the exception of the families of Orin Johnson and James West, who lived near, there was no settlement nearer than Victor Vifquain, near the forks of the Blue, and the Morgans on the North Blue, from eight to ten miles distant.
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Their place of trade was Nebraska City, eighty-two miles distant. Uncle Tommy started a supply store (this was in 1862, according to the best information attainable), and once a month sent a team for supplies of such goods as were in demand by the frontiersmen. An invoice of a load of goods would read about as follows: powder, two kegs; lead, from one to two hundred pounds; percussion caps, from one to two hundred boxes; flour, bacon, one barrel whiskey; one hundred pounds tobacco; fifty or a hundred traps, and some miscellaneous articles. When roads were good a trip could be made in five days. Although the Indians com- mitted many atrocities on the Platte and the Little Blue, and were very threatening, Uncle Tommy's family never desert- ed their home nor abandoned it during the darkest hours, but in times of great danger guarded their stock and goods as best they could, and at last got on such good terms that they were able to do a thriving trade with the Indians. They buried their son John in 1862. This was a sad affliction. This was probably the first white person buried in the coun- ty. John was buried in what is now West Mills cemetery.
Mr. West built a saw-mill and put in a small burr and ground corn as early as the summer of 1864.
He is remembered by all the old settlers as a genial, kind-hearted man. The latch-string of his cabin door was always out, and no one in want ever called on him in vain. By his energy a postoffice was established in 1865 at the mill and store. He was elected county clerk at the first organi- zation in 1865 He died in 1879, and was buried beside his son, being followed to the grave by all his old neighbors as mourners of one they had known to love and respect. His widow followed him to the tomb in the winter of 1885. These dear people have gone to the better world, leaving very many sad hearts at their departure. Uncle Tommy acted well his part in the development of this new land, and for the many acts of kindness shown he will ever be remem- bered by all the earlier settlers.
(The author of this book has a very warm place in his heart for the memory of the kind old people.)
Uncle Tommy and family came from Maryland to Mis- souri, thence to Nebraska. They started for California to
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seek gold, but became disgusted with the company that they started with, and left it, and made their home in the wilder- ness. His Son Charles now lives on the old farm, and James and Thomas live within a mile. Isabella, now Mrs. Orin Johnson, still lives on a homestead which her husband set- tled upon in 1861. Her husband went to Oregon many years ago, and has not been heard from since he left, and it is supposed that he is dead. Cornelius lives in Missouri. Orin Johnson's family lost several children in an early day- 1867-with the measles. Only two of the children yet live, and they, Fanny and Ida, are living with their mother. There was no doctor nearer than Salt Basin. A messenger was sent, and made the round trip, fifty-six miles, in eight hours, bringing back a Frenchman who claimed to be a doc- tor, and the people expected that he knew his business. He proved to be a fraud in all but his charges. All the children whom he doctored died.
In the years 1864 and 1865 settlers began to locate all along the West Blue valley. At that time the idea prevailed that the uplands were worthless for cultivation. It was thought that the showers only followed the valley's of the streams, and that the high prairies could not be made to pro duce grain. The early settlers on Salt creek used to say that it never rained twenty miles west of Salt creek.
William J. Clark moved to his homestead just below West's mill in 1865. Mr. Clark came from New York state to Illinois, when Chicago was about the size of Seward. He run a fishing boat on the lake until he moved to Seward county. He had buried his wife at Chicago, and was accom- panied to this county by his three daughters. Mr. Clark proved to be a thrifty and successful farmer. He raised a large amount of vegetables and supplied the travel on the great road. He was a model frontiersman. He had had the misfort- une to have his right hand crippled, yet he could do and did about as much work as other men. He died in 1886, leaving quite a handsome property and some money in the bank for his daughters. He was highly respected by all his neigh- bors, and mourned by a host of friends.
Samuel Englehouft and wife (Amanda) and their five children, Ellen, Mary Anne, George, Daniel, and Albert,
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moved to this county in the spring of 1865. Alice, their younger daughter, was born here in 1865. Albert died in October, 1882. When they arrived in Seward county they had only a team and a wagon, a few sacks of corn meal, and not a dollar in money. He bravely went to work and raised a patch of sod corn, and worked in Mr. West's mill, and in a few years became well to do. He was very fond of hunting; was an excellent neighbor and well respected. He died Sep- tember 16, 1885, and was buried in the cemetery bearing his own name, leaving his aged widow, who, with her son George, still lives on the old homestead. The other children are all married and doing well. The family originally came from Pennsylvania to Manona, Illinois; from there to Vinton, Iowa, thence to Nebraska. It is said to the credit of the family that no one was ever permitted to leave their house hungry.
Jesse R. Johnson and wife, Rachel, with family, William P. and Clara B., came to their present home, two and a half miles above West's mills, in 1864. Mr. Johnson came from Cincinnati in an early day to Illinois. At the time they set- tled in Seward county, provisions were scarce and high in price, and times were very hard, but by great energy the family lived it through until brighter days dawned, and now they are the happy possessors of a goodly heritage, having a fine farm and a magnificent orchard that has been bearing fruit for many years. He was the first (we believe) to plant an orchard in the county. Fruit was a hobby with him, and he always insisted that this would prove to be a splendid fruit county. Others watched his success, and now this county compares very favorably with any portion of Nebraska or the West. Mr. J. served several terms as justice of the peace, and was the first elected in the south part of the coun- ty. He was a good hunter and trapper and his table never was without meat. The furs and pelts secured were a source of profit. Through his energy school district No. 3 was formed, and a log school-house, which still stands as a landmark, was built mostly by himself. This old school-house stands on the farm of David Barton. His daughter Clara, now Mrs. A. C. Smith, lives in the same neighborhood.
James West, brother of Thomas West, and his wife, Margaret, settled on a nice farm in the vicinity of his broth-
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er's farm in the spring of 1860. They then had two daugh- ters, Eliza and Kate. Alexander, their oldest son, was born November 7, 1860, and was the first white child born in the county. Alexander continued his residence in the county until the fall of 1887, or about twenty-seven years. The father and all the family, consisting at present of eight chil- dren, moved to Kansas, whither they were followed by the kindly wishes of all the neighbors. Mr. West was a very generous man, and any weary stranger found a hearty wel- come under his roof. The family had their full share of pri- vations and hardships of a frontier life.
David Barton moved to the neighborhood in the spring of 1864; was, and still is, a bachelor, but built a log house on his homestead; came with but a pittance, and has been remarkably successful; is now the owner of a large estate, and is at this time the heaviest taxpayer of "N" precinct. Mr. Barton came from England, in 1858, almost a penniless lad, and by his industry and careful management he has ac- quired a handsome fortune, although a generous man. Young men may take pattern of him. Mr. B. has no rela- tive in this county.
Israel M. K. Johnson, son of Jesse R. Johnson, followed his parents to the new home in July, 1865, and took a home- stead. He had just returned from the army, where he had served three years; first in Company K, 138th Ills. Vol., and afterwards in Company E, 34th Ills. Israel was fond of hunting and trapping, and in company with the West boys he frequently made long trips to the Little Blue, in Kansas, and to the Platte, and once as far as the Dismal river, where he had a close call for his scalp. As he had been through the war, he had become somewhat wreckless. He often guided trains to Denver, was a success as a buffalo hunter, and never returned from the chase empty-handed. At this time they were plentiful some distance westward, but only occasionally one would appear within fifteen or twenty miles. Thomas West, Jr., killed the last one ever killed in Seward county, in 1866. Elk, deer, antelope, and wild turkeys were plenti- ful, and were frequently killed. "Id," as they called him, was a great hunter; his rifle or revolver was never out of reach. He thought that a man that could not take horse, gun,
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and blankets, and rough it for three or four weeks at a time, had no business so far west as Seward county. At one time he and Mr. McFadden had their wagon wheel and harness burned by prairie fire while a hundred miles from home on a hunt, south of Kearney, and they came home with a rawhide harness and a pole under the wagon axle. It was a hard- looking outfit, but they were glad to reach home even in this sorry plight, as it was at the time of the Indian massacre on the Platte. They had a hard fight with the Sioux, and if it had not been for timely assistance from Buffalo Bill (Hon. Wm. Cody) and his Pawnees, the Indians would have taken their scalps. They helped to bury two men, a woman, and a child that the Indians had murdered, just below Martin's ranch, on the Platte. Travel on the great roads was about suspended, on account of the Indian troubles.
Rev. L. Oliver, a Methodist minister, settled near West's mill in 1869. He had a large family. His wife died in 1871, and he in 1874. He was one of the pioneer ministers of the south part of the county. Mr. Oliver was a good man and did much in moulding the moral and religious sentiment of the community. We are sorry that we can give so little of his history.
Abner M. Richardson came from Iowa in June, 1869, and made his home in the south part of the county. His wife (Maria) died September 19, 1885. They had lost their son Benjamin with small-pox in February, 1879. Mr. Rich- ardson still lives on the old homestead with his children, John, Emeline, and Emarette. He is now eighty-three years old and very feeble. He has been a very industrious man. In his old age he suffers from rheumatism.
From 1867 to 1869 great numbers of homesteads were taken along the Blue. Alonzo Clark, with a large family, settled near Jesse R. Johnson; also, a man by the name of Euland; and later, George Campbell and his brother Jacob, and Andrew Davenport, from Iowa. George Campbell was a blacksmith, and was of great help to the settlement, as before this we all had to go to Camden or to Louis Morgan's, on the North Blue, ten miles away. We usually went to Morgan's, as we could get the work the same day, and at Camden there were so many mules to shoe, and so many
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wagons to mend for travelers on the road, that we were compelled to remain over night or make the second trip. Mr. Campbell was just the man we wanted. From that time our community has prospered. We boast of no large towns or cities, but we have as beautiful homes as any part of the state, and enjoy many luxuries. We had in early days to struggle for food and clothing, and were often severely pinched, and had it not been for Uncle Tommy West many of us would have been compelled to leave our homes. David Barton, W. J. Clark, Samuel Englehaupt, and my father did all that was possible to assist the people, and whether the settler had money or not, they were supplied as long as the supply lasted. Frequently corn meal was the principal diet.
Nearly all our first settlers were poor, and consequently times become very hard with them. We have known families to live a whole winter on corn meal and what rabbits they could kill with clubs. Salt was scarce, and we had to make pilgramages to the salt basins for our supplies. On one of these trips we first became acquainted with Mr. Cox, the anthor of this history, but in what year we have forgotten. We do not know if he recollects or not. Our first doctor, in any reasonable distance, was Dr. Band, of Milford. The Otoes and Omahas frequently brought their whole village of tents and would camp for weeks at a time near the mill, and run all the game out of the county, so that we would not be able to kill any for our use. We then, as now, thought the only "good Indian was a dead one." But for all that, we believe they were no worse thieves than the same number of whites under no more restraints.
What a change twenty-three years has brought! New. comers to Seward county can hardly realize the wonderful changes that have occurred in these years.
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"B" PRECINCT SETTLEMENT
F. M. TIMBLIN
HAMPTON, NEB., Nov. 27. W. W. Cox, Esq., SEWARD, NEB. :
DEAR FRIEND-Your kind letter asking me to write a history of "B" precinct, in Seward county, Neb., was received several days ago. First. I did not move into that pre- cinct until April, 1869, and there was considerable settle- ment there before that time. Second. I have forgotten the dates of a great many interesting events of early times. Yet, being always ready to assist a friend in any laudable enter- prise, I will try to give you a few points and incidents which may assist you in your undertaking.
The precinct, as first organized, comprised township 12 in ranges 1 and 2, and the west half of range 3 east of the 6th principal meridian, and being six miles wide by fifteen long, and was known as "Lincoln creek," or Plum creek, pre- cinct. The first settlement was made along the Blue river, about 1864 or 1865, John and Thomas Shields, Robert Mc- Crosson, and George Read being among, if not the first set- tlers. A few settlers also went up Lincoln creek, among the first of whom were Charles Shaffer, the Hornburgs, Jack- mans, Ragans, Reynolds, and Hartmans. In 1870 I assessed this whole territory (6x15 miles) in about five days, and by going up Lincoln creek on one side and down the other, got all the inhabitants west of the Blue river. In 1868 the Hick- mans (J. D .. William, Joseph, J. W., and H. W.), T. J. Poore, John and Thomas Quillen, John and Peter Varner, and Wm. Moore settled on the "divide" between the Blue and Plum creek, in what is now "B" precinct proper, and in 1869 F. M. Timblin, H. G. Dawley, Elias McClure, Amos Coleman, Wil- liam and Jesse Knight, E. H. Noxon, J. T. Davis, and James Read completed the settlement of government land on this divide (Shoestring prairie), while the Bates brothers, Amos Donaldson, Mike Dunigan, Esquire Batchelder, S. D. Love, Sabin Stanwood, and others settled the divide between Plum creek and Oak Groves.
The first school house built in the precinct was a small
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sod house in the north-east corner of section 32, in the fall of 1869, and was built by the settlers, who, having no money, each did his share of breaking, hauling, and laying the sod, while some furnished poles and brush for the roof, others a door or window frame, or door or window, and each furnished seats and desks for the scholars he had to send to school. The house was built and seated in this way, but as yet there was no way provided to warm it. A stove must be had, but how? It was decided that those having timber should cut a load of cordwood, and those who had no timber of their own should go out onto section "37" and cut a load, and they would take it to Lincoln, sell it, and buy a stove. This plan was carried out, and in the latter part of November nine wag- ons loaded with cordwood wended their way to Lincoln through about eight inches of snow, and returned with a sec- ond-hand wood stove, and the first school-house in the pre- cinct was ready for occupancy.
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