USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Washington County, Nebraska; its early settlement and present status, resources, advantages and future prospects > Part 4
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During this spring, several came into the neighborhood. At this time the settlement consisted of Anselam Arnold and family, Geo. W. Nevell and family, Wm. Connor and family, Stephen Cass and family, Orrin Rhodes and family, Thomas J. Allen and family, James Craig and family, Je se Estlock and family, Wm. Moore and family, James M. Taggart, E. H. Clark and several single men who have since left the country and not now remembered. There was onwed at this time in the entire precinct, only seven yoke of cattle and one span of horses, and in breaking prairie the settlers had to double teams, and consequently got but little break- ing done that season.
In June of the year 1855 for the consideration of one-ninth interest in the town, E. H. Clark contracted with the proprietors to put up a building on the town site for a hotel ; said building to be 24x48 feet, two stories high, and with an ell of the same dimensions; the structure to be of hewn logs and put up in good style. The contract was in writing, and as soon as the building was completed, each member of the company was to deed Mr. Clark by quit-claim his proportion of the lots to be taken indiscrimi- nately from all parts of the town. He immediately, with six men, com- menced the work of getting out the timber, boarding in the meantime with Major Arnold's family, and laboring under many disadvantages, both for want of skilled laborers and teams. The men were newly arrived from Virginia, none of whom had ever done manual labor, but were out of money and must do something ; so had imposed themselves upon Mr. Clark as men from a timbered country, and used to such work, and as hands were not readily obtained in those days, he had to submit, paying them two dollars each per day and boarding them. For teams he hired a yoke of oxen from the settlers as they could spare them from their own work. What luniber was necessary for the building had to be obtained from Omaha (where a mill had been started) at $60 per thousand, and hauled a circuitous route by the old Mormon trail a distance of eighteen miles. As an additional incident to his trials, one morning at break- fast Mr. Clark was told by Mrs. Arnold that the last mouthful in the house was on the table. Maj. Arnold, who was absent for supplies, had been expected home the night before, but as he had not come, it was sup- posed that he could not get any team to come with. This proved to be the fact, and Mr. Clark procured two yoke of oxen and started at once for
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Omaha for provisions, thinking he could bring back a load of lumber as soon as to make the trip without, which proved to be a sad mistake, for never having driven oxen before, he met with many mishaps, and by the hardest work, traveling all night through rain and mud, only reached sight of home at sunrise next morning, when the oxen ran away, upset- ting the lumber and scattering the groceries all over the prairies, so that little was recovered but some bacon and a barrel of flonr. He found the family standing outside the house anxiously looking for his return, hav- ing had nothing to eat since the morning before, and who expecting him early in the evening, had hopefully watched the entire night through, his men having taken care of themselves by going off to the neighbors and leaving Mrs. Arnold and her then small children entirely helpless.
About the 10th of August the claim cabin of the town company hav- ing been vacated, one Charles T. Davis, in a very unostentations manner moved in, and filed a claim on the town site and served a written notice upon Mr. Clark to quit tresspassing upon the claim. The latter notified the company of his action, and kept on drawing material on the ground for his building. and after three days Davis sued him for tresspass, fixing his damages at $100, for which he afterwards obtained judgment, and Clark paid it. Mr. Clark then notified the company that he should sell his material and leave unless they took steps to put the title out of con- troversy, They returned word for him to go on with the work and they would guarantee the title. A day or so after, while engaged with all the neighbors in raising the building, a number of the company, with some friends, ten or twelve in all, came up and wanted Clark to join them in removing Davis forcibly from the claim, which he declined to do. While parlying over the matter a man was seen going at full speed on horseback from the claim cabin towards DeSoto, and, as it was already known that the settlement at DeSoto was to back Davis in his attempt to hold the Calhoun town site (DeSoto being a rival), Clark told the com- pany that the sooner they got over there the better, if they were going, for Davis would soon have help from DeSoto. They thought not, and still insisted that all the settlers around Calhoun were interested, and should go and assist. The talk was continued until dinner time, and then the party went off to dinner, and when returning, saw three wagon loads of armed men coming from DeSoto and going into the house with Davis. It was then thought by the representatives of the company use- less to attack them, but they proposed that the entire party should go so as to show as strong a force as possible in order to scare Davis off, and that if he would not go, they would come up again with a stronger force when he was not expecting it, and put him off the claim. To this the settlers agreed, and all marched over to the house, and were drawn up in line in front of the door, which was closed. Col. Addison Cochran as spokesman knocked at the door, which was answered by Davis from within, demanding what they wanted. Cochran told him that he knew that claim belonged to the town company, and that they wanted him to peaceably leave it, and that if he did not, they should put him off by
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
force. Davis' attorney-Potter C. Sullivan-replied, claiming some legal ground for Davis' action, and it was agreed that he should come outside and talk the matter over with Cockron. While they were talking, the door was opened, and some one from the inside said he would like to. "put a bullet through Thompson,"-one of the party outside-whereup- on some words passed when Thompson and the man making the remark, each drew their revolvers and fired at the same time, but neither shot took effect. The line was drawn up about twenty-five feet from the door, and as soon as these shots were fired, a dozen guns were seen pointing from the cabin, and shot after shot was fired upon Cochran and his retreating party, three of which shots took effect, one through the heart of John Goss, sr., killing him instantly ; one through the arni of H. C. Purple, in the shoulders, so shattering it that it was two or three years before he recovered, and only after seven surgical operations had been performed by the most skilled surgeons of Chicago. Both of these parties were proprietors in the town site. The third shot took effect in the thigh of the Mr. Thompson who had the words with the man inside, but it was only a flesh wound, however, from which he soon recovered. When Mr. Goss fell, Mr. Clark was still standing before the door, and his esca; e was miraculous, as bullets whistled on every side. He immediately ran to Mr. Goss' assistance, and while holding his head, a number of shots were fired at him, and after laying him down and going in search of his son, who returned to the body with him, the occupants of the house kept firing at them, but with no effect, though not over fifty feet distant. The escape of the two men can only be accounted for by the excited condition of those who held the guns. The body of Goss was put in a wagon and convey ed to his home in Iowa, and there buried. This sad affair was a terrible blow to the little community, and none knew what would happen next, as it was feared such feelings were aroused that many more would be killed, by being waylaid or otherwise.
The night after this affray, Davis sent his attorney, Sullivan, to Omaha to compromise the matter, he doubtless fearing another attack. The town company agreed with Sullivan to arbitrate the right to the town site, and that all hostilities on both sides and all work on the site should be sus- pended until after the after the arbitration, which was to be by disinter- ested parties chosen, one from Bellvue, one from Nebraska City, and one from Glenwood. The time fixed was a month from that date, and when the time came the arbitrators could not be got together and, in fact, never did meet. Thus the matter rested until November, when Davis, who all the time had not felt safe, made a sale, or pretended sale, to Major Anse- lum Arnold, Thomas J. Allen, Jesse Esttock, and James M. Taggart, and they with Casady and Test, John Goss, Mrs. Goss, widow of John Goss, Sr., formed a new town company, taking Mr. Clark in as an equal pro- prietor providing he should go on and complete his hotel building ac- cording to the original contract, which he did, and in March, 1856, gave Col. George Stevens, then in the Douglas House at Omaha, a one-half in- terest in the building on condition he would move into it and open a ho-
ward
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tel. This Col. Stevens did during that month, and the house was long celebrated as one of the best kept hotels in the west.
During this spring the town had assumed very considerable propor- tions. Buildings sprang up on every hand, among which was a grocery store, by W. H. Jacoby, which building still stands; a blacksmith shop, two saloons, and a number of dwellings. Among others those of N. Run- yon, A. P. Allen, (both of whom still live in the town) and E. H. Clark. The latter's house was burned down on the morning of the Ist day of Jan- uary, 1860, when the thermometer stood at 30° below zero-the coldest day ever witnessed since the State was settled. Through the spring and sum- mer of 1856 dozens were coming to the town every day, the hotels and pri- vate houses were crowded continually and many had to go away for want of temporary accommodations. Alonzo Perkins and Perkins Allen came with a saw mill and put it up under the bluff, close to the old fort grounds, Lewis McBride and Frank Fithion built a large and commodious store and filled it with a fine stock of general merchandise. Mr. Clark built a law office, in which Geo. W. Nevell-who the fall before had been ap- pointed postmaster-opened a postoffice with glass boxes, and all the par- aphanalia of a first-class office. A four horse coach was put on the road between Omaha and Fort Calhoun by the Western Stage Company, and a rushing business was done in all branches of trade-particularly in town lots and land claims, the former ranging in price from one to five hundred dollars, according to location. A Court House was built by the subscrip- tion of the citizens, on one of the public squares. 16x20 in size, and in which the Hon. E. Wakely, now of Omaha, first presided as Judge, with Geo. W. Doane, also of Omaha, at present, as prosecuting attorney, Roger T. Beal clerk, and Orrin Rhodes sheriff, the bar present consisting of Kline & Clark and Clark Irvine, of this county, and A. J. Poppleton, E. Estabrook, and Jonas Seely, of Omaha. Claim jumping was common and many conflicts ensued therefrom-in some cases murder. In April one Isaiah Peterson jumped the claim of a Mr. Coon, having built a house in an out of the way place, where it was not known until he was occupy- ing it. Mr. Coon went to see him and was there found dead soon after- wards with a bullet through his heart. Peterson claimed that he killed Coon in self defense, which was not believed. Nothing further is known however, about it. Peterson was arrested and indicted but made his ey- cape before he had a trial as there was no place to confine him but in the Court House. Coon was buried on the spot where he was shot, and it was said by parties from the east when they went back home, that the coun - try was so healthy that we had to kill a man to start a graveyard, Mr. Coon being the first man buried in the county. The claim is now the fine farm of Hans J. Rohwer, who purchased it of Geo. W. Homan, sr., now of Omaha, and he of the Coon heirs,
A claim club was organized at Fort Calhoun as well as in all other set- tlements, and on one occasion, soon after the killing of Coon, a stranger "squatted" on the claim of a member of the club, built a shanty, and was occupying the same when the club went in force and arrested him, 3
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
brought him into Calhoun and by the exhibition of a rope, extorted from him a promise to leave the country, which promise he fulfilled to the let . ter. In this peculiar line Fort Calhoun became somewhat noted, for soon after that another party was taken, on suspicion of being a hard character, to the Missouri river, crossed over to the Iowa side in a boat, and advised never to return, and has not since been seen in that vicinity. About the same time two horses were stolen from near Rockport by two men named Rowen and Brady who were captured and for safe keeping put in the jail at Omaha but before their trial were taken out by masked men, some of whom belonged at Calhoun, and hung to a tree, one of them the man named Brady, requesting that the rope be passed between his jaws instead of around his neck, which was done. Four of the parties im- plicated in this affair were arrested and imprisoned in Omaha, and after two ineffectual attempts to convict them were discharged. And very re- cently a prominent citizen received an anonymous letter giving him five days to leave the town or suffer the consequences. He went.
During the summer of 1856 preaching was had in the town once a month by the Rev. Mr. Collins, a Methodist minister located at Omaha. Services were held in the Court House, as was also the school and meet- ings of all kinds. A Sabbath school was started with eight or ten chil- dren of all ages and sizes and as many adults, with E. H. Clark as Super- intendent the first year, after which Dr. J. P. Andrew was elected Super- tendent and, with the exception of one year, (when a Mr. Davis served) he has held the position ever since, being re-elected each year by the un- animous vote of the school, and through his prompt attendance and effi ciency, it is now one of the most flourishing Sabbath schools in the coun- ty. A day school was also started, with Miss Lucy Graham as teacher. Col. Geo. Stevens, P. N. Stilts, and E. H. Clark were elected a school committee, under the school law of the Territory.
During this season, the influx of immigration was so great and im- provement so rapid that it would be impossible to give anything like a detailed account of all, but the most important enterprises to the town were the steam saw mill of Perkins & Allen, heretofore mentioned and the commencement of the steam grist mill, which was completed and put in operation in 1858 by Z. Vanier & Bro., and in 1861, passed into the hands of Elam Clark and Samuel Hale by virtue of a mortgage held by tnem. Samuel Hale, a year or so after sold his interest to Taylor Bradley, of La Porte, Indiana, and he a few years after sold to Elam Clark who thus be- came the sole proprietor, and he still owns and runs the mill. An inci- dent, perhaps worth relating here, occurred in connection with this mill property. The Messrs. Vanier finding that they could not pay off the mortgage on the mill, conceived the idea that if they could get the ma- chinery out of the county they could hold it, and that being the valuable part of the mill, they made the attempt by getting a large force to help them, and procuring teams from Omaha to assist, commencing one Saturday after 9 o'clock at night. They so far succeeded as to get the machinery all out and mostly on the road, some of it having got as far as
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Florence, when they were stopped by writ of injunction and the machin- ery all recovered and put iuto the hands of a receiver (Mr. James Thomp- son ) appointed by the court. Mr. Thompson replaced it in the mill and run the same until the termination of the suit which transferred the property from the Vaniers to Clark & Hale. Excitement over this mat- ter ran high for a long time, some sympathizing and siding with the Vaniers' and others with Clark & Hale, and the community was pretty eqally divided between the two. The cause of this sympathy and divis- ion, however,dated back to the entry of the town site in 1857,at which time about half the citizens, with the Vaniers were on one side, and they still clung to them through the mill difficulty. This difference over the town arose from a conflict of town authorities. In January, 1856 the town was incorporated by act of the legislature as a city and a Mayor and Board of Aldermen authorized to be elected the following March and annually therefrom, and which were not elected until March, 1857. The land com- ing in market that year a board of trustees was quietly elected and organ- ized under the general incorporation law of the Territory by Alonzo Per- kins, the Voniers and their friends, who constituted the one side, and entered the town at the government land office in Omaha, claiming that as the Mayor and Board of Aldermen were not elected at the first election appointed in the act of incorporation, the charter was forfeited and they were not a legal body. The Mayor, however, filed caveat and contested the matter, and after a re-hearing was succesful, the entry of Board of Trus- tees being cancelled and the town was entered by Elam Clark, as Mayor, and the lots by him deeded to the several owners. This so embittered the two parties that it kept a division in the town for five years.
During this contest of the authorities over the town site, claim jump- ing was tried. Col. Stevens had built a residence on one of the most val- uable lots in the west part of the town and, having temporarily moved out of it, a Mr. Elisha Aldrich, one of the opposite party, moved his fam- ily in and took possession, whereupon the Claim Club went to move him out. Mrs. Aldrich sat herself down in a chair and said they would have to "carry her out if they got her out,"so the chair with Mrs. Aldrich in it was gently carried out of door and she was left sitting on the prairie. The house was locked up and was not invaded or molested neither was any claim jumping of any kind afterwards indulged in.
By this time so many settlers had come in that it would be impossible to enumerate all. Among those now remembered, however, in the pre- cinct of Calhoun were Maj. Arnold and family, Geo. W. Nevell and fam- ily, Wm. Connor and family, Wm. Shipley and family, John Ryan and family, John Kelly and family, W. H. Russell and family, D. B. Hawley and family, James Goodrich and family, Orrin Rhodes and family, Thos. J. Allen and family Jesse Estlock and family, Hugh McNeely and family Mr. Johnson and family, James Craig, sr., and family, A. Reed and fam- ily, Wm. Moore and family, Dr. J. P. Andrew and family, Col. George Stevens and family, E. H. Clark and family, Daniel Franklin and family, N. Runyon and family, A. P. Allen and family, John Allen and family,
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
Robert Allen and family, Pat Stetts and family, Miss Mary Ann Tew and family, Ela Stetts and family, Perkins Allen and family, Alonzo Per- kins and family, E. Aldrich and family, Wm. Frazier and family, Thos. Frazier and family, H. J. Rohwer and family, Geo. W. Doane and fami- ly, James Borland and family, W. B. Beals and family, Newton Clark and family, W. H. Jacoby, W. P. Rowford, James M. Piper, Chester Lusk, James S. Wiseman, Dean C. and Charles Slader, David McDonald, Chris Rathman, J. B. Kuony and family, Joel Neff, M. Gales, Levi Kline, Clark Irvine, James S. Riddler, Dan. W. Case, James L. Barbor, John and William Apple,A. S. Paddock, now United States Senator, Dwight A. Clark Michael Upton, Mr. Alexander (a noted Scotchman, who died at Calhoun in 1858), John Everheart, George Everheart and wife, Jacob Kreitter and family, C. Bannister and family, Geo. W. Homan, sr. and family, Paul Stallenburg and family Henry Frahm.
As stated previously the county seat of Washington county was lo. cated by act of legislature at Ft. Calhoun in 1855. Three years later by special legislative enactment, it was removed to De Soto ; in 1861 it was again located at Calhoun, this time by a vote of the people, and in 1866 it was fixed at Blair-also by a public vote, and there it will probably re. main permanently.
In May, 1856, the first Sunday School was organized and in 1857 there was a religious revival at Calhoun, De Soto and Fontenelle, at the same time, brought about, mainly by the earnest, zealous efforts of Rev. T. B. Lemon, then stationed at De Soto.
The following named lawyers have practiced their profession while residing at Fort Calhoun ; E. H. Clark, Levi Kime, Clark Irvine, Geo. W. Doane, W. W. Toole, E. N. Gray. E. N. Grennell, and John D. Howe (now of Omaha.) Senator A. S. Paddock was admitted to the bar, while living at Calhoun, but did not practice. Judge L. Crounse, now our rep- resentative in Congress, located at Calhoun in 1857, upon being appointed to the third Judicial district. He still resides there and spends his time with his family, in their charming home, when not at Washington.
Dr. J. P. Andrews (still a resident of the town) Dr. Wm. Moore, and Dr. Charles Lawrence, are the only medical gentlenien who have taken up their abode at Calhoun.
Miss Cara Clark, now deputy county clerk, daughter of E. H. Clark, was the first child born in the town, that event occuring in May 1856.
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COUNTY, NEBRASKA.
DE SOTO.
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LOCATED IN 1854-RELIGIOUS SERVICES UNDER DIFFICULTIES-BREAK- ING UP A BAND OF HORSE THIEVES-A TOWN SITE JUMPER.
The town of De Soto was incorporated by act of the legislature in March, 1855, having been laid out in the fall of the year previous by Dr. John Glover, Gen. J. B. Robinsou, Potter C, Sullivan, (now a resident of Oregon, from which State he lacked only one vote of being sent to Con - gress) E. P. Stout, Wm. Clancy and others, Judge Jesse T. Davis locating there in the fall of 1855. In March, 1855, a charter was granted E. P. Stout to run a flat boat ferry across the Missouri. Again in January, 1856, a charter was granted to Wm. Claucy and P. C. Sullivan, to establish and run a steam ferry, and city bonds were voted to the amount of $30.000 to aid the enterprise, P. C. Sullivan being dispatched to the east for the pur- pose of disposing of the bonds and procuring a steam ferry boat. This projectfailing to pan out successfully the steam ferry enterprise was aban- doned together with the charter, and subsequently, in May, 1857, a flat- boat ferry was established by Isaac Parrish.
During the summer of 1855 thirty hewn log houses were built in the town, and business prospects were encouraging. Dr. A. Phinny, was the proprietor of the first store, and.Charles Seltz who came down the Mis- souri in a skiff from the mountains, and stopped at DeSoto in the fall of 1855, was probably the second merchant to locate in the town. Harrison Critz, and Z. Jackson, each established a boarding house that year. and P. C. Sullivan was appointed postmaster.
In 1856 Levi and Marsh Kennard (both now residents of Omaha) es- tablished themselves in the mercantile line at De Soto, under the firm name of Kennard Bros. Thos. P. Kennard, now of Lincoln, is also one of the early settlers of the town, where he practiced law and, later, kept a hotel.
In 1857, a Mr. Fake, from Chicago, brought a heavy stock of liquors to De Soto, Samuel Francis establisded a hotel and the bank of De Soto entered upon a career of brilliant, but rather short-lived prosperity, with
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
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Samuel Hall as president, Geo. E. Scott, cashier. In the same year the Waubeek Bank was established with H. H. Hine, president, and A. Cas- tetter, teller, the latter doing all the business, and in the following spring the Corn Exchange bank was established by a Chicago firm, with J.Tuck- er as teller. Town property increased in price at a rapid rate, and the old settlers point with pride to the fact that a Mrs. Johnson refused $1.500 in gold for a certain corner lot. In 1857, the town had ten or a dozen sa- loons, nearly as many stores and a population of between six and seven hundred. Prosperity attended the settlers until the Pikes Peak and Cherry Creek gold excitement in the fall of 1857, when a majority of them abandoned the town and journeyed to the newly discovered gold fields.
Of course De Soto had a "claim club" in those early days, in order to protect the first settlers in their land claims, and prevent their being taken away by later arrivals with more money, who came in before the land came into market. However, the club had no serious difficulty with any one, and when there was no longer any necessity for the organiza- tion it was allowed to die out.
The first minister who ever preached regularly at De Soto, was Rev. Jacob Adriance, of the Methodist Church. This was in 1857, services be- ing held in a building which belonged to W. W. Wyman, then a resident of Omaha, where he edited the Omaha Times, and was afterwards postmas- ter at Omaha. He was father of the present Treasurer of the United States. It was in 1857 that Judge Wakely, Territorial Judge, Roger T. Beall and E. A. Allen, located in De Soto ; Judge Wakely's family arriv- ing in the fall.
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