USA > Nebraska > Lancaster County > Lincoln > History of the city of Lincoln, Nebraska : with brief historical sketches of the state and of Lancaster County > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33
S. B. Pound and C. H. Gere conducted the prosecution, and J. E. Philpott, H. S. Jennings, and Col. Van Armin, the defense. The trial had hardly opened before the floor broke down, and dropped the court, attorneys, prisoners, and reporters, to the ground, about a foot below. But a small affair like this cut no figure when a man was on trial for his life on a vague suspicion of having ent down a Grant and Colfax flag staff, and the trial went on. It soon devel- oped that there was no evidence against Pool, and he was discharged, and was hustled off into the dark, by the back way. While the Grand Army men did not wish to hang a man who really had not committed the offense, yet Pool found it convenient to keep out of sight for a good while after this. The pieces of the broken staff had been arranged for a gallows in front of the court room, the rope was adjusted, and the whole aspect of affairs looked so like some one was going to be executed, that no one could blame him for feeling as though it was not conducive to long life to remain in the capital of Nebraska.
At the election following this fiery proceeding there were 460 votes cast in the county, of which the Republicans polled 320, and the Dem- ocrats 123.
This was not the only time that a man escaped by a hair's breadth from being taken from a Lincoln conrt and hung. In 1869 a man named Bill McClain was suspected of horse stealing. He was ar- raigned before Judge Cadman, and an angry crowd, led by Martin Pflug, the merchant, were actually uncoiling their rope; but the em- phatic protestations of Simon Benadom and the size of JJudge Cad- man induced the mob to cool down and disperse. Judge Cadman was a very powerful man, and he told Benadom that he would have pitched out the leaders of the mob faster than they could come into the room where he was, had they attempted the assault.
After much labor and inquiry, a diagram of the town, as it appeared
8- STREET
R
STREET
10TH STREET
IITHSTREET
ALPALMER S JAL
RESIDENCE
J47
12TH STREET
13-STREETU
14THSTREET
P
P STREET
400
33
390
6
34
38
32
049
8
31
37 36
O STREET
27
50 5152
11
10
1617
26
128
18
15
12
3.19
2.)
29
14
20
21
22
8
9
LO
11
12
13
14
N
N STREET
53
EXPLANATION OF PLAT.
1. Simon Benadom's cottonwood frame house.
2. H. S. Jennings's residence.
3. Capt. W. T. Donovan's residence.
4. John Langdon's log residence.
5. Langdon's milk house -- first jarl.
7. Dr. H. D. Gilbert's residence.
8 Gilbert's drug store and Humphrey Bros.' har- ware storc.
9. Dunbar's livery stable. 10.
11. Jacob Dawson's old log house, built in 180.4.
12. Jacob Dawson's new house, built in 1807.
13. Moore's barber shop -first in Lincoln,
14. 1 .. A. Scoggin's residence.
15. Rich & Oppenheimer's store.
16. Moll's Grocery.
17. Bohanan Bros - meat market.
1% D. B. & A. J. Cropsey - land office.
19. David May -clothing.
20. R. R. Tingley - drug store.
21. C. 1. Damrow -tailor shop.
22. Shurley's boarding house.
23. Cox -grocery and boarding house. 2.4 -
25. Bain's land office.
20 Bain Bros .- clothing - first in Lincoln.
27. Joe. Hodge's beer saloon - first been sold.
28. Tom Robert's harness shop-( in dispute. )
29. Commonwealth office - by Carder,
30. Squire Blazier's meat market.
31 Sweet & Brock's bank.
32. A C. Rudolph-groceries,
33. Pflug Bros,' store,
34. Walsh & l'utnam-land office.
35. Williams Bros.' saloon.
36. 1). A. Sherwood-grocery store.
37. 1). A. Sherwood-real estate.
38. Monell & Lashley-first lumber yard.
39. A. J. Cropsey's residence.
40. Dr, Scott's drug store.
41. Monteith's shoe shop.
42. Cadman Ilouse-old stone seminary.
43. Pound & Robinson's law office. 44 S. B. Caley-county clerk.
45. Methodist Church-built in 1867-8.
46. l'ioneer House-first hotel in Lincoln.
47. Old stone school house-built in 1867.
45. Seth Robinson's house.
49. Leighton & Brown's drug store.
50. Wm. Kowel's harness shop.
51. J. P. Lantz-land office.
52. William Guy's residence-first house in new town.
53. Valentine Bros.' lumber yard.
54 C. May-bakery.
55. Luke Lavender's house-built in 1864.
1
42
43 44
41 0
480
R STREET
C
Q
STREET
2
46
43
30
O
054
55
24
1
1
16
to bel
nel the
an( WO
E. tri the foo
Was Gira ope and Gra
con sigl beer adjı goi it w
cast ocra
fron nam raig Pflu
phai man a v. pitel the
A
163
GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE.
in 1868, has been prepared for this book. It shows where each house then in existence stood, as remembered by the pioneers now living. There is some difference of opinion about several buildings, and some may be omitted, but this chart is approximately correct. It is accom- panied with a key, so that it can be readily understood.
The contract for building the old State capitol having been let, on January 11, 1868, to Joseph Ward, the work had progressed steadily all the season of that year, so that on December 3, 1868, Governor Butler announced by proclamation the removal of the seat of gov- ernment from Omaha to Lincoln.
The United States land office was removed from Nebraska City to Lincoln in 1868, and Mr. Stewart McConiga, the popular Register, was kept as busy as a bee assisting immigrants to take homesteads. In fact, men stood in rows, awaiting their turn to take a claim.
So 1868 was a successful year for the new capital, and the future was full of hope. On petition of a majority of the citizens of the village, the County Commissioners, on April 7, 1868, ordered "that the town of Lincoln be declared a body incorporate, and that the powers and privileges be granted them as by the Statute in such cases are made and provided." Messrs. L. A. Scoggin, B. F. Cozad, Dr. Potter, W. W. Carder, and A. L. Palmer, were appointed Trustees of the corporation. An election was held on May 18, 1868, at which H. S. Jennings, S. B. Linderman, H. D. Gilbert, J. J. Van Dyke, and D. W. Tingley, were elected Trustees. But sixty votes were cast at this election, and the town government failed to continue the organi- zation during that year.
The corporate existence of Lincoln, therefore, dates from 1869, and the events of that period of almost precisely twenty years, 1869 to 1889, will be the subject of the next chapter.
-
164
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
CHAPTER XIII.
LINCOLN FOR TWENTY YEARS, FROM 1869 TO 1889-ITS REMARKABLE GROWTH -THE INCREASE IN POPULATION BY YEARS-WATER WORKS, PAVING, SEWERAGE-EVIDENCES OF THE CITY'S WONDERFUL IMPROVEMENT-THE FLOODS OF 1868, 1869, 1874, AND 1889.
On petition of 189 citizens, the town of Lincoln was ordered incor- porated by the County Commissioners, April 7, 1869, about twenty years and three months ago at this writing. The corporate limits were made to include section twenty-six, the west half of section twenty- five, the southwest quarter of section twenty-four, and the south half of section twenty-three, in town ten north, range six east. The town officers were as subjoined :
Trustees-H. S. Jennings, S. B. Linderman, H. D. Gilbert, J. L. McConnell, and D. W. Tingley.
Judges of Election -Seth Robinson, A. J. Cropsey, and J. N. Town- ley.
The town election was held on May 3, 1869, and a Board of Trust- ees were chosen, as follows : H. D. Gilbert, C. H. Gere, William Rowe, Philetus Peck, and J. L. McConnell. The officers of the Board were: H. D. Gilbert, Chairman; J. R. De Land, Clerk; and Nelson C. Brock, Treasurer.
The year 1869 was a prosperous one for Lincoln. The lot sales had been wonderfully successful, assuring all needed State improvements to be derived therefrom. Land sales continued to be active, and pop- ulation multiplied in town and adjacent country. Above all, the famously progressive Legislature of 1869 met carly in the year at the new capitol, and not only approved all the splendid work of Governor David Butler and Commissioners John Gillespie and T. P. Kennard, but also made provision for further progress on a most wise and mag- nificent scale.
Ilon. C. H. Gere, in his address to the Old Settlers' Association, at Cushman park, on June 19, 1889, tells of the deeds of this great Leg- islature in the following terms, which are none too complimentary :
165
REMARKABLE GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENTS.
The members of the first Legislature brought their cots, blankets, and pillows with them in their overland journeys in wagons (hired) or the jerkies of the stage line, and lodged, some in newly-erected store buildings, some in the upper rooms of the State House, while the wealthier law-makers boldly registered at the Atwood hostelry, and paid their bills for extras, including "noise and confusion " during the Senatorial mill between Tipton, Butler, and Marquett; and how they all agreed, after some preliminary hair-pulling, that the new capitol was a suecess, and or- dered a dome erected thereon reaching the upper atmosphere, and confirmed the deeds, regular and irregular, of the Commission, and gave us a cemetery in which to bury our dead; how they passed a bill for the organization of the State Univer- sity, and ordered a further sale of lots and lands to build the dome and construet a university building, a wing of an insane hospital, and a workshop for the peni- tentiary, and how they were all built in part or in whole of the old red sandstone of the vicinity, and eame to grief soon after, may not be an interesting story to-day; but it was full of eloquence, fire, and significanee for those who were on the ground at the time.
From the adjournment of that Legislature, the body that took in hand the build- ing up of the new commonwealth and the laying of the foundation of its great insti- tutions, so ably aided by the executive officers of our first State administration, to this memorial gathering, every six working days of every week of the twenty years has seen completed an average of ten buildings on the site of the city consecrated to the memory of the great emancipator and war President.
No body of men in forty days accomplished more. Every law passed by that memorable Legislature of '69 weighed a ton. Its work was original and creative, and it did it well. Its moving spirit was the Governor, David Butler. Some of its members came down to Lincoln from hostile localities, and had it in their hearts to destroy him and his works; but before the session was a fortnight old, his genial though homely ways, his kindness of heart, his sturdy common sense, the originality of his genius, and the boldness of his conceptions, captured them, and when the forty days were done, no man in the two houses avowed himself the enemy of David Butler.
The contract for excavating for and the construction of the base- ment of the State University was let to D. J. Silvers & Son, of Lo- gansport, Indiana, on June 10, 1869, for $23,520, and work was immediately commeneed. The corner-stone of the university was laid on September 23d, with Masonic ceremonies. The building was to be completed on or before December 1, 1870.
Messrs. Silvers burned the brick for the university building near where the Burlington & Missouri river depot now is. They bought hundreds of cords of wood from the settlers, thus aiding them to ob- tain money for current expenses. The entire bottom in the region of the briek works was covered with cords of wood, sand, lime, clay, and briek. At times, during 1869, one hundred cords or more of wood would be in sight at one time. This was not the first briek burned
166
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
in the county or city. Milton Langdon burned a kiln of brick, on the site of West Lincoln, as early as 1867, assisted by John S. Greg- ory, who supplied the wood. Simon Benadom burned a kiln of brick, on the ground where the Burlington depot now stands, carly in 1868, out of which a number of the chimneys were constructed. Seth Robinson used these brick to construct his residence, the same now occupied by R. E. Moore, on the northeast corner of Twelfth and P streets. Some of the same brick were used in building the Atwood House.
The contract for building the asylum for the insane was let to Jo- seph Ward, about August 15, 1869, for $128,000, and work pro- ceeded soon thereafter.
Besides all this, the people of Lincoln still had a very high notion of the value of the Salt Basin as a commercial aid to the city. Mr. John H. Ames, who was the pioneer historian of Lincoln, having published a series of articles he had previously prepared for the States- man, a Democratie newspaper of Lincoln; these were reprinted in pamphlet form in 1870 by the Journal " power press." In that work, the correctness of which is formally attested by the Governor, Au- ditor, and Secretary of State, Mr. Ames estimates that 882,001.60 barrels of salt can be made from a single well. Allowing for cost of barrels and every possible shrinkage, he caleulates that a single well would produce salt to the value of at least $488,970.22. He casts his eye over the field and says that : "While the railway now being con- structed, and those projected, will give us direct connection with the Eastern markets, and enable us to compete with the Eastern salt man- ufactories upon their own ground, it is certain that we shall be called upon to supply all the vast territory lying between the Mississippi river and the Rocky mountains, so that three dollars per barrel may be considered an extremely low estimate for the minimum price at the wells."
The foregoing estimate of the value of the wells seems a little fab- ulous at this time, but when Mr. Ames wrote, the faith in the salt wells was substantially represented by his views. Early in 1869 Messrs. Cahn and Evans leased a section of land from the Govern- ment, about one and one-half miles from the postoffice, expecting to open thereon extensive salt works. They were still drilling the well when Mr. Ames wrote his account.
- -
167
REMARKABLE GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENTS.
With all these reasons for encouragement, Lincoln enjoyed a favor- able growth during 1869. In reviewing the progress of the town early in 1870, Mr. Ames sums up the results as follows, in the work just quoted : "Only about two and one-half years have elapsed since the Commissioners, by official proclamation, called the town of Lin- coln into existence. The village of Lancaster, which was included within its site, contained in all less than a half dozen buildings of every description. At the present time that number has been increased to over three hundred and fifty, and the number of inhabitants in town will not fall short of twenty-five hundred souls. The apprecia- tion of real property, which was so slow at the time of the first pub- lic sales that the Commissioners nearly despaired of being able to make sufficient sales of lots to defray the expenses of building the State House, has risen to such an extent that means have been obtained from that source sufficient not only for the building of the State House, but also for building the State University, the Agricultural College, and the State Lunatic Asylum, and about six hundred lots belonging to the State yet remain to be sold."
In a following paragraph Mr. Ames continues : "The cash valua- tion of the real property of the town belonging to private individu- als, as ascertained from the assessment roll, is $456,956. Nine of the church societies, for which reservations of town lots were made, as has been stated, have erected neat and commodious houses of worship, and edifices will be erected by the remaining societies early in the present autumn. Six societies, namely, the Methodist Episcopal, Protestant Methodist, Christian, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Catholic, have been duly organized for some time past, maintain pastors, and ob- serve the regular stated services. Advantage is being taken of the facilities offered in the width of the streets for setting out trees for park rows. Two large hotels, in addition to the one large and many smaller ones now in use, have been constructed, while the business of building substantial residences and business houses is being engaged in to an extent difficult of belief to one who has not seen it. And one thing at least is evident : that is, that every one in Lincoln is con- fident that he has cast his lines in pleasant places, and where there is to be, within a few years, a large, prosperous, and beautiful city."
At this time, early in 1870, Mr. Ames explains that : "In Laneas- ter county there are no longer any Government lands subject to home- stead and preëmption."
168
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
In a paragraph further on he remarks that "the cars are now run- ning on four railroads, which are surveyed and in all likelihood will be built to Lincoln. The Burlington and Missouri River railroad is now completed to Lincoln, and will take a westerly direction to Ft. Kearney, with the Union Pacific, thus placing it at nearly the center of a great transcontinental thoroughfare."
During the summer of 1868 the Commonwealth had become the Nebraska State Journal, which now was a daily. The Statesman was a weekly Democratie paper, and the Intelligencer was a monthly real estate periodical.
In brief, the town had a continual run of progress- great progress, considering that it started in a wilderness in 1867. Then the wild and vicious Legislature of 1871 disorganized the condition of prosper- ity of the town greatly. It impeached Governor Butler, whose acts as Commissioner and Governor have seldom been equaled in history for sagacity, courage, and judgment in the founding of a city, and threatened to undo all that had been done. The public was led to be- lieve that the location of the capital had been illegal, and property fell in value greatly, not to fully recover until after the grasshopper raids, which extended from 1873 to 1876. During the visit of these pests was the dismal period of Lincoln's history. Property fell to ruinously low prices, farmers had little to buy with, and hundreds not only left their farms, but the town of Lincoln also. But the more conrageous of the people remained through the days of the scourge, and were well rewarded for their resolution. It was during the year 1873-74 that Mr. George B. Skinner was elected Street Commissioner for the purpose of giving a large number of men work to keep them from want. Mr. Skinner was fully equal to the situation, and pro- creed to reconstruct the surface of the streets around Government Square, and where needed, and to make euts and fills generally. Some criticised him severely and others applauded, but the needy grasshop- per sufferers did what the people in later years conceded willingly : they admitted that he was a benefactor, without whose aid the wolf could not have been kept from the door of many a home.
But the locusts passed away in 1877, probably forever, and the city revived with phenomenal rapidity : so much so that the census of 1880 showed a population of 14,000. And from that day to this the growth has been both constant and rapid. The population of the
169
REMARKABLE GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENTS.
city is now fully fifty thousand, as indicated by the city directory, the voting population, and the school census.
The growth of the city was so rapid that the wild animals of this region did not seem to appreciate the situation for several years, and failed to move westward away from civilization. Deer, wolves, and other wild animals, were captured within the present city limits as late as 1872, and Lincoln was a game and fur market for a number of years later. Mr. Simon Benadom was the wholesale fur and game merchant of Lincoln and all surrounding country for many miles, from 1869 for a subsequent period of ten years. In the winter of 1871 and 1872 he went east with his stock, and in a couple of months returned to find that Rich & Oppenheimer had purchased $2,000 worth of furs at their store, in course of business in his absence. He purchased these at once and bought $1,800 worth besides of Simon Kelly, who had taken a few barrels of whisky out on the Blue river and traded it for these furs with trappers he found there. Mr. Ben- adom used to buy furs to the value of about $20,000 a season along about 1870 to 1872. The best of the pelts he sold in New York, in person. Others were disposed of in Chicago and elsewhere. The fur trade was rather depressed in the winter of 1873-4, and to be busy Mr. Benadom bought prairie chickens and quail. In two months he shipped sixteen thousand of each to New York, packing them in boxes and barrels and sending them East in a frozen condition. It can be seen that this city was in a great game country fifteen years ago, whose natural wildness was not by any means subdued. In this connec_ tion we can illustrate by saying that Benadom alone killed fully fifty deer on the present plat of Lincoln during a few years after he came here, in 1868. He generally found them in the brush and tall grass of the Salt creek bottom, and his deer hounds having started one, he would catch the animal on the fly, being a precise rifleman. He also shot twenty-one wolves on the present plat of Lincoln.
The Government postoffice was begun in 1874 and completed in 1879, at a cost of $200,000. It is built of gray limestone from the Gwyer quarries on the Platte river. Its architecture is modern Gothic.
The Lincoln Gas Light Company was organized in 1872, with a capital stock of $60,000, and has grown and prospered ever since.
In 1880 the Lincoln Telephone Exchange was organized, with a capital stock of $10,000. At this time 615 instruments are in use in 12
1
171
REMARKABLE GROWTH AND IMPROVEMENTS.
the city, with connections with fifty-seven towns in Nebraska and sixty-six towns in Iowa.
The city voted the Lincoln Street Railway Company right of way on the streets in April, 1881. Now that company has lines connecting all parts of the city, of which C. J. Ernst is the efficient manager. Besides, there are four other lines. The Rapid Transit line was built in 1887, and extended in 1888. At first its cars were operated with dummy engines, but these are now used only on the part of the line from U street to West Lincoln. The Rapid Transit connects West Lincoln with the asylum, by way of Twelfth street in the city. The Capital Heights line has its present terminus at O and Twelfth. It thence runs to N, thence to Eighteenth, thence to G, and eastward about two miles. This line was built in 1888. The Standard Street Railway was built in the fall of 1888, to connect the Lincoln com- pany's line on North Twenty-seventh street with the Wesleyan Uni- versity. The Bethany Heights line is being built this year, to connect the Lincoln company's line at V and Thirty-third with the Christian University. One of these companies has a capital of $1,000,000, and all now operate over thirty-one miles of track.
The City Water Works were begun in 1882, and consisted for seven years of a single well in the park bounded by D and F and Eighth and Sixth. The supply then was only about 1,000,000 gallons per day. This well proving inadequate to the demands of the growing city, an attempt was made in 1887 to increase the supply by sinking a pipe in the center of the well. This caused the water to become salty in taste. The same year Mr. Joseph Burns was employed by the city to attempt to construct a system of driven wells in Sixth street, and connect them with the pumping station. These wells were driven a little too deeply, perhaps, and most of them produced salt water after a few days' use. After great annoyance and much delay, it was finally decided to attempt to establish a well near N and the channel of the Antelope. This well was completed in July of the present year, and is now producing about 1,000,000 gallons of pure water daily, to the great satisfaction of the city. Operations for an additional supply in that vicinity are now going forward. During the last six weeks operations have been progressing at the park wells, and it is now believed that the trouble will. be done away with, and that pure water will hereafter be supplied from that well also.
The pork-packing business was begun at West Lincoln in 1881,'
172
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
with a capacity of 10,000 hogs. Now there are two large packing houses there, capable of handling all the hogs that can be bought for many miles around. The dressed beef business is also carried on there, having been begun last year. The packing business of the city is growing constantly, and will soon be one of the most import- ant commercial interests of Nebraska. There are extensive stock- yard facilities connected with the packing houses.
The Board of Trade was organized Jannary 16th, 1880, with a large membership, designed to benefit the city in every possible way. It is now in a very prosperous condition, and has several hundred members. It raised $10,000 by subscription this summer to adver- tise the city, and is a most enterprising organization, from which the city will reap great benefit for years to come. The officers of the board are given elsewhere in this chapter.
In 1887 a contract was awarded to H. T. Clarke and Hugh Mur- phy to pave the central portions of the business part of the city, from N to S on Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth, and from N to Q on Tenth and Eleventh, and from N to P from Eleventh to Fourteenth, the outside streets named being included, and all comprising the first and second paving districts. The city had had no experience in pav- ing whatever, and when the contractors were ready to lay blocks, it was found that gas pipe, water mains, sewer pipe, and street car tracks, must all be put down before paving could go on. This re- quired a vast amount of work and expenditure, and delay upon delay accumulated until the patience of the public was wholly exhausted. The newspapers were filled with criticisms of the council, board of pub- lic works, and contractors. The streets presented the appearance of a fortified city, with ditches, trenches, heaps and ridges of earth, and business men were blockaded for entire blocks, for weeks at a time, with no outlet but the sidewalk, and in many cases with no crossings for pedestrians. The streets were frequently flooded with water to settle them. The worst siege was around Government Square. The Capital Hotel was confronted with a small swamp for several months.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.