USA > Nebraska > Lancaster County > Lincoln > Lincoln, the capital city and Lancaster County, Nebraska, Volume I > Part 3
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LANCASTER FINE SANDY LOAM
This type is the least extensive found in the county. The soil is quite sandy, being composed of medium to fine sand with a slight admixture of silt blown over it from the surrounding heavier types. The structure is open and porous. The soil is generally of a dark brown color, from ten to fifteen inches deep, with a general average of about twelve inches, and is very easily cultivated. The subsoil is composed of medium to fine sand or sandy loam of a yellow to gray color. At a depth of about twenty-five inches there is sometimes found a stratum of rather
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LINCOLN AND LANCASTER COUNTY
heavy silt material about five inches in thickness that aids in the conservation of soil moisture.
The Lancaster fine sandy loam is found in various parts of the northern half of the county. A small area skirts the bluffs along Salt Creek south of Lincoln, another larger area occurs two or three miles north of the city, and at several other points in the northeastern part of the county are found small patches of this sandy material. The surface of this type is rolling and sometimes quite precipitous. It is always well drained.
The Lancaster fine sandy loam is derived for the most part from weathered sandstone of the Dakota group. This material outcrops in some of the deeper ravines where the overlying formations have been removed from the surface. There is one place just north of Lincoln where the sandy material appears to have been an outwash from the glacier, but with this doubtful exception there can be no mistake concerning the origin of the type. The sandstone, when found in the ledge, has a brown to gray color and is only loosely consolidated, breaking down easily between the thumb and finger. After it has been weathered for some time the color changes to a reddish-brown and there results a ferruginous sandy soil.
The limited extent of the type in this area and its occurrence in spots and patches make it difficult to determine its relative crop value. It is, however, much below that of any of the other types for general crops. Where favorably located it would be well to grow early vegetables on it, because its sandy, loose nature makes it more suitable to truck than to general farin crops.
The following table gives the results of mechanical analyses of this soil :
MECHANICAL ANALYSES OF LANCASTER FINE SANDY LOAM
Number
Description
Fine gravel Per cent
l'oarse sand Per cent
Medium sand Per cent
Fine sand Per cent
Very fine sand I'er cent
Silt Per cent
C'lay Per cent
15948. . .
Soil
0.0
2.6
12.8
43.7
5.4
21.8
13.2
15949. ... Subsoil
O
5.0
17.5
40.3
3.I
23.7
10.7
ALKALI
The farmers of this area frequently find in their fields local spots and patches of heavy gray to dark-gray material that gives them much trouble in the culti- vation of their crops. These local areas are called "gumbo," and are caused by the subsoil coming to the surface in badly eroded places. The cause of these spots is lack of humus and poor physical condition, but there is a popular notion that their refractory nature is due to an excess of soluble salts or alkali. In order to substantiate or disprove this theory, some of the worst places were sampled and chemical analyses made to determine the salt content.
These analyses did not show enough water soluble salts to justify a complete chemical analysis, slightly more than one-half of I per cent magnesium oxide. the salt which is thought to cause the trouble in these upland soils. So small a quantity is not enough to injure crops or markedly to affect the physical condi- tion of the soil. These spots are generally found in the Marshall silt loam and the Marshall loam, and in the latter type they may sometimes carry an excess of salts, but the probability is that no serious trouble has ever arisen from this
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LINCOLN AND LANCASTER COUNTY
cause. As has been stated elsewhere, these heavy areas may be improved by heavy applications of coarse manure and deep plowing.
While little or no alkali is found in the upland soils, there is a considerable quantity in the Wabash silt loam, mainly compounds of sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium. The most prominent alkali areas in this bottom-land soil are found near the junction of Little Salt, Oak, Middle, and Haines creeks with the main channel of Salt Creek. These areas are at once recognized either by the white incrustations of alkali or the otherwise barren surface, or by the well-known salt grass that thrives in soils saturated with alkaline solutions. These areas are generally low and too wet for cultivation.
As stated, these alkali spots occur wherever the large tributaries enter Salt Creek. It is notable that the tributaries mentioned are fed by waters that either leach out of or pass over the largest area of the glacial drift in the western and northern parts of the county. It is quite probable, therefore, that most of these soluble salts have come from the leachings from this ground-up glacial drift.
A small percentage of the Wabash silt loam is abandoned because of the alkali, and these small areas are outlined and designated as "salt flats" on the soil map, because the conditions did not justify the preparation of a separate alkali map. As elsewhere explained, the conditions of the streams make drain- age in these bottom lands quite feasible, and drainage will in all probability reclaim these flats from their alkali condition.
SUMMARY
Lancaster County its situated in the southeastern part of the state. The sur- face is rolling to rough and hilly, with a general elevation of 1,200 feet above sea level. The general slope is to the northeast, and the drainage is effected through Salt Creek and its tributaries.
The area has a moderately humid climate, but is subject occasionally to severe droughts. It has excellent railroad facilities, and good markets are within easy reach of all parts of the county.
The agriculture of the area dates from 1856 and has almost always been along the line of general grain farming. Stock is raised only in a very limited way, and most of the grain is sold from the farm. There is serious need of a mixed husbandry in which leguminous crops are grown and special attention directed to stock raising, especially hogs, and to dairying.
The principal crops grown are corn, wheat, and oats, and these have been the most important since about 1888, prior to which date flax constituted a prin- cipal crop. The tenant system is an important factor in the farm practice in this area, and this, together with a too general use of the lister, has caused the productiveness of farm lands to deteriorate.
There are four types of soil found in this area. The Marshall silt loam and the Marshall loam represent the Marshall series, and the Wabash silt loam the Wabash series. The Lancaster fine sandy loam is associated with the Marshall series, but is not yet referred to any series.
The Marshall silt loam is well adapted to corn, wheat, oats, sugar beets, alfalfa, clover, and the grasses, while the Marshall loam is a heavier soil and is probably better suited to the production of durum wheats, oats, alfalfa, and some
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LINCOLN AND LANCASTER COUNTY
of the wild grasses. The Wabash silt loam is a very good corn and wheat soil, but is subject to annual inundations. The Lancaster fine sandy loam is too limited in extent to permit of a very detailed study, but where favorably situated will produce early truck better than any other type in the county. In the cultivation of the Marshall soils the conservation of moisture is a prime requisite to success- ful agriculture. In the Marshall soils there occurs a phase here and there known as "gumbo" that gives trouble in cultivating the farms, but by deep plowing and applying coarse manures these heavy spots can be made to disappear.
The adaptation of the Marshall silt loam to the production of sugar beets justifies a more extended interest in the beet-sugar industry in this county. More alfalfa should be grown, and a definite rotation of crops should supersede the present method of planting the same fields to corn for years in succession. Finally, the use of the lister should be largely abandoned, and the plowing of the land should be insisted upon by every land owner in the area.
CHAPTER II EARLY SETTLEMENT OF LANCASTER COUNTY
TIIE PREY FAMILY
The first permanent white settler in what is now the County of Lancaster was John D. Prey. Mr. Prey was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 4th of December, 1798; during the first days of his life much of his time was spent in Ireland. He was the son of John and Martha ( Little) Prey. Before coming to the shores of America John D. Prey was wedded to Miss Margaret Gibson, born near Belfast, Ireland, of Scottish parents. After 112 months upon the Atlantic Ocean Mr. and Mrs. Prey first touched the American continent at St. Johns, New Brunswick, and from there proceeded to the City of Boston, there living for quite a time. Then they located near Syracuse, New York, where they stayed for several years. In 1843 the Prey family emigrated to Wisconsin, their last stopping point before coming to Nebraska. It was in the spring of 1856 that John D. Prey and his son, John W., started for the Nebraska Territory, to investigate the country and incidentally look for claims. They had been attracted by the stories told of the new country and were anxious to find a spot where they could locate permanently and there rear the family of children. On the day of June 15, 1856, they reached a site on Salt Creek, approximately three miles from the present City of Lincoln; they went up this river until they reached a point which is now between the towns of Roca and Sprague and there took up claims for themselves. also three other sons. On July 26, 1856, the remainder of the Prey family joined them. Their first effort was to construct rude log cabins and to settle themselves before the hard winter came upon them : this they soon accomplished. A supply of provisions had been hauled from Ne- braska City and by the time the first snow came in December they were well fixed and had nothing to fear. The spring came in good time and the Preys immediately put in their crops ; very little corn was raised this year, but by 1858 they had a large crop planted. Mr. and Mrs. Prey lived on their farm until the former's death on September 17, 1873: Mrs. Prey followed him in the month of January, 1880. Both are buried in the Centreville Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Prey were the parents of twelve children, namely : Gilbert G., August 12, 1822; Jane, May 14, 1824; Thomas R., February 13, 1826; John W., May 11, 1828; William 1 ... October 10, 1830; Margaret, February 14, 1833; Mary Elizabeth, January 30. 1835: James, June 11, 1838; Julia Ann, March 11. 1840; David Ely, June 5, 1842; Rebecca, November 19, 1845 : and George W., September 18. 1849.
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LINCOLN AND LANCASTER COUNTY
OTHER SETTLEMENTS
It has been said, and written, that while en route to the salt basins and across the country from Plattsmouth the Preys met three men, named Whitmore, Card- well and Therpe, who were returning from Salt Creek where they had staked out claims with which they intended to speculate: they were from Plattsmouth. They probably belonged to that notorious class of men which followed the frontier for personal gain and which included speculators, claim-jumpers, squatters and land-grabbers. Their ilk became numerous in the vicinity of Salt Creek, but in time, when the number of honest and purposeful settlers increased, their faces disappeared. There had been no surveying accomplished in this part of the country at that time, nor was there a land office until 1857, when one was established at Nebraska City. Then a portion of Lancaster County was surveyed.
Shortly after the Prey family had settled ; to be exact, in the next year, other settlers began to come to the valley of the Salt Creek and open up claims. The names of J. L. Davidson, W. W. Dunham, James Eatherton, Jeremiah B. Gar- rett. 1. C. Bristol, Solomon Kirke, William Arnold, Ogden Clegg, the Bogue brothers, Weeks. Haskins, and Palmer were familiar among these early comers. In 1857. also, settlements were made along the upper Salt, in the vicinity of Hickman and Saltillo; this was, however, at the time a part of old Clay County, which county was not eradicated until 1864.
John Dee was an early settler on lower Salt Creek, near the present site of the town of Waverly. In a history of the county published in 1889 it is claimed that Dee disputed the honor of being the first white settler with John D. Prey, but this question must be decided in favor of the latter, as Dee did not come until 1857. In November. 1857. Dee was joined by Daniel Harrington, James Cardwell and Abraham Beals ; and in the spring of 1858 James Moran. John P. and I .. J. Loder and Michael Shea appeared in the locality.
In the autumn of 1857 A. J. Wallingford and his brother, Richard, located on Salt Creek between what are now the sites of Lincoln and Saltillo. Also, in the same year, William Shirley, Joseph Brown and Mr. Bottsford located on Stevens Creek in the eastern part of the county. They were joined shortly by the follow- ing : J. D. Main, C. F. Retzlaff, John Lenip, Aaron Wood, and others. In the same year Festus Reed, Jeremiah Showalter and Joel Mason settled north of the Wallingford claim and John Cadman, John Hilton and several others located near Saltillo. In 1859 Robert Farmer, J. J. Forest and Joseph Gilmore located in the Camp Creek settlement to the north. Silas Pratt, the Crawford family, Mrs. White and her son, C. C. White, and John Moore located on Oak Creek, twelve miles northwest of Lincoln, in the early '60s and were joined soon after by John Tullis. Other settlers were: L. N. Haskin, George A. Mayer. W. E. Keys, E. G. Keys, J. S. Gregory, John Michael, M. Spay, J. A. Snyder, E. Warnes, W. A. Cadman, W. E. Stewart, Oren Snyder, Solomon Kirk and Dr. Wesley Queen. Many others who are not mentioned in this connection were early settlers, but as their advent has to do directly with the early settlement of Lincoln and the other towns, their story is reserved for the chapters treating the same.
The first white child born in Lancaster County was F. Morton Donovan, the son of W. T. Donovan, on March 12, 1859. The child was born at Stevens Creek, where the family had gone to escape the threatened Indian troubles. On Vol. 1-2
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LINCOLN AND LANCASTER COUNTY
March 18th of the same year a son was born to Michael Shea and wife, and soon afterward William Shirley was presented with a son.
In the late fall of 1861 the first frame building in the county was begun and was finished the following spring. Richard Wallingford was the owner and the carpentering was done by W. W. Cox. The doors were constructed of black walnut.
The first postoffice in the county was established in 1863 at Gregory's Basin and J. S. Gregory was the postmaster.
INDIAN DISTURBANCES
The early settlers in the territory now comprised in Lancaster County had the opportunity to become well acquainted with the Nebraska red men, namely the Pawnees, Otoes and Omahas. Other tribes, such as the Sioux, were not common as far south as this country. The presence of the Indians here caused many apprehensions upon the part of the settlers, but very seldom did anything occur which bordered upon the serious.
Among the pioneers who came in the spring of 1857 was a man named Davis, a bachelor. He resented the sudden appearance of two redskins in his cabin one morning and shot one of them dead. The other members of the white com- munity, fearing a reprisal, took their few belongings and fled to Weeping Water. They soon returned and found that no damage had been done by the Indians except the robbery of a few homes. During the same time a hundred men at Nebraska City formed an organization to quell the supposed Indian uprising. The expedition resulted in the capture of one Pawnee Indian, but he escaped that night from his three guards, one of whom was John W. Prey.
In 1859 several bands of Cheyenne and Arapahoes came to the salt basins. A group of them stopped at the home of John W. Prey one day, when no one was there except Mrs. Prey and two of the children, sixteen-year-old David and thirteen-year-old Rebecca. The Indians announced their intention of taking the little girl with them, whereupon she fled to a wheat field nearby to hide. The Indians found her, however, and made off. Mrs. Prey had in the meantime sent David after some men who were working down the creek and then, unwilling that her daughter should be taken by the Indians, accompanied them until the men who had been summoned caught up with them. The white men compelled the Indians to release the little girl.
In 1858 while a Government treaty was in progress a large number of Pawnees were encamped in the vicinity of the salt basin, close to the Donovan cabin. Cap- tain Donovan and his family were always on their guard and had to share their food with the Indians. The captain forcibly ejected some Indians from his cabin one day and they became angry, threatening to massacre the whole outfit. It happened that the second chief in command was a friend of Donovan, having been allowed many privileges, and he assured the other Indians that Donovan was a Government agent and could call down the soldiers upon them at will, thus averting the trouble. Mrs. Donovan, at another time, knocked a redskin sprawl- ing with a chair, but the appearance of the men prevented any further disturbance. After these scares Donovan decided to move to Stevens Creek, where he stayed until 1861, then returned and located at Yankee Hill.
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LINCOLN AND LANCASTER COUNTY
Early in the year 1859 the Olathe settlement were threatened by the Pawnees. Some of them stole a deer from the home of Jeremiah B. Garrett, who, in return, organized a band of men and started after the thieves. After traveling about three miles Garrett, Solomon Kirk and William Arnold discovered a group of Indians in the very act of skinning the deer which they had stolen. The white men fired upon them, Arnold wounding his man, but Garrett's bullet found the heart of one of the redskins. In return Garrett received an arrow between his ribs, which he extracted himself. The Indians immediately left the neighborhood.
Shortly afterwards some Pawnees found the cabin owned by James Bogus and Mr. Beals empty and broke in, and carried away clothing and food. The two men returned and found that they had been robbed, whereupon they sum- moned several men, among them a brother of Bogus, Joel Mason, A. J. Walling- ford, Ed Hilton, W. W. Dunham, William Arnold. Bob Palmer, Mr. Sophir. They waited at the Sophir cabin, which stood on Salt Creek, east of the asylum, near Crabb's mill, for the Pawnees who had encamped near the present site of the penitentiary. In the morning the redskins came into view and Joel Mason advanced towards them for a parley. The Indians treated him with contempt and forced him back to the cabin. He gave the signal and his companions opened fire, killing three of the Pawnees and wounding five. The dead Indians were buried in Yankee Hill Precinct and the skull of one of them was preserved for a long time by Judge Cadman.
During the Indian scare of 1864, when the Sioux were on the war path on the Big Blue River, nearly all the Lancaster settlement left. Several of the more courageous stayed until they learned something definite about the movements of the Sioux. Not hearing anything after a few days they mounted horses and pro- ceeded westward to find out for themselves. The party consisted of W. T. Donovan, John S. Gregory, E. W. Warnes, Richard Wallingford, James Morgan, John P. Loder, Aaron Wood and one other. They came in sight of the Blue River before they caught even a glimpse of an Indian and then they were intro- duced to a few rather suddently. The first intimation of the redskins' presence was the appearance of a sole warrior upon a hill in their rear. Immediately the Lancaster men began to retreat, but there appeared several hundred more Indians, mounted, across their path. Death seemed very near to the little band of white men and they resolved to cut their way through at any price. Hardly had they arrived at this decision than one of the Indians waved a white flag and rode toward them. The Indians were Pawnees, not Sioux, and the white men were treated as friends. These Indians were themselves on the hunt for their enemy tribesmen, the Sioux.
Numerous other minor conflicts with the Indians might be told, conflicts largely caused by the instinctive thievery of the Indian and his natural inquisitiveness. Nothing else of sanguinary nature, however, has been recorded as happening within what is now Lancaster County.
PRE-EMPTION AND HOMESTEAD LAWS
There were two methods only by which a settler could obtain land from the Government within the limits of the State of Nebraska. The first way was by the pre-emption act of September 4, 1841, and the second was by way of the homestead act of May 20, 1862.
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LINCOLN AND LANCASTER COUNTY
The pre-emption act provided that "Every person being the head of a family, or a widow, or single man over the age of twenty-one years, and being a citizen of the United States, or having filed a declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws" was entitled to enter at the land office 160 acres of unappropriated government land by complying with all the requirements of the act. It was decided that a single unmarried woman, not the head of a family, but able to meet the requirements of the pre-emption laws, had the right to claim its benefits.
An individual desiring to obtain land under the provisions of the pre-emption act, had first to make settlement in person on the tract by laying the foundations of a house or doing some work with a view of making the same his home. Where the land was "offered" the party had to file with the district land office his declaratory statement as to the fact of his settlement within thirty days from the date of said settlement, and within one year from that date, had to make final proof of his actual residence upon, and cultivation of the tract, and secure the same by paying cash, or filing warrants duly assigned to the preemptor.
Where the land had been surveyed but not offered at public sale, the claimant had to file within three months from date of settlement and make proof and pay- ment within eighteen months from the time of filing the declaratory statement, that is, within twenty-one months from the date of settlement.
Should the settler in either of the aforesaid cases die before establishing his claim within the period limited by law, the title could be perfected by his heirs making the requisite proof and paying for the land. The entry in this case had to be in the name of the heirs of the deceased settler and the patent was issued accordingly.
The right to the land commenced from the date of settlement and the party making the first settlement upon a tract of public land was entitled to the right of preempting the same, provided he subsequently complied with all the requirements of the law.
When a person had filed his declaratory statement for one tract of land, it was not lawful for the same person, at any future period, to file a second declara- tory statement for another tract, unless the first filing was invalid in consequence of the land applied for not being subject to preemption, or by determination of the land against him in case of contest. or from any similar cause which would have prevented him from consummating a preemption under his declaratory statement.
The assignment of a preemption claim was null and void and vested no right or equities in the assignee.
A person having filed on a tract of land and afterwards relinquishing the same to the government, thereby forfeited his right to file again for another tract. A party owning 320 acres of land anywhere in the United States could not exercise the right of preemption.
Each qualified preemptor was entitled to 160 acres of either minimum or double minimum lands subject to preemption by paying the government price, $1.25 per acre for the former class, and $2.50 per acre for the latter class.
Final proof and payment could not be made until the party had actually re- sided upon the land for a period of at least six months, and made the necessary
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LINCOLN AND LANCASTER COUNTY
cultivation and improvements to show his good faith as an actual settler. This proof could be made by one witness.
The second method of obtaining title to public lands within the state of Nebraska was by the Homestead Act of May 20, 1862. By this act "Any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed a declaration of inten- tion to become such, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government, or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall be entitled to enter one quarter section, or a less quantity of the unappropriated public lands."
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