USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 8
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Young divided the "forces of Israel" into companies of hundreds, fifties and tens, and in their march across lowa they moved with as great a precision as a well-disciplined army of soldiers. By the middle of May, 2,000 wagons and 15,000 Mormons were on their way to the Missouri River. It was a wet, backward spring, the roads in places were almost impassable and their progress was slow. Several hundred stopped at Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah, in Iowa. for the purpose of raising a crop. On the 14th of June the advance guard, under the leadership of Brigham Young, reached the Missouri River opposite where the City of Omaha now stands and there established a "camp of Israel" until a ferryboat could be built. This camp soon became known as "Miller's Hollow," so named for one of the Mormon elders.
The war with Mexico was then in progress and the United States Govern- ment authorized Capt. James Allen to raise a battalion of five companies among the Mormon emigrants. The Mormons readily answered the call and the volun- teers were organized by Col. Thomas L. Kane, a brother of the Arctic explorer. At Fort Leavenworth each Mormon volunteer received a bounty of $40.00, which was sent back to his family. Colonel Kane took it upon himself to see that the money reached its destination, and for this and other kindnesses shown the emigrants the name of the camp at "Miller's Hollow," was changed to Kanesville. A few years later the citizens sent to Glenwood, Iowa, for .1. D.
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Jones to come and survey the town. At that time there was a postoffice called Council Bluffs at Trader's Point, a few miles below Kanesville, and after Jones' survey was completed the new town was named "Council Bluffs City," but after a time the word city was dropped.
The Mormon battalion joined the command of Col. Stephen W. Kearney and marched to Santa Fe, thence to California, where it arrived after the war was over. Some of them then worked in the construction of Sutter's mill race and were there when the first gold was discovered. After the departure of the battalion those who remained behind set to work to establish quarters for the coming winter. Friendly relations with the Pottawattami and Omaha Indians were the first consideration. A council was held with the Omaha, and Brigham Young made known the wants of his people. At the close of Young's speech to the Indians the chief, Big Elk, replied as follows:
"My son, thou hast spoken well. All that thou hast said I have in my heart. I have much to say. We are poor. When we go to hunt game in one place we meet with an enemy, and so in another place our enemies kill us. We do not kill them. I hope we shall be friends. You may stay on these lands two years or more. Our young men shall watch your cattle. We would be glad to have you trade with us. We will warn you of danger from other Indians."
But Young was not willing to accept the mere verbal promise of the chief. He drew up a formal lease for five years, which was signed by Big Elk, Little Chief and Standing Elk. After the conclusion of the council the Mormons gave a banquet to the Indians. A ferry was then established across the Missouri, nearly opposite the present Town of Florence, though some crossed the river at Sarpy's Ferry at Bellevue, and the "Winter Quarters" were located about where the Town of Florence now stands. Here the Mormons built several hun- dred log cabins, nearly a hundred sod houses and an "octagon council house, resembling a New England potato heap in time of frost." Sorensen says : "The industry of the people was plainly evidenced by the workshops, mills and factories which sprang up as if by magic."
Although the Mormons raised a crop and divided the products of their fields and gardens with their Indian friends, their activity destroyed so much timber that the game were driven away and the Omaha chiefs complained to their agent. An investigation showed that the Indians had good grounds for their complaint and the Mormons were ordered to vacate the Omaha country. In the fall of 1846 there were probably fifteen thousand Mormons encamped in the Missouri Valley on the Omaha and Pottawatomi lands. The following winter was one of unusual severity and to make matters worse a plague of a scrofulous nature broke out among the emigrants. This disease made its appearance among the Indians in 1845 and was "attributed to the rank vegetation and decaying organic matter on the river bottoms." Clyde B. Aitchison, in a paper read before the Nebraska Historical Society, January 1I, 1899, says there were 600 deaths in the Mormon settlement at Florence.
On January 14, 1847, Brigham Young had a revelation to seek a new loca- tion farther west. The order of the Indian agent to vacate the Omaha lands may have had something to do with the "revelation," but at any rate a company of 146, three of whom were women, with seventy-three wagons loaded with pro- visions and supplies, left the winter quarters on April 14, 1847, just three months
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after the revelation. Another company under Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor left a little later. It numbered 1,553 persons, with 560 wagons and a number of domestic animals. In May a third company, numbering 1,229 people, with 397 wagons, under the personal direction of Brigham Young, started to follow those who had gone before. Heber C. Kimball was the leader of another com- pany which left in July. It consisted of 662 persons and 226 wagons. A week or two later Willis Richards led 526 persons, with 169 wagons, up the Platte Valley, and with the departure of this company the winter quarters were deserted. Those who did not go west with the main body recrossed the Missouri and set- tled in the Pottawatomi country along the bluffs from Glenwood to the mouth of the Boyer River.
On July 21, 1847, Erastus Snow and Orson Pratt, the leaders of the first company sent out from the winter quarters, saw from the top of an eminence the panorama of the Great Salt Lake Valley and sent a message back to Brighanı Young that they had found the place for the Mormon colony. During the next five years fully one hundred thousand Mormons passed through Iowa and up the Platte Valley on their way to Salt Lake. A history of the Mormons entitled "Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley" was published in 1853, edited by one James Linforth. It says :
"The next consecutive event of importance in President Young's career after his arrival at Kanesville or Council Bluffs, was his starting in the spring of 1847, at the head of 143 picked men, embracing eight of the Twelve Apostles, across the unexplored country in search of a new home for the Saints beyond the Rocky Mountains. (Young accompanied this company only as far as the Elkhorn River.) The pioneer band pursued their way over sage and saleratus plains, across unbridged rivers and through mountain defiles, until their toilsome and weary journey was terminated by the discovery of Great Salt Lake Valley and the choice of it for the gathering place of the Saints. They then returned to Council Bluffs, where they arrived on the 31st of October, and an epistle was issued on the 23d of December by the Twelve Apostles, noticing the principal events since the expulsion from Nauvoo and the discovery of the Great Salt Lake Valley."
In the march of the Mormons across the plains each man carried a rifle or a musket and such discipline was maintained that it is said the Indians would frequently pass a small party of Mormons and attack a much larger body of other emigrants. The route they followed from the Mississippi River near Keokuk became known as the "Mormon Trail," and Omaha was a favorite crossing place for the emigrants. Thus the Mormons paved the way for the "Gate City," and in after years the "Mormon Trail" was developed into the great Union Pacific Railway.
The Mormon emigration continued until about the beginning of the Civil war in 1861 and some of the Omaha merchants did a thriving business for several years in furnishing outfits and supplies to the emigrants, as the Missouri River was the last point on the Mormon Trail where purchases could be made for the trip across the plains. In the latter '50s a number of outrages were committed upon emigrant trains and some of these depredations were charged against the Mormon organizations known as the "Avenging Angels" and the "Danites." When the United States announced, in the fall of 1857, that an expedition was
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to be sent into Utah to preserve order and prevent a recurrence of such outrages, considerable anxiety was felt among the settlers of the West, for fear the Mor- mons would retaliate by sending expeditions of the "Angels" and "Danites" against the frontier settlements.
That at least some of the people of Nebraska were affected by this feeling of anxiety is seen in a communication to the Omaha Times, edited and published by William W. Wyman. This contribution appeared in the columns of that paper in April, 1858, over the signature of "Fair Warning." As it shows how badly some of the western settlers were alarmed, it is given below in full:
"Circumstances of the most alarming character are being developed, which should aronse attention to the movements of the Mormons in this locality, and which warrant and loudly demand of the United States Government that a military post be established not far distant from this city. Not less than one hundred of these people are now housed in our midst. It is well known that near Florence, but six miles distant from us, the Saints have a village on the north bank of Mill Creek, where are their warehouses, hotel and other fixtures requisite for fitting up a small army without risk of detection. There, too, are their powder magazines.
"In our city just now a great stir is going on amongst them, but for what immediate purpose is not known. It is known, however, that every saintly dollar not absolutely required to keep together body and soul is given for the purchase of munitions of war. A large number of Mormons are leaving this vicinity this spring. They do not, as usual, go in hand or ox-cart trains, but small, strag- gling squads are seen moving westward toward the South Pass. Horses and mules are used instead of oxen on account, as is supposed, of their better adapta- tion to quick movements. When met thus on their journey and asked their destination, the common reply is, 'Washington Territory, Oregon or Cali- fornia.' By this means they hope to pass Colonel Johnston and his army, or, perhaps, slip around him by some of the secret mountain passes.
"In the event of failure in both these moves, then the Mormon city (Genoa). some twenty miles west of the Loup Fork, will afford a very suitable retreat whence to sally forth and lay waste the towns and settlements west of this point-Columbus, Monroe, Buchanan. Fontenelle, Fremont, North Bend, Elk- horn, and many others, now without the least show of protection. Last fall this Mormon city contained not less than five hundred souls; at this time it no doubt numbers one thousand. It is well known that the Mormons are in pos- session of the mails whilst they are being transported across the plains; instance the recent depredations under the walls of Fort Kearney, where, in an old smith shop by the wayside, the United States mail was held twelve days and all the Government dispatches for the army were stolen and sent slyly to Brigham Young.
"When our army in Utah shall enter the Valley of Salt Lake the Mormons en masse will rise in hostile array, for they are sworn to resist. At that moment let the good people west of us look well to their safety. We hesitate not to say that those 1,000 Mormons near Loup Fork, armed and equipped as they are, can and will sweep from existence every Gentile village and soul west of the Elk- horn. As to Omaha City, the nursling of a Government hostile to Mormon rule, the rival of Mormon towns and the victim of sworn Mormon vengeance, how shall she share in this strife? In the space of one night the 100 Saints now here
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could lay in ashes every house in our city, whilst the armed bands in our vicinity should pillage and revel in our blood. The Deseret News proclaims to the wide world from the great leader of the hosts of the anointed thus: 'Winter quarters is mine, saith the Lord. Nebraska will I lay waste. With fear and with sword shall my people blot out from the face of the earth all those who kill the prophets and stone the Lord's anointed.'
"Aside from the teachers in the Mormon Church, the laymen are fully per- suaded in their minds that they are the chosen of the Lord. One thousand Mor- mons, imbued with this spirit, will, on the field of battle, defeat ten thousand of the regular soldiery and lay waste a territory whilst the Government is yet beginning to oppose.
"For verity of the statements herein contained as to the movements of this sect, let those who wish inquire of the merchants who sell ammunition here, at Florence and at Crescent City. Let them see if Council Bluffs merchants are not drained of these articles by the train which lately left that place. Then let the store houses of the Saints near Florence be searched, place scouts on the plains and there examine wagons and packs. That certainly should satisfy one and all, even the most skeptical."
Truly, "Fair Warning" was a pessimistic prophet-a veritable "calamity howler"-but events proved his fears to be without foundation. The Deseret News mentioned in the communication was a Mormon paper published at Salt Lake City. At the time the first Mormons settled about Salt Lake in 1847, the territory was outside the boundaries of the United States. By the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, which concluded the Mexican war, Utah, with other domain, was ceded by Mexico to the United States. The Mormons then organized the State of Deseret, adopted a constitution and sent a delegate to Washington to urge the admission of the state.
Congress refused to admit the State of Deseret, or to recognize the delegate. but in 1850 the Territory of Utah was organized and Brigham Young was appointed governor. The trouble in 1857 grew out of the fact that Young could not agree with the other territorial officials appointed by President Buchanan. Perhaps the appointees may have been incompetent to a certain degree, but the Territorial Legislature had already adopted the laws of the State of Deseret and it became apparent that the Mormon Church was determined to rule the terri- tory. Instructions from Washington were disregarded and Young openly defied the United States authorities. It was finally decided by the administration to send a military expedition into Utah. Gen. William Harney was selected as leader, but was succeeded by Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, who was afterward killed at the battle of Shiloh, while commanding the Confederate forces. The ex- pedition left Fort Leavenworth in the fall of 1857, and, while there was little actual fighting, the Mormons harassed Johnston's movements to such an extent by burning trains, etc., that the troops did not occupy Salt Lake City until in June, 1858. Young was removed as governor and with the military occupation of the territory the Mormon trouble ended. A garrison was maintained there for several years as a precautionary measure against further disobedience on the part of the Mormon leaders.
CHAPTER VI
NEBRASKA UNDER VARIOUS JURISDICTIONS
FIRST CLAIMED BY SPAIN-NEXT BY FRANCE IN 1682-CEDED TO SPAIN IN 1762 -- INCLUDED IN THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE-TRANSFERRED TO THE UNITED STATES IN 1804-ATTACHED TO THE TERRITORY OF INDIANA-THE DISTRICT OF LOUIS- IANA-PART OF THE TERRITORY OF MISSOURI-ORGANIZED AS A TERRITORY IN 1854-BOUNDARIES-ADMITTED AS A STATE-RECAPITULATION.
The first civilized nation to lay claim to the territory now comprising the State of Nebraska was Spain. Her claim was based on the discovery of the Mississippi River by De Soto in 1541, but the wisest of her statesmen or geogra- phers did not know the extent of the great Mississippi Valley. Hence, while nominally included in the Spanish possessions in America, Nebraska remained untenanted, save for the wild beast and the roving Indian.
Nearly a century and a half after De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi, the French explorers, Hennepin and La Salle, traversed the river for practi- cally its entire length and the latter, on April 9, 1862, laid claim to the entire region drained by it and its tributaries, giving the country the name of Louis- iana. Spain acquiesced in the French claim and for eighty years all the vast valley of the great Father of Waters was recognized as French domain. During that period some explorers, notably the Mallet brothers, visited what is now Nebraska, but no attempt was made to found a settlement or extend the pro- vincial government that far north.
At the close of the French and Indian war in 1762, all the French possessions west of the Mississippi River were ceded to Spain and Nebraska again became a part of the domain of his Catholic Majesty. Spain remained in possession until by the Treaty of October 1, 1800, the province was ceded back to France, though that country did not take actual possession for more than two years after the treaty. Between 1763 and 1800 settlements were extended up the Mississippi as far as St. Louis, and in a vague way civil government was applied for the first time to the country along the Missouri River. There were no permanent white inhabitants, though a number of white men went into the Indian country for the purpose of trading with the natives.
By the Treaty of Paris, April 30, 1803, the Province of Louisiana was trans- ferred to the United States. On the last day of October following, Congress passed an act authorizing the President to take possession of the new purchase and "form a temporary government therein." The province was transferred from Spain to France and from France to the United States on December 20, 1803, but the actual government in the upper or northern part of Louisiana,
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which included Nebraska, dates from March 10, 1804. On that day Maj. Amos Stoddard of the United States army assumed the duties of governor of Upper Louisiana. In his "Historical Sketches of Louisiana," Major Stoddard says:
"The ceremony of the transfer (from Spain to France) occurred between the hours of II A. M. and 12 M., March 9, 1804. The Spanish flag was lowered and the standard of France was run up in its place. The people, although conscious that the sovereignty of France was being resumed but for a moment and simply as a necessary formality in the final transfer, nevertheless could not restrain their joy at seeing float over them once more the standard which even forty years of the mild sway of Spain had not estranged from their memory. So deep was the feeling that, when the customary hour came for lowering the flag, the people besought me to let it remain up all night. The request was granted and the flag of France floated until the next morning over the city from which it was about to be withdrawn forever. At the appointed time on the next day, March 10, 1804, the ceremony of transfer from France to the United States was enacted. The flag of the French Republic was withdrawn and the Stars and Stripes waved for the first time in the future metropolis of the Valley of the Mississippi. Thus St. Louis became perhaps the only city in history which has seen the flags of three nations float over it in token of sovereignty within the space of twenty-four hours.
By the act of Congress, approved March 26, 1804, Louisiana was divided into the Territory (now the State) of Louisiana, and the District of Louisiana, which included all the remainder of the province. Under the provisions of the same act the District of Louisiana was made subject to the territorial government of Indiana, of which Gen. William H. Harrison was then governor. Some his- torians state that by this act all of Upper Louisiana was made a part of the Territory of Indiana. This is not correct. Technically speaking, the act merely regarded the District of Louisiana as unorganized territory and attached it to Indiana for judicial purposes, etc.
About a year later a new arrangement was made. On March 3, 1805, Presi- dent Jefferson approved an act changing the name from the District of Louisiana to the Territory of Louisiana and authorizing him to appoint a governor, secre- tary and two judges therefor. Gen. James Wilkinson was appointed governor ; Frederick Bates, secretary; Return J. Meigs and John B. C. Lucas, judges. St. Louis was made the capital of the territory and the officials above named were authorized to make such laws as they might consider necessary. Their task in this respect was not an arduous one, as outside of St. Louis and the immediate vicinity there were no white inhabitants for whom legislation was necessary, and such laws as were made were of the simplest character.
On June 4. 1812, President Madison approved the act creating the Territory of Missouri, which included the present states of Arkansas and Nebraska. The Territory of Arkansas was cut off by the act of March 2, 1819, and Missouri became a state on August 10, 1821. Nebraska was then left without any form of civil government for more than thirty-two years, though it was attached to the United States judicial district of the State of Missouri.
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TERRITORY OF NEBRASKA
As early as 1844 Stephen A. Douglas, then a representative in Congress from Illinois, introduced a bill to organize a territory west of the Missouri River. It was referred to the committee on territories, but was never reported back to the House. In March, 1848, he introduced a similar bill, in which he defined the boundaries as the fortieth and forty-third parallels of north latitude, the Missouri River and the summit of the Rock Mountains. This bill met the same fate as its predecessor and for over three years Nebraska continued without a government of any kind, except its attachment to the United States judicial district of the State of Missouri.
In December, 1851, Willard P. Hall, of Missouri, introduced in the National House of Representatives a bill to create an organized territory immediately west of the Missouri, but he failed to give it the attention necessary to bring it to a final vote, allowing it to die of neglect. At the next session of Congress the same Hall introduced a bill to organize the Territory of Platte. Had this bill become a law, the territory would have included the greater part of the present State of Nebraska. but it was referred to the committee on territories and there its history ends.
On February 2, 1853. William A. Richardson, a representative from Illinois, introduced a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska. to extend from 36° 30' to 43º north latitude and from the Missouri River to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. It seems that Mr. Richardson was more persistent in support of his measure than Mr. Hall had been, for on the toth of the same month it passed the House by a vote of ninety-eight to forty-three and was sent to the Senate. On the 17th it was reported in that body by Stephen A. Douglas and on March 2, 1853. the Senate, by a vote of twenty-five to twenty, refused to con- sider the bill. Thus ended the fourth attempt to organize a territory west of the Missouri.
In the meantime settlers were coming into the Missouri Valley, many of whom were looking forward to the time when the Indian title to the lands west of the river would be extinguished and the formation there of an organized territory. After the defeat of the Richardson Bill by the Senate, as above noted. some of these settlers decided to take a hand in the matter by electing a delegate to Congress to press the question of organizing a territory. No authority existed for the election of such a delegate, but on October 11, 1853, a number of citizens of Iowa crossed over to Sarpy's trading post at Bellevue, where they were joined by the few white people living about the post. and an informal election was held. resulting in the choice of Hadley D. Johnson, of Council Bluffs, as the delegate. Farther down the river the settlers took similar action by the election of Rev. Thomas Johnson, who was in charge of an Indian mission in what is now the State of Kansas.
The next, and what proved to be the successful effort. to organize a territory west of the Missouri had its inception on December 14, 1853, in a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska, which was on that day introduced in the United States Senate by Augustus C. Dodge. then senator from Iowa. The Dodge Bill pro- vided for a territory to extend from 36° 30' to 43° 30' north latitude, and from the Missouri River to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. It was referred to
Courtesy of the Union Pacific Railroad
A VIEW OF OMAHA IN THE LATE '60s
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