USA > Nebraska > Platte County > Past and present of Platte County, Nebraska : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 11
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Towns 16 and 17, range 1 east, to be known as Columbus Town- ship; town 18, range 1 east, Bismarck; town 19, range 1 east, Sher- man; town 20, range 1 east, Creston; town 18, range 1 west, Shell Creek; town 19, range 1 west, Grand Prairie; town 20, range 1 west. Humphrey; town 18, range 2 west, and town 17, range 2 west, Lost Creek; town 19, range 2 west, Burrows; town 20 range 2 west, Gran- ville; town 18, range 3 west, and part of town 17, range 3 west, Mon- roe: town 19, range 3 west, Joliet ; town 20, range 3 west, St. Bernard; the north half of town 18, and south half of town 19, range 4 west, Woodville; the north half of town 19, range 4 west, and town 20, range 4 west, Walker; part of town 17, range 2 west, and town 17, range 3 west, lying south of the center of the main channel of the
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Loup River, Loup: the west half of township 16, range 1 west, and the west half of town 17, range 1 west. also all of town 16, range 2 west, lying north of the south bank of Platte River, Butler. Some years later Oconee Township was created out of the southern portions of Monroe and Lost Creek.
On Tuesday, January 8, 1884, J. E. North was elected permanent chairman by a vote of 15 to 2. N. Blaser was appointed supervisor of Loup Township to fill vacancy.
The board of supervisors upon entering office found an alto- gether different state of affairs from that which confronted its pre- decessor, the board of county commissioners. When the county was organized there was probably not one hundred people within its con- fines. There were practically no improvements, the settlers were poor, but few crops had been raised and the resources of the new body politic were to all intents and purposes nil. The men elected to the various county offices, although possessed of sterling qualities and some education, were wholly without experience in the duties of their several offices and were entirely lacking of the paraphernalia of their offices. They had no specified meeting place and for some time were without any available funds with which to procure records and other necessaries: so that, it may be said the Platte County gov- ernment was started with but little machinery and no oil. It kept moving. however, and when turned over to the board of supervisors Platte County had made a wonderful growth in the short period of its existence which, in years, measured a space in the cycle of time of but a quarter of a century. At the time the new body of business agents assumed its official duties, it was estimated by the committee on ways and means, appointed by the board, that the following de- tailed sums of money would be necessary to defray the county ex- penses for the ensuing financial year:
For ordinary county revenue, including support of poor $20,000
County bridge fund 5,000
Funding hond 12,000
General bridge fund. 8,000
Payment of interest on $100,000 L. & N. W. R. R. bonds 10,000
County bond sinking fund. 6,000
Interest and 5% of principal on $15,000 of Butler Precinct bridge bonds 3.000
Payment of interest on $25,000 Columbus Precinct railroad bonds 2,000
Total $66,000
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This estimate is given so that a comparison may be made with one of the early reports of Vincent Kummer, first county treasurer. It shows the remarkable strides toward wealth and prosperity which the county had made even during its youthful years. The estimates above given of the needs of the county for 1884 were made upon the almost absolute certainty that every dollar could be provided when called for. When one remembers that but twenty-five years pre- vious to this the county treasurer in his report, after enumerating a list of expenses, added thereto "receipts none," it becomes apparent that the affairs of Platte County had been in good hands and that its course on the road to prosperity and prominence among its sister counties of the state had been clearly and definitely mapped out.
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CHAPTER VI
THE COURTHOUSE AND OTHERS
Ten years were permitted to roll around after Platte County became an organized subdivision of the state, before the bailiwick had a courthouse worthy of the name. The board of commissioners began discussing the project of building a courthouse, however, long before final action was taken. Then the question of issuing $16,000 of the county's bonds was submitted to the electorate.
By authority of an act passed at the twelfth regular session of the Territorial Legislative Assembly, entitled "an act to empower the county commissioners of Platte County to raise money to erect a courthouse and jail in Columbus, in said county, and to fit up and furnish the same," approved February 18, 1867, an election was called for the 22d day of April, 1867, "to vote for or against the commis- sioners of Platte County making a loan of $16,000, and to issue county bonds for the same, which bonds shall bear an annual interest of 10 per cent, payable in twenty years from their date, or sooner, at the pleasure of the commissioners."
At the time Nelson Toncray, F. G. Becher and John Kelly, com- prised the board, the latter named being chairman. The canvass of the votes on the courthouse proposition showed that 96 votes were polled in its favor and 29 votes against it. The members of the canvassing board were Charles H. Whaley and C. A. Speice.
To C. A. Speice was delegated the task of preparing plans and specifications for the temple of justice. He evidently did his work satisfactorily, as an item in the clerk's minutes dated September 16, 1867, shows that the clerk was ordered to draw on the county treasurer for $50 to be paid Mr. Speice for his services. The location for the building was selected and designated as the southeast quarter of Columbia Square and it is here that the building was built and stands today.
At an adjourned meeting of the board of commissioners, held at 7 o'clock in the evening of April 6, 1868, a very spirited discussion
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took place on the subject of building a courthouse, which was par- ticipated in by the board, also John Rickly, C. H. Whaley, G. C. Barnum and others. The bid of John H. Green, of Omaha, was opened and found to be $21,737; the bid of J. P. Becker was $18,000 and he it was received the contract for putting up Platte County's first and only courthouse.
Under the direction of E. W. Toncray, who was appointed by the board superintendent of construction, the county building was com- pleted and handed over by the contractor, J. P. Becker, in July, 1870. It appears, however, by the minutes of the county clerk that the first meeting of the board of commissioners held in the new courthouse was on February 1, 1870. S. C. Smith was chairman of the board; his colleagues were Guy C. Barnum and George W. Galley; H. J. Hudson, clerk.
In June, 1870, all that remained to be done by the contractor was to turn the keys of the courthouse over to the board of commissioners and obtain a formal acceptance of his work. H. J. Hudson, then county clerk, a very close observer, and a facile descriptive writer, penned the following, which appeared in the Omaha Herald:
"Our courthouse is completed and will be delivered by Major Becker, the contractor, to the commissioners at their next meeting. The workmanship throughout is first class and pronounced by all that have examined it the most substantial and complete in its ap- pointments of any courthouse in the state.
"Special reference has been had in the construction of the court room to make it safe, that no such disasters can occur as recently were witnessed at Chicago and Richmond, where the courthouse fell, a mass of ruins, and the only excuse that could be offered was that the court room was crowded beyond its capacity-an admission that only aggravated the terrible tragedy and entailed upon the authorities the severest censure for accepting or permitting any public building to be constructed that could by any possible human foresight be inade- quate to sustain the dense mass of human beings that may upon some extraordinary occasions attract the wisdom, skill and intelligence of the entire county within its walls. The brick work and masonry was done by Withnell Brothers, of your city (Omaha), the carpenter work by Speice & Weaver, the plastering by Callaway & Rose. The roof was put on by H. P. Coolidge. David Anderson did the paint- ing, and though last, by no means the least feature in the finishing touches that close the labors of the contractor, all the wood work is oak grained. The beauty and naturalness of the graining can be
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referred to with an artisan's pride, that David Anderson need not be ashamed of. The offices of the probate judge, sheriff, treasurer and county clerk are refreshing to enter; neatly furnished, lofty and roomy, in marked contrast with some of the dingy holes too many of our county officials are required to burrow in, undermining their health, laying the foundation for dire disease, because of the parsi- mony and worse than dotage of the guardians of public trusts. Eighteen thousand dollars was the contract price to build the court- house and it stands out in bold relief as another beacon of Platte County enterprise."
Forty-five years, almost a half century, have rolled around and the old temple of justice, commenced in 1868, and finished in 1870, still stands upon its original site and is performing, in the best man- ner possible to its condition, the duties and functions originally planned by its designers. But that is far from saying that it meets the present needs and expectations of this generation. Years and years ago it had become too small and inadequate for the big, grow- ing county it serves. Finally, an effort was made to replace it by a new one. Bonds were voted for the purpose, but a snag was struck when the time came for choosing a site. That snag is still in the way. Certain of the citizens look upon Columbia Square with a tender, loving eye, and can see no more beautiful spot in all Columbus for the location of the courthouse. Others express themselves very vigor- ously against the old site, maintaining that from the trend of busi- ness it has been relegated to a residential district and is too far away from the business center of the city. There are also ambitious trad- ing points in other parts of the county, who are not backward in set- ting up advantages they may have, and entertain some hopes that when a new courthouse is built, one of their number will draw the prize. But be that as it may, there is no getting around the fact that Platte County very badly needs a modern building for its courts of justice, the proper and safe deposits of its valuables and archives, and suitable offices for its public servants.
COUNTY JAIL
The county jail is part and parcel of the courthouse and forms an L at the rear of that structure, the courthouse facing the west. In this part of the building are cells for the incarceration of male- factors, and for several years after its construction part of it was occupied by the sheriff and his family. No other jail has been built
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by the county and this old bastile is also ready for the discard. It also serves as a prison for delinquents who come under the jurisdic- tion of Columbus, the city having for years paid the county a certain price for the safekeeping of lawbreakers.
THE COUNTY FARM
In the summer of 1875 the board of county commissioners first began to discuss the feasibility of buying a farm, on which to erect buildings for the care and comfort of the helplessly indigent persons claiming citizenship in the county. Up to this time and for some years later, applicants for food, shelter and medical attendance and without the ability to maintain a habitation, were "farmed out" to various willing ones at a stated stipend per day or week and for a definite period of time. This system of caring for dependents be- came unsatisfactory and irksome. However, after much discussion of the project, covering several years, the board decided to purchase a farm and, on the 6th day of November, 1896, received of Orson D. and Margaret L. Butler, a deed for 240 acres of land, located on section 29, Bismarck Township, for which $75 per acre was paid.
On February 3, 1897, Orson D. Butler was awarded the contract for keeping the "poor farm," by which he rented the farm he had just sold the county, agreeing to pay $2.25 per acre. His compensation for keeping each inmate was placed at $2.25 per week, which the county obligated itself to pay. Butler entered into a bond of $1,000. for the faithful performance of the obligations assumed, took over the half dozen unfortunates of the county and began his stewardship of the county farm. Some time later comfortable buildings were erected, consisting of a main structure for inmates and the superin- tendent's homestead, a building for the insane and barns. Today, the very few inmates have a comfortable home, on one of the best farms in Platte County.
CHAPTER VII TRANSPORTATION
HIGHWAYS AND FERRIES
By a glance at the early proceedings of the board of county con- missioners, the reader will be informed that the first scheme adopted by the county's legislators to provide means for the traveling public and transportation of the possessions of the settlers and articles of merchandise was the laying out and building of highways. Much of the business of the early sessions of the commissioners related to the building of roads. Almost contemporary with the settlement and organization of the county was the establishment of a ferry on the Loup, to facilitate the passage of that turbulent and uncertain stream for the large bodies of homeseekers headed for the west. Columbus was on a direct line for emigrants westward bound. and thousands of them stopped here on their way to replenish their larders and outfits.
To the present citizen Nebraska is the apotheosis of hogs and corn. To write of Nebraska goldfields. therefore, is likely to put the chronicler down into the company of historical novelists. And vet in 1858 fears were expressed that Nebraska would be depopulated by the hegira to the goldfields, and newspapers begged and advised that people should wait until spring, at any rate, before starting. "The rush has commenced. In all the river towns of Kansas and Nebraska the excitement is on the increase. Upwards of sixty wagons have already left Leavenworth for the diggings. From Florence. Omaha. Council Bluffs. Plattsmouth. Nebraska City. Brownville. etc .. and from almost every point on the river in Kansas and Missouri. trains have started or are preparing to leave." The Advertiser copied from the Leavenworth Herald a statement that "the newly discovered gold region lies between the thirty-eighth and fortieth parallels of latitude and the twenty-seventh and thirtieth degrees of west longitude." The most important of the mines. however, were located along Cherry Creek, which flows into the South Platte at Denver. from the south-
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east, and so were south of the fortieth latitude and within the Terri- tory of Kansas. But there were important mines northwest of Den- ver within Nebraska Territory. Another journal at this period also grows excited over the emigration to the mines, and tells us in sensa- tional headlines that "border towns are depopulated."
The Dakota City Herald of August 13, 1859, stated that the secretary of the Columbus Ferry Company at Loup Fork informed the Omaha Nebraskan that up to June 25th of that year, "1,087 wagons, 20 hand carts, 5,401 men, 424 women, 480 children, 1,610 horses, 406 mules, 6,010 oxen and 6,000 sheep had crossed this ferry at that point." The statement included no portion of the Mormon emigration, but merely California, Oregon and Pike's Peak emi- grants. The returning emigration crossed at Shinn's Ferry, some fifteen miles below the confluence of the Loup Fork and the Platte. As many of the west-bound emigrants also crossed at this ferry, it was thought that not less than four thousand wagons had passed over the Military Road westward since the 20th of March.
The Dakota City Democrat of March 9, 1861, announced that the last Legislature authorized the location of a territorial road from Dakota City to Fort Kearney or any intermediate point and that C. F. Eckhart, Joseph Brannan and Harlan Baird had been ap- pointed under the act to locate the road. The Democrat insisted that the road should be built at once and urged as a reason that travel to the Pike's Peak region was obliged to go by way of Omaha to Colum- bus, a distance of 200 miles, while the direct distance by way of the proposed road would be only eighty-six miles. It was desirable to reach the Columbus market where "corn demands $1 per bushel, and increases in price as you go farther up the Platte River. This is owing to the immense travel to and from the mines."
FIRST FERRY
The first ferry established in the vicinity of Columbus was by the Town Company, although it was ostensibly under the management of the Elkhorn River, Shell Creek, Loup Fork and Wood River Bridge and Ferry Company, an organization sufficiently imposing in name to overawe any competitors. Doctor Malcolm was president and James C. Mitchell, secretary. Captain Fifield (who also kept a ranch), Sam Bayless. A. J. Smith and Samuel Curtis were also inter- ested parties. Captain Smith was principal owner.
In the winter of 1858-9, John Rickly, who was in the full tide of his prosperity as a sawmill operator, objected to being "feed" $3
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every time. He brought a team over the Loup and resolved to estab- lish a rival institution. The Elkhorn River, Shell Creek, Loup Fork and Wood River Bridge and Ferry Company had been using a com- mon rope for their motive power. Mr. Rickly thereupon applied to the Territorial Legislature for a charter to operate a cable (wire) ferry. No doubt it would have been obtained had not Mr. Mitchell found an opportunity to appropriate it to his own use. As it was, Mr. Rickly obtained a permit to operate his ferry, but was bought out by the rival concern (with a long name), receiving among other items of compensation, a life grant to use their ferry gratis. The case passed to J. E. North and Mr. Franer. The franchise next came into possession of the Loup Fork Bridge and Ferry Company, con- sisting of O. P. Herford, J. H. Green and Jolm I. Redick. Mr. Green bought out his partners. In 1863, the pontoon bridge was put across the river. In 1864 Messrs. Becher & Becker experimented in the business of ferrying.
EARLY BRIDGES
In June, 1869, the contract for building the bridge across the Loup was awarded, and the bridge built at a cost of $7,000. This gave place to another, which was carried away during the spring freshet of 1881. The disastrous flood came down the river March 19, 1881. No such sight had been witnessed since 1867, when the waters covered the bottom lands south of the city. At this time the city was under water from the "bench," south of Eleventh Street, to the regu- lar bed of the river. Eight spans of the Loup bridge were swept away, two of them floating down the river as gently and unconcernedly as though they had been feathers. The culvert, on the Union Pacific track, west of the depot, was damaged, also much of the track was undermined and carried off. The bridge between Duncan and Lost Creek was greatly damaged. Of the fine bridge across the Loup, but two spans remained standing. The present structure was at once thrown across the river.
The first bridge across the Platte River, and the structure now standing, was built through the enterprise and energy of the people of Platte County, and was completed in November, 1870. It is 1,716 feet in length and cost $25,000.
TRANSPORTATION
Stephen A. Douglas was a pioneer projector of a Pacific railway, and in a speech in the United States Senate, April 17, 1858, in advo-
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cating a Pacific railway bill he said: "I suppose that Kansas City, Wyandotte, Weston, Leavenworth, Atchison, Platte's Mouth City, Omaha, De Soto, Sioux City and various other towns whose names have not become familiar to us and have found no resting place on the map, each thinks it has the exact place where the road should begin. Well, sir, I do not desire to have any preference between these towns; either of them would suit me very well; and we leave it to the contractors to decide which shall be the one. * * I am unwilling to postpone the bill until next December. I have seen these postponements from session to session for the last ten years, with the confident assurance every year that the next session we should have abundance of time to take up the bill and act upon it. * I care not whether you look at it from a commercial point of view, as a matter of administrative economy at home, as a question of military defense, or in reference to the building up of the national wealth, and power, and glory; it is the great measure of the age -- a measure, that in my opinion has been postponed too long." Douglas had made pre- cisely the same complaint regarding the disappointing delays in the passage of his bills for organizing the Territory of Nebraska, and in this speech he originated the idea which was carried out in the Pacific railway bill enacted in 1862, leaving the builders of the road to deter- mine the route between the termini. This enterprise was pressed without cessation by Congress after Congress until the passage of a bill in 1862.
The secession of the southern states facilitated the passage of the first bill. July 1, 1862, by ending sectional controversy of the same nature as that which had retarded the passage of the bill for the or- ganization of the territory. This act provided for the construction of a road from Omaha to San Francisco. A California company already organized-the Central Pacific Railroad Company-was to build the road to the eastern border of that state, and a new corpora- tion, the Union Pacific Railroad Company, was to build all the rest of the road. Besides this main line, the Union Pacific Company was required to construct a branch from Sioux City, joining the main line at a point no farther west than the one hundredth meridian; and the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western, afterwards the Kansas Pacific Company, was required to build a line from Kansas City to a point on the Union Pacific no farther west than the one hundredth meridian. By the act of July 3, 1866, the Kansas Pacific Company was per- mitted to join the Union Pacific at a point not more than fifty miles west of the extension of a line north from Denver; and under the act Vol. I-8
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of 1869 the Denver Pacific line between Denver and Cheyenne was the result. While the land grant applied along the whole line from Kansas City, by way of Denver, to Cheyenne, the bonds applied only to the distance originally intended to connect with the main line, which was fixed at 319 15/16 miles. The St. Joseph or Atchison branch was to be an extension of the Hannibal & St. Joseph line, and to be built by way of Atchison westward to some point on what is now known as the main line, but not farther west than the one hundredth meridian; or it might connect with the Kansas line upon the same terms as were given to the Union Pacific. Its subsidy was to extend only to the distance of 100 miles, and so the road was built direct from Atchison west to Waterville, Kan., and there ended where its subsidy gave out. The line to connect Leavenworth with the Kansas main line was built from the city named to Lawrence: but it was not subsidized.
By the act of 1862 a subsidy of alternate sections in a strip of land ten miles wide on each side of the track was granted to the Union Pacific road and its two principal branches-from Sioux City and from Kansas City-33,000,000 acres in all. In addition to this subsidy the credit of the United States in the form of United States bonds was loaned in the following amounts: For the parts of the line passing over level country, east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, $16,000 per mile; for the 150 miles of the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains and the like dis- tance eastward from the western base of the Sierra Nevada Moun- tains, $48,000 per mile; and for that part of the line running over the plateau region between the two mountain chains named. $32,000 per mile. These bonds ran for thirty years and drew 6 per cent interest, payable semi-annually. They were not a gift, but a loan of credit, and were to be paid by the company to the United States at their maturity.
The capital stock of the company consisted of $100,000,000. divided into shares of $1,000. When 2,000 shares were subscribed and $10 per share paid in, the company was to be organized by the election of not less than thirteen directors and other usual officers. Two additional directors were to be appointed by the President of the United States. It was also provided that the President should appoint three commissioners to pass upon and certify to the con- struction of the road as a basis for the issue of the bonds and lands. The line of the road was to begin at a point on the one hundredth meridian "between the south margain of the Platte River, in the
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