USA > Nebraska > Platte County > Past and present of Platte County, Nebraska : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 21
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In 1859 the ferry was sold to O. P. Hurford and others. Some circumstances of the sale may be found in the Nebraska reports under the title of the Columbus Company against O. P. Hurford et al. Noble R. Hayes was sent here as manager and was here in that capacity for four or five years. He, too, has crossed another river where Sharon is the ferryman. Subsequently the franchise was sold to F. G. Becher and J. P. Becker, who had the honor of building the first temporary bridge across the river.
FIRST DISTRICT COURT IN PLATTE COUNTY
About 1859 the first district court was held in Platte County, Hon. Augustus Hall, chief justice, presiding. Judge Hall had been a member of Congress from Iowa. He was appointed by President Buchanan as Judge Ferguson's successor. Judge Hall was a short, very corpulent man, with a round, benevolent face like the full harvest moon. He had the perfect respect of the bar and it is said that his decisions were rarely reversed.
The little town hall in Columbus, later known as the Saints Chapel, was used as the court room, and rooms in the American Hotel were secured for jury rooms. The grand jury, twelve good and true men, were impaneled, and on completing their labors returned twelve indictments, one against each of themselves for selling liquor without having a license. At that time there was a license law enacted more probably for its moral effect upon the people outside of the territory than with the intention of enforcing it. It bore evidence of lack of care in preparation and provided that any complaint of its viola- tion being made before a justice, he should hear the allegations and if sufficient to convict, should render judgment against the accused, and be committed to jail until the fine was paid. Few, if any, con- victions were charged under this law, largely for the reason that it did not have support, probably owing to the disinclination of magis- trates to commit themselves to jail. By an oversight, the person drafting the bill aimed to provide for the payment of the costs by the constable.
Judge Hall was gathered to his fathers just before the republican party came into power and while still an incumbent of the office he was succeeded by William Pitt Kellogg, of Louisiana fame, who drew pay as colonel of an Illinois regiment at the same time. He was succeeded by his uncle, William Kellogg, of Peoria, Ill., who filled the office until Nebraska became a state. He then wanted to be Vol. 1-14
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United States senator, but Thayer's then fresh military laurels were too much for him.
At the first term of court held by Kellogg, the office of prosecuting attorney was held by Robert Moreland, who by no means was an ornament to the office. He had previously been bound over for break- ing the peace and the only indictment returned that term was against the prosecuting attorney for assault and battery.
MRS. PAT MURRAY AND THE PAWNEES
In the summer of 1864 there were stationed at the Pawnee Indian reservation, now the Town of Genoa, a company of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry. In the summer of that year Patrick Murray was engaged in putting up hay at the foot of the bluffs on Looking Glass Valley. On the evening of a certain day when Mr. Murray was at his farming and Mrs. Murray was with the haymakers cooking for them, a party of Sioux came down to the bluffs for the purpose of stealing the stock and after asking for and receiving something to eat, commenced untying the stock, and being resisted by the men in the party and by Mrs. Murray, armed with a pitchfork, immediately commenced shooting them with arrows. One of the party was Adam Smith, Murray's brother-in-law, who had settled in Columbus in 1857, com- ing here with his brother Michael, who was one of the original stock- holders in the Town Company. He fell, shot in the body with numerous arrows, and in the bottom of the foot with a musket ball, evidently after he fell, while his foot was raised. An old man was tomahawked and scalped. Another unfortunate, Reason Grimes, was shot in the side with an arrow and when the barbed head was after- ward pulled out, a portion of his liver came with it. Mrs. Murray was also shot with arrows in the limbs, and although not struck in any vital part, the wounds produced by the poisoned arrows were extremely painful and she suffered from their effects for a long time. She escaped but passed the long night in wandering up and down the Looking Glass Valley and frequently endeavored to relieve the pain of her wounds by going into the creek and bathing them. Some settlers in the vicinity, hearing the firing, came to the spot and carried off the dead and wounded. Adam Smith lived until morning, when death came to his relief. The wounded were brought to Mr. Murray's farm and Mr. Grimes, after lingering in pain for several weeks, crossed the river of death, and Mrs. Murray, after a long period of suffering, got around again, although very much broken in health.
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INDIANS CREATE A PANIC AT COLUMBUS
Shortly after this there were alarming reports of a probable descent upon the settlements by hostile Indians and there was a gen- eral panic from Grand Island to the Elkhorn. The people around Grand Island flocked into that town and all the settlers around Columbus came into town and brought their stock with them. They hauled in all their cedar fence posts and built a stockade by setting one end of the post twelve inches in the ground, touching each other, which made excellent breastworks. The stockade commenced just west of the American Hotel and was continued east far enough to include Buffalo Square. There were a few openings for gates, which were always guarded at night. Thomas Lynch, Pat Gleason, the Carrigs and the whole Upper Shell Creek Settlement were there, as well as the Lusches, Reinkes, Erbs, Wetterers, Mewhus, Losekes, Edward Ahrens and his son John. All the settlers east and west in the county were here, including Herschel Needham, who lived with his wife, Christiana. One night about midnight one of the guards thought he heard Indians around and gave the alarm. The little fort became very much excited, especially Mr. Needham, who sought the partner of his joys and sorrows and thus exclaimed to her: "Now, Christiana, I expect the Indians will soon be here and I shall have all I can do to take care of myself, and you will have to skulk." The alarm proved unfounded, but spoiled the settlers' rest for that night.
There was an eccentric man, named John L. Martin, who for- merly lived at Buchanan but then at Grand Island, who christened that place Fort Sauerkraut, and Columbus Sockittoem. The latter was an allusion to the willingness of Columbus merchants of those days shown on all occasions to make fair profits in their mercantile transactions. After staying here two or three weeks, and the Indians failing to appear, the settlers returned to their homes.
After the Pawnees were placed on their reservation at Genoa, they were passing back and forth and camping at different places and naturally did some stealing. They had been committing depreda- tions on the Quinn boys, living near where John Heney later resided, and they became very much exasperated. One of them, upon discov- ering a young Indian stealing corn from his crib, shot him dead. A band of Indians came down from the reservation and demanded the surrender of the person who did the killing. A number of men from Columbus, hearing of it, were on the ground nearly as soon as
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the Indians, who compromised by accepting a pony and two sacks of flour as full satisfaction.
At one time when Jacob Guter was employed by Mrs. Baker at the American Hotel, the Indians had been in the habit of breaking into his house on his farm and taking what they could find, and it became in time very monotonous. Jacob had a half sack of flour there, through which he had diffused a quantity of strychnine. A party of Indians were encamped in Martin Heintz's timber, and shortly afterward an Indian on horseback rode furiously into town with a dollar bill in his hand and was very anxious to interview a doctor, and succeeded in inducing one to go to the camp. Several squaws and pappooses, as well as a dog, were exhibiting unmistaka- ble evidence of having partaken of the poison. The unfortunate canine succumbed, but the pappooses and squaws recovered.
In the spring of 1869 the Pawnees seemed to become embittered toward the whites. Some of the more lawless of the young men, while down in Kansas, committed some depredations on the whites and several were killed by the settlers there, and they wanted revenge. Depredations were committed on Upper Shell Creek, near Newman's Grove, by Indians, presumably Sioux, but possibly by Pawnees. Some stock was killed, one unfortunate woman was shot, another outraged, and a company of soldiers was stationed near there during that year. Edward McMurty, a resident of Butler County, on the 8th day of May of that year started from his home to Columbus on foot and failed to return. George D. Grant started out to look for him and was able to track him, owing to a peculiarity of one of his boots, across the south channel and for some distance on the island, where they were no longer found. It was the opinion of his friends that he had been foully dealt with, and as a Chowee band of Pawnees were at that time encamped on the island, suspicion pointed in that direction. When Mrs. Eliza Phillips, who then lived on her farm across the Loup, heard of the disappearance she stated that on that day she saw from her house some Indians on the island chasing a man, who was trying to run away from them, but supposing them all to be Indians, had not thought much of it at the time. On the 19th of June, as Mr. Perry and Mr. Rice were on the island, they found in the slough the feet and legs of a man sticking out, the body and head being still held under the water by logs which had been laid on the body. Summoning the coroner of Butler County, the body was taken out, and an inquest held, and although in an advanced stage of decom- position was identified as that of McMurty. Several knife wounds
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were found on the body and five or six arrows were sticking in it, one of which had entered the mouth, passing downward into the chest, the last wound evidently inflicted while the victim was running, or perhaps after he had fallen. A verdict was returned that McMurty was murdered by Pawnee Indians of the Chowee band. The set- tlers became very much excited and the attention of the agent was called to the matter, who demanded of the chiefs that the murderers should be surrendered. One night the Indians, seeing some teams carrying supplies to troops stationed on Shell Creek, which had en- camped over night near their reservation, and imagining they had come to chastise them, brought and delivered a number of Indians whoun they said were the guilty ones. They were ironed and taken to Omaha to be tried in the United States Court, and when the trial came off were convicted and sentenced to be hung. One of the Indians made a dramatic exhibition, attempting suicide while in jail, and so it hap- pened that a new trial was granted, which was never held, as a nolle pros was entered, the Indians discharged and the perpetrators of the murder were never brought to justice.
THE GLADDENITES
About 1860 there arrived in Platte County a company of five or six families who went by the designation of "Gladdenites." Their leader was an old man, probably sixty-five years old, tall and straight, with long silver hair and a sanctimonious expression of countenance, whose name was Francis Gladden Bishop. According to reports,. his mother was a religious enthusiast and previous to his birth had predicted that she would bear a son who would some day gladden the hearts of the people and would be the flying roll which Zacharias saw with his prophetic eye. Imbued with religious fanaticism from his cradle, he grew up, and meeting with Joseph Smith at an carly period after his assuming the role of a prophet, he embraced his doctrines and was chosen as one of his apostles. After the death of Smith he, in common with the rest of those apostles, considered him- self as the proper successor of the brother, but they became disgrun- tled with Brigham Young, seceded and unsuccessfully attempted to draw the church to themselves. After the exodus from Nauvoo we next hear of him in Western Iowa with a small band of followers, having declined to follow Brigham Young into the wilderness. His followers were mostly imbeciles, the halt and the lame, and for some reason, finding it desirable to leave Iowa, at the time mentioned
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arrived in the western part of Platte County for the purpose of mak- ing a settlement and trying to gather converts from what remained of the Genoa colony, and also doing missionary work and making proselytes among the Lamanites, which was Bishop's name for the Indians. His efforts were entirely unsuccessful as to the Genoa eol- ony. With the Indians he succeeded in but few instances in over- coming the natural repugnance of those people against the external application of water, especially in unfavorable weather. They made a elaim on the Lookingglass, about three or four miles from Oconee, and built their houses along the creek, one of which was their place of worship. It was a long, low eabin, with a dirt roof, and door made of puneheon, latchstring hanging out and devoid of glass windows, but with a narrow opening on the front side, which was closed by a board. They remained there about three years and as they polled from ten to fifteen votes, were an important factor in elections of those days. At last dissension arose among themselves and dissatis- faction with their leader. Unsavory reports in regard to the orgies which were a part of their Sunday exercises in the windowless church came to the ears of the outside world and ereated sueh discussion that their condition beeame unpleasant to them and their presence obnox- ions to the settlers, so that the process of disintegration began, some going east and some west, and the flying roll started on his flight to Colorado, attended by a few of his stanchest supporters, where he remained until his death, which oeeurred a year or two afterwards.
TRAGEDY AT SHINN'S FERRY
The year after Pike's Peak emigration began, Moses F. Shinr. and his associates established a rope ferry aeross the Platte about fourteen miles east of Columbus, which went by the name of Shinn's Ferry. Emigrants crossing the Columbus Ferry forded the Platte River at Fort Kearney. When the river was composed of numerous channels between the islands, the crossing was always difficult and in case of high water in June there was sometimes a delay in waiting for the water to recede. Emigrants crossing the Platte Ferry avoided all this, while on the other hand, the road on the south side of the Platte was sandy and generally bad. There was a man by the name of William E. Hill, who for a short time had a small store in Colum- bus and who afterwards was employed by the managers of Shinn's Ferry and stationed at the forks of the road when emigrants turned off to go to the Platte Ferry, to solieit patronage. After a year or
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two he removed to North Platte and made a return trip to gather up such of his effects as still remained behind, among which was a young cow. Being ready to return, he crossed Shinn's Ferry just at dark, when the young cow, being unwilling to go, swam back to the island. He went back after it, full of rage and very much under the effect of stimulants. It was a dark, rainy night, the darkness only relieved by frequent flashes of lightning. A wagon in which three brothers by the name of Brady were making the trip to Colorado had the next right of crossing and Hill endeavored to induce them to give way and allow him to cross, to which they declined. A quarrel ensued, in which Hill used very abusive language. Finally, in his anger, he shot the younger Brady, the bullet passing through the fleshy portion of the arm. The next moment the island was illuminated by another flash of lightning, by the light of which the aim of the other brother was directed, who sent a bullet into Hill's brain. The next morning Brady was found in his wagon, groaning with the misery of his wounded arm, and the swollen body of Hill lay on a buffalo robe on the sand. An inquest was held, the slayer had a preliminary examination but was not held for trial. After remaining here a while the wounded man recovered and went to his destination. Hill was buried and soon no trace of this, the first tragedy enacted in Platte County, remained.
JOHN E. KELLY, POLITICIAN
At the session of the Territorial Legislature held in the winter of 1857-58, a majority of the members elected favored the removal of the capital from Omaha and the subject was introduced early in the session. A majority of that body claimed that the Legislature was intimidated by the Omaha lobby and passed a resolution to ad journ to Florence, where the members went and held their sessions, provided for the removal of the city government to Douglas City and transacted a mass of other legislation that suited them. The Omaha and a number of other members, among whom was J. Ster- ling Morton, remained at the state house, drew their pay and ad- journed for want of a qrorum. The members at Florence also adjourned and received no pay, but those who remained in Omaha received their per diem for the full term.
William A. Richardson, newly appointed governor, arrived about this time and it soon became definitely settled in the minds of all that the seat of government for a territory, after it had once been located
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and an appropriation for buildings made, would not be removed until it became a state and no further discussion of the matter was made until the spring of 1867, when the first Legislature under the state constitution convened.
In the spring of 1866 there appeared in Columbus a young Irish- man named John E. Kelly, in the capacity of a buckboard driver in the employ of the Western Stage Company, his route being between Buchanan and Columbus. The company at that time ran stages and buckboards on alternate days between Omaha and Kearney. Kelly, was a long-haired, cranky looking individual, who had just graduated from the law department of the Michigan University, and being "broke," adopted that means to get a little "raise." In the autumn of 1866, the railroad having been completed to Columbus, his occu- pation was gone, so that he located in the county seat to practice law. Kelly's inclinations were toward politics and he commenced to work for the republican nomination as representative for the territorial and state legislatures. While at Buchanan, he had ingratiated him- self into the confidence of two or three republicans there and had their support in the convention. He managed to secure enough delegates to receive the nomination over Leander Gerrard. The democratic candidate was James E. North, and, strange as it may seem, the carpetbagger was elected by a magnificent majority. When the State Legislature met in the spring of 1867 and the location of the seat of government was being considered, the prospects of Colum- bus would have been favorable had it not been that we were opposed by our own representative, or the man who should have been such, whose votes were always cast in favor of Lincoln. Being in the ring in the distribution of political rewards, he acquired considerable prop- erty there and in a short time became affluent and never returned to the bosom of his constituents.
MUCH IN LITTLE
In and previous to the spring of 1857 the Elkhorn and Loup Fork Ferry Company maintained a ferry across the Loup Fork River near the town, where a bridge was erected. In the spring of that year the town company began the erection of a two-story frame hotel, containing four rooms on the first floor and six on the second. It was completed and opened in the fall, Francis G. Becher being the first landlord, and his sisters the landladies. That building is now part of the Grand Pacific Hotel.
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By this time speculation in townsites was running high and the Cleveland Land Company was organized. A body of land two and a half miles west of the Columbus townsite was claimed, surveyed and laid out into a townsite, and the ferry moved there.
The erection of a hotel that should eclipse any building in Colum- bus was begun but the hard times of 1857 coming on during the sum- mer, the work was suspended and it never was completed until it was moved to Columbus in 1868 by George Francis Train and became known as the Hammond House. The town projected fell through. There were three Ohio printers, John Siebert and Henry Lindenburg, of Columbus, Ohio, and Thomas Sarvis, of Cleveland. The two former soon returned east to enlist when the war broke out and at its close founded the house of M. C. Lilly & Co., of Columbus, Ohio, dealers in society goods. Thomas Sarvis was a young man of good education and considerable ability, and ambitious withal. At that time Platte was attached to Dodge County for representative pur- poses in the Territorial Legislature, and Sarvis was desirous of being the representative. Securing the support of Platte County, he started out to make a canvass of Dodge County. The time passed on and he did not return. On investigation it was learned that he had been at Fontenelle and the last he was seen he had left that place to walk across the country to Fremont. The supposition is that in crossing the Rawhide he got into deep water and was drowned. If so, his body never was recovered. Thus disappeared a young man who might have become one of Platte's prominent citizens, identified with the progress of the country.
At the commencement of the settlement of this town the Colun- bus Company set apart a number of lots scattered through the Platte country, they to be donated to persons who would build a house upon them. And that year a number of cabins were built upon these lots. A Swiss by the name of Greenfelder had put up a set of logs on one of them and while the house was in an unfinished condition he became insane and went home to his friends. The probate judge felt it his duty to take care of the estate for the lunatic and there- fore appointed a guardian. An inventory was taken, the property was sold according to law and fortunately brought enough to pay the fees of the court and of the guardian. Judge Speice was the purchaser and the logs were those that formed the walls of his old- time residence. About the same time that the Town of Columbus was laid out, in 1856, the two Albertson brothers, Isaac and Alexan- der, and E. W. Toncray came out to the mouth of Shell Creek and
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laid out the Town of Buchanan, named after the man who the next year became President of the United States. There was then a house on the site of the Town of North Bend. A man by the name of Emerson settled about six miles east of the Town of Buchanan near where the present Town of Schuyler is situated. The intervening country between what is now Schuyler and Columbus was not inhab- ited. In the spring of 1857 a party consisting of Leander Gerrard, C. II. Whaley, Christopher Whaley, Robert P. Kimball and several others laid out the Town of Monroe, a little west of the present Town of Oconee, with the view of making it the county seat of Monroe County. During that year a number of log houses were erected. In pursuance of a proclamation issued by the probate judge of Douglas County (on what authority it is not quite evident) an election was held in August, 1857, both in the counties of Platte and Monroe to locate the county seats and elect officers.
A townsite had been laid out about twelve miles east of Colum- bus and called Neenah. The Town of Genoa had also been laid out and immediately settled by a colony of Latter Day Saints. At the election Columbus gained the county seat, Buchanan and Neenah being the rival aspirants. In Monroe County, Monroe, Cleveland and Genoa each received the votes of their residents, and although Genoa had practically twenty times the population of Monroe, the residents of the latter place were so successful in getting out all their voters that they carried it in favor of their place.
The title of the Pawnee Indians was extinguished to the land west of the Loup River in 1857 and as soon as that occurred the Town of Arcola was laid out on the farm of G. C. Barnum, the town company built a cabin and got Joseph Wolf to live in it and hold the townsite. He, losing his grip the following spring and succumbing to the attractions of Pike's Peak, sold the claim to Barnum and left for Colorado.
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