USA > Nebraska > Platte County > Past and present of Platte County, Nebraska : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 23
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"On my way to Columbus from George W. Stevens, I found Mr. Muller gathering in a good crop of oats off of George Francis Train's eighty acres.
"I called at Joseph Tiffany's, but my good-humored friend was not at home.
"Col. George W. Stevens is one of the old settlers, having resided where he now is for thirteen or fourteen years. He owns 160 acres of land, part of it heavily timbered. He has a beautiful site for a residence, having ten years ago, like a wise man, planted trees. He
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has some cottonwood trees which were planted then that are now one and a half feet in diameter and at least twenty feet high. He thinks that the box elder makes the best shade tree. He has been successful with all manner of small fruits, strawberries, blackberries, raspber- ries, currants, gooseberries, grapes, etc.
"Knowing that Pat Murray was not at home, I did not go out of the line of my day's march to take notes of one of the very best farms in Platte County. I didn't find James Warren at his house, but I learned from J. B. Senecal that he has 160 acres of very good land, with a goodly number of trees of his own planting to adorn it. I found an aged couple, Isaac Blizzard and his wife, living on Mr. Warren's farm.
"I had not traveled far when I beheld in the distance the portly form of Senecal among his threshers. Accompanying him to the house, I learned a great many facts which I think would be encourag- ing to many who may read this hastily written sketch. Mr. Senecal was born in France, raised in Canada, and has resided in the United States fifteen years, ten of them in Nebraska. He owns 320 acres of land and has made all the improvements on the site of his present dwelling within the last three years. At the beginning of the rebel- lion the rebels burned him out at St. Joseph, Missouri. Coming to Nebraska, he had a yoke of oxen, three heifers, an old wagon, $60 in money and a family of eight persons. He worked with Pat Murray at 50 cents a day and chopped wood for Mr. Rickly at 75 cents a cord.
"After taking dinner with Mr. Senecal, I started for Jacob Ernst's. On the way I passed L. M. Cook's and Jack Wells' farms. Mr. Ernst lives three miles due north of Columbus and owns here 160 acres of excellent land. He has been here but three years and has everything in good shape. In his cottonwood grove north of the dwelling, he has trees fifteen feet high and four inches in diameter, which were planted on the 5th of May, 1869, and were then a quarter of an inch thick and cut down within four inches of the ground. He claims that when cottonwood trees grow close together it is not neces- sary to trim them, as they do this for themselves in their own time.
"James Hallows lives a short distance east of Ernst, owning eighty acres of land, all under cultivation, and has his farm in excel- lent condition.
"George W. Brown owns 640 acres of most excellent land. He has resided here since the spring of 1869 and his farm bids fair to be one of the best in the county."
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FARMERS CLUB
On the 11th of November, 1871, a called meeting was held in Columbus, attended by many of the citizens of the surrounding coun- try, for the purpose of organizing a Farmers Club. Guy C. Barnum was placed in the chair, but declining the honor, gave way to Jacob M. Troth. A. J. Stevens was elected secretary and treasurer and M. K. Turner, corresponding secretary. Then the following persons signed their names as members: Guy C. Barnum, M. K. Turner, George W. Stevens, J. B. Senecal, Jacob Lewis, Jacob M. Troth, T. A. Pinkney, S. L. Holman, Morrice Keller, Jacob Ernst and A. J. Stevens. A committee was then appointed to draft constitution and by-laws for the government of the club, and it was determined that the discussions of the club be restricted to agricultural interests.
The next meeting of the club was arranged to be held at the court- house on November 25th. At the meeting called for the 25th the club lost its identity, as originally intended, merging themselves into the Platte County Agricultural Society, the officers of which were selected as follows: President, Jacob M. Troth; vice president, Guy C. Barnum; treasurer, A. J. Stevens; recording secretary, S. L. Hol- man; corresponding secretary, M. K. Turner; board of directors, T. A. Pinkney, J. B. Senecal, E. A. Gerrard, H. J. Hudson and N. Millet. The session was one of great interest and the discussions of the society were confined to the reports of committees appointed at the previous meeting. J. B. Senecal read an interesting paper on "Stockraising"; Dr. T. A. Pinkney on "Markets"; Guy C. Barnum's subject was "Fences."
The Journal of date December 31, 1873, contained an article from an Omaha correspondent, who, in writing on the 22d, said in part :
"Competition in the grain trade is making things 'red hot' in Columbus. The New York, Chicago and St. Louis markets are represented here by wide-awake, active buyers, who have the honor to do business on the 'live and let the farmer live' principle and the nerve to put up to the last living cent for wheat. The result is, it is worth from 82 to 85 cents, and farmers are attracted here from a distance of seventy-five miles north and south, seventy-four of whom were regis- tered at the hotels last night, who had come too far with their wheat to return the same day, many of them living from sixty to eighty miles away. It is estimated that from 175 to 200 wagonloans of grain are coming in daily.
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"The city is naturally reaping an immense harvest of business, chiefly from the liberality and enterprise of the firms engaged in buy- ing and shipping wheat. Each individual business house here thor- oughly appreciates the situation and is taking advantage of the oppor- tunity to extend its influence and trade. Columbus is one of the best towns in the West, possessing strong elements of permanent pros- perity in a central position, on the world's thoroughfare, the greatest railroad of the age, surrounded by a large area of the rarest soil culti- vated far in advance of her own growth; vast, though as yet unim- proved, water power furnished by the Loup Fork, which here has a rapid fall of from ten to fourteen feet; and a greater than these- is the vim of her business men. Her future must develop great wealth and prosperity. Evidences that the city is now traveling rapidly along the successful highway are apparent in a large elevator and four grain warehouses built this year, taxed to their fullest capacity in handling this season's harvest; in the handsome school structure, costing $15,000; eleven new business houses, some of them brick; thirty substantial dwellings and fifteen or twenty other build- ings erected the past summer. Platte County has a population of 8,000, and the city draws its trade from Colfax, Butler, Polk, How- ard, Boone, Antelope, Greeley, Madison, Stanton, Pierce, Merrick, York and Hamilton counties, and when a substantial bridge is built across the Loup Fork, a large increase of the present trade from the South and West must surely follow. Columbus is in the heart of an agricultural portion of the state, and the country immediately surrounding it is well watered by five streams, affording excellent water power and is in every way the best adapted for cultivation, as well as the largest area tributary to any one city in the state. A gentleman, coming directly from Columbus to Omaha, made the assertion that Columbus is doing more business than Denver, Colo- rado-a city claiming 30,000 inhabitants. Looking at the long line of coming and going farm wagons, the merchants and their clerks busy from early morn until 11 o'clock at night; considering the fifteen or twenty carloads of wheat daily shipped from here, and the over- flowing hotels, your correspondent thinks the assertion safe, and fur- ther doubts if another city in the state outside of Omaha is doing over two-thirds the business of Columbus. Yet business does not so fully engross the people but that they find time to cultivate elevating and refining institutions of social life; churches, Sunday schools, bene- ficial and social societies all flourish here. Your correspondent at- tended the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School and found a most
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interesting and intelligent collection of children, with a noticeably large attendance of young ladies and gentlemen. He also attended an open meeting of the Sons of Temperance and came away with an exalted opinion of the intellectual status of the society. Interesting rival papers, supported by the ladies and gentlemen of the lodge, edited for this occasion by a Miss Dalzelle for the ladies, and by E. A. Gerrard on the part of the gentlemen, were read. The editorial ability displayed by both is worthy a more extended field. This lodgc is in a flourishing condition and is doing a work that will be of benefit through all generations of its future.
"Looking over the records kept in the Union Pacific Railroad Company's office, we find that during the winter of 1872, 133 carloads of wheat were shipped east; 1873 has more than quadrupled that num- ber, 596 carloads having been shipped to this date, of which 136 have gone forward since the 1st day of December, and seventeen today.
"Over sixty thousand acres of land have been bought and located in this vicinity by an additional population of about six hundred fami- lies. We will next year add to that their appropriation to the increas- ing productions of the older settlers. And when we consider that the country is amply sufficient to bear this rate of increase, it is not too much to expect that Columbus will yet export more wheat than the whole state can at the present time. A machine shop and carriage factory have been added to the business of this city this year. A fire company has been organized; a good engine obtained and a large brick engine house built. The Platte County courthouse is a sub- stantial structure. Around it is a handsome park, enclosed with a neat and ornamental fence. The ground on which the city stands is high and dry and muddy streets are unknown.
"One of the most important things of the city is a good flouring mill and a dozen could be profitably employed. Wheat enough for a thousand burrs is waiting for capital to control it.
"In the dry goods business are Bonesteel Brothers, Schram Broth- ers; grocery, Henry Brothers and Friedline, L. Cockburn, Marshall Smith; W. H. Heidelberger, clothing; M. T. Kinney, manufacturer of and dealer in boots and shoes; Daniel Faucett, harness and sad- dlery; Arnold & Polley, wholesale and retail jeweler; F. Brodfenhrer, jeweler; Gerrard & Reed, bankers; H. P. Coolidge, hardware and agricultural implements; Dr. T. A. Pinkney, druggist; Orlando Rose, contractor and builder of brick and stone work; M. Weaver, furni- ture; J. S. McAllister, dentist; John E. Godfred, butcher, pork packer and dealer in livestock; S. L. Barrett built a good business
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house, in which he opened an eating and refreshment house; Turner & Hulst erected an elevator, with a capacity for handling 2,000 bushels of grain per day; J. C. Morrissey, grain, dry goods and groceries; J. P. Becker, dealer in grain, is also a contractor, a bridge builder and merchant miller; Gross Brothers, groceries; attorneys, Speice & North, Nelson Millet & Son, A. Miller; Samuel C. Smith, real estate and land agent, handled 33,000 acres of land, all sold and located by him this year; W. A. Doggett, sewing machines; hotel, Hammond House, Clother House; the Platte Journal, by M. K. Turner & Co."
MARCH 31, 1875. COLUMBUS AS A POINT FOR OUTFITTING AND DEPAR- TURE FOR BLACK HILLS
We send forth to the world this announcement calling attention to our town as a suitable point for outfitting and departure:
1. From Columbus to the South Fork of the Cheyenne River, where the "Hills" begin and near to which the present discoveries have been made, the distance is 330 miles on an air line. This air line is almost coincident with the Valley of the Loup and some of its main branches. This valley therefore indicates the true line of transporta- tion. It would furnish for 200 miles a smooth roadbed, pure water, abundant pasturage, fuel and permanent ranches. From Columbus on the Union Pacific Railroad, near the mouth of the Loup, the valley is already settled for 130 miles and the settlers are in commer- cial and other correspondence with this prosperous point.
2. From a known point in the latest Government survey, where the stream indicates its far-out extension, the true line crosses the Niobrara at or near the mouth of Pine Creek, distant about seventy- five miles. But intermediate between these points are not only a northerly branch of the Loup, but the Water Snake River, so that no whole day's journey would be without a good camping ground and point for a permanent range.
From the Niobrara, the short line, we cross White Earth River within thirty-five miles and next the South Fork of the Cheyenne about the same distance. But the tributaries of these rivers, as, for instance, Labone Creek on the south and Earth Lodge on the north, which enter White Earth exactly opposite and from opposite direc- tions, are in true line to the mines. From White Earth the route would be across the Bad Lands, but the distance is only twenty to thirty miles in places. Besides the short line here indicated, there are others that are known to be practicable. There is already a traveled
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wagon road from Columbus through Oakdale and O'Neil City on the Upper Elkhorn to the pine lands of the Niobrara. But enough is known of the short line to warrant this announcement that the great highway of transportation to the Black Hills will be the Loup Valley.
3. Columbus is at that significant angle of the Union Pacific Railroad (which bears rapidly south from this point), which indicates the place for refitting the cars for the Northwestern and from which it would be a matter of economy for miners to take their own convey- ances-either a pony to ride and another to pack provisions and imple- ments for each man, or a team and wagon for every eight or ten men.
4. At Columbus all kinds of outfitting goods are on hand at prices as low as at any point on the Missouri River. Columbus is a town of 1,500 inhabitants and every branch of trade is conducted by able men. Clothing, boots, shoes, blankets, buffalo robes, flour, meat, groceries, guns, ammunition, arms, picks, shovels, horses, mules, har- ness, saddles, bridles, oxen yokes, chairs, tents, banks of deposit, and last but not least, pack ponies that are used to the business.
5. There are resident at Columbus and vicinity a number of expe- rienced explorers, scouts and old miners, who already know the coun- try and can make their way through the plains and mountains without losing their reckoning or their patience and pluck. Among these is Captain North, who accompanied General Custer through the Black Hills and will act as chief guide, and another who has a permanent and complete map and guide book will be prepared.
It is announced that on or about the 10th day of May, Providence and Uncle Sam permitting, an expedition will leave Columbus for the Black Hills under the guidance of Capt. Luther J. North and his associates. Neither the club nor the leader of the expedition assumes any definite responsibility about the amount of gold in the hills, but they affirm upon the personal knowledge of Captain North that there is gold and they reasonably hope to find it in paying quantity. But the club does hereby vouch for the advantages of Columbus as the outfitting point and the Loup Valley as the line of travel and for the capability, honor and fidelity of the guide.
Captain North will charge the small sum of $2 to each person enrolling in the expedition, except members of the club, who have otherwise contributed to the general enterprise.
By order of the executive committee of the Black Hills Mining Club of Columbus.
I. N. TAYLOR, Secretary, Columbus.
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FIRST PLATTE COUNTY FAIR
The Platte Journal of August 4, 1875, states: "We have made arrangements with Fred Gottschalk for a place to hold the first Platte County Fair. It is within a mile of the city limits, has on it a race course, one of the best in the state, and is in every way a very suitable place for the purpose. Now that the time is appointed and the grounds provided, let every man who has stock, grain, farming imple- ments, mechanical productions, etc., see to it that the first Platte County fair is a good one and the beginning of a long series. If we set ourselves diligently to work this can be accomplished."
PLATTE COUNTY FAIR
A meeting held September 4, 1875, organized by electing J. G. Routson chairman and J. J. Rickly secretary. M. K. Turner stated the object of the meeting. A committee of five was appointed to draft constitution and by-laws and report on the same on the second day of the fair. J. M. Troth, Guy C. Barnum, Jacob Ernst, E. T. Graham and M. Maher were appointed a committee. M. K. Turner made a motion that "we form an organization by electing a temporary president, secretary, treasurer and committee of arrangements to consist of five members, to act as such committee and officers during the fair and until a permanent organization is effected." J. E. North was elected president; M. K. Turner, secretary; and G. W. Hulst, treasurer. C. E. Morse, E. A. Gerrard, J. M. Kelly, Fred Gotts- chalk and J. M. Lawson, committee on arrangements. Lawson made. a motion that three men be added and G. A. Speice, G. W. Clother and L. C. LaBarre were added to the committee.
It was "Resolved, that this association as organized today issue 1,000 tickets to be of one dollar in value, the same to be placed in the hands of the finance committee to be sold for the benefit of the asso- ciation, said ticket entitling the holder to all the privileges of mem- bership, the admittance of himself and wife and minor members of his family to the fairs of 1875 and 1876, and to enter one article for premium in each class."
A motion was made that the officers of the association and all others interested meet at the courthouse in Columbus, Saturday, Sep- tember 11, 1875, at 1 o'clock.
CHAPTER XIX
THIS CHAPTER A LITTLE HISTORY IN ITSELF
The late Henry J. Hudson was a man of great versatility, and among his various accomplishments was a knack he had of furnish- ing to the press articles conveying his observations and impressions of local affairs, that proved to be not only very interesting, but valuable from a historical standpoint. Mr. Hudson was a frequent contributor to the columns of the Omaha Herald and from a scrap- book, now in possession of his daughter, Mrs. James H. Galley, excerpts have been taken to make up this chapter. The first letter used for the purpose was written in 1867. Those that follow were published in the years as they appear at the beginning of each article.
1867 -- Allured by the balmy breeze we rode along at a merry pace, ever and anon catching the sound of the plowman's cheery voice as he followed his team with quickened step in response to his familiar tones. We found upon the premises of J. HI. Galby & Brother a large two-story frame house, containing eight rooms all ready for the plasterers, where two months ago these young men had their house and its contents to the amount of $3,000 destroyed by fire, during their absence, cause unknown, and today they have the best arranged house for farm purposes in Platte County. The winter has been so favorable that a great deal of building has been going on with scarce a day's cessation. The cost of this building will be about two thou- sand five hundred dollars. W. B. Dale, one of our first-class mer- chants in every sense of the word, has nearly completed a model cottage, not only an ornament to our town, but a display of taste at once refined and elegant, at a cost of $4,000.
We referred recently to the preparations being made for spring. We are borne out in the statement by the large quantities of pine lumber direct from Chicago arriving at the yard of W. B. Dale & Co. We learn also that Clarkson & Hall, of your city, have made arrangements for opening an extensive lumber and coal yard near the railroad depot. In comparing prices of W. B. Dale & Co. with the
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commercial reports of the Herald we are satisfied that lumber will be furnished here at rates that will enable many to build who hitherto have been deterred by the high rates of lumber at this point until competition has removed the obstacles. P. G. Becker has built him a snug, compact house, at a cost of $2,000, and although less pre- tending in its exterior appearance, we venture to say, for comfort and convenience, its large, airy rooms convey an impression as you enter of generosity and welcome that amply compensates for any lack of exterior adornments. We might enumerate many other im- provements completed and in progress that we observed in our ride around town, but forbear at present.
1868-Many improvements in our county have taken place; a number of good, substantial dwellings and a few stores have been put up this season; the foundations of our courthouse have been exca- vated; huge piles of brick are upon the ground, but the contractor, Maj. J. P. Becker, in consequence of the difficulty to obtain lime and materials (it being almost impossible to obtain cars for transporta- tion on the Union Pacific Railroad), has abandoned labor upon the building until spring.
The steam flouring mill of F. A. Hoffman has been running to its utmost capacity ever since it commenced operations, and cannot supply the great demand from the country west of us; by the way, this mill, though inadequate to the wants of the surrounding country, being unable to do custom work, is nevertheless a credit to its pro- prietor and furnishes a rebuke to croaking self-complacency that is always predicting failure, while pluck and perseverance submit to no denial of its purposes, demonstrates that the power of the will is all dominant. This Columbus mill is capable of turning out 500 sacks of flour per week, is furnished with all the improvements known to mechanical science, and was built in four months, at a cost of $19.000. The excavation for the basement, twelve feet in depth, which is built of rock brought from Omaha, was begun on the 1st day of April and delivered in operation by the 1st day of September.
The low pressure bridge built by Maj. J. P. Becker last spring across the Loup Fork has proved a complete success and withstood the ice last spring, and the vast volume of water precipitated over its ever shifting bed. This bridge has settled the hitherto questioned fact, whether a bridge could be constructed in quicksand streams without stone abutments. The initiatory steps have been taken by the busi- ness men of our town to build a bridge across Platte River at this point, of similar construction to the one across the Loup Fork. Next
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summer will give us communication with the country south of the Platte, threading out the air line route from the center of the North American continent to the Gulf. This is no chimera, but feasible and practicable, so palpable indeed, that skepticism that once hooted at the idea of a great central artery, constructed in three years, con- necting the two oceans of the Western Hemisphere, has ceased its scoffings and unites its investigations with the giant minds of the age, that have traced in clearest lines the great central routes of our con- tinent from South to North, intersecting the greatest achievement of modern times, as in 1869 it welds the connecting link of the Union Pacific Railroad in its transit from East to West.
One other project of vast interest to our young state, though in embryo, has been discussed. On Saturday last a committee was appointed to investigate and confer with the authorities of Dakota, the probable cost to construct a railroad to Yankton or some point on the Upper Missouri, with a view to reaching the vast coal fields near Fort Rice in Western Dakota.
1869-It is in contemplation by the county commissioners to bridge the Platte River at this point; in fact, the rapid settlement of Butler and Polk counties makes it imperative that facilities of ready communication should be furnished for this vast trade seeking a market, to flow into the coffers of our merchants.
Though late in the season for outdoor work, yet we hear the merry stroke of the carpenter's hammer on either hand. Ten new buildings are in various stages of progress, and thirteen piles of lumber we counted, in several localities, that will assume symmetry and form this winter, if favorable for building.
The Episcopal Church and stores of C. B. Stillman and Dale & Co. are finished and occupied and stand out in bold relief as beacons of advance demanded by the laws of demand and trade.
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