USA > Nebraska > Platte County > Past and present of Platte County, Nebraska : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 25
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Franz Henggler lost by fire Sunday $700 to $800 worth of young timber. In the same neighborhood Mr. Schmitz's cornfield was burned. John Haney, a few miles east of Columbus, lost a large rick of hay. G. P. Shatts lost grain and hay. James Compton, Jr., his dwelling house and contents of granary, stable, windmill, etc., besides his stacks of grain. His neighbor, Patrick Griffin, lost his
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granary and cattle sheds. The fire which did this work started from the railroad track near Martin Regan's Saturday evening and reached Shell Creek about midnight, the wind being in the southwest. Reach- ing the creek, it traveled slowly, and in the evening the wind changing nearly north, the fire swept southward on the west border of its former line, stopping very nearly where it started.
From William M. Stevens, living across the county line in Colfax County, we learn of the following losses by fire: Captain Brown lost all his small grain; Henry Gluck, stables, hay and grain; Gus Gluck, grain, hay and considerable wood; Mike Burk all his grain, hay, cattle sheds and corral; Larry Burns, all his personal property, except house and granary; Mr. Barnes lost everything except house and furniture, also a threshing machine belonging to the Jenny brothers.
STEARNS PRAIRIE
H. T. Spoerry of Stearns Prairie, reports a destructive fire there last Sunday, destroying for R. W. Young all his hay and grain, three horses and all his buildings; T. J. Ellis by the same fire, all his grain, hay and stable; and Mr. Hellbusch, twelve stacks of grain and his grove of timber.
LOOKINGGLASS VALLEY
Mr. Peterson lost 1,000 bushels of wheat, all his outbuildings, stable and hay; Louis Cedar, his team, harness and stable; Andrew Larson, grain, hay and stable; S. Nelson lost all his hay; William Irwin, eight stacks of small grain; Peter Valine, eight stacks of wheat on his timber claim; J. W. Dickinson, four stacks of wheat; . Mr. Burling, wheat, oats and rye and all his hay and stable; Jacob Jacobs, all his grain and hay and his wife was badly injured; John Ennis, all his wheat and part of his hay and stables; George Mitch- ener everything but his sod house, and was himself badly burned, and his neighbor, Mr. Middleton, in trying to help him, lost his life; Mr. Zeigler lost all his grain; S. C. Osborn, 500 bushels of wheat destroyed in the stack; and all his hay and flax; on Shell Creek, Charlie Wil- liams, four stacks of wheat; Daniel Holleran, large amount of hay; Martin Bohan, all his hay and nearly all his grain; Hans Oleson, four stacks of wheat ; James Ducey, everything he had but live stock- buildings, machinery and wagon all burned; Pat Ducey, everything but his house and forty bushels of wheat and live stock.
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THE LOUP BREAK
March 23, 1881-On Saturday last the long looked for breakup of the Loup River took place, making considerable havoc. There has been no such flood of water and ice since 1867, when the waters covered the bottom south of the city. There was an abundance of ice-upwards of two feet in thickness. One piece was seen which was three feet, two inches in thickness. The middle spans of the Loup River wagon bridge were seen to loosen and quietly float down stream. Many other bridges were swept away. Travel was con- pletely cut off of the wagon bridge with the South Loup and South Platte country. Houses in the "bottom" with good solid founda- tions, especially protected by trees, were not much disturbed, although they were more or less filled with water. Three or four were carried off and some damaged by being struck with large cakes of ice. George Spooner's residence was taken several squares and set down again in good shape. Mrs. Hamer's building was considerably dam- aged. David Anderson lost $100 worth of hogs, and water filled his cellar within six inches of the floor. The Union Pacific track from the culvert west of the depot to the big bridge across the Loup was more or less torn up, the culvert swept away. John Haney lost 210 head of cattle swept off and only fifty recovered. The schoolhouse near Mrs. Barrows' residence was moved about a mile by the flood and placed very nearly in the center of the district. Mrs. Barrows and her children were rescued from their dwelling. Henry Bender had more than two hundred dollars worth of sheep drowned.
CHAPTER XX
COLUMBUS
The first place chosen for a settlement in Platte County was a tract of land lying on the south side of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. It was laid out late in the summer of 1856 by the Columbus Company, a body of men who had lived in Columbus, Ohio, and organized the company at Omaha, for the purpose of building a town on the principal trail or route to the Pacific coast; the future city was given the name of Columbus and became the seat of govern- ment of Platte County. How the Columbus Company selected the site through its advance agent, the personnel of the pioneer town builders and their vicissitudes of the first few years of their residence here, has already been told in the chapter entitled "The Pioneers."
William Millar, a civil engineer, and his assistants, came on from Omaha in July, 1856, and laid out and platted the Town of Colum- bus. The original plat is still in existence, though in a dilapidated condition; and is a part of the plat book on file in the county clerk's office. The certificates of the civil engineer and officers of the com- pany are given below:
"I hereby certify that from the 28th of July to the 8th day of August, 1856, I surveyed and marked the outline of the land claimed by the 'Columbus Company,' laid off and staked the corners of the lots on the outlines of the blocks from No. 1 to section No. 258, and that I afterward drafted and supplied a plat of which this is, I believe, a correct copy.
"Omaha City, 8th Jan., 1857.
"WILLIAM MILLAR, Civil Engineer."
"Know all men by these presents we the undersigned, A. B. Malcolni, president, and James C. Mitchell, secretary of the Colum- bus Company, hereby donate all the streets and alleys as marked and designated on the plat of the within named town for the use of the public.
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"Done by order of the board of directors of said company this 8th day of January, A. D. 1857.
"A. B. MALCOLM, "President.
"Witness, "A. D. JONES.
JAMES C. MITCHELL, Secretary."
THE FIRST BUILDING
The first permanent structure erected in the settlement was a crude and very primitive, rough log building, roofed with grass, and was made to answer all the purposes of a dwelling, storage house and fortification. This was long known as "the old company house," which was later donated to the settlement and was used as its first schoolhouse. In 1861, when abandoned by the school board, the build- ing was purchased by Charles A. Speice for the munificent sum of $20.25, and a short time thereafter converted into stove wood. The old grass covered cabin was also known as the town hall and stood on the block now occupied by the brewery, in the southeast part of the city. In the meantime several houses had been constructed, prin- cipally of logs, and on the 1st day of August, 1857, John Rickly had in operation, near the ferry on the Loup, a short distance west of the town, the first saw and grist mill in the county. The mill was run by steam and was operated by the Ricklys until February, 1860. During that month a destructive freshet swept away the lumber and undermined the mill. Rickly was expecting at the time additional machinery from the East for his grist mill. While looking after his scattered lumber he had but just returned from his search when he was told that his mill was burning. Starting for the scene of the conflagration and upon arriving there, he found the information only too true. The mill was burned to the ground and the machinery for the grist mill was never replaced. The sawmill, however, was kept in operation until 1872, having been moved to the town, as the country was, up to that time, quite thickly wooded. It is said that when the Pawnees first came in sight of this mill, when in full blast, they fled in dismay, warriors, squaws, pappooses and all, to their village, twenty miles distant, reporting that an evil spirit had conspired with the pale faces and had prepared an engine of torture and death for them; that the demon had actually taken possession and was breathing out fire and hot breath from his nostrils and eating great logs with his iron teeth.
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Among others mentioned as having come to Columbus and its vicinity in 1859, were the Galleys. James H. Galley later became a merchant in Columbus and remembers how the town appeared upon his arrival. Meeting that affable gentleman at his comfortable home, by appointment, the writer induced him to furnish for this chapter all details that his memory would permit relating to Columbus and its people, as he found them in 1859. Agreeably thereto, he said:
"When I came here, Jacob Baker was running the American Hotel. F. G. Becher was the only merchant and kept with his father, Gustav, a little general store, in a building which stood on Seventh Street and Washington Avenue, on the south side. It was a log cabin, in which they had a little of everything and the postoffice. I also remember that Vincent Kummer, John Rickly, Peter Becker (John P.), Charles A. Speice, Jacob Ernst, Jacob Lewis, John Wolfel and Michael Weaver, were here at that time. John Reck lived about a mile and a half east of Columbus. Charles Bremer, J. E. North, John Browner and A. J. Arnold also were here. All these persons had families except Speice, Becker and Browner. However, they afterwards were married.
"Pat Murray and George W. Stevens lived a little west of Co- lumbus and the latter taught the first school here in the 'town house,' which stood on the corner of Eighth Street and Washington Avenne. The building later was moved to Tenth and Murray and used by the Latter Day Saints for church purposes.
"The first person to go into business after I arrived was John Rickly. He had the first sawmill in Columbus, which he had moved from the Loup into town and placed it on Seventh Street, one block further east of where Becher had his store. Rickly's store building was a frame. I think the next one to go into business was 'Pete' Becker.
"Dr. C. B. Stillman was here when I came. He had his drug store and office in a lean-to, built at the rear of the priest's house, which was a log building. Charles A. Speice had a log house, which stood on the last site of St. Jolin's Catholic Church, and Doctor Still- man moved into that; Speice and Becker had gone to some one of the southern states to work during the winter at carpentry. That was before Speice was married. Becker had a small frame building on Seventh Street, which was then the business, thoroughfare of the town. He kept groceries and provisions. George Francis Train's hotel stood where the Meridian is now located, on the corner of Twelfth and Olive streets. The hotel was a two-story frame struc-
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ture, quite commodious for those days, and considered one of the palace hostelries of the county. Dances and entertainments of vari- ous kinds were held there. Speaking of Train, I remember of hear- ing him in the little old schoolhouse when he lectured and told about the Union Pacific Railroad going through here. He took the black- board, and with a piece of crayon, delineated where the lines would go out from this point. His prophecies in almost every instance be- came facts.
"All business in Columbus was on the south side until the Union Pacific Railroad was built through Columbus. I was engaged in business there until 1866. After the railroad was completed. the first business structure on the north side of the track was constructed by Bonesteel Brothers (Norris and Philip), on the corner of Platte and Thirteenth streets, now occupied by Theodore Friedhof's mer- cantile establishment.
"I first engaged in business with Vincent Kummer, who was the first treasurer of Platte County. I sold out in 1867 to William B. Dale and one Willard. Then I went back to the farm, on section 27, in Columbus Township, which had been my home in the county from 1859 till 1862. In the latter year I enlisted for the Civil war, and it was after I returned that I formed a partnership with Kum- mer, in the spring of 1866. I remained on the farm until 1873, when I put up a business building on Eleventh Street, between Olive and North, and opened a dry goods store. The building was a one story brick. With me, as a partner, was my brother Samuel. The two of us also had a mutual interest in farming.
"By the year 1873 there were quite a number of buildings on the north side. Hugh and Robert Compton were in one, where they had a stock of groceries and shoes and kept the postoffice. A. J. Arnold had a jewelry store.
"In the year 1859, as I remember, Jacob Ernst was the only blacksmith and Michael Weaver was working at his trade as a car- penter. Speice and Becker were also carpenters, but as I have said, they were in the South working at their trade. Michael Weaver was also a cabinet maker and made coffins from cottonwood lumber for my father and mother. The pioneer furniture dealer and undertaker was Henry Gass, Sr., whose representatives still continue the busi- ness. His establishment was on the south side, opposite the court- house.
"Dr. Samuel A. Bonesteel, a cousin of the merchants, was, I believe, the second physician to locate in Columbus. He married a
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sister of L. W. Weaver, the coal dealer. Doctor Owen was the next and then came Dr. Edward Hoehen, about 1867.
"The first harness maker was Dan Faucett. The pioneer hard- ware man was H. P. Coolidge, whose store was on the corner of Eleventh and Olive streets. He was also a tinsmith. Robert Mc- Intire opened the first livery stable.
"The first school building erected by the board of education was located in the First ward. When abandoned for its original pur- pose, the structure was sold to the Catholic people for a church. 'This pioneer schoolhouse, which was the successor of the old company house, stood on a spot about two blocks east of the courthouse, on Tenth Street. It was a one-story frame. This was the first church building in the town and served as a place of worship for St. John's parish several years."
COLUMBUS INCORPORATED AS A TOWN
In order to improve streets, lay sidewalks, police the town and place it under a legal form of government, the board of county com- missioners at an adjourned meeting held March 2, 1858, was pre- sented with a petition by Commissioner Gustavus Becher, on behalf of John Reck, John Miller, C. B. Stillman and thirteen other citizens of Columbus, praying for the incorporation of the Town of Colum- bus. On motion the prayer of the petitioners was granted and the following measure consummated:
AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE TOWN OF COLUMBUS
Section 1. Be it ordained by the commissioners of Platte County: That the town site claimed by the Columbus Company, upon which Columbus is located, is hereby declared to be a town under the name and style of Columbus.
Sec. 2. That said town is hereby made a body corporate and is invested with all the privileges and attributes conferred by an act passed by the Territorial Legislature entitled "Incorporation of Towns."
The said Town of Columbus and its successors shall be known by that name in law and have perpetual succession; sue and be sued; defend and be defended; in all courts of law and equity and may grant, hold, purchase and receive property real and personal within said town and lease, sell and dispose of same for the benefit of the
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town and may have a common seal and may alter the same at pleasure.
Sec. 3. The corporate powers of said Town of Columbus shall be vested in a board of trustees to consist of five members to be elected by the qualified voters residing within said town.
Sec. 4. John Reck, Vincent Kummer, John C. Wolfel, Peter Meyer and Franck G. Becher are hereby appointed trustees of said town until their successors are elected and qualified.
Sec. 5. An election shall be held on the first Monday in May and annually thereafter for the election of five trustees who shall hold their offices one year, or until their successors are elected and qualified.
Sec. 6. No male person who is a citizen of the territory may vote at any election in said town, provided he has been a resident of the same three months.
Sec. 7. The board of trustees shall have all the powers conferred by an act for the "incorporation of towns," and in sections 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and all other powers granted in said act.
Sec. 8. Gustavus Becher, Michael Fry and C. B. Stillman are hereby appointed judges of election and Charles I. Stetson and John Siebert clerks of such election.
Unfortunately, the record containing entries of the proceedings of the men who conducted the governmental affairs of Columbus in its infancy, is missing. There is no record to show who was the first chief executive of the town, nor that of any other official. This hiatus in the city records covers a period from the initial incorporation of the place up to the year 1869. It is fair to presume, however, that those whose names figure prominently in the petition for incorpora- tion, were appointed by the board of commissioners to act as officials of the town until an election could be held. This supposition is sub- stantiated by the fact that the following entry was made in the record by the county clerk as having been adopted by the board at its session of June 15, 1858:
"It was ordered that C. B. Stillman be appointed to fill the vacancy in the office of trustee in the Town of Columbus, occasioned by the resignation of John Reck." At the same meeting Charles Speice, George W. Hewitt and C. B. Stillman were appointed judges of election for Columbus precinct, said election to be held at the house of F. G. Becher. In August, 1859, Vincent Kummer, Michael Weber and C. B. Stillman were appointed judges of election, and the board decided by resolution "that the mayor, aldermen, recorder, Vol. 1-17
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marshal, treasurer and assessor of the Town of Columbus give bond respectively in the sum of $500. Michael Weber was appointed justice of the peace and Vincent Kummer, constable of Columbus precinct."
Tradition has it that C. B. Stillman was Columbus' first mayor. The names of the first trustees, appointed by the board of county commissioners, appear in the articles of incorporation.
COLUMBUS ABSORBS A RIVAL TOWN
The Town of Cleveland, situated about three miles northwest of Columbus, was laid out in 1857, George W. Stevens, William H. Stevens and Michael Sweeny being active in "building it up." It went down with the City of Neenah, Buchanan and other paper towns. The next grand scheme which exploded with a crash was George Francis Train's Credit Foncier. It was to be operated on the same gauge as the Credit Mobilier, and when the latter went down the former fell, and George Francis cleared out. Some of the land which he purchased at the time (1866), was for many years "in the courts." The certificates of stock were salted mostly among eastern capitalists. Several of them, however, were deposited with Leander Gerrard, and some of George Francis Train's notes were in his possession also, bearing the autograph of the eccentric agent, the peculiarities of whom were decided "dash" and confidence. He became proprietor of the Hammond House, set apart a room for the president of the United States and the chief executive of the Union Pacific, and otherwise conducted himself as no one else could.
David Anderson, who gave much valuable attention to the early times of Columbus and the Platte River Valley, had the following to say of the scheme: "At this convenient point in my story I will again introduce George Francis Train, who figured so conspicuously in those days. He did much to advertise Omaha and the Platte Valley. But the sequel shows that Train, like many others, had his existence among men, to all present appearances, at least fifty years too soon. The much that he did was just so much too much. He spent his prophetic zeal for the Union Pacific and the whole Platte Valley, but chiefly for Omaha and Columbus. Hundreds, nay thou- sands, rushed to these points, thinking to invest in his city lots. But Train's lots were never in the market, and well it was for people; otherwise people would have bought before the time. Train was seized with the one idea that the capital of the United States might,
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could, and would and should be on the Transcontinental-International Highway and as nearly as possible in the geographical center of the Union. So he measured the maps in all directions of earth, heaven and hell. On the map of Uncle Sam he found Columbus within ten miles of the center; on the map of the world within one mile; and on the map of the universe exactly in the centre. It was, moreover, directly on the perpendicular line 'twixt the upper and the nether world, exactly under the zenith, and over the nadir-felicitous spot on which heavenly light could fall on 'Next President, America,' and from which all corrupt congressmen 'who loved cards and wine and women,' might drop into the pit below. So he bargained for 800 acres of land and laid out the 'Capital Addition,' and began to locate the capstan, ropes and pulleys which would move the gubernatorial mansion of Nebraska, and the executive mansion of the Union, to Columbus. They did not move worth a cent, and are not an inch yet advanced on their long journey; for, as we said, George set his machinery at least fifty years too soon.
"As to the people of Columbus, their cool heads never became heated with these vagaries, and they kept on the even tenor of their way. Their expectations, however, were excited by the distinct inti- mations, if not the express promises of the controlling officials of the Union Pacific that Columbus should be the terminus of the first freight division of the road, and that here should be established a round house and repair shops, etc., etc. As it was with this under- standing that valuable property was conveyed to T. C. Durant, trus- tee, for a mere nominal price, and the right of way given to the com- pany through town and most of the county, and depot grounds in town were given to the road."
These local operations of Train's began in 1866. He bought all movable Cleveland and all the land between that embryo town and Columbus and moved the buildings to Columbus, and by that series of acts contributed toward the upbuilding of Columbus in a way, thus leaving nothing of Cleveland but a memory.
BECOMES A CITY OF THE SECOND CLASS
By a special act of the Territorial Legislature, approved February 11, 1865, the incorporation of Columbus was legalized, and on the 18th day of August, 1873, the town was incorporated as a city of the second class. However, the legality of the measure was ques- tioned, and, in 1877 a special law was passed, bridging over the trouble.
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CITY HALL
The first and only city building erected by the authorities of Columbus was built and occupied in 1872. This was a two-story brick affair and stood in the city park, on Thirteenth Street, a little south of the present Soldiers' Monument. The building cost about two thousand dollars. The ground floor was devoted to the fire department's apparatus, and the upper floor was used by the council and city officers. About the year 1892 the council and city clerk abandoned the building for offices in the basement of the Commercial Bank. Later, another move was made to rooms above Gray's dry goods store. From here the council chamber and city clerk's offices were shifted to quarters in the second story of the North Opera House, where they remained from 1901 to 1911. In the year just mentioned, the east lower floor of the Elks' Club Building, on Thir- teenth Street, was occupied. About the year 1894 the old City Hall Building was removed from the park and but few now living in the town have any remembrance that it ever stood there.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Some years had elapsed after the first settlement in Columbus before any concerted measures had been taken to organize a perma- nent body of men to fight the fire fiend, whose appearance in a com- munity is never heralded beforehand. During the years in mind every man and woman in the little town was a self-constituted fireman and used whatever means found to be the most available to resist and overcome the destroying element when their property happened to be in danger. Buckets were always kept handy and when fire broke out, every one hastened to the place and worked vigirously and patiently, passing buckets filled with water, from hand to hand, the contents of which were thrown on the burning building by the person standing nearest it.
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