USA > Nebraska > Sherman County > Loup City > The trail of the Loup; being a history of the Loup River region > Part 12
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An exceptionally destructive year was 1856, r hen the insects swarmed over Nebraska, Kansas, some parts of Missouri and Texas, into Iowa and Minnesota, and through Colorado and Utah, In 1870 and 1871 they again threatened the states west of the Mississippi. and in 1878 committed very serious depredations. "The most serious locust year known in the United States, however, was 1874 when enormous swarms invaded the settled portions of the Mississippi Valley west of the ninety-fourth meridian. Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Dakota, Minnesota, New Mexico, Indian Territory, and Texas were overrun by swarms from the northwest, mainly from Montana and British Columbia.
"The loss in this region was estimated at $50,000,000 in the actual destruction of crops. In 1875 the young insects hatched in immense num- bers over an area embracing portions of Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri,
129
INDIANS AND GRASSHOPPERS
entailing destitution and suffering among a population of 750,000 people. In 1877 the young insects died in great numbers and those which acquired wings flew toward the northwest in the direction of Dakota and Montana, the region of permanent breeding grounds."
The month of July was about half spent when the locusts reached the North Loup Valley. Corn was "laid by" and in tassle; the small grain was heading and full of promise. Then dawned the fatal day. By noon a strange haziness overspread the clear, blue sky, and the bright sunlight took on a sickly, yellowish tint. Had anyone taken the trouble to look at the sun through some proper medium he would have discovered the cause of this gradual transformation in the day. Myriads of insects were flitting by the disk of the sun. But people were not looking for trouble and so allowed the phenomenon to go unnoticed. In a short time, however, everyone had cause to become wide enough awake. The clouds of locusts suddenly began to settle over the earth. With a strange whistl- ing sound of wings and myriad bodies they came on, pelting the appalled earth; hustling and tumbling they came, clinging to whatever they hap- pened to strike, devouring every planted thing from Indian corn to garden truck.
At first some of the settlers made vain attemps to scare the pests from their fields, but this was usually rewarded by having the clothes literally eaten from off their limbs. As time advanced the number of insects grew. In places branches of trees are said to have been bent almost to the ground under their living burden. The corn fields were speedily stripped of their leaves, and soon all but the toughest portions of the stalk were devoured. We hear of thrifty housewives attempting to save favorite flowerbeds by spreading over them bedquilts and carpets for protection, who to their chagrin found the locusts as eager to devour the spreads as they were the flowers.
Ah, those were sad days in the settlement! Gone were now the hopes and day dreams of many a sturdy pathfinder! The last dollar had with many been spent in -the hope of speedy returns from good crops. What now would be the future? How to span over the coming winter and eke out an existence till another crop could be gotten became serious questions. Had it not been for the abundance of game in the adjacent hills and the logging industries, and more particularly still, the building of Fort Hart- suff, which gave work at good wages to scores of men up and down the valley, many would perforce have left their farms and returned to the older settlements.
Fort Hartsuff, It's Rise and Fall.
CHAPTER X.
We loved the wild clamor of battle. The crash of the musketry's rattle. The bugle and drum. We have drooped in the dust, long and lonely:
The blades that flashed joy are rust only,
The far-rolling war music dumb .- S. Weir Mitchell.
T HE PEBBLE CREEK fight led the settlers to petition the National Government to establish an army post on the upper North Loup River. A mass meeting was called to meet at Willow Springs and a committee con- sisting of Melville B. Goodenow, John Case, E. D. McKenney, W. A. Harper, and G. W. McAnulty were selected to bring the matter to the notice of Congress. The first step was to draw up a petition and place the same in the hands of Hon. Frank Welsh, who represented the congressional district of which the Loup country at that time formed a part. Congressman Welsh seems to have recognized the urgency of the case, as he lost no time about getting the bill through the Lower House of Congress. United States Senator Hitchcock piloted the same bill through the Senate. It called for the appropriation of $50,000 to be expended for the purpose of establishing a permanent military post near the head of settlement on the North Loup River. This appropriation was later increased to $75,000, but even this was increased. A fire in the partially completed structures swelled the eventual outlay to fully $110,000.
The actual work of construction did not begin till September 1, 1874. Meanwhile Company C, 9th U. S. Infantry, Captain Samuel Munson com- manding, came into the upper valley and forthwith allayed all fear of further Indian trouble. Later in the summer the old Civil War veteran Gen. E. O. C. Ord-after whom the city is named-arrived and with him came a corps of engineers who should help locate the fort. The site chosen had some strategic importance, and was not far from the excellent gravel beds on Gravel Creek and but a short distance from the Clifton and Jones Canyons, which furnished the bulk of the timber needed in the construc- tion of the several buildings.
The building of the fort in the fall of '74 was a most fortunate event in the history of the Valley. The swarms of locusts had earlier in the season destroyed every vestige of crops, and starvation actually stared the settlers in the face.
131
FORT HARTSUFF; ITS RISE AND FALL
But just in the nick of time came the fort and with it an abundance of work at good wages for every man who cared to take it.
The buildings were to be constructed from concrete of gravel and cement. This called for a great deal of hauling. There were the sand and
Fort Hartsuff Taken from the Hills; Officers' Quarters in the Foreground.
gravel to be moved from the pits four miles south of the fort, and the timber to be cut and drawn from the canyons eight miles north. The lime was to be carted from the kilns on "Dr. Beebe's" ranch forty miles down
132
THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
the river, and every sack of cement and all the finishing lumber came from Grand Island, eighty miles by road.
Every team for miles up and down the river was requisitioned and every
Fort Hartsuff Taken from "Skunk Hollow." Watch Tower, Stockade and Wind Mill May Be Seen in Background.
man and boy who could wield a shovel was given something to do. Indeed, settlers came all the way from the Platte River country and from the Middle Loup to seek work. A saw mill was erected near the site of the fort. Here all the rough timber for use in roofs and floors was prepared.
In one way only did the erection of the fort work ruin to the valley.
133
FORT HARTSUFF, ITS RISE AND FALL
Through the wholesale destruction wrought in the cedar canyons. "The Jones Canyon, " says Truman Freeland, "which is now a dreary waste of broken cliffs and naked ravines with scarcely a bush ten feet high, was then heavily timbered; the tall graceful pines stood by the thousands ou the hillsides, while the cedars grew so close together in the canyons that a team and wagon could with difficulty make a way through them. Tall cottonwoods, three and four feet in diameter, were found here and there along the canyon. Boxelder, hackberry, ash and elm were also in abund- ance, and in places on section eight there towered fine groves of poplars.
"This evergreen forest" he continues, "was the haunt of thousands of bright plumaged birds, and the shelter from the bitter winds of the sur- rounding prairie for hundreds of deer and other game-animals, and bore not the mark of a single stroke from the woodman's axe in 1871." But now, -what a desolation !
Fort Hartsuff was a fort in name only: it comprised a number of officers' quarters, barracks for the privates, commisary buildings, stables, and other structures arranged in a hollow square. The only defensible part of the fort was the waterworks, which lay on the hills back of the officers' quarters. This was protected by a circular stockade, accessible from the fort by an underground passage. This stockade which might well have remained a lasting memorial of the pioneer days was some years back ruthlessly destroyed and sold as old lumber. The completion of the first buildings in December, '74 was celebrated with a grand bail to which the entire country side was invited. Everybody was proud of Fort Hartsuff. Indeed it was from the first considered by officers and men alike, the prettiest and in every way the most desirable station in the Department of the Platte.
Captain S. Munson was the first commander of the new fort. His Company was relieved April 14, 1875 by Company A 23rd Infantry, under the command of Capt. John J. Coppinger, a son-in-law of the statesmen James G. Blaine. A further change was made in December, 1876, when Company K., 14th Infantry, under Captain Carpenter, came to garrison the post. Finally, in November, 1878, Captain Munson again assumed com- mand, which he retained until the fort was abandoned in May, 1881.
At the close of the Sioux War of '76 the broken remnants of the warring tribes were settled upon their reservations in the two Dakotas, and since that time they have never been much of a menace to Nebraska settlers. The Pawnees had already been removed to their new home in Oklahoma. It thus came about that Fort Hartsuff early outlived its useful- ness as a defense against the old-troublers of the valley, and it was accord- ingly discontinued as an army post.
Its later history is quite prosaic. The buildings, erected at such great cost to the government, were sold in July, 1881, to the Union Pacific Rail- way Company for the paltry sum of $5000.
The reservation, comprising two sections, was sold later, at public auc- tion, and purchased by Peter Mortensen, Ed Mitchell, and Mrs. J. L.
134
THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
McDonough of Ord. It is now used as a stock ranch by Collison Brothers and Lindquist.
Life at Fort Hartsuff was such as one usually finds at the American frontier post. There was the usual routine of drill and guard-mount, of scouting trip and hunt; the same old round of balls and gaming and idle- ness-a life which unfortunately too often has lead to vicious living in one form or another. Our fort was no exception to this rule, and a certain
Return of the lost Alderman children: George and Emma Alderman, seven and five years old, wandered from home and were lost for three days. They were found by Sergeant Myers and Corporal Schreck under shelter of a washout, their only protection a faithful Newfoundland dog, (Retouched from an old picture in the possession of Judge Herman Westover of Ord.)
looseness is yet to be marked in a few families of the old campfollowers, which remained in the vicinity where the post was abandoned. This should not, however, be taken as a reflection on the many good citizens of Valley, Garfield and neighboring counties, who were directly or indirectly identified with the fort. It is of interest to note that Joe Capron, the prosperous Ord real estate dealer, was quartermaster's clerk at the fort from 1878 to '81,
135
FORT HARTSUFF, ITS RISE AND FALL
while George Clement of Mira Valley was one of the government contrac- tors who built the fort. Hon. Judge Norris, who now holds high office in the Philippine service was 2nd Lieutenant in Company K. Ed. Satterlee, for many years proprietor of the Satterlee House, and Arthur Schaefer whose business career in Valley county ended so sadly some years back, were both members of Company K. John Luke of Ord held the position as musician in Company A., and George McAnulty of Scotia was a member of Company C.
Village Organization.
CHAPTER XI.
and over the roofs of the village Colums of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense ascending. Rose from a hundred hearths, the home of peace and contentment. --- Longfellow's Evangeline.
T HE Seventh-Day Baptists settled the rich bottom lands of the North Loup and Mira Creek valleys, and were well content to live pastoral lives in their new Arcadian realm. This seemed in fullest harmony with their simple religious system. The village organization had therefore no part in their system, but materialized rather in spite of it, as a part of our gregarious Teutonic system. The first step in that direction came with the creation of a post office, called North Loup, with Elder Oscar Babcock as postmaster.
Prior to this time the nearest postoffice was at Cotesfield in Howard County. The Star route was extended to Valley county in the fall of 1873, in charge of A. G. Gillespie as carrier and contractor. The latter at one time controlled the mail routes on both sides of the river between St. Paul and The Forks. His "Pony Express" and stage coach were for many years the chief means of communication between the settlements and the outer world. Thus we hear that Truman Freeland used to carry it from Cotesfield to Calamus and Willow Springs on the north side of the river, and that Mrs. S. S. Haskell at one time managed the route between Ord and The Forks (Burwell). Mr. Gillespie is still living, a hale and hearty patriarch, at his home in Scotia; he has just filled his one hundredth year, which marks him the oldest resident in the Loup country, if not indeed the oldest man in our state.
Shortly after the postoffice was established the North Loupers decided to build a school house. These people were indeed people of education and knew how to appreciate good schools, and they proposed to make the right kind of a start. Accordingly a dug-out, fourteen feet square, was con- structed-a humble enoogh beginning, but inestimably better than nothing at all-and Miss Kate Badger, now Mrs. J. W. Holliday, was installed as teacher. This was in the summer of 1874. Here then we have the first school in Valley county. A few months later the county was districted for school purposes. All the south half was designated as District No. 1, with
137
VILLAGE ORGANIZATION
North Loup as the centering point: the north half became District No. 2. with its only school held for a time in the Mortensen dugout, north of Ord,
The Beginnings of North Loup, 1878. (From a Picture in the Possession of Frank L. Green.)
in charge of Mrs. Emma Haskell, wife of Orson S. Haskell, one of the founders of Ord,
138
THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
At North Loup the dugout school house was early discarded for a neat little cedar log cabin, erected on Elder Babcock's land, at the edge of the of the present townsite. ] In the fall of 1873, W. J. Holliday opened a general store on his homestead, not far from the postoffice and school house. Here naturally enough the center of interest came to be, and other buildings were soon springing up and making the beginnings of quite a village. Just then the grasshoppers came, and with the loss of crops every- thing came to a stand still. The village, though, managed somehow to survive, and was regularly surveyed and platted in 1877, in anticipation of the heavy influx of settlers which commenced the very next year. The original plat of North Loun, as may be seen from the cut herewith given, comprised six blocks only. The streets, denominated as 1st and 2d, and
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A Plat of North Loup Showing the Original Townsite and a Number of Later Additions. A, B, and C, were all 80 feet wide. Lots were 4 to the half block; alleys were 25 feet wide. The miscellaneous records show that the townsite was surveyed and platted by C. H. Webster, that A. J. Davis and Eddie Bab- cock were chainmen, and J. A. Green, axman. The plat was subscribed and sworn to before County Commissioner Oscar Babcock, March 6, 1877, and received for record the 7th day of March, 1877.
The year '78 marked the beginning of a steady growth in the valley. In '81 the railroad question came to the fore. The Republican Valley Road was contemplating a northward extension. North Loup township helped matters along by voting bonds to the amount of $4,000.00. The grade was at once begun, and by the spring of 1882, had been completed from St. Paul to North Loup. As soon as the railroad became an assured fact, there was a rush of settlers to the village, and soon numerous, substantial build-
2
139
VILLAGE ORGANIZATION
ings were under erection. In a year the population increased from a hun- dred to more than double that number. This has slowly been added to in the course of later years till now, in 1905, the village counts 510 all told. North Loup can never expect to become much of a city, but is just a thrifty little residence town, an ideal place if one wishes to retire to a moral Chris- tian atmosphere, where churches are wide open and saloons and drinking places are kept closed.
The history of Ord, the county seat and principal town in Valley county, really begins with the organic election in 1873, when it was made the official town of the county. But for more than two years the town was without name, nor was a single house built upon its site during that time. The county officials were satisfied to keep their books and records at their respective residences-in dugouts and in log cabins-and for all practical purposes they got along very well indeed.
In May, 1874, the first steps were taken towards building the town. Then O. S. Haskell of Valley county, O. C. Haskell of Chicago, and A. M. Robbins of Dixon, Illinois, who had purchased the land from the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company, made a first plat of the proposed town. For some time it was known among the settlers as "Chin City, " a name which it took from A. T. Stacy, or "Chin" Stacy, so named for a cer- tain facial peculiarity, and who lived in the only house anywhere near the townsite. in what is now the Woodbury Addition to Ord. But this is how it took its real name: During the summer of 1874. as we will remember, General E. O. C. Ord, who was then in command of the Department of the Platte, came into the valley to locate Fort Hartsuff; and in honor of this old, war-scarred veteran it was decided to name the town Ord.
In the summer of 1875 the town was carefully platted, and the first ef- forts were made to induce the people to build on the site. To this end the townsite company proposed to give the county every fourth block in the plat-eighteen blocks all told-on condition that the county build a court house of equal value with the eighteen blocks, on the townsite prior to July 4, 1880. The proposition was promptly accepted by the board of commis- sioners on behalf of the county. The townsite company now immediately executed a $2,000.00 bond for faithful performance. This instrument was approved by John Case, chairman of the board of commissioners Nov. 16, and properly recorded Nov. 25th of the same year. The eighteen blocks were appraised at about $50.00 each, and on this basis the plans and specifi- cations of a court house to cost between $800.00 and $900.00 were drawn up and bids asked for. The contract was let to our friend the bridge builder, John L. Means of Grand Island, November 17, 1875, consideration to be even $800.00.
SPECIFICATIONS OF COURT HOUSE.
Building to be 16x24 feet; 9 feet high.
Sills 6x8 inches.
Studding 2x4, set 16 inches from center to center.
-
-
Joseph A. Green on His Way to North Loup from Pardee, Kansas, in 1872. This Was the First Frame House in that Town. (Enlarged from a small Picture Belonging to Mr. Green.
141
VILLAGE ORGANIZATION
Lower joist 2x8, set 18 inches from center to center.
Ceiling 2x4, set 16 inches from center to center.
Collar beams 1x6 on every set of rafters as shown in plates. double, 2×4.
Rafters 2x4, 24 inches from center to center.
This unpretentious little structure was reared near the south side of the present Court House Square, which was then a treeless plat of virgin prairie. After being used for court purposes for some twelve years it was removed to give place for the present, modern building. It was carted to the east side of the square, where it may yet be seen-a forlorn bit of the past.
The court house was completed in February, 1876, and a couple of months later Herbert Thurston commenced the erection of the first resi- dence on the townsite. Nothing furthier developed till the fall of the year ; then the grand old patriarch, S. S. Haskell, set up the first hostelry, gen- eral store, and postoffice, in what in those days was considered a very pre- tentious frame building, situated in the east part of the present town on the road from the river bridge. This structure has been variously known as the Ord City Hotel, the Dies House, and is now in a somewhat remodel- ed form, the Transit House, near the north side of the square.
No further improvement was made in the townsite till the fall of 1877, when W. H. Mitchell moved his paper, the Valley County Herald, from Calamus, and began its publication in a small log building, moved from the above-named place, which had until this time, on account of its location near Fort Hartsuff, been the principal town of the county.
During the year 1878, there was quite a large immigration to the county, and Ord began to grow quite rapidly. In the spring, E. S. Harter moved his stock of goods over from Spring- dale Postoffice, and built a store twenty-two by forty feet in size, two stories high, and put m a large stock of general merchandise, hardware and drugs. Herman Westover, an attor- ney, moved here from Calamus and erected a dwelling. W. A. Hobson and L. E. Post each erected blacksmith shops and dwellings. W. H. Mitchell sold the Valley County Herald to J. C. Lee, then built a dwelling and began the practice of law. In September, H. W. Nelson moved his paper, the Valley County Courier from Viuton. There were now two newspapers until the Herald failed in November.
The year was further noted for the
Sylvester S. Haskell, the Father of Ord.
O. S. Haskell
The Ord Townsite Company. O. C. Haskell A. M. Robbins
W. W. Haskell
143
VILLAGE ORGANIZATION
removal from Calamus to Ord of Z. K. Ferguson with a good stock of gen- eral merchandise. Early in 1879, Joe Capron purchased Henry Nelson's paper, the Courier, and established the Valley County Journal. Soon afterwards Case & Mortensen opened the first exclusive hardware store m Ord, and indeed in the county. J. A. Collins and John A Bales established a harness shop, Copp & Westover opened a nice new law office and Henry Nelson built the first livery stable. S. L. R. Maine and H. M.
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An Early Plat of Ord Showing the Original Towasite, and S. S Haskell's and Finn Milford's Addition.
Deegan moved down from Calamus and re-established themselves at Ord. S. S. Haskell, H. A. Babcock. M. E. Getter, J. H. Collins and others added to the growing little town by erecting dwelling houses.
When Fort Hartsuff was built it immediately became the center of in- terest in the county. Men with an eye to business flocked thither; and. as might have been expected, a thriving little town was soon springing up on the very edge of the fort reservation. This was Calamus. For a year or more it was the liveliest town in the county. Under the patronage of Lieu- tenant Thomas Capron of the fort, the townsite was platted and quite a start was made. Sixteen blocks and half blocks were laid off, pretentious streets, 100 feet wide, were planned, and every preparation was made for the expected boom. Stores of the several kinds were opened, and many residences sprang up. The town had the undivided support of the fort gar- rison and of many outlying settlers. But Ord was altogether too near, and
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
then came the rumors of the fort's speedy abandonment. The bubble burst and in three years' time the town was to all practical purposes -- dead.
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