USA > Nebraska > Sherman County > Loup City > The trail of the Loup; being a history of the Loup River region > Part 5
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
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GLIMPSES OF STATE HISTORY
advocate of "Popular Sovereignty" and desired to leave the question of slavery or no slavery to the vote of the people of the proposed states. Be- fore its final passage the bill was changed to provide for the organization of two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, instead of just Nebraska. Of these, the latter was to include all that part of the region lying between 40 and 49° north latitude, and extending from the Missouri and the White Earth River to the mountains. The bill finally passed both houses and was signed by President Pierce on the 30th of May.
The limits of the new territory were greatly reduced in 1861, when all the region north of the 43d parallel became a part of Dakota Territory. The same year a part of the southwest corner was added to Colorado and the western limit definitely settled on the 110th meridian. This left Ne- braska in the shape of a rectangle some 700 miles long and fully 200 miles wide. A further carving down occurred in 1863. Then the portion to the west of the 104th meridian was added to Idaho Territory. This reduced Nebraska to the present limits, if we except a very small strip in the northwest, added to the state in 1882.
As a first step in the organization of Nebraska Territory, the president, Franklin Pierce, appointed Francis Burt of South Carolina, governor, and Thomas B. Cuming of Iowa, secretary. The governor reached Bellevue October 7, 1854, and took up his abode with Rev. William Hamilton, in charge of the Presbyterian Mission House there. No sooner had the new head of the government arrived than sickness forced him to take to his bed; from this he was destined never again to rise.
In spite of sickness the oath of office was administered to him by Chief Justice Ferguson. This took place on the 16th of October and two days later the governor was dead. Thus the very first act in the history of the new territory became a sad and tragic one.
Secretary Cuming immediately took up the reins of government and first of all ordered a census taken. To this end the territory was divided into six counting districts. By November 20th the table of returns from all districts was completed, and showed a population of 2,732, which, no doubt consisted in a great part of "floaters" on their way through the counting districts. The population ascertained, the acting governor next apportioned the 13 councilmen and 26 representatives provided for in the Organic Act among eight voting districts. The first general election ever held in Nebraska occurred on the 12th day of December, 1854, at which time not only were the 39 legislators elected but also a representative to Congress.
The machinery, of governmment was now set in motion in all its depart- ments. The first Territorial Legislature convened, in obedience to guber- natorial proclamation, at Omaha City, January 16, 1855, and the bitter contest for the location of the territorial capital was on. Governor Burt had intended to make Bellevue the seat of government : but his early demise gave the acting governor an opportunity to decide in favor of his personal choice, Omaha. For days after the opening of the session crowds of
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
armed men paraded the sreets of Omaha and vowed that no session should be held there. Fortunately these hot headed pioneers did not go beyond threats, and our new territorial escutcheon was spared the stains of early, needless bloodshed. Florence, Nebraska City, Plattsmouth, and several towns farther inland, were all eager to capture the plum, and now for twelve years was the fight waged with unceasing bitterness, at one time indeed causing the secession of a part of the Territorial Legislature in favor of Florence. The struggle developed into a fight for sectional supremacy-it became the North Platte country against the South Platte country. At last when Nebraska in 1867 was admitted to the union, Lincoln in Lancaster county, became the permanent capital.
It is not our purpose in these pages to attempt a portrayal of the state history of our noble commonwealth. In the passage from this part of the work to the story of the North Loup Valley let it here suffice that the statehood question came up at a very early date. In 1860 the people voted
The First Dwelling in Lincoln. 1867.
down a proposal to call a constitutional convention. Congress passed an Enabling Act four years later, and in 1866 a constitution was adopted by the state. Congress immediately ratified this action by passing the "Admission Act" of July 18, 1866. This act was however pocket-vetoed by President Johnson. Next February he again vetoed a similar bill; but this was passed over his veto and Nebraska became a state upon the first day of March, 1867.
Thirty-seven years of peaceful development have changed the state from the wild "Indian Country" that it was to one of the richest agri- cultural states in the Union. This evolution, indeed, albeit suprisingly rapid, was not brought about but at some cost. Our fathers, who first broke the virgin prairie, suffered all the hardships consequent upon the settlement of a new country, before we their children could enjoy the fruits of their labor. There were the Indian uprisings, with sad stories of
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GLIMPSES OF STATE HISTORY
settlements destroyed and families broken up, repeated destruction of crops by swarms of locusts, destructive windstorms in summer and blizzards in winter, hail storms and droughts, in a word, all the evils and hardships that go hand in hand with blazing a trail in the unknown.
In education, Nebraska bears the proud distinction of having the lowest percent of illiteracy in the United States. The public school system has reached a degree of excellence attained by but few of the older states. 250'public high schools with almost 16,000 scholars, 19 private high schools and academies with 700 students, an excellent state university with 2,500 students, and a dozen flourishing denominational and private schools for higher education are all doing their share in the great work of maintain- ing for the state the high intellectual rank already attained.
The increase in population, too, has been remarkable. The census of 1854 showed only 2732. Since that time, by decades, the census shows the following figures: In 1860, 28,841; 1870, 122,993: 1880, 452,402; 1890, 1,058,910; 1900, 1,066,300. In the decade 1890-1900 the population remained almost stationary. This is accounted for by the serious droughts which were especially severe in the early nineties. A number of the western counties actually decreased in population on this account at that time. Since 1900 there has been a steady and even rapid influx in population, and every county in the state has showed a marked increase.
Nebraska is chiefly an agricultural state. All the cereals are raised, though corn is the most important crop. Up to 1880 the acreage of wheat was almost as great as that of corn, but since that time the acreage of the former decreased more than 2-5 of the entire area devoted to it. Since 1890, however, wheat culture has again forged to the fore to such a marked extent indeed that the acreage which in 1890 amounted to 798,855, was ten years later, 2,538.949. The corn crop acreage increased during the same decade from 5,480,279 to 7,335,187, and the hay and forage crop from 2,462,- 245 to 2,823, 652.
The census of 1900 further shows that for the census year $4, 137,000 was realized from the sale of dairy products, while an equally great amount was consumed by the farm population. This is remarkable in the face of the fact that a few years ago dairying as we now understand it was of but little importance. Then cattle were raised chiefly for the packing trade. The beef raising industry is nevertheless on the increase. In 1900 there were in the state 2,663,699 head of cattle. In the same year only three states exceeded Nebraska in the number of swine.
Politically, Nebraska is ranked as a republican state. In every national election save one, that of 1896, when a favorite son, William Jennings Bryan, carried the state, has it cast its electoral vote for the republican candidate. In state politics, as will appear from the appended list of territorial and state governors, the elections have by no means been so uniformly republican :
TERRITORIAL
Francis Burt 1854 Wm. A. Richardson 1858
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T. B. Cuming (acting) 1854-55 J. S. Morton (acting) 1858-59
Mark W. Izard .. 1855-57 S. W. Black. 1859-61
T. B. Coming (acting) 1857-58 A. S. Paddock (acting) · 1861
Alvin Saunders 1861-67
STATE
David Butler, Republican. . 1867-71 John M. Thayer, Republican 1891-92
W. H. James, (acting). . . . . . 1871-73 James E. Boyd, Democrat .. 1892-93 R. W. Furnas, Republican . . 1873-75 Lorenzo Crounse, Republican1893-95 Silas Graber, . . 1875-79 Silas A. Holcomb, Fusion · · · 1895-99 Albinus Nance, . . 1879-83 Wm. A. Poynter, . 1899-01
Jas. W. Dawes, . . 1883-87 Chas. H. Dietrich, Republican 1901
John M. Thayer, . . 1887-91 Ezra P. Savage 1901-03
James E. Boyd, Democrat .. 1891
John H. Mickey ,, 1903-
Glimpses of the North Loup Valley.
CHAPTER 1V.
The land lies open and warm in the sun, Anvils clamor and mill wheels run. Flocks on the hillsides, herds on the plain: The wilderness gladdened with fruit and grain. -John Greenleaf Whittier.
TT WAS midsummer in the year 1904. The author found himself aboard an "accommodation" train on the Burlington running between Palmer and Burwell. For hours had the puffing engine been jerking and jolting the creaking cars through deep cuts in the grotesque hills of Greeley county. A thunder-storm was passing overhead. This was the last cut: then came the down-grade. And that meant that we were about to enter the North Loup Valley. A sudden careening around a steep curve- and the first glimpse of the Valley is caught. Wonderful! Beautiful ! The angry thunder-cloud has passed by and only scattered drops are falling, glistening in the sudden burst of sunlight. A few puffs of cloud by contrast give life to the deep blue afternoon sky. Right before us the bluff chain is broken, and we gaze through the beautiful natural gap to the far-stretching panorama bevond. Through a fringe of gnarled, dark green scrub-oak the eye seeks the landscape just beyond-a vista of river valley, reaching out some four or five miles in width. Through it winds like a silver chord, the clear, low-banked North Loup riv- er. Broad acres of waving corn, just bursting into tassle; golden squares of wheat and oats in shock, and stack. Well-built farm houses surrounded by orchards and groves of shade-tree, stud the beautiful expanse every- where. On all sides are manifest signs of thrift. Ah! this is indeed "God's Country." The magic wand of enterprise has already out-stripped the words of the poet who sings:
"The rudiments of empire here Are plastic yet and warm : The chao's of a mighty world Is rounding into form."
Indeed it has been shaping swiftly. Thirty-three years ago saw the first furrow broken, and now this thronging humanity, this throbbing life and thrift!
Years ago-a quarter century past-the author, then a little chap, herd- ing cattle in the valley above Ord, according to his daily wont, had retreat-
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
ed to a shady nook on the bank of the river, while his charges were left to shift for themselves. And well they might, for was not the prairies theirs for miles around ! He was dreaming all enrapt in the charm of the virgin prairie dreaming of things yet to be. As he lay there seeing visions and listening to the gurgling eddying waters swishing by he could almost
Hear the tread of pioneers Of nations yet to be The first low wash of waves where soon Shall roll a human sea."
And they came, those pioneers, and they are silently leaving us again passing away to the realm beyond. And the great human sea is rolling, wave upon wave, over the prairie, first trodden by them, obliterating their footprints, making this a new land, almost strange to the first comer. They endured much, those pathfinders, for us their children, that we might reap the fruits of their industry and toil. And shall we thus repay them by leaving the history they made unsaid, unsung? No! a thousand times no! Let it be taken down that the generations yet unborn may know at what a cost the way was paved. How they suffered and toiled and even died that the trail of the Loup might be opened. And now where and what is the North Loup Valley-this much praised garden spot of Nebraksa! Let us answer this query at once. By the North Loup Valley or region, as here un- derstood, is meant all that portion of this drainage system included in Loup, Garfield, Valley, Greeley and Howard counties, linked into one commonality by one common history, by mutual ties of friendship and good will, cemented at the time of first settlement, which have drawn these po- litical communities into a bonded union strong enough to disregard mere artificial boundary lines set up by law of government. It includes, on the rough, the Taylor- Kent district in Loup county, the Burwell-Willow Spings lowland in Garfield county, all of Valley county, the Scotia district of Greeley county, and the Cotesfield district in Howard county. In other words it includes not merely those communities which have a history in common but virtually all the really fertile, valuable lands drained by the North Loup river and sections from the Middle Loup as well.
The most important of all this region is the river valley. Here we find a fine alluvial floodplain, usually marked by two terraces, the upper bench so well adapted to all agricultural purposes, and the "bottoms" chiefly important for their rank growth of forage grasses. The valley, in places, reaches a width of almost six miles, and then again, in its upper course, dwindles down to a few vards. Geologically almost the entire region be- longs to the Champlain Period of the Quaternary Age. The mighty rolling or abruptly jutting hills, everywhere flanking the river basin, are com- posed almost exclusively of the wonderfully loess clays characteristic of that period. As this clay is inexhaustible in its fertility, even the steepest hills may be cultivated year after year without the aid of artificial ferti- lizers. The upper part of the region only belongs to another and more ancient period-the Pliocene. Portions of Loup and Garfield counties and a
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GLIMPSES OF THE NORTH LOUP VALLEY
few square miles in northeastern Valley county are encroached upon by the great Pliocene Sand Hills. This part of our Valley is therefore more prop- erly a grazing district. To get a more definite idea of its topography, let the reader study carefully the maps of Loup and Garfield counties giv- en elsewhere in the book. The North Loup river rises among a cluster of small lakes in western Cherry county, just east of the 101st meri- dian and about 50 miles from the north line of the state. Some twenty or more lakes comprise this group. And a more beautiful region can hardly be imagined. Some of the lakes are crystal clear, with pebbly bottoms. All nestle in the sandhills, but they are immediately surrounded by grass plots of remarkable richness. Out of them flows the river at first a mere
A View Taken in Olsen's Canyon.
silver thread, making its way by tortuous windings through the hills, which in the upper course approach almost to the river brink. After it enters Loup county the valley becomes well defined, though at first narrow and of a sandy consistency. By degrees, however, an alluvial soil appears, which becomes deeper and richer as Garfield county is approached. The stream itself is shallow and bounded by low, usually treeless banks. Small islands, often covered with a dense growth of cottonwood, box - elders, ash, and thickets of wild plums and choke cherries, dot the rippling, eddying stream, and add much to a scenery which might otherwise become a little monotonous. The river bottom is, for the most part, fine shifting sand, but compact enough to make fording by heavy wagons perfectly safe
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
The river sands are, as far as we can ascertain, of Pliocene origin .- It should be added, though, that in places these beds have been worn through and the underlying Miocene sand-stones laid bare. A most remarkable instance of this water activity is seen in the falls of the North Loup in the sand hill region. Here the river suddenly tumbles over a sandstone ledge 12 feet high and almost 50 feet wide, forming quite a romantic fall, and indeed the second largest in the state. At Burwell, in Garfield county the North Loup receives its only important tributary, the Calamus. This beautiful, clear stream drains a large section of the sand hills and is remarkable for the numberless springs that everywhere well up from its bottom.
The sand hills cover hundreds of miles lying north of the Loup and even encroach greatly upon its upper drainage. They must have originated, as pointed out in Chapter I, from a disintegration of young and poorly con- solidated Miocene and, more particularly, Pliocene rocks.
Before the advent of white man the hills were not so stable as now.
A Typical "Blowout."
The vast herds of buffalo which used to roam here, trampled the grasses and loosened the sand exposing it to wind and weather, thereby causing a perpetual shifting in surface. Then too, the great prairie fires which in bygone years annually laid the surface bare and destroyed a very important fertilizing debris, are now much more infrequent and may soon be a thing of the past. Within the memory of the oldest settler important changes have taken place in the once decried sand hills. Now they are completely grassed over and are coming to be recognized as some of the most important grazing and alfalfa lands in the state.
An impetus was given to the settlement of the sand hills when in the
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GLIMPSES OF THE NORTH LOUP VALLEY
summer of 1904, the so-called Kinkaid Law went into effect. Under this act any bona fide settler in this region may homestead as many as four quarter sections of land where previously one quarter section was the limit allowed any one homesteader. The wisdom of the law is already manifest in the great increase in actual settlers during the first year after its passage.
To the northeast of the river, covering a few square miles in Valley county and extending into Garfield county, lie the "Sand Flats." This wierd tract has always been of absorbing interest to the writer. As one drives along over its undulating surface, abrupt bluffs rise out of the distance, encompassing the whole area. It appears for everything in
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Road in Olsen's Canyon.
the world like an immense amphitheatre. The bluffs along the horizon, many of them, rise in stops much like the tiered Roman theatres. There cannot be the least doubt as to the origin of this strange land formation. It represents the bottom of a lake, drained out almost within historic times. Drifting sands have then blown over the lake bed and given to it the present undulating surface.
South of the sand hills Valley county is a mighty, wavy loess plain pierced diagonally by the flood trough of the North Loup River, which divides the county into two unequat triangles. The hill lands to the north- east have a southward trend and drain through a series of small creeks
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
into the river. The Middle Loup River cuts across the southwest corner of the county. whence it runs parallel with the north fork till the two unite in Howard county. The uplands between the two streams in Valley county form a rolling plateau and drain partly into the North Loup, partly into the Middle Loup. The soil is highly fertile and almost every foot of ground may be tilled.
It is interesting to note that the three forks of the Loup, which after uniting to form one stream, meandering along for a hundred miles parallel to the Platte before pouring their waters into the latter, flowed at one time as three separate streams and emptied as such into the Platte. "Later. the stronger Platte, while building up a bed some 300 feet thick, obstructed the f'o v of the Loup by throwing sandbars across their mouths, and thus forced them to shift their courses eastward or down the Platte valley to tind a new and united outlet over the steadily rising barrier of sand."
The following description of Valley county townships is taken from the Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, Lincoln, 1902, and gives in the main a fair estimate of our soil :
RANGE 13.
T. 17. Rolling, fertile; North Loup valley.
T. 18. Northeast half in North Loup valley; fertile; rest rolling; fertile.
T. 19. Southwest half North Loup villey; rest gently rolling ; fertile.
'T 20. Northeast quarter mostly sand flats, fertile ; rest rolling, one-half tillable.
RANGE 14.
T. 17. All quite rolling, fertile; about two thirds tillable.
T. 18. Northeast part quite hilly. fertile; rest Mira valley, gently undulating, very fertile.
'T. 19 Southwest third quite rolling, about one-half tillable; rest Norch Loup valley, fertile.
'T. 20. North Loup valley ; rest pretty rough, but one-half tillable. RANGE 15.
T 17. Rolling: fertile; good farm land.
T. 18. All very fertile. mostly in Mira valley ; little of it quite rolling.
T. 19. Mira valley, very fertile; rest rolling, fertile, one half tillable; '1'. 20. North Loup valley, fertile; northeast sixth rough, fertile. southwest half quite rolling, but fertile.
RANGE 16.
T. 17. Middle Loup valley, sandy, fertile: balance rolling. fertile.
T. 18. East two-thirds rolling, fertile, about one-half tillable; rest sandy and rouga.
'T. 19. Mira valley in middle east; portions in north and south rough ; balance rolling, fertile.
T. 20. Southhalf quite rolling, about one half tillable; north half very rough, good pasture.
By far the larger fraction of lands in the Loup Valley is fertile though here and there right in the heart of the best loess and alluvial soils are found unproductive alkali spots. These are, it is true, less frequent and smaller in our part of the state than in many other localities.
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GLIMPSES OF THE NORTH LOUP VALLEY
They appear usually in tablelands and lowlands having poor drainage. The standing water escapes by evaporation and the saline compounds, found in all water, are left behind. An analysis of the white, brinelike substance gathered on the surface of such spots will usually contain a large prupor- tion of soda compounds, with an occasional excess of lime, potash or magnesia. Alkali lands should be kept well plowed, and be given artificial drainage if at all possible. Careful tests have proven that wheat rapidly
Section of Jones' Canyon.
consumes the alkali. A few crops of this cereal on alkali grounds is known to have made the latter well adapted for other grains.
Thirty-five years ago the Valley was preparing for the advent of the pioneer. Before this an occasional pathfinder had hunted and trapped along its water courses; but the Sioux war which dragged along and hardly came to an end before the close of the sixties made such expeditions
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THE TRAIL OF THE LOUP
extremely hazardous, and kept all but the most foolhardy away. Now, however the war was closed and the trapper set his face in earnest north- ward, intent on making the beautiful valley his home. And close upon his trail followed the pioneer farmer, the maker of the valley. But here let us pause again to picture the virgin soil as it must have appeared to the first comer, with its flora and fauna.
A luxuriant growth of wild grasses covered hill and valley, all un- touched by the plow. Myriad wild flowers in their season helped to give color to the landscape. A heavy growth of hard and soft wood trees then covered the river islands much the same as in our day. The really import- ant forest growth of those times was the cedar canyons, now long ago despoiled of their giant cedars and pines. The most extensive of these were found on the north side of the river between Fort Hartsuff and Willow Springs, although well-timbered canyons were found on both sides of the river as far up as Taylor, in Loup county. East of the Forks of the Loup and Calamus grew an abundance of the Western Yellow Pine (Pinus Ponderosa), a remnant of the great fir forests which at one time covered much of the sandhill region, and which may again under government care be made to flourish there. The cedar canyon especially celebrated was "Jones' Canyon" in the immediate vicinity of Willow Springs, known to settlers for many miles up and down the valley. The canyons were usually deep rifts in the hills, running more or less at right angles to the river plain, with sides so steep and broken as to form an adequate protection against the annually recurring prairie fires. Here a splendid growth of evergreens flourished. The red cedar (Juniperus Virginianus) was the most important for all purposes. Out of them the best dwellings in the settlements were erected ; and so sought after were they that settlers would come from two and three days' journey to get the coveted timber. During the early days, when the grasshoppers ravaged the crops, leaving the settlers to stare starvation in the face, this logging industry became their salvation. Great oxloads of cedars were carted all the way to Grand Island, a distance of fully eighty miles, aud sold to the Union Pacific Rail- way Company.
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