USA > Nebraska > York County > York County, Nebraska and its people : together with a condensed history of the state, Vol. I > Part 15
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852 square miles. The first settler was David Palmer, who came to the county in 1854, or 1855. Mr. Pahner was drowned in 1826 while swimming in the Blue River. On the morning of April 3, 1852, thirty-five persons on board the steamer Hannibal, then plying the Missouri between St. Louis and Nebraska City, organized themselves into a colony, which formed with a written constitution and by-laws, and upon arrival in what is now Gage County they chose a site and started the town of "Beatrice" so named after a daughter of Judge John F. Kinney, of Nebraska City, one of the leaders of the colony. Other leading spirits were J. B. Weston, later state auditor ; G. T. Loomis, J. R. Nelson, Albert Towle, Dr. H. M. Reynolds, Bennett Pike, John McConihe, H. F. Cook and Dr. Wise. In the same year another settlement was made seven miles north of Beatrice, and still another at Blue Springs, ten miles southeast of Beatrice. The former. on Steven's Creek was in what was for a while Clay County. This settlement, which later took the name of Indian Creek was eclipsed by Beatrice in a commercial way. The Indians caused some trouble in the early history of these settlements, but treaties with the Government soon quieted down this situation. To a citizen of Gage County fell the honor of securing the first homestead entered in the United States. The homestead law went into effect in January, 1863, and he was ready the night before to secure his filing, stopping on his way to military service in the pending war. His patent is numbered 1, and is recorded in Volume 1, page 1 of the records of the general land office at Washington. The B. & M. reached Beatrice through the valley of the Blue in 1871. The Atchison & Nebraska, cuts across the north- cast corner of the county, with about ten miles of line and one station, Adams. The Rock Island across the northwest corner of the county has Clatonia. and its branch east and west across the county, through Beatrice, has Virgina, Rockford and Ellis. The Burlington branch across the county east and west through Beatrice has Filley, a station also for Rockford, and Hoag. The Union Pacific line from Lincoln to Manhatten, north and south through the county, through Beatrice, has as stations, Cortland, and Pickrell, north of Beatrice and to the south, Putnam, BIne Springs, Wymore and Barneston. Another B. & M. line across the south edge of the county, which makes junction with the U. P. at Wymore, has developed the towns of Liberty, Kriders, Odell, Odell Junction and Lanham on a branch that breaks off at Odell Junction. Thus it will be noticed that Gage County is well honeycombed with railroad lines. Holmesville and Blue Springs Junction are on another spur of the Union Pacific. Only Hanover and Townsend appear to be actively on a list of inland points that forty years ago included Reserve, Dover, Wild Cat, Cottage Hill, Bear Creek, Melroy, Greer, Freeman, Roperville, Blaine, Barkey, Merserveville, and Silver. The old Ofoe Indian reservation occupied the four townships in the southern tier of the county. The Otoe Agency was near the site of present town of Liberty.
GARDEN COUNTY
This county was cut off from Deuel County in 1910 and its history is mainly wrapped up in that of Denel since 1888, and before that in the great mother county, Cheyenne. The principal permanent settlements, except for the early ranching activities of the great cattle ranchers, materialized late in the '80s and early '90s. Forty years ago there was not a settlement in this county and the only points charted
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on maps were Rocky Point, Swan Lake and Beaver Lake. But this county has a mimber of very prosperous and thriving towns along the branch of the Union Pacifie that comes up from North Platte, and goes on to the western edge of the state. Oshkosh is the county seat, and Lewellan, Lutherville, Penn, Lytle and Lisco, the other towns. To the south, the only inland point is Kowanda. The Platte River traverses the county, south of the railroad line. To the north a few inland points have sprung up, being mainly at Goodland, Velma, Warren, Lakeview, Tippets, Rackett, Mumper, Orlando, Pawlet, Sterbins, Moflit and Thelma. On division, this eounty took 1652 square miles of territory and left Denel with only 439 square miles of area.
GARFIELD COUNTY
The beginnings of Garfield County were laid in November. 1872, when Charles H. Jones, who came from Allegan, Michigan, after two years of roughing it. in the lower Loup Valleys, went up into the present Garfield County territory, and became the founder of the Willow Springs settlement. It is reputed that Trueman Freeman arrived very soon after Jones had squatted at the mouth of the cedar canyons. With him came Thomas MeClimans, so the latter may be considered the third settler. William Pierson and A. R. Harper arrived in February, 1873, and soon after came Richard MeClimans, the Messengers, William Draver, William Smith, Mrs. Bumpus, George Leffingwell, Captain Alger, Frank Webster, L. W. White Geo. MeAnulty, Ike Bartholomew, Geo. Horton, Stephen Chase, Wm. Wertz, A. A. Alderman, and Ross and Wm. Woods. Garfield County is immediately south of Holt County and eighth county to the west from the Missouri River, and has an area of 575 square miles. The Battle of Pebble Creek in 1874 was the crux of Indian troubles the early settlers experienced, for in 1876 relief came in the estab- lishment of Fort Hlartsutf, the famous military post of the Loup region, within the borders of this county. For more than eight years after settlements began, Garfield County was in what was known as the "Unorganized Territory." For judicial and taxation purposes it was attached to Valley County. But in 1881, it was a part of the newly organized county of Wheeler, which had been established by the Legislature of 1877. In 1884, the actual division took place and Garfield County was separately organized. Burwell was proclaimed by the Governor as the first county seat-and at the election on December 30, 1884, there were three bitter contestants, Willow Springs, Burwell and Midvale. Midvale received the smallest number of votes, Willow Springs the highest, and another election was held on January 30, 1885, which resulted in Willow Springs leading by seven votes, but upon a recount in April, Burwell won by twenty-three votes and captured the prize. But a very interesting fight ensued for Willow Springs got the certificate of eleetion. In 1887 the Burlington Railroad extended its grade to Burwell and on to Butka on the Calamus. The railroad never extended beyond Burwell, but that was the death blow to Willow Springs. So in an election in 1890 the county seat question was permanently settled in Burwell's favor. This county has several inland post- office points, namely : Easton, Erina, Gables, Rosevale, Deverre, Dumas, Blake and Ballagh, but bears the unique distinction among Nebraska counties of having only one actually developed town, Burwell. Another distinction borne by Burwell is that it was laid out with a public octagon, with the side streets diverging from the
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centers of the sides, instead of the corners of the square. Then by a failure to preserve the central octagon for a park. business houses have built up on it and disfigured it. so Burwell has a square with business houses on both sides of the street, instead of a park or court house in the center, and the streets meeting the square in the middle of the sides.
GOSPER COUNTY
Gosper County is in the western part of the state, four tiers east of the western Colorado edge, and in the second tier north of Kansas line. It contains 464 square miles. Otto Renze made the first permanent settlement in the county. in the fall of 1871. Others soon followed and left the Republican and Platte Valleys on either side, and came to Plum Creek, or to Muddy. Elk or Turkey Creeks in the southern part. The organic election was held, near the geographical center of the county, in May, 1843. The county was named Gosper in honor of John J. Gosper, then Secretary of State. Daviesville, in the southwest part of the county was the early town, and county seat. Plum Creek. Vaughan's and Judson's ranches secured postoffices and stores before 1880. These places have all disappeared from the modern map, and upon the advent of the Burlington line from Holdrege, Nebraska. to Sterling. Colorado, Smithfield and Elwood, the latter now the county seat of the county, sprang up. Gosper and Ceryl are now inland points. The activities of the county, agriculturally, are a combination of crop and stock raising. Much of the trade of the southern section of the county goes to the Furnas County towns of Holbrook, Arapahoe, Edison and Oxford, which are nearer to southern Gosper County farms than Elwood and Smithfield.
GRANT COUNTY
This is the westerly of the four "sandhill" counties bordering vast Cherry County on the south. It has an area of 726 square miles, but is almost entirely a ranch country, only valley lands in small tracts being cultivated to crops. Hyannis, the county seat. was laid out with the arrival of the Chicago, Burlington & Quiney. then B. & M. railroad line. through northwestern Nebraska in 1888. The first settler was John Dellinger, who took the flat east of the present town. A Mr. White had the flat west of town shortly after this. W. M. Alden, who became the first business man in the town had a pre-emption here in 1888 which he sold to the Lincoln Townsite Company. Mr. Alden opened his store in July, 1888. Whitman was another town which soon built up, after the settlements began. For a time, about 1882, this town was the termins of the railroad, pending its further exten- sion. Even for a long time after that, it maintained its reputation of being a "real frontier" town with all of the trimmings that the movies now love to portray as belonging to cowboys, western "woolly" villages and ranch life. Ashby is the main town in the county to the west of Hyannis, and there are tlag stations at Sand Cut and Duluth. Benewa, Lucky and Elva are the only inland points.
Grant County is the center of the catttle-ranching industry of Central Nebraska. Hyannis ships from 500 to 600 loads of cattle a year, and Whitman practically equals or occasionally excels this mark, and approximately 1200 loads of cattle are shipped out of this small county annually, though much of it comes from the
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ranches to the north in Cherry County. Hyannis has ranked as the wealthiest town per capita in the United States, as this little town of less than 400 people has two banks with deposits in excess of $400,000 not considering the other banks in the county, but roughly estimating it, giving this town a bank deposit per capita of $1000 per person. Even allowing for the people concerned in this estimation who live outside of the town, or even county, contrasted with the $57 per capita for the United States, a per capita deposit of $600 per person for Grant County shows the status of this community and county. Before the separate organization of the county, about 1888, it was a part of the Unorganized Territory, and of Big Sioux County.
GREELEY COUNTY
Greeley County is situated in the sixth tier of counties west of the Missouri River, in the central part of the state, north to south, containing 5:1 square miles in area. Its original settlement dates back to 1871, when S. C. Scott, A. Shepard and J. G. Kellogg, came from Illinois and located on Shepard Creek, on the north side of the Loup. Settlements followed on Fish Creek in November, 1871, Cedar Creek in 1872, Spring Creek in 1874, where a postoffice was established, but the first postoffice was established at Lamartine, on the Loup, in 1873, with Mr. A. Fish in charge. The county was organized on October 8, 1872, and the county seat located at an election in November. 1874, as at Scotia. The county was named after Horace Greeley. An Irish settlement was established near the center of the county in 1877, a town laid out, platted and named O'Connor, in honor of Bishop O'Connor, who was a member of the Catholic Colonization Association that fathered the colony. The Irish Catholic Association selected another site in the northeastern corner of the county, on the Cedar, and Spalding was opened up about 1881, when the first store was located. Forty years ago before any railroad had come into the county, the towns and postoffices were Scotia, O'Connor and Spalding, with Lamartine, Summit, Chase, Ellsworth, Floss, Leo Valley. When the Union Pacific branch from Grand Island to Ord was built, it touched at Scotia Junction, and land was given to the railroad on condition that it would run a sideline over to the town of Scotia and run all of its trains into Scotia, and all passenger and regular freight trains make that side-trip of a mile away from the direct line through the corner of the county. The Burlington built a branch in 1887 through the county, from Aurora, on to Ord and Burwell, and on this line sprang up the towns of Wolbach, Brayton, Greeley Center, which later became the county seat of the county and the largest town in the county, and Ilorace. A branch line of eighteen miles built about the same time, runs from Greeley Center through Belfast and Horace to Ericson, just across the line into Wheeler County. O'Connor and Parnell remain as the inland settlements of the county. This county has developed into a thriving and prosperous county, with a showing of freight shipments, bank deposits, and such criterions that hold it up even with its neighboring Loup Valley counties.
HALL COUNTY
Upon the 4th of July, 1857, the little colony of thirty-five brave pioneers, from Davenport, Iowa, arrived at Great (or Grand) Island in the Platte, and about two
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and half miles below the site of the present city of Grand Island, and on the Platte banks founded the only white colony in the state, then west of Columbus, except the military reservations to the west, at Fort Kearney. This colony com- prised five Americans, R. C. Barnard a surveyor, and his brother Lorens Barnard of Washington, D. C., and Joshua Smith, David P. Morgan and William Seymour, of Davenport, and the following German-Americans, mainly from Holstein. Germany, originally ; William Stolley, Fred Hedde, Christian Menke, William A. ITagge, and Henry Joehnch, the leading spirits among the band : Kai Ewoldt, Anna Stehr, Henry Schoel and wife, Fred Doll and wife; George Shultz, Fred Vatje, Johann Hamann, Detlef Sass, Peter Stuhr, Hans Wrage, Nicholas and Cornelius Thodel. Henry Schaaf. Matthias Gries. Fred Landmann, Herman Vasold, Theo. Nagel, Christian Andersen, wife and child of four years. The first settlement built up some business places, fortified itself well, and withstood the Indian seares of 1864 without leaving or losing any lives, though Indians com- mitted other depredations in this county, narrated more fully in the Indian section of this review. When the railroad came through in 1866, the present town of Grand Island was laid out, and business activities moved over. Here the county seat was formally established, though the county had been organized and functioning in its local government in a rather disjointed manner since 1858. The settlement in the west part of the county, at Wood River, moved over to the railroad in 1868, from that site two and half miles west of the present town where a depot and James Jackson's store were located, moved to the present location in 1844. Alda started soon after the railroad went through, being on the Union Pacific between Grand Island and Wood River. Doniphan started on the St. Joe and Grand Island route in 1849. Cairo was located in 1886 when the Grand Island & Wyoming Railroad, now the Burlington line, went through the northwestern part of the county. Former inland points in the county were Mar- tinville, Orchard. Cameron. Berwick, Spencer. Rundlett, and Runelsburgh. Now Cameron is practically the only inland eenter remaining. The industrial progress of Grand Island has been noted elsewhere, and that bespeaks the commercial growth of the county.
HAMILTON COUNTY
Hamilton County is the first county east of Hall County and lies on the south side of the Platte River. Its area is 538 square miles, ten square miles in excess of that of Hall. The first permanent settlements were made in 1866 by Jarvie Chafee and George Hicks. The famous Deep-Well ranch, thirteen miles west of the first ranch in the county, that of David Millspaw, established in 1861. followed the Millspaw ranch in 1862. These were famous stopping places along the "Old Mormon Trail" until permanent settlements came. The county was organized in 1820, by proclamation of Governor Butler, and its name had been given by legislative enactment. Orville City was located on the West Blue, surveyed and recorded in 1870 and selected at the election of 1871 as the county seat, which honor was wrested from it in 1876 by the town of Aurora, which had been established in 1872. Hamilton was established on the prairie in 1824. Other early settlements, at inland points, of course, were at Farmer's Valley, Mirimichi. Williamsport, Lerton, Shiloh, Stockham, Buckeye, Cedar Valley, Otis, Avon,
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
Leonard, Bunker Hill, Alvin, St. Joe, and Penn. The Burlington road first built in from York, Seward and Lincoln and turned north from Aurora to Central City, and then in 1884, extended onward to Grand Island and Northwest. Hampton was platted in 1879, as the railroad came through to Anrora, by Joshua Cox. The other railroad towns in Hamilton County now are, Marquette to the north of Aurora, Murphy and Phillips to the west, Giltner to the southwest and Stockham in the southeastern corner of the county.
HARLAN COUNTY
This eonnty is located on the middle, southern border of the state. As late as in the summer of 1869, Buek's surveying party were attacked in this particular territory and slain by Indians. The original settlers of this county, about forty in number, arrived in what is now Harlan County, but was then part of Lincoln County in Angust, 1870. Among these men were J. W. Foster, F. A. Bieyon, Gen. Victor Vifquain, John Olson, Frank Hofnagle, V. Toeppfner, S. Watton, IIenry Melchert, N. Peterson, G. Hanson, J. B. Mitchell, Lewis Lorson, Geo. F. Jonas, Joseph and Lewis Hubner, and Andrew Rubin. Lots were cast for the selection of claims, and while not the first in order of choice, Vifquain and a few others slyly selected the old townsite of Napoleon, near Orleans. Vifquain, failing in the successful projection of the first "paper" town in Harlan County, returned to the eastern part of the state, and Judge William Gaslin later secured proprietorship of this townsite. In December, 1871, when Judge Gaslin returned to his homestead, from Omaha, he brought with him Warren M. Fletcher, who homesteaded the future site of Orleans. D. N. Smith, the noted townsite loeater for the Burlington decided to locate a town in this vieinity and this site was chosen, and the town got started by 1872. The townsite of Alma was chosen in 1871 by Mark Coad, N. P. Cook and others, and named "Alma" after a daughter of Mr. Cook. The first store was erected in 1872. After an election in July, 1871 for purpose of organizing the county, Alma was chosen as county seat. Another town, Republican City, was laid out in 1821. Melrose was really the first town in the county, having been planned in 1870 and secured a store early in 1871, but it never successfully flourished, after losing the county seat fight, first to Republican City, which in turn lost to Alma, and Orleans supplanting Melrose in a commer- cial way. Early inland points in the county were Graft, Bainbridge, Scandanavia, Grand View, Spring Grove, Garber and Pleasant Ridge. Spring Hill and Watson were formerly railroad stations. Stamford and Republican Junction have grown up in more modern times. A branch now runs from Orleans up to Holdrege, upon which Carter, Oxford Junction and Mascot are located. Another branch from Alma up to Minden has Huntley. Everson and Ragan.
HAYES COUNTY
Hayes County is one county removed from the west, being east of Chase, and one county removed from the southern line of the state, being north of Ilitehcock. It was given legislative organization in an Act of 1877 and named for the new President, Rutherford B. Hayes, but formed no actual county government for some years later. during which time it was for judicial and revenue purposes
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attached to Frontier County. The first postoffice, antedating any actual towns, were Carrico, Estell. MeNaughton, and Thornburg. The only railroad facilities the county now has, more than forty years later, in 1920, is the Imperial branch of the Burlington cutting across the southwest corner through the town of Hamlet. Palisade in Hitchcock County and Wauneta in Chase County are each barely across from the Hlayes County line and influence Hayes County trade considerably. Hayes Center, the county seat, is an inland town, started in the '80s. Other inland points in the county are, Robert, Lucile, Rain, Strickland, Marengo and Thornburg.
IHITCHCOCK COUNTY
This county is in the southwestern corner of the state just east of Dundy, and itself on the Kansas border. It was organized in 1843, by proclamation of Governor Furnas, and named in honor of Ex-United States Senator Phineas W. Hitchcock, father of present United States Senator, Gilbert M. Hitchcock. It contains 724 square miles in area, two more than Hayes, its neighbor to the north. It was first settled by ranchmen in 1869, but it was in 1873 that the first permanent settlers ar- rived. when G. C. Gessleman took a claim near the mouth of Blackwood Creek. A dozen or so other settlers came in May of that year. Nineteen votes were polled at the first election, on August 30, 1873, and Culbertson was chosen as county seat. The townsite of Culbertson was selected in 1823, and surveyed in 1825 by D. N. Smith. In the fall of 1873 took place in this county and near Culbertson the memorable battle in which the Sioux so decisively and destructively defeated the Pawnee, Following Culbertson. Stratton on the Burlington line and Palisade, as an inland town sprang up. When the branch went from Culbertson to Imperial, Palisade became a railroad station and later Beverly moved up to the railroad. But the greatest blow to Culbertson, was the location of Trenton, near the center of the county, on the Burlington line and its capture of the county seat.
HOLT COUNTY
Holt County is on the northern edge of the state, with the Niobrara River as its northern border, and immediately west of Knox and Antelope counties. It is the fourth largest county in the state in area, only excelled by Cherry, Custer and Lin- coln, and has an area of 2,393 square miles, after losing Boyd County from its north section. The first settler in the county is reputed to have been Win. Il. Inman. who erected a house on the banks of the Elkhorn in 1822. In 1873 a good sprinkling of settlers came in, and an attempt for organization was made, and upon a showing of facts a proclamation secured from Governor Furnas, but in 1826, the permanent organization of the county was proclaimed by Governor Garber, and the first election held on August 26, 1876. On May 12, 1844. Gen. John O'Neill, in whose honor the town was named, with a colony of his countrymen arrived. In this party were Neil Brennan, Patrick S. Hughes, Timothy O'Connor, Henry Curry, Thomas Connolley. Michael Il. McGrath. Thomas N. J. Hynes. Michael Dempsey, Thomas Kelly, Robert Alworth, Ralph Sullivan, Patrick Brennan, Thomas Cain, Henry Carey and Patrick MeKarney. Others came soon. and in 1895, the general brought his second colony. The townsite of O'Neill, of 160 aeres, was laid out and platted in May. 1824. and another eighty acres platted in 1825 by General
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O'Neill. Thirteen men, two women and tive children lived one season in a little sod house erected, and facetiously called the "Grand Central Hotel." In the first skirmish for the county seat, Paddock won. This settlement, on the Niobrara, was started by Mr. Win. T. Berry. in 1871. Its name was at first Troy, but changed to honor United States Senator A. S. Paddock. Atkinson, twenty miles from ('Neill was started in 1825. Upon resubmission in 1829, O'Neill won the county seat. When the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad, now the Northwestern system, was built through in 1849 and 1880, towns sprang up along its line. The early railroad stations were, Ewing, Inman, O'Neill, Emmet, Atkinson, and Stuart, all thriving now, forty years later. Since then, Stafford appeared on the railroad near where old Hart was. Chambers, an inland town in the south part of the county, while a long distance from a railroad, is considered one of the greatest hay-pro- during and shipping points in the country, and were it on a railroad would produce a wonderful trathe. In 1920, under the recent Federal Transportation Act of 1920, an effort is being made to secure an extension of the Greeley-Ericson branch of the Burlington to Chambers. Some inland towns or trading or postal points of forty years ago are still actively on the map of Holt County. Among these are Deloit, Little, Swan Lake, or Swan, but the majority are no longer active. Many of those which seem to have passed from the scene were Cache Creek, Lambert. Brewer. Apple Creek. Mineola. Hainesville, Turner, Blackbird, Clifton Grove, Greeley, Saratoga, Cleveland, Menla, Laura, Grand Rapids. But Holt County, even now in 1920 has many inland points, among which are Tonic, Bliss, Amelia, Martha, Harold, Inez, Middlebranch, Tonawanda, Slocum, Agce, Staro, Dorsey, Scottville, Redbird, Meek, Leonie, Joy, Ray, Phenix, Badger, Dustin, Celia, Catalpa, Scottville and Paddock still located near the Niobrara. Page and Emporia sprang up as stations on the Burlington-Sioux City-O'Neill branch as it comes into the eastern part of the county.
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