USA > Nebraska > York County > York County, Nebraska and its people : together with a condensed history of the state, Vol. I > Part 63
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The West Blue River traverses the southern portion of the county, running a zigzag eourse, the general direction being from west to east. The stream furnishes excellent water power, and there are now located upon it some of the best mills in
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the state, three of them being in York County. There are a number of mill sites along the Blue yet unoccupied.
Beaver Creek crosses the west line of the county near its center north and south, and runs nearly due east about half way across the county, when it turns southward and runs in a southeasterly direction until it meets the West Blue about. one and one-half miles east of the county line. There is one small mill at present on the Beaver in York County, which is located near the City of York. Lincoln ('reek also traverses the north half of the county from west to east, and furnishes a number of good mill sites within the county. There is already one fine mill upon this creek.
The Blue River, the least important of the four streams mentioned. traverses the northeast portion of the county. These streams furnish water for stock and drive machinery all the year round. They are skirted by a belt of timber. in some places very light and heavy in others. The valleys traversed by these streams are very beautiful and in many places the view is almost enchanting. Those who talk of the dull and lifeless scenery of the western plains have never visited this county or have no appreciation of the beautiful.
The soil throughout the entire county is uniformly rich and productive. The divides or uplands seem equally fertile with the valleys, and wherever in the county land is well farmed and crops are well tended a good yield is almost assured. Since the first settlement of the county a failure of erops has never been expe- rieneed here. We do not mean to say that every year there has been a good vield of all varieties of products. There have been partial failures of one or more of the cereals, but there has always been a harvest. But these trials and privations which have always attended the pioneer have been reported to our eastern friends as incidents peculiar to this western country, and have cast a shadow over the entire history of this and all other counties of the state.
There are people in the East now-and they are no insignificant minority- who actually believe that the wind blows here a perpetual tornado, transporting everything that is loose; that it never rains and seldom sprinkles here: that the grasshoppers make us annual visits, devonring what wind and drouth have not destroyed. The same could be told with equal truth of Illinois. Iowa, Wisconsin. or any other western state. Minnesota has suffered more than three times as much from grasshoppers as our state ever has, while in Iowa, Kansas and Wisconsin their ravages have been greater than here. We feel safe in saying that twenty-five per cent of the last erop of this county would amount to more than all that has ever been destroyed by grasshoppers within its limits.
So much for this great bugbear.
We have a good, copious rainfall every year, and the soil and sub-soil are such that the earth is always moist just below the surface. No matter how dry the air or how hot the sun, if one takes the trouble to look he will find moisture an inch or two below the surface. So it is that during a long, dry season, when erops in other states are literally burned up and killed, they continue to grow and look green and healthy here. We say candidly that the South Platte country is less affeeted with drouth than any section we have ever seen in any state. The record will bear us out in the statement that Nebraska has suffered less in the last decade from winds and severe storms than any other state west of Lake Michigan. Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas have all suffered eon-
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siderably from cyclones during the last few years, but none has ever disturbed the peaceful rest of this South Platte country. The wind does blow here some, and we would hardly desire, even if it were possible, to live in a country where it did not. In summer a fresh, cooling breeze starts up at about the setting of the sun, which cools the atmosphere insomuch that there is very seldom a night, even in the warmest weather, in which one cannot sleep comfortably. So vastly different from the sultry nights through which we have sweat and suffered in states farther east ! The winters are usually short and very little real cold weather is experienced. We have some very sharp weather, but only for two or three days at a time.
The climate is milder than in the same latitude east of us.
The wells of York County afford us a bounteous supply of nice soft water. Though the water varies somewhat in different wells, and that, too, in wells located in the same vicinity and neighborhood, yet the water in all of them is very clear and cool, and in most of them quite soft, so much so that the water is used for laundry purposes without breaking. Wells range from twenty to one hundred feet in depth, according to the altitude of the surface, as the water is found in all parts of the county at or near the same level. A great many farmers have windmills for raising the water, which are also utilized by some of them to grind feed, turn grindstones, fanning mills and corn-shellers.
York County offers no inducement now to the man who is seeking a free home on the public domain. He will have to go many miles farther west, as all the government land has been taken many years ago. These claims have grown into fine farms, well cultivated and improved, beautiful groves, fine orchards and comfortable and even elegant buildings ean be seen on every hand. Every foot of available land is under enltivation or in meadow or pasture. The county has a population of more than twenty thousand people, about four-fifths of whom reside on farms. More than five-sixths of the farmers within the county own the land they till. Thus it will be seen that instead of a population of impecunious renters we have one of real estate owners, each one cultivating his own estate. Turn your attention where you will, nowhere will you find within the bounds of civilization a county which has developed so rapidly, and which has been attended with so few privations and reverses as this. A beautiful, healthy and mild climate, a mellow and productive soil, and an intelligent and industrious class of citizens have com- bined to verify this statement.
For a century in this country the strides of civilization have gradually been westward, until now they have spanned the continent. Seventy or eighty years ago the hardy and dauntless pioneers invaded the wilds of New York State and Ohio, where for years they waged a hard and often doubtful warfare with famine, disease and a thousand foes to civilization that lurked in the deep recesses of those almost impenetrable forests. Many of our readers were brought up by parents reared amidst those privations which are now legends of suffering and endurance, and you know what opportunities for acquiring an education were offered there, as well as for religious and moral culture.
These civilizing influences were conspicuous by their absence. The develop- ment of this county would have been only the recreation of a summer's day to those old iron-willed pioneers, strong of hand and heart, dauntless and indefatigable, who wore out their lives opening up small farms and building homes in New York and Ohio. More than fifty years ago the "prairie schooner" landed upon the rich
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and beautiful prairie of Illinois and there discharged cargo and passengers; but thirty years had elapsed before as much improvement had been made in that state as has been accomplished in York County in twelve years.
More than two hundred years ago colonies were established in Northern Wis- consin, and settlements have been kept up ever since. Yet the country in the vinicity of these, the first footprints of civilization in the West, is today primeval in comparison with York County.
Land here is very cheap in comparison with that father east, and, considering quality and improvements, the prices at which some farms are sold seems surpris- ingly low. To the man of moderate means, and to anyone who wishes to get a large farm and do a more extensive business than is possible East on the same amount of capital, 'many splendid inducements are offered in York County. One acre of land here will produce a larger crop with much less labor than with the same amount of land in any state farther east. And yet the price of one acre in most parts of Illinois will buy two or three acres here.
Of course this state of things cannot long exist. As soon as the facilities for shipping are equal to those farther east. and as soon as it becomes generally known throughout the country that we have as good society, as good schools, as many and as large churches, and as pleasant surroundings in every respect as any county in any state farther east, men will come in here to take advantage of the genial climate, productive soil and uniformly good roads. and the price of land will soon be somewhere near its value. Now is the time to take advantage of the extremely low price of real estate. A flood of immigration will reach this county this season. The two new railroads now under construction to York will soon be completed to this point, and the tide of immigration will be turned, more than ever, in this direction. Land will undoubtedly increase from twenty-five to fifty per cent this season, and then it will be far less than the property is really worth. By coming to York County and investing your money either in city or country property you can undoubtedly realize a profit of from twenty-five to fifty per cent in a few months. If you have never seen a western boom you don't know what it is like, and will never have any ideal unless you see it once and turn your money over once in two or three weeks and make about tifty per cent each time. That is the way York is going to boom this summer. There can be no mistake about it. Property is selling at one-third its real value, and it will go whizzing now until it reaches a fair standard of value.
THE GRASSHOPPERS
Mention has been made frequently in the earlier pages of this story of York County of the first serious grasshopper invasion in the summer of 1874.
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In the latter part of July, 1876, the early settlers were visited by a new and unlooked for calamity of grasshoppers in a much greater force. In the afternoon of a hot day, July the 20th, a mysterious cloud appeared in the northern horizon, and all were wondering what it was until suddenly the awful cloud of grasshoppers covered the country, so thick at times that the sun was darkened, and all gardens and green vegetation was soon devoured; much of the small grain was in the shock and mostly saved, to the great comfort of the pioneer settlers; the grain that was standing was soon ruined, the grasshoppers would bite the straw off just below
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the head ; after they had done all the damage they could they filled the ground with eggs and left. The next spring the eggs began hatching and the settlers were filled with alarm for the coming crops, and every device imaginable was made for catching young grasshoppers. A petition was filed with the County Board of Supervisors asking them to take measures to exterminate the young grasshoppers. The county board met in special session April 25, 1877, and Book No. 1, page 470, shows the following proceedings :
"After deliberating upon the subject the following resolution was adopted by the board, to-wit :
"Whereas, the grasshoppers are now hatching out in large numbers, and believ- ing that the interests of the county demand an immediate action by the Board of County Commissioners to encourage the destruction of these pests, it is hereby resolved by the Board of County Commissioners: First, that all persons in the county are hereby called upon to turn out and kill and destroy grasshoppers. Second, that for all grasshoppers caught and killed within the limits of the several road districts in the county and delivered to the respective road supervisors they shall give receipts every Friday afternoon, and shall at once annihilate the grasshoppers by burning. Third, Supervisors shall receive and receipt for grasshoppers every Friday afternoon, and shall at once annihilate them by burning. Fourth, on or before the second day of July each supervisor shall make and return to this board, in writing and under oath, a report of the amount of grasshoppers delivered to and burned by them. Fifth, the holders of supervisors' receipts shall be entitled to pay by the county board as follows: For grasshoppers delivered on or before May 18, 1822, the sum of two dollars per bushel, in county warrants, and for grasshoppers delivered after that date and on or before June 1, 1877, the sum of one dollar per bushel in county warrants."
August 11, 1822. we find the following proceedings in book No. 2, at page 15: "The following accounts were audited and allowed by the board, to-wit :
Jas. Seaman. 2 bushels grasshoppers burned. $4.00
J. P. Gandy, 2 bushels grasshoppers burned 4.00
F. M. Ross, 1 bushel grasshoppers burned. 2.00
S. E. Gandy, 1/2 bushel grasshoppers burned 1.00
L. J. Gandy, 1 bushel grasshoppers burned. 2.00
W. Young, 11/2 bushels grasshoppers burned 3.50
Jamieson, 1/2 bushel grasshoppers burned. 1.50
Il. Kelley, 2 bushels grasshoppers burned. 2.00
Board adjourned,
11. S. BURTCH,
D. DOAN,
B. WOOLMAN.
County Commissioners."
Attest :
F. W. LIEDTKE,
County Clerk."
The Village of York was at that time liberal, patriotic and interested in the prosperity of the county as a whole, and procured devices for catehing grasshoppers and used them in the town and country, catching great quantities of grass- hoppers and piling them upon the courthouse square in great piles and burning
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them free of charge. Mr. H. C. Kleinschmidt tells us he has seen grasshopper piles on the public square nearly four feet high when they were small, and that a bushel of young grasshoppers would make more than a hundred bushels of grown grasshoppers, that one grasshopper egg would hatch ont five or six young grass- hoppers.
Much sympathy was created in the cities cast of us by reports of the needs of the early settlers, and wheat, corn flour, potatoes, beans and many things that were badly needed and greatly appreciated by the old settlers were received, and earloads of clothing, consisting of swallowtail coats, plug hats, quaker bonnets, hoop skirts and other old cast-off clothing was received that furnished a great deal of amuse- ment to the old settlers, and was a great relief to the donors and brought in free by the railway company.
The long. cold wet spells, contributed by a kind providence, did more to rid the country of the grasshoppers than all the devices of man.
The misfortunes of the early settlers created a bond of sympathy, destroyed selfishness, and made all friends and neighbors.
We now give a graphic account of one of those who experienced this terrible invasion :
WHEN THE GRASSHOPPERS CAME
By Mrs. D. T. Moore
One afternoon during the harvest season of 1874 our family, consisting of four members and two visitors, making six altogether, went from our home in the valley of Lincoln Creek to the home of Mr. Charles Keekley on the hill, where we were invited to partake of the hospitality of Mr. Keckley and his sister, the late Mrs. Bonar. We were feeling in just the right spirit for a good social time and a rest, as our harvest was over and we were ready to help our neighbors even to the extent of taking supper with them. While still lingering at the table we noticed that it was growing darker in the west than the time of day would warrant. Fearful of a sudden storm which often took us unawares, the men went to investi- gate. Nothing indicated a storm, except the darkening of the western sky and an ominous roaring which was alarming. The men climbed to the roof of the house did I say it was a sod house ?- to further investigate. And there they came, by the millions, the undesirable newcomers. We learned a day later that devastation lay behind them. The harvest was especially good that year but harvesters were few in number, and even though a few had utilized Sunday to save their crops, many fields were still unent-these the grasshoppers Jaid waste. then ate the growing corn and garden, leaving nothing but tomatoes and tobacco behind them. But here they came, and as we saw them settle upon our neighbors' cornfields and gardens, our heart sank within us, for we knew our fate was the same. As we proceeded on our way home, much sadder than when we left a few hours before. we saw every stem of grass, every garden plant-our splendid garden which had been our pride and source of supply all summer-and the cornfields and trees all covered black with the army of grasshoppers, where they had settled for the night and for so long as there was anything for them to eat. It was little use to try to save anything. but a few trees in the front yard. to which much care had been given and which if saved would be permanent, were chosen for the
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experiment, and no sooner were the pests well settled than a bucketful of cold water from the hands of the man of the house would disturb the repose of that particular bunch, and by persistent effort a few of our little shade trees were saved to grow another year. It was almost more than we could believe possible, where everything had been growing, and green was the prevailing hne, in a few hours to see here black stems and corn stalks, and those who lost their ripened grain were worse off.
We do not like to dwell upon hardships, but the grasshopper year was one of those which tried men's souls and the courage of many deserted them, and rather than see those dependent upon them suffer they gave up and went back to their old homes. Those who remained and "stayed by the stuff" were well rewarded. The following winter was a hard one for man and stock, no vegetables of any kind were saved, and for a farmer's wife to cook a meal without potatoes was almost impossible, but we did it the grasshopper year. One substitute was whole wheat mush fried brown and eaten with milk. The wheat was taken to the mill and ground coarsely as feed for the stock, horses, cows and hogs; all seemed to thrive upon it, and I know we never tasted more tender or sweeter meat than our hogs produced the "Grasshopper Year." But to go back to our own rations, from this coarsely ground wheat we sifted the finer portions and used it as a variation from the white flour. We did not even have corn meal as I remember ; there were "Yankee" or navy beans as plentiful then as they are now. But the potatoes were the most missed vegetable. I remember when we went to take a Sunday dinner with Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Read and I saw the dish of mashed potatoes placed upon the table I could scarcely wait, and I have no recollection of the other dishes which were accompaniments to and no doubt all as good in their way as were the potatoes. I do not know where they got their potatoes either.
We lived through the winter and when spring came were ready to begin over. Only there was no seed of any kind at hand, and this was the time and place to ask and take assistance from any who were able and willing to give it; and there are those who no doubt could tell the story better than I.
We were in fear of a return of the grasshoppers as of the horde of young ones which might hatch out, but every precaution was taken and crops were raised again, and we were glad we were citizens of Nebraska.
WORK WAS THE PASSWORD
Some of the quaint humor that pervaded in the press during the decades of the '70s and '80s is well worth preservation in a work of this character. The following excerpt is taken from the Lincoln State Journal but reflects what would have been the words of many a successful pioneer of York County if he had taken the occasion to explain away the difficulties of his life and the hopelessness which many people attributed to success in Nebraska :
When Andrew Axlewheel first came to Nebraska he had nothing but a pair of tearful-eyed mules, a wagon, a plow and a few other implements. He looked around on acres of unbroken sod, whistled "Grandfather's Clock" in a plaintive tone, and went to work. Until his dugout was completed he used to sleep in his wagon, wrapped in a horse blanket, had numerous agreeable dreams, and enjoyed life just as though he dwelt in marble halls with vassals and serfs by his side. He hitched up the mournful mules and went to work without pausing to consider whether it
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would pay or not. All the time he used to sing the old songs, so that people used to wonder what made him feel so good. He would get up in the morning and rake around for his boots, and having found them he would be out and at work long before Ezra Saurian, his nearest neighbor, thought of crawling from his virtuous couch. One day, years after that. Andrew was riding on a patent plow hanled by three ideal horses. He was smoking a good cigar, and he could afford it. He was the owner of all the land about him, the elegant house in the distance, the cattle on the hills and divers and sundry other valuables, and he had a bank account as long as a clothes line. Ile paused at the end of a furrow to rest his horses, and was about to light a fresh cigar when his neighbor Ezra appeared and said: "I've come to say good-bye. There ain't no use er kickin' against luck, and that's what I've been doin' fur nigh onto twelve years. So I'm goin' back to Injiana, an' I'll be danged glad to get shed of this country." And Andrew answered: "You are very wise. Ezra. You're not ent ont to make a success in the West. and I doubt if you'd be a radiant success anywhere. You are too fond of sitting on the fence and whittling and telling what you would do if you were running the government : and while you are talking of what you would do, your hogs are wasting away for something more substantial to eat than the Nebraska atmosphere, which is a good thing, to be sure, but rather light as a nerve food. And while you explain different schemes for reducing the surplus your horse is eating a hole through the side of the barn in order to assuage its hunger. You can tell about the tariff on wool and other things, but you haven't the knack of overpowering the tall and stately sunflower that shades the larger part of your farm. If you would pursue the deadly potato bug with the same alacrity which characterizes you when you hear the dinner bell, you would have more to eat in winter. There is only one way to get there with both feet. Ezra-work. If the drouth lasts so long that you have to moisten the creeks by running a street sprinkler over them, work. Roll up your sleeves like a little man. and tighten your belt and sail in as though you meant to win. But you're not much on the sail, and I'm afraid you'll never reform. To go back East is probably the best thing you can do, and while you are away I will remember you in my dreams. And I will continue to add to the charms of my bank account. and one of these days you will see a special train passing through Indiana on its way to the sea ; and if you will look closely at one of the windows of the parlor ear. you will see me looking out with a smile of love and forgiveness on my placid face."
THE ALLIANCE
York County farmers were in the very vanguard of the early movement of farmers' organizations, when the farmers felt they must get into the political scramble to get the results they wished. The York Tribune of February 17, 1881, described the first Farmers' Alliance as follows :
THE FIRST FARMERS' ALLIANCE
The first Farmers' Alliance organized in Nebraska was organized by a small band of farmers of West Blue Precinct, York County, in June, 1880. The few farmers who met and bound themselves together by mutual ties to fight for their
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rights little thought that in less than nine months from that time their brother farmers in every county in the state would be fighting with them through the agency of the Alliance.
The first alliance was called the "Monitor" Alliance, and its membership could have been counted upon your fingers, but today its influence is felt in every county in the state.
Thayer Alliance. The farmers of Seward Precinet organized an alliance on the evening of Monday, February 7, 1881, with a good membership. This alliance is No. 78. The following were the temporary officers: R. B. Price, chairman ; John H. Parker, secretary. The otlicers chosen for the year are: President, Peter Ellis : vice president. S. F. Frazey ; secretary, R. B. Price ; treasurer, Daniel Franks. The organization meets every Wednesday evening.
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