twenty in number, went in 1842, and another company of about one thousand in 1843; and John C. Fremont, the famous explorer, followed closely after them. The road became known as the Oregon Trail about this time. About fifteen hundred Mormons went through on the north side of the river in 1847. The first band, numbering one hundred and forty-nine, passed the mouth of Ash Hollow on the opposite side of the river, on the 20th of May. In 1857, an army of 2,500, under command of Albert Sidney Johnston, afterward the famous confederate general, who was killed at the battle of Shiloh, marched over the road to quell the Mormon insurrection at Salt Lake City. About three thousand more soldiers were started from Fort Leavenworth in the spring of 1858, but the greater part of them were recalled at various points along the road. The remainder re-enforced Johnston's army at Salt Lake. In all 4,956 wagons and carriages and 53,430 draught animals were required for this expedition. Not far from Fort Kearny, a band of Cheyenne successfully ran off eight hundred beef cattle which were being driven out in 1857, to supply the Salt Lake army.

Lieutenant General Sherman, commander of the division of the Missouri, traveled over the trail, as far as Fort Laramie, in August, 1866, to make a personal military inspection of that warlike part of his command. He traveled by railroad from St. Louis to St. Joseph, thence by steamboat to Omaha, thence by the Union Pacific road as far as it was finished-to a point five miles east of Fort Kearny— thence by ambulance drawn by mules to Fort Laramie. On account of the continuing Indian hostilities, he went as far as Fort Sedgwick in 1867, and remained there from June 6 to June 22.

Military posts were established all along the great highway to Oregon and California for the protection of travelers-Fort Kearny, the first, in 1848. In August and

September, 1864, Captain Shuman, of the Eleventh Ohio cavalry, built Camp Shuman at a point three miles west of the Scott's Bluff gap. The post was afterward named Fort Mitchell, for General Robert B. Mitchell then commander of the district. At the same time minor fortifications were built at Ficklin's, and Mud Springs. Ficklin's was nine miles east of Scott's Bluff, and Mud Springs, at the north end of "Jules' Stretch," was eight miles easterly from Courthouse Rock. This new route or cut-off was named for Jules, the ranchman. It crossed the south fork of the Platte river at his establishment, continued up the south bank of the Lodge Pole thirty-five miles, then across the stream and the high plateau thirty-two miles to Mud Springs in the valley of the North Platte. Passing about two miles southwest of Courthouse Rock, it intersected the old Ash Hollow road about midway between Courthouse Rock and Chimney Rock.

Fort Grattan was built of sod at the mouth of Ash Hollow by General Harney's command, immediately after the battle of that name. It was abandoned on the first of the following October when the force left to occupy Fort Pierre on the Missouri river. Fort Grattan was named for Lieutenant John L. Grattan, who with a detachment of twenty-nine men was killed on the nineteenth of August, 1854, by a band of over a thousand Sioux warriors, about six miles below Fort Laramie. General Harney pursued these Indians and punished them at Ash Hollow.

Fort Sidney was established December 13, 1867, as a subpost of Fort Sedgwick and was known as Sidney Barracks. It became an independent post November 28, 1870, and was abandoned June 1, 1874. Its reservation of six hundred and twenty acres was relinquished to the department of the interior November 14, 1894, except twenty acres of the northeast corner which was donated to Sidney for cemetery purposes, by act of congress, June 10, 1892.

In 1875 part of the building material of dismantled Fort Kearny was used in improvements of Fort Sidney.

Cheyenne county contained the famous Wild Cat range of mountains which became celebrated by reports of the early travelers. Among the most noted peaks, near the great road, are Courthouse Rock and Chimney Rock, now in Morrill county, and Scott's Bluff, now in Scott's Bluff county. The two highest peaks in Nebraska are Hogback 5,082 feet, and Wild Cat, 5,038 feet-both in Banner county. The plain of the northwest part of Kimball county attains the highest elevation of the state, 5,300 feet.

ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTIES OF KEARNEY, FRANKLIN, HARLAN AND PHELPS

BY ALBERT WATKINS

An act of the territorial legislature, passed January 10, 1860, authorized the organization of Kearney county and defined its boundaries which included the territory now comprised in the counties of Franklin, Harlan, Kearney and Phelps. The act in question directed the governor to appoint county officers and he thereupon commissioned J. Tracy, Amos O. Hook and Moses Sydenham for county commissioners; Dr. Charles A. Henry, county clerk; John Holland, treasurer; Thomas Collins, sheriff; John Talbot,1 probate judge.

Kearney City was designated in the act as the county seat. It was established by the Kearney City company in the spring of 1859 and was situated just outside the western line of the Fort Kearny reservation, two miles due west from the fort. It grew up on trade with the occupants of the fort and travelers to California, Oregon, Salt Lake City and the Pike's Peak gold fields. In the spring of 1860, according to a statement in the Huntsman's Echo, November 2, 1860, there were only five "hovels" in Kearney City; but by November of that year it had grown to forty or fifty buildings, about a dozen of them stores. According to the same paper-April 25, 1861-there were two hundred residents and a half dozen stores in Kearney City at that date. The opening of the Union Pacific railroad-in that part of the territory in 1866-attracted business and

1 Died at Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1911. D. W. Clendenan says he kept a saloon there and was called “Major” Talbot.

inhabitants from Kearney City. In 1860 it was not recognized in the United States census while the population of the county was 469; so that the place grew up suddenly during the latter part of the year. At the election of 1860 111 votes were cast in the county; in 1864, 61; in 1865, 16; in 1866, 28. An act of the tenth territorial session, February 9, 1865, attempted to revive the organization of the county, by ordering a special election of county officers to be held on the second Monday in March, 1865, at the store of William D. Thomas, Kearney City. The act provided that the notice of the election should be signed by the county clerk-James M. Pyper. There were no more election returns from the county after 1866 until 1872, when, under reorganization, fifty-eight votes were cast. It appears that the county government was dormant in the intervening time. It was revived by authority of a proclamation issued by Acting Governor William H. James May 2, 1872, ordering an election for county officers to be held "at the town of Lowell", June 17, 1872.

Franklin county was set off from the original Kearney county by an act of the last territorial legislature, passed February 16, 1867. A supplementary act of March 9, 1871, "for the speedy organization of Franklin county", designated C. J. Van Laningham, D. Van Etten and R. D. Curry as county commissioners. These officers were directed to qualify as soon as practicable after the passage of the act and to call an election for county officers, giving fifteen days public notice of the time and place thereof. The commissioners were also authorized to submit the question of locating the county seat at the same election. January 14, 1871, Governor Butler issued a proclamation for an election of county officers to be held at the house of C. J. Van Laningham, in Franklin City, on Friday, March

2 Laws of Nebraska, Tenth Territorial Session, 1865, p. 61).