THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS OF THE PLATTE

VALLEY

BY DAVID ANDERSON

[Paper read before the annual meeting of the Nebraska State Historical Society January 18, 1910.]

In the fall of 1859, after spending an exciting and adventurous summer in the newborn city of Denver, and the Rocky mountains, in company with some old Pennsylvania friends with whom I had crossed the plains from Leavenworth City over the Smoky Hill route in the early spring, our party started from Denver with a mule team bound for Omaha.

We followed the Pike's Peak trail, south of the south fork of the Platte river, to Julesburg, thence down the old California trail to Fort Kearny. Great herds of buffaloes, deer, elk and antelopes were constantly in view. The Cheyenne Indians, who roamed over the plains between Fort Kearny and Denver, were furiously engaged in attacking emigrant trains, burning ranches, and murdering the occupants. We had several skirmishes with the red devils who followed our trail for many days.

Ten miles west of Dobytown was the famous Keeler ranch. Here we met the notorious Tom Keeler, the terror of the plains and especially of the Cheyenne Indians. With all his native rudeness and roughness, however, Mr. Keeler was one of the most hospitable and generous men that I ever met. His buildings were all of sod, and the dwelling house was tidy and inviting. Mr. Keeler was loyally and lovingly attached to his wife and children.

One day during the war period a cavalcade of rebels who were fleeing from the draft in Missouri stopped at his wells to obtain water for themselves and animals. (193)

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Their mules were decorated with the flags of the Confederacy, and the men were lustily hurrahing for Jeff Davis. This exhibition aroused Tom Keeler's union feelings so intensely that he stood before the well with a gun in each hand, demanding that the rebel bunting should be removed before any union Nebraska water should be drawn. His wife also stood at the door, armed with a double-barreled shotgun. After very acrimonious discussion the demand was complied with, and the boisterous fugitives cordially congratulated Keeler and his wife upon their courage and loyalty.

A few weeks after we passed this ranch, Mr. Keeler's stables, containing forty head of horses together with 200 tons of hay, were wantonly set on fire by the Cheyenne Indians and totally destroyed. In later years Mr. Keeler removed to eastern Nebraska and settled on the Elkhorn river, near Elkhorn City. In 1878 he met his death in a shotgun duel with Daniel Parmalee, a prominent citizen of Omaha.

Dobytown, two miles west of Fort Kearny, contained about 300 people. The houses were built of adobe or sod, one story high. It was on the extreme western verge of civilization and was a great rendezvous for outlaws and gamblers, who practiced their nefarious arts on the unsophisticated pilgrims.1

1 A nickname of Kearney City. The place was a sort of station and "resort" on the famous highway which was successively, according to the relative importance of its travel, the Oregon trail, the road to California and the road to Denver and Salt Lake City. These uses were more or less blended from about the time Fort Kearny was established 1848. Kearney City was situated just outside the west boundary of the military reservation, two miles due west of the fort. Valley City, or Dog Town, the less important companion piece of Kearney City, was situated just outside the eastern reservation line. Civilian settlement within the reservation was of course interdicted, and obviously these places for sport and business would creep up as near the fort as possible. According to an unauthenticated statement in the Andreas history of Nebraska (page 1019) an adventurous company from St. Joseph, including Dr. Charles A. Henry

At a point opposite the fort the Platte river was three miles wide, containing numerous small islands and many deep and treacherous channels; yet this was the only real safe fording place between Julesburg and the Missouri river.

On arrival at the old Boyd ranch, eleven miles east of the fort, our team was so fatigued that we were compelled to rest for three days. Here James E. Boyd operated a small trading post and ranch, carrying on a large traffic with the officers and soldiers of the fort, making profitable contracts for supplying wood from the margin of the river and from islands which had been reserved by the government for military purposes, also for hay that grew abundantly on the Platte bottoms. While we tarried here the territorial election was held for choosing a delegate to

and Benjamin P. Rankin, well known Nebraska territorial pioneers, founded Central City, near the subsequent site of Kearney City, in 1858. The act of the territorial legislature of January 10, 1860, which authorized the organization of Kearney county, "fixed and permanently located" its "seat of justice" at Kearney City, "as surveyed, platted and lithographed by the Kearney City company in the spring of 1859". It appears that some of the promoters of Central City abandoned its prospects, which, so far as we know, were all there was of it, and joined the Kearney City enterprise, in which Lorin Miller Dr. George L. Miller's father Dr. Charles A. Henry, James E. Boyd, and others were interested. The governor, Samuel W. Black, formally organized the county, in the year in which the act was passed by the appointment of county officers. The county commissioners were J. Tracy, Amos O. Hook, Moses Sydenham; clerk, Charles A. Henry; treasurer, John Holland; sheriff, Thomas Collins; probate judge, John Talbot. This Talbot is probably the man who was a sutler at the fort and whose widow now owns and lives upon the farm which includes the old site of Kearney City. The inhabitants were obliged to scatter in 1866 when the advent of the Union Pacific railroad drew business to points along its line on the north side of the river. Thus, in the year of the organization of the county, its population - by the United States census was 474; in 1870, 58. In 1860, 111 votes were cast in the county-three for Samuel G. Daily and 108 for J. Sterling Morton, rival candidates for the office of delegate to congress. In 1864, 61 votes were cast, three for Phineas W. Hitchcock and 58 for Dr. George L. Miller, also candidates for the office above named. In 1865 only 16 votes were cast; in 1866, 28. There were no more election returns from the county after 1866 until 1872, when, under reorganization, 58 votes

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congress. This was the only polling place between Grand Island and Fort Kearny, a distance of thirty miles. The democratic candidate was Experience Estabrook of Omaha, and the republican candidate was Samuel G. Daily. There were twenty-two votes cast at the Boyd ranch, eleven of them by officers and soldiers from the fort. Great interest was manifested in the contest.

I speak with emphasis and pleasure of the strenuous and useful career of Mr. Boyd. He assisted in the construction of the Union Pacific roadbed; projected the first railway from Omaha to the north; established the first large pork packing plant at Omaha; and erected the first large theatre in the city.

were cast. The new town had a boom in 1860; for, according to the Hunstman's Echo of November 2, of that year, "the adobe town of five hovels last spring has grown to forty or fifty buildings”, about a dozen of them stores. The same paper, April 25, 1861, says there were then two hundred residents and half a dozen stores in the place. The original Kearney county of 1860 – included the territory now comprised in the counties of Franklin, Harlan, Kearney, and Phelps. Franklin was formed by the act of the territorial legislature of 1867; Harlan by the act of 1871, and Phelps by the act of 1873.

John K. Lamb, writing from Fort Kearny, April 11, 1860, to the Omaha Republican of April 18, 1860, remarked that Kearney City "is better known as 'Adobe Town'"; and he observed that Dr. Henry was doing a large business there. Testimony taken by Samuel G. Daily in his contest against Experience Estabrook for a seat in Congress tended to show that at the time of the election of October 11, 1859, there were at Kearney City "not over eight houses, not over fifteen residents, and not one acre of cultivated land or a farm house in the neighborhood of Kearny City". It also showed that at Nebraska Center, "the place named as the county seat (of Buffalo county), there was but one dwelling house, one store house, and one warehouse". [Statement by Representative Campbell of Pennsylvania on behalf of Daily, Congressional Globe, 1st session, 36th Congress, part 3, p. 2180.] The returns of the election showed that 238 of the 292 votes of Buffalo county were cast at Kearney City. These were rejected because Kearney City, being situated south of the Platte river, was not within Buffalo county.

By proclamation dated May 2, 1872, acting Governor William H. James ordered an election of county officers to be held "at the town of Lowell", June 17, 1872.- Messages and Proclamations, p. 93, in the governor's office.-Ed.

The Wood River plain, which we followed a distance of twenty miles, presented a magnificent view; but there were only half a dozen settlers in that long stretch. At Wood River Crossing "Pap" Lamb, well known along the Platte valley, was operating a ranch and stage station. About this time, the Western Stage Company, which was operating lines in Iowa, Wisconsin and other border states, established a route between Omaha and Pike's Peak the name by which the Denver region was then generally known - and stations were established from ten to fifteen miles apart. Mr. Lamb's ranch was one of them, and he drove to the next station west.

At Grand Island we found a small settlement, mostly of Germans. Koenig and Weibe, from Omaha, had established a general outfitting post and store. There was also a blacksmith shop, a cobbler shop, and a small home bakery, all prepared to care for the travelers. Mr. Fred Hedde, who in after years was so well and favorably known. throughout Nebraska as a successful farmer, politician and newspaper man, was located on a homestead contiguous to this small village. During fifty years Mr. Hedde was closely identified with the upbuilding of Grand Island and Hall county. He lived almost to the present time, and died at the ripe age of eighty-five.

Christian Menck was a homestead neighbor of Mr. Hedde's, both having come to Nebraska in 1857. In 1858 Mr. Menck was married in Omaha, and he brought the first bride to Hall county. In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Menck celebrated their golden wedding. Mr. Menck died November 9, 1909. He always took a lively interest in the welfare of Hall county.

Lone Tree Ranch was so called on account of a large solitary cottonwood tree which stood upon the bank of the river near the subsequent site of Central City. Jason Parker, one of the best known ranchmen between Omaha