wood or coal for fuel, or timber or stone necessary for building purposes, if the land was to be fully or partially occupied.

Notwithstanding the now known desirable nature of this land for home builders, it was then believed by a very large majority of people of the older states, on the testimony of officers of our regular army, and other persons equally reliable, that outside of the counties bordering the Missouri River, the land was unfit for home-building purposes. A land whose waters were so strongly impregnated with alkali as to be unfit for domestic use; whose surface was sparsely covered with coarse grasses of little or no value; whose soil was practically lacking in all the essential elements of fertility, and whose growing crops were more than likely to perish for lack of timely rains, or from the scorching effects of the chinook winds.

Not only did people of the older states hold firmly to this belief in regard to this land, but citizens of the state of Nebraska living in counties bordering upon the Missouri River were just as strong in the faith that all land in the state fifty miles or more west of the Missouri River was almost worthless for agricultural purposes.

With the completion of the Union Pacific Railway there was created a factor, stronger than all others which had ever before existed, for the settlement and for the development of the resources of the state. To aid in the construction of this railroad the general Government had wisely made a gift of land equal in area to a strip twenty miles in width, the entire length of the road. The land in this state had been surveyed into sections, each one mile square, and in the allotment of lands to this railway company, it was given the odd numbered sections for a distance of twenty miles on each side of the entire length of the road-bed, in the state. The balance of the lands were owned by the government and were at that time open to settlement under the following conditions only, viz: outside the before named railroad limits, a citizen of

the United States might homestead 160 acres of land by living thereon five years, and paying the fees for surveying the same, amounting to $14.00. He might also preempt 160 acres by living thereon six months and paying at the rate of $1.25 an acre; within the railroad limits preempted lands were paid for at the rate of $2.50 per acre, and only 80 acres could be homesteaded, except, that any person honorably discharged from the military or naval services of the Government could homestead within such railroad limits 160 acres.

The land grant from the Government to the Union Pacific Railroad Company amounted in round numbers to 5,000,000 acres in the state of Nebraska. These lands this railroad company was anxious to dispose of and did place on the market on terms more advantageous to the purchaser of limited means, than were even government lands, within the railroad limits under the preemption. laws; said preempted land must be paid for within two and a half years after filing on the same, at the rate of $2.50 per acre, while equally desirable railroad lands were offered for $3.00 per acre, payable in ten equal annual installments with interest at six per cent on deferred payments. Practically speaking it was at that time impossible for this company to sell its lands, in any considerable quantities, or at more than a mere nominal price, for two reasons; speculators would not purchase because it was generally believed that the lands were almost worthless for agricultural purposes; settlers and home-builders would not buy when adjoining and equally desirable land could be had under the homestead laws for the taking, therefore, the public, and especially the home-seeker and home-builder, must be convinced that these lands were desirable for home-building purposes, and hence it was, that the Union Pacific Railroad Company through its land department, became so important a factor in the settlement and development of our State, and we beheld the unusual occurrence of a powerful, soulless corporation ex

pending thousands of dollars to inform the people of the world that "Uncle Sam was rich enough to give us all a farm." That the home-seeker and home-builder might, in the young state of Nebraska, have for the taking, a farm of unsurpassed beauty and fertility.

There was, in the judgment of the writer, another very important factor connected with the early and rapid settlement and development of our state, and one which may with propriety be mentioned, as it relates quite closely to the subject here discussed.

This factor has been far reaching in its effects and results, not only in this state, but in other western states, and in the Nation. Reference is made to the soldiers, or veterans as they are now termed, of the war of the Rebellion. At the close of the war in 1865, there were in the Union army one million men, and a large per cent of this number were young men, (boys, very many of them) ranging from eighteen to twenty-four years of age, and unmarried. Their military service had taken them from the restraints of home, they had passed beyond the boundaries of their own town, county and state, and the world henceforth meant more to them than the hamlet wherein they were born and raised. They were innured to hardship and privation, for it was the pride and boast of the soldier to be able to overcome every obstacle which might beset his pathway.

The close of the war threw them on their own resources, and they stood facing the world possessing nothing but stout hearts and willing hands, for there was no money in soldiering. Returning to their homes many of the class of soldiers here named, married and in a few years found themselves burdened with the cares of a young and growing family. They had not the means to buy a home in the already crowded eastern states. Many of them did not care to attempt to build there a home amid stumps and stones and hills, for in their journeys they had beheld lands which, if not more fair were more easily tilled.

They were not afraid to venture beyond the confines of their own county, for had they not once gone forth conquering and to conquer, and returned crowned with laurels? Their eyes were turned with longing to the land beyond the Missouri whose bountiful resources were just beginning to be understood and appreciated, and they only hesitated to make sure that in the locality to which they might journey, it was reasonably certain that homes might be builded. The principal objection to overcome was the prevalent belief that the lands were worthless for cultivation, were the home, and had been for ages, of savages and wild beasts, and that it was not only unwise and imprudent, but cruel and almost inhuman to expose women and children to privations, hardships and dangers incident to settlement amid such surroundings. The most powerful factor to overcome such objections was the selfish interests of of a wealthy corporation, having 5,000,000 acres of land, worth at a low estimate $15,000,000, but upon which they could not realize until actual settlers and home-builders had proven that the lands were valuable for agricultural purposes. Who more likely, in such a case, to venture to persevere, and if possible to succeed, than young home-seekers from the ranks of the Volunteer Soldiers, who in a great emergency, amid privation and suffering had been tried and not found wanting?

In the year 1870, Col. John Thorp, of West Farmington, Ohio, contracted with the land department of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, to locate not less than one hundred settlers on land adjacent to said railroad, and west of Hall county in the state of Nebraska. In the fall of the year of 1870, Col. Thorp, in company with Mr. H. A. Lee and Mr. F. S. Trew, experienced farmers living in Ohio, visited this state and personally inspected the lands in the eastern portion of Buffalo county, and satisfied themselves that they were valuable for farming purposes. Col. Thorp then proceeded to organize what was termed The Soldiers' Free Homstead Colony, fixing the member

ship fee at $2.00, which membership entitled the holder to a reduced rate of transportation. This reduced rate of fare was, in fact, the only tangible thing about the organization, and the only right which any member in any manner acquired. At the reduced rate it was $35.00 from Buffalo, New York, to Gibbon, Nebraska, passenger rates being at that date much higher than at present. The regular passenger rate on the Union Pacific being then seven cents per mile, and it might be mentioned the speed of its trains correspondingly slow, the schedule time of its fastest passenger train "The Overland," being fifteen miles per hour, while the emigrant train, which also carried passengers, was scheduled to run ten miles per hour. By advertisements in the New York Tribune, Toledo Blade, and American Agriculturist, and by correspondence during the winter of 1871-2 a sufficient membership was secured to warrant the attempt to establish the colony, and Wednesday, April 5th, was fixed upon as the date when the members should leave Chicago for their journey westward. Accordingly they came, a single family, two families, and with a possi ble exception in the Ohio contingent, not in a single instance more than three families from any one locality. The route chosen was the L. S. & M S. from Buffalo, and the C. R. I. & P. from Chicago to Council Bluffs. Those from the more eastern states met at Buffalo and somehow became acquainted; others joined as the train sped westward, so that when Chicago was reached, the colony was well represented. Council Bluffs was reached on April 6th. When the brakeman announced "Council Bluffs, all out," the colonists began to realize for the first time the extreme newness of the land wherein they were intending to build homes. Alighting from the cars, they found themselves on the bank of the Missouri River, with no depot or other buildings of like nature in sight, and the river to be crossed by means of a large scow, or flat bottomed ferry boat. This ferry boat was quite primitive in construction, and its management even more so, especially