Buffalo County, Nebraska - Chapter 17: Government Lands - Railroad Lands Spying Out the Land Loaded Rifles, 1916

Of Colony Government Lands Railroad Lands

Originally all lands in the county were Government lands, but to encourage the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, the general Government, granted to the railroad company, one-half of all lands for twenty miles on each side of the railroad bed. Also the general Government gave to the public school fund of the state two sections of land - 18 and 36 - in each Government township. There are in Bufifalo approximately, six hundred thousand acres of land and approximately three hundred thousand acres were railroad lands : of the remainder, in round numbers, two hundred eighty-five thousand acres were open to homestead and pre-emption entries and some fifteen thousand acres were school lands. It was not until about the year 1870, that the Union Pacific Railroad came into possession of its lands in the county and the Government surveys completed so that the Government lands were all open to entry. Until settlers could be induced to take homestead and pre-emption claims, and thus begin a settlement of the county, the railroad could not sell oft" its lands. This led the Union Pacific Railroad Company to enter into an agreement with Col. John Thorp, to locate a colony on homesteads and pre-emptions in Buffalo County.

(Harry A. Lee, a member of the colony, furnishes the following account of a journey made by himself and Colonel Thorp previous to the coming of the colony.)

John Thorp, the originator of the colony plan and myself had been acquaintances for years and were school-mates at the old Western Reserve Seminary located at West Farmington, Ohio. Shortly after the close of the Civil war. Thorp organized a colony which located in Central Kansas and which proved quite a success. In the fall of 1870, Thorp informed me of his plans for organizing a soldier's colony to locate on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad west of Grand Island. In January, 1871, he informed mc he had perfected his arrangements with the railroad company and would visit the proposed location in February and invited me to accompany him, which I did. We left Columbus, Ohio, on the 25th of February; snow was gone, frost out of the ground and mud very deep.

We passed through Chicago, Rock Island, Illinois to Omaha where we crossed the Missouri River on a ferry boat nearly one-half mile below where the present railroad bridge now is. After visiting the Union Pacific Land Office in Omaha, we boarded the old emigrant train which left for the West at 6 P. M, After examining our tickets the conductor invited us into his car - a caboose. The lirst thing which attracted our attention was a gun-rack at one end of the car in which stood twenty-four United States rifles. The conductor informed us that all overland trains carried a stand of guns, loaded and ready for use.

We arrived at Grand Island the next morning where we were met by Mr. Kennedy, land agent for the Union Pacific Land Company. Our train stopped at Gibbon switch to let us off. The only house in sight there was the section house and the only other house in sight was on the Boyd Ranch about a mile west of the switch, where was living Thomas K. Wood.

We decided to visit Mr. Wood, learn what he thought of the country and possibly get some horses to ride to the bluffs to the north, and to the Platte to the south, and last but not least get something to eat.

We had been at Mr. Woods but a short time when one of his little girls came running in and said there were some antelope on the bluff* about half a mile to the west and sure enough there they were in plain sight.

Josh Wood, a stripling boy, took a needle gun and started after the game, his father remarking in his quiet, emphatic manner, "No use for you to go, you can't kill nothing."

In about half an hour, the little girl, who had been on the watch, came in and said Josh has got one. That evening we had for supper our first taste of antelope. We visited the bluffs to the north, and rode to the Platte River to the south, noted the lay of the land, the quality of the soil, its adaptability, as we thought to agriculture - particularly we noted a few acres Mr. Wood had in cultivation, northwest of his house, and although he told us, "No man could make a living here by farming, for nothing would grow in such a dry soil," I found a butt of a corn stalk, on his field, that measured i^A inches in diameter and which I took home to Ohio with me.

Mr. Wood had an ideal location for a cattle ranch and did not wish to be disturbed, and I could not blame him, but "Westward the march of civilization was taking its way" and could not be resisted.

(At that date on the Boyd Ranch, in charge of Mr. Wood, was a herd of 770 Texan steers and some three hundred head of stock cattle, roaming the prairies in all directions.)

We spent the night till 3 A. M. at the section house, near the Gibbon switch, when our section boss - Roger Hayes - swung his lantern across the track and halted a returning emigrant train which we boarded and returned to Grand Island where we remained three days ; here we met some former acquaintances from Ohio by the name of Powell and John Donaldson who had lived in Nebraska some years.

The day we spent at Gibbon switch was beautiful and spring-like. Had it been like some days I have since seen there, the "Soldier's Free Homestead Colony"' might still be seeking a location.