Buffalo County, Nebraska - Chapter 19, 1916

Hold Religious Services To The Land Of Promise

The colonists left Omaha on the emigrant train at 6 P. M. on Thursday, and at once the statement was circulated that we were being taken on a night train because, if we saw the country in the day time we would desert before reaching the destination. Although in the night when we reached Fremont the train was boarded by German women with sandwiches, eggs and coffee and also land agents who assured us that nothing could be raised in Buffalo County, no one lived there, and that there were plenty of homesteads near Fremont. When we reached Lone Tree (now Central City), land agents came on board and accompanied us to Grand Island, making the same statements in regard to the country as those made by agents at Fremont, only, the latter fixed the limit in the state, where one could live by farming, at Grand Island.

We reached Grand Island late in the forenoon, having breakfast and dinner at one meal, the Union Pacific having a large dining hall at this point for many years, until dining car service was established.

Grand Island was quite a trading point in those days, and had some fairly good grocery stores and some firms which carried small stocks of drugs, hardware and lumber. Grand Island was also the location of the United States land office.

The Colonists Arrive At Gibbon

On Friday, April 7, 1871, at 2 P. M., the colonists arrived at Gibbon switch and the cars we came in - some passenger cars, some box cars - were placed on the siding and left for our use. It was a warm, spring-like day, sun shining brightly and a gentle breeze blowing. An ideal day, and an ideal time of the day to reach our destination.

On Sunday, April 2d, a prairie fire had swept over the entire country leaving it black, bleak, desolate and uninviting. No rain or snow had fallen since the previous August, and not a green tree, shrub or sprig of grass was to be seen. As the bleak and black prairie lay glistening in the sunshine, it seemed at a distance that we were surrounded by water (a water mirage it is called and very common in the early days of the colony), and to the writer it seemed as

Rev. J. N. Allen And Daughter Mertie

Mr. Allen was a soldier of the Civil war and pioneer settler and missionary in Buffalo County in 1871. He conducted the first religious service after the arrival of the colony at Gibbon, on the open prairie, Sunday, April 9, 1871.

Rev. J. Marsh Rev. William Morse

though he was again upon the ocean, out of sight of land. Along Wood River were fringes of bushes. Everything which would make a railroad tie or a stick of wood had been cut and used in the building of the railroad, built through the county in 1866. No trees were on the Platte River or its islands, only here and there bunches of willow brush. At the end of the switch was nearly a hundred cords of wood, cottonwood, for use on the railroad, as some of the engines at that date were wood burners. There was but one house in sight, that the railroad section house, standing where the present one does in 191 5, in fact the same house, the only changes in forty-four years being a new roof, chimney, floor, sidewalls and a coat of paint of another color.

Roger Hayes was section foreman and had a corral and a considerable number of cattle. That afternoon the section men placed a box car on a spur on the north side of the main line and an agent of the company, Charles Smith, who had come from Omaha with us, set up his telegraph instrument and opened the statical for business. S. C. Ayer, a colonist, at once transferred his belongings to the box car station, making it his temporary home. William Nutter (a "squatter," or as we termed, an **old settler") was planting potatoes on old land near the siding and was at once surrounded by colonists and deluged with questions about the countr}' and what could be raised. He said no rain had fallen since the previous August, and while the prairie was very dry, the old land, which he was plowing and planting, was moist and plowed easily. He had raised the previous year, and was then planting, as fine, large potatoes as one would care to see, and in this sign or sight the colonists found great encouragement. On the previous day a box car, with horses, wagon and other emigrant movables, including a considerable supply of lumber, all belonging to Mr. and Mrs. George Gilmore - Mrs. Gilmore being a sister of Colonel Thorp - and in charge of F. S. and Willmot P. Trew, had arrived, and a like car of emigrant movables, including a team of horses, belonging to D. P. Ashburn, J. S. Chamberlain accompanying Mr. Ashburn. A small shanty, answering for both kitchen and a place to eat, was hastily constructed, so that Gibbon had a hotel or boarding house without delay.

One newly married couple, who were entirely without means, and had no household goods whatever, found employment, for their board, at the boarding place, sleeping on the floor of a car, covered with bedding furnished them. One colonist had shipped his household" goods by express instead of freight and the charges amounted to $75. Not having the money to pay the charges, he hired out by the month to earn the necessary amount.

Fixing Up Quarters

Some found box cars on the siding and managed to fix up quite comfortable quarters; for a time some were in passenger cars and slept on the floor between seats or in the aisle. On Saturday morning one colonist took the passenger train for "back East," the only one who did not stay and file a homestead claim.

On Saturday the colonists ranged the prairies from the Platte to the bluffs and beyond ; some to the east where resided the few early settlers ; some to Fort

Kearney, some to Kearney station (now Buda), where there was a station for the convenience of Fort Kearney, and at which place there were a few houses, belonging to hangers-on around the fort, among the number one or two where liquor was sold. Thomas K. Wood was living on the Boyd ranch, about a mile west of the switch; Mr. Wood had a family of several children and also had a herd of native cattle owned jointly with J. E. Boyd, the owner of the ranch. Sam Boyd was making his home with Mr. Wood and had charge of 770 head of Texan steers, ranging between Wood River and the bluffs and corralled at night in a bend of Wood River on the Boyd ranch.

On gathering around the camp fire that evening, a young man, Kingman Fisher, related a terrible experience with thirst. He had gone into the bluffs, some six miles north, and finding no water had nearly perished, being so far gone, as he said, as to "spit cotton." When an old soldier remarked that it took more than a few hours, traveling light, for a man to become so famished for want of water as to "spit cotton," Fisher concluded his degree of thirst was largely imaginary.

Mr. Ogilvie was a Scotchman, a strong friend of education, a Christian gentleman in all that tlie term implies, and in the educational, social and religious activities in the community was one of the most useful and helpful of men. He served as station agent until his death in February, 1881.

Hold Religious Service

Sunday was a bright, sunny day. After breakfast it was planned to hold a religious service at 10 o'clock. Out on the open prairie, with the blue vault of heaven above and the warm, bright sunshine of an April day sliining over all, seats were improvised from the lumber pile and a sermon preached by Rev. Josiah N. Allen, a member of the colony.

C. Putnam also spoke, calling attention to the fact that we had come to make homes in this new land and that it was equally important that we establish characters for honesty, integrity and sobriety. Practically every member of the colony attended this service. After dinner most of the colonists went sight seeing - land viewing, some as far east as where lived William Nutter, an old settler, he having come with his family two years before.