Buffalo County, Nebraska - Chapter 26: Homesteaders in Buffalo County a List of 1,265 Persons Taking Homestead, 1916

The Homesteader

As a pioneer in the settlement of the county and state the homesteader takes first place - first rank. As a rule the homesteader was of limited means and ventured everything in the effort to establish a home. The rapidity with which the county was settled beginning in 1871 is best illustrated by a table showing the number of homestead and pre-emption claims filed upon in the county previous to the year 1880.

The setback which not only Buffalo County but the state received in the drouth and grasshopper years of 1874, 1875 and 1876 is only half illustrated in the above table, for not only were there comparatively few newcomers, but hundreds of those who had taken claims left the county and state, deserting their claims, which were in later years taken by others.

The rather large number of claims recorded as taken in the years 1878-79 is in part accounted for by the fact that the Fort Kearney Military Reservation, ten miles square and four-tenths of which was embraced within the limits of Buifalo County, was thrown open to homestead entry in 1878 under conditions which permitted the head of a family to homestead i6o acres, and in the years 1878-79 all these lands were filed upon in the United States Land Ofifice, and as there were no railroad lands in the reservation, every quarter section contained a homesteader. The belief that the reservation would be thrown open to homestead entry led interested parties (the chief promoter being Dr. J. J. Saville) to employ S. and J. Murphy, civil engineers, living at Kearney, to survey the reservation, this about the year 1876, and at that date practically the entire reservation was taken by "squatters," who, when the lands were thrown open to homestead entry in 1878, having the first right to make entry, filed their claims in the land office.

Believing that in a history of Bufifalo County the name of every person taking a homestead or pre-emption claim, in the early days, is worthy of being made a matter of record, and that to future generations it will be of interest to know who made the first settlements in the various townships of the county, the editor has copied from the United States Land Office records the names of all those taking a homestead or pre-emption claim in the county previous to the year 1880.

This list is here given by Government township and range, and in the spelling of the names great care has been taken to follow the record in the land office. It wnll be noticed there are some duplication of names. This is accounted for from the fact that some settlers took both a pre-emption and a homestead claim, it being legal and proper so to do.

(Note - The southwest quarter of section 14, town 9, range 14, in this township, known as "Boyd Ranch," was the first claim taken in the county by Joseph Boyd in 1867, and was the first piece of deeded land in Nebraska west of Hall County.)

1871 - George N. Smith, H. Hillficker, R. Killgore, B. F. Bengsloe. John Blanchard, A. H. Brundage, FL D. Smith, W. A. Hunter, Wm. Smith, George Hoge, George Enderly, J. H. Miller, George Flehearty, J. H. O'Neil, S. A. Mack, A. Shovel, T. M. Faddis. L B. Wambaugh, H. Comstock, H. T. Faddis, C. A. Smith. John Davis, A. W. Tabor, A. L. Ketchum. F. Moore.

1873 - J. M. Frantz, N. D. Brooks, George Grabach, A. W. Hanson, D. Bean, W. Troop, Robert Haines, A. Scott, Maria J. Sadler, Mary A. Smith, J. M. Thomas, J. Thomas, H. V. Westhoven, H. W. Morse, J. S. Harrington, J. B. Ingram, J. A. Waters, G. W. Clem, John Hoge.

A. E. Russell, J. H. Hollenbeck, E. Spencer, W. Smart, A. W. Reddish, Wm. Swartwood, W. C. Griffith, A. H. Connor, J. A. Smith, M. Smidt, W. S. Gregory, W. C. Turner, Max Boetsch, J. Williams, Walter Colby.

1875 - L. Logan, J. H. Harrison, L. N. Thorndike, D. H. Compton, J. Sommerville, Thomas Ginther, O. Neff, Wm. Hueselton, F. Weiss, A. Gartley, H. Randolph, C. Schandtz, E. Cuddebach, A. L. Hopwood, A. Ayers.

1879 - J- Somell, A. Straight, S. M. Tingley, H. Hobson, C. E. Holmes, L. Knapp, D. Browning. A. S. Sabin, L. P. Wells, J. Demuth, A. Jarchke, Thomas Bolan, N. O. Calkins, J. B. Wait.