Dixon County, Nebraska - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 7 of those read), 1896

The Urowth of the County Continued The South Half of the County Commences Settling up- Martinsburg Started in 1S72-- Blizzards and Loss of Life in 1872 -Grasshoppers in 1874, 1875 and 1870 -The Black Hills Excitement of 1875 and the C. C. & B. H. R. R. The Increase in Size and Business of Ponca, Martinsburg and New Castle -The Earthquake of 1877

During the years in which the C. C. & B. H. R. R. Co. troubles, briefly related in the last chapter, were foremost in the minds of citizens, the county was gradually increasing in wealth and population. There were occasional short crops, especially during the grasshopper years of 1874 and 1875, but otherwise the general prosperity of the county was all that could be expected.

Before 1869 the southern half of the county had been almost entirely unsettled, and in a very large proportion of the balance of the county, there was much vacant land. In '69, 70 and 71. the region of country now known as Wakefield, Logan, Emerson, Concord. Springbank and Daily townships, began to grow in citizens and improvements.

The first white settlers of Wakefield and Logan townships came there in 1869. As the years went by their numbers were slowly added to. Springbank had previously but a handful of settlers, but in that year and afterwards had many. To Daily in 70 and 71 came a large number: and Clark had its first resident in 1871. Galena, which had already had a few residents, made rapid increase in 1870 and following years. The same may also be said of Silver Creek. Hooker, Ionia, Otter Creek and Ponca townships. Emerson. Wakefield and Logan did not for several years grow as having excellent land and presenting unusual attractions, the lack of markets and railroad facilities kept them in the background in a great measure until 1881 when the Norfolk branch of the St. Paul railroad was built through them.

The healthy increase in population from and after 1870 is seen by figures. In the summer of L870 the number was 1,345, and in 1875, 2,886, a gain of over 20 per cent each year. New farms and improvements were more and more seen as time went on and occasionally a new post office, mill or small center of trade would be started.

Martinsburg, a pleasant and prosperous village in Galena township was founded by Jonathan Martin in 1872. It is situated at the junction of South and Daily Creeks and near the center of the county, and being surrounded by a wide area of rich farming land, and having an excellent water powTer it was thought it would develop into a successful rival of Ponca for county seat honors. In 1873 a grist mill was built by Mr. Martin which was soon after destroyed by a freshet and was the next year rebuilt. Other branches of of business were also soon after started, a store, hotel, blacksmith shop, etc.. and several dwelling houses. Afterwards in 1875, an effort was made to remove the county seat to Martinsburg, and at the election held. October 12. of that year to decide the question, that town came within about a dozen votes of winning the prize. A second unsuccessful attempt to remove the county seat to that place was made a few years later. It will so continue to result until Martinsburg is connected with other places by railroad, when it will probably become one of the most important towns in the county.

During the interval of 1870 and 1875 the growth of Ponca village was small, although it was the principal trading point for a large extent of country and did a good business. But it lacked railroad facilities and hence could not expect to be a desirable market town. When the narrow gauge railroad project was started, Ponca as well as a large part of the county were strongly in favor of it. It came as has been seen, but it was of little benefit until it fell into better hands several vears afterwards.

Dixon county and especially in the southern half of it where there were no hills and timber to give protection, was noted in an early day for its tremendous prairie tires in the spring and summer and for its blizzards in the winter. In the northern part where the country was rougher and the grass less luxuriant, tires were generally kept under control. But in the southern valleys and great stretches of unbroken and nearly level land covered by a dense growth of dry and inflammable grass, with neither trees or hills to ward off the wind, a tire once started swept everything before it with irresistable power. In later years it has been different. (Proves and plowed fields subdue the fury of tire and wind and settlers with ordinary care can feel secure.

As to blizzards, they were worse in the unprotected level lands of the southern part of the county. A blizzard swept the county February 12, 1S72, and was especially terrible in the Logan valley. On the morning of that day. Joseph Bolsom (who lived in the southeast corner of what is known as Concord township and who came there in 1871) went with (I. W. Packer of Logan to Graves' grove on South Creek, two miles away, to get wood. The day was clear and no hint was given of a coming storm. They went to the grove, each with a team and sled, and had loaded up and started for home, Bolsom in advance, when the blizzard struck them. It was impossible to see the road or each other and each had to guess his way through the storm as best he could. Packer went through to Hind's house in Logan all right, arriving there late in the afternoon. He felt no anxiety for Bolsom whom he supposed had also made a safe trip home. The next morning the air was again clear and still, and Packer saw Bolsom's team standing in the valley half a mile away, no one near them. Packer hastened down to see what the trouble was and found Bolsom lying on the ground near the sled, nearly covered by snow and frozen stiff. It was supposed that he had been wandering around nearly all night before finally succumbing to the storm. During the same blizzard, old man "Austin" as he was called, who since 1869 had lived near the Taft post office a few miles from Logan, went about six miles to get wood on the Winnebago reservation, and was lost in the storm and perished.

One day in February of the next winter, Henry Harden, who lived near the Bolsom place went with his sleigh and horses to sec a neighbor, Spaulding, who lived a mile distant. He was accompanied by his grandson, a boy twelve years old. While at Spaulding's place a blizzard came up and Harden and his grandson made a start for home. Neither was ever again seen alive and Harden was never seen at all. Two days after, the sleigh was found and in it the hoy frozen to death. The horses had there become detached from the sleigh, and as their tracks showed, they went with the storm and in the direction of the reservation. There they were found afterwrards. Mr. Harden was never found.

The first death in the county of a white man by freezing was that of Daniel Donlin and occurred February 13, 1866. He had been to Sioux City and on his return was caught by a blizzard and perished within a mile of home. He lived in Galena, a short distance from where Martinsburg now is, removing there in 1856 from Iowa.

Such are among the blizzard experiences of the early settlers and probably are the worst. Lives were not often lost though there were many narrow escapes.

As the prosperous years went by, settlers hardly ever thought of the grasshopper raid of 1857 or reflected that the 'hoppers were liable to come again. From this forgetfulness they were awakened one day in the summer of 1873, by the arrival of a small cloud of them from the northwest which came down upon the fields and gardens. They remained but a short time and did little damage. They gave notice, however, that they still continued on earth and as was afterwards seen were the trivial advance guard of an innumerable host the year after.

In the east, the destructive western grasshopper is hardly known, but here their appearance heralds annihilation to every growing crop. The abiding home of these raiders is on the high, dry plateaus of New Mexico and Arizona and the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains. There they multiply with astonishing rapidity and become to numerous to subsist, and then like bees, they swarm and migrate to other countries. They go with the wind. Hying until hunger brings them down, and then woe to the field they alight on.

From their home in the mountains they do not all go at one time nor to one place. They become widely separated after starting, but in almost any case, whether the grand army or some principal detachment, they are as the sands of the sea, myriads of millions. Coming in the distance they look like a light cloud rapidly riding on the wind, and under the blazing noon day sun they glitter like snow flakes, extending from near the ground to the height of half a mile. When they drop down to feed, every green thing is covered in a minute and they sweep everything eatable before them.

They came in countless myriads, sometimes in such dense clouds as to obscure the sun. The morning of the day they came, the fields promised a great harvest of corn, wheat and vegetables. At noon the hoppers had come in force, the air was full of them, and every stalk of corn and wheat, every tree, every species of vegetation even to the grass was black with them, and when night came nearly every growing crop had been destroyed. Therefore there was nothing of importance raised that year.

Suffering, of course, ensued, and many, fearing a recurrence of the scourge, sold their farms for whatever they could get and left the country. Those who thus made haste to leave, have without doubt often regretted their action. The 'hoppers came again the next year, (1875) but in less force and in 1876 a few scattering ones only. That was the last of them. Since then scarce one has been seen in Dixon county

In the spring of 1S75, several matters of importance to the county diverted attention from the bad results of the grasshopper raid of the year before. One was the convention to amend the state constitution, and on April 6, S. H. Coats was elected county delegate. Another matter of still greater interest, was the recent discovery of gold in the Black Hills and the rush which then commenced of thousands of adventurers to that country.

On April 16. the first Black Hills party (the Andrews Company, organized at Sioux City and containing seventy-eight men and fifteen wagons I passed through the county on their way. camping at Ponca their first night out. This was the last town they would see on their trip. This first company was soon followed by many others. It was a long, tedious journey to the "Hills" in those days and accompanied with much danger. There were no railroads to convey them and no towns on the route to receive them or furnish supplies. The usual time of making a trip was about forty days. It was through a wild country, much of it desert, that the dreary forty days' journey had to be taken. Many became sick and some died on the route from hardship and exposure, and a few were killed by the Indians, who, regarding the Black Hills as sacred Indian ground, did all in their power to drive back or destroy those who were invading it. Being on the main travelled route to the "Hills." was the cause of the invention of the Black Hills Railroad scheme through Dixon county.

After the grasshopper raids were over, the greatest damage being in 1S74. and the loss in 75 and '76 not to exceed 5 per cent, the county quickly recovered its usual courage.

The county thus far in its life had been ably conducted by those in charge of its affairs. In the selection of county officers, citizens had looked more to the fitness of the candidates for office than to the political party they belonged to. Hence, from the first, some favorites were democrats and others were republicans and if an incumbent was competent, faithful and popular, he generally held the office as long as he wished, whatever his politics, or even if he had no politics at all.

The non-partisan course thus adopted was one which was judicious. It really matters little as to party in selecting a county officer. If he does his work faithfully and is guided by fairness and honesty, nothing more can reasonably bo asked.

During the first few years of the county, the democratic party was much the strongest, although since then that rule has been reversed, yet the proportion of democrats elected to county office was no greater, considering their number, than that of the republicans. As the county became older, party lines were more strictly observed, yet always, even to this time, the ability and personal popularity of a nominee for county office, is more regarded than his politics.

Iii 1S75 the board of commissioners had submitted to them the proposition of the 0. C. & B. H. R. R. Co. to build their road into the county if $87,000 in bonds were donated, and the election to decide the question resulted in favor of it, The history of this swindle we have given. Suffice it here to say, the road was pushed along by its managers, and entered Ponca in September, 1S7(i, with cheek and assurance, and with an extended hand for the $87,000.

Being narrow guage, its arrival did not help the county as much as had been expected. Really, aside from the name of having a railroad, it was practically of little value. It was as cheap to carry passengers or produce to Sioux City by wagon as it was by rail.

In Ponca several hundred village lots were donated to the Railroad Company and a right of way granted through the town. A depot and a few other buildings were erected, and people kept up as good courage as could be expected with an $87,000 debt staring them in the face.

The coming of the road did not increase the value of or demand for real estate in Ponca or in the county to any great extent. During the fall of '76 a few residences were built and occasionally a business house. However, although the business of the place did not increase much, it was certainly as good as before the road was built. The location of Ponca gave it as in the past, the patronage of a great number of settlers. Aside from the tooting of the whistle of the little railroad train the town moved along much as usual.

Among other improvements in 1876, if it be called an improvement, Ponca was incorporated, and henceforth a board of trustees looked after its streets and sidewalks and controlled its affairs. Ponca had years before been incorporated, but the annual election of village officers had been neglected and finally given up.

In the spring of 1877, Ponca had three general stores, two hardware and two drug stores, one bank, two hotels, a grist mill, harness shop, market, furniture store, lumber yard, grain dealers, insurance and real estate agents, two physicians, five attorneys, etc. The population of the place was clanned to be at that time, about eight hundred.

In the summer and fall, work was slowly going forward on the railroad grade between Ponca and New Castle and from the latter place to the center of Cedar county.

hi June, 1S77. a cheese factory was started near Ponca by Heydon and Wilbur and run two months. The factory closed August 23, having made in two months 2,( N >< I pounds of cheese. This was one of the first cheese factory experiments in the county.

In the same year Stough and Mikesell built a large brick store on the corner of East and Third streets, two stories high, twenty-eight feet wide, and extending back on East street, eighty feet. This was the first brick business house in Ponca.

The question of having township organization in Dixon county was discussed in the summer and fall, and at the election held November 6, 1S77. was voted on. Two hundred and forty-three votes were cast in favor of and two hundred and forty-two votes against it. thus carrying the proposition by a majority of one. It came to nothing, however, forin the January following, the supreme court of the state decided the township organization law inoperative and void.

hi 1S77. the attention of some of the farmers was turned to the profit of wool growing. In October. Joseph Morton shipped 'J, 720 pounds of wool to market, and received a good price for it. This was not a great thing, but was a starter.

Martinsburg and New Castle were active in 1S77. At Martinsburg, Wright and Lockwood's store and Duren's mill did a large business and a cheese factory and other buildings were contemplated. At New Castle the expected C. C. & B. H. h\ R. kept things booming.

At noon, November 15, 1S77. the county was shaken by an earthquake, the worst this country had experienced for many years, and for about a minute everything seemed to be on the move. Houses shook and swung, windows and doors clattered, trees and chimneys tottered and wood piles nun bled their logs, and for the time being all nature trembled with rage. The performance was soon over, however, and but little harm occurred except to a few broken windows. At John H. Armstrong's farm in South Creek valley and Rev. Hutchinson's place in Daily the shock was quite severe.

Iii the same month of the earthquake, though perhaps not occasioned by it, Ponca started its first brass band, the members being Prof. Davis, Guy Wilbur, Level Jones, Fred Burroughs, John Stough. Jr., Fred Powers. J. A. Mikesell and J. B. Barnes.

The fuel question was always an important one in Dixon county, and particularly in the southern part where timber was scarce. Hence the announcement in the fall of 1877 that an eighty acre bed of excellent peat had been discovered near Park Hill, (Logan township), excited general attention for a short time. But excitement in this country, whether over coal or peat, are not lasting, people having come to the wise conclusion that there is more warmth in the imagination of the finder of coal or peat than there is in the article found.

On January 1. 1878, the railroad grading was reported to have been completed and bridge piles driven from Ponca to seventeen miles beyond New Castle. Aside from criticizing the railroad and its officers, a more useful subject of thought began to occupy attention. An agricultural society for Dixon county had been favorably thought of for several years by the farmers, and especially that winter. This agitation in favor of an agricultural society resulted the next spring in a mass meeting held, (April 11), 1878) in Ponca, when the preliminary steps toward such a society were taken. A committee was appointed to draft a constitution and by-laws, and report proceedings at an adjourned meeting, May 4. This was done and the constitution and by-laws were accepted. S. I. Hart of South Creek was elected president of the society; L. T. Hill, of Ionia, vice-president; W. W. Atkinson, of Daily Branch, treasurer, and J. U. LaFollette, of Ponca, secretary. Several other meetings were held in the summer but that was substantially all that was done that year in behalf of Dixon county's agricultural society.

At the annual school meeting in Ponca, April 1, 1878, it was voted to build a new school house to cost $8,000. The house was built by Leech and Todd and was completed in September. A large amount of building was done in 1878 throughout the county. Crops had been good the year before and the present prospects were in every way promising.

As on nearly every previous 4th of July since 1865, that day was duly honored this year. Celebrations were held at Ponca, New Castle and Martinsburg, and patriotism was shown in speeches, music, sociable picnic dinners, dancing and horse racing, winding up with grand displays of fire works in the evening.

Among other improvements. Rev. VV. H. Clark built the Silver Ridge Seminary (in Silver Creek township) and opened it for school in duly. It was a large building and commodiously arranged for scholars. It was continued several years but was finally given up, not being sufficiently patronized to make it successful.

The year closed with full granaries and corn cribs and good prices for produce of all kinds. Wheat had yielded from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre.

In the latter part of March. 1S71), terrible prairie tires occurred and great losses ensued in consequence. On March 18, a tire commencing near Daily Branch, was the prelude to a devastating conflagration which swept over the central part of the county the next day. Under the influence of a hurricane, the tire was irresistable in its course of destruction, jumping roads and creeks with ease and could not be checked by any ordinary tire guards.

About noon David Holmes while lighting tire about half a mile from Martinsburg, was surrounded and fatally burned. He was taken to the hotel at Martinsburg, Drs. Hassen and Rowe were called, yet so shockingly was he burned that he died the next day. Mr. Holmes' farm near Martinsburg was swept of everything combustible, except his house. His stable, hay. horses, etc., were burned, the value of which was about $700.

The houses of Jud Holmes. Wm. Holmes. D.M. Nelan and Ceo. Mattison were also burned andall their contents. Manly Wyman, Geo. Castle and \V. C. Smith, lost everything from their farms but the houses.

In the surrounding ocean of flame, it seemed almost a miracle that Martinsburg village was not burned up. and it would have been but for the herculean exertions of the citizens.

and stables, and hundreds of bushels of wheat, corn and oats. His grove, one of the best in the country and covering six acres, was utterly destroyed; only his house was saved.

The lire swept over several farms of residents of Otter Creek, among whom T. Marron and Mr. Bales had their houses burned, and Mr. Casey lost everything but his house.

On March 29 and 30, there were more fires. In Hooker precinct much property was destroyed. Wm. Bailey, D. D. Griffeth, J. W. Johnson. John Cummings. Wm. Pfister and John Powers were the worst sufferers, many of them losing houses, barns, farm machinery, grain, hay and fences. Prairie fires so destructive and uncontrollable never before or since occurred in the county and with ordinary care never may again.

The Coal Discoveries, and the Ups and Downs of Mining in Dixon County During the Past 38 Years- The Alleged Immense Beds of Black Diamonds in the River Bluffs and the Determined Efforts to Find Them Have Seductive Hope Before and Black Disappointment Following After Every Attempt to Find a Paying vein is a Total Failure --"Old Joe Brewer" and his Discovery of the Plesiosaurus- His Mound Building Theories The [onia Volcano and Indian Superstitions Regarding it.

The brief allusion, a few pages back, to the fuel question and its importance to residents, will remind old settlers that at various times much hope and excitement has been aroused in the county over the alleged discovery of coal. It will be well to give a history of the various efforts to mine for coal since the county was first settled.

In L857 some of the settlers while examining the river near Ponca landing, discovered cropping out of the base of the bluffs, a thin layer of inferior coal, or more properly, lignite. With the hope that this thin layer would increase in thickness and improve in quality as it extended under the hill, a number of the citizens, among whom were the Stough Brothers and E. M. Bisbee, made efforts in that year to open and work the vein. As they drifted into the bluff, they were for a time encouraged in the hope of developing a rich and valuable mine, the layer of coal becoming thicker and better as they proceeded in.

Where it cropped out at the foot of the bluff, its thickness was but three or four inches. Within, at a distance of thirty feet, the thickness was found to be fifteen inches. The coal at the outset was utterly worthless, and was useful only as a hint and suggestion of a more valuable find farther back under the rocks. The encouraged miners did indeed find

In the absence of wood, it would answer as an apology for fuel. Hut with the abundant timber which this county was blessed with, especially along the river, the alleged coal find was worthless. The greatest thickness of the vein never exceeded eighteen inches, and the coal itself, charged with sulphur, emitted such Stygian and suffocating fumes that few would after one trial ever attempt to burn it again.

Messrs. Stough. Bisbee and others who were engaged in it. finally came to the conclusion that time and money would be foolishly squandered by continuing their coal exploration and so abandoned it.

But the extreme anxiety to find coal in this country and the fear that our supply of timber would fail to meet the constantly increasing demand for it. soon after induced Mr. Bisbee to open another mine a short distance from the first one. He drifted in about sixty feet but found no improvement in thickness and quality. The same dirty and sulphur laden material was met with, and when burned, the same unbearable fumes discouraged further efforts.

Professors Aughey and Hayden, both of whom were noted geologists, visited this locality at about that time (1857) to see the coal of which much had been published, and their decision was that the vein was not. properly speaking, coal.

It was merely lignite, coal in its infancy, and might after ages, become coal. It is safe to say that neither Mr. Bisbee or others desired to wait that length of time to make a paying coal business, and again coal mining was dropped for pursuits which had a nearer ] refit. So the matter rested awhile.

However, the adverse verdict of Professors Aughey and Heydon was in a measure forgotten after a few years and other confident explorers started in from time to time to try their hands at making a better coal discovery in the bluffs.

In 1S74 Joseph Brewer (who the year before, dug out the Plesiosaurus, an account of which will be given in this chapter) dug into the bluff about twenty feet and announced that he had struck a wonderfully thick layer of excellent coal. Much excitement was caused by his report and many went to see his discovery. They found Mr. Brewer prodding into the same old vein which had been ineffectually labored in years before, and in which he had a thickness of about fifteen inches. What little he was enabled to get out, he had a sale for, but at the price received could barely earn enough to keep famine at bay, and hence in a short time, he too, like the others who had preceded him. Hung up the sponge and retired from the business.

In the spring following, (1S75) several enthusiastic parties formed a company to open another hole into the bluff in search of coal. One of the company by the name of Wernimont was recently from Eastern Iowa and claimed to be an expert in geology and especially in coal and stated that nearly all his life had been devoted to it.

It was afterwards learned that his labors in that respect had been of a practical nature rather than scientific and that his experience had been previously confined to handling a pick at $1.50 per day in an Iowa coal bank. But what he lacked in knowledge of geological formations he kept to himself and courageously asserted that Professors Aughey and Heydon were entirely mistaken in disbelieving in the existence of a paying deposit of excellent coal a few hundred feet farther under the bluff.

Accordingly Prof. Wernimont started bravely in, he furnishing the science and labor and the others the money, and in a few weeks had penetrated the bluff to the distance of on? hundred and thirty-five feet, the mine being five feet high and six feet wide. In that distance he was never able to get under solid rock, nor did the coal become thicker or better, and it looked after all, as though Profs. Aughey and Heydon might possibly be right and Prof. Wernimont wrong. At the end of one hundred and thirty-five feet. Prof. Wernimont drilled down perpendicularly to the depth of ninety-five feet, when finding nothing and his courage oozing out, his scientific labors were brought to a close.

Soon after this, Mr. Bisbee's ambition to possess a rich coal mine revived again and he commenced to re-open the old mine he had worked in years before. He and his men worked diligently and drifted in about one hundred feet. But like Prof. Wernimont, he found no improvement in the coal. He got out considerable, however, which was sold for fuel. But as was seen in the former efforts to burn it, the sulphurous smell of it, (suggestive of that torrid country where sulphur is a main article in business) rendered it unfit for use unless one held his nose.

One day while Mr. Bisbee was laboring in his mine, the roof fell upon him and crushed him badly. Not fatally, fortunately, although several months elapsed before he could get around again. This disastrous incident dampened his mining enthusiasm and he quit it like the many explorers and investigators who had gone before him.

Then the coal business took another long rest and the next experience of the kind was in 1880 when a stock company was formed for the purpose of exploring deep down into the 1 towels of the earth in search of a thicker and better quality of coal than that which had been worked in the bluffs. The company raised the necessary money, purchased an engine and drill, and employed a number of experienced men.

After several months' labor on the Heydon farm a mile west of Ponca, a hole was drilled to the depth of five hundred and seventy-six feet. There it was announced a vein of coal was found, four feet thick. Under the advice of Prof. Aughey the company proceeded on down, expecting to find a still thicker vein within a short distance.

Before finding the thicker vein the drill broke off and was lost in the hole and the labor terminated. As to the alleged four foot vein, it was, on reflection, deemed a matter of doubt whether any coal had been found at all. So much doubt, in fact, that no one felt like contributing money to sink a shaft. Hence this exploration went the same beaten road of former efforts.

Again there was a lull in the coal exploring business but after several years people again forgot their misfortunes and failures in this respect and gave the coal business another trial.

In 1SS7 a company was formed under the leadership of one Newman, a Cornish miner, so called, and a new drift was made into the river bluffs. The company went into the hill about three hundred and fifty feet, finding the same sort and thickness of coal, no better and no worse, than that which Brewer, Wernimont and the others had found years

One would think that after all these numerous failures in which not a single glimmer of hope was given to cheer and encourage, people would have been shy about having anything more to do with coal mining in this vicinity. They were shy for a while, but not for long.

In the fall of 1SSS another company was organized and with a diamond pointed core drill, a prospect hole was put down to a depth of seven hundred feet, on a lot in the northern part of Ponca. The core, which was carefully taken out and preserved, showed not the slightest indications of coal. The fact is, there is no coal here as has been conclusively proven by the long series of costly investigations.

Since the failure with the core drill, there have been no farther efforts to date, to hunt out a coal vein. As years go by. however, people may again forget their former bad luck and try it again.

We referred previously in this chapter to the unearthing of the "plesiosaurus" by Mr. Brewer, and a brief account of it and of Mr. Brewer's other discoveries will be interesting.

"Old Joe Brewer" familiar to all in Dixon county twentyyears ago, had little education that had not been derived from experience instead of books. He owned what is now the farm of H. I. Brown, two miles northwest of Ponca. There, with a family of fifteen children, Mr. Brewer lived many years. He was a man whose study was nature and whose unfaltering enthusiasm and expectation led him to see wonders in every hill and to expect valuable minerals in the rocks and slopes of every ravine.

His land, which extended to the river a fearful array of bluffs and gorges, was in his belief the place where mound builders many ages ago had lived. He pointed out excavations and artificial mounds which he believed corroborate* I his conclusions, and exhibited bones and fragments of pottery which he had found. The place where he claimed this ancient city to have been was on the bluffs, and three hundred feet above the Missouri.

for miles up and down the river, and on a clear day the buildings of Sioux City are plainly visible. That this elevated land was the home of mound builders may be doubted, although it is likely that a large Indian village had been located there, a hundred or more years ago.

Along the precipice of rock which bounded the river side of this "mound builders' city," Mr. Brewer devoted much time to exploration. He tried to find gold, silver and other minerals; he also delved for coal, and in 1S74 rediscovered the worthless vein which Bisbee and others had before and since tried to make profitable. The only thing which Mr. Brewer ever found in all his explorations which was of value, was a petrified skeleton of some great antediluvian animal, said to be the remains of a plesiosaurus.

One day in the spring of 1S78 while passing along at the foot of the precipice, Mr. Brewer noticed that the high water of the river which is ever encroaching and undermining, had caused a large fragment of rock to fall. On examining the place, he observed that an immense skeleton had been in part revealed. It was near the bluff that he found a small part of the fossil protruding, the remainder of it was still covered by the ledge of rocks three hundred feet high. With little idea of what animal it had been or of what value it would be to the scientific world, Mr. Brewer and his sons set to work to dig it out. Had care been used in the excavation, a most valuable petrification would have been obtained. As stated, it was afterwards found to be the petrified bones of a plesiosaurus, the second one that had ever been discovered. Hence if brought to the outer world in as perfect condition as it was found by Mr. Brewer it would have been a most important discovery. But the digging it out w7as nearly the ruin of it. With crow bar and pick axe and careless indifference whether one broke the rock or the fossil, the diggers were as destructive as a bull in a china house. So that when the bones were all dug out they wrere broken into a hundred pieces. Yet, badly as the breaking was, the immense pile of bones showed that the animal had been one of the most enormous of the ancient denizens of the earth.

The size of the petrification could now he better seen. Its length was about eighty feet, and the backbone was eighteen inches through it. The weight was over six tons. The reptile when alive could not have been less than 100 feet long. and could lift its head thirty-five feet above the ground. Prof. Aughey. the state geologist, stated that the animal lived over five hundred thousand years ago.

After its fragments had been cemented together the petrification was exhibited in Sioux City and elsewhere by the Covington parties, and was finally taken to Chicago and sold to a museum there.

Another of Dixon county's curiosities and which attracted as much attention twenty years ago as the plesiosaurus or coal mines, was its volcano at Ionia. It was first seen by white men in 1S04 and was then discovered by the Lewis and Clark exploring expedition, the first company of white men who for purposes of observation, ever visited the country now forming the state of Nebraska.

The passage of the Lewis and Clark expedition up the Missouri was marked by many adventures and discoveries. They often landed on the western shore, and going back of the ranges of bluffs, saw a beautiful and densely populated country. On the gently rolling prairies which stretched away to the west, they noted great herds of buffalo and an unending variety of game in the forests and fish in the lakes and streams. The copper colored inhabitants were friendly and hospitable, and intercourse with them was not marked by the treachery which in later times has generally been associated with the name of "Indian."

The expedition landed at two or three places in Dixon county, and at the place known of late years as the "Ionia Volcano" they stopped several days to investigate the phenomenon which was, as since, an interesting mystery. Here, as at other points on their route, they were welcomed by the Indians with the utmost courtesy and hospitality. Fish and game were supplied them and joyful Indian dances were held in their honor. By the aid of their interpreter, the travelers were made acquainted with several stories and old legends relating to the tribes who then and in still more ancient days had lived in this country, their towns, wars and most noted warriors, their laws, customs and amusements. Among other things the voyagers were told the legends especially relating to the volcano and the story of the elves and supernatural inhabitants on Spirit Mound, a few miles above and on the opposite side of the river. Thus with feasting and pleasure the travelers passed a several enjoyable days, and their departure up the river was a source of regret to the friendly tribe whose guests they were.

The so called "Ionia Volcano" is (or more properly speaking was until 1878, when the river undermined and swTept it away) located on the bank of the Missouri, in Dixon county, at Ionia, about twelve miles above Ponca and thirtysix miles from Sioux City. The bluff that has exhibited the phenomena ascribed to volcanic action was about 1,100 feet long, and 160 feet high, and sloped irregularly to the river.

The phenomena witnessed on this bluff led many to believe that the presence of a genuine volcano was indicated. Sounds were heard proceeding from below, especially on placing the ear to the ground. Occasionally flames were seen to break forth, especially at night, as at that time they were more easily observed. Steam also escaped from numberless crevices and where openings were made the heat became too intense to proceed further. Some of the lime stone was changed to quick lime, and the temperature of some portions of the interior was sufficient to raise it to a red heat. Incrustations of mineral salts were abundant on top and on the sides of the mass, and like all the rock of this description along the Missouri, crystals were abundant.

The rocks at this point are, as geologists inform us, of the cretaceous age, and largely composed of carbonate of lime. Innumerable crystals are also found of the bi-sulphide of iron which is popularly known as 4'fools gold." or iron pyrites.

Now. at this so called volcano the heat was occasioned, not by internal tires but by the decomposition of the iron pyrites and the carbonates of lime and magnesia, such decomposition being occasioned by exposure to air or water.

One of the histories of the voyage of Lewis and Clark, while .speaking of the discovery by them of this remarkable burning mound, mentions that this phenomenon was well known to the wild tribes scattered along the river and had from time immemorial, been regarded with much superstitions fear. Evil Manitous were supposed to dwell in the sulphurous fires, and many legends in which they were alluded to, were handed down from one generation to another, and lost none of their interest by the transition nor by the vivid imagination of the narrators. Elsewhere in this book will be found one of the principal legends referred to.