Gage County, Nebraska - Chapter 19: Growth of Beatrice from Beginning to 1870, 1918

Few of the Townsite Company remained in Beatrice during the winter of 1857-1858. The enterprise, however, could not be whollyabandoned for even a short period of time without jeopardizing the rights of the 'association to the land selected as a townsite; moreover, as the association had gone through the form of organizing the county, with Beatrice as the county seat, it was considered important that some, at least, of the members of the association, including the county officials, should remain on gUard. Finally it was agreed that Albert Towle, one of the county commissioners, should bring his family from Nebraska City to Beatrice, and with Bennett Pike, Jefferson B. Weston, Gilbert T. Loomis, M. W. Ross, and Oliver Townsend (who had, by assingment, succeeded to the rights of his brother, Dr. Justus Townsend, in the townsite, and who had joined the company in October), occupy the company building. Duriiig the long, cold winter Ross died, his being the first death in the county. His body was buried in the old burial ground, between Indian creek and Glenover school house, which for several years constituted the cemetery for Beatrice and surrounding country.

Those who remained in Beatrice for the winter possessed only a meager supply of provisions, but it was thought to be sufficient, with what nature provided, to last through the winter. Besides it was considered that, as a trip could be made to Brownville in a week's time, there could be no danger of starvation. The autumn days were short and a winter of great severity soon set in. As the holidays approached it became evident that it would be necessary to procure a fresh supply of food for both man and beast. Loomis possessed the only team in the company and he volunteered to make a trip to Brownville, and return as soon as possible with such supplies as were thought to be necessary to last through the winter. A common purse of such funds as the small company possessed was placed in his hands, and he was directed to go beyond Brownville into Missouri, where it was thought supplies might be procured cheaper. He was detained by the severity of the weather and was unable to return to his companions for more than a month. The occupants of "Pap's Cabin'' saw their stock of provisions running lower and lower, each day bringing a visible diminution in their means of subsistence. They wondered anxiously if Eoomis would ever return and went so far as to even question his honesty. The seriousness of the situation is illustrated by an incident which has been handed down from that distant day.

The family of Mr. Towle occupied the east room in the cabin and what passed for an upstairs, while the young men kept bachelors' hall in the west end. The bachelors had organized a sort of cooperative association for housekeeping purposes only, by which each the larder in the bachelors' end of the build- The transition from a few covered wagons ing was completely cleaned out; Mother- Hub- and a tent, from "Pap's Cabin" and a saw bard's cupboard was not barer. It was Pike's mill, in 1857, to 'a modem city of approximateturn at the household duties. At the proper ly twelve thousand inhabitants in 1918, was of hour for assuming his duties, he failed to arise, course painfully slow. At first there was little When urged to proceed with the breakfast, he at hand which by any stretch of the imaginavery logically argued that in the absence of tion could be regarded as valuable material anything to cook, breakfast was out of the for the upbuilding of a city. Supplies beyond question. An animated conversation ensued the bare necessities of life were scarce, in which the condition of affairs was thorough- Brownville was the nearest trading point and ly exposed, to the enlightenment, as well as between here and there lay sixty miles of the amusement perhaps, of the occupants of prairie, practically uninhabited; the road the east end of the cabin. Upstairs, or more thither was little better than a wandering trail properly in the attic, the provident Mrs. Towle across a prairie waste. After crossing Bear had suspended on nails two fair sized pieces creek at a point nearly a mile north of the of dried beef. A conference between her and State Institution for Feeble Minded Youth, her husband ensued, in which the relief of the there was, as late as 1869 and 1870, not a famine prevailing in the west end of the cabin single dwelling house or a place where drinkwas agreed upon. Mr. Towle noiselessly ing water could be obtained until Yankee creek climbed the ladder to the attic and taking one was reached, near Crab Orchard. Settlers piece of the dried beef, crossed the loose floor began to come into the county in 1858, locatto a point directly over the bed where Mr. ing usually along the streams, where wood and Pike lay, and stealthily removing a board, water could be obtained. They were mostly dropped the beef on the breast of that gentle- single men, or a husband and wife, and after man, who, with ready wit, exclaimed, "Thank spending a portion of the summer on their God, the ravens have brought us food." The claims, they usually returned to Missouri river arrival of Loomis removed the fear as well towns and settlements to await the coming of as the danger of starvation. It is related, spring.

claims of members of the company was brok- source of worry to the members of the asen and planted to corn, melons and vegetables, sociation, and possibly of some contention.

The chief difficulty apparently was to find some one competent to set up and run it, but by the beginning- of 1858 it was in effective operation. On the 28th day of May in that year, at a meeting of the members of the association, J. B. Weston, the agent of the company having the enterprise in charge, reported that the lumber sold from the mill amounted to $383.38. "Of this sum" he says, "five dollars in specie is in the hands of the agent." Once in successful operation, the old company steam mill, which was the first manufacturing enterprise of the county, excluding the government mill on the Otoe and Missouri Indian reservation, for many years supplied not only Beatrice but also a large area of the surrounding country with lumber of every kind and dimension, white oak, walnut, hackberry, Cottonwood, the last, however, being the main reliance for building purposes. This mill did custom work on the toll system ; that is, the party who hauled saw logs to it rarely if ever paid cash for the services of the sawyer, but gave in payment part of the lumber manufactured from his logs. This system has long since been abolished in Nebraska, either by law or custom, probably on account of its inherent temptation to dishonesty. The owner of the logs frequently delivered them at the mill in the winter, and at times when there was great congestion in the mill yard he might be compelled to wait many weeks before his turn came to have his logs made into lumber. He was without adequate means for checking the milling of his logs and was almost compelled to accept what the owner or lessee of the mill turned out to him. The settlers were rarely satisfied with what they received.

But with all its imperfections and the defects of the tolling system, the old company mill was not only a great convenience to the settlers but was also a positive asset in the settlement and development of the county. When Pordyce Roper, in 1861, erected the first flouring mill at Beatrice and placed a dam across the river by which to obtain power for his enterprise, he either purchased or leased the old steam saw mill from the townsite company and changed it to a water-driven mill. He operated it in connection with his flouring mill until 1869, when William E. Hill, of Nebraska City, opened a lumber yard at the corner of Fourth and Court streets and placed it in charge of William Survoss. This soon put an end to the old saw mill of pioneer days.

As already noted, the first building erected in Beatrice was the company house, which afterward became widely and favorably known as "Pap's Cabin." When the association adjourned in Omaha on May 21st, to meet in Beatrice, July 27, 1857, a number of the members of the association made their way to the townsite in June, and immediately began the erection of this building. It was located on what was afterward designated on the original town plat as block forty-six, a block which is now entirely owned and occupied by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company as a site for its passenger depot. In its original state the block comprised a tract of land which terminated abruptly on the north in a steep bank that ran down six or eight feet to Ella street, which was then a flat swale leading to the river. The south third of the block also lay in a wide depression, which extended on the south nearly across Court street. This depression also led to the river, narrowing to a deep channel just before it entered that stream, where the east abutment of the present Court street bridge is located. On the south bank of this channel stood the old saw mill, a trifle north of where Black Brothers' magnificent merchant mill now stands. On the west side of the block the ground fell away rapidly toward the river, but on the east it formed part of a beautiful plateau, reaching to Third street.

After Mr. Towle moved his family to Beatrice, in the autumn of 1857, this building, which had been partly completed, was donated to him as a residence and was occupied by this genial and influential citizen as a family residence, postoffice, court room, village inn, election booth, and as the general meeting place for the entire community, until 1867, when it was sold to Job Buchanan, by whom it was

The second building erected in the hamlet of Beatrice was Isma Mumford's residence and hotel building. This was located on block forty-seven, and was a story and a half, hewedlog structure, containing five or six rooms. Though suffering many modifications, this building still remains; it is just north of the Butler House and is owned and occupied by W. W. Scott as a storage building.

Beginning with 1858, a number of buildings were erected, some log, some slab and some of sawed timber. Orr Stevens had moved from the neighborhood of Austin's Mill, on Indian creek, at that time known as Stevens creek, and had settled on lot one, block fortysix. Dr. Reynolds and Oliver Townsend had a little log hut on the south side of Court street, between Third and Fourth, and near them were Patrick Burke's blacksmith shop and slab shanty where his family lived. There were also a few other rude structures of which no one now remembers the use or ownership, and, no reliable record exists by which their location can be ascertained. In September, 1859, when this writer first saw Beatrice, it was a mere huddle of log and slab shanties, with scarcely an effort toward a building of any pretensions. Aside from "Pap's Cabin" and the Mumford building, the most pretentious structure was the shed that housed the steam engine at the mill. Beatrice did not contain to exceed fifty actual residents all told. The prairie came down to Fifth street and the traveled portion of Court street from there to the river was a narrow wagon track, like a country road. Court was the only street that showed signs of being regularly traveled, and this was only from Fourth street on to the ford across the river just above where the bridge is now located.

In August, 1859, the members of the townsite company, after a mighty effort, raised a thousand dollars to enable Dr. Reynolds, as mayor of the town, an office required by the federal townsite act, to enter the half-section of land comprising the original town of Beatrice, and to pay the expenses attending the surveying and platting of the townsite. On September 12, 1859, a certified copy of the plat was filed in the government land office at Brownville and the entry and purchase of the land allowed. Thereafter patent was issued to Dr. Reynolds as mayor and trustee of the townsite' company, and deeds and other conveyances of the lots could then be made. As far as a mere paper townsite goes, Beatrice from that moment had existence. The growth of the town, however, was slow, though constant. The county itself, in 1860, contained but four hundred and twenty-one white inhabitants, according to the federal census of that year. Of this number probably twenty per cent, could properly be credited to Beatrice. During the decade which closed in 1870, though still a pioneer village, Beatrice increased its population to six hundred and twenty-four inhabitants. The state of Nebraska itself had come into the Union on March 1, 1867, with a population of 123,993, and the old territorial organization had passed away. The Union Pacific Railroad was completed from Council Bluffs, Iowa, via Omaha, to the Pacific coast. This first great continental railway line traverses the entire length of Nebraska from east to west. Its construction, together with the conferring of statehood upwn Nebraska, was a tremendous uplift to every interest of the state. Population flowed in, capital , sought investment, towns and villages sprang into existence, institutions of learning were founded, roads established, and all those elements of progress as well as of convenience and necessity, which a high degree of civilization and refinement implies, had received a mighty impetus throughout the entire state. The construction of the Burlington system, which was ultimately to gridiron a large portion of Nebraska, was under way across the state from Omaha to Denver, via Lincoln, to be followed early in the '70s by the building of the line of railway known to the early settlers as the Atchison & Nebraska. Not only Beatrice and Gage county, but also all Nebraska east of the one hundredth meridian, was pulsing with the energy and enthusiasm which a rapidly increasing population and a tremens dous accession of wealth are apt to excite in a body politic at any time and under all circumstances. Before the close of 1870, steps were inaugurated for the extension of the Burlington Railroad system to Beatrice. Hlere it is sufficient to say that this extension, together with the other activities of the 70's here mentioned, went far toward realizing the dreams, the hopes, the visions of Kinney, Mc- Conihe, Towle, Reynolds, Weston, Pike, Townsend, Gook, and the other founders of this beautiful city of Beatrice. During this period, as if by magic, there was evolved - from the old steam saw mill, "Pap's Cabin" and the clusschool building erected in the county, it was the subject of considerable comment by everybody. People came from far and near to look at it, and when school opened that fall, with Oliver Townsend as the teacher, many a man breathed a sigh of relief on reflecting that at last school privileges were in sight for his children.

By the close of 1870, the hardships of pioneer conditions were rapidly passing away. As a member of the first state legislature, in 1868, Hon. Nathan Blakely had procured the passage of an act appropriating one thousand acres of land in Gage county, the proceeds of ter of huts and slab and board shanties that earlier comprised this unknown western hamlet on the very rim of civilization - under the name of Beatrice a beautiful and enterprising little city, destined to attain a position of great power and influence in the state and nation.

During this decade living conditions greatly improved in Beatrice and Gage county. As early as 1862, a small frame school house was erected on the block dedicated by the founders of the city to school purposes, where the Central grade-school building now stands. This building was a one story, single-room structure, sixteen by twenty feet in dimensions. It was built of cottonwood lumber donated by the townsite company and supplied from its sawmill, and the labor required for its erection was largely donated. As this was the first which, when sold, were to be used in erecting a bridge across the Big Blue river at Beatrice. The lands thus donated were a part of a donation of five hundred thousand acres of land by the federal government to the state of Nebraska, out of the public domain in the state, to be used for internal improvement. Almost as soon as Mr. Blakely's bill became operative steps were taken to carry its purposes into effect.

On May 22, 1869, the county commissioners, Ticknor, Wickham, and Pettygrew, ordered an advertisement in the Clarion, a newspaper which was printed in Beatrice and which had just come into existence, calling for bids for the construction of a bridge at Beatrice across the Big Blue river, to consist of three stone piers twenty-four feet high, two spans, each one hundred and thirty feet in length and sixteen feet high, to cost not less than six thousand nor more than eight thousand dollars, and to be completed by August 1, 1870. The public lands selected by the county board to be applied to the cost of erecting this bridge, were: The northeast quarter of section 15, township 2, range 6; the southwest quarter of section 1 ; the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 2; the northeast quarter of section 3; and the northwest quarter of section 12, all in township 4, range 6; and the north half of section 2, township 4 north, range 7 east, Gage county, Nebraska. There were several bids for this first county bridge. Cyrus W. Wheeler for the wood- work on the bridge bid $5,000; Michael Hinneberry for the piers alone bid $3,000; J. Killian & Son for the complete work, $8,000 ; Curtis & Peavy, of Pawnee City, bid $7,600 on the complete structure and were awarded the contract. This bridge was located where the old Market street ford crossed the river, immediately below Black Brothers' mill. It was a high, narrow structure, with room for only one vehicle at a time, and was perched on abutments which were said to have been filled with straw and stable manure instead of cement. The first spring freshet that took the ice out of the river, carried this bridge down with the flood. But its brief existence taught the public the value of bridges in our county, and this work has gone on until now the annual bridge budget of seventy-five thousand dollars makes the Peavey & Curtis appropriation of eight thousand look extremely insignificant.

During 1870 the old part of what is now the Burwood Hotel was erected by Woodford G. McDowell and his brother, Joseph B. Mc- Dowell, and it was opened to public patronage by a grand ball, on January 1, 1871. Prior to this, however, a frame hotel building of some pretentions had been erected by George Hulburt, at the corner of Second and Market, streets, on lots 2 and 3, block 67 of the original town of Beatrice, known at the time as the Hulburt House. About 1874 title was acquired to this property by the Kansas & Nebraska Stage Company, who reconstructed the building into a large hostelry and christened it the Pacific Htiuse. For many years this old building discharged the office of a public inn. The spot where it stood is now occupied by the buildings of the Sonderegger Nurseries and Seed House.

In 1868 the government land office was moved from Brownville to Beatrice and for nearly twenty years this city wa.s the center of activity for the entire Beatrice land district. At that time a government land office was an important institution in the settlement and development of the country. People from long distances were compelled to transact their business largely with the government officials at the land office. The counties west of Gage at that time were rapidly filling with homesteaders and other classes of entrymen, farms were being opened in all the eleven counties comprising the land district, and particularly in Jefferson, Saline, Thayer,- Fillmore, Nuckolls, and Clay counties. Supplies of all kinds, including farm tools, lumber, meats, groceries, dry goods, and the like, were necessary to the settlers, and Beatrice merchants and business men profited greatly by this temporary trade. During the time that had elapsed since that July day in 1857 when Judge Kinney directed the secretary of the Beatrice Association,..; young, scholarly John McConihe, to call the' roll of the members of the association on the townsite of Beatrice, to the close of 1870, the people of Beatrice as well as of the county at large had accustomed themselves to the inconvenience under which they rested as respectfd markets, trade, mails, travel, transportation and the like. The transportation of merchandise from Nebraska City and Brownville to Beatrice had become so common as to be taken as a matter of course. When wheat became a staple crop in the county, the surplus was hauled to the Missouri river, where water transportation could be had, and the farmer loaded back with lumber, salt and other freight for Beatrice merchants, who were thus enabled not only to supply their trade with better goods and in increasing quantities, but also to carry practically everything demanded by their cti.stomers.

The carrying of the mail for Beatrice and practically all of Gage county was at first a neighborhood aifair. Those whose business took them to Nebraska City, Brownville or other Missouri river towns where mail was received for the settlers, brought back with them letters, papers and other mail for their neighborhood. But in 1860 a regular mail route was established between Nebraska City and Marysville, Kansas, via Beatrice. Joseph Saunders was the first mail carrier on this route. He first rode into Beatrice with the United States mail on the evening of October 3, 1860. At that time a national election of intense interest was rapidly approaching, and as Mr. Saunders rode up to the postoffice, "Pap's Cabin," he was greeted by practically the entire population of Beatrice, all eager to hear the news. The mail was carried on horseback and the carrier was frequently forced to swim the unbridged streams. But no one ever heard Joseph Saunders complain of the hardship of his task and none ever knew him to fail in the discharge of his duties. He was, in fact, a most faithful and a most efficient public servant.

In 1868 a regular stage route was established from both Nebraska City and Brownville, via Tecumseh, to Beatrice. On August 26, 1868, the Blue Valley Record announced that the Kansas & Nebraska Stage Line, of which Martin V. Nichols, Cyrus P. Wheeler and Cyrus H. Cotter were proprietors, was in perfect working order and made trips regularly to Nebraska City every other day; and later the public received the following announcement, in the way of an advertisement in the Record :

Kansas & Nebraska Stage Company, from Nebraska City, Nebraska, to Tecumseh and Beatrice, and intermediate points, carrying United States Mail, Passengers and Express Packages.

Returning, leaves Beatrice on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, connecting at Tecumseh with the stage line for Brownville and intermediate points, and at Nebraska City with the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad for all points east, north and south.

The Hulburt House, later and better known as the Pacific Hotel, was in those days the Beatrice stage station, and its genial proprietor, George W. Hulburt, was the stage company's agent at Beatrice.

But the aspiring entrepot of southeast Nebraska was not long satisfied with a tri-weekly mail from Brownville and Nebraska City. Strenuous efforts were made early in 1869 to secure through the stage company a daily service. In the Blue Valley Record for February 20, 1869, voice is given to this longing in a brief editorial, which reads as follows :

The country needs a daily mail between this point and the river towns. This want, already a pressing one, is growing more so every day, and the increased amount of business which will be transacted here in th-e spring, and the rapid growth of the country will render it a demand of such a nature as not to be much longer resisted. The question of having it is only a question of time, how soon we shall have it is one which our citizens can in the main determine for themselves. Petitions should be gotten up and circulated along the route, and we, who are most interested, should be the first to move in it. Brownville and Nebraska City have already shown a willingness to assist in having it estabHshed, for they well know the importance of having close connections with this country and will not be wanting in efforts to accomplish it. The matter should be attended to at once. The roads are becoming good , the days longer and the trip can be easily made in a day. Let us for once lay aside old fogyism and inhale enough of the spirit of the age in which we live to show some energy in so iniportant a matter.

This agitation was evidently successful, as the first number of Volume I of the Beatrice Clarion, issued on the 8th day of May, 1869, announced a daily mail over the Kansas & Nebraska Stage Line from Nebraska City and Brownville to Beatrice and intermediate points, connecting at Beatrice with the stage line to Lincoln and leaving Beatrice on its return trips every morning at seven o'clock, Sundays excepted, for Brownville and Nebraska City ; and connecting at each point with the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad for eastern, northern and southern destinations.

dows through which we may see into the very heart of things as they were in those far off pioneer days, half a century ago. Through them we may behold how a little western village on the bank of the Big Blue river, in a trifle more than ten years from the date of its founding on a trackless prairie waste, in 1857, had become a center for travel and the distribution of the United States mails. Nay more, they show how effectually the pioneers of our county had learned to make the most of such advantages as their surroundings afforded.

Let us take a last glance at the Beatrice of the '60s. The county officers in 1868 and 1869, most of whom were quartered in Beatrice or near it, were: Probate judge, H. M. Reynolds ; county treasurer, Albert Towle ; sheriff, Luther P. Chandler; county clerk, Oliver Townsend; surveyor, A. J. Pethoud; coronor, Daniel Freeman; county commissioners, William Ticknor, Horace M. Wickham and James M. Pettygrew; while Nathan Blakely represented the county in the state legislature. Albert Towle was postmaster, and the following advertisement, undoubtedly prepared by him, correctly exhibits the mailing facilities of the community on February 20, 1869: at 6 P. M. Departs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 6 A. M. Nebraska City and Brownville, to Beatrice Arrives at Beatrice Mondays, Wednesdays and

The government land office was located on the second floor of Joseph Saunders' brick store, on the south side of Court street, between Third and Fourth streets, in the building now occupied in part by John Pagel's grocery store. Henry M. Atkinson was the register and John L. Carson, the well known banket of Brownville, was the receiver. The office was, however, mainly under the direction of "Jack" McFarland, chief clerk of the office at that time.

A semi-annual report of Mr. Towle, as county treasurer, of the affairs of his office from April 7 to October 7, 1869, showed total receipts amounting to $9,722.00, with a balance in the treasury of $3,323.18.

The legal profession was represented in Gage county by Jefferson B. Weston, Silas B- Harrington, Nathan K. Griggs, and Hiram P. Webb. Drs. H. H. Reynolds, Levi Anthony, and C. F. Sprague were engaged in the practice of medicine. Blakely, Reynolds & Townsend; LaSelle, Buchanan & Son; and Joseph Saunders were the representatives of the general mercantile business. The druggists were George W. Hinkle and George W. Brock ; the blacksmiths, Jacob Shaw and A. L. Snow ; A. W. Proctor and D. Stewart carried on wagon-making shops, while J. W. Wehn, Jr., had a paint shop at Court and Second streets. Fordyce Roper owned the mill, which was advertised as the finest site on the Big Blue river, and in connection with it, he had a saw mill, a lath and shingle machine, and carried a large supply of all kinds of lumber, Mrs. M. F. Buchanan was the dressmaker and milliner of the town. Heard & Guffy supplied all kinds of cut stone for building purposes, - from their Rockford quarry. Samuel Myers and Volney Rhodes were the harnessmakers. Warren E. Chesney was the proprietor of the Beatrice House, the old hotel erected by Isma Mumford in 1857. Charles F. Satler and Asher Van Buskirk made boots and shoes for the pioneers ; while Artemus Baker, a cabinetmaker, supplied the demand for work in his line. William Hagy was just beginning to do a thriving business as a manufacturer of brick for building purposes.