Hall County, Nebraska - Chapter 4: Other Pioneers - and First Settlements, 1920

Chapter 4: Other Pioneers - and First Settlements

The Tread of Pioneers - Early Travel and Transportation - "Have You An Eye?" - The Oregon Trail - Its Effect on Hall County - The Overland Trail - The Fort Kearny and Nebraska City Road - The Decline of These Trails - -The Stage Coaches - The Pony Express System - Land Highw^ay and River Navigation - Then AND Now - The Mormons - The Gold Hunters ^ Arrival of Permanent Settlers - The Cow-boy Regime - The Mitchell-Ketchum and Olive Tragedy - Life on the Plains Passes - The Early History of the Wood River Valley - Early Settlement - The First PosTOFFicE - Old Wood River Station - Present Wood River Starts - Wood River Valley Settled - The "Jim Boyd" Ranch

It should be not only the deHght, but the duty of every age and every generation, to pay grateful tribute to a noble and valiant ancestry. The annals of mankind have but meagre interest when stripped of the personal element and confined to a bare narrative of events. Each generation looks upon the benefits and conveniences which it enjoys as absolute necessities, and absolutely fails to comprehend how any people could possibly live without them. We forget that our fathers and our grandfathers lived without automobiles, telephones, electric lig'hts, hot water carried through pipes to the point of use, and heating systems to distribute the heat where we wish to use it. It was the first generation of those who settled each community that made it possible for us to have these conveniences where we now live. When vivified by the record of the lives of those whose heroic daring lifted them above the ordinary, common plane of living, we find history to become a most pleasing and instructive subject.

from the wilderness. That glorious little band was soon followed by other bands. In fact, they had been preceded by bands of pioneers who passed through this territory. While those travellers did not stop in Hall County, yet the efiforts they made to go farther west played a part in preparing this Platte Valley for the settlers who were to come that warrants us in treating of their presence here.

Even after we have studied the interesting story of the first colony, we can again afiford to turn from the thoughts of our comfortable and even luxurious homes, cultivated fields, our splendid groves, orchards, meadows ; our comfortable churches and schools, our thriving towns, to consider further the other communities of pioneers who settled other parts of Hall County.

In our present state of prosperity and happiness, we must not be prone to forget the aspect that nature wore in those primitive solitudes to the wondering view of these first inhabitants of our county, and even more so, we must not yield to any fleeting temptation to hold as of trifling consequences the constant risk of life itself, of the physical suffering, privation, and actual danger which they endured in the exercise of the heroism and courage that kept them struggling on until lines of

Early Travel And Transportation

It was not the search for a home, in this particular valley, that led those travellers to venture beyond the safety zone marked on the west by the Missouri River, or perhaps, even more accurately, the Mississippi River at that time. It was not until the little colony of 1857 arrived that those arriving on these shores of the Platte came with the intention of making this locality their home. But for a decade or more before then scattering bands had roved through the Platte Valley with another aim; pushed on by the impetus of travel and transportation; with trade or gold at the further end of the rainbow they were pursuing.

There is as yet but scant knowledge of Indian or prehistoric routes of travel through Nebraska. In the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Pike's expedition, Fremont's expedition we find the accounts of the state of travel and condition of the territory then. Chroniclers of the frontier in the forties state there were then no well defined trails between the locations of the different tribes of Indians, but each tribe had its trails between the locations of the several bands of its own tribe. There were no doubt prehistorical, natural routes of travel, perhaps miles in width, even if they did not show trails, roads or paths as we understand the use of these words today.

Have You An Eye

Have you an eye for the trails, the trails. The old mark and the neivf Wltaf scurried here, what loitered there, In the dust and in the dew?

O, was it a schooner last went by. And where will it cross the stream? Where zuill it halt in the early dusk, And where zuill the camp-fire gleam?

Whatever the story of the Indian trails may be, as they are related in the first volume, that depicting the history of the state of Nebraska, we know that a notable route sprang up across the country, that became the main artery of commerce to the northwest, preceding the arrival of the transcontinental railroad. This great continental highway was known to the traders, ranchmen, and overland stage drivers as the "Military Road," but more commonly and properly known as

The Oregon Trail

There are five periods in the story of the Oregon Trail. The first extends from the return of the Astorians in 1813 to the Wyeth wagons in 1832. The second period was that of the early Oregon migration and extends from 1832 to the discovery of gold in California in 1849. The third period was that of the rush for gold and extends from 1849 to 1860. During this period the Oregon Trail became the greatest traveled highway in the world, wider and more beaten than a city street, and hundreds of thousands passed over it. The fourth period is that of the decline of the Oregon Trail and extends from 1860 to 1869. The fifth period, from 1869 to the present day, is witnessing its gradual effacement.

Our Indian companions, who had never seen but the narrow hunting paths by which they transport themselves and their lodges, were filled with admiration on seeing this noble highway, which is as smooth as a bam floor swept by the winds, and not a blade of grass can shoot up on it on account of the continual passing. They fancied that all had gone over that road and that immense void must exist in the land of the rising sun. They styled the route the "Great Medicine Road of the Whites."

Each train consisted of twenty-six wagons, each wagon drawn by six yoke of oxen. The trains made a line fifty miles long. Each wagon is marked with a name as in the case of ships, and these names served to furnish amusement to the passers-by. Such names as The Constitution, The President, The Great Republic, The King of Bavaria, Louis Napoleon, Dan O'Connell, Old Kentucky, were daubed in great letters on each side of the carriage. On the plains the wagoner assumes the style of Captain, being placed in command of his wagon and twelve oxen. The master wagoner is admiral of this little land fleet of 26 captains and 312 oxen. At a distance the white awnings of the wagons have the efifect of a fleet of vessels with all canvas «pread.^

The fact that the Oregon Trail did not directly pass through Hall County did not deter its presence being a considerable factor in the county's early history'.

The known history of this trail begins with the establishment of the fortified trading post known as Astoria, on the Columbia River, fifteen miles above its mouth, in 1811, by the agents of John Jacob Astor, head of the American Fur Company. It failed, and in 1813 was abandoned, but this dim trail was followed for another decade by hunters, trappers, and traders, and later by explorers, surveyors. Mormons, and emigrants. In 1832, Captain Bonneville passed over this route from Independence to California, and made what is claimed as the first wagon trail over the great trail. In 1842, John C. Fremont led a surveying expedition from Independence, by way of the Grand Island in the Platte, to the South Pass and the Rocky Mountains. This expedition was accompanied by the famous Kit Carson, as guide. By 1843, it became a well defined route for trade and traffic between St. Louis, the base point, and the Columbia River. In 1847, the Mormon emigration to Utah had set in, but in 1849 came the high tide of traffic, when the rush to the California gold fields set in.

A fairly accurate itenerary of the trail has been made from notes of Fremont and other travellers as follows : From the point at Independence, Missouri, where the trail starts northwest, for a distance of 41 miles it is identical with the Santa Fe trail ; to the Kansas River, 81 miles; to the Big Blue River, 242 miles ; to the Little Blue, 296 miles ; Platte River, 316 miles; lower ford of South Platte River, 433 miles; upper ford of South Platte, 493 miles; Chimney Rock, 571 miles; Scotts Bluff, 616 miles. Adding the distance from the northwest boundary of Nebraska to Fort Vancouver, the terminus, yields a total of 2,020 miles. The trail crossed the present Nebraska southern boundary line at or very near the point of the intersection of the 97th meridian, about four miles west of the southeast comer of Jefferson County. It left the Little Blue at a bend beyond this point, but reached it again just beyond Hebron. It left the stream finally at a point near Leroy, and reached the Platte River about twenty miles below the western or upper end of Grand Island. Proceeding thence along the south bank of the Platte River, it crossed the south fork about sixty miles from the junction and touched the north fork at Ash Hollow, twenty miles beyond the south fork crossing.

Howard Stansbury, a captain of United States topographical engineers, in April, 1849, lead an expedition to the Great Salt Lake for the purpose of exploring and surveying that valley. With the clearness and precision of a trained engineer, his descriptions shed further light upon the great trail. He seems to have left the Little Blue at the usual point, near the present Leroy, in Adams County, thence cut across to Thirty-two Mile Creek, seven and a half miles; thence to the Platte River, twelve miles, and to Fort Kearny, seventeen miles. He says he struck the Platte in a broad valley and that "this road has since (June 18, 1849) been abandoned for one on the left, more direct to Fort Kearny."

Even if the Oregon Trail through Nebraska has been entirely obliterated and turned into a patch of sunflowers, weeds at points and glor ious farms at others, it is an historical factor to Nebraska that cannot be ignored.

"As a highway of travel the Oregon Trail is the most remarkable known to history. Considering the fact that it originated with the spontaneous use of travelers ; that no transit ever located a foot of it ; that no level established its grades ; that no engineer sought out the fords or built any bridges or surveyed the mountain passes ; that there was no grading to speak of nor any attempt at metalling the road-bed; - and the general good quality of this two thousand miles of highway will seem most extraordinary. Father De Smet, who was born in Belgium, the home of good roads, pronounced the Oregon Trail one of the finest highways in the world. At the proper season of the year this was undoubtedly true. Before the prairies became too dry, the natural turf formed the best roadway for horses to travel on that has probably ever been known. It was amply hard to sustain traffic, yet soft enough to be easier to the feet than even the most perfect asphalt pavement. Over such roads, winding ribbon-like through the verdant prairies, amid the profusion of spring flowers, with grass so plentiful that the animals reveled in its abundance, and game everywhere greeted the hunter's rifle, and finally, with pure water in the streams, the traveler sped his way with a feeling of joy and exhilaration. But not so when the prairies became dry and parched, the road filled with stifling dust, the stream-beds mere dry ravines, or carrying only alkaline water which could not be used, the game all gone to more hospitable sections, and the summer sun pouring down its heat with torrid intensity. It was then that the Trail became a highway of desolation, strewn with abandoned property, the skeletons of horses, mules and oxen, and, alas, too often, ( human misery, tragedy, and death." . I

The settlement and development of the west i produced many changes in the old trail as known to Fremont the "Pathfinder" and other early western travellers and explorers. Its deep furrowed tracks, often parallelled for a width of a hundred feet, gradually faded away, until today only small patches may here and there be found along its route to trace its course. As railroads spread forth from St. Joseph to Atchison, Kansas, and from Council Bluffs across Nebraska, the trail declined in use, but until after the construction of the Union Pacific railroad, in 1866-69, the Oregon Trail, with its cutoffs and numerous branches leading into and away from it, was the sole connecting line of travel across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and though it may have missed the present boundaries of Hall County by a mile or two, and its junction with the Platte River may have been a few miles west of Hall County's western line, it afforded to Hall County another means of getting provisions in and produce out and relieved the settlers of some dread and fear of being too far removed from food, and even then Hall County was on the main line of the transportation system of the plains.

The Overland Trail

The second important trail across Nebraska; now commonly known as "The Overland Trail" but in early days called the California or Mormon trail, was one that started from the banks of the Missiuri River near Bellevue and Florence, followed up the north side of the Platte and North Platte to Fort Laramie, where it joined the older Oregon Trail. This was the route across Nebraska of the returning Astorians in 1813 and of some of the early fur traders. The Mormons made tliis a wagon road on their emigration of 1847, when their great company which wintered at Florence and Bellevue took this way to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. It was there- fore often called the Mormon Trail. As some of the immigrants to Oregon and California went over this route it sometimes was called the Oregon Trail or California Trail. There was less travel on this trail than on the one south of the Platte, because there was more sand here. This north side trail ran through the present counties of Douglas, Sarpy, Dodge, Colfax, Platte, ]\Ierrick, Hall, Buffalo, Dawson, Lincoln, Garden, Morill, and Scotts Bluff.

The Fort Kearny And Nebraska City Road

The third celebrated trail across Nebraska was from the Missouri River to Denver and was called the Denver Trail. It had many branches between the Missouri River and Fort Kearny. Its first course led from Nebraska City, across the present counties of Otoe, Lancaster, Saunders, Butler, Polk, Hamilton, Hall (on south side of Platte) to Buffalo, where but a short distance west of the Hall County line it joined the famous Oregon Trail from the southeast. A cut-off road, more direct than the first course, was laid out and surveyed by Chas. W. Pierce, Justus L. Cozad, and Nathan P. Cook, surveyors, in July and August, 1859, and was in use by 1860. This new Fort Kearny and Nebraska City road led out from Nebraska City, west, through the present counties of Otoe, Lancaster, Seward, York, Hall, and Buffalo, and joined the first course of this third trail in southeastern Hall County and the Oregon Trail proper near the corners of Hall, Buffalo, and Kearney counties.

This last mentioned trail became very popular with thousands of immigrants and freighters from 1862 to 1869. Over this Denver Trail went the Pike's Peak immigrants and the supplies and machinery for opening the mines in Colorado.

The Decline Of These Trails

These overland trails fell out of use very fast after the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869. Short stretches leading from one settlement or town to another were used as roads but no longer as part of great

Thus it will be seen that Hall County was either on the route of all of these great overland highways, or within a few miles and within the radius of their use.

The Stage Coaches

Before we return to a consideration of the early travelers through this part of Nebraska, it is well to linger sufficiently to take up the Overland stages, which formed the means of public transportation prior to the advent of the railroad. As a highway for the Overland stage from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast the great trail performed a most interesting and a most important service to the American people. For this work the most commonly used vehicle was the light Concord coaches, so-called because they were built at Concord, New Hampshire. They accommodated, usually, nine passengers inside and often one or two sat on the outside with the driver. Sometimes an extra seat was built on the outside behind the driver, so not infrequently as many as fifteen passengers rode in and on such a coach.

With the "Overland Stage" developed the "Overland Mail." The first contract for carrying this mail was let in 1850 to Samuel H. Woodton, of Independence, Missouri. This service was monthly on a route between terminals twelve hundred miles apart, St. Louis and Salt Lake City, and later the route was extended to Sacramento, California. This service led through Nebraska substantially on the Oregon Trail. In 1859, this mail contract was transferred to Russell, Majors & Waddell, who afterwards became the most extensive freighters in Nebraska from the Missouri River. It will be remembered that the stage route followed the overland trail on the south side of the Platte River, while the Union Pacific railroad, which superseded it, was built on the north side of the river through central Nebraska.

line was $75 from Atchison to Denver, $150 to Salt Lake, and $225 to Placerville. When the currency of the country became inflated the fare increased accordingly. The carrying of passengers and express packages formed important items of the receipts of this business. As remarked before, at first the trips were made monthly. This was shortly reduced to semi-monthly, and finally - when the overland stage business fell into the hands of Ben Holliday, who in many respects was one of the most remarkable men of his day, perhaps he could be called the Hill or Harriman of the stage-coach - a stage service was evolved in which the stages ran daily on fast and schedule time from Atchison, Kansas, to Placerville, California, in the remarkably short period of seventeen days, carrying mail and passengers each day.

The Pony Express System

An important incident to the old highway transportation was the pony express, a movement which originated in 1860 with William H. Russell, of Leavenworth, Kansas. This system was the forerunner of the present great fast mail system of the United States. It was a system of mounted couriers, wholly devoted to the private transmission of lettermail, newspapers, telegraph messages, important government dispatches, bank drafts, and the hke. In 1854, Senator W. M. Gwin, of California, rode to Washington on horseback, accompanied part of the way by B. F. Ficklin, superintendent of the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell, and the idea of the Pony Express grew out of this trip. After Gwin made a legislative attempt to establish such a system and failed, Russell worked it out on a practical basis. The charges were originally five dollars for each letter of one-half ounce the Platte Valley. In 1857, one hundred and three miles of road had been laid out from Omaha, westward, including thirty-nine bridges. About that time Congress appropriated $50,000 for the construction of a road to New Fort Kearny.

In 1859, the territorial legislature memorialized Congress to grant to John A. Latta, of Plattsmouth, 20,000 acres of land in the valley of the Platte River on condition that before October 1, 1861, he "shall place on said river a good and substantial steamboat and run the same between the mouth of said Platte River."

or less ; but afterwards this was reduced to two dollars and a half, this being in addition to the regular United States postage. Any great subsidy the promotors of this scheme figured on failed to realize, and such million dollar subsidy was reserved for slower mail contracts with the Overland Company, and by one maneuver after another the service lasted until it was discontinued when the telegraph line was completed late in 1861.

Land Highway And River Navigation

Before the completion of the Union Pacific, the council of the territorial legislatures not only chartered the Platte Valley & Pacific Railway Company but generally recognized that nine-tenths of the travel through Nebraska to the Pacific coast would pass along and Fort Kearny and do all necessary dredging, "knowing that there is a sufficient volume of water in said river which is a thousand miles in length."

Then And Now

A person who now travels by rail or motors over country roads from southeastern Nebraska to the site of old Fort Kearny, over the general region traversed by the Oregon Trail or its branches, encounters evidence of a wonderful change toward wealth and refinement on every hand. This wonderful picture of contrast appHes with as equal force to Hall County as to any other Nebraska county.

The same succession of thriving cities and villages, connected by rail, telegraph, and telephone, and possessing happy, intelligent, and thriving populations, greets him on every hand. Then the road led across the naked prairie from the Missouri River - wide, hard, and bare. It followed no definite course, unless a general northwesterly direction could be so designated. It crossed bridgeless streams, traversed localities of great natural beauty and vast prairie meadows where miUions of buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope were found. A few stage stations and ranches marked the course and sat out distinctly on the boundless and almost uninhabited prairie. The great thoroughfare was then traveled by as heterogeneous a mass of people as could be found anywhere in the world - merchants, capitalists, freighters, prospectors, hunters, trappers, traders, soldiers, Indians, emigrants, Mormons, gamblers, adventurers, pleasure-seekers, tourists, and even representatives of foreign nations. Here and there an enterprising rancher supplied the freighters, soldiers, stagedrivers, emigrants, and travelers with food and drink - - especially drink.

Now the road leads along well-defined routes of travel, with the road well graded, and.begining especially with 1918, many parts of it hard-surfaced, with many miles each year to be so hard-surfaced under the ambitious, comprehensive road-building program provided for by the current legislature. Not only does the road of these times follow a definite course, but the telegraph and telephone poles along the. side bear marked legends to guide the tourist or driver. Streams are bridged, sometimes yet with rickety wooden bridges where formerly no bridge stood, but even more often now with permanently constructed steel, iron, or cement bridges. Annually the last mentioned happy stage is drawing nearer all along the route. Where there was only endless prairie, there now open to the vista, magnificent farm-homes, practically palaces many of them, with commodious barns well-comparing with the houses ; innumerable sheds and smaller buildings ; with many farms possessing not only an automobile or two, but very frequently a tractor and a motor-truck and even power engines. Where formerly travel was by foot, by horse-back, wagon, or coach now the fast high-powered automobiles shoot past, and the old stage-wagon for taking provisions to the railroad which gave away to modern light wagons is the almost forgotten fore-runner of the swift truck. What the old national highway was to the great plains, what the welcome transcontinental Union Pacific became, even now the granddaughter of the old trail, the permanently constructed highway, bids fair to become - and very soon at that.

The Mormons

In the first chapter we have treated of the travels of the explorers through the Platte Valley ; in the preceding chapter we have narrated the Indian occupation and have treated generally the general travel of all classes through this region on the Overland Trail.

After the explorers and Indians, the first organized bands of people to traverse Hall County, the Mormons rolled in, recently expelled from Nauvoo. Commencing back in the '30's at Kirkland, Ohio, this people seemed to be the special subject of persecution wherever they stopped. Going down to Jackson County, Missouri, their presence had led to turmoil, and from there they went back to Illinois and tried it again. But there they could not even hold their new temple, and they were compelled once more to leave. They journeyed to Iowa, and for a time had practically complete possession of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, of which Council Bluffs beoime the county seat, finally crossing the Missouri River during the years 1845 and '46, locating about six miles north of Omaha, at what is now known as Florence, but which they then termed "Winter Quarters." Here about 15,000 people were congregated. But when they arrived on this side of the Missouri, the turmoil and devastation caused by the presence of 15,000 non-producers naturally excited the anger of the Indians, to whom the land then belonged. They at once concluded the Mormons were cutting too much timber, and made this complaint effective enough to result in the invader moving on. So far as Hall County was concerned, the exodus of these first Mormons was nothing more than a transitory passage through its southern part, or even farther south along the other road. Salt Lake had been picked out as their destination and it was there they kept headed for.

But in the spring of 1858, very shortly after the first permanent settlers reached the county, a band of Mormons came in, who stopped here, for a time at least. They opened up a number of farms on Wood River, and formed a settlement approximately where the present town of Shelton is located. Although this last-named location is perhaps a half-mile west of the Hall County line, the farms that belonged to this settlement were scattered for several miles toward Wood River, and, spread out into western Hall County.

The Mormons, during their presence here, established the first newspaper in this vicinity. The Huntsman's Echo. In the spring of 1863 the Mormons moved to Salt Lake.

Their Saints, or bigamists, voluptuaries, or adulterers, or whatever one might call them, according to personal views, were at least no drones. Wherever they settled in the wilderness, they caused a garden spot to spring forth. Wherever these people dwelt,^ there everything was under the control of the church. Idleness and dissipation were not tolerated. They needed no jail. Although polygamy was permitted, and, in fact, no doubt encouraged, it is not considered probable by students of the question that more than ten per cent of all the men had plural wives, and the strangest feature was that the women were the strongest defenders of the system. Work was the order of the day until the crops were raised, harvested, and gathered, the tithing was paid and the poor provided for, then the winter was devoted to dancing and orderly amusements, encouraged by the clergy and conducted with utmost decorum, their balls usually being opened and closed with prayer.

But the presence of these families for the temporary period of residence had no permanent effect on Hall County or the state of Nebraska. There are living within the state those who entertain the Mormon faith, without the practice of polygamy, of course, and pursuing the orderly course of their belief, hardly different from other religious faiths.

The Gold Hunters

Next after the Mormons came the flood of emigrants to California, in search of that most seductive, that most powerful metal known to man, gold. The fever of 1849 swept over the nation, and literally thousands upon thousands wended their anxious way through the valley of the Platte. This moving host also left no permanent impress upon Hall County or the Platte Valley. But not so with the effect of the land upon some of them. The land so charmed the eye of many and created so abiding an impression on the mind of many beholders, that after going forth to the west and becoming wearied with the unequal contest of the camp, or downed by the overwhelming vicissitudes of prospecting, they abandoned the pick and spade for the surer implements of husbandry. Remembering the beautiful valleys, they straggled back and settled along the Overland Trail or new transcontinental highways to amass a competence for their declining years, on the slower but surer plan.

Arrival Of Permanent Settlers

The detailed stories of the arrival of the first permanent settlers of the various localities is told in this and other chapters of this work. The first brave colony to arrive in 1857 near Grand Island has been treated heretofore, and the story told in their own words. The passage of the Mormons, their temporary settlement at the west border of the county, has been recounted. The pioneer settlements in the southwestern quarter of the county will be narrated in the story of the Wood River Valley. Throughout the county, during the sixties, here and there small groups of pioneers picked out their farms and made settlements which developed into communities and into townships. These will be reached as the stories of the various townships are covered in the following chapters. Here and there a little town started, but soon expired. The earliest instance of such was a settlement about seven miles west of the first town, called Mendotte. Four houses were erected there by David Crocker, William Roberts, M. Potts, and Billy Painter. The town was abandoned soon after, and the site was ocupied by David Crocker, who later sold his claim and moved to Santa Barbara, California.

The Cowboy Regime

The early pages of Hall County histor)' are written to some extent in blood, but not so much as many of its neighboring counties. Along with the tales of massacres by prowling and vengeful Indians there were numerous encounters with the lawless element incident to life beyond the reach of the arm of the law and justice - the confidence man and gambler. But the establishment of the county government, with the forces of law, even if rudimentary in character and machinery, so early after the settlement of the community, placed an early and somewhat efifective check upon wholesale lewlessness, when compared with other communities. Occasional "old time" cowboys with a determination to "shoot up" the town and lawbreakers of all kinds newly escaped from the east would naturally drift in and raise a variety of disturbances. The desperado and the gambler, the floater who would follow the railroad construction, all appeared, but they did not remain long. The character of the class of sturdy pioneers who settled the Platte Valley through Hall County was of too sterling and practical a make-up to long countenance deliberate outlawry with all that it begets. So all scum of civilization passed on.

For the cowboy proper, with all of his distinctive individuality and pronounced traits. Hall County never became very extensively his abode. In its swift evolution of the virgin prairie of the Platte and Wood River valleys to homestead, such harrowing incidents of long border feuds and bitter warfare between ranchers and homesteader. Hall County escaped with the minimum amount. The long bitter contention, continuous parleying, and too frequent bloodshed between cowboy occupant and pioneer homesteader as fell to the lot of Custer and other counties west of us. Hall County was fortunate enough to evade.

In the late fifties and early sixties, when the early pioneers of Hall County were arriving, the cattle industry in the Great Plains had taken on vast proportions. Great herds of cattle from Texas and the "Pan Handle" were in full possession of "No Man's Land" of western Nebraska and western Kansas.

Great tracts to the west and northwest of Hall County became literally swarmed with thousands of "rangers." The cattle kings seized upon good herding grounds and built home ranches on every available watercourse, to the exclusion of actual settlers desiring to make a small home-place. Once in their possession, some of the cattle kings held to the country in defiance of all herd laws and homestead laws. The struggle still continues in a much modified and bloodless form in territory not far away from Hall County, but after fifty or sixty years have passed it is within the commercial trade territory of Hall County's thriving metropolitan city. Grand Island.

But like the North Loup country to the north of us. Hall County had the good fortune to become establiSied as a realm of small farms and homes before the rancher and cattle king reached her prairie in full force. The main brunt of the bloody struggles of that era centered around Sidney, Ogallala, Plum Creek (now Lexington) and up into Custer County. Many of these characters visited Grand Island frequently, and occasionally bloody episodes occurred here. But in the main. Hall County, compared to her neighboring counties to the west, can write her history of the cowboy regime in about as many pages as Custer County must have chapters to cover the same phase of her existence and development. But there are a few incidents of those days, wliile they may have occurred outside of Hall County's boundaries, had their effect on the life of the day and maintain their interest in this phase of the history of central Nebraska.

The years 1877 and 1878 witnessed a great influx of settlers to Custer County. The fine bottom lands along the water courses became settled and it really began to look as though the great herds of cattle would soon be entirely excluded from their old watering places. This, to them seeming a gross injustice, angered the cattlemen, especially as it was the general opinion that only the bottom lands were fit for agriculture; these occupied by farmers would render practically valueless for grazing the thousands of acres of unwatered hill countr)^ Custer County, they argued, was a natural grazing country, and should be maintained as such. Another and the immediate cause of many deeds of violence was the prevalence of "cattle rustling."

It will be borne in mind that the cattlemen allowed their stock to roam at will over the range. This meant for months at a time perhaps they would be beyond their owners' reach, who saw them usually but once a year at the annual "round up." The straying an easy prey to unscrupulous characters, who would coolly shoot them down, slaughter them, and haul them by wagon load to the nearest railroad station for shipment. This traffic took on vast proportions before the catlemen could notice their losses. It must be remembered that this was before the Burlington 1-ailroad was built to the northwest out of Grand Island. In those days everyone, cattleman, homesteader, outlaw, or rustler, to communicate with the outside world and secure supplies or ship out freight, must needs come to Grand Island, or go over to the Union Pacific at Kearney or Plum Creek.

would have been considered almost too good for a culprit caught in the act of rustling. The real thieves were and remained unknown. The cowboys, already prejudiced against the settlers, naturally enough charged these crimes to the latter. That the settlers did occasionally shoot and slaughter a beef or two there can be little doubt - nor was it more than fair recompense for their ruined crops - but that they were guilty of such wholesale slaughter and exportation no one believes for a moment. These crimes must be laid at the door of cattle thieves from the state at large.

Thb Mitchell-Ketchum And Olive Tragedy

Matters went from bad to worse till the cattlemen in their desperation resolved to drive the settlers to a man from the country. This initiated a state of lawlessness very seldom equalled in border feuds. Cold blooded murder, in its most cruel form, was repeatedly committed, and no man's life or property was deemed safe. The climax of all this misery was the murder and burning of Luther Mitchell and Ami Ketchum - one of the most dastardly crimes ever chronicled in the history of any nation. So gruesome are the details of this heartrending tragedy that we almost rebel against repeating them in this narrative. But it is deemed advisable to do so in order to better impress our readers with the true significance of Hall County's escape from the worst features of the cowboy regime.

"One of the most wealthy of the cattleowners of Nebraska was I. P. Olive, who owned many thousand head of stock that found pasturage in Custer County. He had, from time to time, lost a great many animals, some of them undoubtedly stolen by cattle thieves. For this reason he became the prime mover in the attempt to expel the settlers from Custer County. His headquarters were in this county, although he resided in Plum Creek, Dawson County. He had come to Nebraska from Texas on account of having been concerned in the killing of several men while there, and it is said that he had been guilty of other murders. Fearing both legal and personal vengeance, he fled to Nebraska. He was accompanied by his brother, Robert Olive, who had, to prevent all knowledge of his whereabouts, assumed the name of Stevens.^ "Luther M. Mitchell and Ami Ketchum were homesteaders, living on Clear Creek, where they had made a settlement some time previous. Mitchell was an old man, sixtythree years of age, a fanner, who had removed here from Merrick County. Ketchum had resided in the state for some years and had worked at his trade, that of a blacksmith, fession, seemed to implicate Ami Ketchum. "Stevens, or Bob Olive, was well known as a desperado, and it was also known that he and Ketchum were enemies. Yet Sheriff David Anderson, of Buffalo County, made him deputy for thq occasion, and gave him a warrant for the arrest of Ketchum. This warrant was sworn out by some members of the Olive gang, _ and it has been a question whether this warrant was gotten out in good faith, believing Ketchum to be a cattle thief, or merely as a pretext to get him into the custody of the Olives. It is now generally

"For sometime there had been trouble between the Olives and Ketchum. In the attempt to frighten or drive the settlers from the county, they found Ketchum too courageous to be frightened, and too quick and accurate in the use of firearms to be driven successfully. Between Stevens, or Bob Olive, and Ketchum, there had been a great deal of difficulty. Stevens, as he was then known, had on several occasions threatened to kill Ketchum and had also accused him of stealing cattle.

"Some days previous to the trouble that resulted in the death of Stevens, one Manley Capel had been arrested on the charge of stealing cattle in Custer County, and in his conthought that Ketchum was innocent of any crime, that he was merely a peaceable settler whom Stevens was anxious to kill on account of the old emnity, and because he could not be driven from the country by threats. It is also generally believed that had he fallen into Stevens's hands, he would have been killed on some pretext or other; that there are reasons to believe these opinions to be correct, the following sketch of the ensuing tragedy will show.

1 There are numerous accounts of this tragedy, but one of the shorter and most concise accounts is that appearing in The Trail of the Loup, by Haskell and Foght, and with permission the editors of this work have adopted that one.

to the home of Ketchum, arriving there on Wednesday morning, November 27, 1878. Mitchell and Ketchum were getting ready on that morning to go to a neighbor's to return a bull they had been keeping. Mrs. Mitchell was preparing to go with them to visit the family of this neighbor - one Mr. Dows - during the day. When they were nearly ready to start, a stranger rode up and asked Ketchum, who was a blacksmith, to shoe his horse. Ketchum told him that he could not on that day, and asked him to return the next morning, which he promised to do and rode off. It has since been supposed that he came there in the interests of the Olives, to see if the intended victims were there. Mitchell and Ketchum had put their rifles in the wagon, hoping to see some game on their journey. Ketchum also took his pistol, which he always carried, from the fact of Stevens having threatened his life.

"While the men were taking care of the animal, Mrs. Mitchell took her place on the seat to hold the team. While Mitchell and Ketchum were tying the bull to the axle of the wagon and gathering in the long lariat rope by which it was tied, Mrs. Mitchell observed a party of men riding toward them, but it attracted no particular attention, as they were frequently visited by hunters and land seekers. As these men came up, they dashed along four abreast, and when they came near, began shooting. Stevens, or Bob Olive, was the first to fire, and as he did so, he called to Ketchum to throw up his hands. For reply, Ketchum drew his pistol, and, at his first shot, Stevens fell forward in his saddle, mortally wounded. Meanwhile the other men kept up the shooting, and Ketchum was wounded in the arm. The children came running out of the house, when one of the men began firing at them but without effect. Mitchell reached into the wagon, secured his rifle and began firing, but Stevens now turned and rode off, and he was soon followed by the remaining cowboys. There were from twenty-five to thirty shots fired, but only with the effect stated. As soon as the cowboys had ridden away, Mitchell and Ketchum packed up a few of their household goods and started to go to Merrick County, where Mitchell had formerly lived. They did this as they feared violence from the now enraged cowboys. Arriving in Merrick County, they went directly to the residence of Dr. Barnes to attend to Ketchum's wounds. The next morning, acting upon the advice of their friends, the men, Mitchell and Ketchum, having secured a place of safety for Mrs. Mitchell and the children, started for Custer County, to give themselves up and stand a trial for the killing of Stevens. On their way, when they reached Loup City, they visited Judge Wall for legal advice. Judge Wall advised them to go no farther, as the cowboys were waiting for them, prepared to lynch them. They remained there two or three days, and then went to the house of John R. Baker, on Oak Creek, in Howard County, where they were arrested by Sheriff William Letcher, of Merrick County, and Sherriff F. W. Crew, of Howard County, giving themselves readily into custody.

"I. P. Olive had offered a reward of $700 for the arrest of Mitchell and Ketchum, and several sheriffs, among whom were Crew of Howard, Gillan of Keith, Anderson of Buffalo, and Letcher of Merrick, were anxious to capture them that they might secure the reward. But after they were captured and in the hands of Crew and Letcher, these ofiicers were unwilling to incur the responsibility of taking them to Custer County and turning them over to the blood-thirsty cowboys; therefore, they were finally taken to the Buffalo County jail in Kearney, and placed in charge of Capt. David Anderson, the sheriff of that county, for safe keeping. The prisoners were first held without any legal authority, as I. P. Olive had given the warrant for their arrest, issued in Custer County, into the hands of Harney Gillan, sheriff of Keith County, to serve. The prisoners had engaged T. Darnall, of St. Paul, Nebraska, and E. C. Calkins, of Kearney, as their attorneys. The attorneys endeavored to keep the prisoners in the jail in Kearney, fearing that violence might be done them. The feeUng in Kearney at that time was against Mitchell and Ketchum, who were represented as having killed Stevens while he fulfilling his duty as an officer of the law. A question arose among the sheriffs as to the division of the money offered as a reward for Alitchell and Ketchum, which Olive declined to pay until they were delivered in Custer County. A proposition was finally made to Sheriff Anderson to take them to that place, and $50 was offered him for his services. This lie declined to do, however, unless he was paid -enough to enable him to employ a sufficient number of men to guard the prisoners. It was finally arranged that Gillan, since he held a warrant for their arrest, should take the prisoners to Custer County, and he promised to notify their attorneys. Calkins and Darnall, so that they could accompany them. As Gillan was a sheriff, and his desperate character was not then known, even, these attorneys did not anticipate any serious difficulty. They, however, kept close watch less the prisoners be stolen away.

"On the afternoon of the 10th day of December, Darnall, fearing that the prisoners Avere about to be taken away, was keeping watch until after the emigrant train came in. This train was late, but Darnall remained at the depot until he thought it was about time for it to leave, when he started away. In the meantime, Gillan had taken the prisoners from the jail, and at just the last moment hustled them on the cars. Darnall, thus fearing trouble, telegraphed to Gillan, at Elm Creek, first station west of Kearney, asking him if he would hold the prisoners at Plum Creek until the arrival of the next train from the east. Gillan replied that he would do so. To still further secure their safety he also telegraphed to Capt. C. W. McNamar, an attorney at Plum Creek, asking him to keep close watch, to see what was done with the prisoners on their arrival at that town. Plum Creek was the home of I. P. Olive, and here he was surrounded by many friends and employees. They, with wagons, met the party as they got off the train, and putting the prisoners into a wagon, started at once for Custer County. This was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Captain McNamar being unable to prevail on them to remain, and believing that it was the intention to murder the prisoners, followed them for some distance, when the party separated, some going in one direction and some in another. He followed after the prisoners, however, until after dark, when he lost their trail. The Olive party kept on, all coming together on the Loup River, about five miles from Olive's ranch, where they went through the process of transferring the prisoners from Gillan to Olive. Among those who took the prisoners were Bion Brown, Pedro Dominicus, and Dennis Gartrell. Gillan and Dufran walked up the road for a short distance, while the remainder of the party started on for Devil's canyon, Olive riding ahead and Gartrell driving the wagon. Olive stopped under a large elm tree. Two ropes were thrown over a branch and Gartrell tied one around Ketchum's neck and Pedro Dominicus tied the other around Mitchell's neck. The ropes were not prepared with slip nooses, however, but were simply tied that their agony might be prolonged. The prisoners were handcuffed together. Ketchum was first drav/n up. Olive caught up a rifle and shot Mitchell. Olive and Gartrell then caught hold of the rope and drew Mitchell up. Fisher and Brown pulled on Ketchum's rope. A fire was then kindled under them. Accounts differ as to whether this was done purposely or not. The party had been indulging freely in whiskey and some of them claim that this fire was started accidentally. However this may be the bodies were frightfully burned. The next day, when the bodies were found about three o'clock in the afternoon, Ketchum was still hanging, with his legs bumed nearly to a crumbling condition. Mitchell's rope had either burned off or had broken, and he was lying on the ground, one arm drawn up to Ketchum by the handcuffs, while the other was burned oft' up to the shoulder.

"As soon as the bodies were found, Captain McNamar returned to Plum Creek and reported the fact. I. P. Olive lived there and also several of the men who participated in the murder. They were well known as dangerous characters, and no one cared to attempt

"After a few days a conference was held at the office of E. C. Calkins, at Kearney, to see what could be done. Sheriff James, of Plum Creek, Dawson County, Sheriff Anderson, of Buffalo, Judge Gaslin, E. C. Calkins, and others were present. The judge expressed a willingness to issue a warrant, but the question was who would serve it. Sheriff James refused to do so, fearing that the murderers could not be captured and even if they could, that he would soon be hunted down by their confederates. Sheriff Anderson objected to going into another county to make an arrest attended with so much danger, but said that if the murderers came into Buffalo County he would not hesitate to attempt their arrest. Two warrants were were then made out for the citizens of Kearney and the law abiding portion of the inhabitants of Plum Creek had resolved that the capture should be made. Attorney General C. J. Dilworth, who resided on his farm in Phelps County, near Plum Creek, had for some time, with the assistance of others, been working up a plan for the capture of the gang. On Saturday, January 5, 1879, he telegraphed to Kearney Junction that arrangements had been made to take the murderers, 'and that the citizens of Plum Creek only waited assistance. At the former place a well armed and determined party had been organized under the leadership of Lawrence Ketchum, a brother of one of the murdered men. This party had been anxious to attempt the capture of Olive, but had hitherto been held back by the wiser councils of Dilworth, who sought by the use of a little strategy to surprise the criminals and thus save the loss of life that would neccessarily result from an open attack.

"On receipt of the message above referred to, the Kearney party took the first train bound west and arrived at Plum Creek' after dark. Here they were met by some of the citizens, who took them to a place of concealment, and, upon reconnoitering, it was decided to wait until the next morning, when there would be no suspicion, and they could be captured one at a time. On Sunday morning Baldwin was seized at break of day at his hotel while starting a fire, A number of the party were captured one at a time, as they came for their mail. Fisher and others were arrested singly on the street. There was no bloodshed, and but little show of resistance. The prisoners were then taken into Kearney on a special train. On their arrival, Olive, Green, and some of the others, fearing they would be lynched, turned pale and showed the most craven fear. They were all confined in the Kearney jail at first, but subsequently were distributed to jails in different parts of the state. On Monday morning, after the capture of Olive, the Mexican Pedro Dominicus, Barney Gillan, sheriff of Keith County, and Phil Dufran were captured and brought in to Kearney.

"The time appointed for the trial was the next spring. The place selected by the presiding judge, William Gaslin, v/as at Hastings. An indictment was found against I. P. Olive. John Baldwin, William H. Green, Fred Fisher, Barney Gillan, Pedro Dominicus, Bion Brown, Phil Dufran, Dennis Gartrell, Barney Armstrong, Peter Bielee, and a man called Mc Induffer, for the murder of Mitchell and Ketchum.

"The trial of I. P. Olive and Fred Fisher began at once and lasted for some time. Brown and Dufran turned state's evidence, and the evidence showed the murder to have been committed in the manner above stated. But Olive and his relatives were wealthy, and no expense was spared in conducting the case in their behalf. During the trial, which attracted the attention of the entire state, hundreds of indignant citizens of various parts of the state went to Hastings, hoping to see justice done. Judge Gaslin was scrupulously honorable, and the murderers had a fair trial. It was known, however, that money was spent freely in behalf of the prisoners, and at one time it became so apparent that the end of justice would be thwarted that the people talked of lynching the prisoners, but as a com- pany of soldiers guarded them this was not attempted. Although the evidence was strong against the prisoners, showing that they had deliberately planned and executed a most foul and cowardly murder, the jury went out and retured with a verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree.. Judge Gaslin then sentenced L P. Olive and Fred Fisher to imprisonment for life in the state penitentiary, to which place they were taken.

"Immediately after the sentence of Olive and Fisher, their friends began to try to devise plans to secure their release, and the trial of their associates in crime was postponed. The following year these efforts were successful, and the convicts were released from the penitentiar}' upon a decision of the supreme court of the state ordering them to be set free on account of technical irregularities in the pro'ceedings of their trial. Let it here be stated that Custer County had recently been formed from the territory that had before the county organization been in two judicial districts but now was understood to be attached to the western district. The supreme court held that the prisoners must be tried within the limits of Custer County, and at the same time held that this county was in no judicial district and hence that the murderers could be tried before no district judge in the state. This was the decision of two of the judges of the supreme court, but Judge Samuel Maxwell, all honor to him, dissented in one of the ablest legal documents ever prepared in that court.

"The decision of the court of course practically released the convicts and put an end to the prosecution of their associates, nearly all of whom, however, had been allowed to escape from the county jails in which they were confined.

"The closing scene in this terrible drama of blood was enacted in Colorado whither I. P. Olive had sought refuge with his son William. For four years, so that story goes, liad the released murderer been shadowed by some vengeful enemy, who had gone so far as to, bring his son up to share this hatred. The two, father and son, never let the Olives get a moment's respite, but pursued them with the bitterness of death. Finally in 1884 the stroke falls. The son of the unknown avenger shoots young Olive dead in a billiard room ; the next day, at a cattle round-up, the crime hardened father falls before the unerring shot of the avenger in person."

Life On Thb Plains Passes

"Life on the plains," with the many memories it awakens in the hearts of a goodly number of our citizens who still dwell with us, soon began to dwindle. When the golden spike was driven in 1869, which bound together the iron links in the great national rail highway, the knell of the wild period in the history of any western cominunity was struck and decline in wilderness began. Many stories of the succeeding decade would still be thrilling reading, if we had the space to place them. But, nevertheless, the whistle of the first locomotive through central Nebraska, in July, 1866, had already pierced the deepest significance of the words "life on the plains." Ever after that, the words "I crossed the plains" lost the significance they had possessed when spoken by a bronzed pioneer who had crawled along in an emigrant caravan, or jostled along on horseback, or jolted along on the stage.

The Early History Of The Wood River Valley

Time works wondrous changes. What is today one of the most beautiful, productive, and well settled valleys in this broad land of ours was little more than fifty years ago described and known as the "Great American Desert" Gray-haired men and women, now spending their declining years in comfort and contentment in the beutiful Wood River Valley, as boys and girls in far off eastern states used to pore o'er their atlases wherein it described the territory lying between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains as a trackless and a treeless waste, where the shaggy buffalo in countless thousands roamed at will and the dusky redskin pursued the chase and engaged in savage warfare. Little did these boys and girls think their decHning years would be spent in the same "Great American Desert," surrounded by the comforts and luxuries of a cultured, prosperous, and happy people. Time has actually worked this wondrous change though it runs more like a fairy tale than a happy reality. Though the people of the United States knew little or nothing of what is now Nebraska and the Wood River Valley less than a century ago, it may not be familar to many that it is gathered from pretty reliable authority that many centuries before the people of Spain had a fairly good description of Nebraska. From old papers collected from Spanish archives it is learned that a Spanish cavalier by the name of Coronado explored the territory of Nebraska as early as 1541 and sent to Spain a fairly good description of the same. He writes: "It is not a country of mountains there being but hillocks and plains with streams of excellent water. I judge it must be quite fertile and well suited to the cultivation of all sorts of fruits." Describing the buffalo, he says : "These oxen are of the bigness and color of our bulls, but their horns are not so great. They have a great bunch upon their fore-shoulders and more hair on their fore part than on their hinder part, and it is like wool. They have, as it were, a horse mane on their back -bone ; and much hair and very long from their knees downward. They have great tufts of hair hanging down from their fore heads, and it seemeth that they have beards because of the great store of hair hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have very long tails and a knob or flock at the end. so that in some respects they resemble the lion and in some others the camel. They push with their horns, they run, they overtake and kill a horse when they are in their rage and anger. Finally, it is a foul and fierce beast of countenance and form of body."

But to the early settlement of Wood River. In the early fifties when the California gold fever was at its height the news had been carried back to the eastern states by the gold hunters that there were good streams and fertile spots in the "Great American Desert," and soon adventurous spirits began to cross the Missouri and settle in Nebraska. The first person to settle in the vicinity of Wood River was "Pap" Lamb, who located about six miles east of the present site of Wood River in the winter of 1858. In the spring of 1859 William Eldridge and Patrick and Richard Moore followed, the former taking claims about four miles east of Wood River and the latter three miles west of Wood River. The year following, in 1860, came James Jackson and Anthony Moore, who settled near Patrick and Richard Moore. Captain Smith, the Anderson family, a man by the name of Story, Ed O'Brien, James Cooke, John Maher, Joseph Ross, and Roger Hayes came shortly after. The settlers commenced operations by building log houses, hauling logs with ox teams from the Platte River, and breaking prairie. The fresh broken sod was planted to corn, and garden patches were started. The sod corn and gardens did fairly well and the settlers were able to raise not only enough for their own use but had some to sell to the Pike's Peak gold hunters, who were streaming through the valley, and to the soldiers stationed at Fort Kearney. The first year the Moores sold several hundred dollars worth of corn and melons to the soldiers. Buffalo, elk, deer, and wild turkey were plentiful and everj'body was handy with the gim, thus the settlers were well supplied with meat. From the outset these hardy pioneers did well. Any surplus they raised found a ready sale at Fort Kearney and to the travelers passing up and down the valley. Buffalo were very plentiful at this time and the settlers made considerable money hunting them for their meat and hides. They also bought robes of the Indians and sold them again to good advantage. At first the Indians were friendly, but along in 1862 when most of the soldiers had been called to the Civil War they became ugly and on February 5, 1862. committed a horrible massacre. Captain Smith, his son-in-law Anderson, with his three sons, Alexander, Charles, and William, were hauling logs on the Platte River east of the present town of Wood River. Anderson had hauled one load home and on his return for another he found that the captain and his three sons had been killed by the Indians. Mr. Smith had several arrows through his body. Charles had his neck broken and his skull smashed in. William's skull was smashed and his mouth was cut from ear to ear and Alexander was found some distance away with his skull broken and his body otherwise mutilated. Mr. Eldridge headed a party which captured a number of Indians and turned them over to the soldiers at Fort Kearny. Through fear of an uprising the Indians were shortly turned loose. It was afterward discovered that the Indians captured did not do the killing. For two years afterward the Indians caused no trouble, but in August, 1864, wild reports came down the valley that the Sioux were massacreing the settlers, which reports so frightened the Wood River settlers that they took their families and stock and rushed down the Platte Valley, never stopping until they reached Fremont, got over their scare, and the next day started back for their homes and on getting back found everything as they had left it, and no Indians in sight. The next spring while Mr. Story was hunting bufifalo in the blufifs he was killed by the Indians and his team stolen. He was shot in the back with arrows, one of them passing entirely through his body. Nearly all the settlers who had fled to Fremont did not return to their homes until the following spring. Aside from the Smith- Anderson massacre and the killing of Story, the Indians committed no serious depredations, but for a number of years the settlers were fearful of them and on several occasions collected at one or the other of their houses and prepared to defend themselves against the threatened attacks, but the Indians never came and the settlers never fled from their homes but the once.

The early history of the Wood River Valley would not be complete without mention of the grasshoppers. The grasshoppers visited the valley no less than eight times, commencing in 1862 and ending in 1876. In only two of their visits was any great amount of damage done. In 1869 millions of them came and ate up all the corn, but fortunately the small grain was out of harm's way. May 22, 1873, the country fairly swarmed with the hoppers but they did little damage. The worst damage was done in July, 1874, when they came in such multitudes that the sky was darkened and the valley was fairly alive with creeping, crawling hoppers. Everything that was green and eatable was devoured by them. Fortunately quite a little of the small grain was ripe and this was untouched by the hoppers. The last visits of the grasshoppers were made in 1875-6 and considerable damage was done but they left some of the crop for the use of the settlers. As the land became broken up moisture increased, which proved fatal to the grasshoppers, and they along with the bufifalo are matters of history to Nebraskans.

The First Post Office

The first post-office was established near Shelton along the river in 1864, presided over by James Cook, the office being a little loghouse, and was called White Cloud. Along in 1865 James Jackson became postmaster. The office was moved to his store which was located at what is now known as "Old Wood River," and on his suggestion the name was changed to Wood River. In the fall of 1864 Mr. Jackson started the first store in old Wood River, hauling his stock by wagon from Omaha.

In 1866 the Union Pacific came through the valley and established a station at Wood River with Mr. Chittenden as agent, followed by Mr. Adams, and he in turn by W. B. Hollister. Fred Hollister was born at the old station. Mr. Jackson had the only store at the old station, with the exception of Mr. Baker who ran a store for about a year and Pat Neville who ran a saloon there for a year or so.

Present Wood River Starts Wood River Valley Settled

With the coming of the railroad, settlers began to pour into the valley. Among the first to arrive were Freem Dodge, Thomas Neville, James Williams, Riley Abbott, "Bill" Johnson, James and Richard Keefe, P. Brett, P. Duggan, John Maher, Tom Smout, Pat Neville, followed by David Barrick, Chas. Towne, N. T. Brittin, Joe Murphy, Frank Howe, J. Bulger, John O'Connor and quite a number of others. About this same time Prairie Creek was settled up, among the first settlers being Wm. Dudds, E. O. Palmer, Let Houghton, Seth Lee, Jim Cannon, the Ewing brothers, N. P. Dickensen, Noel Henderson, and several other families. The valley from this time on settled up rapidly and farm sprang up in every direction until at the present time the Wood River Valley is one of the best settled sections of Nebraska. The log houses and sod shanties have given place to substantial modem dwellings and the ox team and bull cart have been replaced by sleek trotters and fine carriages, which must forsooth gradually give way to speeding automobiles. The old settler of today, surrounded by all the evidence of modern civilization, looks back to his pioneer days in the Wood River Valley and is led to the conviction that, truly, time works wondrous changes.

The place known as the Boyd Ranch was in section 14, township 9, range 14 west. This, it will be noted, is the second range west of Hall County's west line, placing it about eight miles west. But in early days eight miles was a short distance, and as this place was one of the first landmarks west of the Missouri River, on the California-Mormon-Overland trail, it played such an important part in the history of the west end of Hall County, that some space may well be given to a short account of it. It was located on Wood River at a point where that river approached nearest to the Platte, less than three miles distant. It was about twelve miles north and east of Fort Kearny. An account is given by Riley Wescoatt of finding the ranch there in 1853 when he was taking a herd of cattle to California. James E. Boyd, after whom the ranch was named, was governor of Nebraska in 1891-2. He came to Bufifalo County in 1858. He had been married in August, 1858, to Ann H. Henry, daughter of Dr. Henry, who figured prominently in the politics of this region in after years. They broke prairie on the ranch very soon and he could be seen plowing in 1860. From the first liquor was sold on the ranch. Governor Abbott details securing the first brewery equipment used in Hall County, formerly used at the Boyd ranch. This small brewery when stationed on the banks of Wood River brewed about ten kegs of beer at a time, which he sold at the fort and at Dobytown for from six to eight dollars a keg. They had also an icehouse there. The hole in the ground where their cellar was located is still noticeable from the highway. Until about 1864, the buildings at the ranch were of logs and dirt roof. Mr. Boyd secured deed to the land comprising the ranch from the United States in 1867, and the land was paid for in script issued to a private in Captain Henry's Georgia Militia in the war. The ranch was sold to a man by name of Eddy in 1874. The Boyd ranch became a station on the stage line established in 1860 by the Western Stage Company, as mentioned in another chapter by Norman Reese.