Merrick County, Nebraska - Chapter 7: Interesting Events of Early Settlement, 1898

CHOSE familiar with the building of the great transcontinental rail¬ road wrill easily recall the wonderful changes which it w'rought in the country through which it passed. We of the second genera¬ tion have heard our fathers tell of the coming of the "iron horse," and it is from their accounts that we must glean the information necessary for this chapter. Consequently we will offer no apology for taking almost verbatim Mr. Brewer's narrative of the coming of the railroad and w'hat it meant to the people of our county in those days.

"With the year 1865," says Mr. Brewer, "closed the era of pilgrims and ranches. Before another autumn the yell of the loco¬ motive superseded the crack of the bull-w'hacker's wThip. The slowjogging stage coach gave way to the rattling and rushing train of cars. The commerce of the plains found a different method of transportation. Horse flesh had had its day. Honest bone and sinew' that consumed the corn and oats of the settler at such remunerative prices wrere soon compelled to stand aside. It was a change in no wise for the better to the settlers that then occupied the Platte valley. Upon the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number it was a change for the better; but it completely upset and flattened out the occupations of the then settlers of Merrick County. The majority of the settlers were utterly unable to' comprehend the greatness of the change that was about to take place, and of course failed to provide for it.

"During the winter of 1865-6 the railroad wras built to a few miles wfest of Fremont. In the spring of 1866 the great race for the 100th meridian fairly commenced between this road and the Kansas branch.

In the month of February contracts were let for getting out all the cross ties that could be obtained on the uncultivated islands of the Platte, and every preparation was made to push the work forward as rapidly as possible as soon as spring should open. The grading was let in sub¬ contracts, so that the second hundred miles could all be done almost simultaneously. Grading parties were on early in the month of April, as soon as the frost was out of the ground. In a little less than a month the line was graded through Merrick County. Before the spring opened it began to be the talk that the company intended to lay the track at the rate of half a mile a day. Few people could believe that it would be done; but when the time came the track was put down at a rate that fully equalled that. So complete was the organization and so thoroughly was everything systematized that the rate at which the rails were put down gradually increased. On the fourth day of July, 1866, the construction train could be plainly seen from what is now Central City, and before the end of the month the road was completed through this county.

"The building of the railroad brought a great accession to the population of the counties along its line. The majority of those who then came were honest laborers. A few, however, were desperadoes and horsethieves, some of whom were lured here by the prospect of plunder, and others had fled hitherward to escape the consequences of crimes committed elsewhere. Up to this time there had never been a lawsuit in the oounty; all the differences arising had been settled with¬ out violence. But the criminal record could not long remain a blank while the Union Pacific was in course of construction. " Under another heading - "Merrick County's Early Criminals" - we give the record of crimes which followed the advent of the railroad.

Bnt the railroad was here, and evidently here to stay, and the inhabitants of our county began to gradually shape their lives accord¬ ingly. The first movement was one which brought the "towns" from the river to the railroad, and the gradual separation of the people into town and country life. This, however, was not accomplished instanta¬ neously and is a subject we will leave for discussion in a later chapter.