Seward County, Nebraska - Chapter 2, 1916

Chapter 2

Nebraska. Territorial Area and Organization. The State. Area, Rivers, Land, Counties Etc. Admission to the Union. Immense Increase in Population. Public School System the Best.

Nebraska was the name given a vast portion of wild country, organized and admitted as a territory by the United States government in 1854, under the administration of President Franklin Pierce. It comprised the present states of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. And under the conditions which Uncle Sam assumed the guardian-ship of this great tract of land laid the smoldering embers of the civil war, in as much as the organic act permitted any portion, or all portions of it to be admitted as a slave state or divided into different slave states. It must be remembered that it was not slavery as it existed, but, the extension of that un-Godly system that formed the "bone of contention" between the North and the South. And the bills admitting Kansas and Nebraska territories under the same possible and probable dark prospects, opened and stirred up the strife until it culminated in that great, deadly conflict without a parallel in the history of the world. History of the territories would be incomplete without giving this unwelcome feature a place, and yet it is not to be considered only as a legislative blunder. We have frequently thought that it would be an act of kindness to the citizens of those two states, "Kansas and Nebraska," to re- move t'le harrowing memories which the mention of their name suggests to every one familiar with their record, by an entire and positive change in their names. Kansas was the senior territory, and was settled by more Souhtern people who deemed it a part of their religion to prevent N >rthern emigration into the state by any method of intimidation and murder, resulting in a border ruffian war, in which John Brown's three sons were wrongfully slain, their bodies mutilated and shipped to their father in the old home in the east. The state contains 77,510 square miles of territory. Numerous inland and non-navigable rivers flow through it, the larger ones being the Platte, Loupe, Elkhorn, Republican and Blue. These streams water as well as drain the state and add to its agricultural resourses their extensive valleys, in fertility not only unsurpassed, but unequaled by any other vegetable producing land in the world. It has a frontage upon the eastern end, along the Missouri river of over three hundred miles. It contains ninety large counties. Four of which, Lincoln, Custer, Holt aud Sheridan, each has about as much territory as the state of Deleware or Rhode Island while both of those states might be set down inside of Cherry county and not be crowded for room.

At the lime of its admission as a territory, within the limits of its present borders, Nebraska had, perhaps less population than anyone of its counties at the present time. In i860 it had a population of 28,841. It was admitted to full fellow-ship in the union of states in 1867, the civil war having wiped out all possible chance for any further contention over the matter of slavery. The 1910 census shows a population within the state of 1,192,214. which at the rate of its previous increase would undobtedly bring its population up to 1,500,000 at the present date.

schools, and a general advance has been made all along the line in that direction until the state ranks foremost in education, and the dark days in its history, when the shadows of illiteracy as a well known companion of slavery, hung like a pall over its bright land, have passed to oblivion.

Chapter

Seward County - Its Boundries, Territory, Population Etc. Bjavjr Crowing and Vicinity - Its Name, - From What Derived. The Freight Route. The Historical Steam Wagon Road.

Seward county Nebraska, is located in the third tier of counties west, or about sixty miles west from the Missouri river, and the third tier of counties, or sixty miles north of the Kansas state line. It is bounded on the north by Butler county, on the east by Lancaster county, in which is the state capital, on the south by Saline county and on the west by the county of York. It is the best watered and drained county in the state of Nebraska, or perhaps any other state. The North Blue river, a stream of considerable magnitude, resplendent with abundant pure water, enters the county in C precinct, in the north-west portion, passing entirely through it in a south of eastearly direction, passing the south line of the city of Seward, through the villages of Milford and Camden. It has several tributaries, of which one only may be termed a living stream of water. Lincoln creek is a mill stream. It passes into the county from the west, in D precinct, or about six miles south of the north-west corner of the county, and flows south-west, passing through twenty miles of the county's territory and joining the North Blue river just west of Seward. Plum creek and other so-called creeks, reaching the uplands, furnish excellent drainage and carry away surplus water in wet seasons, after which times their mission seems to end and they remain dry. In addition to the North Blue river, with its tributary, Lincoln creek, watering and draining the north half of the county, its counterpart, the West Blue river enters the county from the west, at the north-west cornor of M precinct, six miles north of the south-west corner of the county and flowing with but little variation from a due east course, traverses the entire breadth of the county from west to east, joining the North Blue in P precinct in the south-east corner of the county. Like the former mentioned Blue, it has numerous drainage tributaries, one of which, Beaver creek, approaches a tendency of a living stream. But the tributaries of the West Blue, like those of the North Blue, furnish excellent drainage for the south half of the count}'' in wet seasons while they do not sap the ground in dry seasons. Taking the two rivers, passing as they do through the county, with their tributaries no better system of water and drainage could be planed for any county.

In the early days Beaver Crossing and vicinity comprised the four precincts in the south-west quarter of the county, K, L, M and N, with a considerable portion of east York county. The name, "Beaver Crossing," was the first name given to any point or locality in Seward county a name derived from a natural cause, or matter of fact, forming next to the freight route, the second historical object in the county. Beaver creek was undoubtedly named by Indians and trappers long before there were any settlements of white people near its banks. It rises north-west of the city of York in York county and flowing south-east enters Seward county in L precinct, about two and a half miles north of the south line of that precinct and there taking a more southerly course joines the West Blue river near the line of L and M precincts about two and one-half miles east of the York county line. The next important feature in connection with the naming of Beaver Crossing is the previously mentioned cut-off freight route from Nebraska City to its junction with the California trail. This route had a due west course from Nebraska City to the North Blue river just east of Camden where the first bridge in Seward countv was made across the North Blue. And here the valleys of the North and West Blue rivers unite, the latter valley forming the road-bed for one of the greatest wild country highways ever known, over which thousands of home and fortune seekers were destined to pass, a few to success and many to bitter disappoinment. After following this valley a short distance the route was forced to make a detour to the north on account of the impassable condition of Walnut creek on the bottom lands. This creek is one of the wet weather tributaries of the West Blue river, and although it is dry during dry seasons, its value to the sections it traverses is beyond estimation. It rises in L precinct and joines the river in N. A crossing of this creek was found about three miles above its mouth, on the line between K and N precincts, from which point the route continued west along the divide in L, re-entering the West Blue valley one mile east of Beaver creek. In direct line with this trail an excellent fording place for this stream was found, where the banks were as naturally adapted to the passage of heavily loaded freight wagons, or prairie echooners as they could have been made. The water was shallow and the bottom, composed of coarse gravel, was as solid as rock and this was Beaver Crossing.

The historical "Steam Wagon Road" was established in 1864. It was roughly worked and prepared for the passage of the "steam wagon" which was to cross the great plains, conveying a forty horse load of merchandise. But misfortune seemed pre-eminent in the career of this first iron horse for Nebraska and on its trial trip it was wrecked in the ditch by the side of the road a short distance west of Nebraska City, its starting point, where it was abandoned, being later desected for the metal there was in it. And although the said iron horse, which had caused the building of so many groundless hopes and expectations "sleeps the sleep that knows no waking," the road that bore his name lives and will continue to live in history as long as historians write and people read history, as one of the great highways across the western plains. But in reality the steam wagon road was not an independent and distinct route or road. With the exception of a very few miles through Seward county it cannot be called by any other name than the original freight route or road. It followed the i860 freight route west from Nebraska city to near the Seward county line where it left the route and made a cut-off of a few miles by crossing the North Blue river where the city of Milford was shortly after located, instead of continuing south to the bridge at Camden. It forded the river at this place, continuing west ten miles to the Walnat creek crossing where it again united with the freight route, continuing as a part of the same, or as might properly be said, lost its name. It has never been known as the "steam wagon road" west of the Walnut creek crossing in Seward county.