Seward County, Nebraska - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 2 of those read), 1916

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 2 of those read)

Seward County's Name. Its Climate. Homestead Law - General Homesteads, Soldiers' Homesteads and Railroad Land - Amos Reed's Tract. The Water - Springs and Flowing Wells.

From an examination of geographies and maps of the territory of Nebraska, published about i860, and about the time of the clearing away of the myths of superstition which had previously given the whole area a place upon the maps of the world as a baren desert, we find that the territorial legislature had given that part of the territory now known as Seward county the name of Greene county. It has been stated that the county was named Greene after the name of one of its early settlers, but this is undoubtedly a mistake as the county was named previous to any settlement within its borders. In his history W. "W. Cox says that the county was named Greene in honor of a Missouri statesman by that name who proved to be a "rebel," and that as an unorganized county it was under the controle of the legislature, which decided to prohibit the naming of any of the "sacred soil under its controle after the name of a rebel," and the name Greene was deliberatly dropped and the honored name of Seward, the grand war secretary of state, who as the great assistant and adviser of the martyred Lincoln, helped to stear the ship of state through the dark days of the rebellion, was bestwed upon the county. While the acts of territorial legislatures like the acts of all legislatures are open to criticism, the act that gave this county the name of, and errected thereby an everlasting monument to the memor}' of one of the nation's most able and worthy statesmen was one for which the citizens of the county should feel thankful, whatever may have been the cause for changing the name.

The climate of Seward county, in common with that of the south half of Nebraska is mild. It is 1,500 feet above sea level. This altitude gives it a light, dry atmosphere. There is a gradual ascent from the Missouri river to the Rocky mountains and the nearer approach to them the less there is of rain-fall, which is quite discernible in SewaYd county although only about sixty miles west from the river. And while this is true in regard to rain-fall it is the same in regard to the snow-fall. Many winters have come and gone in the past forty-five years during which scarcely enough snow has fallen to cover the ground at any one time which has disappeared as quickly in sun- shine as it came. Snow is not a natural element in Seward count}7. The snow of the county's most severe snow winters was not a native production, but was driven in by strong winds, generally from the snow fields of the north-west. And from this quarter comes the greater portion of the county's cold weather. The mild winters are those of mild winds, more equally divided in the course of direction, the least from the north or northwest. The generally light, dry air affords relief many times to those suffering with lung troubles, cases of consumption coming from the lower and more damp atmosphere of the east being entirely cured by a residence in Seward county. One case of this kind well known to the writer, was that of J. J. Ainsworth who came from Ohio in 1870 and settled on a homestead in N precinct. Mr. Ainsworth was suffering with, and supposed to be in the last stage of hereditary consumption when he left his native home in Ohio with his wife and several small children, bound for Nebraska by the "prairie schooner" mode of travel. He arrived in Seward county in thirty-three days and from the date of his arrival until the end of a long life in Nebraska he was free from his former affliction. As a matter of comparison we will mention a case closely connected with the precedin one, being that of J. J. Ainsworth's younger brother who was suffering with the same dread disease when his older brother induced him to try the treatment of Nebraska atmosphere. He did so and during his stay in Seward county seemed to be on the road to recovery, but becoming discouraged and homesick he returned to Ohio where he succumed to his affliction in less than one year. Here is the evidence of two as reliable men as ever came to Nebraska, one on his death bed, lamenting the fact to his brother who visited him that he had not taken that brother's advice and remained in Nebraska, while the older one declares: "I would not go back to Ohio to reside for the whole state of Ohio." HOMESTEAD LAW AND HOMESTEADS. The homestead law enacted by the United States government in 1862 permitted any person 21 years of age, the head of a family or single to enter 160 acres of government land as a homestead, and at the end of five years continued residence upon said land it should become the real estate property of the person making such entry. And it was generally understood that government land could not be secured under any other condition or consideration than by actual settlement and improvement upon it. That these requirements were for a protection of the land from speculators and a reserve of it for equal distributaion among present and future settlers. But this understanding was undoubtedly a delusion as the government. after the law was enacted, granted the C. B. & Q. rail road company every odd section, or one-half of the land in a strip forty miles wide through the unsettled portion of Nebraska, which grant took in the entire county of Seward. And as a further evidence of the "delusion," Amos Reed, a prominent lawyer of the city of Washington, secured a grant from the government of 2,000 acres of Seward and York cuunty government land. This tract laid along the West Blue river, commencing about three miles east of Beaver creek in Seward county and extending west into York county. While this grant was small compared to the one to the railroad company, it detracted more form the homestead privileges, as far as it extended than the latter, as it was an unconditional grant, covering the said number of acres of some of the best land in Nebraska, taking in the timber along the river the entire length of the tract, and not one foot of it being reserved for homesteads. In the matter of the railway grant it was made on condition that the company construct a railroad through the grant, and every other section was reserved for homesteads. It is supposed that this deal was made to better the living conditions of the homesteaders by providing them with markets and transportation advantages, but the government did the dealins and then robbed the settlers of one-half of their homestead right to pay for it, leaving them only 80 instead of 160 acre homesteads. However this did not effect the privileges of soldiers of the war of the rebellion who were permitted to enter a homestead of 160 acres. And in this we see another half honest and half dishonest deal of the government with its private citizens. The rig] t made to the soldiers to enter a homestead of 160 acres was no more than a blind to cover up the government's failure to do with them as it had agreed. We very well remember the flaming posters that were stuck up all over our city of Warren, Ohio, offering inducements to get men to enlist to go in defense of their country, and one of those inducements standing out in very large red letters which could be read at a distance said: "One-Hundred and Sixty Acres of Land will be Given by The United States Government, to every able bodied man, eighteen years of age or over, who will enlist in the military service of the United States for three years or during the war." And we also remember that one of those posters decorated the east wall of the room in which we placed our name upon the roll of

Uncle Sam's defenders and took the oath to serve three years or during the great war. Of course the fault was in the promise. Had it been fiulfilled there would have been but little land left for homesteads. And to give the soldiers an advantage in the homestead deal was unavoidable and about the only way out of keeping a rash promise. The nation's liberality was shown in the right given the soldiers to homestead 160 acres where the general homesteads were but 80 acres, and also in permiting a deduction of the time of the soldier's military service from the time required for him to reside upon his homstead, and yet it was short of being a fullfillment of a legitimate contract.

After the close of the war a large number of soldiers became home-seekers in the west, many of whom took advantage of not only the homestead privilege granted them, but the fine land and promising future, and settled upon the prairies of Seward county. Some of those comrades are here yet, some have passed on to other fields while many are "tenting upon the eternal camp ground,'' beyond the last river where we must all join them in the near future.

Straggling settlements were made in different localities of Seward county all through the sixties, but the grand rush of home-seekers came in 1869 and 1870 during which period nearly every available homestead was taken and settlement made upon it. The pioneer settlers were sanguine of their ability to make homes of comfort and value. They built sod houses, made dugouts, and occasionally a house of logs or lumber. And it was no uncommon sight in those days to see smoke coming up out of the earth where some enterprising family had fixed up a home. But "vanity of vanities." The notion to improve their homesteads deserted many of them and as soon as they could do so they sold their claims and drifted to othfcr quarters or returned to the "old folks" at the old and longed for home. In that period homesickness

The water of Seward county is hard. Even that of the streams and springs is hard, but is of an excellent grade. There are a number of springs of very fine water along the West Blue river. One of the largest of these springs is an "old land-mark" almost in the center of the village of Beaver Crossing. It is located near where Daniel Millspaw's ranch buildings stood, and without doubt furnished many thirsty travelers, in the days of prairie schooner emigration, the first good water they had tasted after leaving the settlements.

The first flowing well of the county to establish any interest or faith in the existance of flowing water in the vicinity where it exists, was discovered in Uewit Eager's store in Beaver Crossing by mere accident. That such a discovery should be made within the precincts of a village store may seem strange, but Mr. Eager had a well in his store for the accomodation of his customers and the water had become impure and bad, therefore he employed Ray Virgin of Utica to sand pump the well and sink it deeper to find better water if possible. The work progressed, but the quality of the water did not improve. The well kept getting deeper and deeper; finally the bottom seemed to drop out and the water rushed up with such force that the store cellar was half full of it before it was realized what had happened. This discovery created quite an excitement as it was made in the dry season of 1895, and several parties were soon on the anxious seat to try their luck for a well. T.J.Foster was so anxious to see the water shooting up out of the earth at his place that he could not sleep nights, and went around day-times dreamily talking about a flowing well. In a few days he succeeded in securing the services of C. C. Evaus to make him a two inch flowing well. The work on the well commenced early in the morning and flowing water was struck just a short time before night, and although the well was fully piped, flowing well construction was new business to Mr. Evans. The well was of the large size, the flow very strong and the necessary precautions to prevent an outside flow which came up around the outside of the piping, had not been taken and as a result a nice little river soon sprang into existance. Unfortunatly the river was not all water, being about half quick sand which failed to run off, constantly settling in the passage way and darning the water which shortly formed a small sized lake in the midst of which was Tom's house. Tom had lost sleep over the matter of getting a well and as he shoveled sand that night to keep an opening for the water to run off and save his house from being a Noah's Ark, he might have been heard praying for one glimpse of God's token, the rainbow, and that the destruction of the earth by fire might commence while his part of it was too wet to burn. Tom Foster never swears and whether his thoughts on this occasion were solemn or otherwise he certainly had a wonderful well, and one which drove away al! doubts in regard to the existance of flowing water under the ground in the locality of Beaver Crossing. This well, when the stream was finally reduced to the size of an ordinary flowing well, threw water to a heigth of twenty-five feet, but the numerous weiis which were almost immediatly made in the vicinity, reduced the force of its flow to a considerable extent. However the water in most any of the numerous wells in existance today on land on a level with it will rise from ten to fifteen feet above the top of the ground. The territory upon which these wells may be procured extends over the entire width of the West Blue valley and for a distance up and down the valley of about fourteen miles. This seeming to be the extent of the under ground reservoir of flowing water.

The above represents a flowing well on the farm formerly owned by Henry Cast, east of Beaver Crossing. There was a reduction made in the flow after which the stream of water, as it appears here, was forced twenty-seven feet above the ground where it is located.

One of the first flowing wells of Beaver Crossing. It was located on the old picnic grounds, near the river, known as "Dimery's Park." The well was one of the attractions that drew many people from various parts of the county and state and was viewed by thousands as one of the wonders of Seward County. And it was not a deception. Those wells here represented have proven, in the past, to be of inestimable worth to the localities where they exist, while there is a broad field for the future developement of their many possible advantages to the countv which are as vet untested and untried.

The soil of Seward county is immensely rich and extends to such a depth as to appear inexhaustible. Dirt taken out from six to ten feet below the surface will produce any kind of vegetation that is climatsable; that upon the bottom lands running to a greater debth than the up-land soil. A pecularity is noted in the fact that the last shovelfulls of dirt thrown out from a cellar or dugout seven or eight feet deep in vegetable growing weather, will shortly produce more weeds than can find standing room - the seed from which these weeds spring having been drifted into the earth, possibly a half century ago.

If there is anything in the way of mineral in the earth of Seward county it has not yet been developed. However mineral water is said to exist in some of the springs at Milford. In the days of earliest pioneer settlement an excitement was created by the circulation of a report by several citizens that an abundance of coal existed within easy reach of the people in the earth at or near Milford. And Josiah White, a near neighbor to the writer, declared in such emphatic and positive language that he knew there was no mistake about it and that the coal was there as stated, that we took his words, as we should a good and kind neighbor's for undefiled Gospel truth and did not miss an opportunity to tell others about the coal at Milford. But noticing the general incredulous smile that those to whom the matter was mentioned wore upon their faces, . an investigating inquiry was made, resulting in the disclosing of the fact that one Mr. Her, a homesteader at Pleasant Dale, on Middle creek, in the eastern part of the county, a spiritual medium and an evangelist of that creed had been holding meetings and had converted Mr. White and several others, and about the first information the spirits of departed humanity conveyed to the faithful of Seward count}7 was that there was coal to be had for merely the digging at the place named, and near the surface. In their eagerness to roll out a few car loads of the greately needed fuel, they went to work with shovels, picks, muscle and "elbow grease," which was unsparingly applied for several weeks and until some spirit, perhaps told them that the informing spirits were viewing the locality of Milford, Nebraska, from China, on the other side of the earth, when they discovered coal "near the surface." Now, whether this is a true supposition or not, they abandoned the work, but clung to the faith.

A few years farther along in the seventies the second fuel exitement sprang up in N precinct over the discovery of what was supposed to be peat, on the farm of Chris. Lesenby. And so positive was Mr. Lesenby that his peatbog would boost a large city into existance that he squandered considerable of his wealth in laying out a city and building business houses that were never used. The statement of A. E. Sheldon in a letter to Cox's history that the name of this phantom city7 was "Pittsburg" and that he had mail delivered to him for his neighbors in the post office in that city, is undoutedly a hallucination of a boy's mind, as Mr. Lesenby named his city "Peatsburg, " and not "Pittsburg," and there was never any post office established there. And whether there was any peat there or not remains a matter of serious doubt. At least the city and the material from which it received its name have both passed into history as a delusion.

Indians, Wild Game, Fish Etc

While there was a time when Indians were the lords and kings on the prairies of Seward county, there never was any record of Indian hostility to white settlers within its borders. Strolling bands of the red beggars frequently passed through the county on begging expeditions until as late as 1876, but the govern. nent corralled them about that time and sent them to their reservations. In the early sixties Indians no doubt raised some hair of white women and children in the county, but it was hair that raised through fright. And in those days the redskins were not only beggars, but were thieves also, and the daily passage of white travelers, in armed bands of several hundred along the old freight route through the county, undoubtedly prevented them performing acts of murder. They do not like civilization and when they cannot drive it out of a country they will shrink from it and disappear if there is possibe room to do so.

Wild game occupied a prominent place and was one of the great beneficient factors in the settlement of the whole "wild and wooly west." And Seward county had its share until about 1882. Buffalo was quite plentiful in the early sixties, and elk, deer, antelope, jack rabbits and prairie chickens were numerous all through the seventies in some localities.

The living streams of water in the county were stocked with fine native fish. Cat fish, bullheads, pike and sunfish or mountain bass. But like the Indians and the game, civilization aided by the state government with its deposite of rapid increasing and worthless German carp, have about driven the natives out of the streams. And as compensation for this act of folly the state taxes every male person over 21 years of age one dollar for a season's license to sit on the bank of one of the streams and watch a cork dance over the rippling waves. Of course catching fish is not

In addition to the wild Indian, wile] game and native fish the ground was alive with native pests which remained until civilization become well settled when they disappeared in similar manner to the Indians and game. Rattle-snakes were so fearfully numerous as to be more dangerous than Indians, but they left the county about 1890 and it is not to be regretted in the least. Fleas were indigenous pests and torments. It was no uncommon thing to see a man stop on the highway and turn up his pants leg and his sock leg down and pick a flea. Our first homestead residence was a log mansion twelve feet square. It had one door and two windows, shingled with Nebraska shingles dug out of a claybank near by, and the floor and carpet were of the same kind of material. And when we got out of bed with our bare feet upon that dirt carpet the effect upon our nerves made by those little hoppers jumping upon them and wrestling for the best places is indiscribable yet not forgotten. A flea's teeth are not more annoying many times than his back and a little bite will not make a fellow feel like swearing half so much as it does to have one crawl up on the inside of his clothing from the bottom to the top with his razorback turned in while he is listening to a preacher telling what to do to be saved. But this was one of the conflicts of pioneer life in Nebraska, and while its reflections at this late date are unpleasant if not sad, the early passing away of the redskins, rattlers and fleas should fill the land with