CONTENTS
CHAPTER I—TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, ETC., OF RICHARDSON COUNTY
Rolling
Prairies of This Section of Nebraska Were an Alluring Feature That Did Not
Escape the Eye of the Settler in Quest of a Home in the New Country—Streams of
Fine Water, the Banks of Which Were Well Timbered—Native Timber Restored by
the Mastery of the Old Prairie Fires and the Former Aspect of the Country Has
Been Changed Thereby Quality of the Soil—Inexhaustive Quarries of Excellent
Building Stone—Tributaries of the Great Nemaha River—Description of the Area
of the County—Climatic Conditions and a Scientific Analysis of the
Physiographic Position of the County.
CHAPTER II—INDIAN HISTORY AND PREHISTORIC TIMES
Pawnees
Appear to Have Had the Best Claim as the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Country
Now Comprised in Richardson County—Story of Their Occupancy and of That of the
Sacs and Foxes—Review of the Various Treaties Under Which the Red Man
Gradually Gave Up His Lands—Evidences of Prehistoric Occupancy Based Upon the
Finding of Skeletons and Relics at Several Points in Comity—Coming of the
Missionaries to the Indians and Something of the Habits of Living and of the
Religion of the Red Man.
CHAPTER III—SPANISH EXPLORATIONS
First White
Men to Set foot on the Land Now Comprised Within the Confines of This County
Were the Adventurous Cavaliers of Coronado’s Band Which Came Up From the Aztec
Country Seeking What They Might Find in the North Country and Who Left a Record
of Having Reached The Fortieth Parallel of Latitude, Together With a Report of
the Conditions of Life of the Indians at That Time Occupying This
Country—Later Visit of the French Explorers, the Coming of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition the Acquirement of the Louisiana Territory and the Gradual
Development of Settlements Leading Up to the Eventual Creation of Nebraska
Territory and the Passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
CHANTER IV—EARLY SETTLEMENT AND EARLY SURVEYS
Fitting
Tribute to the American Pioneers, Who Is Described as a Distinct Type Well
Qualified to Enter Upon the Veritable Garden of Eden Which Awaited His Advent
Out Here Beyond the Missouri—Review of Conditions Which Led to the Immigration
Stream in This Direction and Bit of Reference to the Character and Stock of That
Hardy Band Which Sought a Wider Horizon Here On the Limitless
Prairies—Influence of the Missouri River in Directing Settlement
Hitherward—Four Epochs in Settlement Period—
Roster of
Pioneers Who Settled Here Prior to 1810, Together With a Brief Review of
Conditions They Faced and the Hardships They Were Compelled to Undergo While
Making Habitable a Place for Those Who Should Come After—Land Speculation,
Claim Jumpers, Jayhawkers, the “Underground Railroad” and Something
Regarding the Various Separate “Colonies” Which Settled Here, Closing With a
Review of the Early Surveys of County, and a Story of the Iron Monument.
CHAPTER V—ORGANIZATION OF RICHARDSON COUNTY
Name of
County Was Given in Compliment to First Territorial Governor—Temporary
Organization in 1854 Was Definitely Established by the Territorial Legislature
in 1855, and the First Election Was Held in This Latter Year—First County
Officers Chosen—Original Boundaries of County—The Half Breed Tract—First
Census and Polling Places—Organization of Precincts—Legislative Acts With
Reference to the County and the Gradual Development of a Stable Form of Local
Government.
CHAPTER VI—LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT
Historian
Has Been at Pains to Examine the Official Records With a View to Determining the
Influences Underlying—the Long Struggle Which Persisted in the Early Days of
the County, in the Matter of the Location of the County Seat and Which Finally
Resulted in the Rejection of the Respective Claims of Archer and of Salem and
the Establishment of the Seat of Local Government at Falls City—Vote by
Precincts Attesting the Final Choice of the People—County Buildings and a Word
Regarding Early Political Conditions in the County.
CHAPTER VII—ROSTER OF COUNTY OFFICERS
In the List
Given in This Chapter of Those Who Have Served the People of Richardson County
in an Official Capacity, It Is Gratifying to Note That Some of the Very Ablest
Men in the County Have Thus Rendered Efficient Service and That the County
Government Has From the Very Beginning Been Singularly Free From Scandal—Names
of Officers, Including County Clerks, Probate Judges, County Judges. Registers
of Deeds, Clerks of District Court, County Treasurers, Sheriffs, County
Commissioners, Superintendents of Public Instruction, Surveyors, Coroners,
Supervisors, County Attorneys and the New Commissioners Appointed Under the
Recently Adopted Commission Form of County Government.
CHAPTER VIII—ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS AND PRECINCTS
Here will
be found the Stories Regarding tilt, Formation of the Several Townships or
Precincts Which Form Units of Civic Government in the General Government of the
County, Beginning With Barada, Which Was Named for Old Antoine Barada, One of
the Most Interesting and Picturesque Figures of the Plains Country in the Early
Days, Together With an Interesting Collection of Narratives of Incidents
Relating to the Early—Life of the County and Personal and Illuminating
Reference to Many of Those Hardy Figures Which Made Possible the Settlement of
This Favored Region—Population statistics and Something in Relation to
Townsites That Early Were Located for Public Allotment and Sale.
CHAPTER IX—INCORPORATION OF TOWNS AND PRECINCTS
In This
Chapter There Is Set Out in Interesting Form a Mass of Official Information
Taken From the Records of the County and Bearing on the Original Orders of
Incorporation of the Towns and Precincts of the County, Together With Further
References to the Men Who Were the Foremost Figures fit Such Transactions, With
Stories Relating to Many of Them, and a Brief History of the Various Towns and
Villages Which Have From the Beginning Constituted Valuable Social and
Commercial Centers for the People of the Several Communities in the County.
CHAPTER X—SERIES OF FIRST EVENTS
Nothing in
the History of Any Community Carries More of Interest Than a Narration of the
First Incidents Bearing on the Settlement of Such a Community and This Chapter
Relating to the “Firsts” of Richardson County Ought to Be Regarded as One of
the Most Interesting in the Book, for Here Will Be Found Set Out in Orderly
Array the Story of the Beginnings of Things in This Region Based Upon the
Activities of Those Who Were Among the First of Those Who Dared and Did in the
Days of the Beginning of the Establishment of a Definite Social Order on This
Side of the Missouri.
CHAPTER XI—AGRICULTURE AND STOCKRAISING
From the
Days of the Unbroken Growths of Luxuriant Prairie Grass Which Covered the Rich
Plains Throughout This Region to the Present Period of Highly Developed and
Specialized Agriculture Is Not a Far Cry as Measured in Years, for There Are
Those Still Living Here Who Helped to Turn the First Furrows in These Prairies,
But in the Measure of Results Accomplished an Astonishing Distance Has Been
Covered, and This Chapter Is Designed to Present the Story of the Wonderful
Development That Has Marked Agricultural Processes During the Comparatively
Short Period in Which the White Man Has Been in Possession of the Country.
CHAPTER XII—EARLY TRANSPORTATION, NAVIGATION AND RAILROADS
Herein Will
Be Found the Story of the Development of the Means of Travel and Transportation
From the Days of the River Steamboat and the “Prairie Schooner” to the
Present Day of the Transcontinental Steel “Flyers” and the High-Powered
Automobiles, Which Latter, in Particular, Are Serving to Bind Communities More
Closely Together and to bring the Farm into Close Communications With the
Markets and Social Centers—Interesting Story of the Old Days of the River
Boats and the Great Trains of the Freighters Along the Overland Trails of a Day
Gone By—First Effort is Behalf of a Railroad—When the Railroad Reached Falls
City—Excursion to Atchison—Coming of the Automobile and a Comparison With
Conditions that Existed in the Days of the Old Overland Stage.
CHAPTER XIII—SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION
In This
Chapter County Superintendent Weber Presents an Interesting Review of the School
Activities of Richardson County from the Time of the County’s Early Settlement
and the Humble “Subscription” Schools to the
Present Day
of the Highly Specialized School System Comprising the Well-Organized Schools of
the Cities and Villages and the Equally Well-Organized Consolidated Schools of
the Rural Districts, All Being Operated Under a Definite Plan, With a View to
Securing the Best Attainable Results in the Way of Educating the Youth of the
County.
CHAPTER XIV—CHURCHES OF RICHARDSON COUNTY
Church
History of a Locality Is Inseparable From Its Growth and Development, the
Influence of the Church Being Felt in Every Force That Goes to Make Up a
Prosperous and Moral Community, and in No Phase of the Development of Richardson
County Has There Been a Stronger Influence for Good Than the Church
Organizations of the County; a Story of Which, Together With Many Interesting
Incidents Relating to the Religious Observances of the Pioneers Has Been
Compiled Under the Direction of David D. Reavis and Is Here Set Out for the
Information and Inspiration of the Present Generation and the Guidance of the
Future.
CHAPTER XV—NEWSPAPERS OF RICHARDSON COUNTY
In This
Chapter the Historian Has Presented a Comprehensive and Entertaining Review of
the Operations of “the Fourth Estate” in Richardson County and Has
Incidentally Preserved for the Edification of the Present and the Information of
Future Generations of Readers Numerous Stories of the Doings of the Newspaper
Editors Who Proved Such Powerful and Influential Factors in the General Life of
the Community in the Old Days, and Whose Unselfish and Untiring Efforts in
Behalf of the New Country Worked Such Wonders of Accomplishment in the Way of
Assisting in the Development of the Various Interests of the County at a Time
When the “Getting Out” of a Newspaper Was Very Much More a Pure Labor of
Love Than It Is Today—Veteran Editor’s Tribute to the Old-Timers in Local
Newspaperdom.
CHAPTER XVI—PHYSICIANS OF RICHARDSON COUNTY
Close and
Intimate Relation Borne by the Family Physician to the Real Life of the
Community to Which He Ministers Makes Him One of the Most Vital Factors for Good
in That Community, and in the Chapter to Which the Reader Here Refers the
Importance of This Situation Is Clearly Brought Out, the Medical History of the
County of Richardson Being Interestingly and Entertainingly Reviewed by Doctor
Burchard and Doctor Waggener, Whose Long and Intimate acquaintance With the
Conditions They Portray Gives to Their Narratives an Informative Importance That
will be Valued and Appreciated More and More as the Years Pass.
CHAPTER XVII—THE BENCH AND BAR
No History
Is Complete Without Some Specific Reference to the Courts and Lawyers the
Section That History Seeks to Cover, for to the Bench and to the Bar Fall a No
Unimportant and a No Indecisive Part in the Development of the Human Progress
Upon Which History In Based, and the Development of Social Conditions in
Richardson County Has Been no Exception to This Rule, the Courts and the Lawyers
Having Played Conspicuous Parts in the Creation of the Splendid Conditions Amid
Which the People of This County Today Find Themselves, All of Which Is
Entertainingly Set Out Here in the Chapter Under Consideration.
CHAPTER XVIII—BANKS AND BANKING
During the
Pioneer Period in Richardson County There Were No Banks and Very Little Banking
Business Done Except Such as Was Conducted by the Early Merchants,
But as Settlement Developed and Communities Expanded the Necessity for
the Establishment of Recognized Mediums Through Which the Credit Facilities of
the Community Might Systematically Operate Led to the Organization of Properly
Accredited Banks, Until Now There Is No Appreciable Social Center in the County
That Is Not Provided With One or More Stable Financial Institutions for the
Proper Accommodation of the Community Thus Served, and This Chapter Gives in a
Nutshell the Story of the Creation of These Banking Institutions, Together With
a Statement Relative to the Respective Present Status of Each.
CHAPTER XIX—MILITARY HISTORY
Though
Nebraska Had Not Been Admitted to Statehood at the Time of the Breaking Out of
the Civil War the Hardy Pioneers Who Had Even Then Found a Foothold On the Soil
Here Did Well Their Part in That Struggle in Defense of the Union, as the Reader
Will Find Is Made Clear in the Chapter Here Referred to Wherein Is Set Out the
Story of the Participation of Richardson County in That Struggle, as Well as the
Story of Her Participation in the Subsequent Spanish-American War and in the
Present Great World War, in Which Latter Supreme Struggle So Many of the Active
and Determined Young Men of This County Are Taking Part at the Time These Words
Are Being Written.
CHAPTER XX — FALLS CITY THE COUNTY SEAT
In This
Chapter is Set Out at Informative Length and in an Entertaining Fashion the
History of the County Seat of Richardson County From the Days of Its Inception
to the Present Day of Its Important Development, With a View to Giving the
header Some Notion of the Various Steps in This Process of Development and of
Preserving for the Future a Record of the Same.
CHAPTER XXI—THE CITY OF HUMBOLDT
The
Historian Has Here Set Out a Comprehensive Review of the Various Phases Through
Which the Second City in Richardson County Has Passed in Attaining Its Present
High State of Development, and Has Presented at the Same Time An Interesting
Collection of Pioneer Reminiscences Relating to Humboldt and the Humboldt
Neighborhood, With Biographical Sketches of Many of the Earliest Settlers
Therein.
CHAPTER XXII—HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DAWSON
Beginning
With a Story of the First Pre-emptors Along the Rich Valley of the Nemaha,
William Fenton Has Presented in This Chapter a Review of the Beginning and the
Development of the Pleasant Village of Dawson and Has Set Out in that Connection
Much Exceedingly Interesting Information Relating
to the early Days of That Neighborhood.
CHAPTER XXIII—DEFUNCT TOWNS OF RICHARDSON COUNTY
The
“Old-Timer” Will Find Numerous References in This Chapter Relating to Towns
and Townsites That Gave Promise in the Days of the Pioneer That Will Revive Many
Pleasant Recollections in His Mind of the Days Gone By, for Here Are Set out, as
Tales That Were Told, the Stories of
the
Departed Glories of Such One-Time Ambitious Sites as Those of Archer, Yankton,
Winnebago Stumps Station, Shasta, Elmore, Cottage Grove, Elkton, Breckenridge,
Peora, Springfield, Geneva, Flowerdale, Dorrington, Noraville, Monterey, Meonond,
Pleasant Valley, Old St. Stephens, and the beginning and End of Arago, Which at
One Time Had a Population Right Around Fifteen Hundred and Which Now Boasts of a
Bare Half Dozen Families.
CHAPTER XXIV—SIDELIGHTS ON COUNTY HISTORY
This Ought
to Prove One of the Most Interesting Chapters in the Book, for Here Are Given at
First Hand Numerous Stories of the Old Days, Preserving the Recollections of the
Pioneers With Respect to a Number of the Most Interesting and Important Events
in the Early Days of the Settlement of the County; a Symposium That Will Prove
of Incalculable Value to Those Who in After Years May Feel Called On to Compile
a Later History of the County.
CHAPTER XXV—SOME PROMINENT PIONEERS
For the
Information of the Present Generation There Are Presented Here a Number of Brief
Biographical Sketches of Some of the Sturdy Pioneers Who Helped to Bring This
Region to a Habitable State and Make Clear a Way for the Enjoyment of the Many
Blessings of a Settled Social Order, Included in This Distinguished Roll Being
Such Names as Those of John B. Didier, David Thomas Brinegar, Jonathan J.
Marvin, Jesse Crook, David Kinney, Francis L. Goldsberry, David Dorrington,
David R. Holt, Thomas C. Cunningham, James Henry Lane, Fulton Peters, Antoine
Barada, James Robert Cain, Sr., David L. Thompson, Dillard Walker, Mrs. Mary S.
Quick, James L. Overman and Others.
CHAPTER XXVI—REMINISCENCES OF A WAYFARER
In This
Exceedingly Interesting and Engaging Bit of Autobiography Written by the Hon.
Isham Reavis in 1909 the Reader Will Find One of the Most Entertaining and
Informative Collections of Reminiscences of the Old Days in Nebraska That Has
Ever Been Written, Including References to the Days Back “in the Beginning of
Things” When, This Region Was as Completely Isolated From the World and
Civilization as Was Alaska at the Opening of the Past Century.
CHAPTER XXVII—HISTORICAL SKETCHES
Here Are
Collected a Series of Valuable Reminiscent Papers From the Hands of Such
Pioneers as David Dorrington, E. H. Johnson William Witherow, Jesse Crook,
Thomas F. Brown, Isaac Crook, William G. Goolsby, J. C. Lincoln, Elisha Dorian
and Antoine Barada Relating to Incidents of the Early Days.
CHAPTER XXVIII—Miscellaneous MATTERS OF INTEREST
In This
Concluding Chapter There Are Presented, Just as Its Title Indicates, Several
Matters of Engrossing Local Interest That Fit In Well to the General Scheme of
the Book, Covering Details of Pioneer History Not Elsewhere Touched On; Typical
Tales of Pioneers Told First Hand and Thus Informative to a Degree Not Possible
of Attainment by One Who Has Merely Heard Them Instead of having Lived Them.