curities of the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines railroad and took possession of the road on November 1, 1899. The road is from Fort Madison to Des Moines, Iowa, 71 miles.
   In 1900 branches and extensions were built: Alliance, Nebraska, to Guernsey, Wyoming, opened June 11, 131 miles; Northport, Nebraska, to Brush, Colorado, opened September 16, 113 miles; Hill City to Keystone, South Dakota, opened February 25, 9 miles. About twenty miles of this is leased from and used jointly with the Union Pacific.
   In 1906 a line was built from Ashton to Laketon or South Sioux City (107 miles), and in 1907 the line from Laketon to O'Neill, Nebraska (sic), was purchased.
   In 1909 a branch, 7 miles long, was built from Lincoln to Cobb Junction, Nebraska.
   The Chicago & Northwestern Lines. The Sioux City & Pacific railroad company was organized August 1, 1864, in Iowa. The Northern Nebraska Air Line was organized June 7, 1867. The Sioux City & Pacific acquired the Northern Nebraska Air Line by consolidation September 15, 1868. It was built from California Junction, in Iowa, to the Missouri river and from the Missouri river near Blair, Nebraska, to Fremont, completed in February, 1869. Its Iowa organization received a small grant of lands through act of Congress, of July, 1864. It maintained a steamboat ferry at Blair in summer, and generally, in extreme cold weather, a track on the ice across the Missouri river in winter, to the time of the completion of the present Missouri Valley & Blair railway and bridge, August 9, 1882.
   The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley railway company was organized January 20, 1869. This company never had any land grant. It commenced construction at Fremont, after the completion of the Sioux City & Pacific to that point in 1869. It was extended in that year to Maple Creek, Nebraska, ten miles north of Fremont. In 1870 it wag completed to West Point and in 1871 to Wisner, and there rested till 1879, when it was extended fifty-eight miles to Oakdale, and in 1880 to Neligh; also from Norfolk junction to Plainview. In 1881 the branch was ex-tended from Plainview to Creighton, ten miles, and the main line in the same year was extended from Neligh to Long Pine, about ninety-eight miles.
   In 1882 it was further extended from Long Pine to Thacher, fifty miles, and again in 1883 from Thacher to Valentine, six miles. The line to the military post of Niobrara, three and one-half miles north of Valentine, was constructed and occupied in the fall and winter of 1880-1881.
   At Valentine the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley railroad rested till 1885, during which time, or before it commenced building again, the road was sold to the Chicago & Northwestern railway company, and its future extensions were under the direction and ownership of that corporation. In 1885 it was extended to Chadron, and from Chadron to Buffalo Gap, South Dakota; in 1886 from Buffalo Gap to Rapid City, South Dakota. In September, 1886, another branch was completed and opened from Fremont to Wahoo, and on October 25, 1886, the same branch was completed and opened to Lincoln.
   Another line was completed and opened December 6, 1886, from Scribner to Lindsay. The next year, 1887, this line was extended through Boone, Stanton, and Madison counties, to Oakdale, the then county seat of Antelope county. There it intersected and connected with the main line. That line was completed June 13, 1887. November 21, 1887, the Black Hills line was completed and opened from Rapid City to Whitewood, South Dakota. In the same year, December 18, 1887, another line, having been constructed, was opened from Arlington to Irvington and to South Omaha, also to a junction with the C., St. P., M. & 0. railway into Omaha. The same year another line was built from the Fremont-Lincoln line on the west side of the Platte river to Linwood and extended from Linwood to Geneva. In 1888 this line was extended from Geneva to Superior and the Kansas state line. It was opened September 6, 1888. In 1888 the branch now known as the "Niobrara line" was extended from Creigh-

ton to Verdigris, opened September 4th. In 1890 a line was built from Buffalo Gap to Hot Springs, South Dakota, and one from White-wood to Deadwood, both opened December 29, 1890. In 1891 extensions into Deadwood were made, also, to Bald Mountain, some twenty or thirty miles of narrow gauge mountain line.
   In 1886 another line was constructed from the main line in Dawes county, from a point called Dakota junction, to the Wyoming state line, and extended thence, under the name of the Wyoming Central railroad company, from the state line to Douglas, Wyoming, opened September 1st. November 21, 1887, the Wyoming Central was completed and opened from Douglas to Glen Rock, and in 1888 from Glen Rock to Casper, Wyoming. In 1901-1902 the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley company built a line from Deadwood to Lead, standard (and by a third rail, narrow) gauge road. In 1901 and 1902 it constructed an extension of the "Niobrara line" from Verdigris to Niobrara, on the Missouri river, near the mouth of the Niobrara river, into Boyd ,county, thence following the course of the Ponca creek northwesterly through Boyd county to the South Dakota line, and into Gregory county to Bonesteel.
   Missouri Pacific Lines. The roads operated at present under that name in the state of Nebraska were originally constructed by the Missouri Pacific railway company of Nebraska. The line extending from the southern boundary of the state to Papillion was completed July 1, 1882; Sarpy county extension of the Missouri Pacific railway, extending from Papillion Junction to the Sarpy county line, completed December 1, 1886; Omaha Belt railway, from Sarpy county line to Omaha, completed December 1, 1886; Lincoln branch of the Missouri Pacific railway, from Lincoln Junction, near Weeping Water, to Lincoln, completed August 25, 1886; Nebraska Southern railway, Auburn Junction to Nebraska City, completed August 28, 1887; Nebraska City extension of the Missouri Pacific railway, Nebraska City to Weeping Water Junction, completed August 28, 1887; Crete branch of the Missouri Pacific railway, extending from Talmage to Crete, completed November 1, 1888. The Kansas City Northwestern line only extends practically from Summerfield to Virginia, within the state of Nebraska, and that portion of the Pacific railway in Nebraska between Superior and Prosser is all there is of that railroad in Nebraska.
   The Missouri Pacific railway in Nebraska was constructed under the direction of Mr. Jay Gould and Mr. H. M. Hoxie, president and vice president, respectively, of the parent corporation, the Missouri Pacific railway company, the former residing in New York city and the latter at St. Louis, Missouri.
   The first officers of the Pacific railway in Nebraska were: A. S. Everest president, Atchison, Kansas; F. P. Bonnell, vice president, Superior, Nebraska; P. S. Williams, secretary, Superior, Nebraska; C. E. Adams, treasurer, Superior, Nebraska. This road was constructed under the direction of Mr. Jay Gould, president, and Mr. S. H. H. Clarke, vice president of the Missouri Pacific railway company.
   Rock Island Lines. On July 13, 1892, the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific railway was extended from the Missouri river to Lincoln, a distance of 57 miles; the same year or the next, the line was completed from Lincoln to Belleville, Kansas, to connect with the main line to Denver, about 70 miles in Nebraska; the branch from Fairbury to Nelson is 51 miles, making a total of 178 miles.
   The Midland Pacific Railroad Lines. Mr. Thomas J. Ryan, who has been a conductor on the Midland line between Lincoln and Nebraska City continuously since 1873, contributes the following:

   It was intended to build the road [Midland Pacific] from Nebraska City to Grand Island, but the original company built it only as far as Seward and graded as far as York, when, in the year 1877, it was bought by the Burlington & Missouri company. The officers of the road in the early seventies were: B. F. Smith, president; J. N. Converse, vice president and general superintendent; J. H. Wheeler, secretary and treasurer, N. B. Kendall, chief engineer; N. K. Fleming, general freight and

ticket agent; M. A. Showers, trainmaster and assistant superintendent; J. P. Taylor, roadmaster. The first engine arrived opposite Nebraska City in December, 1869, and was transferred across the Missouri river on a flat boat. In process of loading, it got away on the incline from the river bank and ran over the boat and plunged into the river beyond, leaving but a few inches above water. It was necessary to construct a pair of shears above the engine to raise it and pull it back on the boat.
   In a few days this was done and the engine was safely brought to the west side of the river, a channel for the boat's passage having been cut through the ice. A track was laid from the landing as far as South Table creek, a double line of rope was attached to the engine and a number of citizens of Nebraska City pulled it off of the boat and up the track to a point opposite the place where the starch works now stand. The first flat cars were hauled across the river, the car trucks being drawn by oxen on the ice and the car bodies, loaded on heavy timber wagons, were drawn by oxen also. Track laying began in January, 1870, and reached Dunbar that year. Grading, however, was continued on the line west of Dunbar; and in January, 1871, track laying was resumed. The road was finished to Lincoln the following April. About the year 1872 the same company began to build what was known as the Brownville, Ft. Kearney & Pacific railroad. This road was graded nearly to Tecumseh, and ten miles of track laid, but this was all taken up except about two miles, which extended up the river from Brownville.
   In the year 1874 a road was built from this track to Nebraska City, and trains were run to Brownville in March, 1875. The company did a fairly good business for a year or two before it sold the road to the Burlington.

   Statement showing mileage of the Union Pacific railroad within the state of Nebraska and year completed and placed in operation

686

HISTORY OF NEBRASKA

FINAL INDIAN HOSTILITIES. The reports of the secretaries of the interior, the commissioners of Indian affairs, and Indian agents on one hand, and of the secretaries of war and the military officers stationed on the western plains, on the other, afford a comprehensive and reliable history of the war with the Indians, which continued, with occasional cessation, throughout our state period, until the Indians had become adjusted and adapted to the reservation system. The report of the secretary of the interior for 1874 indulges in rather premature felicitation over the evident success of the policy of inducing or compelling the roaming tribes to settle on reservations. Though the severest fighting occurred afterward, hostilities ,were almost ended by the campaign of 1876-1877, in which the annihilation of General Custer's command of five companies occurred, on the Little Bighorn river, June 25, 1876. The number killed was 259; wounded, 53. Hostilities finally died out with the year 1879.
   The policy of dividing jurisdiction over the Indians between the department of war and the department of the interior was at least unfortunate. The constant clash between these departments caused much scandal and tended to irritate the Indians and encourage their hostility. In his report to General Grant, commander-in-chief, dated January 25, 1867, Major-General John Pope, who was commander of the department of the Missouri, 1866-1867, severely criticised this arrangement. The building of the Pacific and other western railroads meant to the Indians the invasion and subsequent occupation of their domain, and naturally incited a spirit of fierce hostility and resistance.
   General William T. Sherman, writing to the secretary of war, from Fort McPherson, Nebraska, June 17, 1867, doubted the belief of General J. B. Sanborn, one of the six commissioners appointed in February of that year to investigate Indian conditions, that peace could be brought about. He said: "My opinion is that if fifty Indians are allowed to remain between the Arkansas and the Platte we will have to guard every stage station, every train, and all railroad working parties. In other words, fifty hostile Indians will checkmate 3,000 soldiers. Rather get them out as soon as possible, and it makes little difference whether they be coaxed out by Indian commissioners or killed." General Sully, also one of the commissioners, wrote to the commissioner of Indian affairs, June 22, 1867, that a large number of the Indians west of the Missouri river were still hostile. "It is as hard for an ignorant wild Indian as it is for an educated, cultivated white man to remain quietly at home starving to death, having no means of hunting, being obliged to kill his horses to keep himself and children alive, and at the same time not allowed to purchase arms and ammunition to kill small game with, while he is visited daily by Indians from the hostile camp trying to induce him to join them, and sees by their warring with impunity on the whites they have more horses and mules than they want, and plenty to eat, and procure all the arms and ammunition they want." His

remedy was to provide for the needs of the peaceable Indians and vigorously punish the hostiles.
   In the Omaha Herald (weekly), September 5, 1873, Dr. George L. Miller, in his best, though characteristically extravagant style, boldly defends the revolt of the Indians. They were "simply defending their country and homes against armed invasion."
   This is the standing crime of the red man. He fights for life and liberty against lawless encroachment upon his birthright and fights bravely, as brave and earnest men always fight. But the Indian is not merely brave in war. He is logical and convincing in argument, surpassingly eloquent in oratory, and in his uncorrupted life has a power to perceive the truth, and a courage to tell it, that would put to shame the race that first corrupts, then wrongs, and then crushes and slays him. No man who shall hereafter write the history and doom of the red man need go farther than the names with which our country is made so musical to find that the Indian is also a poet of the highest type, although he can neither write nor steal rhymes, nor discuss feet or measures with the learned and cultured . . .
   That Red Cloud is a far abler man than our present minister to St. Cloud (Elihu B. Washburne), we have not a particle of doubt. That Washakic is the superior, intellectually and morally, of two-thirds of our United States senators, we have as little doubt, and that Spotted-Tail has more wisdom and virtue than the president of the United States it would be an insult to Spotted Tail to question. That Little Thunder, whom Harney led into ambush, was Harney's equal as a warrior, with the utmost respect for the hero of Ash Hollow and Chapultepec, we shall always believe, and that Sitting Bull is an overmatch for Custer, as a stranger to both, we do not hesitate to affirm.
   The subsequent annihilation of Custer's command at the battle of the Little Bighorn, through Sitting Bull's strategy, seems to vindicate the last comparison and to invest the others with plausibility, at least. Red Cloud and his band of Ogalalla Sioux were counted as hostile up to 1870. This famous chief is characterized by the commissioner of Indian affairs in his report for that year. "He is an Indian with considerable administrative and executive ability. As a warrior, he is famous for energy and bravery, and possesses very great influence over his tribe. The circumstances connected with his visit to Washington and the East, and the impression created by his boldness, eloquence, and ability, are too well known to require more than an allusion to that visit at this time." Red Cloud has counselled (sic) peace on all occasions since his return; but he was the genius of the war in the northwest, the most tragic incident of which was the destruction of Lieutenant Colonel Fetterman's party of seventy-nine soldiers and two citizens at Fort Phil. Kearny, December 21, 1866, The secretary of the interior, in his report of 1872 (p. 403), estimates that there were 61,000 Indians between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad and the proposed southern route, starting west from Springfield, Missouri; 92,000 between the proposed Northern Pacific and the Union and Central Pacific; and 36,000 between the Northern Pacific and the British boundary. In the same report (p. 597) the superintendent of the Omaha superintendency says that the Brulé and Ogalalla are still making raids on the Pawnee. In the report for 1874 the secretary says that, after great difficulty, the Sioux, with the exception of two bands, have been enrolled in eleven agencies where they receive subsistence.
   The Nebraska legislature of 1875 adopted a joint memorial and resolution stoutly demanding the removal of the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies from Nebraska, where they had been located in 1874 without the consent of the state under color of the treaty of 1868. In 1876 there were no hostilities in Nebraska, but there was constant war with the Sioux in Dakota and Wyoming, which included the Custer massacre of June 25th. According to the report of the secretary of war for 1867, the Indians made a systematic attack on the Platte route from both north and south. General Sherman went in person to Fort Sedgwick and remained there from June 6th to the 22d. The redoubtable General Custer was at Fort McPherson in June with six companies of the Seventh cavalry. This post was the center of operations at that time. The upper Republi-