"Immigrant Issue" of

Lincoln State Journal

Sunday 5 June 1887, page 12

This special edition was intended to PROMOTE Nebraska as a state and provide the towns with an opportunity to advertise their status, attract new residents.

   Albion, the county seat of Boone county, is beautifully situated in the fertile valley of Beaver creek, about twenty-five miles above its junction with the Loop river. Albion has a population of 1,200 people, and has within its borders, doing a thriving business, three banks, five general stores, three grocery stores, two clothing and dry goods stores, four hardware stores, three drug houses, one gent's furnishing store, four dealers in agricultural implements, three grain elevators, one boot and shoe store, two harness shops, several blacksmith shops and shoe shops, three lumber yards, two jewelry stores, one book and music store, three livery barns, four hotels and two newspapers; one of which the semi weekly News, is republican, and the Argus democratic. There is also a roller flouring mill and still another is badly needed to supply the demand of Boone county farms. A careful estimate of the sales (?) in all these different branches of business during the past year foots up the sum of $2,400,000.
   There were shipped into Albion last year 158 cars of lumber, 300 of coal, eighteen of agricultural implements, twenty-four of immigrant movables, eighteen of salt and thirty-seven of other articles. The shipments of way freight amounted to 5,472,877 pounds. There was shipped out 303 cars of cattle and hogs, 201 of grain, fourty-two (sic) of flour and meal, and forty-one other cars. During the last three years the population and business of the town has more than doubled. A number of fine brick business houses and dwellings have been erected, including a large two story brick school building furnished in the most improved manner, and schools are open nine months each year. Several new structures have already been erected this year and others are under contract. A system of steam power water works, having a capacity of 600 gallons per minute was completed last fall, thus affording the needed means of protection against fire, besides supplying the water to the citizens.
   The Northwestern railroad has completed its line to Albion and regular trains will be put on in a few days. The Oakdale branch from Albion will be completed early in June, making a direct outlet to the Black Hills mining region. It is expected that work on the main line westward over the surveyed route will begin soon, making of Albion one of the best railroad centers of the North Platte region, where one year ago , with scarcely a hope for the better, she was only a terminal point of one of the Union Pacific branches.
   Albion is located near the center of Boon (sic) county and has tributary to it as fine a farming and stock raising country as is to be found in the state. The soil is rich clay loam, and contains every element of fertility for rye, barley, flax, etc. Tame grasses grow, luxuriantly and the yield has exceeded the expectation of the most hopeful. Garden vegetables and every variety of small fruits are grown to perfection. Orchards planted by the early settlers are beginning to bear so that there is every reason to believe that in a short time the county will have enough and to spare in the line of fruits.
   There are a number of ranches in the county where are fed & fatted every year immense herds of cattle, which consume and afford a home market for much of the surplus grain, the nutritious wild grasses supplying abundant pasturage during the summer months. The farmer of more limited means finds it profitable to feed his corn to hogs, for which there is always a ready market at paying prices. Still others combine cattle and hog raising and nowhere is it done more successfully than among the farmers of Boone county. Thousands of acres of fertile prairie soil have never yet been broken or plowed, and only wait the coming of the energetic farmer to be converted into productive farms and happy homes. The county has a population of 9,000 with abundant room and means of support for 20,000 more. No government land is left unentered, but good farms more or less improved can be had at prices ranging from $7 to $20 per acre.
   There are about 75 schools in Boone county bringing within easy reach of the settler the facilities for educating the rising generation. The religious and moral interests of the people have not been neglected; nearly every neighborhood has its church organizationa and many of them their church edifice. At Albion, the Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and the Catholics have their own houses of worship. The population of Albion and Boone county is chiefly native born Americans, but in the county are found settlements of Irish, Russians, and Scandinavians. To those seeking new homes, a healthy climate and a fertile soil, the invitation is extended to come to Albion, come to Boone county, Nebraska.

   Bloomington is one of the most beautiful little cities in the west, conveniently and pleasantly located and posessed of many natural advantages. The population is nearly 600. The town is well supplied with public buildings, among which is a handsome $7,000 brick school building with a school second to none. Also a fine brick Presbyterian church and commodious Methodist Church.
   Bloomington is the county seat of Franklin county. Is thirty miles west of Red Cloud up the Republican valley on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad from Lincoln to Denver and from Kansas City to Denver, with four passenger trains a day. Denver and the mountains is the chief market for butter, eggs and produce. Bloomington is also quite a shipping point for cattle and hogs and shipments of grain will probably equal those of any point in the valley.
   The United States land office for a large territory of southwestern Nebraska is located here and a great many eastern people come to this point, not only to see this part of the country but to learn the location of the government lands. They frequently leave their families here until such a time as they have secured their land. Many of them, pleased with the country, buy land and become permanent settlers.
   This town is in the great Republican valley; and one of the garden spots of Nebraska, with climate healthful, water the purest, soil rich and productive. Eastern people seeking western homes will do well to come directly to Bloomington and from there look this country over. The people are intelligent and enterprising, and welcome good citizens to their midst. Society is the very best. No more law-abiding town can be found in the state.
   The local newspaper called Nebraska Homes gives a full description of the country, the towns, and the country at large, containing figures and facts covering the populations, the averages of crops and statistics of interest generally. Mr. Hildreth recently published a 10,000 edition of this paper for free distribution and a postal card directed to him for a copy will meet with a prompt reply.
   Bloomington has two lumber yards, two banks, two newspapers, two hardware, two drug stores, and other business houses in proportion. Several brick buildings, etc. A stock company is now being formed to build and conduct a tanning factory.

   Cambridge, Neb., is siturated in the northwest corner of Furnas county, 205 miles from Lincoln, 368 miles from Kansas City, and 280 miles from Denver, on the main line of the Burlington & Missouri railway. Together with its location at the junction of the Medicine valley with that of the Republican and the fine agricultural country surrounding it, Cambridge must inevitably become a large and properous city, having also for its site one of nature's locations for a town. The Medicine creek valley opening into the Republican at this point affords a fine opening for a railroad route to the northwest, which will soon be made use of, the Burlington & Missouri Railroad company having surveyed a branch line up the creek valley from this point, which will evidently be built this year.
   There is at this point and within the corporated limits of the town a fine water power now partly utilized in running a flour mill of 100 barrels per day capacity, and having, as it now stands, a surplus power of 150-horse power, suitable for the operation of a woollen factory, paper mill, etc. Beyond all question here is the cheapest and best power in the state, ready for use and only waiting for someone of enterprise and capital to take hold of and make his fortune. Fine stone quarries near town afford good building rock not only for this town, but for towns 100 miles each side. Fifty men ought to find employment in these quarries.
   Cambridge has now two banks, one newspaper, four general stores, one of which enjoyed a trade of $60,000 last year, two hardware stores, one of which had a $40,000 trade the year past, two drug stores, three millinery stores, three meat markets, one shoe shop, two implement stores, two lumber yards, three churches, two hotels, two restaurants, four blacksmith shops, three livery barns, one barber shop, etc., and still there is room for more and a hearty welcome will be given to enterprising immigrants. Residence lots in town sell for $25 to $100 and business lots for $200 to $500 each, and are desirable investments. Good farm lands within a reasonable distance of town are to be had for $8 to $12.50 per acre.

   The town of Dunbar, in Otoe county, is pleasantly situated at the confluence of Wilson and Rock creeks; eleven miles west of Nebraska City and forty-seven miles east of Lincoln, on the Nebraska railway division of the Burlington & Missouri railroad. This gives direct, quick and competitive railroad and express communication with one of the chief grain, stock and wholesale points in the Missouri valley, as well as close and direct communication with Chicago via the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy.
   Otoe county is one of the most fertile and beautiful in Nebraska and known throughout the state for the excellence of her fine stock, and as the banner fruit growing section. Timber is quite plenty (sic) along streams near town as well as building stone. A vein of soft coal has been discovered within a few feet of the surface on the creek a half mile from town.
   There are in the business lines four general merchandise houses, one hardware, one drugs, one agricultural implements, one millinery, two blacksmiths, one shoemaker, one barber, three grain dealers, two stock buyers, the Chicago Lumber company, doing a $25,000 business, one photograph gallery, one brick yard, one steam grist mill, two contracting and carpenter firms, two hotels, with bus lines to all trains, two livery stables, one drayage and baggage line. There are also two churches, with settled pastors, a commodious school buildings (sic) and 140 scholars.
   Among the shipments from here in 1886 were 575 cars of grain, 190 cars of stock, besides eighty-five cars of miscellaneous freight. The receipts amount to ninety-five cars of lumber and seventy cars of miscellaneous freight.
   The merchants enjoyed a prosperous trade during the past year, and the outlook for all branches of business is promising. Several buildings have been added to the residence portion of town. One store building is being built, and two new brick store buildings will be erected during the summer.
   Among the farm and stock enterprises of importance in this neighborhood are the Turlington stock farm of T. W. Harvey, Chicago, comprising 1,000 acres, three miles west - where extensive and expensive improvements are constantly being made and the fine and fat stock from which has a national reputation. Mark M. Coad, proprietor of the Percheron Norman horse and Shorthorn cattle farm of Fremont, has recently purchased a farm of 480 acres one mile north of town and will stock it with fine stock and operate it as a branch of the home farm. These farms represent a captal of $200,000, the proceeds of a sale of horses at one time last year being $22,000, and cannot but be of great benefit to the farmers & stock men of the county. The county poor farm is one mile west of town and a three story brick poor house was erected there last year.

   Humboldt is one of the properous live towns of the Nemaha valley with a population of 2,000 people, on the Burlington & Missouri railroad in the western part of Richardson county, Neb., at the junction of Long Branch with the Nemaha river. In the center of town is a beautiful park set to beautiful shade tress and seeded to blue grass which covers it like a carpet with two never failing wells and wind mill attachments furnishing water to all comers. Both coal and lead have been found in small quantities but of the best quality, in digging wells in this town at thirty feet deep. A coal prospecting company is now formed of which H. T. Hull is president and thorough investigation is about to begin to develop these mineral resources. Humboldt has one of the very best brick school buildings of the Nemaha valley, economically built for about $16,000, with accomodations for 1,000 pupils.
   We may truly say of the country surrounding Humboldt that the "rich alluvial soil needs but to be tickled with the hoe to laugh with the bountiful harvest." The best strains of blood in both cattle and horses are much sought and cultivated in this section. Edward Pyle raised the far-famed Maxey Cobb, with 2:13 1/4 record there and his son of a thoroughbred dam is still kept here by Ed Donland. The steam mills and elevator with roller process are known far and wide for the superior brand of their flour, and shipments are made to every part of the state. Their capacity is 100 barrels per day.
   The Humboldt Standard and the Nebraska Enterprise do the newspaper work every week in first-class order. The religious and moral interests of the place are well looked after by the Methodists, both American and German, Presbyterians, Christian and United Brethren churches. All the secret societies also have strong lodges in good working order.
   There were shipped from Humboldt during last year 600 car loads of corn, 250 cars of hogs, 100 cars of fat cattle, three cars of wool and fifteen cars of hay.
   The medical profession is represented by four skilled physicians.
   The following businesses are represented: three banks, two hotels, one drug store and grocery store, one of general groceries, etc. six general merchandise, three restaurants, one hardware, two jewelers, two implement dealers, three blacksmiths, one boot and shoe dealer, one meat market, one furniture dealer, three livery and feed stables, two harness makers, two lumber yards, besides representatives of the different trades and professions.

   Minden, the county seat of Kearney county, is situated in the geographical centre of the county upon beautiful high rolling prairie, surrounded by a rich, well developed, agricultural country, equaled by few and excelled by none in Nebraska. Is a town of phenomenal growth and with a very bright and prosperous future before it. Minden, which in 1883 had a population of only 250, has now reached about 1,800, with fair prospects of being a city of 2,500 inhabitants before 1888. It is situated upon the main line of the Burlington & Missouri, thirty miles west from Hastings. The Kansas City & Omaha railroad are now building a line through Kearney county via Minden and Alma to Denver, and in addition a line from Minden northwest to Ogalalla, with Minden at the eastern terminus is in prospect, thus at once placing Minden as one of the fortunate railroad centers of Nebraska. There is also almost positive assurance that the Missouri Pacific and Northwestern roads will reach this town within the year.
   Minden can boast of a class of citizens whose progressive enterprise cannot help but build up a town and keep it in one perpetual boom.
   As a business center, Minden ranks amoung the highest as the following branches will show. There is in successful operation ten general stores, four hardware, three drug, two boot and shoe, two furniture, three millinery, three confectionery & notion, four implement, two harness, two jewelry, three banks, three livery, one hotel, three restaurants, three lumber yards, one roller mill, two large elevators, two newspapers and three brick yards with the demand greater than the supply. Some four or five of the general stores do a business of from thirty-five to forty thousand dollars each per annum, and all do well. Over 400 cars of lumber were received at this point last year, and more small grain was shipped than from any point on the line of the Burlington & Missouri road in Nebraska. The Minden roller mills with capacity of 125 barrels per day, though running day and night, are far inadequate to the demand. Large brick blocks are going up in all parts of the town and 1887 bids fair to add more then a dozen substantial blocks to the town. Stock is already subscribed to build a $5,000 creamery, which will be built within thirty days. Nor has the religious and educational interest of Minden been neglected as the six magnificent church edifices and a $15,000 brick school house with all the modern appliances will testify.
   To those seeking homes in Nebraska and the west we can but say do not locate until you have visited Minden, where you will find splendid openings for any kind of business, and a home surrounded by all the pleasant advantages of churches and schools. Several lots are selling with great rapidity, and the year 1887 bids fair to be one in which the property of Minden will be greatly advanced and her future assured.

   Oxford, Neb., is a town of 900 inhabitants, on the main line of the Burlington & Missouri railroad, midway between the Missouri river and Denver, Col., also where the Kansas City branch intersects the main line midway between Kansas City and Denver, making it the natural location for the central machine shops of this popular railroad system. The town is situated on a beautiful plateau sloping gradually from the Republican river to a high and sightly eminence, where one can plainly see the town of Arapahoe fifteen miles up the valley. Then turning in the opposite direction one plainly beholds the beautiful town of Orleans, in Harlan county, fifteen miles distant. The town is having a substantial growth; being well supported by the magnificent farming country surrounding it. There is no branch of business overdone, but plenty of room for more. There are four general stores, amount of business transacted by each being from $8,000 to $13,500; two grocery stores; three drug stores; two banks; two lumber yards, which sold last year $50,000 worth of lumber; two elevators; one boot and shoe store; one newspaper, the Oxford Standard;one brick yard; one hotel; three restaurants, the Burlington & Missouri railraod has one of its large and popular eating houses at this point.
   A $6,000 school house is now in course of erection. There is three church organizations, Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian; two church buildings, Baptist and Presbyterian. The following societies have organizations: A.F. & A. M., G. A. R. and A. O. U. W.
   The Republican river is a very rapid stream and affords a splendid water power for all kinds of manufacturing and Oxford would be an excellent location for a flouring mill. Town property can be bought reasonable and land is cheap. Some well improved farms near town can be bought at a bargain, and all enterprising citizens from the east meet with a hearty welcome when settling among us.

   Scribner is located on the west bank of the Elkhorn on the main line of the Fremont-Elkhorn & Missouri Valley railroad about sixty miles northwest of Omaha, on a level yet sloping portion of the river bottom and has fine drainage. The first building in Scribner was erected in the summer of 1874 following the completion of the railroad beyond the town. Since then the town has had a steady, substantial growth and now ranks favorably in importance in every respect with any town of its age in the state. The first to locate here were men of means, who began at once to project such enterprises as in their minds would seem to prove the most valuable in shaping its future as a place of importance. Three large steam power elevators were erected and a lively competition for the grain trade from the surrounding country made things brisk. Several merchantile establishments were opened, dwellings erected, walks laid down and a variety of shade trees planted. Chief among the manufacturing enterprises is a $50,000 steam roller mill the product of which reaches nearly every town on the line of road on which it is located. A brick yard with a capacity of 500,000 is one of the valuable and growing enterprises. A carriage, and wagon factory and others of minor importance. The town has two fine church edifices and three religious denominations, viz: Methodist, Congregationalist and Lutheran. During the summer of 1885 one of the finest structures for educational purposes in the state was erected at the cost of $8,000. The intelligent class of people were quick to see the advantage to their town of good educational facilities and they now have as fine an institution for this purpose with as competent teachers as can be found at any place. Instructions in all the lower and most of the higher branches are given.
   The town is experiencing a sort of boom this spring and a large number of fine dwellings are being erected besides several new business ventures, substantial ones are being undertaken.
   The population is increasing quite rapidly and now numbers about 700. A good lively local newspaper disseminates the news each week and is a growing prosperous institution, well supported by the enterprising business men. Two state banks doing a good business and are both good, solid institutions and a credit to the town. There are in all thirty-six business houses now doing business, in which every line of trade is represented. The town is not of the mushroom class, but has been marked by a steady, healthy growth since it started, and its propects are such that an investment in property here would insure to the party making it a steady increase of his captial. This is one of the most promising towns in the state and money invested in real estate cannot but bring handsome profit.

   The town of Wisner is beautifully situated on the east side of the Elkhorn river, on a second bench with a sourthwestern slope and is the principal town and trading center of the western half of Cuming county as well as the southern Wayne and eastern Stanton counties. It is on the main line of the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley railway, ninety-five miles north of Lincoln, fifty miles north of Fremont and 110 miles from Omaha. It is the natural center of the richest portion of the famous Elkhorn valley, and in the very heart of the great corn belt of the northwest. The town was laid out in 1871, and now numbers about 600 souls, representing the various nationalities in the following ratio: Native born, 55 per cent; German, 30 per cent; Scandinavian, 15 per cent. The town site embraces about 100 acres. The business portion is compactly built, the lots 25x100 feet being held at $125 to $300, while residence lots 60x140 feet are to be had at from $30 to $100.
   The schools of Wisner are a credit to the educational system of the state, and are second to none in Cuming county, being divided into three departments. A large portion of the necessary funds are collected for the execution of a first-class school building within the next two years, at a cost of $10,000 on one of the most beautiful sites in the state; which is already partly improved. Four neat and commodious church edifices attest the religious and moral statue of the place, viz: the Methodist, Congregational, Evangelical Lutheran and Catholic. The following mystic and benevolent societies are represented by flourishing local organizations: A. F. & A. M., I. O. O. F. and G. A. R.
   Although the town contains numerous wells of excellent water, ranging from twenty to thirty feet in depth, Wisner is one of the sixteen cities and towns in the state which are operating systems of waterworks. The water is unexcelled in quality and is semi-soft.
   In common with the rest of the Nebraska towns, Wisner is enjoying a business revival. Chief among the items of the season's improvements is the erection of a flouring mill of fifty barrels capacity by Messrs. Van Dorn & Waite (White?) late of Little Rock, Ark. This is to be fitted up with the latest improved combination roller process machinery and the large force of mechanics employed upon the building insure its speedy completion. It is to cost at least $15,000.
   The Elkhorn Valley Creamery company, a stock company composed of three of the strongest business houses of the town, C. C. McNish (?), J. W. McLaughlin & Co. and G. A. Heller & Bro., commercial operations on the 16th ult. Their new establishment is one of the best equipped in the state. There is also the Harding Brothers creamery, which has made for itself during the past years an enviable reputation in the markets. With these two institutions at this point the creamery interests are booming and the farmers of the vicinity, many of whom keep as many as forty cows, and one as many as seventy, find a lucrative sale for their cream. But first in importance is the live stock interests of this section - a veritable stock man's paradise, made so from the abundant range and immense and never failing yields of the staple cereals, corn and oats, produced upon a deep, warm loam soil of unexcelled fertility. The paramount importance of the stock feeding interest is evidenced by the following statements: during the past season there were shipped from Wisner over 2,000 head of fat cattle and 4,000 hogs. The Powder River Live Stock company, having a capital of $300,000 are operating two large and fine feeding farms near here. It is estimated that 150,000 bushels of corn were fed within a radius of eight miles of this place last winter. The shipments of grain during the year 1886, are as follows; Corn, 86,850 bushels, wheat, 43,000; oats, 9,000; rye, 4,500; barley, 3,600 (?).
   The business of Wisner is represented as follows: One real estate & loan agency firm, one bank, five general merchansdise store, two drug stores, two hardware stores, two lumber yards, two grain elevators, two creameries, two harness and saddlery shops, one furniture store, two agricultural implement houses, one hotel, one restaurant, two livery stables, one newspaper and every other branch of business and profession well represented. Wisner is a first-class location for a canning factory and will give liberal inducements to secure the same.