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son, and Samuel C. Smith residences were purchased and Frank Price was put in charge of the plant. Directors for the creamery were: M. Whitmoyer, president; V. T. Price, treasurer; H. P. Smith, secretary; and C. Kramer and W. T. Ransdall, members of the board of directors.

The period of 1880 to 1885 was one of prosperity for the entire middle section of Nebraska.

By 1885 a total of three thousand people were living in Columbus, fifteen thousand in Platte County. Buildings in the town were keeping pace with the improvements in farm homes and herds. Columbus alone, during the year of 1886, expended $127,575 for all classes of building; wheat was selling for fifty cents a bushel, butter for ten and fifteen cents per pound and cattle at three dollars per hundredweight.

Something of this expansive spirit seemed to pervade the entire population for the settlers had not learned to disguise their energies in the staid, formal phraseology of nineteenth century manners. Editor John G. Higgins, the father of boat builder Andrew Higgins, took to the columns of the Columbus Democrat to plead: "Will the good men of Columbus please refrain from swearing in public, on our streets, in the post office and other places of public resort?"

It was in March of 1885 that one of Columbus' leading citizens who had brought fame and honor to the entire territory died in Columbus. Major Frank J. North had come to Platte County as a youth and, following his years as a Pawnee Scout, had joined William F. Cody in the operation of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and in the formation of the Cody and North ranch on the upper Dismal River in northwestern Nebraska. The ranch partnership lasted until 1882.

The history of Columbus in the middle 1880's shows that thousands of sacks of flour were making their way annually to markets in the states. The Elevator Roller Mill, started by Jaeggi and Schupbach, was in operation and the thirty thousand dollar Columbus Milling Company, established by G. A. and Charles Schroeder was also doing a capacity business. Other men, like Robert Uhlig, owner of the local cigar factory, were expanding since they were no longer limited to local distribution and could reach out via railroad to markets in every corner of the country.

Political lines had begun to emerge several ears before. R. H. Henry, a local Democrat, had been mayor for some time when, in 1886, Carl Kramer, the Republican candidate for mayor was voted into office by the people of Columbus. However, the following year, the Democrats again were victorious in their election of James E. North over the incumbent candidate, Carl Kramer.

It was about that time that the Columbus Board of Trade, forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce, came into existence to promote the business and financial interests of the community. Eighty men joined the organization, headed by J. N. Taylor, president. Other officers included: George Lehman, vice president; O. T. Roen, treasurer; and D. Frank Davis, secretary.

Business was given added stimulus that year by the completion of the new Union Pacific depot and coal chutes. In fact, 1887 was a peak year for the launching of new business ventures in Columbus. On November 22, the Commercial National Bank was incorporated with Chauncey H. Sheldon, president, and Robert Uhlig, cashier. The bank opened for business January 1, 1888.

But appearance of a town is one of the most important things it has to offer newcomers, investors and sympathetic visitors from other parts of the nation; and it was in 1888 that the people of Columbus voted to grant a franchise to the Columbus Motor Railway Company to construct tracks on the city streets. The line started on the street east of the B. & M. Depot, traveled south to a point near the court house, at Tenth and Washington Streets, west to the Pacific House, north past the Union Pacific Depot, west to the Clother House, on Twelfth Street, north to Fourteenth Street, then west to Meridian Avenue, stopping near the home of Mrs. G. W. Stevens. The company operated two cars, each with a capacity of eighteen passengers, both of which were horsedrawn.

All over town small, businesses began to spring up. Some flourished for a while and later ceased to exist but many of them remained to augment the stature of Columbus as a center of activity and further broaden the opportunities of the region by giving employment to many men.

Something of the faith of these early leaders is revealed in the words of D. Frank Davis, father of Dyo Davis, of Silver Creek, former editor of the Columbus Democrat, who began publishing the Columbus Daily Telegram in 1889 with the announcement that he "expected but little financial reward for his labors at present, but was willing to wait and grow with his town."

The building growth of the city continued unabated all through the 1880's. Much of this

was given added impetus by the organization, in 1886, of the Columbus Land, Loan and Building Association. In addition to the business and mercantile establishments, other organizations of an educational and social service nature began to appear.

The Park Hill Orphan Home Association, with its orphanage in the Postville neighborhood, was created under the leadership of the Reverend William L. Armstrong. An addition was built to the St. Francis Academy, which was three stories high, and large enough to accommodate two hundred boarders. The same year, the new St. Mary's Hospital was built. The increasing emphasis on social values and the health and moral welfare of the community as it was defined by the W. C. T. U. and the strong Prohibition Party paved the way for the first criticism of the railroads, which previously had occupied a position of almost unsullied purity in the minds of the population.

In spite of the electric lights and the local and main line transportation, the forces of nature continued to ravage the lands of Platte Valley residents. A fierce storm on September 1, 1887, tore away one-third of the Loup Bridge and did damage estimated at fifty thousand dollars to growing crops and livestock in all parts of the county.

Nance County reported a thirty thousand dollar loss and the area in general suffered a sharp setback for business in Columbus, which reflected the relative prosperity of the farmers. The new Loup River bridge was finally completed by Christmas of 1887, but not before many a local political battle had been waged over the terms of its construction.

As early as 1873, Columbus was the focal point of trade, drawing from Colfax, Butler, Polk, Howard, Boone, Antelope, Greeley and Madison Counties for its customers. A steady stream of coming and going farm wagons kept merchants and their clerks busy until ten and eleven o'clock in the evenings and traffic was also heavy on the roads from Stanton, Pierce, Merrick, York and Hamilton counties for, with the exception of Omaha, no other town in Nebraska had the business that Columbus showed during this era. Even Denver, with thirty thousand population, did not equal the record of Columbus.

The less vital pronouncements of the day, pieced together, give a picture of the increasing leisure time of the residents of Platte County, their emphasis upon local pride and unfailing spirit of competition which permeated even the sports arenas of America.

"The new Columbus Fire Department will parade tomorrow in full uniform," reads one such item. The town was proud of its brass band and the "social orchestra" but complaints were numerous about those local saloons which persisted in remaining open on Sundays. Even the leaders of the community found time for some relaxation now that the ground-breaking and Indian-fighting days had passed slowly into the settling fog of history. Grading began on the race track started by local racing fans on the Gottschalk land just outside the city limits. Unofficial racing had long been a feature of town life and "the bottoms of Columbus" was the scene of many a contest such as that between Charles Burke and John Burns in 1875.

Cockfights were also popular in Platte County at this time but the majority of the population clung to the more established forms of social entertainment such as the annual Christmas party marked by the usual necktie festival, Christmas tree tableaux and the community sings with melodeon accompaniment.

Columbus enjoyed one dramatic chapter of its growth during the gold rush which made headlines in newspapers all over the country. The scheme which aroused so much interest and tempted countless men to leave their homes in search of a fortune was the Black Hills gold rush of 1875.

The rush, which was in reality a promotion scheme originated by Isaac Newton Taylor and a group of Columbus businessmen, was activated by the Black Hills Mining Company. Local merchants, wishing to publicize Columbus as the outfitting and caravan starting point for the expedition, joined the project with Taylor as secretary. Newspapers throughout the East carried advertisements, urging all to come to Columbus by rail and purchase the necessary equipment for the trek into the Dakota hills. The promoters also retained a group of plainsmen who knew the hill country to act as guides. These scouts, headed by A. J. Arnold, Luther North, and others who had been present when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, agreed to lead the caravans to their desired destination for a fixed fee per vehicle.

The first company to leave on such an expedition set out from Columbus March 1, 1875. Between seventy-five and a hundred men were in the party which was conducted by A. J. Arnold. Several other mining companies joined

Arnold en route and the caravan traveled by way of Warren's, Oakdale, Neligh and French Town.

Gold was originally discovered in the Black Hills country by the Sioux Indians, who retained title to the land and did everything possible to keep the discovery a secret from the white men. The news was revealed, however, and soon a deluge of fortune-seekers poured into the region to look for gold, completely ignoring the legality of the Sioux' claim.

Thus it was that businessmen in Platte County found themselves called upon to stock clothing, blankets, buffalo robes, flour, meat, guns, ammunition, picks, shovels, horses, mules, harnesses, tents and practically every other commodity required for the unusual enterprise. In his pronouncement regarding Columbus as a port of entry, Taylor stated: "Neither the club nor the leader of the expedition assumes any definite responsibility about the amount of gold in the hills, but they affirm upon the personal knowledge of Captain North that there is gold and they reasonably hope to find it in paying quantity ...."

After the Black Hills rush, the talk of mining and fortunes-made-over-night dwindled in this part of Nebraska, not to be revived until the Leesburg mining property at Leesburg, Idaho, was promoted in April, 1910. Many local Citizens invested in the Leesburg mines and meetings were held in Fremont and Columbus at which mine Superintendent O'Brien reported on the development of the property and the outlook for stockholders. Thousands of dollars were poured into the operation in the form of machinery, tramways, hoists, compressed air plants and other apparatus necessary for the operation of the mines, but little was ever realized on the venture.

All of these schemes awakened the outside world to the growing prestige of Columbus and hastened its sale of improved lands. In 1876, I. N. Taylor contracted to sell two hundred thousand acres of land outside the Union Pacific Railroad limits in Cuming, Stanton, Wayne, Madison, Boone and Antelope Counties at a price ranging between two and a half and six and a half dollars per acre on long credit and low interest.

In the story of the development of Platte County, the part played by the early surveyors is an important one. These surveys, which began in 1837 were not completed until the "Gates of Sheridan" expedition in 1910.

From the time, in 1854*, when a base line was measured west from the Missouri River one hundred eight miles and corner posts were set up marking each mile, all subsequent claims had to be based upon this measurement. The line was drawn on the 40th degree of latitude, north from the equator, to serve as boundary between the states of Nebraska and Kansas.

The original orders for the survey of Nebraska had called for a division of the land into blocks six miles square, to be called townships. Each township was then divided into blocks one mile square called sections. The townships are numbered and each row stretching across the state from south to north is called a range. Ranges are counted from the sixth principal meridian, which runs through Columbus. There are nineteen ranges east and fifty-nine ranges west in Nebraska.

In many cases the Indians, resenting this last act of invasion of their ancient lands, pulled up the surveyors' stakes, tore down the mounds and drove off whole parties of workmen. Fever and ague were common in the surveying camps where men lived in tents, survived extremes of cold as well as hot weather. In surveying the islands of the Platte River, the men waded through water for weeks. All surveys of the state of Nebraska ended shortly after the turn of the century and the field notebooks and other official records are now in the vaults of the state surveyor at Lincoln. Theirs is part of the story of the organization --- the moving in of law and order that accompanied the growth of this highly cultivated region.

*A. E. Sheldon History gives 1855 surveys as authentic.

© 2005 for the NEGenWeb Project by Ted & Carole Miller