The first settlers of Johnson County were John Riggles and Isaac Irwin of Indiana, who took up a half section of land southeast of the present site of Tecumseh in 1856. In the summer of this year six settlers whose farms were adjoining formed the beginnings of Tecumseh. The first comers settled mostly in the valleys of the great Nemaha and Yankee Creek. The first native of Johnson was James Price, son of Ansford Price. The county was organized in 1857, and was named for Gen. R. M. Johnson, U. S. A., who figured prominently in the Black Hawk War, and the capital, Tecumseh, was named in honor of the famous Indian chief. Johnson County comprises 229,692 acres, of which 198,718 acres are cultivated. About 95 per cent of the land is capable of raising crops, while the rest is adapted to grazing and fruit growing. Corn, cereals and meadow grass are the principal agricultural products, while vegetables and fruits are widely raised. The surface is made up of rolling plain and valleys, with an average elevation of 1,120 feet above sea level. Land has increased in value $10 to $20 per acre in the last five years. Pasture land sells at $20 an acre, while the best farm land brings $75. In the last two years over five hundred farms have been sold. In the valleys there is a deposit of dark alluvium from five to ten feet deep. In 1900 there were 1,764,535 bushels of corn in the county, and the number of hogs exported was 43,330. In that year the total amount of live stockk (sic) was valued at $1,319,252. The sugar beet industry is confined to twenty acres. The Nemaha Rivers and many creeks form so complete a water system that every. township is drained by at least one stream. A great deal of timber is natural to the valleys. The winter of 1856-7 caused great suffering because the houses were not well built, and the nearest source of supplies was at Brownville, forty miles distant. In 1858 the land was offered for sale by the government. Since the settlers had no claim other than the right of possession, they were forced either to buy their homes or lose them. Many had to relinquish their improved land, and a period of "hard times" began.

     After the Civil War the county was largely

settled by ex-soldiers from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. The first school was taught at Tecumseh in 1856 by I. C. Lawrence. The school census of 1861 showed 134 children of school age, while the present census shows 4,195.

     BYRON E. DILL was born in Lucas County, Ohio, March 5, 1875. His parents are H. J. and Susan B. Dill and his father is a farmer. He is of German descent. At the age of three he moved to Kansas, and has lived in Nebraska since 1882. He obtained his education at Blue Springs High School and Fremont Normal. He has attended several summer sessions at the State University. He taught school in Nebraska about ten years, both in the common and high schools. He is now Superintendent of Public Instruction in Johnson County. Before accepting this office he was a teacher of science in the Tecumseh schools.

     WILLIAM H. CUMMINGS is a native of the Isle of Man, being born in the early fifties. He came to America when a small boy and has been a resident of Nebraska about forty years. HE is engaged in the butchering business at Tecumseh, and before coming to this city carried on the same business at Nebraska City and at Lincoln. He was married while at the latter place in 1880. He is filling the office of County Sheriff of Johnson for the second term and his politics is Republican.

     JAMES LIVINGSTON is Judge of Johnson County. He was elected to this office in 1901 and was re-elected in 1903. His birthplace was New Albany, Indiana, from which place he came to Johnson County in 1880 and lived on a farm for ten years. His father, John Livingston, was a railroad blacksmith, and is now a farmer. His advaanced education has been obtained at high school and at Elliott's Business College, Burlington, Iowa, of which he s a graduate. In 1896 he married Ester Bell, and he has three children. He was Justice of the Peace of Sterling precinct for nine years, and is affiliated with the Republican party.

     CHARLES J. CANON is a teacher and farmer by occupation, and lives at Tecumseh. His father, Israel, and his mother, Mary, were both from Kentucky. Sheby County, Missouri is his birthplace, and the date June 16, 1872. He came to Nebraska when he was three years of age. He has taught school five years in Johnson and Otoe Counties, and obtained his education in the public schools and at the Peru State Normal. He was Deputy Clerk during four years and is now in his second term as County Clerk. He is a member of the Democratic party. Married Nina Moore in 1897 and they have a son four years old.

     W. W. WHEATLEY was born on the 20th of September, 1856, in Tipton County, Indiana, from which place he moved to Illinois in 1863 and to Nebraska in 1867. At present he is County Treasurer and is serving his second term. In March of 1883 he married Sarah Crow, and they have two children, a boy and girl. He was educated in the public schools of this state and in politics is a Republican.

      JAY C. MOORE is a lawyer at Tecumseh and is at present County Attorney. He was a school teacher in this county for four years. His schooling has been at the Sterling High School, at Lincoln Normal and at the State University, where he received LL. B. in 1899. He was born at Beatrice, Nebraska, May 25, 1873. His people came from Ohio and settled in Gage County. He was married to Mary Z. Varner in June of 1901, and they have one daughter, Pauline. He is a Republican.

      WILLIAM A. CAMPBELL was born December 31, 1842, at Rushville, Illinois. He went to Pennsylvania in 1867 and came to Nebraska in 1870. In this same year he was married to Jennie M. Lillibridge and they have two children. He obtained his schooling in the Rushville High School. He was County Clerk for ten years and Postmaster for four years. He is now Clerk of the District Court and was elected on the Republican ticket. He resides at Tecumseh.

      JOHN WARD was born in Ireland December 7, 1872. His parents, Neil and Margaret Ward, died soon after landing in America. Mr. Ward worked his own way through school and taught for five years in Johnson County. When he was eight years old he came to Missouri, and in 1882 to Nebraska. His schooling was obtained in the Nebraska Public School and in the Lincoln Normal. He is a teacher by profession, but is now Deputy Treasurer of the county of Johnson. He belongs to the Republican party. He was Clerk of the District Court for four years. In 1898 he was married to Evelyn Sutherland. They have three children.

      L. S. CHITTENDEN is a grain dealer at

Tecumseh, Nebraska. His parents, T. J. and Mary Chittenden, came from Vermont. He was born January 25, 1855, at Granville, Ohio. From Ohio he moved to Wisconsin, where he was educated in the public schools. In 1880 he was married to Blanche L. Dodson at Berlin, Wisconsin, and in 1889 they came to Nebraska. They have three children. He has been Mayor of Tecumseh for two years past and is a Republican.

 

      The early history of Kearney County is centered around Fort Kearney, which was established in 1848. U. S. soldiers were stationed here to protect overland travel to Oregon. The fort received its name in honor of Phil Kearney, who was a famous commander in the war against the Indians. The land which the fort occupied belonged to the Pawnees, but the Government compensated the red men with a grant of the land now included in Nance County, together with the annual payment of a fixed sum of money. When the Civil War broke out general sympathy at the fort was with the secessionists. Unjust treatment at the hands of the white men had provoked the Indians to fight, and a long war was being waged against the combined forces of Sioux and Cheyennes. When it was rumored at the fort that the soldiers were to be sent south to fight for the Union the dissatisfaction was so great that they purposely aggravated peacefully inclined Indians into fighting with them in order that they might be retained at the fort. Many regiments were sent to Fort Kearney, but it was never attacked. At the close of the war General Sherman visited the post to see about making improvements, but as he rode along its inhospitable streets he was hissed by the rebel soldiers. Soon after he ordered the post to be abandoned. The population increased to such an extent after the arrival of the railway that the county was organized in 1872. The present number of inhabitants is 9,866. The surface is a high rolling prairie, and the sandhills bordering on the Platte are the only waste lands. Land has doubled in value since 1897. The acreage of winter wheat is greater than that of any other crop, although the yield of corn excelled that of wheat by 14,282 bushels in the year 1900. Stock raising, farming and dairying are the leading occupations. The live stock in 1,900 was valued at $1,328,958. Kearney County has very good educational advantages. There are 69 school districts, 23 of which have a term of 9 months or more, and no school has less than a six months' term. There are four graded schools, which, together, have a teaching force of 21. There are 70 school buildings for the accommodation of 3,538 children. The total school property is valued at $84,987.25. Minden is the county seat.

      S. E. GOODIN, Clerk of the District Court Kearney County, was born in Princeton, Missouri, November 8, 1870, where he lived until 1877, when he removed to Mills County, Iowa. The next year he came to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, and in 1879 came to Franklin County, where he attended the high school. He homesteaded in Frontier County in 1881. After leaving school he went into the newspaper business, and was one of the editors of the Wilcox Herald from 1895 to 1900, when he was appointed Deputy County Clerk. In 1902 he was appointed Deputy Clerk of the District Court and in 1903 was elected Clerk of the District Court on the Democratic ticket.

      LEWIS C. PAULSON is a native of Nebraska, having been born in Minden, February 26, 1878, where he has always lived. He graduated from the Minden High School in 1898 and then studied in the University of Nebraska for three years, taking the law course the last two years. When in the law school he was a debater on one of the interstate debates. He is the son of an old settler of Nebraska, who emigrated from Denmark in 1873 and settled in Nebraska in 1876. Mr. Paulson is a member of the Populist party and is serving as Attorney of Kearney County.

     JOHN R. BAKER is a West Virginian, having been born in 1867 in Braxton County. He came to Nebraska in 1885, was educated in the high school at Keyser, West Virginia, and the Fremont, Lincoln and Wayne Normal Schools, graduating from the teacher's course at Fremont and the scientific course at Wayne,. receiving the degree of B. S. He holds a life certificate and was Principal of the Axtell schools for two years and at Wilcox for two