which the republicans controlled convened December 3, 1861, and for the name of the famous southern statesman it promptly substituted that of the new republican governor of the territory, Saunders. By the act of February 12, 1866, a strip two miles in width from the northern side of township 12, range 2, Cass county, was attached to Saunders. With this exception the county retains the form it took by the act of 1858. The city of Ashland is situated near the northeast corner of the appended strip. With the exception of this transfer to Saunders, Cass county retains the form given it by the act of January 26, 1856. By the act of February 15, 1864, the northern half of Clay county--townships 7 and 8--was added to Lancaster, and the southern half to Gage. These two counties retain the form they then assumed. In the office of the secretary of state there are full returns of the election in Clay county, held in 1859, for delegate to Congress and territorial officers. They are signed by H. J. Pierce, county clerk. There are returns also of the election held March 5, 1860, for the purpose of choosing a delegate to the constitutional convention who would represent Clay, Saline, Lancaster, Green, Calhoun, and Butler counties, and to vote for or against the proposition to hold a convention. George Noxon and John Cadman of Clay were the two candidates. The returns were signed by E. C. Austin, "Clerk of Clay Co., N. T.", and were dated at Austin, Clay county, regularly or irregularly the county seat. Cadman received 26 votes in the three precincts and Noxon seven votes. There are returns also of the votes for Daily, and Judge John F. Kinney, of Otoe county--candidates for the office of delegate to Congress in 1862--from Johnson, Clay, and Gage counties. The figures for the several counties are given separately but all on one sheet of paper and signed by James S. Daily, county clerk of Johnson county. Clay county gave five votes for Daily and twenty-five for Kinney. Returns of the vote of Clay county for delegate to Congress in 1857 and for four members of the territorial assembly are signed by James R. Porter., deputy clerk of Cass county. Fenner Ferguson was the only candidate for delegate voted for. James Cardwell, T. M. Marquett, Lawson Sheldon, and Samuel Maxwell received votes as candidates for membership of the fourth territorial House of Representatives. James A. Cardwell was a member of the third territorial House of Representatives, and William Wiles, of Plattsmouth, stated to the editor, on the 25th of June, 1864, that he then lived two miles and a half south of that town. According to the Andreas his- |
tory of Nebraska (page 1036.) James Cardwell settled in Lancaster county, near the subsequent site of Waverly, in November, 1857--subsequent to the election of that year. James Cardwell and James A. Cardwell were probably identical. In a letter dated "Lancaster County N T March 7 1860", "L. J. Loder Clerk of Lancaster Co." informs "Mr. Morton Esq." that Lancaster county polled eleven votes for and ten against state government, and asks for the books to which the county is entitled. Returns of the vote of Clay county in 1861, for territorial auditor, were signed by J. H. Butler, John Barrett, and John O. Adams, "Board of Examination", and E. C. Austin, county clerk of Clay county. In a letter dated "Austin, Mar. 9th 1860", addressed to J. S. Morton, then secretary of the territory, E. C. Austin, county clerk of Clay county, gives a list of the officers of the county, as follows: Judge [probate], H. W. Parker; clerk, E. C. Austin; sheriff, C. E. Austin; register, J. S. Goodwin; commissioners, J. H. Butler, James Goodwin, James Silvernail; justices of the peace, J. Grant, Ed. Austin, J. W. Prey, John Cadman; constables, J. Butler, W. Vanclief, James Prey; superintendent of schools, Charles Barrett; treasurer, J. B. Shaw. The letter instructed the secretary to, "Please ship by boat and direct to E. C. Austin, Brownville. Care of T. Hill." So the metropolis of the extreme southeast part of the territory, about fifty-five miles distant, was the most convenient port of the experimental settlement whose site is now within Lancaster county. In Records Nebraska Ter. pages 247-253, are the names of officers elected, "as returned by the different county clerks of Nebraska Territory, for election of October 11th 1859, under their official seals." Washington, Platte, Dodge, Johnson, Monroe, Cass, Dakota, L'Eau Qui Court, Hall, Richardson, Dixon, Sarpy, Gage, Burt, Douglas, Cuming, Cedar, Nemaha, Pawnee, and Clay comprise the list. Lancaster is omitted. In the same record, page 286, Clay, Gage, and Lancaster are included in a copy of a certificate by J. Sterling Morton, secretary and acting governor, and Augustus Hall, chief justice of the territorial supreme court, of the territorial board of canvassers, of the vote on the proposition for state government. In this record (page 300) the certificate of the territorial canvassers, of the election of 1860, for a delegate to Congress, includes the counties of Clay, Gage, and Lancaster. The certificate was signed by Samuel W. Black, governor; Augustus Hall, chief justice; and Robert A. Howard, district attorney. All of the three counties gave small republican majorities. The vote of Lancaster was 12 to 10. This county has been republican, and very much more so, ever since. |
In the territorial record book called Messages and Proclamations (page 90) it appears that taxes for the general fund were levied upon Clay county for the years 1861, 1862, and 1863, and payments were made in 1862 and 1863. It appears also (page 96) that Gage county paid that kind of taxes in 1860, 1861, and 1862, and that a levy was made for 1863. In a military proclamation by Acting Governor Paddock, dated September 16, 1862, which is copied in this book, it is "ordered" that the several counties furnish their quota "to fill the ranks" of the "First Nebraska Regiment." The quota of Clay was 2; of Gage, 5; of Lancaster, 2. In a statement of sinking funds (page 114) received and disbursed from January 1, 18627 to December 31, 1862, Clay county is credited with $05.80, and the county is recognized in the financial account for 1863 (page 115). In a statement of the general fund prior to 1862, Gage is included. An act of the General Assembly, December 27, 1859, legalized the first organization of Gage county--in 1857, the location of the county seat at Beatrice, and the acts of the county officers. The act of March 16, 1.855, "to define the boundaries and locate the Seat of Justice of Gage County," appointed William D. Gage, John B. Robertson, and Isaac L. Gibbs as commissioners to locate the county seat; but nothing appears to have been done toward organizing the county until a colony of settlers undertook the enterprise and designated Beatrice as the county seat without formal legal authority, in July, 1857. The act of July 26, 1856, reformed the original boundaries, which have not been changed except by the addition of two tiers of townships on the north, taken from Clay county by the act of 1864. Surveys were first begun in the southeast corner of the territory, and the lands comprised within Richardson county had been surveyed before the act of March 7, 1855, defining its boundaries, was passed, so they were described in terms of townships and ranges, while the descriptions of all the other counties, whose boundaries were defined by the first Legislative Assembly, were by metes and bounds. But inasmuch as Pawnee county extended twenty-four miles--equal to the width of four townships--westward from the western boundary of Richardson, and Gage county extended the same distance westward from the western boundary of Pawnee, by the terms of the acts of the same general assembly establishing their boundaries, the eastern and western boundary lines of these two counties coincided with the range lines of the subsequent surveys, and they remain as they were first fixed. 13 Alfred, father of Roscoe Conkling, the famous United |
States senator. Alfred Conkling came to Omaha from New York with the purpose of practicing law, but he remained only a short time. 14 The boundaries of Izard county were first defined by the act of the first General Assembly, March 6, 1855. The northern boundary line was a short distance north of the present line between townships 30 and 31 north; the eastern boundary was approximately identical with the present boundary between ranges 4 and 5 east; the southern boundary line ran about two miles south of the sixth standard parallel; the western was nearly identical with the line between ranges 2 and 3 west. The county included all of that part of the present Cedar county lying south of a line running east and west a little north of Hartington, the county seat; all of the present area of Wayne county except its two eastern fractional townships; and four townships and a small fraction of another on the west of Dixon, from the southern boundary north; a strip about two miles wide of the northwest township of Cuming, of the northern tier of townships of Stanton, and of the two northeast townships of Madison; the east half of Pierce; and two of the eastern townships of Knox, running from south to north. By the act of January 26, 1856, the territory comprised in Izard county, except the strip south of the sixth standard parallel, was incorporated in the two new counties of Dixon and Pierce, and the name was transferred to new territory, contiguous to it on the south and now comprising all of Stanton county and Cuming's western tier of townships. The strip of the original Izard county south of the sixth standard parallel, except the western end now included in Madison county, was incorporated in the new Izard county. This was the county involved in the contest. It was named for Mark W. Izard, of Arkansas, who was the first marshal and the second governor of Nebraska territory, and afterward became a soldier in the Confederate army. The eighth Legislative Assembly was the first territorial legislature which the Republican party controlled, and by the act of January 10, 1862, that body changed the name of the county to Stanton, in honor of the secretary of war in Abraham Lincoln's administration. An act of the eleventh territorial assembly, approved February 12, 1866, transferred the tier of townships in range four to Cuming county. This depletion of Stanton county's territory was not formally recognized until the corrected boundary was incorporated in the compilation of 1873 called the General Statutes. The description of Cuming county in this compilation includes the southwest corner of the Omaha Indian reservation which is excepted in the description of 1866. The acts of March 28, 1873, describing the boundaries of Burt and Dakota counties, contigu- |
ous to the reservation on the north and the south, respectively, do not include any part of it. These acts are also incorporated in the General Statutes. The description of Burt county in the laws of 1879 (p. 77) includes a strip of the reservation contiguous to the county nearly eight miles wide. By the act of March 28, 1889, the boundary of Burt county was changed so as to relinquish the part included in the reservation, except sections 21, 22, 27 and 28, of township 24, range 10, and the fractional sections lying between them and the Missouri River. The southern boundary of the reservation runs five chains--one-sixteenth of a mile--south of the north boundary of the southern tier of sections of township 24. The remainder of that part of the reservation which had been included in Burt county was incorporated in Thurston county, which was established by an act of the same date. The boundaries established by these two acts remain unchanged. Wayne county, as first established in 1871, was bounded on the east by the reservation. An act of the legislature, March 1, 1881, undertook to add a strip of the reservation five miles wide and twelve miles long, north and south, to that county; but the supreme court of the state, at its September term, 1892 (Nebraska Reports, XXXV, 231), declared the act invalid. In its opinion the court erroneously says that this strip was four miles wide and fourteen miles long. This tract had been included in Thurston county when it was originally formed. It was thirty miles, in a direct line, from Fremont to the nearest point of Izard county--the southeastern corner, which was then, and now is also the northwestern corner of Dodge county. That Izard county made only this one venture in the exercise of the rights and duties of civic organization is suggestive of a consciousness of its imperfection. There were no returns from the county in the census of 1860. 15 See the article Neapolis, Near-Capital, volume XVIII of the Society's publications. 16 Under the law governing elections it was the duty of the clerks of the counties comprising the several council and representative districts which contained more than one county to meet at the office of the clerk of the county first named in the act creating the district, which in this case was Platte county, and there canvass the votes cast in the several counties, whereupon the clerk of the county first named was required to issue a certificate of election to the candidate entitled to it. Laws of Nebraska, second session of the Legislative Assembly, p. 52. The amending act of February 13, 1857, required county clerks to transmit abstracts of votes cast for territorial officers and delegate to Congress to the governor, instead of the auditor as the law of 1856 ordered. 22 |
17 In the United States census of 1860 the population of Platte county is not given separately, but that of Platte and Madison is 782--nearly all of it in Platte county. Though the organization of Madison county was authorized by an act of the second legislative assembly, in 1856, it was not accomplished until 1868. 18 Sixty by the census of 1860. 19 For histories of this expedition consult House Journal of the sixth Legislative Assembly, page 259; Nebraska State Historical Society, Proceedings and Collections, v. 5, second series, p. 231; History of Nebraska, v. 2, p. 155. 20 The Elkhorn entered Izard county at a point about eight miles south of the northern boundary and left it about a mile farther north, at the west boundary. 21 Thirty-two miles in a direct line. In 1860 Fontanelle had 175 inhabitants. The first settlement at Fontanelle was made in the fall of 1854 by a colony of about thirty persons from Quincy, Illinois. Nebraska Palladium, Dec. 20, 1854. The census enumeration probably included the total settlement at that time--June 1, 1860. Every census since that of 1860 has enumerated the inhabitants of Fontanelle precinct all together. There is a mere hamlet at the place. Fourteen votes were cast by the settlement at the first territorial election held December 12, 1854. These were all the votes cast in Dodge county. In his directions for the organization of the first eight counties preparatory to the first territorial election, Acting Governor Cuming designated "the house of Dr. M. H. Clark in Fontanelle precinct" as the only place for voting in Dodge county, and the first Legislative Assembly named Fontanelle "the place of justice in and for said county." An act of the Legislative Asembly (sic), January 12, 1860, attached that part of Dodge county lying east of the Elkhorn River, including Fontanelle, to Washington county. An act of January 13 ordered an election to be held in Dodge county on the first Monday of February at which the voters should choose a location for the county seat and accordingly Fremont was chosen. Unfortunately the name Fontanelle was misspelled--with an a instead of an e in the second syllable--in the governor's proclamation and the act of the assembly adverted to, though it was correctly spelled in other acts of the same assembly and also in acts of the second assembly; and the error has been perpetuated by usage. 22 According to the United States census of 1860, Dewitt, where a settlement was started in March, 1857, had fourteen inhabitants June 1, 1860, and by the census of 1870 it was reported as having no population. It was situated in the |
southwest quarter of section 4, township 22, range 6 cast, about a mile and a half east of the Elkhorn River and about five miles west of north from West Point. These two places became rivals for the location of the county seat when the county was organized in 1858, and the choice of West Point by a popular vote emasculated Dewitt. A sectional map published in 1885 appropriately designated the site "Cemetery." 23 A village in Otoe county, about five miles from Nebraska City, where Judge Kinney resided. 24 Eight counties with very few if any inhabitants were "established" by the first Legislative Assembly and eight or nine by the second assembly. 25 Shinn's ferry, an important crossing of the Platte River, was about fifteen miles below the confluence of the Loup and eighteen miles east of Columbus. For a description of the ferry see Nebraska State Historical Society, Proceedings and Collections, II, second series, p. 55. Powhoco is a corruption of Pabuk, which means headland. It is the Pawnee name of their sacred hill, situated on the south side of the Platte River about two miles north of the town of Cedar Bluff, which is the name given to the hill by white people. The Chicago & Northwestern railroad, from Lincoln to Fremont, runs along the western base of the bluff as it approaches the Platte. 26 There is no note or record of a vote of Calhoun county after that of 1859; but in the apportionment of November 3, 1858, the county was assigned to a representative district with Platte, Green, and Butler, though only the three counties last named were mentioned in the House Journal of the sixth Legislative Assembly which convened December 5, 1859; it was not included in the apportionment of delegates to the proposed constitutional convention of 1860. It was allowed two votes in the Republican territorial convention, held August 1, 1860, but was not recognized in the credentials of the Democratic convention of that year. It was included with the other three counties in the assignment of members in the House Journal of the seventh Legislative Assembly which convened December 3, 1860. According to the United States census the population of Calhoun county, June 1, 1860, was 41. No towns, villages or other subdivisions were designated in the enumeration. 27 The name of this county was changed to Knox by act of the state legislature, February 21, 1873. For an account of changes of its boundaries see Nebraska Constitutional Conventions, III, p. 486. According to the United States census of 1860 the population of the county was only 152. 28 Mr. James was secretary of state when Governor David |
Butler was removed from office by impeachment in 1871, and by a provision of the constitution he then became acting governor. In the anarchical proceedings which followed Butler's removal Acting Governor James opposed the Butler, or Lincoln, faction and prorogued the legislature to circumvent its attempt to gain control. He left the state and became a resident of Colfax, Washington, in 1877. 29 So-called because he was chosen for probate judge at the first election in L'Eau Qui Court county, in 1857. At the election of 1859 he was chosen a representative in the sixth Legislative Assembly, which convened December 5, 1859. R. M. Hagaman was elected county clerk and T. G. Hullihen (erroneously called Callahan, page 229) sheriff at the same time. 30 Howell Cobb, of Georgia, was a very prominent politician and secretary of the treasury during James Buchanan's administration. Aaron Venable Brown, of Tennessee, was also a very prominent politician and was postmaster-general under Buchanan's administration. Both men were extreme partisans of the slavery cause. 31 Frankfort was recognized in only one United States census, that of 1870, when it was credited with a population of 63. Its post-office was discontinued in 1881. Zepeota is not named in any census. There is now no post-office called by either of these names. According to Colton's map of Nebraska, 1869, Frankfort was situated near the Missouri River, four miles and a half west of the eastern boundary of the county. A road named "St. James to Frankfort" runs diagonally through the plat of township 33, range 2 west of the sixth principal meridian, and terminates in the southwest corner of section 8, near the Missouri River. This terminal corresponds approximately with the maps placing of Frankfort. Another road marked "St. James to Topaota" nearly parallels the Frankfort road at a short distance from it and terminates at "Topaota House", in the northwest quarter of section 18, near the river and about one mile west of Frankfort. Topaota is doubtless the Zepeota spoken of by the witnesses. The survey was made September 4 to 8, 1858. By the survey of October 21 to 23, 1858, Croy's Grove extended northeast and southwest across the middle of section 1, township 32, range 2 west. It was not a town site, but apparently a grove about one mile in width. "Town of Nebrarah" is printed across the middle of the south half of section 10, township 32, range 6 west, from a quarter to half a mile distant from the Missouri River. The mouth of the Niobrara River is placed about a mile and a half from the northwest corner of the site. Surveyed March 15 to 20, 1859. |
32 A settlement was started at Breckenridge, where the Santee agency is now situated, in 1857, but not long after the inhabitants were attracted to Niobrara by its superior promise, and Breckenridge became a deserted village. 33 Mr. Taffe was a member of the House of Representatives of the fifth Legislative Assembly, which convened on the 5tb of December, 1859, of the Council of the sixth assembly, of the 40th, 41st, and 42d Congresses; and in 1873, following his career in Congress, he was editor of the Omaha Republican. 34 The population at this place was not numerous enough to receive recognition by the census enumerator of 1860, and it does not appear on the maps of that time. 35 For additional information about Kearny City see Nebraska State Historical Society, Collections, XVII, 228. 36 In Colton's map of Nebraska, published in 1869, Nebraska Center is erroneously placed near the northwest corner of section 5, township 9, range 14 west--about five miles northwest of the site now occupied by Gibbon. Through settlers of the early sixties in Buffalo county, Mr. Samuel C. Bassett has been able-in January, 1916--to identify four of the men whose names appear on the tally sheets of the election of 1859 at Nebraska Center and Wood River Center, namely, Charles Wilson, Henry Wilson, John W. Britt, and Henry Peck. According to this testimony all of them lived either in Nebraska Center precinct or in Centralia precinct. Peck alone voted at Wood River Center, the polling place of Centralia precinct. Joseph Owen, who has been a resident of Buffalo county ever since 1863, now says: "I have always known that the J. E. Boyd place, when I came here in 1863, was known as Nebraska Center." Boyd established a road ranch, general trading post and stock farm there in December, 1858. It was situated on the southwest quarter of section 14, township 9, range 14 west, about two miles directly west from the site now occupied by Gibbon. The accommodating and enterprising spirit in which election laws were administered is illustrated in the fact that David Anderson appears as a voter on the tally sheet of the election at Nebraska Center in 1859. In his account of the early settlements of the Platte valley, published in volume XVI, Collections, Nebraska State Historical Society, he says, at page 195: "On arrival at the old Boyd ranch, eleven miles east of the fort, our team was so fatigued that we were compelled to rest for three days." Though he notes that an election was held while he tarried, he says nothing about voting himself. According to the recollection of the early settlers adverted to, only three of the voters at Nebraska Center in |
1859 were residents in that vicinity. If the testimony of these witnesses is correct, then the other thirty-five names which appear on the tally sheet were either borrowed or purely fictitious. It would be interesting to know whether Mr. Anderson's name was used without his consent or whether he actually voted; but he has passed beyond reach of human communication. For an account of the process of organizing Buffalo county see Nebraska State Historical Society, Collections, XVII, p. 152, note 4. 37 Joseph E. Johnson settled at this place, known as Wood River Center, and now within the site of Shelton, in 1859. He was of the Mormon sect and in 1848 established himself at the Mormon settlement called Kane, now Council Bluffs, Iowa. There he published the Council Bluffs Bugle, and in 1854 started the Omaha Arrow, the first newspaper published at Omaha. At Wood River Center he conducted a road ranch and began the publication of a weekly newspaper called The Huntsman's Echo. On the fifth of July, 1861, he abandoned his varied activities at Wood River Center and moved on to join his sectarians in Utah where he finished a very unique career. 38 Probably Major John Talbot, who became the first probate judge of Kearney county on its organization in 1860. See Nebraska State Historical Society, Collections, XVII, 228 note. 39 Gillis was the first agent of the Pawnee tribe separately, and though he was in charge of them as a special agent in the fall of 1859, the separate agency was first authorized by an act of Congress June 25, 1860. Messages and Documents 1859-60, pt. I, 380; U. S. Statutes at Large, XII, 113. Until that time they had been in an agency with the Oto and Missouri. The Omaha were also included in this agency until 1855. The act also provided an agent for the Ponca tribe alone. 40 About one mile from the eastern boundary and five miles from the northern. 41 See footnote 12. 42 Mr. Neligh, one of the principal founders of West Point, had a very active and prominent career both in business and politics. The town of Neligh, Antelope county, was named for John D. Neligh who led in establishing it. 43 The usual spelling was Omadi. The village was situated on Omaha Creek, in Dakota county, upwards of one mile north of the northern boundary of the Winnebago Indian reservation. Its population in 1860 was 46, according to the United States census, but it did not appear in the enumeration of 1870. It has disappeared from the maps and there is no post-office of |
that name. Omadi was started by residents of Omaha in 1856, and it was incorporated as a town by an act of the legislative assembly, December 31, 1857. 44 Mr. Boyd subsequently became a very prominent citizen of Omaha and governor of Nebraska. 45 John F. Kinney, of Nebraska City, Origen D. Richardson, John I. Redick, Alfred Conkling, Samuel Pease, Algernon S. Paddock, all of Omaha. 46 The settlement called Bonhomme Island was situated opposite the island which is southeast of the town of that name in South Dakota. It has not a post office or a place on the maps. The town of Bon Homme City was incorporated by an act of the Legislative Assembly, November 4, 1858, and the same act authorized Bon Homme City Town Company to operate a ferry across the Missouri River anywhere between a point a mile and a half below and opposite the head of Bon Homme island and a point a like distance above and opposite it. 47 Mr. Estabrook overlooked the fact that the strip between the fourth standard parallel, which was the original northern boundary of Calhoun county, and the Platte River had been attached to the county by act of the Legislative Assembly of 1858. According to Colton's map of 1869, Saline was situated on Salt Creek, about four miles southwest of Ashland. The map site of Excelsior was on the Platte River, nearly east of the subsequent site of Mead. Neither Excelsior nor Saline now has a place on the maps. If this Valparaiso was situated on the Nebraska City and Fort Kearny road, it must have been about three miles farther north than the present town of that name. The survey of October 1, 1857, shows "Town Site of Valparaiso" on the east half of section 22, township 13, range 5 east. 48 The Pawnee were not "punished" in this encounterof July 13, 1859--beyond being scared by the military demonstration. There was no firing of guns; or other physical conflict. The most practical result of the expedition was a promise by the Indians to be good thereafter, which was kept in the Indian way; that is, they were a little better. In four months from this event they were removed to their final reservation in Nebraska where it was practicable to keep them under strict control. Near the end of June there was a collision between a band of Pawnee marauders, not far from West Point, and a volunteer band of citizens of Fontanelle, in which at least four Indians were killed. 49 Votes polled in L'Eau Qui Court in 1858. 50 The boundaries of the reservation were surveyed in Sep- |
tember and October, 1859. The agency buildings were placed on the northwest quarter of section 13, township 17, range 4 west, the site of the present town of Genoa. 51 Laws of Nebraska, first session of the Legislative Assembly, p. 222. It is at least doubtful whether section 8 of this act contemplated that under it residents of unorganized territory might vote at all elections, in the manner designated, or that they might so vote only in the process of organizing the county by the choice of county officers after the Legislative Assembly had established the county boundaries. Mr. Estabrook, in his foregoing argument (p. 282), interprets the authorization as general; but those who controlled the elections of Buffalo county and Kearney City evidently took the opposite attitude, otherwise they might have conducted the election at Kearney City in accordance with the law, or at least within the color of the law. The peculiar spelling of words in the parts of this paper which are taken from the official record is according to the rule of following copy strictly in such eases. The fact that the name of the most conspicuous soldier in the history of "the Nebraska country" is spelled without an e in the final syllable throughout Estabrook's argument is of more than passing interest. This correct spelling was common as late as the early seventies when the rape was accomplished. It is practicable to repair the mischief and atone for the outrage by dropping the e from the second syllable of the name of the county and the city into which it was wrongfully obtruded. |
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