By
an arbitrary act of the territorial legislature,
Lyons county was created out of a part of the western
Nebraska,
which is now Scotts Bluff, Banner, and Kimball,
and a part of each Cheyenne and Morrill
counties.
The
first state legislature re-adjusted the lines and
the names. Lyons county, which had been unorganized
ceased
to exist, and in its place and the place of Taylor
county which was adjourning it upon the east, and
in
the place of a part of Monroe county, which was
east of Taylor, Cheyenne county was created. For
a
few
years it remained unorganized, attached to Lincoln
county for administrative, judicial and taxation
purposes.
The Tom Kane and a few other of the live wires
of Sidney, secured the necessary act of the
government
and Cheyenne county became a separate entity. Scotts
Bluff county was a part thereof, in
the
extreme northwest corner of its limit.
School
district number one was organized at Sidney, and
Scotts Bluff county was also a part thereof.
Taxes
from the Coad and Sheedy and other big ranches were
paid into Sidney. Even the ranches that
were
over in the unorganized county of Sioux, as far
east as Valentine and the Long Pine section, helped
to
pay for the support of the Sidney schools, for a
few years. But these taxes were not large,
although
the
territory covered a half of the state.
John
Wright secured the organization of District No.
10 in the early eighties, which district embraced
all of
present
Banner county and all south of the river in the
present Scotts Bluff county. This took in
the Sparks,
Coad
and Creighton ranches, and smaller places on the
waterways, and some of the taxable railroad land
upon
the divide between Harrisburg and Kimball. The
school house was built at Wright's ranch on
Pumpkin
creek, the first school being in a log house, until
the frame was built. Lora Sirpless was the
first
teacher.
When the building of the frame school house
came up, the settlers were locating in the east
end
of
Banner county as it now exists, and they wanted
the school house at Freeport. Hugh Milhollin
was
elected
on the school board. A compromise was reached,
and two school houses were built in 1886,
one
at Wright's ranch and the other at Freeport, both
frame. They are still in good repair and used
for the
original
purposes.
John
Thoelecke was the first assessor in the territory
after number ten came into existence. The first
year
he
brought in a large return of cattle from the big
ranches, and the taxes paid by there institutions
was of
material
importance. In 1886, however, John failed
to find very many cattle on the ranches in the
district.
The settlers blamed him for a lack of vision,
but it may be that the ranch owners, profiting by
the
experience, had sent their cattle just over the
line in Wyoming on April first, or a least declared
to
assessor
that they were there.
The
first permanent settler within the limits of the
present county of Scotts Bluff was Charlie Foster,
residing
near and adjoining a proposed town on the Union
Pacific extension to be made in the year
1921.
Everything
worth while seems to be disputed. Lem
Wyman has claimed the distinction of being the first
permanent
settler for may years, but the question is now settled
because Lem has moved away. Both
these
excellent people were cowboys back in the seventies,
and both came on to this range at almost
the
same time. Both settled down, and were good
citizens, for about forty years, raising families
and
developing
farms.
There
has also been a dispute as to where the Union Pacific
should put its station. Partisans for the
Mihan
location
were contested by the partisans of the Lyman location,
the two being about one and one-half
miles
apart.
Perry
Braziel, a settler since 1882, lives near Lyman
and Foster nearer to the Mihan quarter. While
each
was
a partisan of his favorite location, there was not
bitterness in the contest, the "oldtimer fraternity"
being
so much stronger the tie that binds.
Ramsey
C. Campbell came along about 1883, and the following
year he appropriated some choice hay
meadows
adjacent to the old Coad ranch. Shortly after
"Sailor Joe" Hansen, built a log cabin
in
Mitchell
valley, but he left after a short time, when he
lost his boy, who was dragged to his death by a
runaway
horse. "Sandy" Ingraham caught the
horses, but the boy was dead.
Then
William R. Akers, John Coy, and Virgil Grout came
up from the Greeley district, and started the
work
of the Lucerne canal, the story of which is told
elsewhere. Then came the Tabor or Minatare
settlement.