First Settlers and Early
Town Histories
Sioux County
The first white people to visit Sioux County were probably Mallet
brothers related in early chapters of this book. Then the trappers came, and
Sage as early as eighteen forty-five made a visit here in connection with the
American Fur Company.
The next was the establishment of Fort
Robinson, and then
the Black Hills discovery of gold. In the late seventies the ranchmen came. It
is difficult to call a restless mortal like Edgar Beecher Bronson a ranchman
because he tarried on Solider creek for a few weeks or months, on the
Niobrara river a similar length of time. There were many fly by nights that came
and tarried, then went on into oblivion, or distinction as the case may be, that
are as entitled to be called ranchmen as is Bronson.
First
Ranches
Emmons & Brewster built the first ranch in Sioux County about
twelve or fifteen miles northwest of the present site of Harrison. The surveyors
of 1878 places this ranch upon the map, and while several others were located at
or near the same time, they were not in evidence when the surveyor's parties ran
the meridians and parallels.
Newman's ranch and Hunter & Evans' ranch were
in the east portion, now Sheridan and Cherry Counties, and Col. Charles Coffee
came to Hat creek about that time. Down on the Niobrara river Doctor Graham was
building the Agate ranch, which has become historic.
As distinguished
from ranchmen the first real settlers arrived about eighteen eighty-one. They
settled in the vicinity of the fort for the protection it gave them. L.E. Belden
was the first. John Foxwell came, but did not stay long. Daniel Klein arrived
soon after. The Rigdons arrived the same year, or eighteen eighty-two. Then came
Henry Kreman, who now has the old Foxwell place.
The first school was
established here in eighteen eighty-three, with Klein the first director and
Mary Delahunty the first teacher. Ezra Tucker, WM. Raum, Billy Harmon, Dave
Calville and the Rodgers folks arrived soon after.
Not many settlers
arrived until eighteen eighty-five. When J.H. Newlin came in eighteen
eighty-five, he lived on the Klein place for awhile. Mr. Newlin is now publisher
of the Sioux County Journal at Harrison.
The
First House erected in 1886,
by Valentine Thomas
First Events of
Interest
The first white child born in Sioux county in the Harrison
sector was Miss Sadie Morris, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Morris, who
settled on Sowbelly creek in eighteen eighty-five. It is possible that there
were children born at the fort in an earlier year but they were transient, and
there is no record.
Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Zimmerman, who also arrived in eighteen
eighty five, believe this to be the first known or recollected birth. This is
also the recollection of Daniel Klein, who settled on White river in 1882.
The first wedding was that of Carl Lux and Rena Fellers in eighteen
eighty-five.
The first death and burial in the cemetery at Harrison was
an elderly stranger who died alone in his tent just as the railroad was building
into Harrison.
The next was Mrs. W.E. Fiddler. The Fiddlers arrived in eighteen
eighty-seven, and were living in a tent wagon. Mrs. Fiddler was a victim of the
great white plague, arriving in the higher altitudes and among the pines too
late to stop its ravages.
Mrs. Katherine Graham was the first white
woman to permanently make her home in Sioux County. She still resides with her
daughter at the Agate ranch. Mrs. Cook is the daughter, Captain Cook being the
present occupant of the old Graham ranch.
The first religious services
ever held in the county were at this ranch. Mrs. Graham calling the few
neighbors together, and organizing a Sunday school.
Jennie Hunt was the
first teacher in District number one before Sioux County was organized. In
eighteen eighty-eight she was married to W.E. Fiddler whose wife died the year
before. Together they went on westward to Oregon. Miss Hunt had followed Miss
Delahunty as teacher in District number one. The latter had removed to
Antelopeville (now Kimball). Jennie Hunt was the first teacher in Harrison, then
called Bowen, in 1886. The school in Harrison was the second story of Wernecke's
furniture store, just north of the present Commercial Hotel. The top story of
the store has since been removed.
As stated, the first permanent settler
in the White River Valley was L.E. Belden, who located on what is now known as
Lake Ranch, about eighteen eighty-one. Billy Belden, who resides at Harrison, is
a son of the first settler.
Before the building of the railroad, the
people over on Hat Creek dreamed of a city to be. John W. Hunter lived over
there, and he and C.F. Slingerland ran a store. They wanted a post office, and
it needed a name. Hunter's little daughter was named "Oressa," which was
suggested as the name for the post-office. Down in Texas, there is a shrub
called "Bodarc." The people of a Texas community were asking for a post-office
and that it be named "Bodarc."
In some inexplicable way, the department
at Washington crossed the names, and gave the Texas post-office the name of
Oressa, and the Sioux County post-office Bodarc. It was quite a long time before
the people of Hat Creek knew how it happened.
Slingerland and Hunter
made Bodarc a live place for awhile. They established the Bodarc Record in the
autumn of eighteen eighty-six, just before the election on the county-seat
question. Slingerland went overland to Crawford and there took the train to
Omaha to get his printing outfit. When the county-seat war was on, Slingerland,
having no job press, rode horseback to Crawford and had tickets printed, but as
later shown, they did not have enough votes. The railroad made it an uphill
fight to try to locate the county-seat in the Hat Creek Basin.
Beginning of Harrison
The building of the Chicago &
Northwestern line through Sioux County put the first railroad within its limits.
In eighteen eighty-six the work reached the present site of Harrison. The place
was then called Summit, because of its altitude which is forty-eight hundred and
seventy-seven feet above sea level. Some distance north of the line of the
survey was Bodarc, which as stated had a post-office, store, and newspaper, the
Record.
The name of Summit was changed to Bowen by the railroad so
naming the station. There was another Bowen in Nebraska and therefore the name
was changed to Harrison. The town was incorporated May third, eighteen
eight-nine. W.R. Smith was the first chairman of the town board, D.P. Davis was
town treasurer, and Theo. Timbers, marshall and street commissioner.
The
railroad reached the town in June, eighteen eighty-six, and there were a number
of temporary stores put in near the depot. These were generally boarded up a few
feet from the ground, and had tents or canvas for the tops. Sellers &
Griswold were the first to thus engage in merchandising. Anderson & Company
opened the first drug store at the same time. Both were east of the depot as it
is now located.
The first permanent building in the town for
merchandising purposes was the Ranch Supply store, which building is now
occupied by the Marstellers who are engaged in general merchandise trade.
The census of nineteen twenty gives the Bowen precinct, including the
village of Harrison, a population of six hundred twenty-one.
Postoffice and Postmasters
About eighteen eighty-one War
Bonnet post-office was established at the Emmons & Brewster Ranch, with B.E.
Brewster as post-master. This was the first post-office in the county outside of
Fort Robinson.
The offices at Agate and Bodarc followed, the latter
being about eighteen eighty-five. When the new railroad town sprang up, Ed
Satterlee was appointed post-master of the place. Will H. Davis was the second
to have charge of Harrison's post-office, then came Mr. Huff, and in the
nineties J.E. Marsteller. Mrs. Leah P. Rice is the present occupant of the
office.
The
Court House
The question of county-seat location lay
between Harrison and Bodarc, but the
contest was short lived. Bowen and Hat
Creek precincts, Harrison being located
in the former, agreed to and did, in
eighteen eighty-eight, build the present courthouse.
The architects were Whitney
& Murphy.
The brick used were burned on Sowbelly Creek. George Klein burned
a kiln or two
of brick on Spring Creek, which he expected
to sell to the
builders of the courthouse, but
they could not agree on price, so they burned
their own. And this ended the brick industry in Sioux County.
Sowbelly Creek Named
This creek and canyon obtained its
peculiar name from a circumstance that occurred there during the Indian wars. A
number of soldiers on scout duty out of Fort Robinson found themselves hard
pressed by Indians, and were held in close quarters until nearly starved before
the rescue party arrived.
When relieved from their tension of resistance they
were "hungry enough to eat a raw dog."
The sold article of provision which the
rescuing party had, was old dry-salt bacon, which in the language of the rough
west was called sowbelly. Since then the name has clung to the place.
First Newspaper
The Bodarc Record was the first newspaper
published in Sioux County, coming into existence before the railroad reached the
county. It was started by Charles F. Slingerland, but was later merged with the
Sioux County Herald, and Slingerland went east about eighteen eighty-eight and
is with the Omaha Bee at this time.
The Newspaper Records
No one realizes as the days go by
what the weekly record of the country press means to the lover of history in
future years. No one can properly appreciate how much the press is doing for the
community until he reads it in the light of years.
After the lapse of a quarter
of a century one can read understandingly of the period of the records. One can
appreciate what provoked the outbursts of wrath or satire, or the many little
disturbances that stirred the communities to their center. They country press of
thirty of forty years ago said things without the restraint that is seen today.
There were no studied efforts to say a thing in a way that might easily be
understood another way. There were no veiled insinuations. They called a spade
by that name. In that perfect expression, the world of the time was correctly
recorded, and there was no doubt about it. Sometimes we wonder if the press has
deteriorated, or, having taken cognizance of the weakness and frailties of
ourselves and our brothers, most of us speak with observance of the rules of
charity.
The next generation will perhaps understand us better than we
understand ourselves.
On September thirteenth, eighteen eighty-eight,
the Sioux County Journal was born, W.E. Patterson was proprietor, and L.
J.
Simmons was assistant.
Ed Satterlee had started the Sioux County Herald in
eighteen eight-six. Charlie Verity ran it for a while. He referred to
Slingerland of the Record as "The Bucktown dude" because he wore a Prince Albert
coat. The Bodarc Record was moved to town and merged with the Herald at a later
date.
In August, eighteen ninety-two, volume one, number one of the
Independent appeared. It was published by A. L. Baumgartner. This paper burned
out not long after it started, and the proprietor came very near losing his life
in the fire. He was evidently discouraged in the venture, for he sold the paper
to Charles E. Verity in November, eighteen ninety-three.
The Herald was
published by Ed Satterlee on a street fronting the present site of the depot at
Harrison, and the post-office was next to it. Judge Hunter had started the
Republican at Bodarc, for the purpose, so his political enemies declared, of
having an organ through which he could exploit his theories and opinions. That
some of these opinions were not of the highest and the judge had a sharp way
about putting the matter, we do not wonder that his enemies endeavored to make
light of his venture.
Satterlee turned over the control of the Herald to
Mr. Davis, who arranged the consolidation of the Republican therewith. Davis was
chairman of the republican county central committee, and president of the
Harrison town club. The year before Davis had been the candidate of the
republicans for county attorney, but had withdrawn, giving Satterlee, the
democratic candidate, a clean field. This had made rampant partisans, and
enemies of both Satterlee and Davis about as mad as they could be. So that when
Davis took over the Herald from Satterlee, they declared it was part of the
trade.
W.E. Patterson of the Journal sold his interest to L
.J. Simmons,
who in turn sold out to George Cannon. About nineteen hundred Cannon sold the
outfit to George Phipps, and Phipps later passed the title to Cleo (or Howard)
Burke. Burke, in January, nineteen hundred five, sold it to J.H. Newlin, and
went to Bridgeport.
The Harrison Sun, which came into existence May
eleventh, nineteen hundred, was started by Wm. H. Ketchmun, then the Crawford
Tribune, and L.C. Wright. It had been purchased by Newlin in the fall of
nineteen hundred three, and he had taken possession in February following. He
consolidated the Sun with the Press-Journal, and later dropped the first part of
the name. Under his efficient management, the Journal is the only paper
published in Sioux County at the present time
History of Western Nebraska, 1921, Chapter II
Transcribed
and Contributed by: Shauna
L. Williams
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