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Sidney
This is the county seat of Cheyenne County, and was, as was laid out in the fall of 1867, at the time of the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad to this point.
The town was laid out be the railroad company, and the first building was one of logs, which had been the ranch of French Louis, some four miles south of here, but the Indians having made frequent raids, stealing his stock till he was nearly ruined, he removed to this point, where he occupied his building gas a whisky saloon and sold supplies to the railroaders. This building is now occupied as the county hospital.
Early in 1868, Charley Moore erected a building used as a hotel; also as a general store and whisky saloon.
About the same time, Tom Kane erected a store for the sale of general merchandise.
Let it be understood by the reader that in these times whisky was a staple article in trade in all grocery or general stores. Mr. Kane also kept the post office here, he being the first Postmaster.
D. Carrigan at this time erected a building, which he occupied as a saloon.
No town at this time was nearer than 100 miles in any direction, and, as this settlement was in the very center of a stock-growing region, it soon grew to be a prosperous little village.
The railroad company made Sidney a freight division, and at once erected a round house and other necessary buildings.
Through prosperous as a frontier town, Sidney had a population of only about 500, till after the discovery of gold in the Black Hills country.
That region opened up in 1876, and, as Sidney was the best located point, there were stage and freight stations soon established, and the greater portion of the immense travel was directed from this town.
In the great rush of travel to the Black Hills, hundreds of strangers thronged the streets daily. Large and commodious business houses were erected and stocked.
The population soon increased to 1,000 or more; all was activity, and money seemed to literally flow into the town from all directions.
A bridge was built across the North Platt, to accommodate the state and freight companies, as well as the vast stream of private wagons and conveyances that continued to pour into the Back Hills country by way of Sidney.
Thus was the route opened, not only to the Black Hills, but to all the military posts and Indian agencies to the northwest, including the Big Horn and Powder River Districts.
The wholesale houses of Sidney did an almost fabulous amount of business, in the sale of goods to supply all this country.
A large number of six-horse mail coaches, making time at the rate of tan miles per hour, wore put on the route.
The freight business carried on along this route was immense. It was no uncommon event for 1,000,000 pounds of freight to leave Sidney daily. One business firm alone frequently shipped as high as 400.000 pounds of freight per day.
With these large crowds of strangers, many of them a rough class of adventurers; with this as a common center for the cowboys for hundreds of miles of country; with this as headquarters for hundreds of "bull-whackers"—as the ox team drivers on the freight road wore termed—and the drivers of mules and horse teams on this route—known as "mule-skinners''—it is not strange that they, when at rest from their labors and “turned loose,'' as it wore, among the saloons and dance-houses of the town, won became, not only objects of wonder and curiosity, but of terror as well..
The rush, buzz, noise, cracking of whips, shouting of drivers, orders of "bosses,'' etc., served to create a din and noise to be heard throughout the town and many times their broils and reckless use of fire arms endangered the lives of peaceable citizens and mere lookers on.
Then in the evening and through the entire night, when every store, saloon and other business house was brightly lighted, the billiard balls clicking merrily as they chased each other over the green cloth in the billiard halls; the rattling of drinking glasses; the breathless silence of the faro rooms; the boisterous shouting and laughing in the bar room; the half wild, and often, half intoxicated men and women in the dance houses; the busy merchant, flushed with excitement, as he flits about the store to attend upon his waiting customers who pay down the cash for everything —when all these are described, the reader has a good idea of Sidney as it was in 1876 and for a few years following.
Sidney was then emphatically a rough frontier town, and, with the gathering of this motley crowd, it is not surprising that murders were frequent and that crime ran rampant.
Though murder was so frequent, yet there has never to this day been a murderer executed legally, though in some instance the people have taken the law into their own hands and occasionally lynched a desperado.
One of those, events that created some excitement at the time was the hanging of Charles Reed, in May, 1879, for the murder of Henry Loomis. Mr. Loomis was a young man generally respected, and the circumstances attending the murder and hanging were about as follows:
Loomis and others, one evening, were walking up street, and, passed the house of a woman, the mistress of Reed. This woman was standing outside her door, and Loomis addressed her. She chose to regard his remark as an insult, and called upon Reed for protection.
The latter immediately drew a pistol and shot Loomis, inflicting a wound in the thigh, from the effects of which he died the next day, after having his log amputated.
Upon his death Sheriff Zweifel began a search for Reed, found him concealed in the bluffs north of town and brought him back, lodging him in jail.
All day long, a crowd was gathering in the street for the purpose of lynching Reed, should Loomis die. Some time during the following night, a large crowd, thoroughly armed, that the guards might be beaten back, proceeded to the jail and quietly took Reed out and hanged him to a telegraph pole, giving him the choice of being pulled up by the neck, or of having the rope placed around his neck and then to climb up a ladder and jump off. He chose the latter and coolly bade the crowd good-bye, and, jumping off, was soon in eternity
It would be unnecessary to give an account of the scores of murders committed, or of the lynching's, as these affairs are greatly similar in detail. Sufficient is it to say that the town is becoming more moral in its tone, there now being only four murderers in jail here, and their crimes were all committed outside of the town.
The last lynching that has taken place was in March, 1881, when one McDonald was hanged. The town had generally been under control of a gang of gamblers, and. early in the year 1881, it was determined by a number of the citizens of Sidney to break up the gambling and disorderly houses of the town. A raid was therefore made on them and considerable trouble between the two factions was engendered.
The Sheriff being absent, William Strate was made a jailer, and left in charge of the jail and was made a Deputy Sheriff for the time, and he was one of the loaders of this movement.
The gamblers resisting, a general row ensued, during which many of them, and among them an ex-Sheriff of the county, were arrested and incarcerated in the jail.
The man McDonald, with some others, resisted, declaring they would not be arrested, and that they would shoot the man that attempted it. These threats were made in the excitement of the moment, and there was probably little idea of carrying them into execution. However this may have been, there was trouble, and McDonald, who had been one of the leaders of this opposition, and a few of his associates, were arrested and confined in the jail. During the night, and it is supposed, with the connivance of the jailer, McDonald was taken out and hanged to a telegraph pole. McDonald, though a rather hard character and a gambler, was perhaps no worse than scores of others, and, aside from his petty lawlessness and the threat of violence made during this excitement, nothing detrimental to his character was known.
The above was the last lynching that has occurred, though there was serious talk of taking out and hanging one of the murderers confined in the jail for a cowardly and brutal murder committed in the early part of the present year, but better judgment prevailed.
It will be worthy of mention that Sidney is the place where the famous outlaw, "Doc" Middleton, now confined in the State penitentiary for life, committed his first crime. In a fight with a number of soldiers, he killed one in self-defense, and, fearing that trouble would ensue, he fled to the unsettled country to the northward and became a highwayman.
Occasionally, however, he, with his band, came in the vicinity of Sidney. On one of these occasions, in April, 1869, Chares Reed, who was hanged the following month for the murder of Loomis, undertook to betray Middleton and his associates into the hands of the authorities. Middleton and his men had stolen some horses near Ogallala, and wore pursued by Sheriff Hughes, of Keith County, with a number of men, and, with the assistance of Reed, they were discovered in the bluffs west of town, and, though Middleton escaped, one of his men, Joe Smith, was shot and killed.
The next day, Middleton, meeting one of his acquaintances, whom he know before going to the bad, sent in word that if he could be assured of a pardon for the killing of the soldier in 1877, he would willingly give himself up and stand his trial for the other crimes committed by him. This being refused, he kept up his wild life, till some time after he was captured by detectives, some sixty miles north of Columbus, and taken to Cheyenne, where he was tried for crimes committed in Wyoming, and sentenced to prison for life.
For
some years murders were so frequent in and about Sidney that the citizens became hardened and
careless as to the taking of life, and but little attention was given to
murders committed in drunken broils.
It was quite frequent in the dance houses here that some one would be killed during a quarrel, but no attention would be given to the matter further than to tumble the corpse into a corner out of the way until the dance and the amusements of the evening were over, and then take the corpse out for burial.
That the reader may have some idea of the disregard for life common to the frontier, we give an account of a single dance at one of the ranches.
During the winter of 1881, a dance was gotten up at a ranch north of Sidney; women and whisky were provided and arrangements made to have a good time. The men in attendance were soldiers, cow boys and border desperadoes. The dance proceeded without serious interruption till about half past 10 o'clock, when the effects of bad whisky began to be seen. Men and women became noisy, boisterous and quarrelsome; but still no one was killed till a soldier accidentally shot himself, death resulting in a few moments. As his body obstructed the floor, it was thrown into a corner, and the music and dance went on.
Quarrels were numerous, and after awhile a row ensued, shooting being commenced between Jack Page, who is now in jail at Sidney awaiting trial, and another party. Shots were fired among the crowd, and the shooting soon became general. Several men were wounded and one woman was shot in the back, but Page killed his man and his body was also thrown into the corner, out of the way, and the dance was again resumed.
But it was only a short time till there was another outbreak. The lights were then blown out, another man was killed, and finally, the dance was broken up. • Now, while so much has been written here in reference to the roughness of the town, it must not be understood that there was no good society.
While, as a frontier town, law was disregarded, yet a man could seek almost any society to which ho was inclined. If the stranger attended his own affairs, and kept away from drinking and dance houses, he was perfectly safe.
The business houses were as free from quarrels as they are in more Eastern towns. The class that made the trouble wore not residents, but desperate characters drawn together from all parts of the world, who, of course, when they came into town, proceeded to have a good time in their own depraved manner, and the rows were generally confined to the streets or the saloons. It is true, loose women and gamblers made Sidney a temporary residence, and, during the great rush of travel to the Black Hills, reaped a rich harvest.
These, however, have nearly all gone, and the days of lawlessness in Sidney may be said to be past.
The present Prosecuting Attorney of this Judicial District, V. Bierbower, is a resident of Sidney, and, being familiar with the crimes peculiar to the frontier, will doubtless prosecute until crime becomes unpopular in his district, judging from the fact that during the last term of court, out of twenty-eight prisoners arraigned, he succeeded in convicting twenty-seven.
The Sidney Of Today
The greater part of the Black Bills travel by this point has ceased, and Sidney is beginning to settle down as a quiet and prosperous little town in the center of the stock growing region.
Its trade throughout Sioux County on the north, and with the stock ranches, insures its continued prosperity.
The schools of the town have been described that they are in a thriving condition.
The only two churches having houses of worship erected are the Catholic, with Father Conway in charge, and the Methodist, with Rev. J. Turner as Pastor.
There are also many citizens here representing the Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian Churches, though these are not organized: but services are sometimes held.
The Sunday schools are in a flourishing condition.
There is one newspaper published here—The Plaindealer Telegraph— it being a consolidation of the old Telegraph and the Plaindealer.
The history of the two papers is as follows:
The Telegraph was founded in May, 1873, by L. Connell.
In December, 1875, he sold it to J. B, Gossage, who, in January, 1878, admitted G. B. Darrow as partner.
In 1879, the Telegraph was again sold, and a joint stock company was formed, with, Brainard & McNulty as editors.
In 1880, James McNulty assumed entire control, and continued to publish a creditable paper until March, 1881, when the Telegraph was sold to A. C. Drake, editor of the Plaindealer.
The Plaindealer was established in October 1878, by W. H. Michael, who, upon retiring from the profession, sold it to A. C. Drake.
As before stated, this gentleman purchased the Telgraph, and the two papers were consolidated.
Mr. Drake continued the paper until his death, when Mrs. A. C. Drake took charge of it and still continues to publish the Plaindealer-Telegraph, the only newspaper in the country. It is a bright and newsy paper.
Fort Sidney is still located here, and is still quite an important station for operations to the country northwest of here.
The cemetery here is well filled, when we consider the fact that it is only a little more than ten years since it was started by the burial of a man killed by Indians.
There are about two hundred graves; only a few of those buried her, however, died of natural death.
There are a few children buried here who died from natural causes, but of the adults, only a very small percentage.
Some were killed by Indians, but by far the greater number were wither murdered or killed in drunken brawls. Many of these were soldiers.
There are a few Pawnee Indians, who either died of disease or were killed in fights with the Sioux while engaged in the service of the United States Government as soldiers.
The History of Nebraska – Cheyenne County, 1882 |