It
was no ordinary body of
men who in April, 1857,
while passengers on the
old
river
boat "Hannibal",
resolved to cut loose from
civilization and seek fortune
and
happiness
in that region of our country
which was even then designated
in the school
geographies
as the "Great American
Desert."
It
took courage of no mean
order and optimism of large
proportions to hold men
of
learning
and ability, such as for
the most part composed the
membership of the
Beatrice
Townsite Company, to what
must have appeared to a
reflecting mind a
forlorn
hope. As far as we
are aquatinted with their
history, we must accord
to them
the
qualities of the true pioneer,
who, scorning the hard,
uninviting surroundings
of
the
moment, sees, in the changing
years, mighty commonwealths
develop from
primeval
conditions.
The
entire committee having
assembled in Omaha and agreed
upon its report, the
members
of the association were
called together to receive
it, on the 20th day of
May,
1857, in the office of the
territorial secretary of
state. The brief report
read
as
follows:
We
the undersigned, locating
committee of the Nebraska
Association, after thoroughly
exploring
Johnson, Gage, Clay, Lancaster
and Cass Counties, find
the most
eligible
site for a town near the
center of Gage County. The
advantages of this place
consist
in its location between
two tributaries of the Blue
and the junction of the
western
branch with the main river;
in the great beauty and
fertility of the adjacent
prairies,
in the abundance of wood
and timber, in the proximity
of stone fit for building
purposes,
and the favorable indication
of coal. The prairie is
four miles in width
from
creek to creek and is skirted
on either side by the timber
line along the banks of
above
mentioned streams. The
timber is generally oak,
walnut, hickory, ash, cotton-
wood
and elm, and is of a better
quality and finer size than
any other we saw in our
explorations,
the central position in
the county, and quality
and quantity of the timber,
the
superior nature and location
of the intervening prairie
and the large extent of
country
tributary to it, determined
us in the selection of this
place as possessing all
the
requisites and advantages
necessary to the founding
and building of a prosperous
and
thriving inland town. All
of which is very respectfully
submitted, with and
accompanying
map of the place.
This
report was unanimously adopted
and a committee appointed
whose duty
it
was to ascertain and properly
designate the exact location
of the proposed
town
site
and have the same surveyed.
Another committee
was appointed, charged
with
the duty of reporting at
an early date to the association
a name for the
embryo
town. The last named
committee, as a result of
its deliberations, at a
meeting
of the association on May
21st, reported the names
of "Wheatland"
and
"Beatrice". The
later was the name of Judge
Kinney's oldest daughter,
Julia
Beatrice Kinney, and it
was adopted by a vote of
sixteen to nine. The
association
adjourned to meet at Beatrice
on the 27th day of July,
1857.
On
the date of the actual founding
of Beatrice, July 27, 1857,
there were not
to
exceed, besides themselves,
twenty-five white men in
Gage County
as
originally created. There
had never been a bushel
of wheat, a bushel of corn,
a
potato,
or any sort of product raised
from the soil of the county
by the hand of man
outside
of the Otoe and Missouri
Indian Reservation. The
first rows had been
drawn
through the virgin soil
in the spring of that year,
by John Pethoud. There
was
not
a government mail route
or carrier, not a single
stage line, not a broken
road
traveled
by white men in the country;
except Gideon Bennett's
Indian Trading post,
a
mile and a quarter southwest
of the present town of Liberty,
there was not a single
place
within the boundaries of
Gage county where a man
could buy a knife or any
other
article of common use, or
a mean, or a garment.
