Many
adventurous young men moved across the
country looking for good farming lands
on
which to start there homesteads. The
honor of being the first permanent white
resident
of Gage County probably belongs to a
young man named David Palmer. As
early
as 1855 he was an employee at a trading
post on Cub Creek. Later when
this land
became
part of the Nebraska Territory he bought
a farm a few miles from where Liberty
is
now. Through his efforts and those
of others who settled nearby. the little
village of
Liberty
was started. Today it is a trading
center fro the surrounding farm people.
In 1876
David
Palmer lost his life by drowning in
the Big Blue River.
Adams
Another
young pioneer, John Adams chose a farm
site where the village of Adams is
now
located. In 1857 he brought his
family to the new western land. He
built a rough
log
house, broke up the virgin soil, and
planted a crop of sod corn. This
was probably
the
first land cultivated in Gage County
by a white man. Later a part of
his land was
given
to the settlers for a town site. This
place was named Adams after its original
owner.
Many people settled in the new
town, and a thriving trading center
resulted.
Pickrell
About
the same time that Adams was being started,
two young me, John Pethoud and
Edward
Austin, came to the county. They
settled on Indian Creek not far from
Adams.
This
was in 1857. Austin decided
that a lumber mill would be of great
help for other
settlers
in building their homes. The mill
was built on the present site of the
town of
Pickrell.
Because of the importance of the
mill many people were attracted to the
little
village
that grew up around it. Today
Pickrell is still a progressive little
town.
Rockford
and Filley
In
Rockford township, many settlers bought
farm lands along the Mud and Cedar Creeks.
The
first of these as far as known was James
B. Mattingly, who with his family located
there.
Several other men took out claims
near his. They built cabins, planted
and harvested
their
corn crops, and then returned to places
on the Missouri River to spend the winter.
The
next year, 1859, they returned to their
claims bringing their own families,
and others
who
were desirous of finding homes in a
new land . As an outcome of this
population
growth,
two new towns, Rockford and Filley,
were started in Gage County. Like
the
others,
their only business was trade with the
farmers in the surrounding area, so
neither of
them
grew to be a prosperous town. However,
the coming of the railroad, and the
building
of grain elevators helped them to keep
growing.
Holmesville
During
the year of 1859, a group of English
settlers, the Hollingsworth, Shelly
and Wild
families
settled in the neighborhood of Cedar
Creek and the Blue River. There
were
about
twenty-five people in all. They
were a welcome addition to the population
of
Gage
County. Soon others joined them
and the town of Holmesville was started.
Wymore
Twenty
years passed before another town was
started in Gage County. In 1881
the
plot
of the original town of Wymore was filed
for record in the office of the register
of
deeds in the Beatrice Court House. The
Origin of this town came about in a
different
way
than those mentioned before. It
was an outgrowth of the coming of the
railway.
The
Burlington railroad had built a track
connecting Lincoln and Beatrice. It
had also
built
a railroad from St. Joseph, Missouri
to Denver, Colorado. They wanted
to connect
the
two lines by extending the shorter line
from Lincoln to Beatrice southward to
a junction
point.
The railroad officials offered
to build a depot and the junction tracks
and roundhouse
at
Blue Springs if that town would allot
certain lands for the purpose. Over-confident
in
her
position in the county, the city officials
refused to meet the terms of the company.
Hearing
of this, Sam Wymore, a farmer who owned
the section of land south of Blue
Springs,
offered a part of his land to the company.
This the Burlington accepted and
a
town plot was laid out. It was
named Wymore. The depot tracks,
and necessary
buildings
were planned for the southeastern section
of the town. Less than two months
later
there were sixty business houses and
residences erected in the town. As
soon as
the
junction was completed, the trains began
to move through the town daily. This
was
a
great incentive for people to move to
Wymore and work for the railroad. The
town
grew
rapidly, at one time rivaling Beatrice
in progress.
Wymore
build a street-railway line from the
Burlington station to the Union Pacific
Station
at
Blue Springs. It operated for
ten years and then was abandoned. A
large three
story
hotel was build across the street from
the depot to take care of the many passengers
who
changed trains at Wymore. Banks
were started, and prosperity came to
the town.
Barneston
The
town of Barneston in southern Gage County
was built on the site of an ancient
village
of
the
Otoe Indians. It was named for
Frances Barnes, a member of the original
group
locating
there. The surroundings of the
village were very beautiful. Wolf
Creek with its
dense
timber lands nearby on the north side.
Plum Creek with its never failing
stream of
water
was on the south. Toward the west
the Blue River flowed along. Before
the town
was
incorporated in 1883 it had for many
years been an Indian Trading Post. In
1881
the
Indians had been removed to a reservation
in Indian Territory, now known as Oklahoma.
This
left the land open for settlement by
white people.
Clatonia
In
the northwest corner of Gage County,
Henry, Albert and J. H. Steinmeyer had
located
their
homesteads in Clatonia township. In
the spring of 1892, they had a tract
of forty
acres
of land surveyed for a township. To
this new town they gave the name
Clatonia.
A
creek by the same named flowed through
the land. Clatonia was incorporated
as a
village
in 1893 with J. H. Steinmeyer as chairman
of the village board. The first
family to
become
resident of the town was that of Frank
W. Jones. He was the first postmaster.
In
May 1903 Clatonia became a station on
the main line of the Rock Island Railway
from
Chicago
to Denver. This helped the village
to become a good trading place for the
surrounding
farm families.
Cortland
The
town of Cortland grew out of the location
of the Union Pacific Railway. Mr.
Joseph
Millard
of Omaha bought a tract of land from
Alfred Gale. He had it surveyed.
It was filed
for
record in February 1884. Later
in the spring, the depot and the railroad
yards were
built
on this tract of land. Later,
other sections of land were added to
the original town site
and the village
of Cortland started to grow. The
first merchant in the village was Henry
Spellman,
who
erected a building there in the winter
of 1883 and 1884. Here he started
the first general merchandise
store.
Odell
In
the southern part of the county, after
the removal of the Otoe and Missouri
Indians
from
their reservation, the town of Odell
was started. The village was the
result of a
survey
for a new railroad line from St. Joseph
to Denver on the Burlington. It
was located
in
the midst of good farming lands, and
became a good trading place. The
town was
named
for LeGrand Odell of Chicago, who had
come west to locate in the new land.
Virginia
The
attractive Gage County village of Virginia,
a few miles east of Beatrice, is located
on
high, rolling prairie land. It
was early the center of trade for a
prosperous farming region.
Its
first store was owned by M. V. Drew,
and its first postmaster was Warren
Barber.
Ellis
and Lanham
Ellis
and Lanham are two other small villages
in Gage County. Like the others,
they were
started
because of a need for a trade center
for a prosperous farming region. Lanham
is
situated
on
the border between Kansas and Nebraska.
In fact, the main street of the
town
is the dividing
line.
Some people in Lanham call Kansas
their state, while others claim
Nebraska
as their home.
Merchants on the south side of
the main street follow Kansas regulations,
while those
on the north side live under Nebraska
laws.
