|
Early
Settlers
The earliest settlers of Pawnee County located in the
vicinity of Cincinnati, a little village situated in its extreme
southeastern
portion, about fourteen miles from Pawnee City.
In the spring
of 1854, Christian Bobst, Robert Turner, Jacob Adams and Robert Archer
started from Ohio with a
view of settling in Missouri, on the Hannibal
& St. Joe Railroad. They found, however, that the lands were not in
the market,
and pushed on into Nebraska.
On the
4th of April, they arrived on the South Fork of the Great Nemaha.
Mr.
Bobst, the leader of the party, selected the
northwest quarter of Section
25, Town 1, Range 12, one of the finest timber claims in the State.
Mr. Archer, upon
the southwest quarter of the same section; and
The party
thought at first that they were within the limits of Kansas. The survey
had not yet been made, and, to protect
themselves in their claims, after
the lines had been run, the settlers of what it; now Nemaha County, Kan.,
and Pawnee,
and a portion of Richardson County, Neb., formed a claim club.
The first meeting was held July 4, 1851, at the crossing of
the old Mormon
trail and the Nemaha River. The President of the club was J. R. Cassel;
Secretary, George T. Bobst.
From the old torn pages of its record book
were taken the following dates of when the claims of several well-known,
citizens
of Pawnee County were made:
Christian Bobst. George T. Bobst,
Joseph Fries and Robert Turner, April 12, 1854
H. Shellhorn, August 12,
1854
J. P. Love and H. G. Love, August 18, 1854
Jerome
Shellhorn and John Shellhorn, August 19, 1854
After locating their
claims, the party, headed by Judge Bobst, returned to St. Joe, where they
had left their goods,
Mr. Bobst having erected a house -- the first in the
county. Before they returned, Joseph Fries and William Barnes also
located
in the same neighborhood. John Morrison and Martin Fisher settled on the
South Fork, and James M. Hinton
on the North Fork. Mr. Hinton erected a
small dwelling house, E. J. Shellhorn, Jacob B. Shellhorn, the Abrams and
two or three farm hands, assisting to raise the frame. Mr. Hinton held
land upon which the Table Rock Mill was erected.
On July 20, 1854, James O'Loughlin, Charles McDonald and
Arthur McDonald came up Turkey Creek and
ooked over the ground which
afterward became the site of Pawnee City.
The locality is said to have
originally been the site of a large Pawnee Indian village, and upon this
particular day the
three white men observed a large body of natives beyond
where the cemetery grounds now are, and retreated to the
South Fork of the
Nemaha in dismay.
Settlers of 1855:
L. G. Jenkins
Elisha Kirkham
Elijah
Markee
Daniel Powell
On the South Fork
H. G. Love
W. S. Love
J. P.
Love and families
On Turkey Creek
A. A. Jordan
L. D. Jordan
Eben
Jordan
Charles McDonald
Settlers of 1856:
P. M. Rogers and family
Rufus
Abbott
J. C. Peavey
Rezin Ball
Levi Ball
Garrett L. Pangburn
E. W.
Fowler
Josiah J. Lebo
Noah Lebo
Archibald Young
Calvin Horr
Matt
Halls
John Kiner
On South Fork
G. G. and Andrew Thallimer
Absalom Walters
Dr.
A. F. Cromwell (first physician in the county) and family
W. B.
Arnett
On west branch Turkey
John Jordan
Branick Cooper
On Jake's Run
James B. Robertson
On Nigger's Branch.
The Messrs. Buckner
Two colored
gentlemen
Settlers of 1857 --
Andrew Fellers
Joseph Steel,
Charles
Tucke,
John Morley
Thomas Entwistle
Fred Parli (who afterward removed
to Johnson Creek)
Hamilton Cooper
Rev. G. L. Griffing
Joseph Griffing
Asa E. Haywood
M. J. Mumford
Richard Brown
William Haywood (with their
father, Mr. Haywood)
Benjamin Ball
H. N. Gere
William McNeal
Clark
Alexander
William Fellers
Lyman Rockwood
John C. Wood
Mr. Beishline
Henry Boomer
William Richards
James Dobson
James Brim
Guilford Lee
R.
V. Muir
Richard Collison
Tack Carter
Richard Carter
E. L.
Selfridge
Sylvester Fisher
George E. Downing
William Boock
John Vanier
James K. Adamson
Settlers of 1858 --
On Turkey Creek
J. W. Cochran
Mr. Zeke
Washington
Allen
Dr. J. N. McCasland
William Horn
Abraham Clayton
William B.
Raper
A. D. Liming
Daniel Liming
On the North Fork
C. W. Giddings
John A. Jones
William Smith
Julius Tyler
Peter Gartner
George P.
McMahon
Samuel McMahon
L. M. Mumford
Samuel Spece
Luke Bradley
Nathan G. Hand
On Jake's Run
Horace Bemis
William Carkey
R. G.
Cowperthwaite
John Colony
On Johnson Creek
and its tributaries
Mr. Burg (father of John and
William Burg)
John Tillotson
George W. Welsh
William Scott
Andrew
Oliver
William Oliver
John Turnbull
Robert Fairbairn
William
Fairbairn
J. L. Wymore
Fred Wymore
Isaac Lockand
On Plumb Creek
John W. Gregory
Mark Killeen
John Connolly
The
Bailes family
On Ball's Branch
Buell Woodruff
Lucas Covert
W. W. Denney
John A. Butler
On the West Branch
of Turkey Creek
John W. Manning
On Taylor's or Hogin's
Branch
Robert Taylor
On Long
Branch
William and Gottifried Burrow
Christian Frank
The first settler of the county was Judge Christian
Bobst, who, on April 4, 1850, settled on the northwest quarter
of section 25, Town 1, Range 12. He also built the first house in the
county, and his son George T. Bobst, constructed
the first boot-jack,
which is still in existence.
John Barnes died in the fall of 1855, and his funeral was
the first which occurred in the county.
Rev. David Hart preached the first sermon in the county
during the spring of 1855, at the house of Henry Shellhorn,
South Fork.
Andrew P. Liming, the first child born in Pawnee City,
dates his life from October, 1857.
The first deed recorded is a quit-claim, dated February,
21, 1857; Mary F. Barnes to Joseph Fries, the southwest
quarter of Section
35, Town 1, Range 12 east.
L. M. B. Kennedy brought suit against Stephen Waters for
the value of certain hogs found dead upon Mr. Waters'
premises. The trial
came off September 14, 1857, and Mr. Waters was mulcted in $50 damages.
In 1859, the first camp-meeting held in the county was in
charge of Rev. W. King, at Table Rock. The first church
organized in the
county was in 1857, a Methodist Episcopal Society, by Rev. C. V. Arnold.
Table Rock also claims the first frame house, the first
frame bridge, the first brick-kiln, the first brick house and the first
cistern in the county.
The first District Court held within the county, as far
as any record kept shows, was at Pawnee City, September 8, 1859.
Present:
Hon. Joseph Miller, Judge
District Attorney, William McLeenan
Clerk,
Allen Blacker
Sheriff, Eben Jordan.
At this term of court, Dr. J. N.
McCasland was appointed Deputy Clerk for this county, which position he
held
until 1864.
On March 13, 1856, James O'Laughlin and Lydia Adamson,
Richard Clency and Priscilla Adamson, were
united in marriage -- the first
joining together within the present limits of the county. Thomas Entwistle
and Mary
M. Williams, on March 27, 1857, took the same step, after the
county was organized.
Source: Andreas History of Nebraska |