(51) IN September, 1871, a county mass convention was called at the house of J. W. Ploof, on the southwest quarter of section 7, Neligh township, to place in nomination candidates for county offices to be voted for at the
general election to be held in October following. This convention was non-political and was pretty generally attended by voters from all over the settled parts of the county. The following ticket was placed in nomination and was elected in October: county clerk, W. W. Putney; treasurer, Robert Marwood; judge, D. V. Coe; sheriff, Jeptha Hopkins; county superintendent, A. J. Leach; surveyor, George H. McGee; coroner, A. B. Elwood; county commissioners, 1st district, William P. Clarke; 2d district, L. A. Boyd; 3d district, Zebulon Buoy. These officials-elect qualified and entered upon the duties of their offices immediately after the election, excepting Robert Marwood and George H. McGee, who failed to qualify in time, and they were accordingly appointed to their offices by the board of commissioners. It is probable that these officials should have waited until the January following before entering upon the duties of their respective offices, but there was not a copy of the statutes of Nebraska in the county to be used as a guide, and as there was no objection, they assumed the duties of their offices immediately. The county commissioners drew lots for the terms they should serve, Buoy drawing for one year, Clarke for two, and Boyd for three years.

     There were no records to be turned over excepting such as had been kept on slips of paper and in private account (52) books. Mr. W. W. Putney, county clerk, found that his predecessor had kept no records whatever of the commissioners' meetings, and he was compelled to make this record from memory. The former county clerk had, however, ordered a complete set of blank books from Acres, Blackmar & Company, DesMoines, Iowa, but these had not yet arrived. On investigation Mr. Putney found that the cost of these books would amount to a much larger sum than the new county could afford. He therefore wrote to Acres, Blackmar & Company, requesting that a part of the order be canceled. His request was granted, and only such books were bought as were of absolute necessity. Several of the county officials were left without any books in which to keep their records, but this was considered better than to run the county heavily in debt at the start.

     Before the county was organized, that part west of Madison County was attached to Madison for revenue and judicial purposes, and that part west of Pierce County was attached to Pierce for like purposes. The settlers, therefore, who were here on the first of April, 1871, or prior thereto, had been assessed in Pierce and Madison counties. These assessments were transferred by County Clerk Putney to the books of Antelope County, and in April, 1872, County Treasurer Marwood began the collection of taxes for the year 1871. Mr. Marwood opened his books for the first time at the house of W. W. Putney, on Cedar Creek, and there began the collection of taxes. His first receipt was dated April 4, 1872, for personal tax of A. J. Leach for 1871, and amounted to $8.60, two dollars of which was a dog tax. County Clerk Putney kept his office at his house on the north half of the northwest quarter of section 35, Oakdale township, and here the board of commissioners had their first meeting; and here most of the county business was transacted until the county seat was located in the fall of 1872.

     Meanwhile the population continued to increase and the settlements to expand. Early in May, 1872, settlers began to come to West Cedar valley, both north and south (53) of the present site of Elgin. The valley of Willow Creek was settled in the fall of 1872, and during the year a number of new settlers located on Bazile Creek. The Elkhorn valley continued to fill up, especially in the western part, and the settlements both north and south of the main valley continued to expand.

     It is not known exactly how many settlers were here in the spring of 1872, but a pretty close estimate of the number can be made. For this purpose a list has been made out from the county treasurer's personal tax list for 1872, showing the names of all permanent settlers who were assessed a personal tax for that year. Also there are added to this list the names of permanent settlers who had filed on homesteads or preemptions prior to April 1, 1872, but who were temporarily absent when the assessment was taken. In Bazile township there were nine settlers, as follows:

     In Blaine township there were eight:

     In Burnett there were forty-four: (webmaster note, list only contains 42)

     In Cedar township there were fifteen:

 In Clearwater there were four:

     In Elm there were fifteen:

     (55) In Frenchtown there were twenty-six:

     In Grant there were twenty-seven:

     In Neligh there were twenty-eight:

     In Oakdale there were twelve:

     In Ord township there were twenty-five:

     These make in all two hundred and thirteen persons in the county holding claims, or subject to be taxed. Many of these, however, were single persons, and it is not probable that the population of the county at that time, April 1,1872, exceeded six hundred and fifty persons.

     Up to the summer of 1872 the prosperity of the new settlements had been continuous, with the exception of the Indian troubles, which will be taken up later on. In 1872 (57) the locusts, or migratory grasshoppers, came for the first time in sufficient numbers to do damage. It was related by J. G. Routson, whose visit to the Elkhorn valley was mentioned in Chapter VI, that in 1867 he found that the cottonwood, willow, and some other varieties of trees had been stripped of their leaves by the grasshoppers. There were none here in 1868 or 1869, and none in 1870, excepting in the Cedar Creek settlement, where they destroyed the gardens. There were none in 1871, but in 1872 they came in great clouds and completely stripped the country of everything green.

     The writer, as secretary and historian of the Pioneer Society of Antelope County, read a chapter of Antelope County history before the first annual encampment of the Pioneers on the 21st day of September, 1886, from which is taken the following account of the grasshopper visitations.

     "About the last of July, 1872, when the grain was nearly all cut, and stacking had just commenced, the grasshoppers came in great numbers and completely destroyed the growing corn, potatoes, and gardens. Not enough corn was raised in 1872 for seed. The crop of small grain was good, although very late wheat and oats were destroyed, and grain that was in the shock was shelled out, and wasted to some extent by the grasshoppers. There was enough raised in 1871 to live on and some to spare, but the immigrants who came in the spring of 1872, unless they brought means with them, were in a destitute condition, and many left permanently for the east, while many others sought work in eastern Nebraska or in Iowa, until such time as they could return to their claims.

     "The spring and summer of 1873 were cold and wet, the yield of small grain was good and the quality was excellent, but corn did not ripen well. There were not so many grasshoppers as in 1872. In some neighborhoods they did little or no damage, but in others they did great injury to the corn and other crops. Hay was more abundant than ever before, and the settlers again took courage only to meet with bitter reverses and disappointment the next year.

     (58) "The year 1874 was known all over the settled portions of Nebraska as 'The Grasshopper Year.' The spring and early summer had been very favorable for growing crops; corn was looking well and promising an extra heavy yield; wheat and oats were mostly in the shock, when in the afternoon of a bright, sunshiny day a cloud was seen in the distance, to the northwest, as of smoke or dust. It was a cloud of grasshoppers. They came like driving snow in winter. They filled the air -- they covered the earth, the buildings, the shocks of grain, and everything. They alighted on trees in such numbers as to break off large limbs with their weight. In a few hours' time they stripped the cornfields of every vestige of leaf. They denuded the trees of their leaves„ and the twigs and smaller limbs of their bark. They severed the bands on the bundles of shocked grain, and shelled out the grain, on the outside of the shocks. Their alighting on the roofs and sides of houses sounded like a continuous hailstorm. Chickens and turkeys ran to hide from them. Their ability to devour was astonishing and nothing, scarcely, came amiss to them. Tobacco and tansy were choice morsels. Onions and turnips were eaten into the ground, leaving holes where they had been. If any were crushed under foot, or otherwise, the others immediately devoured them. If a harness or garment were left out it would be ruined in an hour's time. When at last there was nothing left for them to devour, and they rose in clouds that partially obscured the sun for hours, a scene of desolation and discouragement presented itself to the settlers that can better be imagined than described. About the only comforting thought was that it might have been worse had they come before the grain was cut and shocked.