(109) ANDREW P. BENNETT was the first settler in what is now Logan township, and in all that part of the county, in fact. He wrote for the Elgin
"Clippings," a newspaper published by Lafe Loper, in 1889, a series of articles entitled "An Old Settler's Experiences in the Early Days in Antelope County." These articles ran through fourteen numbers of the "Clippings,"
and are exceedingly interesting and instructive. In large part it is a personal narrative of his own experiences, but this narrative also describes in the minutest detail many things of general interest.

     Mr. Bennett was a peculiar man. He was large of frame, rawboned, muscular, with a countenance indicating decision and strength of character. He was somewhat slow and deliberate, thoroughly honest and conscientious. He was of the disposition to make the best of everything and would stick to a thing and get along somehow, when many men would get discouraged and quit. When he came here in the fall of 1871, the land was all vacant west of Oakdale and the Cedar Creek settlement and south and west of Neligh. The Elkhorn valley northwest of Neligh, of course, was settled. He was urged by the Cedar Creek settlers, and especially by his brother, Jesse T. Bennett, to take land either in or near the Cedar Creek settlement, but "Uncle Andy," as he was called, was obdurate. He wanted not only a good quarter of land for himself, but he wanted it where all the surrounding quarters had rich soil and a smooth surface. Accordingly he went four miles beyond everybody and located on the northeast quarter of section 14, Logan township, (110) just a half-mile south of the present village of Elgin. Time has vindicated his decision. His brother Jesse was provoked and called him a lunatic and named the neighborhood where he located "Lung Valley." This name it retained for several years.

     Such parts of the narrative of Andrew P. Bennett as are suitable for this history will be given here. The incidents that he relates and the personal experiences that he gives, with some variations, are applicable to scores of others of the early settlers. Such portions as are not applicable will be omitted, but no changes will be made in the phraseology. The quotations will be given verbatim, except where the writer gives a name of a settler in order to locate a tract of land, the numbers of the land will now be given. This is for the reason that in most cases the settler has moved away and in many instances the name even is forgotten.

     "I resided in Ringgold County, Iowa, for a few years previous to coming here. Having a small farm with a six-hundred dollar mortgage on it, it seemed about all that I could do to pay the interest and keep up other expenses. My youngest brother was out here, having for his homestead the northwest quarter of section 9, Cedar township, three miles east of Elgin. He had written me of the good chances to get government land out here so I resolved to come and look. Accordingly my oldest brother from Michigan and my nephew, John Bennett, got a light spring wagon, they furnishing one horse and I one, and we prepared for the trip.

     "On the 5th day of October, 1871, we set out on our journey to the 'far west.' We made fair progress on our journey till we arrived at Council Bluffs, where we crossed the Missouri River, and for the first time in our lives saw farms with growing crops on them without any fences around them, which looked very odd. Our first night's camping ground in Nebraska was by Old Man's Creek (111) about twenty miles from Omaha; a night well remembered by our little party, for one of our horses took sick and died and we had no money to buy another and proceed on our trip. Some of the party were in favor of giving up the journey and going back home, but I said 'No, we are half way there or more and we can get the other half someway. We can fix a spring pole to hold up the wagon tongue and one horse can pull the load, by some of us walking up the hills, till we can find some man who will trade us a yoke of cattle for the other horse.' We commenced inquiring for a trade but could hear of no broken cattle being owned near where we were, but found a man having two pairs of young unbroken steers he would trade us; one pair two years old past, and one pair of one year olds past. We looked at them and told him if he would find timber to make yokes and bows and give a chain apiece we would take them. He said 'All right,' he would do it, and we found material in his wood-pile that would answer the purpose, so we went right to work and by noon the next day we had them completed, and in the afternoon yoked the cattle up and chased them around awhile.

     "The next day, which was Sunday, we let them run in the yoke in the yard, and Monday morning we got the man we traded with to pull our wagon to the top of the hill, so we would have a tolerable level piece of road to start on. With a rope on each near steer and a man at each rope with a good gad in his hand, that left one to ride, at a time, to whip and hollow behind, we hitched on and commenced hollowing and whipping and the wheels began to roll, and twelve miles ahead found us at a good camping place at early camping time. We stopped, tied up and unyoked, fed our cattle and ourselves, and enjoyed a night's rest very well.

     "On looking around our camp in the evening, it looked a little suspicious that there might be some coons living around there, and having my old coon hound along, about four o'clock in the morning I got up and in company with the old hound, went to a cornfield near by, and the (112) hound was not long in finding the tracks of one, and soon he had it treed, within a hundred yards of our wagon. The old hound watched the tree, and the coon was kept from coming down till it got light enough to shoot. Meanwhile we got our breakfast, fed our cattle, and were ready to roll as soon as we got our coon. We rolled seventeen miles that day and from seventeen to twenty till we got through. By that time we had our cattle well broken to pull and to follow the road. Two of us could ride in the wagon considerable the second day, and after the third day, and we got a whip long enough to reach the lead cattle, we could all ride except when we wanted to turn out of the road or to stop; then one of us had to get to the lead cattle, whose rope we kept hanging on the yoke of the hind cattle.

     "We got through all right and liked the country better than we had expected, and when we had concluded to take claims we found the cattle just what we would want to break prairie with. After looking over the land thoroughly and finding all the real nice land in Taylor valley north of here being in the Dakota land district and in town 23, the land office being at West Point, which was right on my way to Iowa, I resolved to take my home in town 23, range 7, the northeast quarter of section 14, just half a mile south of where Elgin now stands. We resolved to manifest our titles to our claims by putting an unmistakable mark on them, so we procured a yoke of old cattle to put behind our young steers, and a good large breaking plow, a lot of cottonwood edgings from the sawmill on the Elkhorn, three miles below where Oakdale now stands, for stakes to run a line by. We drove out, and setting a row of stakes a mile long, we started up our awkward young team to plow the first furrow that far west between the Elkhorn and the Beaver. With a driver to each yoke of cattle and one to watch the stakes and cattle and plow, and hollow 'Gee,' 'Haw,' etc., we went through the first half-mile and stopped to rest and take a backward look. When we did so, we pronounced it pretty (113) well done. We took courage and persevered until we had gone around the half section; the east half of 14, now owned by C. M. Seeley and A. J. Perry. (A. P. Bennett took the northeast quarter and J. H. Bennett the southeast quarter.) Night came on before we got around and got to our boarding-place, having to travel four miles for supper and lodging, mostly after dark, without the sign of a road anywhere; but we made it all right, the weather being fine.

      "We then concluded if the weather continued favorable we would go out and break some sod and try our hands at building a sod house. Up to that time the weather had been nice ever since we had arrived here, only the nights were a little frosty, but as the ground was not frozen we thought we could work at our sod house. We little thought of seeing the worst snowstorm we had ever witnessed so soon, but most assuredly we did. It commenced with rain, then turned to snowing with the wind in the northwest, on Friday (about November 17) and never ceased until Sunday evening. In the gulches and on the sides of the hills that lay sloping to the southeast where the snow could lodge at all, there were great drifts. We gave up sod-house building until spring. We never saw our claims any more until about the next June."