EARLY HISTORY OF CHERRY COUNTY, NEBRASKA

     (48) As has been stated in another chapter, the homes of the first settlers that were near streams were made of logs. Those away from streams were made mostly of sod. During the eighties only a few frame houses were erected in the county. Among those whose homes were built of lumber at that time were Sam Hudson, Frank Brackett, Charles Kime, Peter Rousche, John R. Lee, William Shock, Mr. Dew, Captain D. A. Piercy, Edward A. Lee, Marion B. Lee, the Bristol brothers and father, and Willis Barnard. There may have been others but no knowledge or record of them has been found.

     During the nineties, drouth, panic, and low prices prevented the making of any costly improvements. Hence the turn of the century found conditions much as they had been during the eighties. There is no record of any modern home in rural Cherry County when the new century arrived. In 1912 Charles Faulhaber of Brownlee built a modern home on his ranch and this year marked the beginning of the building of many modern rural homes. As this history is being written there are many such homes in the county.

     During the eighties the laundry equipment in the homes of the settlers consisted of a wash tub and a wash board. "Blue Monday" had a real meaning for those early mothers as wash day came around. Of all the work to be done, probably none was harder than doing a big washing by rubbing it clean on a wash board and wringing the clothes by hand. During the nineties various kinds of hand operated washing machines came into use. These were a decided improvement and did much to lighten the labor of wash day. Improvement of washing equipment has continued until at the present time few homes are without washing machines with wringer attachment operated by electricity or other power.

     The canning of fruit, vegetables, and meat for winter use was not generally practiced by the early settlers. Instead they dried the fruit, stored vegetables in cellars or caves, and preserved pork by salting or smoking. Beef was sometimes dried. Great strides have been made in the preservation of food for future use. The development of the freezer locker (49) in the 1930's was one of the latest and best improvements for the preservation of food.

     In the farming sections of the county the first wells were dug by hand. Some wells were walled up with lumber, others needed no walls because the nature of the soil was such that it would not cave in. Wells in the ranching section presented a more difficult problem because of the sandy soil which always caved in. Early ranchers attempted to overcome this problem by digging a few feet, then putting in a curb made of lumber and weighted with sand. They then dug underneath the curb which settled as they dug beneath it. But at best they could go down only a few feet and consequently were able to use only surface water. In 1895 Milton Latta, whose home on Hackberry Lake was on the present site of the headquarters of the Wild Fowl Refuge, conceived the idea that by pumping water up through an iron pipe, he could sink it into the sand to any depth desired. He believed that by digging a small hole and keeping it filled with water, he could pump the sand and water up through the pipe and that the water in the hole would prevent the sides from caving in. Accordingly he made a drill of a short piece of 1¼ inch pipe with one end flared so that it was a little larger than the rest of the pipe. This drill was the same size as the pipe to be used in the well. Mr. Latta tried out his idea at his home and found it completely successful. As he pumped the pipe down he examined the sand. When the sand became coarse he drew the pipe out and put on a "sand point" made of six feet of perforated pipe covered with fine gauze down to the point where the pipe reached the coarse sand. After allowing sufficient time for the walls of the well to settle around the pipe and hold it firmly in place, a pump was attached to the pipe and soon fine clear water was coming forth. This discovery solved the well problem for the shallow water sections of the county.

     Mr. Latta's next well was made for W. H. Stratton at its store at the Oasis Post Office, midway between Simoen end Kennedy, but later discontinued. News of the success of these two wells soon spread to all parts of the county and Mr. Latta was in much demand to make wells which were sorely needed. To show what this meant to the early ranchers, during the winter of 1894-95 at the homestead of the author, one hundred head of mature cattle were watered by pumping the water with a wooden pump by hand from a shallow well.

     (50) Mr. Latta secured a patent on his process for making wells and sold rights to use the process in a given territory. Nearly all of the wells in the ranching section of Cherry County are now made by his process. With good windmills attached to these wells, ranchmen give no thought to their water supply other than to keep the mills and pumps in good order.

     Mr. Latta's process also made it possible for settlers to have water in their homes. By installing a pump and sink in the house, water was available. This method was used in most homes until the time of modern homes with power water systems. In homes not yet made modern Mr. Latta's wells are still in use and are a great improvement over the previous method of carrying water from a well outside the house.

     In the nineties, a man by the name of Clark brought a well drilling machine into the German Settlement and drilled a well on the homestead of the Rev. Sylvanus Johnson. This well was not a success. The pipe was pulled up and a well drilled in another place. At a depth of 175 feet good water was found. This was the first tubular well in the German Settlement. Mr. Johnson put up a windmill at this well and supplied water for many neighbors who had to haul water to their homes. Mr. Clark sold the well drilling machine to Rev. Johnson's son, James, who used it for many years making wells in the county and surrounding territory. Fred Porath, a settler in the German Settlement, also secured a well drilling machine and made many wells.

     In the southwest part of the county, John O. Jones had a well drilling machine with which he could drill to great depth. Assisted by his two sons and Dr. A. J. Plumer, he drilled to a depth of 400 feet and secured the first good flowing well in 1895. This well was on the ranch owned by Dr. Plumer and is now known as the Dumbell ranch. Cherry County is famous for its flowing wells. There are very few ranches in the southwest portion of the county that do not have these wells which range in depth from 30 to 400 feet, the average depth being from 100 to 200 feet. The W. C. Coble ranch north of Whitman has fourteen flowing wells.

     The digging of deep wells on the high table lands of the county resulted in the death of three citizens. In the German Settlement, Joseph Grewe, an expert at deep well digging, became known as the "human badger". Assisted by A. T. Brackett of Kilgore and another man, he dug a well one hundred (51) feet deep in one day. He was much in demand by his neighbors who had to haul water to their homes. He dug many wells over a period of a few years. Then one day in 1894 a neighbor asked Mr. Grewe to remove an obstruction from his well which was 226 feet deep. Mr. Grewe descended to the bottom of the well with a sand bucket which he filled with sand and gave the signal to hoist. Almost at the top of the well the bucket came unfastened from its rope and plunged to the bottom, striking Mr. Grewe on the head and killing him instantly.

     While cleaning out a well on the B. F. Hobson farm on the North Table north of Valentine, Perry Bryant was killed in 1907 by a rock which fell from the top and struck him on the head. This well was 126 feet deep. George Sanner, a pioneer, also lost his life while digging a deep well on one of the North Table farms. Ervine Bristol, another pioneer, while digging a well near Kewanee in the eighties, was rendered unconscious but recovered.

     These pioneer heroes who gave their lives for their communities deserve a place in the history of our county. The coming of tubular wells removed the dangers connected with the digging of deep wells, most of which, if not all, have been filled up.

     Before the coming of the railroad, residents of the county secured their supplies from Neligh, Nebraska, the end of the railroad at that time. The only doctor in the county was the army doctor at Fort Niobrara. Improvements which made life easier for the settlers began with the coming of the railroad. The cradle used in cuting grain the flail for threshing it were on their way out when the first settlers came into the county. The small extent to which they were used in the county is described in another chapter.

     In the farming sections walking plows were used to plant and cultivate the crops. Both horse and ox teams were used in breaking the sod. In the ranching section horse drawn mowers with 4½ foot bars were used. A long pole or 6 x 6 with 2 x 4 teeth or poles bolted to it at right angles was used for a sweep. This was followed by the side sweep, then the push sweep; the sweep in use at the present time is driven by a tractor.

     The hay rakes used in the early days were shorter than those of the present day. Now, a tractor draws three rakes at a time.

     Stacking was accomplished by placing the hay in bunches (52) and pitching it onto the stack by hand. The first hay stacker of which there is any record was purchased in 1890 by John R. Lee of Brownlee. Mr. Lee had a store at Brownlee and handled machinery. The stacker which he purchased was not strong enough to do the job until the original parts were replaced with stronger pieces. All through the eighties and most of the nineties hay was pitched by hand onto stacks and hauled on wagons with narrow tires. Wide tired wagons appeared in the late nineties. Home-made hay stackers became quite common in the late nineties and farm machinery companies soon placed factory made stackers on the market. Within a few years all ranchers had hay stackers of one kind or another and stacking hay by the laborious method of pitching it by hand had completely disappeared. Improvement of the hay stacker has continued and the process of evolution has now developed the slide stacker with wire cable attached. Work of stacking hay has been greatly reduced and in extreme labor shortage, stacks can be made with only the last few loads being placed by a man on the stack.

     Along with the hay stacker for the rancher came improved farm machinery for the farmer. The walking plow gave way to one with a seat attached on which the operator could ride. A reaper for cutting grain which had to be bound by hand followed the cradle and this was soon replaced by a self binder which greatly lightened the work of harvest time. Threshing machines powered by horses or steam engines took the place of the flail. At this time the final evolution is the combine which reaps and threshes at the same time.

     In the ranch sections of the county the feeding of the herds during the winter was a strenuous job. The hay was pitched onto large racks on wagons and hauled to the feeding grounds. Some ranchmen made racks on sleds which they used when there was snow on the ground. To be well fed, a herd required one wagon load of hay for each 100 head of cattle. On windy days and in severely cold weather the lot of the feeder was a hard one. This method of feeding was used entirely until the first world war. Then an incident occurred on the Cyrus R. Wolfenden ranch which radically changed and simplified the process.

     In about 1918, while Mrs. Wolfenden and the children were living in Mullen during the school year, Mr. Wolfenden and (53) hired man were batching on his ranch southwest of Kennedy in central Cherry County and feeding a large herd of cattle. The hired man was called into the army and Mr. Wolfenden was faced with the impossible task of feeding his herd alone. As the old saying goes, "necessity is the mother of invention". The idea came to Mr. Wolfenden that if he had a sled with no sides on it, he could tie a stacker rope to one end of the sled, take the rope around a stack and, by hitching a team to the end of the rope, pull apart of the stack over onto the sled. This would eliminate all the work of pitching the hay by hand from the stack to the hay rack.

     Accordingly, Mr. Wolfenden made a sled by using two 16-foot cottonwood poles for runners and covering them with 14-foot planks. He hitched a four horse team to the cable and to his great satisfaction, the top part of the stack of hay slid easily over onto the sled. He drove this load of hay to the feeding ground, scattered it for the cattle, and returned for another load. The plan worked as well the second time. The method saved so much time that Mr. Wolfenden soon made a stronger sled and discontinued the use of his hay rack entirely.

     A modern hay sled with cable attachment. Ralph Daniels, Jr., of Simeon is the driver. Such sleds are used on most of the ranches in the county when this history was written.

     Word of Mr. Wolfenden's method soon spread to other sections of the county and within a short time hay sleds had replaced wagons. They have been improved to such an extent that at this time an entire stack of hay can be pulled onto a sled by using a six horse team. In dry weather, wheels are sometimes placed on the sleds. Windy weather has little effect on this method of feeding.

     (54) When the first settlers came there were no bridges across the rivers and streams and crossing them presented a real obstacle. Quicksand in the Niobrara River made it especially difficult and dangerous. The first bridge across the Niobrara was built in 1882 at the site of the present Berry Bridge. It was made of logs with poles in place of lumber for floor. It was a toll bridge, a charge of twenty-five cents being made to cross it. This bridge was taken out by an ice jam within a few years.

     Bridges in the county have been named for the person living near them. The first iron bridge built in the county was the Bell Bridge, now known as the Allen Bridge. It was built by the county in 1885 and was named for settler Bell. In selecting the site, the county commissioners asked the residents of the community to be served by the bridge to meet and vote on its location. The Sparks and Kewanee communities were both much interested in the site of the Bell Bridge. Each wanted it placed at its choice of location. Sparks people cast the most votes and secured the bridge for their site. A bridge has been maintained at this site ever since the first one was built.

     The new county did not have sufficient means to build iron bridges at all of the places where they were needed. Hence, a number of pole bridges were built to serve until better ones could be provided. One of these pole bridges was built near the Jack Darr home, between the present Bush and Krammer ranches, on the river southwest of Valentine. This bridge was built in the early eighties and served until replaced by an iron structure several years later.

     There are more than a hundred miles of the Niobrara River within the boundaries of Cherry County. To provide enough bridges for such a large county and to maintain them, particularly against ice jams, placed a sizeable financial burden on the taxpayers of the county. In February, 1916, at the close of a severe cold spell, an unusually warm wave came along which caused the thick ice to melt rapidly and pack into great gorges. These swept down the river and took out all the bridges in the county except two, the Hanson Bridge south of Valentine and the Bell Bridge east of Valentine. The bridges were rebuilt as fast as possible and all were made several feet higher above the water level to avoid such destruction in the future. In August, 1933, a seven inch rain (55) over western Cherry and Sheridan Counties caused a flood on the Niobrara River which damaged many of the bridges but most of them were high enough to allow the flood waters to pass under without complete destruction.

     In 1945, there are twenty-two bridges across the Niobrara in Cherry County. They have cost from $1,000 to $7,500 per bridge. Every community in the county now has convenient bridge service.

     Because of the great size of Cherry County and the nature of the soil, most of the roads are still about as they were when made by the early settlers. U. S. Highway No. 20, however, was extended into the county in 1932-33 and was completed through the county in 1935-36. It crosses the Niobrara about three miles southeast of Valentine on the beautiful Bryan Bridge which was built in 1934 and named for the late Charles W. Bryan, Governor of Nebraska at that time.

     As funds become available an oiled highway is being built south from Valentine to connect with Highway No. 2 near Thedford.

     In the summer of 1906, O. W. Morey, the jeweler in Valentine, purchased the first automobile owned in Cherry County. This car, a Rambler, created quite a sensation and was viewed with interest by many people. "Horseless carriages" had become quite numerous in the east and it was evident that they would probably soon do likewise in Cherry County, though the poor roads did hinder their purchase to some extent. Don McLeod opened his first garage in the county in 1909 with Fred Raubach as his mechanic. There was soon a number of cars in Valentine and an amusing race, to see who could go the slowest and keep his car moving, was put on. The race was won by Mr. Raubach who later, in 1913, erected the first garage building in the county. Mr. Raubach still owns and operates his garage business.

     Trucks of various sizes began to appear soon after the close of World War I. By 1925 most of the hauling from town to farms and ranches was done by trucks. The freight wagon disappeared. Cattle are now brought to the highway and loaded into 36-foot trucks, much as they were loaded into cars on the railroad, to be hauled to market in Omaha or Sioux City.

     (56) The installation of the garage and filling station marked the beginning of the decline of a popular pioneer business, the livery stable. In the early days every town in the county had at least one livery barn; at one time there were five in Valentine, all doing a good business. These stables provided a friendly home for settlers, who slept in the hay mow and cooked their meals on the office stove, when in town for supplies. Many pleasant evenings were spent in the comfortable offices visiting with friends and neighbors who were also in town.

     Ox team and early Ford automobile. Judge F. M. Walcott is standing near the oxen. Picture taken in the nineties.

     But beginning in about 1909, the livery stable owners saw their business slowly but surely giving way to garages and filling stations. Owners who recognized the trend replaced their barns with garages and filling stations or tore them down and went into other business. The last livery, feed, and sale stable in Valentine, operated by Charles Shepherd, closed its doors in 1935. Stockmen who now bring their cattle to the railroad for shipment by driving them overland leave their saddle horses in the stockyards or in the live stock sales pavilions.

     The march of improvements did not overlook the dairy method used on the farms and ranches of the early settlers. From the first they provided their own milk, cream, and (57) butter, these items making up a very important part of their food. Milk was strained into one-gallon, cone-shaped, earthen vessels, called crocks, and placed in the coolest place available. Those fortunate enough to have a spring on their homestead built their milk house over the spring which provided a much needed and appreciated cooling system. As soon as all of the cream had had time to rise to the top of the milk, it was skimmed off and saved for churning into butter. As soon as sufficient cream for a "churning" was collected, it was placed in the churn which consists of an upright vessel with a lid and dasher.

     There were no dairy thermometers in those days with which to test the temperature of the cream and many laborious hours were often spent in churning. The old saying, "Oh, how I wish the butter would come! I've churned until I'm sore; it wishes away and comes no more!" expressed the sentiment of many a woman, girl, or boy who had to do this work. However, inventive minds were soon working on the churning problem and today, if a family churns its own butter, it is probably done with a power churn.

     Sometime in the nineties a machine called a water cooled separator was put on the market. It consisted of two tanks, one inside the other. Milk was placed in the inner tank and the outer one was filled with cold water. The tanks were equipped with faucets through which the water, milk, and cream could be drained out. These machines were not very satisfactory and never came into general use. Late in the nineties, however, the cream separator as we know it today came into use and revolutionized the diary work on farms and ranches. It was especially valuable because the separated cream found a ready market and provided a much needed cash income. Could the early settlers have had cream separators, their lot would have been much easier. Now, few rural homes in the county are without a cream separator.

     Just before hand separators came into general use, large power operated separators were installed in various towns to which settlers could take their milk, have it separated, sell cream, and take the skimmed milk home. One of these separators was located in Valentine. Time proved that they were not practical in a thinly settled country and they soon disappeared.

     When the new century arrived there was much talk about (58) telephone lines. They were in operation in the east and the people of Cherry County were anxious to secure this great labor saving device. The financial condition of the settlers may have retarded the installation of this much desired improvement for some time.

     On January 2, 1902, articles of incorporation of the Cherry County Telephone Company were filed in the Cherry County clerk's office. W. S. Jackson and Charles Sparks, prominent Valentine business men, were two of the incorporators. The Valentine Town Board gave the company a fifty year franchise for the operation of a telephone system in Valentine. This act of the Town Board was sharply criticized. There was much alarm about what was called "selling the rights of the people to a corporation." It was contended that a franchise for ten years would have been sufficient but nothing was done about the matter and the franchise stood. By June 20, 1902, the company had completed the construction of its lines in Valentine, employed Miss Clara Collett as "central," and announced that they were ready for business.

     Previous to this time, the government had constructed a telephone line from Valentine to the Rosebud Indian Agency. Iron pipe was used for poles in this line as a precaution against loss from prairie fires. The Standard Cattle Company had their ranches connected by telephone in 1900.

     In May, 1903, Crookston and Wood Lake were connected with Valentine. Ranchmen were anxious to build a line into the ranch country south of Valentine but the cost seemed prohibitive. However, in March, 1904, the Stockmens Telephone Company was organized with C. S. Reece as president, W. S. Jackson as vice president, and A. M. Morrisey as secretary-treasurer. This company built a line, which was completed in July, 1904, from Valentine south to Brownlee by way of Simeon, Kennedy, and the Bachelor and Rowley ranches. At the same time lines were built north from Valentine to the north table country. Before building their "high lines," some localities had telephone lines on barbed wire fences. The North Table, River, Lavaca, Pole Creek, and Simeon communities had such lines. There may have been others. In 1903 telephone lines were installed in the south portion of the county. The J. R. Keller community, Cascade, received telephone service via Purdum and Brewster in 1906. In 1907 Orin Hoefs built a telephone line for a number of ranches northeast of Brownlee and in 1909 it was extended (59) to include many other ranches. Within a few years all sections of the county had secured telephone service. In 1945 there are very few homes in the county that do not have this improvement.

     Until the erection of power lines, business houses, public offices, and all other buildings were lighted by kerosene or other kind of lamps. When the new court house in Valentine was built in 1901, it was wired for electricity. The citizens of the town were thrilled when, the first night after it was finished, the lights were turned on in all rooms. This was the first office building in the county to be lighted by electricity. Within a few years nearly all town homes, public buildings and streets were lighted by electricity.

     Lighting rural homes by electricity presented a greater problem. Cost of constructing power lines for rural areas made the rate prohibitive. It was not until in 1912 that the first home-sized light plant was installed at the ranch home of P. H. Young of Simeon. The plant had a battery and an engine and rendered very satisfactory service. A. T. Davis installed electric lights in the modern home which he built in 1914 on his ranch north of Hyannis. Sam Hudson of Simeon added an electric light system to his home in 1918. From that time on, electric lights were installed in many homes and they were always included as a necessary part of a new home to be built. By the late 1920's they were common in rural homes throughout the county.

     The problem of keeping the batteries of the home-owned electric light plant adequately charged was a major one. Previous to the development of the wind chargers, this was done with a gasoline engine. Before long, however, some practical minded manufacturers put on the market a machine which was operated by the wind, the same as a windmill, and which charged the batteries with little expense, once it was installed.

     Since wind is an almost constant weather condition in western Nebraska, wind chargers gave satisfactory service. As far as is known, G. C. Young was the first to install a wind charger in 1930 on his ranch twenty miles southwest of Wood Lake. His charger is mounted on a 70-foot tower and is still in good condition after fifteen years of service. Wind chargers are now a part of the equipment of many farms and ranches in the county.

     (60) Electric refrigerators followed electric lights by some years. After recovering from the depression of the 1930's, many homes added these "ice boxes" to their equipment.

     Radios made their appearance in the early 1920's but their cost was prohibitive for most people. As the price was reduced they came into more general use. It was quite common for one neighbor to inquire of another if he could get a certain station. In the course of about twenty years time radios were installed in most homes in the county.

     Bottled gas made its appearance at about the same time as the wind charger and has proved to be an important improvement in the kitchens of homes, hotels, and cafes. Gas for fuel is "bottled" in strong steel tanks that can be moved long distances. This makes it available for rural horses regardless of their distance from town. The first use of bottled gas in Cherry County of which there is any record was in 1929 by Fred Grace of Valentine.

     In about 1930 bottled gas was added to the equipment in the homes of P. H. Young of Simeon, John Kreycik of Wood Lake, and Clyde Jeffers of Valentine. Satisfaction from its use was immediate, though it did not comes into common use until after the depression of the 1930's. Aside from the cost of the equipment to use bottled gas, its cost of operation compares favorably with coal.

     As a mother prepares her meals in her streamlined kitchen of today, there must be a song of gratitude in her heart as she recalls how her mother cooked meals with twisted hay or cow chips. Thus, another source of happiness undreamed of by the pioneers has become a reality.

     Aviation, which had its beginning in 1903 when the Wright Brothers made a short flight with a crude airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was not taken up by citizens of Cherry County until 1928. That year Harrison Harper, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Harper, pioneers of Cherry County, and Douglas Borman, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Borman, also pioneers of Cherry County, obtained pilots licenses. Within a short time C. M. Miller, Francis Grace, Clarence Kerr, all of Valentine, became licensed pilots. Messrs. Harper and Borman purchased the first airplane owned by citizens of Cherry (61) County in 1928. It was a used plane. In making their first flight in it from Chadron to Valentine it was wrecked at Crookston and the flight was never finished. C. M. Miller owned the first new airplane in the county. This was purchased in 1930. Other pilots were Roy Krasck, T. F. Arnold, Robert Arnold and G. P. Scheer. They purchased planes in the early thirties. Messrs. Arnold and Scheer, being ranchmen, used their planes in general ranch work.

     Later the Misses Hope Brooker of Cody, Echo Lange and Dorothy Kidder of South Cherry County became licensed pilots.

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