Precinct "A" (Township 12 North, Range 4 East)
Seward County, Nebraska
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Precinct "A" INDEX
History of "A" in History of Seward County, Nebraska by W. W. Cox, 1888The following article is from History of Seward County, Nebraska by W. W. Cox, 1888, Chapter VI, page 132-134:
[Surnames: BROWN, CLAPP, COX, DARNALL, DART, GARLAND, HARDENBURG, HAWKINS, HUGHES, KIRKAM, LANGDON, MAINE, MUNN, OLNEY, OWENS, ROWBOTTOM, ROYCE, SCOTT ]
[Page 113 Footnote:]
*For the history of "A" precinct the reader is referred to the valuable letter of E. W. Olney, Esq.
LETTER FROM E. W. OLNEY, OF "A" TOWN.
December 18th, 1887.
W.W. Cox:DEAR SIR — John A. Scott located on his claim on section twenty, township twelve, range four east, in the spring of 1864, and John Owens settled on section twenty-eight in the summer of 1864. Asa Munn made settlement on section two in 1866; John Royce on section twenty-eight, J. D. Maine and J. D. Olney on section twenty-two, Warren Brown on section twenty-three. Royal Dart settled on section thirty-two in 1867; S. M. Darnall on section twenty-two, and John Darnall on section twelve, the same year.
The first school was taught by Miss Sarah A. Scott, on the Jack Royce place, in a log school-house, in 1867. Rev. George Clapp preached the first sermon in the old log school-house, in the same year. Rev. Robert Rowbottom organized the first church (M. E.) in 1875.
Until 1869 we had to go to Lincoln for our mail. At that time an office was established. G. B. Hardenburg was our first postmaster, and held his office in the old house of Milton Langdon, on section twenty-one. A steam saw-mill was established in 1868, by Kirkam [p. 133] and Hughes, and proved of great help to the people. Our mail was carried by a buckboard first, and later by a stage.
Our growth and progress have been slow but sure. Our growth has been steady. Quite a number of the first settlers have passed off the stage of action, among whom were Milton Langdon and wife, Mrs. Gillman Garland, David Hawkins, J. D. Maine and wife, and Simeon Munn.
This region has always been known as the Oak Groves, and it is quite historic ground. It is unlike any other portion of the county. The land is what we term rough or broken, has many quite deep cañons [sic: canyons], and each of these has a beautiful rippling brook of clear spring water. Excellent springs are numerous. When the settlement began in 1864, these cañons [sic: canyons] were all thickly set to oak timber. This timber was hauled to the salt works for fuel, and to the table-land for all purposes, and finally, when the capital was located at Lancaster (Lincoln), scores of teams were kept busy hauling wood, and before the cars had reached the new city, these fine groves were all, or nearly all destroyed. There was a vast amount of valuable timber all through this section of country, and it seems sad that it should have been so ruthlessly destroyed. Many of these hills are full of a very superior quality of limestone. Many kilns of lime were burned, and the lime found a market at Lincoln, Seward, and throughout the farming region roundabout. While this is not deemed as desirable for farming purposes as the level plain to the westward, yet we have very many excellent farms in the valleys, and for stock purposes our advantages are unsurpassed.
We have three railroad stations within easy reach—Germantown, on the B. & M., Raymond, on the U. P., and "B," on the Northwestern.
Our soil is excellent, our water is of the very best, and abundant, and we generally have happy and comfortable homes. How we got our start of hogs was related by Mr. Cox, the author of this book. There was an old Missourian, we forget his name, wanted to get his hogs out of reach of the soldier boys in war time, so in about the spring of 1863, he drove forty or fifty shoats up to the Groves, moved his family along with them, and sojourned there while the war clouds hung heavily over Missouri. The hogs, like the family ran wild, and were rather more intractable, and when the old man [p. 134] found it convenient to move again the hogs were faring so well in the timber and tall weeds that they concluded not to move on uncertainties; they would rather stay, and they did stay. So the early settlers found the timber full of fat hogs, and they did not suffer for meat; and frequently an old sow with a fine litter of pigs was captured, and a start of hogs was secured.
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