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KEARNEY, FRANKLIN, HARLAN AND PHELPS By ALBERT WATKINS An act of the territorial legislature,
passed January 10, 1860, authorized the organization of
Kearney county and defined its boundaries which included the
territory now comprised in the counties of Franklin, Harlan,
Kearney and Phelps. The act in question directed the
governor to appoint county officers and he thereupon
commissioned J. Tracy, Amos 0. Hook and Moses Sydenham for
county commissioners; Dr. Charles A. Henry, county clerk;
John Holland, treasurer; Thomas Collins, sheriff; John
Talbot,1 probate judge. 1 Died at Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1911. D. W. Clendenan says he kept a saloon there and was called "Major" Talbot. |
inhabitants from Kearney City. In 1860 it was not recognized in the United States census while the population of the county was 469; so that the place grew up suddenly during the latter part of the year. At the election of 1860 111 votes were cast in the county; in 1864, 61; in 1865, 16; in 1866, 28. An act of the tenth territorial session, February 9, 1865, attempted to revive the organization of the county, by ordering a special election of county officers to be held on the second Monday in March, 1865, at the store of William D. Thomas, Kearney City. The act provided that the notice of the election should be signed by the county clerk--James M. Pyper.2 There were no more election returns from the county after 1866 until 1872, when, under reorganization, fifty-eight votes were cast. It appears that the county government was dormant in the intervening time. It was revived by authority of a proclamation issued by Acting Governor William H. James May 2, 1872, ordering an election for county officers to be held "at the town of Lowell", June 17, 1872. Franklin county was set off from the original Kearney county by an act of the last territorial legislature, passed February 16, 1867. A supplementary act of March 9, 1871, "for the speedy organization of Franklin county", designated C. J. Van Laningham, D. Van Etten and R. D. Curry as county commissioners. These officers were directed to qualify as soon as practicable after the passage of the act and to call an election for county officers, giving fifteen days public notice of the time and place thereof. The commissioners were also authorized to submit the question of locating the county seat at the same election. January 14, 1871, Governor Butler issued a proclamation for an election of county officers to be held at the house of C. J. Van Laningham, in Franklin City, on Friday, March 2 Laws of Nebraska, Tenth Territorial Session, 1865, p. 61). |
3, of that year; but evidently no election was held, and so the legislature intervened as already stated. May 20, 1872, Acting Governor James ordered an election of county officers for Harlan county, to be held June 29 of that year--for precinct No. 1, at the store of John McPherson; for precinct No. 2, at the store of Frank A. Beiyon. Precinct No. 1 comprised all that part of the territory east of range 19, and precinct No. 2 that part west of range 18. The act of February 11, 1873, defining the boundaries of Phelps county, designated Edward Barnes, Caleb J. Dilworth, and J. Q. Mustgrove as county commissioners. They were required to qualify within sixty days after the passage of the act and to call an election for county officers, including county commissioners, within thirty days of their qualification.3 An act of March 3, 1873, authorized Kearney county to fund its indebtedness by the issue of bonds to the amount of $20,000. The Nebraska State Journal of July 8, 1870, notes that F. A. Beiyon intends to go with a party from Lincoln to the Republican valley about the first of August. The Daily State Journal of April 7, 1871, notes that Franklin county has completed its organization with the election of officers as follows: county commissioners, James Knight, Charles Vining, B. W. Powell; probate judge, C. L. Van Laningham; clerk, Matthew Lynch; sheriff and surveyor, Ernest Arnold; treasurer, John E. Simmons; superintendent of public instruction, Richard Walters. The Daily Journal of January 10, 1871, notes that General Victor Vifquain is booming the settlement in the Republican valley. He says that not less than five hundred claims had been taken the past year. The site of the new 3 For a statement of votes cast at elections in Kearney county for 1860, 1864, 1865 and 1866 see the Illustrated History of Nebraska, v. 1, pp. 439, 493, 505. |
town, called Napoleon, the future county seat of the county to be formed west of Franklin (Harlan), belonged to about thirty men. They had offered a mill site to the men who would build a mill upon it. General Vifquain insisted that Fort Kearny should be moved down into the Republican valley because, traffic having ceased along the south side of the Platte, it was useless in its original position. But the new town was called Orleans instead of Napoleon, and Alma, situated about five miles east, became the county seat. In the Daily State Journal of June 22, 1872, a correspondent, writing under date of June 10, describes Kearney City. It was composed mostly of sod and log houses, "old and weather-beaten". There were about twenty-five houses in all, most of them in a decaying condition. There were innumerable old wagons and considerable other government property, which, the correspondent thought, would be "knocked down to the highest bidder one of these days". Moses Sydenham was booming Kearney City as the coming national capital. The office of his newspaper, the Central Star, was situated there. There was only an occasional settler along the road five miles west; and there were none on Plum Creek twenty-eight miles west. |
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