I ws
8 Conservative.
NKHKASKA IN 1857.
This is the title of a work of 100 pages ,
pocket size , iii a neat paper cover , by
James M. Woolworth , attorney and
counsolor-at-law , and general laud
agent , Omaha Oity , N. T. It was pub
lished simultaneously in the year
mentioned in Omaha , Chicago , St.
Louis and Now York , and brings at
present in the market the respectable
price of $2 50. None of this gets as far
as the pooket of the author ; but then he
is not at present in need of it. It is
possible that if the work had commanded
this price when new , however , it might
then have been quite an item to him.
It was prepared , its introduction in
forms us , for the benefit of the thousands
who would visit the West that season ,
Homo to locate , some only to look around ,
and many of Whom would bo un
acquainted with the different routes , as
well as unaccustomed to traveling. It
is prefaced with a map of Nebraska and
"Kanzns , " prepared specially for this
work. Both these territories extend
westward to the continental divide , and
Nebraska runs northward to the 49th
parallel as well , thus including the re
motest sources of the Platte , Yellow
stone and Missouri rivers. It therefore
covers the greater portion of Colorado ,
Wyoming , Montana and North and
South Dakota , that part of the two last-
named territories which lies east of the
Missouri falling to Minnesota.
Tow si H in 1857.
In all this vast region there appear
hardly more towns than one can count
upon his fingers. There are , on the
Missouri river , beginning at the north ,
the following : Oinadi , Blackbird ,
Decatur , Tekama , DeSoto , Omaha Oity ,
Bellevue , Plattsrnonth , Kenosha , Old
Ft. Kearney or Nebraska Oity , Otoe
Oity and Brownville ; and in the in
terior , but none of them far away ,
Catharine , Manhattan and Fouteuelle ,
north of the Platte , Archer andPawnee-
ville , in the southeastern corner , Saline ,
GO miles west of Nebraska Oity , and
Nebraska Center , at the inouth of Wood
river. Of these just ten have survived ,
preserving their identity more or less.
"Kanzas" is decidedly the more thickly
settled , and shows quite a cluster of
towns along the Kansas and Osage rivers
and out the Santa Fo Trail.
In the more remote regions there is
nothing to show the presence of white
men save here and there a "fort , " some
of which were military establishments
of the government , but the greater
number , at this period , merely fortified
trading posts of the fur-trading com
panies ; Fort Kearney and Fort Laramie ,
St. Vraiu's and "Beudt's" forts , Forts
Pierre Chonteau , Alexander and Union.
The fur trade was still flourishing at
some of these places after the close of
the civil war.
Rullroiuls.
Naturally the compiler of the map
could show no railroads in his territory ,
but he makes amends by a bravo array
of proposed railroads. Kansas is much
less generously provided in this regard
than her northern neighbor. She has
practically only one , which is the Santa
Fe Trail , pure and simple , until it
reaches the mountains , when it turns off
through the Saqgre do Oristo pass to the
valley of Grand river , being in fact
Captain Gunnison's route for the Pacific
Railroad. It is joined at Great Bend by
a line running out the north side of the
Kansas and Smoky Hill , somewhat as
the Union Pacific was afterwards built ,
and having a branch from Fort Riley to
Fort Kearney , whiph again is merely
the route of a government or military
road already existing. This shows how
at sea were the projectors of that time
in trying to forecast the future needs of
the country ; though the Union Pacific
has a short branch which looks as if it
might have been a beginning on this
line.
After it crosses into Nebraska this
branch assumes new importance , for it
shoots off suddenly out the right bank
of the Republican until it reaches the
101st meridian , whence it makes a beeline -
line for the mouth of Grow Creek , after
wards continuing toward the Pacific by
the Cheyenne Pass ; marking a route
which no road subsequently saw fit to
follow. There was of course no Denver
in 1857 , and this is all the railroad
facilities judged to be needful for the
territory between the Platte and Arkan
sas , a region now traversed by the
Santa Fe , Missouri Pacific , Rock Island ,
two lines of the Burlington and two of
the Union Pacific.
Fortune was smiling upon Nebraska ,
however , in the matter of Projected
railroads. There was a short one , to
begin with , running from Otoe Oity to
Fort Kearney. Otoe City is the present
Minersville ; in the 50's it had hopes.
Its railroad was the direct and logical
continuation of a line across southern
Iowa which does not exist. Then there
is the Union Pacific , practically as it
was afterwards built , running up the
Platte and Lodge Pole and through
Cheyenne Pass ; it is to take over , at
Omaha City , the traffic which the
Mississippi & Missouri Railroad will
deliver at Council .Bluffs City ; this is
the Rock Island , and it was in reality
the first of the roads to be built across
Iowa. There is also a prophetic view of
the Burlington , crossing the Missouri
above the mouth of the Platte and
privileged to join the Union Pacific at
the big bend of the Platte.
Bearing in mind that the principal
need that was felt at this time for a
transcontinental railroad was of a inili
tary kind , to provide rapid means of
communication with the Pacific coast ,
and that 80 per cent of its revenue was
expected to come from through traffic
( for which China and Japan were
largely counted on ) it is not surprising
to find a large number of through lines
laid out in 1857 , some of them in regions
that have not , in the amazing forty
years that have followed , been found to
require railroad communication. Here
is one , which is exactly the old Oregon
Trail , running out the North Fork of
the Platte and the Sweetwater and
through the South Pass. On its way it
picks up two others , one , the "Nebraska
Central , " which follows the 42nd parallel
straight as a string from the Missouri ,
where it is a continuation of the "Iowa
Central , " which has some resemblance
to the Illinois Central , but has nothing
to do with the Iowa Central of today ;
the other out the
running Eau-qni-court
and Keya Paha from Sioux Oity , where
appears a road which may be the later
Milwaukee & St. Paul. Northern Ne
braska has not yet felt the necessity of
either of these lines.
Then in the extreme north , almost to
the British line , is another Proposed
road , on the line of Governor Stevens'
survey , forecasting in a general way the
Great Northern.
And with this showing of imminent
railroad facilities the author rests his
case , so far as concerns maps.
Bates uml Routes.
The intending immigrant is next
advised how to reach Nebraska. There
is a greater variety of possible routes
than one would suppose ; the author has
tried them all , and recommends , for
despatch , the Chicago & Rock Island
and Mississippi & Missouri railroads ,
connecting at Iowa City with the stage
line for Omaha. By this way the trip
can be made in six days and six nights
from New York , at a cost of $46 ;
namely , $27 to Iowa City and $19 the
rest of the way. For ease and comfort
he advises steamboats on the Hudson
river and Lake Erie , the Chicago &
Alton to St. Louis and steamboats up
from that point ; in this way the traveler
secures a night's rest now and then , and
the fare is less , being $24 from New
York to St. Louis and $20 from St.
Louis to Omaha.
History.
Next the author whose little book is
itself a historical document of value
now gives a sketch of the history of
the territory , from the days of Marqnette
and LaSallo to the administration of
Governor Burt ; whom the printer has
transformed into "Bent" all the way
through. He tells the story of the
location of the capital , and gives an
account of the territorial organization ;
then he touches lightly on the subject
of the wild-cat banks , which were then
in their heydey , and of which , as may
be supposed , he disapproves. He re
assures the intending immigrant , who
may have heard of their existence at his
home in the east. ' 'The introduction of
so many bills for banks at the last meet-
