GED4WEB version 4.41 Spiers Benedict [Male] b. 13 MAR 1802 Baden-Württemberg, Germany - d. 19 NOV 1890 Lebanon, Smith, Kansas, USA
Benedict Spiers and William Frans came to Nebraska together. They first settled in Factoryville, NE. This town disbanded, then they moved to Rock Bluffs, NE, where my other ancesters - Churchill, Graves, Clemmons & Fitch all settled. Their families all intermarried, resulting in my family line. Below is an excerpt about how Nebraska came to be settled, land grants, and how my people first lived in Nebraska when they came.
Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska
Cass County
Produced by Connie Snyder.
Very shortly after the Louisiana purchase, whereby the Government became possessed of all the lands formerly held by the French, within the present boundaries of the United States, an expedition, known as that of Lewis and Clarke, was organized, leaving its camps near the mouth of the Missouri, on May 21, 1804, and reaching the mouth of the Platte on July 21 of the same year. It is barely possible that the French Jesuits may have ascended the river years before, while the territory was in possession of their own country, but, if so, all record of their zealous efforts at proselytism, such as they are known to have made in other sections, is lost as to this one; and, notwithstanding possibilities, it is safe to assume as historic facts that Lewis and Clarke were the first white men who traversed the region of which Cass County is now a part.
In 1805, Manuel Lisa, who gave Bellevue its name, undoubtedly made some explorations south of the Platte, as did Francis De Roin, in 1810, acting for the American Fur Company, and subsequently establishing for it a trading-post in what is now Sarpy County. In 1819, Long's exploring expedition, with the "Western Engineer," the first steamer on the Missouri, was sent by the Government to explore the great river and the regions between it and the Rocky Mountains, leaving St. Louis, Mo., in July, reaching the mouth of the Platte September 17.
The traders and trappers presumably crossed the Platte at various times during the twenty years following, but the next visit to that section of which there is historic record is that of Fremont, in 1842, his expedition camping for one night on the projecting bluff just below the present site of Plattsmouth, the place still retaining the name of Fremont's Point.
About the year 1848, a Mormon by the name of Libeas T. Coon, established a ferry--a flat-boat propelled by sweeps--across the Missouri, landing in the vicinity of this point, on the Nebraska side, for the convenience of the Saints, whose exodus to the far West was in full progress. In this manner, a highway became established along the south bank of the Platte, but no settlements were made below that river and along the Missouri for some years, the territory being occupied by the Pawnees and Otoes, and the Indians protected in their rights by the Government, forts flanking the Missouri and no one being allowed to remain on Nebraska soil without a special permit from the Secretary of War.
The first permit of this kind as regards Cass County was obtained by Samuel Martin, who had been living on the east bank of the Missouri, to establish a trading post at or near the confluence of the two rivers. Accordingly, very early in the spring of 1853, he brought over on the ice the logs of his house in Iowa, and, with the assistance of James O'Neil and Col. J. L. Sharp, erected a substantial two-story building, afterward known as the "Old Barracks," for a trading-house, and, shortly subsequent, a smaller one for a council house. The former of these has something of a history, to which reference will be made, and the latter, built a little north and west of the "Old Barracks," was used in later years for the county offices.
Of Samuel Martin, but little is known; he came from Illinois to the east bank of the Missouri in 1849 or 1850, he and O'Neil succeeding Libeas T. Coon as ferry proprietors, in 1852; he was a fearless pioneer, so well acquainted with Indian life and customs as to have no trouble with the Pawnees and Otoes, with whom he dealt. He was one whose reputation was not the best, in all things--very profane, indulging in intoxicants to excess, and keeping an Otoe squaw who lived with him as his wife. His was the first settlement and his, also, the first funeral of a settler for, on December 15, 1854, less than two years after his crossing the Missouri, he crossed another and a deeper river and was laid away on a hilltop overlooking the land of his choice, just where no one knows. Of his mourners, the last who died, said, that on a bitter cold winter day, he assisted in making a coffin and burying the dead, a little west of the present high school building, in Plattsmouth, where it is now surrounded by several old-time graves. Which one is his has been forgotten.
In using the term settlement, white settlement is, of course, referred to. Martin had with him several half-breed employes, but was alone as regards those of his own race, O'Neil and Sharp returning to Iowa after assisting him in the erection of his two log houses, the former not removing to Nebraska until a year later, and the latter never making it his home.
By a treaty made with the Omahas on the 15th, and with the Otoes on the 16th of March, 1854, a proclamation of these treaties being made by President Pierce, on the 24th of June following, the larger portion of the lands bordering on the Missouri were opened for settlement, so far at least that the restriction requiring a special permit was removed. The Indians received as an equivalent for their lands a stated amount of provisions and other necessities, and it is related that the Otoes, on the south shore of the Platte, then numbering about 600, used so little judgment in the consumption of salt pork and sugar, that more than seventy of them died within a week after the arrival of the steamer with these supplies.
Previous to this time, and in anticipation of the treaty, large numbers of emigrants had gathered upon the Iowa shore, waiting its consummation. Immediately upon the proclamation of the President, although the lands were not yet formally opened for pre-emption, a rush was made for the best claims along the river, it being estimated that 250 men penciled. their names upon claim stakes within the present limits of Cass County, before the legal organization of the Territory.
These claims, as allowed by the Government, were any subdivision of a section, as, a half, a fourth, or an eighth, the lines conforming to and running parallel with the lines of the section, if already surveyed, and, if not surveyed, as most of the lands then were in that condition, the claimant fixing his own boundaries to be corrected after survey. Thus, a pre-emption claim of 160 acres was the most allowed by the Government, it being understood that the right to that amount selected of any lands not already taken, was to be respected until the title could be perfected by entry, upon the organization of the Territory and the establishment of a land office. Preceding and taking the place of law at this time was the "Claim Club," a secret organization, with officers known only to the initiated, one of whom was a Secretary, with whom the member filed a description of his claim, the club, as a whole, protecting his right thereto against "claim jumpers." The club, however, had another purpose than this very fair one, inasmuch as its members were allowed to enter an additional 160 acres, making 320 acres in all, preventing those not members, or who were late-comers, from taking choice claims, the idea being to prevent the extra 160 acres from being pre-empted, until the lands were placed in the market by the Government, and could be purchased on land warrants, or otherwise. An offender against the laws of the club, an interloper, as he was called, was generally very summarily dealt with. The punishment was only graded to the offense so far that if the offender consented to leave the Territory and not return, relinquishing all right and title to the claim which he had jumped, he was usually allowed to do so. If he refused, or if he came back, after being driven out, his shrift was frequently a short one.
The first settlers, as has been implied, selected claims in the vicinity of the Missouri River, rapidly taking up all of the best lands in that section. It was not until the latter part of 1855 that other parts of the county began to be occupied to any extent, John Scott locating in what is now Eight Mile Grove Precinct; Samuel Kirkpatrick, in the western part of Liberty; Lorenzo Johnson, near Four Mile Grove, and a few others in various parts of the central portions of the county. In 1856, Adam and James Ingram staked claims in the vicinity of Louisville; John Kanoba and J. G. Hanson, in what is now Avoca Precinct; Peter Beaver, Capt. D. L. Archer, William, Samuel and Thomas Thomas, on Four Mile Creek. The largest settlements were within the present limits of Plattsmouth and Rock Bluff Precincts. The returns of 1856 show a population of 1,251.
The buildings of these early days were, a large majority of them, simply dug-outs, with a fair sprinkling of substantial log houses, two or three of which are yet standing. A dug-out, as usually constructed, was a cut in a hillside, a wall of square-cut prairie turf constituting the front and filling up the angles between it and the side hill. The roof was covered with rails or poles, covered by a thick layer of prairie grass and then with earth. The winter of 1856 was a hard and cold one, much suffering ensuing among the settlers, who, in their primitive dwellings, often but poorly supplied with provisions, were obliged to lie wrapped in their blankets day and night to avoid freezing. The point of supplies was Iowa, and along in November the river was so filled with floating ice as to prevent the ferryboat from running for some weeks, the wagons which had previously been sent over for supplies being driven down to the Iowa bank day after day in hopes of a chance to cross. At length, there was an opening, the boat was sent over, loaded and started on its return trip; then came the ice again. "Work, for God's sake, work, or we are lost! cried Mickelwait; and they did work and so escaped. On December 1, 2 and 3 of this year occurred the heaviest snow storm of that or any previous season of which there is any record, followed by a rapidly falling temperature; the snow with its weight bore down the roofs of those who had neglected to prop them up, and demolished numbers of Indian "tepees."
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