EARLY DAY STORIES. 23 



eastern bank. It was almost night when we got across, 

 and driving out a short distance west of Sarpy's trading 

 post we camped for the night within the Hmits of the present 

 village of Bellevue, Sarpy county, Nebraska. 



Sarpy's post, at that time consisted, as I remember it, 

 of the store buildings of Peter A. Sarpy, a blacksmith shop 

 for the Indians, a mission school, a government Indian 

 Agency, and three or four dwellings. There were no set- 

 tlers in Nebraska, then, nor for two years thereafter. The 

 first real settlers — farmers who came to make this their 

 home — to raise crops and to improve and develop the coun- 

 try, did not begin to arrive until the summer and fall of 

 1854. There were military and trading posts within the 

 present boundaries of the state — there were traders, hunt- 

 ers and two or three missionaries among some of the Indian 

 tribes, and although tens of thousands of emigrants to the 

 territories further west had crossed the fertile plains of 

 Nebraska seeking for homes, none of them tarried here. 

 The country was not open to settlement, the title of the In- 

 dians to the land was not extinguished until the summer 

 of 1854. 



It is sometimes claimed that Manuel de Lisa was the 

 first settler in Nebraska. He was a fur trader and not a 

 settler in the true meaning of the word. He established 

 probably the first trading post in Nebraska, about the year 

 1807, at or near the present site of Ft. Calhoun, Washing- 

 ton county, and spent most of his time here, but he also 

 had trading posts in Dakota and in Montana — his head- 

 quarters were in St. Louis, where he died in 1820. He 

 could not with propriety be called a settler. 



After camping, I was sent out to watch the cattle while 

 they pastured upon the grass. There were three or four 

 other emigrant wagons with us, and as we had agreed to 

 keep together, and travel in company a few days at least, 



