301] The Condition of the Western Farmer. 23 



the territory on account of the necessities of the Civil 

 War. This left the colonists almost entirely unprotected, 

 and as a result the Indians became very much bolder 

 and threatened to drive all the whites out of the country. 

 In fact, almost all the settlers in the Platte valley fled beyond 

 the Missouri; but at two or three points, one of which was 

 the settlement in question, fortifications were erected and so 

 firm a stand was maintained that no heavy damage was suf- 

 fered. In Hall county there were several massacres at un- 

 protected farm-houses, but on the whole comparatively little 

 harm was done. When the Civil War was over the work of 

 settlement went on again apace. The building of the Union 

 Pacific Railroad, which was finished through this part of the 

 country in 1866, made immigration much easier, and only 

 with its completion did the first settlers venture off the river 

 bottoms. But the building of the railroad was by no means 

 an unmixed blessing for the cause of colonization, for the 

 contractors ruthlessly destroyed all the natural timber along 

 the Platte and other streams; and this timber, little enough 

 at the start, was very sorely missed, and has only been re- 

 placed by careful labor for many years in protecting the 

 regrowth and in planting anew. By 1870, Hall county's pop- 

 ulation had increased to 1057, of whom about two-thirds 

 were male; and 5870 acres had been brought under cultiva- 

 tion. Up to this time all the immigrants without exception 

 had located their claims near the river on the " first bottom " 

 lands. The first settler to locate on the " second bottom '' 

 lands did so in the fall of 1870, and the following year a num- 

 ber of claims were located in that part of the county. The 

 oldest settlers looked with anything but hopeful eyes on 

 these attempts to farm the uplands. In fact, most felt sure 

 that agriculture on such lands was an impossibility, and they 

 predicted that the attempts could result in nothing but failure. 

 The writer is credibly informed by one of the oldest settlers 

 that year after year the weather was so dry that on the 

 " second bottom " lands the grass was, by the middle of July, 

 in a fit condition for prairie fires, nor could it after that time 



