Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-06-23
ASHLAND. NEBRASKA. ]

into garrulity regarding this "greater
Vermont" / say Vermont, because I
found myself at table this morning be-
tween two strangers, both of whom soon
discovered to be Green Mountain Boys.
The township west of this is also we'll oc-
cupied by Vermonters.
Ashland lies midway between Platts-
mouth on the Missouri, and Lincoln, the
Nebraska capital 1t is the momentary
terminus of the only railroad yet in OPP
Grafton south of the Platte River-an
extension of the line from Chicago to
Burlington in Iowa-a road which is daily
laying a mile of track westward, and
which will soon connect with the Union
Pacific at Fort Kearney,-and make an
end of northing roundabout through
Omaha,-when New Yorker would cross
the continent.
The first wayfarers through this region
were emigrants to Western mines, or
teamsters carrying supplies to miners.
This route was chosen because there is a
natural highway along the bank of the
Platte for hundreds of miles-the mud
never lasting,-wood, water and feed
plenty. Some squatters settled here and
there, selling what they raised to passers
by.
Still the houses at this point-and there
are almost hundred in sight-have al
most all been built within nine months,
and large majority the present season.
1t is only one month that lumber has
been brought here on the cars. Two or
three buildings are brick, as many of
stone, but almost all are of cheap boards
from Wisconsin. The court house, now
nearly done, will cost $4,000, but the con-
tractors will be content with half that
sum, as they get incidental advantages
from erecting it. One of the hotels is not
inferior to any of those in the Rutland of
my boyhood. The first hut erected in the
township is not yet eight years old.
One year ago Homesteads were abund-
ant here, but none can now be found
within twenty-five miles of Ashland, or
twenty of the advancing railroad. The
only wonder is that lands such as I here
behold, remained SO long unoccupied.
The wheat, potatoes and corn, are all
doing WELL Indeed, farmers here say
they cannot be dried out nor yet drowned
out. Why not ? Because the soil along
the Missouri is so deep that no we'll has
yet been dug down to the olay-or hard
pan. This mold is quick to receive and
tananInna m
vanishes at once, but in dry time there
is evaporation from moisture stored up
far below the surface. The lack of wood
land is the most singular feature in Ne
braskan landscapes. But experience has
shown that woodland is no necessity.
The first corners built sod-houses, some
times with few boards for roof, but often
with only poles covered with grass and
earth. Such cavernous houses, or dug
outs, are warm, dry, and every way more
tolerable than he will believe who has not
entered them. Still, they soon give place
to New England dwellings. Just here a
fine variety of magnetism limestone is
plenty, and has already been used in
building.
1t is amusing to see how people con-
trive to dispense with wood. Little of it
is wasted on fences Fields are sometimes
enclosed with wire, or hedges of willow
and Usage orange, but most of them are
unfenced. They hold it easier here to
shut in stock with dogs and boys, than to
shut in fields with fences Accordingly
the "Herding Law" lets no cattle run al
large. Again, very little timber is used
in building either houses or mill dams
The houses have what are termed "bal
loon frames" and brush is found very
telerable substitute for logs in dams
Iowa coal is not far Off
Last week was in Lincoln during the
land sales. City lots went of high for the
third time, some appraised at fifty cents
sold for fifty dollars. Twenty-six thou
sand dollars worth of penitentiary lands
were sold in three days. But the favor
lite investment is in the lands of the B. &
M. R. railroad, which sold in the month
of May to the amount of about four hun
dred thousand dollars ($3S6,000) Thu
sale of them at Lincoln alone on las
Wednesday, was no less than sixteer
thousand dollars.
One reason the railroad lands are pre-
ferred is that the settler can have ter
years to pay for them, while he must pay
for others in ten minutes. After all
there still remain in market a million O.
Railroad acres.
Lincoln is far up Salt River. 1t is full
of Spectators of all sorts Every sort O.
business is overdone except the Post Office
but there is only one Post Office.
Tires years ago that plot was farm
and nobody dreamed of it as ever to be
come the State capital. Now there are
forty business houses on its square, fifty
new buildings going up, two citified no
tells, and hundred thousand dollar State
House.
The State University there will have
all its brick laid next month. 1t is 152
feet long and is to cost as many thousand
dollars. However, it is less massive and
l think, less large than the insane ASYLUM
two miles south of it and also approaching
completion.
But there is nothing in Lincoln, ani
few things out of it, SO surprising as tn,
way in which its public buildings were
built, namely, without costing either tn,
nation, or State, or municipality, one dol
lar, either in money, land or bonds. How
was such prestidigitation possible? Why
Governor Butler and some other officer
were authorized to select site for thu
capital and to erect public buildings il
the place which would bid highest for it
Then the owners of the two square mile
where Lincoln now stands, offered to givt
them out and out for capital site, being