Omaha daily bee., 1885-10-12

for from $3.50 to 81 per acre, depending
ON the location S. per acre is an average
price.
OGALLALA
This town is the countyscdt of Keith
county, situated on the Union Pacific
road One year ago last spring there
were only about sixty inhabitants; there
are now hard upon 800. There is a good
school and one church, Congregational,
which has erected Il house of Worship.
The people there have not committed the
folly of most new towns in the west of
starting half dozen different churches,
one of them being deccntly
sustained. Two papers are published
there, the Reflector, republican, by Mark
Nj Reeves, and the Keith County News,
democratic, by William IL. Mullanc,
both more devoted to the development of
the country than to politics. There are
three banks in Ogallala, the Keith county
bank, under the management of II. l..
McWilliams president, and j A. o 'Brien,
cashier; and the Bank of Ogallala, under
the management of q. r. Carlson,
cashier, and l.. A GRANDMOTHER,
assistant cashier. There are three
Saloons. each paying into the school
ut II O'Clock at night and from that hour
Saturday night remain closed till Monday
morning. The ordinance governing them
is rightly enforced. The government of
Ogallala is vested in II board of village
trustees, and their edicts are law unto
the people. For years the town has been
the point in Nebraska to which the great
cattle drives from Texas would point
their way, and there persons who wanted
to purchase cattle would go. In former
years the cowboys frequently made the
town lively and the report of Il pistol
was not an unfamiliar sound. Some
fifteen or twenty of them are now taking
their last sleep in the cowboys rest" on
the hillside in sight of the town, victims of
atoo frecusc of firearms and whisky. But
those times have passed, and to-day it
able, orderly, and law abiding commun-
ity than is found in Og0lala. Louis
Aufdengarten settled there seventeen
years ago, starting very small trading
establishment, and has continued there
ever since. His dependence for business
was the cattle drives He has just COM
plcted and is moving into a handsome,
connexions house, with all the modern
improvements and with extensive
will compare favorable with any house
between Omaha and Denver
Ogallala and Keith county certainly
have u bright future before them. Mr..
SCarle informed me he had observed Il
steady increase of rainfall from year to
year. Mctcorologic and climatic changes
have been going on. Man himself has
III eifccting changes in the operations of
nature which are now imparting mois-
tlre to the willing soil, and making it
bring forth abundant harveStS The
building of the railroad, the running of
trains, the evaporation of steam, the
turning over of the sod, and the planting
of trees have conduced to this result.
Away out towards the mountains peo-
pie for years have been digging irrigat-
ing bitches, and turning a portion OF the
waters of the Platte, which, for ages,
have been flowing usclcssly to the sea,
into those 1tches, and then causing
them to spread out over hitherto barren
plains, and converting them into fruitful
fields. While laboring for their own
benefit, they have, unquestionably, sent
benefits to us. Spreading out the area of
tory, western Nebraska has derived adj
vantages from the climatic chgnges ~
t.'. os ~ ''' 80 increased moisture
-. ,.e atmosphere, resulting in enlarged
rainfall. These changes cannot be re-
vcrsed or recalled, any more than the
laws OF nature can be reversed. As the
area of sod-turning increases, Just so
surely do the rains come, and the dews
fall, and agriculture can be carried on
under the operations of immutable laws. [
predict that, notvery far in the future, the
now trcclcss plains of Wyoming will be
converted into fruitful fields. And pre-
dict also, without fear of having my pro-
phetic sagacity called in question, that
in five years, Keith and Cheyenne coun-
ties will, in agriculture, compare favor
ably with the best counties in central and
eastern Nebraska; probably not in acre
age under cultivation, or in value of
buildings or in amount of timber
planted, but in quality and quantity and
in productiveneSs of soil
| have no interest in Keith county
went there unsolicited, to see for myself
what was being DONE and to learn the
result of farming thus far; and the re.
suits seen, and the information obtained,
are given in this letter My object is to
aid, in my humble way the progress of
agricultural pursuits in western Nebras-
ka, and to make known topartics of slcn-
der means where they can obtain good
farms and homes with little outlay.
JOHN Nj. THAYER.
GRAND ISLAND, Oct. 10.