Omaha daily bee., 1889-08-11

and and the sS', woodwork DIV 5sI has l4Ss s since been e min !.
broken up and destroyedJ The stones OF
which II was constructSql having been car
ried off by the settlers Whereabouts to build
foundations and chimneys for their
the old settlers stote are plainly
visible, aud here left Mr. George II. Ken
war with Great Britain, held the position of
sutler during the timeit was garrisoned by
United States troops. He went TO st. LOUIS
with the soldiers aud was sutler at Jefferson
barracks for many years; During the Mex
lean war he was assistant qhartermaster.
"Such is Fort Calhoun before the oldest
'V Since he wrote vn Geg many hatSs retired, some to
the enjoyment OF a competency of earthly
goods, more to the narrow home which Is the
final resting place of all.
The fort is gone. 90 alb its solid walls so
skillfully constructed, not one brick stands
upon another. Tn stone serves as walks,
and are used for rnamentalp purposes on the
lawns of the village. Only a clump Of heavy
trees mark its site. These stand alone, sur
rounded on either side by cultivated fields.
Often in blowing this ground, the greater
part Of which, by the way, Is tho
property, OF Judge Crounse, old Mexican
silver dollars are frequently found.
army pistol, only the imperishable portion OF
which remains intact, that Is plowed up and
all are carefully treasured up by the finders
as relics of increasing historic interest.
Judge Crounse has a brick, brought to
light by the plow point, which bears on its
side a perfect imprint of a Mexican dollar.
Some soldier boy made the mark while the
clay was soft, and through the almost three
quarters Of a century which has passed not
one line of the impression is defaced. Hap
PLY, there are none of the modern companies
can lay claim to having made this brick.
IL was ON a Sunday afternoon, not long ago,
that THE BEE man sat with Judge Crounse
on the porch that opens to the south and east
of his handsome, commodious resi-
dence. While relating the contents
of the letter quoted above the
Judge favored his hearers with
the history of the town proper, the modern
Calhoun, which dates from 1858. In the fall
OF that year, or the spring of '54, John Goss
selected the site of Calhoun as a claim.
Elan Clark, the father of the town and a
very prominent man throughout the state in
his day, was the next to come. He left La
Porte, Ind, in 1854 and coming to Calhoun
direct, at once assumed a lively interest in
the welfare of the place. He spent his
money freely and with good result.
In 1866 the Washington county court house
was built and located at FIT. Calhoun, where
it remained until another election was called
in 1858, md De Soto got the county seat
prize. De Soto was then a flourish.
ing town of 1900 to 1880 people with
banks, graded schools, q newspaper, and
WV ~ iihAh
But such is the shifting nature Of frontie r
towns that only a few years elapsed before
Blair grew large enough to claim supremacy
and the county seat was moved again. A
few years later, DeSota, the lively growing
town was deserted. To-day, not more than
half a dozen tumbledown houses mark the
spot where it stood,
Accuracy compels the statement that Cal
houn got the court house back again aud
held it from 1866 to $50, the year it went to
Blair.
The Council Bluffs of today is a misnomer.
The real council was beyond doubt held on
the river bottom, at the junction of the Mis-
souri, and Boyer valleys, which is directly
opposite Fort Calhoun.
Fort Croghan, or Council Bluffs, Ia, was
known In the early days as Kane's Landing,
and falsely holds it present name. These
facts are probably unknown to one person in
10000 in Nebraska. and each new student of
school histories perpetuates In his memory
the blunder of the first historian from whom
all the rest seem to have copied.