Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-24

SOuhNS Noo a bOOu ploNO ~ 81 W
trade with the trapper and get
IL scalped by the Indian. But the
dim and waning Indian trail has
broadened with the years into a highway of
civilization. 1t was a span of mules hat be-
came responsible for the discovery of Adams
county. This event dates back to a bright
spring morning in 1859, when a lone horse
man rode out across the divide north of the
valley Of the Republican. He could see only
prairie, except for the narrow winding Blue.
A few miles away was the old emigrant road.
Here was the trail of the white man through
the land of the Indian and the buffalo.
The horseman who came to find the
pair of mules that had strayed away from
his camp on the Republican, saw in a vision
a desert transformed into a productive field;
a white mans home instead of a neglected
wild prairie.
Mortimer NJ. Kress, known as wild
Bill" and NJ. j. Fouts, California joe"
were ex-soldiers of the United States. For
several years thcy had tramped through the
middle west following the pursuit of
trappers. 1t was "Wild BILL" who came in
search of the wandering mules and his
search brought him into what is now Adams
county. When he returned to camp he in
duced Fouts to Join him in settling in the
uninhabited country.
In the fall of 1859, Kress and Fouts
settled on homesteads on Section 13 of what
is now Little Blue precinct. These frontiers
men were the pioneers of Adams county and
both have lived to see a greater development
than either expected. Both are still living
on their original claims.
These trappers that followed the mules
in their almless wandering, into the most
glorious empire of adventure and resources
the world ever saw, have lost the frontier.
They have bid goodbye to the desert and the
wilderness.
Tho early history Of Adams county
reads like fiction. Life came, Indian and
buffalo, fur trader and missionary, freighter
and homesteader, OK team and railroad.
Each moved across the stage and has played
his part often unconsciously in its dramati
history. Then began the development, little
by little. Farms sprang into existence. The
soil was tested and found to be prolific for
agricultural purposes. Then followed the
factory and the foundry, banks and mer-
camille houses, until today. an industrial and
agricultural empire mas D6en plOuBnSu out
of the wilderness of half a century ago.
There is little left of the cherished surround
ings of the days of the early pioneers. An
occasional coyote or timber wolf is seen
along the streams, but is regarded as a
novelty more than a nuisance.
On November 7, 1871, Secretary OF
state, w. H. James, acting governor, issued
a proclamation authorizing the election of
county officers and the location of a county
seat in Adams county. At the election held
on December ~, of the same year, twenty
nine votes were cast and thirteen county
officers elected. This election took place
seventeen years after the creation of the ter
ritory of Nebraska, with an area of over
35l, 900 square miles. This included all of
Nebraska, part of Wyoming, Montana and
the Dakotas. The census taken In 1870 gave
Adams county a total population of nineteen.
The first election in ASams county for presi-
dental electors was held in 1872, at which
time l24 votes were cast for Grant and 9 for
Greeley.
The establishment of the town of Hast