Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1922-02-27
ENGINEER TELLS HOW FIRST
RAIL SURVEY CROSSED STATE

10 house. the Russell stage station, wher
1t the cottonwood trees are north of tn
T. crossing west of Highview. There wer
Il more sloughs in this section.
Al Arriving at Fort Dodge we me
If Captain Ainsworth. 1t was barren
e country. There We're no bridges. TIL
e sun came up out of the prairie grass il
d the morning and set in the prairie
g grass at night. The work west OF For
n Dodge was more strenuous as there
f had been no preliminary survey.
Had Descriptive Names.
: Between Fort Dodge and Sac City
there was one stage station, at Twin
Lakes. We We're driven out of Twil
Lakes by the mosquitoes. The lan(
west of Fort Dodge was wetter than
; it was to the east, and stage stations
had won number of descriptive
names. Some of them were 'Pergatory
Slough Hell Slough Little Jesus,
and Big He'll
~ remember the expression of Il
Methodist minister by the name OF
Kendall who lived in Webster City at
one time / believe he has daugh-
| ter in the county now. Once while he
was at dinner at my grandmothcr's,
som cone at the table asked him about
some of the names OF western stage sta
tons.
"'Yes.' he said, they are all there
But Pergatory has been bridged. Hell
is frozen over and Christ has risen
The road is pretty good now. And the
Rev. Kendall was serious man.
On Westward.
There was no house between Sac
City and Ida Grove. There was one
between Ida Grove and Sioux City-a
stage station at COrrectiOnville. From
Ida Grove west there were few set
tiers. They came up the Missouri riv-
or and got back piece into the hills.
Through this section we made sew
cral lines to find the best one We
went down the valley with one line to
Onawa, which was little town with
Il court house, school, few stores and
a blacksmith shop. We had been in
structed not to run the line to Omaha
"We ran the line to Missouri Valley
Junction and there we left the work
to 90 to Council Bluffs to cross the
river. We crossed OH steel ferry !!
called the Lizzie Omaha was be-
ginning to build. Council Bluffs was
quite a little place.
"West of the river we stopped for Il
while at Decatur. Here the entire
party came near perishing from heat,
and hunger. and thirst. That is the
first time ever used a transit. used
it to find our way out of the brush
was not sick-probably because
was a boy, and boys do not get sick. !
Wheat Near Omaha.
''The line ran through the edge OF
Decatur. entered the valley, then up
through the hills and through an Ind
ian village There is a town called
Blair where the Indian village stood
We passed over some table land to
Blair Creek, Nebraska. Here we
found some people from Cedar Falls.
among them man by the name of
Yost. This place is only about a days
drive from Omaha. YOst had large
field of wheat there then.
I'VE went up the Platte valley to
where Fremont now stands There was
a log house there, Il log store, and IL
post office. In the store were a few
red shirts, corduroy pants, tea and cof-
fee and tobacco in barrels. -Four or
five miles this side of where the city
stands we crossed little creek. There
was a cabin there where an old man
lived. l asked him the name of the
creek. He said it was 'Rawhide creek
and told me how it got its name.
Shot Indian.
"A while before an emigrant train
had started out for California I'D thn
Platte valley. Among the young nor
Of the party was one who had boa stcd
that he would shoot the first Indian he
saw. Apparently he was not acquainf-
I'd with Indians. AT this place he had
seen an Indian who he supposed was
attending to some traps. He shot AMI
lilled sguaw. Soon Indians overtoo,
he party and demanded that the slay
n be turned over to them. The lead
.r of the train Obeyed to save the rest
If the party. The Indians skinned the
'oung man alive on almost the same
pot where he had shot the squaw.'
Mr.. Quackenbush pointed out that
his was good illustration of the char
lcter of the Indians and the "cussed-
less" of the white man in dealing
With them.
Il do not believe" he said. that the
whites would have mad half the trouble
hey did with the redskins had it not
zen for the renegade whites
He called attention to the similarity
f this incident and that of the whole