Martha's Corner

April 5, 2002

     The B & M Railroad was advertising land in Nebraska in February 1876.  They were advertised as being tin the best agricultural and stock country in America. “Good Lands, in a Good Climate” was their heading. Low Prices, Long Credit, Low Fares and freights, Premiums for improvements, Free pass to land buyers, For full particulars, apply to B & M RR Co., Burlington, Iowa.

     Northern Pacific was offering railroad lands in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon in July 1885. From Lake Superior to Puget Sound. All prices ranging chiefly from $2 to $6 per acre, on 5 to 10 years time. “This is the Best Country for Securing Good Homes now open for settlement”  Also: FREE 320 acres of Government Land Free under the Homestead and Timber Culture Laws.

     The St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad was advertising five Harvest Excursions to Minnesota, Dakota, Montana, in August 1888. Rates were listed as Cheaper than Ever Before!  Less than one fare, no round trip rate being more than Twenty Dollars, including Great Falls, Montana. Persons desiring to take a trip through Northern Minnesota, Dakota or Montana for the purpose of looking over the country, or with the idea of selecting a new home within the boundaries of the Grandest Wheat Belt in the World, and an agricultural country suitable for diversified farming, dairy and stock purposes, will do well to take advantage of these rates. 

F. I. Whitney, General Pass and Ticket Agent, St. Paul, Minnesota

From Wayne Township Records

August 23, 1877

Some sixteen families in Kendallville and surrounding country will start for Nebraska next month. Among them is R. P. McGregor, who is going to lay aside the brush and go into stock raising.

August 30, 1877

Gus Daniels sold his farm one-half mile southwest of Kendallville, last week to Nelson Drake, consideration $4,500. Gus goes to Kansas where he owns a large dairy farm.

April 9, 1884

Uncle John Robison moved to Missouri last week. John said he would go west and blow up with the country.

December 17, 1884

Al Walters intends to move to Arkansas City, Kansas, in a few days where he will go into the hardware business.

February 28, 1885

Martin Graham of Mount Pleasant will move to Kansas in a few weeks. George Moree will go to central Kansas in the spring to purchase a farm.

September 14, 1893

Miss Effie Spencer, of Jefferson Township, left Saturday last for Salt Lake City where she will make her home with the family of Charles Walker.

November 9, 1893

John Steele and wife, two old settlers of Allen township, who have been visiting in these parts for some time, returned to their home in Kansas last week.

March 8, 1894

Milton Holmes has moved his family to Kansas and intends to make that his future home.

February 28, 1895

Claudis Caesar Cummings of Neligh, Nebraska, formerly of this city will again make Kendallville their home, and will arrive here about the first of April.

February 28, 1895

Howard Holmes left with his car of goods for his new home in California last Saturday night.

Many people came to Noble County where they resided for a while, then they went further west. Some of those are recorded in this account. (dated April 1883)

     Sherm J. Hadley purchased a farm near Bell Creek, Nebraska, and wrote for his family to join him in their prairie home. Mr. Hadley had been a long time resident of Albion where he had operated a grocery store with a Mr. Moltz on the south-east corner of the public square. His store had been involved in two fires, the first happening in April 1878, so he quit business and moved to Nebraska to a farm. The family left here to join him about October 15, 1879.

     Also in October 1879, A. A. Pinyard, moved to Kansas where he owned a tract of land near Raymond, Kansas. He had been engaged in the restaurant and bakery business in Albion.

     J. W. Bixler is at North Platte, Nebraska, where they would have made him a police judge of that embryo city of the west at the last election, had he been a resident of the state a sufficient length of time.

     Frank and Ed Williams, sons of sheriff Williams, and Al Fulton moved to Colorado in April 1880, to seek their fortune in the gold mines in the San Juan region.

     In May 1880, ex-sheriff David Hough and A. C. Hardenbrook, of Ligonier, left the county for Leadville, Colorado on a prospecting tour.

     Rumor was that Orloft E. Skinner had purchased a farm in Kansas. Thurston Skinner, and a younger brother, sons of Harrison Skinner, formerly of Jefferson Township, but now of Columbus, Kansas, spent a few weeks with friends in Noble County in August 1880.

      Mr. J. E. Bliss, of Ottawa, Kansas, son of John H. Bliss, of Albion, arrived in town in August 1880, after ten or twelve years in the west. He is the present postmaster in Ottawa, and is pleased with the area, especially with eastern Kansas.

     Mr. W.C. Baker, formerly of Noble County, but now a resident of Burton Kansas, where he had been for the past two or three years, was visiting the office of the New Era, Albion, in September 1880. He admitted that Kansas had some drawbacks but seemed to be well pleased with his new home. He was accompanied here by his wife.

     William Stough sold his residence property in Albion to H.S. Bortner, and moved to northwestern Missouri in October 1882. He was on the board of school trustees of the town of Albion, and one of the best citizens, according to the editor of the New Era.

     W. S. Gandy, who went to Nebraska some months ago with the intention of making that his permanent home, returned to Churubusco in 1882 to live. He was not pleased with the west.

     D. P. Miller started for Kansas City, MO., on Monday November 27, 1882, where he will remain for a time, being engaged in the book business.

     E.B. Andrews, formerly of Noble County, but now of Santa Cruz, California, sent a copy of a local paper to the editor of the Albion New Era. “It’s general appearance of thrift, and enterprise of her business men displayed in the matter of advertising, shows Santa Cruz to be quite a business point.”

     Mrs. Dr. Cazier started for Chicago, on Thursday, April 19, 1883, to rejoin her husband who is attending the practitioners’ course at Rush Medical College. Her sisters, Miss Ella Woodruff and Mrs. Florence Clapp will go to Chicago this week, if they have not already gone.  Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Cazier will go from that city to their home in Burlington, Kansas. Their many friends in Albion wish them all success in after life. (September 26, 1883---C. M. Clapp, received word from his wife who is now in Kansas, announcing the death and burial of her sister, Mrs. Dr. Cazier.)

     A large number of Noble County citizens went to the Albion depot, August 125, 1883, to witness the departure of Dr. Leonard and family and Mrs. Hamlin and children. These people had endeared themselves to the citizens of Albion and it was with regret that they moved away. They were moving west.

     Forest A. Love took leave of his labors at Des Moines, Iowa, and came home in July 1883, to spend a couple weeks with his parents and friends.  He is employed in a blank book-manufacturing house and says he has lost only three days in the last two years he has been with the firm.

     A.D.C. Harvey, now in Kansas, says in a letter to L.W. Welker, Esq. Dated April 28, 1883, that he has planted thirty acres of corn and has commenced plowing it, and is planting his late potatoes. Peach trees there have been out in blossom for the past three weeks.

     J.A. Hamlin gave the editor of the New Era a copy of the Fargo Dakota Daily Argus, where it was learned that away up in that latitude farmers have already got a portion of their wheat in the ground, as the weather has been very favorable thus far. It gives a glowing picture of the future prospects of Dakota in general, and of Fargo, in particular, which is a place of about 10,000 inhabitants and has all the conveniences of modern cities, such as streets railways, etc.

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