History of Loup City, Nebraska

 

The following is from the History of the State of Nebraska by A. T. Andreas.

This town is situated in the Middle Loup Valley, on the bottom lands of the river, and on a very small creek known as Dead Horse Run. The location of Loup City is a pleasant one, in this beautiful and fertile valley, and affords a fine view of some of the most romantic scenery in the valley.

The town as yet has no railroad advantages, and the nearest railroad towns are St. Paul, to the eastward, and Kearney Junction to the southward, yet it is an enterprising little town, with a population of upward of three hundred and fifty. Besides its natural advantages, from being nearly in the center of one of the most fertile counties of the Loup Valley, it is the county seat and the largest settlement of Sherman County. There are also prospects of a railroad to be built up the Middle Loup Valley to this point, probably within a short time.

The citizens of the town are of an exceptionally energetic and enterprising class, and do all in their power to further local improvements. The town has a good schoolhouse, the county building and court house, two hotels, two livery and feed stables, one printing office, one saloon, one bank, two blacksmith shops, one carpenter shop, five land and insurance offices, one harness shop, two general merchandise stores, one hardware store, one meat market, one furniture store, two flour and feed stores, and one millinery store. Besides these business houses, the different professions are well represented.

The very earliest settlement of the county was at Loup City, as it was the object of the organizers of the county to found a town and enter their homestead claims, or farms. close around it. In 1873, there were but very few settlements in the county away from the immediate vicinity of this town.  As soon as the first settlements were made in the spring of spring of 1873, the town began to build up. All was life, bustle and energy, to prepare residences and places for business. The originators of the town and the county had high hopes for the early success of their enterprise, and used the greatest efforts to attract settlers. Thus the summer of 1873 was spent in building up the town, and making the various improvements necessary to render life pleasant in what was until that year an uninhabited country. During this first year, a large schoolhouse was built, a court house commenced, a newspaper established and several business houses erected and opened.

The first store was opened in April, 1873, by Frank Ingram, and a hotel was opened soon after by C. E. Rosseter. These were soon followed by other business houses. Ingram was the first Postmaster.

In the spring and early in the summer of 1874, the town continued to grow slowly, as the county began to be settled up around it. Everything looked promising for the bright hopes of its founders, when the grasshoppers devastated the county during the summer. Business now became dull, and during the following winter and the summer of the next year until a crop could be raised, times were hard, indeed, for the residents of Loup City.

In the fall of 1875, though business revived a little, the town was not very prosperous. Many of the settlers had already left the county, on account of hard times, and the support to the business houses of Loup City was small.

The winter of 1875-76 was a dull one. The summer of 1876 opened with more favorable prospects for the little town, as the travel to the Black Hills was great, and a route had now been opened up the Middle Loup Valley, by way of Loup City. This, for a time, helped the business of the town, but soon the reports of danger from the Indians frightened many of the emigrants away from the route, and many of the settlers also left the county.

In the spring of 1877, immigration to the county began on quite a large scale, and the prospects of the town again improved and quite a number of business houses were opened. Besides the increasing settlement of the adjoining country, travel to the Black Hills by this route was again resumed, and furnishing the travelers with supplies added much to the income of the business men. From this time on, the success of the town of Loup City seemed to be assured.

In the spring of 1878, the number of new settlers in the Loup Valley was greater than ever before, and a number of business and professional men now came to Loup City, erected new buildings, and a new life was imparted to the already growing town. From that time forward until the present time, the town has continued to grow slowly but steadily.

From the date of the first sermon preached in Loup City, by Rev. William Willard, in July 1873, until the present time, religious services have been kept up most of the time. Different church societies have an organization here, and a large element of the citizens are church-going people. There is yet no church edifice, but the Methodist Episcopal Church has one in course of erection.

The Sunday school was organized at an early date in 1873, and has since been kept up. The attendance at the present time is a large one.

The public school has always been well sustained. The first action of the settlers of 1873, was to build a large and expensive schoolhouse, and since that time the educational improvement of the young has received careful attention.

The history of the newspapers of Loup City is as follows: Early in the fall of 1873, a move was made on the part of the leading men of the new town to establish a newspaper. Money was raised by subscription, material purchased and E. S. Atkinson was engaged as editor. The paper was called the Loup City News and the first issue was published November 3, 1873. Afterward the name was changed to the Sherman County Times. In 1874, O. B. Willard took charge of it. In 1876, it. was bought by A. B. Tutton and F. W. Pratt. In November, 1877, it was discontinued. In the spring of 1878, it was again established by Hale & Benschoter. In the summer of 1880, it was again purchased by O. B. Willard its present editor and proprietor.

O. B. Willard, editor and proprietor of the Sherman County Times, was born in Watertown, Wis. in 1853. In 1867, he removed to Missouri. Attended Johnson College at Macon until eighteen years of age, when he learned the printer's trade in the office of the Shelby County Herald, which was edited and published by his father, Rev. William Willard. In the spring of 1873, he came to Nebraska, located at Kearney and worked in the office of the Daily Press, published there. In November, 1873, he removed to Loup City, where he took charge of the mechanical work on the Loup City News, which paper he purchased in 1874. In the fall of the same year, he was elected County Clerk. In 1874, he resigned and went to California. On November 12, 1875, he began the publication of the Outlook, at. Santa Monica, Cal. He remained in California five years, a part of the time being on staff of the San Francisco Stock Exchange and reporter on the Chronicle. In 1880, he returned to Loup City, and bought the Sherman County Times, which he has since published. He was married, November 28, 1881 to Miss Allie C. Rosseter, of Loup City.

Mrs. Allie C Willard (née Rosseter), Postmistress at Loup City, was born April 13, 1860. She is a daughter of C. E. and Lydia Rosseter. In 1872, she moved to Grand Island, Neb., with her parents, and the next spring with them to Loup City. She was one of the first ladies to settle in Sherman County. Here she assisted her father in his hotel, until at the age of seventeen she began teaching school. She afterward attended the Gibbon High School. Owing to the sickness of her mother, she left school and took charge of the household duties again in her father's hotel. In the fall of 1879, she was engaged in the office of the Literary and Educational Notes, a literary paper published at Kearney, Neb. In the spring of 1880, she returned to Loup City, and in the fall of the same year was appointed Postmistress there, which office she has since retained. On the 28th day of November, 1881, she was married to O. B. Willard, of Loup City.
 

Home Page
Communities