Obituaries from The Golden Record

[The Golden Record is a collection of obituaries which have appeared in the Shelton Clipper and Gibbon Reporter as well as some in the Kearney Daily Hub about Gibbon/Shelton residents.]

“Nell” Kirkpatrick – 18 May 1897
J. W. Kirkpatrick’s dray horse, Nell, died May 18, 1897, aged 26 years old. She was the first colt born in the Soldiers Free Homestead Colony and died within a half mile of her birth place.

Lawrence Kem Eddy – 7 June 1897
Monday afternoon children of F. O. Eddy and Ed George playing on a footbridge over the Wood River near the Eddy Residence one mile west of town. Kem Eddy fell into the river and drown before help could reach him.

Members of the Soldiers Free Homestead Colony who died:
 

William Brady – 4 Sept. 1872
Killed by caving of sand pit along Wood River while making brick for the first Buffalo County courthouse. Buried on the prairie and later moved to Riverside Cemetery at Gibbon to be buried beside his daughter, Grace, who died of measles in March, 1876, and was buried there.

Jeremiah McKinley – 8 Nov 1872
Made little progress improving his claim because he was in the last stages of consumption.

J. Lloyd – 25 Dec 1872
Took a homestead and built a house and improved on it but was not strong.

Aaron Ward – 5 Oct 1879
Lumber business & built the first dwelling house in the village, in which was held a term of school in the summer of 1871. It was also used as an office for the county clerk and treasurer until the completion of the courthouse in Feb 1873. Ward served a term county clerk and was active in organizing Dist. 2 even though he did not have any children.

Euphemia Pember – 8 Jan 1883
Came as a widow, the only widow to take a homestead.

Clarence Mahoney – 9 Jan 1883
Age 9, herding cattle on the prairie south of Gibbon. Horse came home. He was found on the prairie, broken neck.

Joseph Hartman – 7 April 1889
Walking on a railroad track and miscalculated the distance of the train. The first car struck him on the head breaking his neck and crushing his head.

Father, age 84, 12 children, 2 of whom survive

Child, age 3, died of bean in windpipe

Man, came to Gibbon in 1871, made ox yokes from cottonwood trees

Mrs. S. C. Bassett’s grandmother was married to a man who went from Ohio to Wisconsin to do missionary work. (the obituary is unclear as to whether he returned.) His wife had a house framed and ready for construction. It and the household goods were placed on a flatboat, taken down the Ohio River and then up the Mississippi to Prairie du Chain where the house was built.

There was at one time a North Gibbon Cemetery. When it was closed the bodies were move to Riverside, some to the Shelton Cemetery.

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Railroads in Buffalo County

From Kearney & Black Hills, a Historic Branch of the Union Pacific, by Francis Gschwind, 1990
 

1. Union Pacific transcontinental railroad – built through the county in the summer of 1866.

2. Burlington and Missouri River Railroad – built in 1871. Came across the Platte east of Ft. Kearny (now part of the Ft. Kearny Bike/Hike Trail) and angled northwest to form a junction with the Union Pacific at Kearney. But then the B & M R built a line on west across southern Nebraska from Hastings to Denver which became a main line and ours became a branch.

3. St. Joe & D. C. Railroad – shown on 1876 map of Kearney as being under construction. It appears to come from a more southerly direction into east Kearney and form a junction with the B & M R between what is now Ave C and Ave B before the B & M R joined the UP at about 2nd Ave.

4. Omaha & Republican Valley RR – (1886) This was a Union Pacific line which went north from Grand Island to St. Paul. There it divided with one branch going to Ord and the other to Loup City via Boelus which they proposed to call Howard City. The branch from Boelus (Howard City) west is the one that went into Buffalo County at St. Michel and along the north side of the South Loup River through Poole (Poole Siding) to River View (now Pleasanton). The plan was to run it on up the South Loup through Sartoria, Pilot, Cumro, & Georgetown in Custer County to Callaway but that never happened.

5. Grand Island and Wyoming Central – (1886) A Burlington line from Grand Island to Broken Bow and on northwest, cut through the northeast corner of Buffalo County. The Omaha & Rep. Valley crossed it at about Nantasket southeast of Ravenna.

6. Nebraska Southern – (1888) A subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe system was to come to Kearney from the southeast but stopped at Superior.

7. Pacific Railway – (1888) A subsidiary of the Missouri Pacific coming northwest out of Kansas through Hastings but stopped at Prosser.

8. Kearney & Milldale – (1887) A UP branch out of Kearney up the Wood River through Stanley and Armada to Callaway. Obtaining rights-of-way and grading the road bed continued throughout the summer but fizzled out by fall. Although there were rumors off and on during the following summer, no more construction was done.

9. Kearney & Black Hills Railroad – May 1889 five Kearney businessmen formed a corporation, the Kearney and Black Hills Railway Company. Rights to the grading already done up the Wood River were acquired and construction proceeded.