Earliest Settlement in Buffalo County
Imagine 1806 – from present Dairy Queen parking lot in Kearney
Prairie
Animals – antelope – buffalo –
prairie dogs
Silver ribbon to the south (Platte in
distance)
Trappers – from west
Using flood waters to carry furs
Wagon Trains on Mormon Trail
Brigham Young’s first train –
1847
1854 Wagon Train
Randall Diary – Buffalo County portion
Enter at
Shelton
Night at Buda
– water & fuel
Sight buffalo
at base of bluff (30th Ave & Highway 30)
Prairie dogs
Ft. Kearny – 1848
Begin to have temporary squatters
along Wood & Platte – no names
Joseph Johnson – Road ranch at Wood River Center (Shelton)
Mormon – moved to Kirtland, Ohio,
Nauvoo, Kanesville (Council Bluffs)
Newspaper editor – went to Utah and
intended to move there
Wood River Center – 1859
Newspaper editor – blacksmith – wagon repair – general store
(two wives and several children)
Moved to Utah – 1861 – died 1882 of
pneumonia
Sold store to Ed Oliver
The Oliver family
English - Converted to Mormon faith
Edward Oliver, Sr.,
Sarah, his wife
seven children – (one source says
they had 11, apparently 4 died)
Ed, Jr. (28)
James (21)
Sarah Ann (13)
John (12)
Eliza (9)
Ephriam, called Bob (8)
Jane (baby)
one daughter-in-law (James wife)
one grandson - Harry
maid, (22), may have been related
1860 - Left England – Arrived in US in April
Arrived in Florence, bought outfit – wagon, 2 yoke of oxen, 2 cows
Wood River Center (ca. July 4)- front axle broke - halt for repairs,
Mr. Johnson wagon shop - no seasoned wood - Wood River - ash
10 miles - green axle began to bend –
Father - try to arrange with other
emigrants to carry their movables and continue the journey.
Mother - return to the vicinity of
Wood River Center and arrange to spend the winter.
Children – agreed with Mother
.
Returned to about a mile west of Wood River Center and on the bank of Wood
River
Constructed a log hut with a sod and dirt roof
Spent the winter – 12 people in one cabin
Spring (1861) –
Father, zealous in the Mormon faith,
urged that they continue the journey to Utah.
Mother & children chose to stay
Father and maid went to Utah
Married the maid
Had 7 more children
Wrote (1862) for Sarah to come join him
Lived there for the rest of his life.
Rumors came of Indians on the warpath (1864)
Children took turns on the housetop
as lookout
Female members of family went to Iowa
for a year in 1864 during Indian uprising
Men stayed to harvest crops
Sarah Oliver –
Ministered to the sick early
settlers, travelers on the trail, and to many at or near Fort Kearney.
Often traveled by stagecoach, seated
beside the driver
Raised corn & vegetables – sold to
Ft. Kearny & travelers
Saw the building and completion of
the Union Pacific Railroad near her home in 1866
Saw Nebraska become a state in 1867
Died in 1871 – buried on homestead
[site not marked]
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