Settling Kearney
[Corporate limits & platted sections are two different things.
Land within the corporate limits of a town may not have been platted into
lots or acreages yet]
I. Corporate Limits
Apr. 11, 1871 Junction of Burlington & Missouri Railroad and Union Pacific
designated
Nov. 30, 1872 Village of Kearney Junction was incorporated corporate
limits were included in the application to the county.
Bassett says their petition asked for:
sections 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 and 12,
township No. 8, range No. 16
sections 24, 25, 26, 27, 34; 35 and
36, township No. 9 range No. 16
also the territory extending
southward to the channel of the Platte River
Platte River
north to 56th St.; Ave N west to 30th Ave
[12 sections
+ 1/2, 1/3, & Ό of 3 sections on river]
Ave N to 2nd
Ave, 56th to 70th St.
[1 section]
sections 6 and 7, township No. 8,
range No. 16;
sections 30, 31, township No. 9,
range No. 15,
Riverdale
Road to Evergreen Road, Platte River to 56th St.
[8 sections
because these four on the west side are double sections.]
[about half
of two sections from Section 7 to the river]
[Total about 22 sections of land]
Bassett doesnt say if that is what was approved.
II. Original Town of Kearney
Junction
a. Land ownership
1. B&MR usual practice
Send 4 men
out to place claims on the four quarters of a section
They build a
4-room house in the center
They sell
their land to the B&MR land company
2. In Buffalo County - Section 2
claimed by James & George Smith and 2 other men
[2nd Ave to
17th Ave --- 11th St to 25th St.]
They build a
4-room house in the center
3. DN Smith purchased Section 1 (east
of Section 2)
[2nd Ave to
Ave N --- also 11th to 25th St]
4. B&MR land company purchased Smith
Bros. claims in Nov. 1871
Purchased one
other claim in February 1872
5. B&MR now owned all the land in
Sections 1 & 2 that the UP railroad crossed
6. September 1, 1872 - The Burlington
completed the junction with the Union Pacific
In Section 1
7. The Burlington built a union
station at the junction point but the UP refused to stop
Continued to
stop at the Junction House station on section No. 2
8. September 14, 1872 B&MR sold
half its land the UP
b. Original Town
Apr. 11, 1871 junction designated
Summer 1871- Anselmo B. Smith
surveyed Section 1 into city lots
Section 1 [N-2nd Ave, 11th-25th St]
October 27, 1871 - Original plat
filed for record in the county clerk's office.
First settlement near the
junction
1st lot given to Louisa Collins
May 15, 1873 - The first 4 lots of
record sold to L. R. More
[That may not necessarily be the date
of sale, just the date of record.]
III. Perkins and Harford Addition
Never lived in Kearney Minneapolis
business men
WW Patterson sold real estate through
them
he had
spent several years in Minneapolis
a. Location
July,
1872 - D. N. Smith bought the east half of section 35 from the Union Pacific
[2nd Ave to
alley between 9th & 10th St. --- 25th 39th St]
then he sold
it to Perkins and Harford.
August, 1872
- Perkins and Harford had Anselmo B. Smith survey and plat into city lots
As Perkins and Harford's first and second additions
[automatically a part of Kearney Junction because it was within the
corporate limits]
b. Events
1. September
20, 1872 - first deed of record for a lot in the Town of Kearney Junction -
Rev. Wm. Morse, Perkins and Harford Addition.
2. October 1,
1872 deed to L. R. More, 2 lots in Perkins and Harford Addition.
3. Dec. 27,
1872 Birth of first Kearney baby, Luman Jay, son of Evan Jay.
(not officially the first baby since he lived outside the city limits)
Four months later a child was born within the village limits
Named Kearney Clark
In the early days Perkins & Harford, a real estate firm, offered a corner
business lot
to the first child born within the corporate limits.
4. August 7,
1876 Third Ward Park block donated to the city
Original part of Harmon Park - 5th and 6th Avenues and 29th and 30th Streets
Given "for the sole and only purpose of a public park for the use and
benefit of the inhabitants
of said city," according to the deed.
IV. South Kearney Addition
Northwest quarter of section 12
2nd Ave to alley between Ave F & G
--- 11th St. south to Turkey Creek by Ramada
September, 1872 - Asbury Collins had
surveyors residing at Lowell, Neb., survey the northwest quarter
of section 1 as the South Kearney addition to Kearney Junction.
This is also where Collins filed his
homestead claim
V. School Section Addition
1. Section 36 - The section
directly north of the Original Town, Section 1
[25th St. to
39th St --- Ave. N to 2nd Ave.]
2. The B & MR as the South Platte
Land Company probably intended to gain possession of this section.
3. Nebraska school lands were the
responsibility of county boards.
4. Buffalo County commissioners would
not permit the sale.
5. April 2, 1872 - A. Collins
appointed agent for the county to notify all parties not to occupy or erect
buildings on section 36
6. The section was surveyed into lots
and acreage property.
7. June, 1873 - county board
appointed 3 men to appraise the value of these lots
8. 1874--the lots were sold at public
auction
Also noted in passing --
Sept 6, 1890 There had been a school bond issue, which passed.
A man who had been opposed to it had
spent $1 to have tickets against the bonds printed. [fliers??]
Then he calculated how much his taxes
would be raised and what he would pay in the next five years in added tax.
It was less than the dollar printing
cost he had paid.
Not only would he have been better
off not opposing the bond, now he is doubly out.
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