He names as witnesses: Calvin Hampton, John B.
Hale, Cicero H. Reeves, Joseph H. Dufphy, all of Battle
Creek, Nebraska.
E. S. Butler, Register.

The Civil War had ended in 1865, and many of the young veterans came west to take up land or, when they had a profession or trade to follow, came to found the villages and towns which sprang up as the area was settled.

There was unrest in Europe which engendered a deep desire of venturesome young people to immigrate to America to start a new life and take up free land. They came from England, Ireland, Germany, Austria (Bohemians) and the Scandinavian countries. Truly America became the "melting pot" of the world, and we owe a debt of gratitude to these courageous people who came to change the raw prairie to fine farms and build towns, organize schools and churches. Remember it was not the aristocracy who came. It was the young people who were downtrodden but courageous hard working people. Their lives were regulated by the aristocrats and they had to be subservient to them. Now they wanted to be free and independent, master of their own destiny.

Besides the Indians, the early settlers had other worries. Stories have been told of prairie fires, drouth, storms, floods, and blizzards, to say nothing about grasshopper and other insect plagues.

The first recorded blizzard in Nebraska occurred December 1, 1856, but there were few settlers in the state then except along the Missouri River. The second came Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873. It had rained most of the day. Just before dark the wind changed from southwest to northwest, and the rain changed to snow. The storm lasted through Monday and Tuesday. Buildings were covered by snowdrifts and there was great loss of livestock. Though in cramped quarters, young stock sometimes had to be brought into the house to save it. Then there is the famous blizzard of January 12, 1888, which caused a great many more deaths as the area was by that time thickly settled.

On July 17, 1866, a party consisting of 42 families, about 125 souls, settled in the Madison County area, taking up land along the Northfork River above its confluence with the Elkhorn River. These people were German immigrants who had first settled in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, but became dissatisfied with the area as winters were cold and land costing around $40.00 per acre. Many of these people had been impoverished to pay passage to the United States and to the midwest, and were forced to look for "Free Land."

Their pastor, the Rev. Heckendorf, of St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Ixonia, near Watertown, Wisconsin, encouraged them to immigrate to Nebraska as he had received glowing reports of virgin land with water and timber open for homesteading. Thereupon,

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