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Pages of History
In 1851 an attempt was made to organize the Territory of Nebraska. The effort failed but pressure to open Nebraska for settlement continued. In response to the pressure, Senator Augustus C. Dodge of Iowa introduced a bill in 1853 calling for the creation of Nebraska Territory. After a rancorous debate, Stephen Douglas rammed the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress. The bill was signed into law and signed by President Franklin Pierce. The Territory of Nebraska was officially born on May 30, 1854.
President Pierce appointed Francis Burt to be the first governor of Nebraska. The trip from Burt’s home in South Carolina to the Wild West was no easy jaunt in 1854. Governor Burt traveled by carriage, railroad, stagecoach, steamboat and wagon. The governor was extremely ill by the time he reached St. Louis.
The Missouri River was exceptionally low that year and steamboats were unable to travel above St. Joseph. A carriage was hired to haul him as far as Nebraska City. From there he traveled by wagon to Bellevue. On Oct. 7, 1854, the 47-year-old governor arrived in Bellevue. He was so weak he immediately went to bed. He never left it.
Governor Burt was sworn in Oct. 16, 1854. Two days later he was dead. The diagnosis was colonitis or inflammation of the bowels. The governor’s remains were placed in a zinc coffin which was then filled with alcohol and hermetically sealed. The body of Nebraska’s first governor was returned to Pendleton, South Carolina, for burial.
Thomas B. Cuming was appointed acting governor. At age 25, Cuming was given the responsibility of establishing civil government in the new territory.
One of Governor Cuming’s first acts was to order a territorial census. The census found a population of 2,732, mainly south of the Platte River. Despite the imbalance, Governor Cuming established four counties north and four counties south of the Platte. The effect was to give the sparsely settled north the same number of representatives as the more populous south. Burt County, named for the late Francis Burt, encompassed the largest area of the eight counties.
Except for a strip of land along the Missouri River reserved for the Indians, Territorial Burt County included all of present-day Cedar County.
Governor Cuming nearly started a territorial civil war when he selected Omaha as Nebraska’s capital. J. Sterling Morton, later known as the founder of Arbor Day, was so angry at Cuming’s decision, he wanted southern Nebraska to secede from the new territory. Morton mustered all of his political influence to make the Platte River the boundary between the two territories. Fortunately Morton’s plan was not adopted although it was not without merit. The Platte is a natural barrier that splits Nebraska into two sections. In Morten’s day the Platte was too shallow for ferries, too wide to bridge, and difficult to ford.
Territorial Burt County was too large to manage. By the time the second census was taken in 1855, Dakota County had been carved out of Burt. The 1855 census showed a population of 85 for Dakota County while the remaining portion of Burt County totaled 86. The same census, incidentally, found 13 slaves held illegally in southern Nebraska.
On Feb. 12, 1857, the legislature organized two new counties. One was named Cuming in honor of the acting governor. The other was called Cedar. Cedar was one of the few counties in Nebraska not named after a person. Instead it was named for the trees along the banks of the river. L’ Eau Qui Court County — later renamed Knox — also was organized that year. Dixon County followed in December 1858. As Burt County was carved up, the counties of northeast Nebraska began to assume their present configuration. The Legislative Act that created Cedar County specified its boundaries as follows: “Commencing at a point in the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River, at which the line dividing Ranges 1 and 2 west intersects the same; thence south to the southeastern corner of Township 28 north, Range 1 west; thence east to the southeast corner of Township 28 north, Range 3 east; thence north to the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River; thence up said channel to the place of beginning.”
One township in the extreme southwest corner of Cedar County was removed in the 1870s and attached to Pierce. Cedar County was left with its distinctive shape.
The Act of Feb. 12, 1857, established the Cedar County seat at the mouth of the “River Petit Arc.” Petit Arc was what the French called Little Bow Creek. St. James, as the new county seat was called, was located about one and one-half miles north of the present town of St. James. The county seat remained at St. James until 1869 when it was moved to St. Helena. In 1885 Hartington became the county capital.
St. James wasn’t much of a town when it was named county seat. There may have been a cabin or two near the mouth of the Bow Creek and possibly a dugout which early settlers dubbed “The Arcade.”
In 1858 more settlers arrived and St. James expanded to at least three businesses and a dozen or more houses.
