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The land embraced in the town site originally
was the property of Henry Gipe, who took the same as a
pre-emption, to which he obtained title
by the Nebraska Land and Town Site Company furnishing him money for
that purpose. After Gipe had perfected
the title in himself, he deeded half of the quarter-section to the company,
upon which the town was laid out and
surveyed by A. R. Butolph, in May, 1873. The railroad was completed to
this point in July of the previous year.
A post office call Edgar was established
in June, 1872, and was kept by A. J. Ritterbush in a log cabin which
stood on his claim just outside of the
afterward surveyed limits of the town. Here Ritterbush also kept a small
store of general goods. The first house
on the site was a sod house erected by Gipe, when he took his
pre-emption, and the railroad station
and section-house were built in the summer of 1872. Thus far favorable
auspices preceded the location of the
town and the excellence of the surrounding country all bade fair for its
progress. During the summer of 1873,
the country was rapidly taken up by permanent settlers, and during the
year several business houses were opened
in the town. The first of these was a general store opened by S. T.
Caldwell, about the time the town was
laid out, and a month later, A. J. Ritterbush established a store in town
consisting also of general merchandise.
During the month of August, Rev. F. A.
Penny built a dwelling, followed soon after by a storeroom by C. E.
Green, in which he put a stock of general
merchandise, and a similar store was opened in the month of
September by J. G. Glazier, followed
by a drug store belonging to T. A. Hendricks, in the month of October and
a lumber yard belonging to Weed &
Son.
During the winter of 1873-74, W. Richhart
opened a harness-shop, but did not continue the business along at this
place. In the early spring of 1874,
J. Carlin and W. F. Whitmore built a blacksmith shop which was operated
by
James Cranz, Edgar's first cunning worker
in iron. Very soon after this, A. Sherwood also built a blacksmith shop
and carried on that trade.
Cyrus Stayner established a furniture
store during that spring and W. F. Whitmore a livery barn, while later
in the
summer A. B. Canfield began business,
handling general goods.
In the fall of the year, E. E. Howard
began business, dealing in hardware. S. J. Whitten established a lumber
yard, J. D. Beck erected the third blacksmith
shop and George Weisen opened a flour, feed and exchange store.
Several residences were erected during
this time, one by S. J. Whitten, one by A. Sherwood and one by W. F.
Whitmore. At the end of 1874, two years
from the time the place started, it contained only about seventy-five
population, although there had been
several business houses established. This, however, was due to the fact
that
nearly all of those engaged in business
in the town resided on their claims in the country. A lull in the progress
of
the town followed the grasshopper plague,
but in 1876 and following, the growth became very rapid, and, in the
short period of about five years has
sprung from a little town to the flourishing place it now is, with four
dry goods
and shoe stores, three drug, one boot
and shoe, three grocery, one millinery, two harness and saddlery, one
furniture, two jewelry, two general
and two hardware stores, three churches, three hotels, one bank, two wagon
and carriage shops, two lumber and coal
yards and two implement establishments, etc. The town is made up of a
more than ordinary class of enterprising
men and is a place of general activity and business prosperity.
Edgar was incorporated as a town on the
15th of March, 1875, and John Glazier, Andrew Sherwood, S. J.
Whitten, Henry Gipe and E. E. Howard
were appointed the first Board of Trustees. Since then the following
persons have been elected to office
under the village government for the various years up to the present:
1876--Trustees, S. J. Whitten, J. H.
Brown, J. G. Prosser, E. E. Howard and J. P. Hawkins: Chairman, S. J.
Whitten; Clerk, A. B. Canfield; Treasurer,
G. M. Murdock; Marshal, J. P. Hawkins.
1877--Trustees, E. E. Howard, J. H. Brown,
J. G. Glazier, W. Ovelman, O. Crossman; Chairman, J. G. Glazier,
Clerk, A. B. Canfield; Treasurer, G.
M. Murdock, Marshal, Henry Gipe.
1878--Trustees, A. B. Canfield, A. Curtis,
J. G. Glazier, J. F. Evans, S. J. Whitten; Chairman, A. B. Canfield;
Clerk, J. Converse; Treasurer, I. V.
Howard.
1879--Trustees, A. B. Canfield, L. Porter,
S. J. Whitten, M. S. Edgington, J. H. Brown; Chairman, L. Porter;
Clerk, C. H. Treat; Treasurer, M. S.
Edgington; Marshal, W. Shelton; Attorney, M. S. Edgington. At the next
meeting of the Board of Trustees, the
appointment of Clerk was reconsidered and A. H. Jones was appointed
Clerk and Marshal.
1880--Trustees, J. G. Prosser, J. H.
Brown, J. G. Glazier, S. J. Whitten, E. E. Howard; Chairman, J. G.
Prosser; Clerk, A. B. Canfield; Treasurer,
S. J. Whitten; Marshal, J. R. Pond.
1881--Trustees--E. E. Howard, O. A. Avery,
J. G. Glazier, S. J. Whitten, J. G. Prosser; Chairman, J. G.
Prosser; Clerk, C. H. Treat; Treasurer,
S. J. Whitten; Attorney, S. A. Searle; Marshal, J. Downer.
1882--Trustees, H. F. Grant, J. G. Glazier,
C. F. Barrington, J. H. Brown, J. D. Whitten; Chairman, H. F.
Grant; Clerk, C. H. Treat; Treasurer,
J. H. Brown; Attorney, M. S. Edgington; Marshal, H. E. Wells.
The beginning of the intellectual training
of the youth of Edgar dates from the fall and winter of 1873, when Mrs.
Julia Pond was employed to teach the
village school, which was kept in a small frame building, erected by M.
Wagner, near where the present schoolhouse
stands. The house was 24x30 feet in size, a single room, and cost
$3,000, and was afterward sold to M.
J. Hull for $150, and is the same building in which the post office is
now
kept by Mr. Hull. This house continued
in use for school purposes about seven years, but at length grew
inadequate for the increased proportions
of pupilage. A new building was erected in the summer of 1880, and is
a large two-story T-shaped house of
fine architecture and elegantly finished with belfry, bell, etc., and
comfortably seated with patent seats
and desks and suitably furnished with all needful apparatus for illustrations,
etc. The building when completed cost
$4,300 and the furniture about $900, making the total cost $5,200.
The school register shows and enrollment
of 250 pupils and an average attendance of about 200. The school was
graded in September, 1881, and embraces
the primary, intermediate and grammar school departments. Besides
the common branches ordinarily taught
in village schools, are included the higher branches of geometry,
physiology, philosophy, physical geography,
botany and rhetoric. The schools are in excellent condition, under
charge of H. K. Wolf, Principal, Miss
Mary Warren, teacher of the intermediate, and Miss Mary Gray, teacher
of the primary department.
The earliest public services by the professors
of Christianity in Edgar were held by the Methodists in the railroad
section-house in the summer of 1873,
conducted by Rev. F. E. Penny. Prior to this, meetings were held in the
country districts in private residences,
and a congregation was already organized when the place of meeting was
made at Edgar. After holding services
for a few Sundays in the section-house, the congregation moved to the
depot. This was in the spring of 1874.
The depot was used as a church house until the fall of 1874, when the
congregation began to occupy the Presbyterian
Church. They have at present a membership of seventy in full
standing, and are under charge of C.
A. Lewis. Included in this charge are points located at Bethel, Montgomery,
Heasley, Klingerman and Star Schoolhouses,
at which services are held, the whole circuit having 160 members.
The next congregation organized was the
Presbyterian, which took place July 1, 1875, with seven members, by
the Revs. Nelson Robinson, of Omaha,
and J. H. Reynard and A. M. Dixon, of Edgar, the meeting being held in
the old schoolhouse. Religious services
had been held by the people of this faith as early as February, 1875,
when they were preached to by the Rev.
Mr. Robinson in the same house. Rev. Mr. Dixon was called to the
charge upon its organization, and remained
pastor about five years, giving it up in July, 1880, and was
immediately succeeded by the Rev. Edward
Middleton. For about a year and a half the congregation met in the
schoolhouse until the completion of
the church edifice, in the spring of 1877, which was dedicated to spiritual
and
religious uses by Rev. Mr. Kerr, then
Presbyterian missionary for this synod. The house is a frame, 30x40 feet
in
size, with cupola and bell, and cost,
when completed, $2,600. At present, the congregation numbers sixty
members, under charge of A. B. Byram,
and the church receives liberal attention and support. A Sunday school
was established in the early part of
the year 1877, with twenty-five members, and Samuel Pomeroy was chosen
Superintendent. The school now has eighty
members under the superintendence of Rev. A. B. Byram, who began
his services as pastor of the church
in July, 1881. There is also a small library belonging to the school comprising
about thirty volumes.
The Baptist was the next, and, up to
this time, the last congregation organized in the town, and this took place
in
the school building on June 27, 1874,
by the Rev. J. W. Eller, who preached for the congregation about three
months, after which they were without
any pastor or services nearly three years, and the whole thing had become
disorganized. A re-organization was
made on January 28, 1877, by Rev. J. N. Webb; this time they had eleven
members, and Rev. W. S. Higgins was
called to the pastorate and remained about one year and was followed by
Rev. J. W. Carson, whose services continued
about two years; then for a period of one year the church was
without a pastor, after which Rev. W.
H. Wilson, the present minister, accepted the call. The first services
were
held in the schoolhouse. After this,
for about two years, in the Presbyterian Church, and again, for about the
same
length of time, in the Methodist Church.
Work began upon the church building in October, 1881, and, by the
month of November, the house was ready
for worship, and was dedicated December 15, 1881, by Rev. W. R.
Connelly. The church house is a neat
frame edifice, with belfry, and is supplied with a large bell, and is also
well
seated and furnished, carpeted, etc.,
and is also constructed with a baptistry.
The Sunday school was organized December
22, 1881, and Dr. E. T. Cassell was elected Superintendent. The
fist Sunday, there were 114 scholars
in attendance, and on the second, 130, and at present the school averages
about 100 scholars.
The earliest attempt to publish a newspaper
at Edgar wad made in November, 1875, by F. M. Comstock, and,
after running for a short time, the
concern passes into the hands of W. J. Waite, Comstock leaving the country.
After dragging out a precarious existence
for about one year, the paper was forced to succumb to the inevitable
hard times with the proprietor. The
material was mortgaged to secure indebtedness, and was held by the
mortgagers after the failure of the
project, until some one willfully, and with malice aforethought, broke
into the
office one night and the apparatus was
carried away; and thus ended in calumny that which started out presuming
to be a public benefactor, looking to
the public good.
Another journal soon after found existence
under the name of the Edgar Leader, which was established in 1877
by H. A. Day and C. E. Keith, who continued
its publication about one year, when it also yielded to the pressure
common to such enterprises--lack of
funds--and was transferred to S. T. Caldwell and E. E. Howard to
discharge indebtedness, and the editors
sought pasture elsewhere. The material was sold to M. J. Hull, May,
1879, with which he began the publication
of the Edgar Review at that date. This live sheet started out a
five-column quarto in size, but was
recently changed to an eight-column folio. Is Republican in politics, and
has a
circulation of 400 copies, and, at the
present time bears evidences of prolonged existence and is a source of
profit to its owner, as well as a valuable
educator of the public mind.
The Edgar Post Office was established
in June, 1872, before there was anything of a town or even any attempts
made to start one, and was kept by Andrew
J. Ritterbush in a log cabin which he had built on his claim, and
which stood just outside of where the
line of the town site afterward was surveyed. Soon after the town site
was
located, W. A. Gunn received the appointment
of Postmaster, and the office was brought into the town and was
kept in S. T. Caldwell's storeroom,
where it remained about three years, when it was removed to a small building
which Gunn erected specially for a post
office, and stood just across the street from Caldwell's store. After
holding the position of Postmaster for
about three years, Mr. Gunn retired and was succeeded, in February,
1876, by W. J. Waite, the office being
kept in the room in which Gunn left it. Waite's term of office was
somewhat brief, having held it only
about nine months, when, owing to some discrepancies in his financial
accounts with the post office department,
in which his bondsman was called upon to make up the deficit,
amounting to a large sum, he was expelled
from the office and the appointment given to M. J. Hull, in September,
1876, who took charge of the office
on the 12th day of October of the same year. With Mr. Hull's incumbency,
a
change was made in the location of the
office, being held in a small frame building belonging to Cyrus Stayner,
which is now used as a barber shop.
Shortly following, Hull purchased Caldwell's old storeroom, in which he
kept the office, but which he subsequently
moved back, and it is now used as the Edgar Review printing office.
About two years since, Mr. Hull purchased
the old schoolhouse, which he moved on to the place on which the
printing office had formerly stood,
and the office was brought into that building, in which is also kept a
jewelry
and stationery and notion store.
The Odd Fellows fraternity was instituted
at Edgar in March, 1880, as Edgar Lodge, No. 80. The meeting
preliminary to its establishment was
held in S. B. Montgomery's lumber office, with eight persons present, and
from this meeting application was made
to the Grand Lodge for a charter, which was granted March 2, 1880,
and the organization was effected on
March 9, 1880, in the Masonic Hall, by A. A. McCoy, who was appointed
Special District Deputy to institute
this lodge, numbering at that time fourteen charter members, and D. M.
Hamilton was chosen Noble Grand; James
Hazlett, Vice Grand; S. B. Montgomery, Secretary, and J. L.
Bradley, Treasurer. The lodge has grown
steadily since its inception and now has a membership of thirty-two,
having lost only two members by withdrawals.
Meetings are held in Howard's Hall, and the society is supplied
with all the necessary paraphernalia
for the performance of its ceremonies, and financially is in good condition,
having on hand a surplus of $80 of a
relief fund. The present officers are A. Knacker, Noble Grand; J. N.
Johnson, Vice Grand; D. M. Hamilton,
Secretary; W. Deffinbaugh, Permanent Secretary; S. B. Montgomery,
Treasurer.
Edgar Lodge, No. 67, of the Masonic Brotherhood,
was established under a dispensation on February 28,
1877. The first meetings were held in
Harvison's Hall, and the officers elected were M. J. Hull, Worshipful
Master; E. E. Howard, Senior Warden;
C. H. Kitridge, Junior Warden; J. G. Glazier, Treasurer; S. J. Whitten,
Secretary. A charter was granted to
the lodge June 20, 1877, and the organization under that authority was
effected, August 4, 1877, by George
Lininger, Grand Master, the order numbering twenty-seven charter
members, and at the present time has
forty-seven members. Meetings are held in Whitten's Hall, under the
following officers: S. J. Whitten, Worshipful
Master; G. M. Murdock, Senior Warden; S. A. Searle, Junior
Warden; C. H. Treat, Secretary; J. G.
Glazier, Treasurer; O. B. Canfield, Senior Deacon; Henry Dalton, Junior
Deacon; P. G. Hayes, Tiler. The lodge
is in fine working order and possesses a very excellent wardrobe and a
complete outfit of jewels.
Edgar Chapter, No. 22, of Royal Arch
Masons, became established at the town of Edgar, on June 30, 1881,
in the Masonic Hall. The organization
was perfected by electing M. J. Hull, High Priest; S. T. Caldwell, King;
S.
Johnston, Scribe; E. E. Howard, Captain
of the Host; J. P. Nelson, Principal Sojourner; S. J. Whitten, Royal
Arch Captain; W. Ong, Grand Master of
the First Veil; J. Van Valin, Grand Master of the Second Veil, and R.
Hollingsworth, Grand Master of the Third
Veil. The society operated under a dispensation for about seven
months, and, on the 7th of February,
1882, became chartered by the Grand Chapter, having fourteen charter
members. The institution of the Chapter
was conducted by Grand High Priest E. P. Davidson, of Tecumseh,
Neb., and the following officers were
duly elected and installed: M. J. Hull, High Priest; G. M. Murdock, King;
J.
R. Kidd, Scribe; E. E. Howard, Captain
of the Host; S. J. Whitten, Royal Arch Captain; S. A. Searle, Grand
Master of the Third Veil; J. G. Glazier,
Grand Master of the Second Veil; J. G. Prosser, Grand Master of the
First Veil; G. W. Barnes, Sentinel.
The society is supplied with a fine set of jewels and other furnishings.
Meetings
are held in the Masonic Hall on the
second and fourth Mondays of each month.
The first house kept in the town for
the accommodation of the traveling public was a sort of boarding
establishment run by Charles McGowan,
and this, however scant its accommodations were compared with the
demand, must be regarded the first hotel
in Edgar. In the summer of 1875, J. W. Gunn erected a small frame
house which he used as a hotel until
the spring of 1878, at which time it came into the possession of F. Weidman,
who was soon after this succeeded by
J. W. Wilkerson. During Wilkerson's ownership of this house, he erected
a large two-story hotel along-side of
it, and, in the fall of 1880, disposes of both houses to James Cutler,
in
whose possession they remained one year,
when he, in turn, sold out to the present owner and proprietor, C. G.
Hayes. During the spring of 1882, the
old hotel was moved back, and on its former location a large addition was
built to the main house. The Edgar House
was built in August, 1877, by C. F. Barrington and W. C. Ovleman.
Several additions were afterward made
to it, and, in 1881, the name was changed and called the Sherman
House. During September of 1877, another
hotel was built by C. Sirini and christened by the singular name of
"Try Our House."
With these three instances ends the establishment of hotels, all of which are now in successful operation.
The first monetary institution established
at Edgar was a bank started by C. P. Packer and J. W. Kernohen. After
running the institution about two years,
it was sold out and removed to Fairfield, the original owners becoming
interested in the Grand Island Banking
Company, located in the city of Grand Island.
The Edgar Bank was established by J.
B. Dinsmore, E. E. Howard, I. V. Howard and L. R. Grimes, as the firm
of Dinsmore, Howard & Co., in September,
1879. In 1880, Grimes retired from the institution. The firm are
engaged in a general banking, exchange
and collection business, and have a capital of $25,000, and an average
of deposits of $30,000.