Dawes County NeArchives History .....Chadron, The Enterprising Capital Of Dawes County December 11, 1886
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Debra Crosby http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00010.html#0002467 June 18, 2018, 7:07 pm

The Nebraska State Journal Sat Dec 11, 1886

           CHADRON
      ____________________
The Enterprising Capital of Dawes County
      ____________________

Rapid Growth of the Best Town in the New Northwest

CHADRON, NEB., Dec. 8.--[Special]-Chadron! The name of
this town, no doubt, has caused as much speculation as
has the name of Broken Bow. Yesterday I asked a learned
looking individual as to the origin of the name and he
assured me, with many wise looks, that the first settlers
of the town were a pious set and that they sought among
the many names found in the Old Bible and selected this
one--meaning in Hebrew, the vale of humility and 
devotion. The study of words is something of a passion 
with me, and I determined to investigate this matter
for myself. I was sorry, however, when I probed this
tender little bit of fiction today and found that theory
to be the veriest chaff. But my motto being like that of
the great Grover, "Tell the truth," I must not hesitate,
though the heavens fall. Far from the name being a pious
one, selected for its reference to humility and devotion,
it was named after one of the most contemptible skunks
that ever disgraced American soil, and the only humility
he ever possessed, if he possessed any at all, was the
kind possessed by Uriah Heep, and the only devotion he
ever exhibited was a devotion to such schemes and
tricks as would add gold to his already well-filled 
coffers. He was a Frenchman--Chadron, pronounced
"Shaydron"-- who squatted on a small creek, a tributary
to the White river, which bears his name today. There
he kept a little store of goods and traded with the 
Indians. He sold them sugar, coffee, tobacco, whisky,
calico and blankets, and also arms and ammunition. And
it was this same individual who supplied the Indians 
who killed Custer and his little band of brave fellow
soldiers.
   When the F., E. & M. V. railway was looking toward
this country, the pioneers who locate ahead of the road
came on and started a little town on the banks of the
creek some two or three miles from the present site, 
and when the Northwestern Town Site company located
the present town of Chadron in August 1885, the little
town by the creek was moved over to and became a part
of the new railroad town. From that time on the town 
has been on the boom, and today, about sixteen months
after the first sale of town lots, she numbers over
2,000 inhabitants, and with a business second to no
town of its size in the west. Holdrege is called the
Magic City of the South Platte country, and Chadron
may be justly called the Magic City of the North Platte
country.
   The town is situated in the valley of the Chadron
creek and is bounded on the east by a range of rugged
looking pine covered hills that today look more
picturesque than usual, because they are covered with
snow, and the greenness of the pine contrasts finely
with the whiteness of the snow. The valley is quite
wide here, and today the sun is shining and down in
the valley looks like a fair summer day. The fires
are dead in the stoves, the doors of the stores and
offices are open and men are going about the streets
in their shirt sleeves.
   This town being the end of the road for some time
and an outfitting point, therefore, for the Black 
Hills country, no doubt had much to do with helping
along the boom, but there are a thousand and one
other influences that wrought good for the town and
made her what she is, and are still at work and will
make her the Queen City of the northwest. Douglas may
boom, Rapid City may boom, and other places may grow
and prosper, but there is bound to be one city in all
this country and my judgement is that its name is
Chadron. My space is too limited and the town too
large for any detailed account of the business 
interests of the city, but a tour of its many business
houses, viewing their large and well selected stocks
will convince anyone that she is doing a big trade.
   Chadron is the county seat of Dawes county, which,
until the last election was sixty-nine miles north
and south, by thirty-six miles east and west. At the 
last election the county was divided by a vote of the
people, making a new county, Box Butte, out of the
southern part--the dividing line being the north part
of town twenty-eight, leaving Dawes county thirty-nine
miles north and south, by thirty-six miles east and
west. The Niobrara river runs through the southern
tier of townships with a broad rich valley which is
fast settling up with an industrious class of farmers.
Numerous little streams flowing southward are 
tributary to the Niiobrara and furnish water to the
southern portion of the county, while the White river
flows diagonally through the county from southwest
to northeast. There are numerous tributaries to the
White, which make the county as well watered as any
county in Nebraska. Among the chief of these streams
are Clay, Big Cottonwood, Lone Tree, Indian, Turkey
Butte, Dead Horse, Chadron, Bordeaux and Beaver, and
along these streams are heavy bodies of timber--pine
cedar, ash, cottonwood, oak and other trees.
Another important thing for this county, and one, too,
whose importance cannot be over estimated, is the fact 
that recent investigations have developed the fact
that in the bluffs along these streams there are large
quantities of an excellent quality of building stone.
To show its importance I will state that when the 
railroad was built to this place the company shipped
in stone for the foundation of their depot buildings
round houses, etc., and they said that this stone
was almost worth its weight in gold to them. Now that
these discoveries have been made stone will no doubt
be shipped in large quantities away from Chadron
instead of into it. The timber along the streams
furnish lumber for building material and wood for fuel,
and the thousands of settlers in Dawes county are not
compelled to burn corn nor to pay $9 and $10 a ton for 
soft coal. Another thing, an excellent quality of brick
has been burned here and used in the construction of
a few buildings--enough to prove the fact that the clay
is well suited for brick work, and quite recently the
Chadron Brick company was organized, which will be in
successful operation in a short time. They have
secured first class machinery, a part of which is one
of Kells & Son's brick pressing machines. With this
apparatus they can manufacture 30,000 bricks in a day.
The firm consists of "Tip" Morton, Robert Dickson and
L. C. Keenan, and their names are a sufficient guarantee
of the success of the enterprise. This is not only a 
big thing for Chadron, but for the surrounding towns
as well. The plans for next year's building in Chadron
include a number of elegant brick blocks, and this
company is organized to supply this demand. This
brick, with the excellent quality of building stone 
above mentioned, will greatly add to the building
facilities.

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