McCook’s Civil War soldiers

Since this Sunday is the Riverview Cemetery Tour as part of the Buffalo Commons celebration and we are honoring 10 of our numerous Civil War Veterans, I thought I would continue with John Cordeal’s saga concerning the beginning of McCook and the end of Fairview.

Coming from the 50th Anniversary Edition printed by the McCook Daily Gazette in 1932: “Most of the town site of McCook consists of entries made under a law then in force by which veterans of the Civil War were entitled to what was called additional soildiers’entries. It was not necessary for soldiers who had theretofore acquired homesteads under the government land laws in quantities less than one hundred and sixty acres to live upon these additional entries.” (Note: The referred to entries are essentially lands claimed under the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act required that the holder of the homestead live on and “prove up” their right to retain the land for 5 years. Mr. Cordeal is referring to the fact that if a Civil War vet held less than 160 acres as a homestead under that act, they could take additional acres without having to live on them or even in the state in which they existed.)

“If a soldier had entered an eighty-acre tract of land under the government land laws as a homestead in some other locality, it was his right to secure an additional eighty-acre tract elsewhere. He was permitted to sell his right to make those entries.”

“Theodore F. Barnes secured powers of attorney from soldiers to make additional entries, and the town site of McCook is made up almost entirely of lands which were so acquired. In time patents were issued, and conveyances were made by Barnes to the Lincoln Land Company of these lands.”

“Anselmo B. Smith surveyed the or, the original town plat of McCook and a number of the additions. The plat of the original town was surveyed in May 1882, the certificate being dated May 20th of that year.”

“The original dedication is signed by H. B. Scott as president, and by R.A. Phillips as secretary of the Lincoln Land Company. While this is dated May 20th, 1882, it was not acknowledged until May 27th of that year before H. E. Jervis, a notary public of Des Moines County, Iowa.”

“The plat was filed with for record in the office of the county clerk of Red Willow County on June 8, 1882, at 9 o’clock a.m. and the sale of lots began about that date. Of course, there were neither buildings of any kind nor trees north of the railroad track at that time, and the first load of lumber hauled to the town site could be plainly seen from Fairview, which, of course, did not survive the establishment of McCook.”

Looking back, one might think that the South was not the only place in which “carpetbaggers” thrived, but then a grateful country was attempting to reward the soldiers that had given so much during the long, bloody Civil War. The men of Fairview, knowing full well which side of the bread the butter was on, moved into the newly minted “McCook” and became some of its’ most prominent citizens, A. Barnett, Barnett Lumber Company, being one of them, when he established his lumber yard in 1882.

The Cemetery Tour this year will be held in Riverview Cemetery only with narrators and will feature the stories of 10 Civil War Soldiers who drew their last breath in McCook and are buried around the statue erected by the GAR Post in McCook. Our self-guided tour goes from 2-4 PM, Sunday, June 2. There is no charge to attend, however you may make at free-will donation at the gate.