Excerpt from reference materials at the Oshkosh Library, Oshkosh, Nebraska
Author: Unknown Date of Writing: March, 1920
In the year 1885, Henry Gumaer, Alfred W. Gumaer, George P. Kendall, H. W. Potter and John Robinson started a cattle ranch at the present site of Oshkosh. They organized a company and as the Gumaer brothers were natives of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, they named it the Oshkosh Land and Cattle Company. They had been informed that there were several thousand acres of school land at this point in addition to section 36, and they expected to be able to purchase the whole tract. They built their headquarters ranch near the east side of section 35, purchased section 36 and applied to purchase the balance of the tract. They soon found that the whole tract outside of section 36 was government land, so they filed on as much as possible and were able to have and hold a good sized ranch, which was soon cut up considerably by the homestead filings of Charley Mills, Floyd Jones, J. H. Duffin, Jim Duffin, Peter Duffin, Susie Duffin, Delia Duffin, and Winnie Duffin. Henry C. Gumaer and John Robison drove their first herd of cattle through from St. Paul, Nebraska. In 1889 they built a two-story frame building on the W 1/2 of the NW 1/2 of section 36, township 17, range 44, in which they started a general store and post office named Oshkosh. This building in now the Miller Hotel. It was just before this time that Hartman post office was established about eight miles north of Oshkosh on Lost Creek. Sebastian Hartman was the first postmaster. He had started a small store in 1888 and secured a post office in the spring of 1889. Fred Teppert was postmaster for about one and one-half years just before it was discontinued in 1899. The mail was brought up from Ogallala three times a week, via Lewellen and Ramsey. Hugh Boggs of Lewellen had the contract for carrying the mail to Oshkosh, and employed Charley Ransom to drive part of the time. They used a span of vicious mules that were always hard to hitch up and always looking for a chance to run away. Hartman's carried the mail from Oshkosh to Hartman. Before securing the post office they had been obliged to go to Ramsey for their mail.
In 1890 the Oshkosh public school was organized in a sod building up on Lost Creek. The building of a bridge across the North Platte River in 1891 opened up a new channel for development. Now Chappell came to be the chief shipping point.
Eugene Fish, Henry Sudman and August Sudman of Chappell organized a mercantile company called the A. Sudman Company and in 1894 bought out the Oshkosh store and the eighty acres of land on which it was located. Mr. A. Sudman became the new manager and postmaster. In June 1897, Mr. Sudman married Miss Pearl Plummer, and they lived over the store. This was the first wedding in Oshkosh. It was celebrated with great pomp in the rooms which were to be their home, over the store. About this time Mr. Kirk McCall bought a "Drug Shop" which Robert Day had been running in a small building just north of the store.
Among the first buildings in Oshkosh was Jim Monahan's blacksmith shop just south of the store. It was a most busy and important establishment in those days. He later sold out to Noah Brewer. In 1909 Mr. Noah Brewer who was anxious to get into the automobile game, sold his blacksmith shop to King Rhiley and moved to Sidney. Strange to say Mr. Rhiley soon got into the auto business himself in the old Brewer shop. At that time there was only one motor vehicle in Oshkosh; it was a high wheeled International owned by Archie Wynes and John Delatour. Although owned by two men it required about four men and a boy to coax it along.
Mr. Rhiley went to work to build an automobile that one man could run, and he succeeded (almost). He got one finished up and in running condition and succeeded in trading it off to Jim Duffin. He then got an agency for the Oakland and did a good business. He is now the Western Nebraska distributor for Buick automobiles, G. M. C. trucks and the Hudson Super-Six and is the seventh oldest dealer in the state.
It was in 1898 that the Woodman Hall was built. It served as society hall, church services, in fact all gatherings of any size went to the hall. It has looked upon a variety of scenes and festivities. They had the public school here one year.
At this time, the Wehn Telephone Company established a telephone system from Bridgeport to Oshkosh, Lewellen and other points. It was a great convenience, as well as a pleasure and is still appreciated. In 1920 the Wehn Company sold out to a company with Mr. Warner of Chadron as manager. All these lines are now consolidated under the name of Platte Valley Telephone Company.
A plat of the original town site was now laid out by A. Sudman Company in March 1905. A bank building was built near the lumberyard, but it being directly in the Union Pacific right-of-way was sold to the railroad company in 1907. The railroad company sold it to Wynes & Bushnell, and it was used as a post office and residence by Archie Wynes who was postmaster until 1915, when the post office was moved to its present location on Main Street.
Mrs. Wynes remained in the post office until June 1915, when Gilbert Swanson was appointed. He is still there, March 1920. One rural route was established in 1913 out east and north of Oshkosh; on which the mail is carried daily.
In 1906 Col. Wisner of Bayard became interested enough in Oshkosh to come here and start a newspaper called the Oshkosh Herald. It was published by various owners in a small building on the east side of Main Street until the building over by the depot was built in 1911.
In 1905 Fred Williams built a two-story frame hotel on Main Street. He soon sold it to J. C. McCoy of Lewellen. This hotel was run by Jim Caslin, and later by Leo Fox.
When Oshkosh was made a county seat in 1909 a company of Oshkosh men bought the hotel and rented the lower floor to the county for a courthouse, and they rent out the second story for a rooming house. The building is still used; so any traveler can, for a dollar a night, have the unique experience of lodging in the upper story of the courthouse. At present this rooming house is managed by Mrs. S. E. Valentine, who took charge in 1914.
In 1905, LaSalle & Miles built and opened up a general store, half way between the hotel and Corner Store, and Dan Atchinson started the first drug store just north of them and called it the Oshkosh Drug Company.
The Oshkosh Lumber Company was formed May 1, 1906, with Robert Quelle, manager. It continued in business until the fall of 1916, when it sold to the Sterling Lumber Company.
The Woodman Hall was sold in 1905 to Newkirk and Burchard who put in a stock of hardware.
After the sale of the Woodman Hall, where the social life of the community centered, the need of a hall was so apparent that Wynes and Bushnell erected the stone Opera House in 1907 just north of the Union Pacific right-of-way before the track was laid. Just at this time the coming of the Union Pacific Railroad up the valley was a sure thing. It was completed in 1908. The rails were laid and the first train reached here August 8, 1908. That spelled grow to Oshkosh. The division of the county came the next year with Oshkosh for county seat.
New additions to the town had been platted and Oshkosh was spreading out. In 1911 the village was incorporated and many improvements have appeared, as grading the streets, cement walks, electric lights, water works, etc. Oshkosh has no museum but Miles J. Maryott has a collection of mounted birds, Indian relics, bones, coins, etc., that is worth traveling across the continent to see. Mr. Maryott is an artist and finds ready sale for his paintings. He paints animal and landscape pictures, but his wild bird pictures take up a large part of his time. His hobby is collecting prehistoric animal bones and Indian relics. He also collects and mounts rare birds.
Mr. Maryott was born in Burt County, Nebraska, in 1873, and has been a resident of Oshkosh since 1909. He homesteaded in 1910 in the sand hills of Garden County for the sole purpose of being closer to his life work as a naturalist and painter of western scenery.
The farmers are beginning to take a prominent part in the business of the town. They have organized two corporations, one of which handles the only grain business of the town, and is called the Farmers Elevator Company. In 1916 this company was chartered and bought out the elevator which had been run for several years by the Oshkosh Lumber Company. The other farmers' corporation is the Garden County Supply Company, which is doing a big general merchandise business in the building formerly occupied in succession by H. A. Davis, Jacob H. Roudebush and L. H. Stroud, each of whom spent several years in the general store business.
Oshkosh had reached the stage where electric lights were needed. On September 11, 1915, a plant was put into operation by A. D. Riddile. It has been enlarged and improved and in 1919 it was sold to the village. It is now run under village management, as well as a water system being started. Bonds for the water and lights were voted June 5, 1919. Some defect was discovered in the proceedings so they voted on them again January 22, 1920. The bonds were carried both times. The sewer system will be put in operation in 1920. The electric plant now gives twenty-four hour service.
Since the A. Sudman Company platted the original town of Oshkosh in 1905, the following additions have been platted: The A. Sudman Company Addition, Duffin's Addition, Maloy's Addition, Bott and Hart's Addition. There are about six hundred and forty acres of land within the corporate limits of Oshkosh. On March 1, 1920 the population was 725.
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