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The Sappa Metropolis: Devizes
The first settlement about Devizes was in September 1872, when Henry Zimmerman and Herbert Shaw, coming from the east, settled on claims one mile west of Devizes, on the land now owned by P. A. Anderson. P. T. Sovern and John O’Brien also settled about the same time on land two miles east of Devizes, which is now owned by B. S. Miller, of Norton. In December of the same year John Demott came in and located on the land where the mill and store was built later. Mr. Demott was also the first settler to break sod on the Sappa in that part of the county. Other early settlers that season were John E. Page and Victor Clark, who in December settled on land now owned by Miller Bros. These few families had things their own way the first winter, except, of course, when the Indians came in and had their way with them.
In the spring of 1873 Ira and Peter Applegate, the Bisbee’s, Nelson’s, Wm. Watts, Billy Page, Geo. Waters, Geo Hannum, Seth Coats, John Brainard, Henry Lebeau, John P. Dopps and families, came into that part of the county about Devizes and found homes. John Dopps was the second probate judge the county had, and he made a good record. Reuben Bisbee, Sr. was the first postmaster Devizes had, the office being located on what is now the Magers farm. The first merchant was L. M. Sherburne, who kept a small stock of merchandise in the Bisbee home, where was situated the post office. E. C. Fortney was second in the mercantile business, located in the log shanty near the old mill. Colby Bates, andLindsey built the flour mill, the first on the Sappa in the county, in 1877. The first frame store building was built a little later, the building being torn down and moved across from Lexington, Nebraska, in the Platte valley. This store housed stocks of merchandise for various owners up until the evening of September 30, 1916, when it was destroyed by fire.
The Store at Devizes
This store burned in September, 1916, but is being rebuilt at this time.
(apologies for the quality – old newspaper photos do not scan well)
We can not recall the first white child born in the vicinity of Devizes, but Mrs. John O’Brien was the first person buried in the cemetery there.
The natural site for a mill, there being already a nature-made mill race, made it possible for the erection of one for the settlers there, though it was with difficulty that the lumber was hauled from the Union Pacific, near Kearney, Nebraska. For years and years this mill was patronized by farmers living in distant parts of northwest Kansas, as well as in southern Nebraska, and the reputation for good flour was country-wide. It was one of the pulling powers that for years helped Devizes to be a splendid trading point, but was finally destroyed fire while owned by the Smiths.
Those who owned and operated the store are recalled as follows: Rube Marvin, Wyatt Brothers, Hill, E. J. Phipps, Ed I. Jones as receiver for Phipps, Jones & Ballew, Jones & Jenkins and the last owner was Ira Jenkins, who lost a stock by fire. The burned buildings are being rebuilt and a new stock will be placed therein as soon as finished.
Devizes has been a good trading point for every body in the northwest part, and in the nineties was one of the liveliest little inland points in the county. Sports of all kinds, special occasions being frequent, attracted the settlers, and all had good times together, the natural site for picnics, swimming and boating, being excellent.
In the middle eighties a railroad ran a survey up the Sappa, and for years, and years settlers expected, hoped and sought in vain for a sight of actual construction work on the railway. To this day there are settlers who have not given up hopes that the valley will sound with the echo of the iron horse as it passes up and down its rich acres, some day.
The valley is rich in alfalfa lands, and the soil is the best to be found in the county, and, as one stands on the high land to the south and views the miles of pretty country, dotted with groves of timber, and pleasant prosperous homes, he is prone to wonder whether or not in all the wide world there is another landscape picture nearly so beautiful as that before him, wrought out by the Hand of God and that of the hardy pioneer.
(Transcribed from Norton County News Historical Edition, 1870-1916 by Ardie Grimes)
Ruben Bisbee furnished the land for the Devizes Cemetery and recorded the plat in 1880 though the cemetery had been established the previous year in 1879. The cemetery was resurveyed by J. C. Newell in 1906 at which time an additional 40 lots were added to the original 80 bringing the total to 120 lots.
The first settlement in the Devizes community arrived in September 1872 when Henry Zimmerman and Herbert Shaw settled a mile west of Devizes. P. T. Soverns and John O’Brionsettled about the same time on land 2 miles east. Mrs. John O’Brion was the first person to be buried in Devizes cemetery. In December of that year John DeMott settled on land now owned by V. L. Ballinger and was the first settler to bread sod on the Sappa Creek, which in the Cheyenne tongue means “Black Water”.
By the end of 1873, John Page, Victor Clark, Ira and Peter Applegate, Bisbee’s, Nelson’s, Watts, Billy Page, George Waters, George Hannum, Seth Coates, John Brainard, Henry Lebeau, G. B. Wray, R. F. Hudsonpillar, I. P. Burke, Archie Hewett, Joseph Collins, Fred Foote, H. B. Hannum and John Dopps had settled in the area. John Dopps later became second probate judge of the county.
The first election in northwest Norton County was ordered by the county commissioners to be held in the John O’Brion home in 1873.
The first school at Devizes was established in 1878 and J. C. Pettijohn taught school during the winter of 1878/1879 in a dugout along the Sappa Creek. Total enrollment was between 40 and 50 pupils.
Rueben Bisbee who homesteaded what is now the Magers Farm was born at Bellow Falls, New Hampshire in 1805, coming here from Ontario, Canada. Rueben Bisbee established the first Devizes post office in his home and became the first postmaster. It was Rueben who named the post office Devizes after the post office he lived near in Ontario. J. W. Bisbee, Reuben Bisbee’s [brother?] settled in Devizes in 1879 and died in 1883 and is buried in the Devizes Cemetery.
Ed. I. Jones was born in Greenfield, Pennsylvania in 1837 and came to Norton County in 1879. He served two terms as county treasurer, later ran the Devizes store and was first to receive Masonic rites in the Norton Masonic Lodge.
Longtime surveyor J. C. Newell was succeeded by Fred Foote, the first elected county surveyor in 1910.
L. M. Sherburne became the first storekeeper in the area when he began selling items from a small stock of goods which he kept in the Bisbee home. E. C. Fortney opened a store in a log shanty near the mill built on the Sappa north of Bisbee’s by Bates and Lindsay in 1877. The post office was moved from the Bisbee home to the Devizes store near the mill in 1889.
Both Sioux and Cheyenne in small bands frequented the area hunting buffalo and deer until after the Indian Massacre in 1876 in which 19 Indians were killed and which indirectly caused the Indian scare and deaths of several settlers in 1878 on the Sappa farther west. Grasshoppers, drought and blizzards plagued the lives of these early settlers. Travel was by horseback and doctor and medicine were many hours of hard riding away, yet the simple pleasures of neighbor visiting neighbor and helping neighbors with the more difficult jobs of building and putting up wood. And it is still possible to hear some of the old timers tell of the tricks and horseplay, the accidents and the intentional dunkings which accompanied putting up ice from the creek.
(Compiled by Wayne L. Plucheck, Sr. from notes of unknown authors)