From October 1862 until March 1863 stagecoaches of the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express passed near here along the Oketo Cutoff. The cutoff diverged from the Ft. Leavenworth to Ft. Kearny Military Road northeast of Marysville, Kansas, angled northwest to cross the Big Blue River near Oketo, Kansas, and passed through the Otoe Indian Reservation and land that would be the short-lived village of Charleston, just south of the later site of Odell, Nebraska. The cutoff rejoined the main trail between Steele City and Diller, Nebraska.
Express company owner Ben Holladay, who had the government contract to carry mail and passengers from the Missouri River to California, ordered the cutoff laid out at an estimated cost of $50,000, producing a shorter, better road and bypassing Marysville after the town refused to improve the Military Road.
Although Holladay's coaches used the Oketo cutoff, freighters' and other travelers continued to follow the Military Road, which had been popular since the late 1840s. After only a few months Holladay abandoned the cutoff, although the road may have seen continued use.
]]>After 1854 the Oto and Missouri Indian village and agency were located near here. For many years the two tribes had been living along the lower portion of the Platte River, but when Nebraska became a territory they relinquished all claims to those lands. In exchange they received yearly cash payments, agricultural equipment and other goods in addition to a reservation of approximately 250 square miles around the village. According to Indian Agent Major A. L. Green the community in 1870 consisted of 40 earth lodges plus several bark houses and tipis. There was also a combination school and church and a two-story frame house for the agent. South of the village was a blacksmith shop, a steam-powered saw mill and grist mill and residences for the other agency employees. In the early 1870's the Oto and Missouri expressed a desire to move to Oklahoma. The reservation was sold, and by 1881 the two tribes had left Nebraska for their new home. After the Indians left, Francis M. Barnes opened a store near here to accommodate the settlers. The community of Barneston was named in his honor.
]]>Abraham Lincoln was called the Great Emancipator because his proclamation of 1862 gave freedom to the slaves. In that same year, he signed another extremely important document that gave land to free men. No single act had more effect on the Middle West and Great Plains than the Homestead Act of May 20, 1862. It brought tens of thousands of land-hungry settlers to the region that was to become the nation's breadbasket. Millions of acres from the public domain became available. Under this law heads of families had only to pay a small filing fee and live upon and cultivate their 160 acres for five years. For some the rigors of frontier life were too great, but many others replaced the prairie grasses with grain, and built homes, often of sod, on land of their own. The Homestead National Monument of America, a part of our National Park System, is located on the Daniel Freeman homestead seven miles west of this site. It commemorates this act and the policies of government that played a major role in the settlement of the West.
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