History of Magnet

Nebraska is a vast and rich empire. It lies in that part of the Mississippi Basin which slopes east-ward from the Rocky mountains. Nebraska is just about in the center of the United States.

The Territory of Nebraska was admitted into the Union on March 1, 1867 as the 37th state. Lincoln was made the capitol by the legislature. Nebraska is also known as the Cornhusker State. Its motto is "Equality Before The Law". The state flower is the Goldenrod, the state's bird is the Meadow Lark and the state's tree is the American Elm.

There are 93 counties in the state. One of the counties is our own Cedar county, named because of the presence of Cedar trees. It is located in the northeast corner of the state. It contains nearly 467,000 acres. Cedar county was organized by act of the Territorial Legislature, February 12, 1857, and the County Seat located in St. James, later was moved to Hartington January 2, 1885.

Cedar county was originally covered with a luxuriant growth of prairie grass and cattle grazing was naturally the first important industry. However, with the arrival of more settlers and the development of railroads, ranching was replaced to great extent by farming. The principal crops are corn, oats, wild hay alfalfa, wheat, barley and potatoes. Hogs, cattle, horses, mules and poultry and small flocks of sheep for livestock in the early days of Cedar county farmers. Now the chief' crops are corn, alfalfa with small acres of other small grain plus cattle and hogs and few horses used mainly for pleasure.

Cedar county was naturally one of the first places to be visited as it borders the Missouri River, and river travel is one of the oldest means of transportation. The Indians used this God made highway for unknown years. The early days the county was visited by many trappers who would spend the winters buying furs from Indians. About the only man who we can be safe in saying really lived in Cedar county was Tradeau. In the years of 1796 he visited the Indian Villages of Cedar county and lived on the island near St. Helena.