Sidney: From railroad camp to county seat

This week marks the final column of a five-week series in celebration of the 140th anniversary of The Sidney Sun-Telegraph. As written earlier, the Telegraph was the first newspaper to be published in the Nebraska Panhandle and has remained a constant chronicler of the ongoing history of the Panhandle and this proud state of Nebraska.

When the Union Pacific Railroad made its historic push westward from Omaha toward a place called Promontory Point, Utah, Sidney began as nothing more than a tent town at end-of-track. Rough and work-hardened men dug through hills, filled swales, built roadbed, cut and shaped ties, laid rails and pounded spikes on hundreds upon hundreds of miles of steel rails. At the end of each day, end-of-track was a cause for celebration and these hardworking men were not bashful in their celebrating. From the end-of-track revelry to the beginnings of Camp Sidney, the transient citizens of Sidney threw civility to the wind and the Nebraska wind blew it to smithereens.

When end-of-track moved westward to Cheyenne, life in Sidney settled into a quieter pace though plenty of excitement was to be found when in the early ‘70’s Texas cowboys trailed their Longhorns into the region. No doubt those Texas cowboy’s shenanigans filled several columns in the Telegraph when it began publication in ’73.

In the early days of 1876 Sidney was a small village of fewer that 200 souls. By summers end of that year gold had been discovered in the Black Hills and the population soared to more than one thousand and by midwinter the booming town boasted two thousand. Huge warehouses were built for goods and supplies needed in the hills. Monstrous hotels filled city blocks, dance halls prevailed on every street and beer flowed from 24-hour spigots at 25-cents a glass. The town was wide open, ripe for corruption and gunplay was justified for even the slightest offense. On any given day 3,000 to 5,000 freighters, travelers, gold-seekers and gold-diggers crowded through the streets of Sidney.

The Union Pacific hauled freight and passengers in such large volume and numbers that most trains had to be pulled by double engines. Ox trains consisting of ten to twelve wagons each, loaded with thousands of pounds of freight, were pulled by yokes of thirty oxen. One can only imagine the cacophony of shouting people, bellowing animals, and tin-pan honky-tonk pianos accentuated by frequent gunfire. Sidney was what the Omaha Bee labeled, “the wickedest city in the U.S.”

One young man from New York City landed in Sidney flat broke. Without the funds to outfit himself for the gold fields he took employment in order to build the needed stake. While working he came to the realization that the real road to success lay right there in Sidney. So, young Robert Oberfelder put all of his wages into an inventory of general goods and outfitting supplies and soon had his own store. By the end of the gold trail days, Oberfelder owned the largest retail store in town.

In time, Sidney began to quiet down. The good citizens of the community tired of the lawlessness and took the administration of justice into their own hands. The U.P. helped by bringing in special agents to assist in the cleanup. The town’s leader, of the more lawless group, a man named Jack McDonald, threatened to burn down the town if they tried to run him out. Undeterred, the vigilantes took decisive action and Jack McDonald was the guest of honor at a hemp-rope necktie party. His was the last lynching in Sidney.

Robert Oberfelder became a prominent citizen of Sidney, a successful businessman who branched out into the cattle business as well. In 1900 Mr. Oberfelder gave a first hand account of Sidney’s ‘cleanup’ of the undesirables in the town. His account was again published in the Sidney Telegraph on June 19, 1951.

Sidney’s exciting and historic past should never be forgotten and the Telegraph has been there all along. And so, I raise my glass and offer a toast in recognition for 140 years of pioneer journalism. Congratulations and Happy Anniversary to the Sidney Sun-Telegraph, its leaders, staff and crew.

M. Timothy Nolting is an award winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. To contact Tim, email; HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]"[email protected]