On April 7, 1871, a Union Pacific emigrant train, bearing the
members of the Soldier’s Free Homestead Colony, arrived at
Gibbon siding in Buffalo County and switched off a few cars that
were to house the colonists until they could build dugouts and
soddies. According to Samuel Clay Bassett, a Buffalo County
historian, the Soldier’s Free Homestead Colony originated with
Col. John Thorp of West Farmington, Ohio. Thorp had already
settled a colony of homesteaders in Kansas, along the line of
the Union Pacific Railroad, and during the winter of 1870-71, he
turned his promotional energies to lands along the Union Pacific
in Nebraska, painting in glowing colors the “free homes and free
lands” available there. Thorp advertised for colonists, charging
a membership fee of two dollars, for which they received reduced
railroad rates to Gibbon. It was expected that members of the
group, mostly Civil War veterans, would take homesteads, thus
increasing the value of nearby railroad lands. The great
opportunities for Union