Hall County, Nebraska history - the beginning of the settlement

When the first settlers came in 1857 to the Platte Valley of central Nebraska, they were the last outpost of civilization between Columbus, Nebraska and California, except for the Mormons in Utah and the soldiers garrisoned at government forts.
Five Americans and thirty-two German immigrants arrived during the first days of July that year after a thirty-five day journey from Davenport, Iowa by mule and ox teams.
This documentary describes the background and planning of the first settlement at Grand Island which occurred three years after Nebraska territory was opened for settlement.
The men and women who came here in the beginning were mostly all poor in a financial point of view, but they were rich in courage, energy, perseverance, industry, honesty, and frugality. They laid the foundation of a prosperous city and country.
The five Americans were: Richard C. Barnard, Lawrence Barnard, Joshua Smith, David P. Morgan, and William Seymour.
The Germans were: Christian Andresen with wife and daughter, Cornelius Axelsen, Joachim Doll and wife, Heinrich Egge, Cay Ewoldt, Matthias Gries, William Hagge, Johann Hamann, Friedrich Hedde, Henry Joehnk and wife, Friedrich Langmann, Christian Menck, Theodore Nagel, Detlef Sass, Hinrich Schaaf, Henry Schoel, Georg Schulz, Anna Stehr, William Stehr and wife, Marx Stelk, Peter Stuhr, Nicolaus Thede, Herman Vasold, Friedrich Vatje, and Hans Wrage.
Four other Americans came that same summer and settled west of the German settlement at a place they called Mendotte. Those settlers were: Daniel B. Crocker, William Roberts, M. Potts, and Billy Painter(William Bender).