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Standing lonely on its hill this old house, doubtless one of the oldest
in the region, is the only visible evidence of one of Lancaster county’s
early and to be noticed citizens, John F. Cadman. As time has shorn him
of earthly glory, so has it shorn the house of pretentious tower and
galleries which graced it in its original elegance as manor house of
Silver Lake farm. In those days it was embellished with laid-out garden
and tree plots, even a fountain.
Mr. Cadman was a man of vigor and action. Coming to Lancaster in 1859,
he entered a quarter section of land on Salt creek, south of Lincoln.
His first move was to open a cut-off (from the Oregon Trail) from
Nebraska City to Fort Kearny, which he completed in time for 1861 spring
travel. This was of great benefit to farmers on the Salt and Blue. In
addition to his farming operations he established a trading post at the
point where the cut-off crossed Salt creek. The post was also a station
for the Lusbaugh line of stages between Nebraska City and Fort Kearny,
where they connected with overland stages to California. He served in
the territorial legislature, also the state legislature, first term. In
1867 he was a leading advocate for removal of the capital to Lancaster
county—only he wanted it at Yankee Hill, south of Lincoln.
An old biography of Mr. Cadman says proudly that he never drank a glass
of liquor in his life, not indicating, we hope, that he was a rare
exception to a general rule. All in all he was a hardy and
to-be-relied-on citizen, a worthy rival of salty old Elder Young, who
founded the town of Lancaster and used his influence to get the capitol
into Lancaster’s successor, Lincoln, instead of at Yankee Hill, where
John Cadman wanted it.