Nemaha County  1855 to 1857  Shows Trails of the time.  
No township names at that time,  Plat 2 south 11  East.
This was south half of Clear Creek Township  in early years,  is Marion Township today
The village of Ash Point was located in section 8.
Baileyville is located today in south east corner of section 28.
The trail had a cutoff in dry weather however it had to loop south to where the railroad
 is today which was on high ground in order to avoid south fork of Wildcat..
Click on the photo to open up map of 1900 with trails marked.

 

Information below came from
William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas  
The trail led to the west to Oketo south of where Marysville is now, and later to Marysville  and a ferry.  see info below. 

OKETO. 

A trading point located on the Big Blue River, ten miles north of Marysville, the county-seat, on the line of the Marysville and Blue Valley Railroad. An iron bridge spans the Blue at this point, and a dam furnishes water-power for a grist-mill, owned by J. H. Chapman. Located in a fine agricultural region, it affords good facilities as a shipping point.

In 1849, during the excitement caused by the discovery of gold in California, Francis J. Marshall, from Weston, Missouri, came out and established a ferry on the Big Blue at "Independence crossing." During the season of travel he remained there, but returned to Missouri every winter. In the spring of 1851 the moved his ferry, and established it at the upper crossing, at what is now known as Marysville. From this on, until 1854, during the winter Marshall was in Missouri, and in the summer on the banks of the Blue. Here he located his ferry about one hundred yards above where the bridge now spans the river, and about an equal distance below, built a row of rude log cabins; established a blacksmith shop, and opened, with a small stock of goods, a "general store," in which low grade tobacco and rot-gut whisky predominated, and traded with the Indians

Return to Nemaha County map of 1857