University of Nebraska Lincoln - Cornhusker Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

Page 27 text:

s- V Spanish-American War Nebraska furnished three regiments, mie of which went to the Philippines, the second to a traininij camp, and the third to ( uba. The principal feature of the state ' s political histor ' since 1900 is the number of reforms it has adopted. Railroad res ulation was tried several times, notably in 190 . Other measures were the direct primary, the bank ijuaranty law, the initiative and referendum, reform in legislative procedure, workmen ' s compensation, blue sky anti-speculation laws, and, in 1916, state prohibition. Any sketch of such a state as Nebraska must necessiirily place heavy emphasis on its basic occupa- tion, agriculture. It is interesting for citizens of such a fertile state to note that for as long as thirty years it was considered a desert. Major Long, who led an expedition across Nebraska in 1H20, re- ported that outside the streams the land presented an aspect of irreclaimable sterility. Despite the Major ' s unfavorable observations, the first agriculture by white men in Nebraska was probably carried on that same year, at Fort Atkinson. The first real settlers evidently had little faith ;in the soil or believed themselves mere transients, for they attempted ver ' little farming. These first settlers were all squatters, and had no legal title to their land. They protected themselves, however, by forming claim clubs which registered claims and properly entertained claim-iumpers. After the complete failure of speculation, men turned to the more dependable pursuits of the farm. Corn was the only staple crop until 1860, when wheat became a rival. Yields of 70 to 100 bushels of corn per acre were recorded in 1S60. Yet of 28,S41 residents of the territory that the census listed that year, only 5,982 were farmers, and many of those only nominally. The first farming was done along the Missouri river, but settlers soon began streaming westward along the streams. There were farmers along the Platte as far as Fort Kearney by 18 8. This rapid settlement was accelerated by the absence of forests to be cleared, the uniform fertility ol the land, the great numbers of immigrants ready to come, the building of railroads, and by the homestead law, which went into effect January 1, 1863. At a few minutes after midnight on that day, Daniel Freeman, of Gage county, filed on the first homestead in the United States. It was a day of log cabins and sod houses. Comforts were exceptional. Many farmers wore skin clothing and ate corn bread and rye hominy because they had nothing else. Even with homestead, pre-emption, and timber-claim opportunities, hard times were more common than good. The pioneers felt keenly their dis- tance from supplies and physicians; as well as the visitations of the two frontier scourges, prairie fires and grasshoppers. The hoppers were a recurrent menace. Their first formal visit to the territory occurred in ' 56 and ' 57. Then, gathering confidence they returned in ' 65 and ' 66 and again in ' 7. ' and 76. Farmers became accustomed to seeing clouds of grasshoppers literally swallow their fields. The climax came in ' 74 when Nebraska was almost swept clean, and destitution was so terrible that state aid, federal aid, and popular sub- scription were unable to relieve it all. It was during the grasshopper years that farmers ' organizations first acquired considerable prestige and influence. In the next decade a great wave of immigration carried agricultural settlement into western Nebraska. Hot warfare ensued between farmers and cattle men, who were the first inhabitants, and who were finally driven from their ranges. By the end of that decade, the ' 80 ' s, pioneer Nebraska had gone the way of the pioneer, dead to all but memory. They had been hard times but merry ones, and, justly, the first settlers made the largest profits from the land. In the drought years of 90 to ' 9J, the farmers, having no crops to harvest, turned to politics with the result already mentioned. But politics do not raise crops. The lesson of those years, supplemented by the work of the College of Agriculture, induced farmers to diversify their crops. Alfalfa, winter wheat, and sugar beets gained favor, as did dairy farming. The buying and feeding of livestock for the yards developed into a profitable business. With the extension of agriculture into western Nebraska irrigation and dry farming became valuable if not indispensable methods. This extension was also aided by the Kinkaid homestead law which permitted a homesteader to file on a whole section, and by the reclamation act of 1906 which furnished state aid for a dam and canals in the North Platte valley. In recent years two most promising movements have got under way—the farmers co-operative unions by which the farmer s secure the advantage of collective marketing, and the appointment of county agricultural agents. Page 7 Old Indian Schoollu Pawnee Countv

Page 26 text:

fc. j. Sterlinji Murlvn Munmneiit, Arbor Lodge Old Sfttler s Cabin. Arbor Lodge their land because of inability to pay the filing tecs. In 1859 the principal topic of conversa- tion, besides Pawnee thievery, was secession; for (he South Platte region, exasperated by Omaha ' s tenacious hold on the capital, attempted to join Kansas. Kansas refused, however, and Nebraska remained intact. Until 1858, almost all the residents of the territory were old-fashioned Democrats. In that year the Republicans organised and elected Samuel Daily to Congress. J. Sterling Morton •md Dr. George Miller were among the pn)mm ent Democrats of the time. From time to time there were sporadic move- ments to form a state constitution and secure admission to the Union. Such proposals were rejected in 1860 and 1864. In 1866 a third proposition for a state constitution, with Republr cans for and Democrats against, earned by a nar- row margin. It happened in this election that the party strengths in the legislature were very close and the outcome hinged upon the election in Cass county. A democratic majority in Rock Bluff precinct was thrown out on the ground that the election board members had locked the ballot box while they ate dinner. As a result Cass sent Republicans to the legislature, which in this way became Republican and elected Republicans as United States senators. The state constitution was approved by Congress on condition that it should not be construed so as to prevent negroes from voting; and, on March 1, 1867, Nebraska became the thirty-seventh state. The young state immediately reopened the venerable capital dispute by appointing a commis- sion, which selected a new site in a salt basin at least forty miles from the Missouri. The aggrieved representatives of Omaha sought to discredit the new capital by fixing on it the name of Lincoln. The first state capitol building was built under difficulties, for no railroad reached Lincoln until 1872. A con- stitutional convention, called in 1871, spent months formulating a new constitution which the people rejected; a second convention, in 1875, was more successful. The most exciting event of 1871 was the impeachment and conviction of Governor Butler on the charge of misuse of $16,000 of the state ' s funds. The tremendous increase of population from 1867 to 1880 was materially stimulated by the State Board of Immigration which in countless pamphlets expatiated on the resources and the future of Nebraska. The decade was also distinguished by the growth and political power of the Grange and other farmers ' organ i::ations. In 1876 the remnants of the Pawnee, Ponca, and the Otoe Indians were removed from their ancient lands to Oklahom. , leaving the Omahas and a few smaller tribes in Ncbrask.i. The political history of the state ran quite smcxithly with the increase in population and prosperity, until 1890. That year was one of crop failures and there was a tre- mendous defection of farmers from the old parties. The Farmers ' Alliance, with 50.000 members, entered politics and secured majorities in the legislature and in the Con- gressional delegation. Then the panic of ' 93 burst iipon Nebraska, bringing with it a depression that lasted until 1900. In the election of 1896 the state became the cynosure of the nation ' s eyes, as the residence of William Jennings Bryan and the center of free-silver agitation in that hot campaign. Political and economic upheavals kept the Republican party out of power until 1900. For the Entrance to Morton Mansion. J ehras a City PaKc 6 •■ ' ' ■» ' ■■■ ' - ■

Page 28 text:

i ■ xumjm.lr.ilrl ' The development of industry in Nebraska has paralleled rather closely that of agriculture. The census of 1860, which was incomplete, listed 107 estahlishments, of which forty-eight were lumber mills. Evidently there was no thought of conserving what little timber the countr ' possessed. For some years the young territory was obsessed with two golden dreams, coal and salt. The hope of pay- ing coal mines died fairly soon but there was a persistent belief that the salt beds near Lincoln were an inexhaustible source of wealth. They had been worked sporadically since the beginning of settle- ment. Numerous companies were formed to realize this wealth, and equally numerous were the peti- tions for state aid but with small result. In 1869 and 1886 borings proved that there was not enough salt present to permit of competition with the eastern sources of supply, and so the project was reluct- antly abandonetl On the other hand, the state acquired valuable industries when the shops of the Union Pacific, Burlington, and other railroads were Itx-ated. In 1S74 Omaha had the Union Pacific shops, flour mills, smelters, factories for farm implements, bricks, and linseed oil, and was already a wholesale center. Yet the State Board of Immigration deplored the lack of industry and called the attention of manufacturers to the advantages of proximity to the farm. In 1884 a group of Omaha business men founded the union stock yards, the beginning of the greatest single industry ' in Nebraska. Omaha became the great- est distributing point for feeder cattle in the world. In 1900 the value of packing products was S71, 018,399, and Nebraska took third place in meat-packing from New York. The census reports of 1902 list the chief industries of the state as meat-packing, flouring, printing, railroad shop work, the creamery business, and leather work. One of the first laws passed by the legislature of the Territory of Nebraska was an act establishing free public schtwls and prescribing their personnel and administration. At first school advantages were largely nominal, as may be inferred by the fact that in 18 9, of 4,767 children only 1,300 attended school at all, and that seven counties reported no schools whatever. Most of the district school houses were of sod, built by the labor of the patrons. Such an edifice was often school, church, meeting-house, and auditorium. But those schools were centers of learning, for, by 1890, Nebraska had reduced its illiteracy to . .11 pjer cent of its population, and stood at the forefront of the states in literacy. In time the state could boast of a number of authors, widely known, who wrote on the most varied subjects: Dr. George L. Miller, J. Sterling Morton, Dr. Charles E. Bessey, A. L. Bixby, W. J. Bryan, H. W. Caldwell, F. E. Clements, Roscoe Pound, Louise Pound, and Hartley B. Alexander, to mention a few. In more recent years such writers as Willa Gather, Dorothy Canfieid Fisher, and John G. Neihardt have made prominent a literature that seems worthy of Nebraska. When America ' s entr ' into the World War came suddenly on Nebraska, v. ' ar activity began im- mediately. Three regiments of the National Guard were called out. A special session of the legislature convened, passed an act prohibiting foreign language instruction in the public schools, and established a State Council of Defense. This council engaged in numerous activities, and, like its national counter- part, used numbers of four-minute speakers to keep the public in touch with its activities. The state food administration regu- lated the sale of food and en- couraged city dwellers to plant gardens or work on farms. In the Liberty loans, Nebras- ka greatly oversubscribed her quota of $240,000,000, and she bought more war savings stamps per capita than any other state. Nebraska sent 47,801 soldiers to war, and, as she considers it, supplied them with their gen- eral. Base Hospital Unit 49, consisting of four hundred Ne- braska doctors and nurses, had the best record of saving life of any American hospital in Europe. And foremost and most solemn of all, one thousand Nebraskans died upon the fields of France. State Capitol. Dismantied in 1925 Page 8 I 1 r » 1 I IT-