Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1856-11-23
NEBRASKA,
TCorrespOndencs of the EeO York Brsning POst.J
OMAHA CRY, (Nebrssks0 October, 1856

C0rrespondencs Of the Ae0 York BUen5Hg Post.
OMAHA CRY, (Nebrasks,) October, 1856
This place. the.capital of Nebraska Territory is
on the Missouri river, eight hundred miles above
st. Louis and directly opposite Council Bluffs,
Iowa. The State House, for which an appropria-
ton of $4,000 has been made by the General
Government is now being erected, and when com
peted will be beautiful building. 1t is situated
on bluff one hundred feet high, directly back Of
the city, overlooking it and the valley of the Mis-
souri, for forty miles in either direction. The air is
usually pure snd free you can readily see that
distance but at this it is at times obscured
by the smoke of burning prairies A military road,
towards which Congress has also appropriated
$4,000, starts from here to Fort Kesrney, l88
miles west.
The first house was built two years since, and
the population is now about fourteen hundred.
Emigration in the past season came in very rapidly,
and even now has not wholly ceased, and large
increase is expected with the coming spring.
Two schools are now in operation, Catholic
church finished, Congregational and Methodist
churches nearly so, two newspapers, two banks,
merchants, lawyers, land agents. and physicians in
profuson.
The soil of Nebraska is generally excellent, and
in this portion is as rich as in any part of the
country. 1t lies in rolling prairie, and is well wa
tered by streams in every direction. We are al
most shut out from the East for the nearest rail-
road is yet two hundred and fifty miles from US.
Tie Obi -ction ill lie overcome with the compile
ton OF the Mississippi and Missouri road within
three years.
The grestest objection here is the scarcity of
timber. This also will be but temp orary, as coal is
now being discovered in different directions and in
sufficient quantity to furnish an abundance of fuel;
and br OK can be made cheaply and well for build
ing.
Nebraska holds out strong inducements to the
farmer. The past summer seems to have been
spent in building cities ION psper and specializing
IN town lots by far too many, leaving the few to
the more important business OF agriculture. The
land offices are not yet open and warrants cannot
be used, but claims and pre-empion rights answer
a temporary purpose for the actual settler. The
land IS pretty much all taken for twenty miles
west, and occasionally SO far as Fort Kearney. A
claim is made by agreement to embrace a half Sec
tion, although the law allows for quarter Section
Tney can be bought at all prices from $50 to SlO,-
900 above the Government price OF 81 25 per acre
Five hundred dollars will buy good claim five
miles from here, which will produce two TO four
hundred bushels of potatoes, or one hundred and
eighty to two hundred bushels Of corn to the acre.
and other crops in proportion.
Potatoes are worth eighty cents per bushel -four
six dollars per hundred; butter forty cents &c.
Labor is worth two dollars per day for the cheap
est kind, while mechanics earn from three to Eve
dollars
This latitude is few miles below your city,
while the longitude is so far west as to make
difference in time of an hour and forty minutes,
the distance being about fifteen hundred miles,
though we must travel considerably further to get
here by the river, which is much the easier route
The climate is generally milder than with you,
though sometimes strong and piercing winds from
over the praries make the cold severe.