The independent., 1907-03-07

dians of the Louisiana purchase upon
the hiitops at Ft. Calhoun, August s,
1904
The first real settlement appeared at
Bellevue sometime in the fftles. In the
beginning of the last century Manuei
Lisa. a trader of st. Louis. was then
recognized as the master OF the arr OF
dealing with the Indians, and prince
of the fur trade 1t was his influence
which prevented the Great Plains
tribes from joining the British IN the
war of 1872 and sweeping down on st.
Louis. The first white woman to make
her home upon Nebraska soil was Mrs.
Manuel Lisa
In 1919 the first steamboat churned
slowly up the Missouri river. The
United States fort was established
upon the hill at FIT. Calhoun, where
Lewis and Clarke held council With the
Indians. A colony of one thousand
people, soldiers, freighters. trappers
and traders inhabited the bluff This
fort was abandoned in 1927.
The first wagon train to cross the
great plains of Nebraska was in 1887
under the command of Captain Bon
neville, whose romatic story has peen
told by Washington Irving. In 1888
Rev. Moses p Morrill, and wife, the
first missionaries arrived in Nebraska
and began mission work among the
Otoe Indians. The first school was
opened by Mrs. Morrill,, attended py
Indians and half breed children.
Fremont came in 1872 and tr-aversee
the state east and west leaving as a
monument his name for one OF the
hourishng cities on the Platte river.
Secretary of war, Wilkins, in his
report November 80, 1874, first men,
tions the name Nebraska"
Ten thousand Mormons settled tenn
porarily in Nebraska in 1916 and lS47.
The Kansas Nebraska BILL so historic,
was then being agitated by Stephen
A. Douglas. The Mormons passed on;
the plains of Nebraska were not suit
able homes for polygamists. The great
prairie was then white with prairie
schooners. Fifty thousand people in
single year crossed the plains on
ward toward the Edorado Of Califor-
MIA.
The great issue of freedom and slav-
cry was before congress in Washing
ton. All compromises had failed all
truces had been broken. The question
whether these broad prairies should be
slave or free became one of the real
issues Of the nation. After the war,
congress having granted free homes
to those who saw fit to live in this
4 wild prifnevaI waste, the first settlers,
1 the sturdy old pioneers, the men who
had saved the union, loaded their faml-
lies into the prairie schooners and
dotted the broad prairies of Nebraska
with their shanties and sod houses.
This was the beginning of permanent
settlement 1t was of these that Whit
tier wrote:
1--WE cross the prairies as of old our
fathers crossed the sea
To make the west as they did the east
| the homestead of the free.
| Events began to happen rapidly; the
territory began to develop; the Union
/ Pacific railroad was built; Thomas
! Cumming who made Omaha the capi-
/ tol of Nebraska, succeeded Francis
/ Burt who died eleven days after ar
I rival at Bellevue. The usual hardships
of pioneer life followed, but still the
/ tide of emigration pressed on. The val
! leys of the Blue, Elkhorn and Loup
were soon sprinl1led with the settlers
log cabins
BEFORE state rule came on Governor
| Alvin Saunders was appointed py
| President Abraham Lincoln as the last
governor of this territory. His son is
an honored member of this legislature.
Out of this, sparsely settled country
two regiments of soldiers We're furn-
ished to the government John NJ.
Thayer and Colonel Robert W. Furnas
were in command of these regiments.
The Nebraska of today bears little
rasemblance~to the Nebraska of that
period. Where the buffalo then roamed,
today we find populous cities and COM
Portable farm buildings. out OF Wild
erness has sprung an empire throbbing
/ with commercial life and activity.
Nebraska today is an honored name
and her destiny Is no longer matter
of speculation.
All honor to Nebraska, the home OF
our adoption. the pride Of our mature
! years.
I .sShe knows that she was born TO be
The mother of mighty race;
Heroic sous whom reverence seeks