The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1929-10-11
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

@VRNAHE day is March 16, 1854;
10 IN the scene is Washington,
!: &: !: :; !; :; =: :: !:
To- Nl D. c. A little group of
- Indian chiefs, arrayed in
IVY all their tribal finery, is
gu A holding council with
1o the frock-coated repre-
N3l sentatives of the "Great
L%W White Father The
business at hand is a
treaty and cession of lands owned
by the people whom these chiefs rep
resent-the Omaha Indians who live
beyond the Missouri river in that
vast empire known vaguely as the
"Great West" And when the last
formalities have been completed and
the chiefs have made their marks
under the signatures on the parch-
ment, the Omahas have coded "all
their lands west of the Missouri and
south Of line running due west from
the point where the Iowa river leaves
the bluffs, retaining their lands north
of this line for a reservation" And
that marked one of the steps whereby
the great state of Nebraska came into
being.
Now, IS years later, tRe citizens Of
Nebraska are preparing Ito celebrate
with parade and pageant, with air cir
GUS and military 9ianeuveI and with
SmQny another col last baaweeE the
new, the Ariamond jubilee"
Cornhusker state. On Novem-
s and Nebraskans, as we'll as
ents Of every state in the Union.
Wi gather in Omaha for the cele-
bration, which is being held there, be-
cause Omaha was the first territorial
capital, and which is sponsored by
Omaha civic interests, who have con-
tribhted Who're than 100000 for Ne
braska's "seventy-fifth birthday" party.
1t will be held in conjunction with the
Ak-Sar-Ben Live Stock and Horse
show, November 1 to s, which is con.
sidered one of the finest of its kind
in the Midwest and which is attended
by stockmen from all parts of the
United States.
But the treaty with the Omaha In
dams, that handed over to the white
men the land which was to become
this fertile commonwealth, is not the
only event that makes this seventy
fifth anniversary celebration a par
ticularly fitting one. Acquired by
the United States as part of the
Louisiana Purchase from France in
1903, what Is now Nebraska for half
a century was part of the great
"Unorganized Territory" which lay
between the Missouri; river on the
east, the Red river on the south, the
Rocky mountains on the west and the
Canadian boundary on the north, and
over which had roamed for centuries
the Indian and the buffalo.
Then on January 4. 1854 Senator
Stephen A. Douglas introduced a bill
for the organization Of Nebraska ter
ritory. This bill aroused the bitterest
opposition and resulted in the Kan
sas-Nebraska bill which divided the
new territory into two territories,
Kansas and Nebraska. Franklin
Pierce, who was then President, chose
Francis Burt of South Carolina for
the first territorial governor of Ne
braska. But on October IS, 1854, two
days after the new governor reached
Bellevue he died and Thomas B. Cum
mings Of Michigan became governor.
Cummings faced the task Of bring
Ing political order out of chaos and
one of the first problems to be set
tied was that of selecting territorial
capital. Bellevue. Plattsmouth, Ne
braska City and Brownsville were all
candidates for that honor but Cum
mings, who was man of decisive
character, took the initiative and
selected Omaha. Then he set about
h. Tuouos:nu lshnom,