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History of Nebraska - Chapter 33
Page 677
CHAPTER XXXIII
HISTORY OF RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION -- FINAL INDIAN HOSTILITIES -- NEBRASKA
IN THE WAR WITH SPAIN -- THE SUPREME COURT OF NEBRASKA
Burlington & Missouri Lines. The company now known as the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy railroad company was chartered by a special act of the
Illinois legislature, dated February 12, 1849, under the name of the
Aurora Branch railroad company.
The incorporators were citizens of Aurora, Illinois, and vicinity. This
company built from Aurora to a connection with the Galena & Chicago Union
railroad (now Chicago & Northwestern) at Turner junction, about twelve
miles. The track was laid with wooden rails faced with strap iron and was
opened for business September 2, 1850.
The Burlington & Missouri River railroad company was incorporated in
Iowa, January 15, 1852. The first incorporators were citizens of
Burlington and vicinity.
The Burlington Railroad. The original incorporators found it impossible
to raise money enough to complete even the first thirty miles, and the aid
of the parties who were then engaged in building the C., B. & Q. was
sought soon after construction began. In 1856 a valuable land grant was
obtained, but even this was not sufficient to attract investors, and it
took about seven years to build the first seventy-five miles to Ottumwa.
After that nothing was done until 1865, when it became possible to sell at
a large discount the bonds of the road secured by the road itself and the
land grant, and the road was slowly extended until it was completed to the
Missouri river in 1870.
A branch from Albia to Knoxville, Iowa, 33 miles, was built and opened
November 17, 1875.
The Quincy, Alton & St. Louis road, from Quincy, Illinois, to Louisiana
and Hannibal, Missouri, 46 miles, was leased and operated by the C., B. &
Q. from February 1, 1876.
The C., B. & Q. also purchased the securities of the St. Louis, Rock
Island & Chicago railroad company and operated the road from October 1,
1876. The mileage was: Gladstone to Keithsburg, Illinois, opened December
17, 1869, 17 miles; Sterling to Rock Island, Illinois, opened January 12,
1870, 52 miles; Rock Island to Warm, Illinois, opened November 21, 1870,
215 miles; Cleveland branch, 2 miles; a total of 286 miles. This road was
incorporated in 1855 as the Rock Island & Alton railroad company and,
after several changes of name and foreclosures, was finally reorganized as
the St. Louis, Rock Island & Chicago railroad company and sold to the C.,
B. & Q. as above stated.
In 1878 a branch was built from Hastings to Sidney, Iowa, opened
December 2d, 21 miles.
In 1879 branches were built: Chariton to Indianola, Iowa, opened
February 23, 33 miles; Creston to Fontanelle, Iowa, opened May 6, 28
miles; Clarinda, Iowa, to Burlington junction, Missouri, opened October
19, 21 miles; Leon to Mt. Ayr, Iowa, opened September 26, 35 miles.
In 1880 branches and extensions were built: Port Byron junction to Rock
Island, Illinois, opened January 6, 7 miles; Knoxville to Des Moines,
Iowa, opened January 10, 35 miles; Red Oak to Griswold, Iowa, opened
January 17, 18 miles; Mt. Ayr, Iowa, to Grant City, Missouri, opened
September 20, 22 miles; Hastings to Carson, Iowa, opened October 6, 16
miles; Bethany junction to Bethany, Missouri, opened November 15, 29
miles. The Burlington & Missouri River railroad com-
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[image caption: GEORGE W. HOLDREDGE General manager of the Burlington &
Missouri River railroad west of Missouri river]
Page 679
pany in Nebraska was incorporated May 12, 1869, and the construction of
the line from Plattsmouth to Kearney was begun in July of that year; it
was completed to Kearney Junction, Nebraska, September 18, 1872. This
company was consolidated with the C., B. & Q. R. R. Co. under date of July
26, 1880, at that time having a mileage of 836 miles as follows:
Plattsmouth to Kearney junction, opened September 18, 1872, 191 miles;
Pacific Junction, Iowa, to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, including the bridge
across the Missouri river at Plattsmouth, 2 miles; Republican Valley
railroad, Hastings to Red Cloud, Nebraska, opened November 4,1878, 41
miles; Red Cloud to Bloomington, Nebraska, opened March 10, 1879, 29
miles; Bloomington to Republican, Nebraska, opened January 25, 1880, 12
miles; Republican to Orleans, Nebraska, opened February 29, 1880, 12
miles; Orleans to Arapahoe, Nebraska, opened April 17, 1880, 27 miles;
Arapahoe to Indianola, Nebraska, opened May 23, 1880, 28 miles; York to
Aurora, Nebraska, opened November 3, 1879, 22 miles; Aurora to Central
City, Nebraska, opened April 4, 1880, 20 miles; Amboy to Hubbell,
Nebraska, opened June, 13, 1880, 53 miles.
The Omaha & Southwestern railroad was incorporated February 13, 1868,
and leased to the B. & M. in perpetuity under date of July 19, 1871. At
the time of the consolidation of the C., B. & Q. and B. & M. the mileage
of the 0. & S. W. was: Omaha to Oreapolis, Nebraska, opened in 1870, 17
miles; Crete to Beatrice, Nebraska, opened December 22, 1871, 30 miles.
The Atchison & Nebraska railroad was formed by the consolidation,
August 10, 1871, of the Atchison & Nebraska and the Atchison, Lincoln &
Columbus railroad companies. At the time of the consolidation of the C.,
B. & Q. and the B. & M. the mileage was: Atchison, Kansas, to Lincoln,
Nebraska, opened September 1, 1872, 143 miles; Branch to Rulo,
Nebraska, -- built by the Burlington & South-Western railroad and sold to
the A. & N. in 1871, 2 miles.
The Lincoln & Northwestern railroad was leased to the B. & M. in
perpetuity under date of January 1, 1880. At the time of the consolidation
of the C., B. & Q. and B. & M. the mileage was: Lincoln to Columbus,
Nebraska, opened May 18, 1880, 73 miles.
In 1880 the C., B. & Q. also purchased the securities of the companies
named below:
Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City railway company, operated by C., B. &
Q. from September 1, 1880. This road was the result of consolidations and
foreclosures of a number of local companies and at the time of its
purchase by the C., B. & Q. the mileage was: Viola, Iowa, on the Keokuk
branch of the C., B. & P. to Laclede, Missouri, opened September 27, 1876,
158 miles.
Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs railroad company, operated by
C., B. & Q. from April 17, 1880. At this date the mileage was: Harlem,
Missouri, to Council Bluffs, Iowa, 193 miles; Amazonia to Hopkins,
Missouri, 50 miles; Nebraska City Junction to Missouri river, 4 miles;
Winthrop Junction to Atchison bridge, 1 mile. This road was built by a
number of local companies, the most important of which were the Missouri
Valley, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs and Council Bluffs & St. Joseph
companies, the latter an Iowa corporation. All were consolidated under the
name of the present company in 1869 and 1870. The road from St. Joseph to
Council Bluffs was opened in December, 1867. From St. Joseph south to
Harlem and north to Hopkins was built in 1869 to 1870.
St. Joseph & Des Moines railroad, a narrow gauge road, extending from
St. Joseph to Albany, 48 miles, opened October 15, 1879.
January 1, 1881, the C., B. & Q., having previously purchased all the
securities of the St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern railroad company, took
possession of the road. At this date the mileage was as below: Keokuk,
Iowa, to St. Peters, Missouri, 128 miles, Keokuk to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, 48
miles. The road from Keokuk to St. Peters was built in sections by a large
number of local companies, which, by consolidations and foreclosure sales,
were all merged into the St. L., K. & N. W. R. R. The first section
completed was from
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West Quincy to La Grange, Missouri, which was opened on January 31, 1871.
It was opened to Keokuk in March, 1882. The section from Keokuk to Mt.
Pleasant was built in 1880 and 1881 and was opened to Mt. Pleasant January
31, 1881.
In 1882 branches and extensions were built: Bethany to Albany,
Missouri, opened October 1, 18 miles; Beatrice to Wymore, Nebraska, opened
February 7, 12 miles; Wymore to Endicott, Nebraska, opened July 25, 51
miles; Table Rock to Wymore, Nebraska, opened December 5, 38 miles; Nemaha
to Calvert, Nebraska, opened October 10, 9 miles; Indianola to Culbertson,
Nebraska, opened October 10, 23 miles.
In 1882 branches and extensions were built:
Sheridan to Paw Paw, Illinois, opened November 27, 20 miles; Clarinda,
Iowa, to Northboro, Missouri, opened July 10, 18 miles; Culbertson,
Nebraska, to Denver, Colorado, opened May 29, 244 miles; Auburn to
Tecumseh, Nebraska, opened August 30, 23 miles.
The Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City railway was extended from Laclede
to Sumner, 10 miles, opened July 17, 1882.
In 1881 the C., B. & Q., jointly with the Wabash company, began the
construction of a road in Iowa from Van Wert on the Missouri, Iowa &
Nebraska (now Keokuk & Western railroad) to Shenandoah, Iowa, 95 miles,
opened to Shenandoah November 18, 1882. This road was operated
independently until 1896 when the C., B. & Q. bought the Wabash interest
and under date of May 1, 1896, took possession of the property.
In 1883 branches and extensions were built: Tecumseh to Beatrice,
Nebraska, opened September 2, 33 miles; Nemaha to Salem, Nebraska, opened
December 20, IS miles ; Kenesaw to Holdrege, Nebraska, opened November 15,
40 miles.
In 1883 the C., B. & Q. purchased the stock of the Hannibal & St.
Joseph railroad company and took possession of the road on May 1, 1883. At
that date the mileage was: Hannibal to St. Joseph, opened February 15,
1859, 206 miles; Quincy to Palmyra, Missouri, opened April 1, 1860, 13
miles; Cameron to, Missouri river, opposite Kansas City, opened November
30, 1867, 54 miles; Kansas City bridge, opened July 3, 1869. The H. & St.
J. R. R. Co. was incorporated February 16, 1847, and after the usual
financial difficulties and reverses finally secured aid from the state in
land and bonds and was completed as above. The bonds issued by the state
were repaid by the company.
In 1884 branches and extensions were built: Chester to Hebron,
Nebraska, opened January 3, 12 miles; De Witt to Tobias, Nebraska, opened
May 1, 24 miles; Holdrege to Oxford, Nebraska, opened August 4, 20 miles;
Aurora to Grand Island, Nebraska, opened June 8, 18 miles; Odell,
Nebraska, to Concordia, Kansas, opened August 24, 70 miles.
The Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City railway was extended from Sumner
to Bogard, 21 miles, opened October 17, 1884.
In 1885 branches and extensions were built: Fontanelle to Cumberland,
Iowa, opened August 5, 20 miles; Holdrege to Elwood, Nebraska, opened
August 12, 28 miles; Republican, Nebraska, to Oberlin, Kansas, opened
October 12, 78 miles.
The Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City railway was extended from Bogard
to Carrollton, Missouri, 7 miles, opened June 23, 1885, and the St. Joseph
& Des Moines railroad, 49 miles, was changed from narrow, to standard
gauge and leased to the C. B. & Q.
In 1886 branches and extensions were built: Galesburg to Rio, Illinois,
opened October 31, 12 miles; Tobias to Holdrege, Nebraska, opened December
26, 113 miles; Elwood to Curtis, Nebraska, opened October 6, 44 wiles;
Fairmont to Hebron, Nebraska, opened December 6, 33 miles; Edgar to
Superior, Nebraska, opened August 4, 26 miles; Grand Island to Anselmo,
Nebraska, opened September 13, 101 miles; Aurora to Hastings, Nebraska,
opened September 13, 28 miles.
In 1887 branches and extensions were built: Omaha to Ashland, Nebraska,
opened January 3, 25 miles; Anselmo to Whitman, Nebraska, opened May 30,
99 miles; Curtis, Nebraska, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, opened De-
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cember 11, 263 miles; Central City to Greeley, Nebraska, opened August 15,
44 miles; Greeley to Burwell, Nebraska, opened December 15, 41 miles;
Palmer to Arcadia, Nebraska, opened October 31, 54 miles; Ashland to
Schuyler, Nebraska, opened October 24, 51 miles; Orleans, Nebraska, to
Blakeman, Kansas, opened November 13, 95 miles.
In 1887 the C., B. & Q. purchased the securities of the Denver, Utah &
Pacific railroad company, a narrow gauge road from Denver to Lyons,
Colorado, with two short branches, aggregating about 49 miles of road,
which had been built from 1881 to 1985. It was, however, operated
independently and was not included in the mileage of the C., B. & Q. until
1889, when it was changed to standard gauge.
In 1888 branches and extensions were built: Streator to Walnut,
Illinois, opened June 1, 59 miles; Whitman to Alliance, Nebraska opened
February 3, 69 miles; Greeley Center to Ericson, Nebraska, opened May 7,
19 miles; Blakeman to St. Francis, Kansas, opened July 8, 39 miles.
In 1889 branches and extensions were built: Alliance, Nebraska, to
Cambria, Wyoming, opened December 1, 162 miles; Culbertson to Beverly,
Nebraska, opened November 1, 10 miles; Denver to Lyons, Colorado, changed
to standard gauge and leased to C., B. & Q. September 1, 1889, 41 miles.
In 1890 branches and extensions were built: Newcastle to Merino,
Wyoming, opened August 5, 30 miles; Edgemont to Hill City, South Dakota,
opened November 4, 60 miles.
In 1890 the C., B. & Q. began an extension of the St. Louis, Keokuk &
Northwestern railroad from old Monroe, on the main line to St. Peters, to
St. Louis. This extension was 48 miles in length and included a double
track steel bridge across the Missouri river at Bellefontaine Bluffs. It
was opened on March 4, 1894.
In 1890 the C., B. & Q. purchased the stock of the Chicago, Burlington
& Northern railroad company, which had been built in 1885 and 1886 from
Oregon, Illinois, to St. Paul, Minnesota, and from Fulton to Savanna,
Illinois. The mileage owned is: Oregon, Illinois, to St. Paul, 332 miles;
Fulton to Savanna, Illinois, 17 miles; Galena junction to Galena,
Illinois, 4 miles; and also short branches to Dubuque, Iowa, and Winona,
Minnesota, aggregating 2 miles.
In 1891 branches and extensions were built: Beverly to Palisade,
Nebraska, opened December 22, 8 miles; Merino to Gillette, Wyoming, opened
August 12, 48 miles; Hill City to Deadwood, South Dakota, opened January
28, 46 miles,; Minnekata to Hot Springs, South Dakota, opened July 3, 13
miles.
In 1892 the Chicago & Iowa railroad, which had for some years been
controlled by the C., B. & Q. through its ownership of the C. & I.
securities, was under date of January 1, 1892, leased to the C., B. & Q.
The road was from Aurora to Forreston, Illinois, and from Flag Center to
Rockford, Illinois, 23 miles.
In 1892 branches and extensions were built: Palisade to Imperial,
Nebraska, opened August 15, 31 miles; Gillette to Sheridan, Wyoming,
opened November 26, 101 miles.
In 1893 branches and extensions were built: Englewood to Spearfish,
South Dakota, opened December 11, 32 miles; Sheridan to Alger, Wyoming,
opened July 14, 7 miles.
In 1894 an extension was built from Alger, Wyoming, to Billings,
Montana, opened October 28, 122 miles.
Under date of May 1, 1896, the C., B. & Q. Leased the Humeston &
Shenandoah railroad from Van Wert to Shenandoah, Iowa, 112 miles, which
had heretofore been owned jointly by the C., B., & Q. and Wabash companies
In 1899 branches and extensions were built: Grant City to Albany,
Missouri, opened November 6, 20 miles; Arcadia to Sargent, Nebraska,
opened October 31, 19 miles.
In 1899 the C., B. & Q. purchased all the securities of the Keokuk &
Western railroad company and took possession of the property on May 1,
1899. The road extended from Alexandria, Missouri, to Van Wert, Iowa, 143
miles, completed in 1880, and from Des Moines, Iowa, to Cainsville,
Missouri, 110 miles, completed in 1884.
In 1899 the C., B. & Q. purchased the se-
Page 682
curities of the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines railroad and took
possession of the road on November 1, 1899. The road is from Fort Madison
to Des Moines, Iowa, 71 miles.
In 1900 branches and extensions were built: Alliance, Nebraska, to
Guernsey, Wyoming, opened June 11, 131 miles; Northport, Nebraska, to
Brush, Colorado, opened September 16, 113 miles; Hill City to Keystone,
South Dakota, opened February 25, 9 miles. About twenty miles of this is
leased from and used jointly with the Union Pacific.
In 1906 a line was built from Ashton to Laketon or South Sioux City
(107 miles), and in 1907 the line from Laketon to O'Neill, Nebraska [sic],
was purchased.
In 1909 a branch, 7 miles long, was built from Lincoln to Cobb
Junction, Nebraska.
The Chicago & Northwestern Lines. The Sioux City & Pacific railroad
company was organized August 1, 1864, in Iowa. The Northern Nebraska Air
Line was organized June 7, 1867. The Sioux City & Pacific acquired the
Northern Nebraska Air Line by consolidation September 15, 1868. It was
built from California Junction, in Iowa, to the Missouri river and from
the Missouri river near Blair, Nebraska, to Fremont, completed in
February, 1869. Its Iowa organization received a small grant of lands
through act of Congress, of July, 1864. It maintained a steamboat ferry at
Blair in summer, and generally, in extreme cold weather, a track on the
ice across the Missouri river in winter, to the time of the completion of
the present Missouri Valley & Blair railway and bridge, August 9, 1882.
The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley railway company was organized
January 20, 1869. This company never had any land grant. It commenced
construction at Fremont, after the completion of the Sioux City & Pacific
to that point in 1869. It was extended in that year to Maple Creek,
Nebraska, ten miles north of Fremont. In 1870 it wag completed to West
Point and in 1871 to Wisner, and there rested till 1879, when it was
extended fifty-eight miles to Oakdale, and in 1880 to Neligh; also from
Norfolk junction to Plainview. In 1881 the branch was ex-tended from
Plainview to Creighton, ten miles, and the main line in the same year was
extended from Neligh to Long Pine, about ninety-eight miles.
In 1882 it was further extended from Long Pine to Thacher, fifty miles,
and again in 1883 from Thacher to Valentine, six miles. The line to the
military post of Niobrara, three and one-half miles north of Valentine,
was constructed and occupied in the fall and winter of 1880-1881.
At Valentine the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley railroad rested
till 1885, during which time, or before it commenced building again, the
road was sold to the Chicago & Northwestern railway company, and its
future extensions were under the direction and ownership of that
corporation. In 1885 it was extended to Chadron, and from Chadron to
Buffalo Gap, South Dakota; in 1886 from Buffalo Gap to Rapid City, South
Dakota. In September, 1886, another branch was completed and opened from
Fremont to Wahoo, and on October 25, 1886, the same branch was completed
and opened to Lincoln.
Another line was completed and opened December 6, 1886, from Scribner
to Lindsay. The next year, 1887, this line was extended through Boone,
Stanton, and Madison counties, to Oakdale, the then county seat of
Antelope county. There it intersected and connected with the main line.
That line was completed June 13, 1887. November 21, 1887, the Black Hills
line was completed and opened from Rapid City to Whitewood, South Dakota.
In the same year, December 18, 1887, another line, having been
constructed, was opened from Arlington to Irvington and to South Omaha,
also to a junction with the C., St. P., M. & 0. railway into Omaha. The
same year another line was built from the Fremont-Lincoln line on the west
side of the Platte river to Linwood and extended from Linwood to Geneva.
In 1888 this line was extended from Geneva to Superior and the Kansas
state line. It was opened September 6, 1888. In 1888 the branch now known
as the "Niobrara line" was extended from Creigh-
Page 683
ton to Verdigris, opened September 4th. In 1890 a line was built from
Buffalo Gap to Hot Springs, South Dakota, and one from White-wood to
Deadwood, both opened December 29, 1890. In 1891 extensions into Deadwood
were made, also, to Bald Mountain, some twenty or thirty miles of narrow
gauge mountain line.
In 1886 another line was constructed from the main line in Dawes
county, from a point called Dakota junction, to the Wyoming state line,
and extended thence, under the name of the Wyoming Central railroad
company, from the state line to Douglas, Wyoming, opened September 1st.
November 21, 1887, the Wyoming Central was completed and opened from
Douglas to Glen Rock, and in 1888 from Glen Rock to Casper, Wyoming. In
1901-1902 the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley company built a line from
Deadwood to Lead, standard (and by a third rail, narrow) gauge road. In
1901 and 1902 it constructed an extension of the "Niobrara line" from
Verdigris to Niobrara, on the Missouri river, near the mouth of the
Niobrara river, into Boyd ,county, thence following the course of the
Ponca creek northwesterly through Boyd county to the South Dakota line,
and into Gregory county to Bonesteel.
Missouri Pacific Lines. The roads operated at present under that name
in the state of Nebraska were originally constructed by the Missouri
Pacific railway company of Nebraska. The line extending from the southern
boundary of the state to Papillion was completed July 1, 1882; Sarpy
county extension of the Missouri Pacific railway, extending from Papillion
Junction to the Sarpy county line, completed December 1, 1886; Omaha Belt
railway, from Sarpy county line to Omaha, completed December 1, 1886;
Lincoln branch of the Missouri Pacific railway, from Lincoln Junction,
near Weeping Water, to Lincoln, completed August 25, 1886; Nebraska
Southern railway, Auburn Junction to Nebraska City, completed August 28,
1887; Nebraska City extension of the Missouri Pacific railway, Nebraska
City to Weeping Water Junction, completed August 28, 1887; Crete branch of
the Missouri Pacific railway, extending from Talmage to Crete, completed
November 1, 1888. The Kansas City Northwestern line only extends
practically from Summerfield to Virginia, within the state of Nebraska,
and that portion of the Pacific railway in Nebraska between Superior and
Prosser is all there is of that railroad in Nebraska.
The Missouri Pacific railway in Nebraska was constructed under the
direction of Mr. Jay Gould and Mr. H. M. Hoxie, president and vice
president, respectively, of the parent corporation, the Missouri Pacific
railway company, the former residing in New York city and the latter at
St. Louis, Missouri.
The first officers of the Pacific railway in Nebraska were: A. S.
Everest president, Atchison, Kansas; F. P. Bonnell, vice president,
Superior, Nebraska; P. S. Williams, secretary, Superior, Nebraska; C. E.
Adams, treasurer, Superior, Nebraska. This road was constructed under the
direction of Mr. Jay Gould, president, and Mr. S. H. H. Clarke, vice
president of the Missouri Pacific railway company.
Rock Island Lines. On July 13, 1892, the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific
railway was extended from the Missouri river to Lincoln, a distance of 57
miles; the same year or the next, the line was completed from Lincoln to
Belleville, Kansas, to connect with the main line to Denver, about 70
miles in Nebraska; the branch from Fairbury to Nelson is 51 miles, making
a total of 178 miles.
The Midland Pacific Railroad Lines. Mr. Thomas J. Ryan, who has been a
conductor on the Midland line between Lincoln and Nebraska City
continuously since 1873, contributes the following:
It was intended to build the road [Midland Pacific] from Nebraska City
to Grand Island, but the original company built it only as far as Seward
and graded as far as York, when, in the year 1877, it was bought by the
Burlington & Missouri company. The officers of the road in the early
seventies were: B. F. Smith, president; J. N. Converse, vice president and
general superintendent; J. H. Wheeler, secretary and treasurer, N. B.
Kendall, chief engineer; N. K. Fleming, general freight and
Page 684
ticket agent; M. A. Showers, trainmaster and assistant superintendent; J.
P. Taylor, roadmaster. The first engine arrived opposite Nebraska City in
December, 1869, and was transferred across the Missouri river on a flat
boat. In process of loading, it got away on the incline from the river
bank and ran over the boat and plunged into the river beyond, leaving but
a few inches above water. It was necessary to construct a pair of shears
above the engine to raise it and pull it back on the boat.
In a few days this was done and the engine was safely brought to the
west side of the river, a channel for the boat's passage having been cut
through the ice. A track was laid from the landing as far as South Table
creek, a double line of rope was attached to the engine and a number of
citizens of Nebraska City pulled it off of the boat and up the track to a
point opposite the place where the starch works now stand. The first flat
cars were hauled across the river, the car trucks being drawn by oxen on
the ice and the car bodies, loaded on heavy timber wagons, were drawn by
oxen also. Track laying began in January, 1870, and reached Dunbar that
year. Grading, however, was continued on the line west of Dunbar; and in
January, 1871, track laying was resumed. The road was finished to Lincoln
the following April. About the year 1872 the same company began to build
what was known as the Brownville, Ft. Kearney & Pacific railroad. This
road was graded nearly to Tecumseh, and ten miles of track laid, but this
was all taken up except about two miles, which extended up the river from
Brownville.
In the year 1874 a road was built from this track to Nebraska City, and
trains were run to Brownville in March, 1875. The company did a fairly
good business for a year or two before it sold the road to the Burlington.
[image caption: UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD Statement showing mileage of the
Union Pacific railroad within the state of Nebraska and year completed and
placed in operation]
Page 685
Page 686
FINAL INDIAN HOSTILITIES
The reports of the secretaries of the interior, the commissioners of
Indian affairs, and Indian agents on one hand, and of the secretaries of
war and the military officers stationed on the western plains, on the
other, afford a comprehensive and reliable history of the war with the
Indians, which continued, with occasional cessation, throughout our state
period, until the Indians had become adjusted and adapted to the
reservation system. The report of the secretary of the interior for 1874
indulges in rather premature felicitation over the evident success of the
policy of inducing or compelling the roaming tribes to settle on
reservations. Though the severest fighting occurred afterward,
hostilities ,were almost ended by the campaign of 1876-1877, in which the
annihilation of General Custer's command of five companies occurred, on
the Little Bighorn river, June 25, 1876. The number killed was 259;
wounded, 53. Hostilities finally died out with the year 1879.
The policy of dividing jurisdiction over the Indians between the
department of war and the department of the interior was at least
unfortunate. The constant clash between these departments caused much
scandal and tended to irritate the Indians and encourage their hostility.
In his report to General Grant, commander-in-chief, dated January 25,
1867, Major-General John Pope, who was commander of the department of the
Missouri, 1866-1867, severely criticised this arrangement. The building of
the Pacific and other western railroads meant to the Indians the invasion
and subsequent occupation of their domain, and naturally incited a spirit
of fierce hostility and resistance.
General William T. Sherman, writing to the secretary of war, from Fort
McPherson, Nebraska, June 17, 1867, doubted the belief of General J. B.
Sanborn, one of the six commissioners appointed in February of that year
to investigate Indian conditions, that peace could be brought about. He
said: "My opinion is that if fifty Indians are allowed to remain between
the Arkansas and the Platte we will have to guard every stage station,
every train, and all railroad working parties. In other words, fifty
hostile Indians will checkmate 3,000 soldiers. Rather get them out as soon
as possible, and it makes little difference whether they be coaxed out by
Indian commissioners or killed." General Sully, also one of the
commissioners, wrote to the commissioner of Indian affairs, June 22, 1867,
that a large number of the Indians west of the Missouri river were still
hostile. "It is as hard for an ignorant wild Indian as it is for an
educated, cultivated white man to remain quietly at home starving to
death, having no means of hunting, being obliged to kill his horses to
keep himself and children alive, and at the same time not allowed to
purchase arms and ammunition to kill small game with, while he is visited
daily by Indians from the hostile camp trying to induce him to join them,
and sees by their warring with impunity on the whites they have more
horses and mules than they want, and plenty to eat, and procure all the
arms and ammunition they want." His
Page 687
remedy was to provide for the needs of the peaceable Indians and
vigorously punish the hostiles.
In the Omaha Herald (weekly), September 5, 1873, Dr. George L. Miller,
in his best, though characteristically extravagant style, boldly defends
the revolt of the Indians. They were "simply defending their country and
homes against armed invasion."
This is the standing crime of the red man. He fights for life and
liberty against lawless encroachment upon his birthright and fights
bravely, as brave and earnest men always fight. But the Indian is not
merely brave in war. He is logical and convincing in argument,
surpassingly eloquent in oratory, and in his uncorrupted life has a power
to perceive the truth, and a courage to tell it, that would put to shame
the race that first corrupts, then wrongs, and then crushes and slays him.
No man who shall hereafter write the history and doom of the red man need
go farther than the names with which our country is made so musical to
find that the Indian is also a poet of the highest type, although he can
neither write nor steal rhymes, nor discuss feet or measures with the
learned and cultured . . .
That Red Cloud is a far abler man than our present minister to St.
Cloud (Elihu B. Washburne), we have not a particle of doubt. That Washakic
is the superior, intellectually and morally, of two-thirds of our United
States senators, we have as little doubt, and that Spotted-Tail has more
wisdom and virtue than the president of the United States it would be an
insult to Spotted Tail to question. That Little Thunder, whom Harney led
into ambush, was Harney's equal as a warrior, with the utmost respect for
the hero of Ash Hollow and Chapultepec, we shall always believe, and that
Sitting Bull is an overmatch for Custer, as a stranger to both, we do not
hesitate to affirm.
The subsequent annihilation of Custer's command at the battle of the
Little Bighorn, through Sitting Bull's strategy, seems to vindicate the
last comparison and to invest the others with plausibility, at least. Red
Cloud and his band of Ogalalla Sioux were counted as hostile up to 1870.
This famous chief is characterized by the commissioner of Indian affairs
in his report for that year. "He is an Indian with considerable
administrative and executive ability. As a warrior, he is famous for
energy and bravery, and possesses very great influence over his tribe. The
circumstances connected with his visit to Washington and the East, and the
impression created by his boldness, eloquence, and ability, are too well
known to require more than an allusion to that visit at this time." Red
Cloud has counselled peace on all occasions since his return; but he was
the genius of the war in the northwest, the most tragic incident of which
was the destruction of Lieutenant Colonel Fetterman's party of seventy-
nine soldiers and two citizens at Fort Phil. Kearny, December 21, 1866,
The secretary of the interior, in his report of 1872 (p. 403), estimates
that there were 61,000 Indians between the Union Pacific and Central
Pacific railroad and the proposed southern route, starting west from
Springfield, Missouri; 92,000 between the proposed Northern Pacific and
the Union and Central Pacific; and 36,000 between the Northern Pacific and
the British boundary. In the same report (p. 597) the superintendent of
the Omaha superintendency says that the Brule and Ogalalla are still
making raids on the Pawnee. In the report for 1874 the secretary says
that, after great difficulty, the Sioux, with the exception of two bands,
have been enrolled in eleven agencies where they receive subsistence.
The Nebraska legislature of 1875 adopted a joint memorial and
resolution stoutly demanding the removal of the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail
agencies from Nebraska, where they had been located in 1874 without the
consent of the state under color of the treaty of 1868. In 1876 there were
no hostilities in Nebraska, but there was constant war with the Sioux in
Dakota and Wyoming, which included the Custer massacre of June 25th.
According to the report of the secretary of war for 1867, the Indians made
a systematic attack on the Platte route from both north and south. General
Sherman went in person to Fort Sedgwick and remained there from June 6th
to the 22d. The redoubtable General Custer was at Fort McPherson in June
with six companies of the Seventh cavalry. This post was the center of
operations at that time. The upper Republi-
Page 688
can river was patrolled, and also the country west to the Colorado line.
In his report for 1867, General Augur, commander of the department of the
Platte, speaks of the excellent service of Major Frank North's four
companies of Pawnee scouts. This contradicts Eugene Ware's disparaging
estimate of them in his history of the Indian war of 1864. General Sherman
said that there was little actual danger of Indians in 1867 but a great
deal of apprehension of it. General Augur reported that depredations were
begun in October, 1867, extending from Plum creek to Fort Fetterman -- 400
miles -- and he had placed troops at every railroad station between Fort
Kearny and Cheyenne. During 1868 scouting parties and expeditions were
sent out in various directions from Fort McPherson, their usual object
being to recover stock stolen by Indians. During 1869 troops were kept
busy protecting the Union Pacific railroad, from Fort Kearny westward, and
other lines and settlements in the western part of the state. Red Cloud
had quieted the Indians on his return from Washington in 1870. On the 4th
of April General Augur dispatched Company C, Second cavalry, from Omaha
barracks to the southwestern part of the state where there had been
depredations for the last five years.
About fifty Indians appeared May 15th; but at sight of the soldiers
they quickly dispersed. There were also unimportant excursions in the
northwest part of the state. General Augur reported that not a white man
had been killed by Indians in the department of the Platte during 1871,
and Fort Kearny and Fort Sedgwick were abandoned that year, "being no
longer necessary." A camp of one company of cavalry and one of infantry
was established in April on the Loup river, thirty miles northwest of
Grand Island, for the protection of settlers; and another, with a like
force, on the Republican, directly south of Fort Kearny. The Indians were
receding before white pressure. These Nebraska outposts were placed sixty
miles farther west than those of the year before. Companies of cavalry
were still maintained at Plum Creek and O'Fallon's, on the Union Pacific
railroad, for the protection ofthe road and "neighboring interests." In
1872 Fort McPherson was the headquarters of the Third regiment, one
company of which was at Red Willow camp and two at Sidney barracks. These
were the only posts in Nebraska, except Omaha barracks, headquarters of
the Ninth regiment. There were no general hostilities in the division of
the Missouri this year. Conditions were about the same in 1873. The actual
hostilities were in Dakota. They were directly incited by the encroachment
of the Northern Pacific railroad. The military force in the department of
the Platte -- Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming -- comprised 1,502 cavalry and
2,704 infantry. In the winter of 1874 six companies of cavalry and eight
of infantry were sent to suppress threatened troubles at the Red Cloud and
Spotted Tail agencies in Nebraska. Otherwise conditions were similar to
those of the late preceding years. Scouting parties were detailed to
protect surveying parties. Brigadier General Crook, the famous Indian
fighter, was commander of the department of the Platte in 1875, succeeding
General Ord. Fort Hartsuff was established September 5, 1875, on the north
side of the Loup river, in Valley county; the sub-station of Fort
McPherson at North Platte was created an independent post, March 6th; and
during the year the few buildings left at Fort Kearny were removed to
North Platte and Sidney barracks. In May there was an unimportant
disturbance at the Winnebago agency which was quieted by a small military
detail. Between the 24th of November and the 14th of May eighteen officers
of the department were engaged in enrolling victims of the grasshopper
invasion of 1874 in Nebraska and Iowa. On the 23d of April, Lieutenant
Austin Henley, with forty men of the Sixth cavalry, destroyed nearly all
of a party of seventy Cheyenne desperadoes who attempted to make their way
across the Platte to the Sioux country. On the 23d of June, 1875, a treaty
was negotiated and signed at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies each
relinquished the troublesome privilege, reserved in the treaty of 1868, of
hunting in that part of Nebraska north of the Platte river and
Page 689
on the Repubican river. In that year the total reported number of Sioux
was 42,778; and they were grouped about sixteen agencies. Sitting Bull's
rebel band of 3,000 were still out, and a great campaign against them,
begun in the early part of 1876, led to the destruction of General
Custer's command, at the battle of the Little Bighorn river, June 25th of
that year. A vigorous campaign against Sitting Bull's force, under General
Sheridan's general supervision and commanded by General Miles,. drove it
across the British boundary. On the 24th of October, a detachment of the
Fourth cavalry, of the Fort Robinson garrison, captured and disarmed a
troublesome band of Indians at the Red Cloud agency, led or incited by Red
Cloud himself. In the spring of 1877, Colonel Miles surprised and cut to
pieces Lame Deer's band, and killed the chief. Consequently, September
10th, the remnant of the band, 224 in number, surrendered at Camp
Sheridan. General Sheridan, reporting the incident, declared: "The Sioux
war is now over." Crazy Horse and his band had surrendered in May; but he
mutinied in September and was killed in the encounter. The removal of the
Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies from Nebraska in November, 1877, ended
Nebraska Indian troubles; and after Red Cloud and his band were finally
settled at the Pine Ridge agency, in 1878, the formidable chief became
permanently peaceful. The removal of these agencies was attended by the
usual scandals. The Indians suffered intensely on the journey from cold
and privations, and the carrier contractors worked off the usual graft in
over-charges and delinquencies. General Crook boldly denounced these
outrages.
The last serious Indian tragedy in Nebraska resulted from the attempt
of a band of Cheyenne Indians to escape from Fort Robinson. They had
deserted their resrvation in Indian territory in September and fled
northward, but were captured in the sandhills about forty miles southeast
of Camp Sheridan and confined at Fort Robinson. They were determined to
sacrifice their lives rather than return to the insufferable conditions of
which they complained at that reservation. Accordingly, on the night of
January 9, 1879, they broke from their confinement, after a desperate
fight with the sentinels, and retreated to the hills; but nearly all of
the band of sixty men and many of the women and children were killed by
the pursuing soldiers. General Crook complained bitterly of the bad
management which led to this unnecessary butchery.
Nebraska Commonwealth, September 7, 1867, quotes from the Nebraska City
Press: Judge John F. Kinney, one of the six special Indian commissioners,
had just returned home after six months' absence, visiting all friendly
Indians between the Platte and the Yellowstone rivers to separate them
from hostiles. The commission conferred with Spotted Tail near Fort
Sedgwick, April 1st, and assigned his band a temporary residence south of
the Platte; then held a conference at Fort Laramie with 500 friendly
Indians who agreed to join Spotted Tail. When Generals Sully and Parker,
of the commission, went up the Missouri river, via Omaha, Commissioners
Sanborn, Beauvais, and Buford remained at Laramie, and Judge Kinney went
to Fort Phil. Kearny to confer with the Crows. He met 1,800 of them; but
the first day Sioux and Cheyenne raided the Crows and drove off 100
horses. The Crows pursued and recaptured all but seven, and killed three
Sioux. The Sioux and Cheyenne hung around the fort almost daily, killing
small parties of soldiers and citizens. The Crow country lay between the
Powder and Yellowstone rivers, and Commissioner Kinney promised that a
large military expedition would be sent for their protection. He took a
mass of testimony relative to the Phil. Kearny massacre. About fifty
Indians attacked a wood train near the fort and Lieutenant Colonel William
J. Fetterman and eighty (seventy-nine) soldiers were sent to their rescue.
The Indians retreated, leading Fetterman on to a ridge, on either side of
which 2,000 Indians were concealed, and they killed all the soldiers.
Sixty-five bodies were found and the ground was still stained with blood
when Judge Kinney made the investigation.
Nebraska State Journal, November 13, 1869. A party headed by Governor
Butler was escorted by fifty men of the state cavalry from Camp Butler,
about eighteen miles from Meridian City. In all there were 110 men and
twenty teams. They had killed ninety-three buffaloes. The governor was an
expert horse man. "Indian attacks are of constant occurrence. Life is in
imminent danger at all mo-
Page 690
ments from the bloodthirsty attacks of the Sioux and Cheyennes, whose
bands are hovering around the settlement . . . The whole country along the
route of the Blue River, from Kiowa for twenty-five miles, has quite
recently been largely populated and [put] in a state of cultivation but
nothing now remains but desolation. Whole families have been exterminated.
The whole country possesses the appearance of the passage of an invading
army." (Correspondence of Cornelius R. Schaller, November 1st.)
Ibid., November 3, 1870. Congratulated Secretary J. D. Cox on his
resignation and denounced his Indian peace policy as "the acme, of
childishness, mawkish sentimentality and general silliness." The Journal
severely condemned the "silly and sickening 'talks' with Red Cloud and his
gang of children-murdering and women-raping fiends," at Washington.
Ibid., May 30, 1870. Notes that a military post, established by General
Augur in Franklin county, on section 4, township 1, range 16 west, is
occupied by two companies of troops -- C of the Second cavalry, Captain
Spalding, and an infantry company. The post was under command of Captain
Pollock. Scouting parties were sent east and west to give assurance to
settlers and keep Cheyennes at a respectful distance.
Omaha Weekly Republican, May 17, 1873. Complains that we have been
trying the Penn policy for about four years and it won't do. Conflict is
irrepressible, because the Indians want hunting grounds and the privilege
of remaining nomads, and we are deprving them of both.
Ibid., January 25, 1874. Account of a battle on the 19th, at the fork
of the North Loup, Valley county, between a party of thirty or forty Sioux
Indians, under Medicine Horse, returning from a raid on the Pawnee, and
twelve men with Charlie White or "Buckskin" in command. The fight lasted
twenty-five minutes. Marion Littlefield was killed and probably several
Indians. The Indians retreated. They had about fifty Pawnee ponies.
Buckskin and his party were trapping beaver. Several days before the fight
the Indians plundered their camps, but the trappers snatched their guns.
Omaha Herald (weekly), February 20, 1874. Ridicules the statement to
the war department that as many as 12,000 Sioux were moving from the Big
Horn country on the Platte settlements. Asserts that there was no war or
danger of it.
Ibid., February 27. Says the peace commission has failed to secure
honest dealing with the Indians and wants the war department to try it.
Ibid., July 23. Refers to B. F. Wade's report on the treatment of the
Winnebagoes.
Ibid., June 5. Insists that General Custer's expedition will get a hot
time because he wants the notoriety.
Ibid., September 4. Says Spotted Tail is "the truest red friend of the
white man and of peace on these borders that ever lived," and "one of the
ablest men in this country, civilized or savage."
Ibid., November 6. Request of all chiefs and head men of the Pawnee
that their reservation in Nebraska be sold and a new one selected in
Indian territory, is signed by all the chiefs of the tribe and by B. Bush
Roberts, member of the board of Indian commissioners, Barclay White,
superintendent of Indian affairs, and William Burgess, U. S. Indian agent,
says all the tribe approves.
Ibid., June 18, 1875. Insists that the Sioux must go from Nebraska soil
and relinquish their hunting grounds. When the present sites of the
Spotted Tail and Red Cloud agencies were located the locators thought they
were in Dakota where the reservations are. Sioux must give up right to
hunt in Nebraska.
NEBRASKA IN THE WAR WITH SPAIN
Nebraska furnished three full regiments and a troop of cavalry for the
war with Spain. The First regiment Nebraska infantry was mustered in at
Lincoln, Nebraska, the muster being completed May 9, 1898. The regiment
was ordered to San Francisco, California, May 16, 1898; arrived there May
20, 1898; went into camp at Bay district, San Francisco; embarked for
Manila, Philippine Islands, June 15, 1898, on the steamship "Senator";
dropped anchor in Manila bay July 17, 1898; disembarked and went into camp
at Camp "Dewey," south of Manila, July 21, 1898; on outpost duty before
Fort Malate, July 30, August 2, 5, 6, and 12, 1898; participated in the
attack on Manila August 13, 1898; on guard and patrol duty in Tondo
district, in the vicinity of the custom house from August 14 to December
4, 1898; went into camp at Santa Mesa, near Manila, December 5, 1898; on
guard and outpost duty until the outbreak of February 4, 1899.
The regiment took part in engagements as follows: In defense of camp,
February 4, 1899; capture of block houses, February 6th
Page 691
and 7th; powder magazine and the Deposito, February 5th; capture of
pumping station, near Manila, February 6th; drove insurgents from
Mariquina in defense of the pumping station, February 17th; engagements
near Mariquina road, north of pumping station, February 22d, 24th, 27th,
March 5th and 6th; drove insurgents out of the valley south of the pumping
station and across Pasig river, March 7th; changed places with the
Colorado regiment, March 15th; in advance on Malolos, March 25th to March
31st; in advance on Calumpit and San Fernando.
The regiment returned to Manila, May 18, 1899, when six companies were
detached to the south line of San Pedro Macati and three to Pateros, three
companies remaining in barracks; relieved from duty in the department of
the Pacific and embarked on the United States transport "A. T. Hancock,"
June 22d; sailed with the Utah battery for San Francisco, July 1st, via
Nagasaki, Japan, thence to Yokohama, Japan, thence to San Francisco,
arriving at that port July 29th; disembarked and went into camp at
Presidio, July 30th; mustered out and discharged there, August 23d, after
service of one year, three months and fourteen days; total enrollment, 1,
376; lost, killed in battle, 21; died of wounds, 13; died of disease, 30;
total loss, 64.
Following is a roster of field officers of the First regiment:
Colonel -- Bratt, John P., appointed May 10, 1898; mustered out
November 10, 1898. Stotsenburg, John M., appointed November 10, 1898;
killed in action, April 23, 1899. Mulford, Harry B., appointed April 26,
1899; mustered out August 23, 1899.
Lieutenant-Colonel -- Colton, George R., appointed May 10, 1898;
mustered out June 16, 1899. Eager, Frank D., appointed June 22, 1899;
mustered out August 23, 1899.
Major-- Stotsenburg, John M., appointed May 10, 1898; killed in action
April 23, 1899. Mulford, Harry B., appointed May 10, 1898; mustered out
August 23, 1899. Williams, Fred A., appointed November 10, 1898; mustered
out August 23, 1899. Eager, Frank D., appointed April 9, 1,999; mustered
out August 23, 1899; Taylor, Wallace C., appointed April 26, 1899;
mustered out August 23, 1899. Kilian, Julius N., appointed June 22, 1899;
mustered out August 23, 1899.
The Second infantry regiment of the Nebraska National Guard -- the
state militia -- entered the service of the United States, April 27, 1898,
mobilizing at Lincoln, Nebraska; after completion of muster was ordered to
Chickamauga Park, Georgia, leaving Lincoln, Thursday afternoon, May 19th,
and arriving at their destination May 22d; left Chickamauga Park, Camp
George H. Thomas, August 31st, arriving at Fort Omaha, September 3d, at 8
A.M., where it was mustered out October 24, 1898. This regiment had
enrolled 46 officers and 1,366 enlisted men. It lost in deaths from
disease, 26; by accident, 1; total, 27. Following is a roster of field
officers of the Second regiment:
Colonel -- Bills, Charles J., appointed May 10, 1898; mustered out
October 24, 1898.
Lieutenant-Colonel -- Olson, Emil, appointed May 10, 1898; mustered out
October 24, 1898.
Major -- Mapes, William S., appointed May 10, 1898; mustered out
October 24, 1898. Tracy, Ernest H., appointed May 10, 1898; mustered out
October 24, 1898.
The Third regiment Nebraska infantry, was organized at Omaha, Nebraska;
muster completed July 13, 1898; moved by rail to Jacksonville, Florida,
July 18th; arrived four days later and went into camp at Panama Park, Camp
Cuba Libre, becoming part of the First brigade, Third division, Seventh
army corps; September 9th, moved by rail to camp at Pablo Beach, Florida;
broke camp October 2d, owing to flooding by the ocean during a severe wind
storm; two days later proceeded by rail to Jacksonville, Florida, into
camp at Fairfield as part of the First brigade, First division, Seventh
army corps; October 24th, moved to Camp Onward, Savannah, Georgia, the new
location of the corps; thence to Havana, Cuba, the First battalion
embarking on the United States transport "Obdam," December 30th, Second
and Third battalions on the United States transport "Michigan," De-
Page 692
[image caption: W. J. Bryan & Mary Baird Bryan]
Page 693
cember 31st, arriving at Havana on the first and second of January, 1899,
respectively; encamped with the Seventh army corps at Camp Columbia,
Havana, Cuba, until April 7th, then embarked on the United States
transport "Logan"; in quarantine at Daufuskie Island, South Carolina,
April 13th; April 18th embarked for Savannah, Georgia, thence, April 19th,
1899, to Augusta, Georgia, for muster out at Camp Mackenzie. This regiment
had enrolled during the period of service 61 officers and 1,358 enlisted
men, and lost 32 in deaths from disease.
Following is a roster of field officers of the Third regiment:
Colonel -- Bryan, William J., appointed July 13, 1898; mustered out,
December 12, 1898. Vifquain, Victor, appointed December 12, 1898; mustered
out May 11, 1899.
Lieutenant-Colonel -- Vifquain, Victor, appointed July 8, 1898. McClay,
John H., apponted December 12, 1898; mustered out May 11, 1899.
Major -- McClay, John H., appointed July 7, 1898. Scharmann, Conrad F.,
appointed July 9, 1898; mustered out May 11, 1899. Dungan, Harry S.,
appointed December 12, 1898; mustered out May 11, 1899.
Troop A, cavalry, Nebraska National Guard, located at Milford, was
enrolled for service in the war with Spain May 7, 1898; May 12th moved to
Lincoln, Nebraska, and mustered into the United States volunteer service
May 14th, as Troop K, Third United States volunteer cavalry; May 20th,
moved to Chickamauga Park, Georgia, arriving there May 23d; mustered out
at Chickamauga Park, Georgia, September 8, 1898. This troop had enrolled 3
officers and 77 enlisted men and lost two in deaths from disease.
Following is a roster of officers of Troop K, Third regiment:
Captain-- Culver, Jacob H., mustered in May 14, 1898; mustered out
September, 8, 1898.
First Lieutenant-- Kinney, William S., mustered in May 14, 1898;
mustered out September 8, 1898.
Second Lieutenant-- Culver, Elvin E., mustered in May 14, 1898;
mustered out September 8, 1898.
The First regiment won renown for splendid service in the Philippine
Islands, and grateful citizens of Nebraska, individually, and by
municipal, business, and other associations, 159 subscriptions in all,
advanced the sum of $40,342.75 to pay the expense of transporting its
members to their homes in the state. David E. Thompson, of Lincoln,
subscribed $20,000 and William J. Bryan, of Lincoln, $1,250. The
legislature of 1901 made an appropriation for refunding to the subscribers
$36,315.45, the amount expended. Regiments of other states which served in
the Philippines were treated in a like generous manner. The legislature
also appropriated the sum of $11,000 for the purpose of paying $37.50 to
each of the members of the regiment who had been mustered out of service
on account of disability and had come home before the regiment was
mustered out. The legislature of 1899 appropriated $2,000 to be expended
by the governor "for the relief, aid and comfort of the sick and wounded
soldiers now members of the First and Third regiments in the Philippine
Islands and in the Island of Cuba." The Second and Third regiments
suffered unduly from disease, caused by bad sanitary conditions, which
seem to be incident to lack of experience and discipline on the part of
both officers and men in the volunteer service in the early period of our
wars. These regiments were disappointed because they had no chance to
fight; but if opportunity had occurred they would have proved themselves
as valorous and efficient as their envied contemporaries of the First
regiment. All of these regiments were of superior quality, and the
considerable number of men who had been in the State University battalion
measurably improved their discipline and morale. Colonel John M.
Stotsenburg was the heroic, and most considerable figure among the
soldiers of Nebraska in the war with Spain. He was killed in action at
Quingua, Luzon, April 23, 1899, and was honored with burial in the
national cemetery at Arlington Heights. Colonel Stotsenburg was professor
of military science and tactics in the University of Nebraska when the war
began, and many of the cadets joined his regiment.
Page 694
THE SUPREME COURT OF NEBRASKA
BY DALE P. STOUGH
On March 1, 1917, Governor Keith Neville, and the Supreme Court of
Nebraska, consisting of Chief Justice Morrissey, Associate Justices
Cornish, Dean, Hamer, Letton, Rose, and Sedgwick, assembled in joint
convention with the legislature, and officially observed the fiftieth
anniversary of the admission of Nebraska to statehood.
Beginning with a great historical parade, reviewed by President Wilson,
at Omaha, in September, 1916, and continuing with suitable exercises in
each county of the state, the semi-centennial program continued until
June, 1917, closing with a comprehensive historical pageant at Lincoln and
an address by Colonel Roosevelt.
But the judicial history of Nebraska reaches back to the territorial
days. On May 30, 1854, President Pierce signed the Nebraska-Kansas bill,
which concluded the ten-year struggle led by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of
Illinois to form the territory of Nebraska. Shortly thereafter the first
territorial court was formed. The first chief justice, Fenner Ferguson of
Albion, Michigan, reached Nebraska on October 11, 1854, and his
associates, James Bradley and Edward R. Harden, came within the next few
weeks. In the thirteen years of its existence the Nebraska territorial
court had four chief justices, Fenner Ferguson, Augustus Hall, William
Pitt Kellogg, and William Kellogg. Besides Justices Bradley and Harden,
heretofore mentioned, there were six other associate justices: Justices
Joseph Miller, William F. Lockwood, Joseph E. Streeter, Samuel W. Black,
who resigned in 1859 to become territorial governor of Nebraska; Elmer S.
Dundy, who later became United States district judge for Nebraska; and
Honorable Eleazer Wakeley, the "Nestor of the Nebraska bar," who was still
practicing law in Omaha at ninety years of age, when he died in 1912.
The first state constitution, adopted in 1866 provided for a supreme
court to consist of a chief justice and two associate justices, elected
for six-year terms. They were required to hold one term of court annually
at the seat of government, and the state was divided into three judicial
districts. In addition to the duty of hearing cases on appeal, rendering
decisions, and preparing opinions in the Supreme Court, each justice acted
as trial judge in the district court, which was the court of general law
and equity jurisdiction. During the nine years this system prevailed the
state had only the Union Pacific main line and a few other short lines of
railroad, touching but a few counties out of the territory now comprising
ninety-three counties. It is recorded that some of the judges were
required to travel ten thousand miles in a year going to and from their
trial courts, most of which had to be done by stage coach, by buckboard,
or on horseback.
In 1875, when the present constitution of the state was adopted, it was
provided that "the judicial power of this state shall be vested in a
supreme court, district courts, county courts, justices of the peace,
police magistrates, and in such other courts inferior to the district
courts as may be created by law for cities and incorporated towns." It was
also provided that the Supreme Court should consist of three members, and
the judge having the shortest term to serve, not holding his office by
appointment or election to fill vacancy, should serve as chief justice, By
this system of rotation, which continued until 1908, the first fourteen
justices of the Nebraska Supreme Court served from one to four times as
chief justice of the state.
In 1908, the court was increased by constitutional amendment to seven
members, consisting of a chief justice and six associate justices.
Provision was also made for the separate election of a chief justice. The
court now stands at the head of a judicial system which has grown until
there are eighteen judicial districts with thirty-two trial judges, and
the state has a network of county (probate), municipal, and justice courts.
In the fifty years of its existence, the Nebraska State Supreme Court
has had but
Page 695
twenty-four members. Seven of these are serving at the present time. Six
ex-justices of the court are still living, and all actively practicing law
in Nebraska (except one now serving on board of control of state
institutions), two in Lincoln, one in Omaha, and one each in Seward and
Columbus, and the eleven deceased justices were all residents of Nebraska
at the time of their death, and, as yet, but one judge has permanently
removed to some other state after his term of service as a member of
Nebraska's Supreme Court.
Although Nebraska has never yet elevated one of her native sons to her
high bench, five of her judges were first admitted to the prac-
[image caption: ANDREW M. MORRISSEY Chief justice]
tice in the courts of Nebraska, several others practiced less than one
year in some other state before locating in Nebraska, and only three of
the twenty-four judges were past thirty years of age when they came to
this state.
Not only have the members of the court been essentially Nebraskan in
their legal careers, but every member except one was born in the United
States, and he came to Nebraska in boyhood. New York was the native state
of Nebraska's first three judges, Lake, Mason, and Crounse; her justice of
longest service, Maxwell, and her present chief justice, Morrissey.
Illinois was the birthplace of six:
Page 696
Justices Norval, Reese, Sedgwick, Sullivan, Root, and Aldrich. From
Pennsylvania hailed Judges Gantt, Post, Rose, and Hollenbeck; and from
Ohio, Judges Harrison, Barnes, and Hamer. Indiana furnished justices Cobb
and Holcomb; Wisconsin, Judge Fawcett; Iowa, Judge Cornish; and Missouri,
Judge Dean; while Judge Letton first saw the light among the heathered
hills of Scotland.
In 1866, Judges George B. Lake, Lorenzo Crounse, and William A. Little
were elected to form the first state court. Judge Little died before he
could qualify for the office, and Honorable Oliver P. Mason was appointed
the third member of the first court. Judge Mason became the first chief
justice and served six years. In 1873, Judges Mason and Crounse were
succeeded by Daniel Gantt as chief justice and Samuel Maxwell as associate
justice.
The first five judges, Lake, Crounse, Mason, Gantt, and Maxwell, had
all served as members of the territorial legislature, and all except Gantt
as members of from one to three constitutional conventions. So it may well
be said of this group of five founders of Nebraska's jurisprudence, that
they assisted in all parts of the task of laying the foundation of the
state, both enacting and administering its laws, forming its constitutions
and shaping its policy.
Chief Justice Mason settled at Nebraska City in 1855, and had a long
active career in the state until his death in 1891. His marked power and
individuality are stamped upon the early opinions of this court. He
prepared the first important opinion handed down by the Nebraska court, in
Bradshaw v. Omaha, 1 Neb., 16, which declared unconstitutional an act of
the legislature extending the city limits of Omaha to include property not
reasonably urban property, and authorizing the city to tax such land in
aid of a railroad. His keen perception and vigorous expression were
disclosed in his dissenting opinion in People ex rel. Tennant v. Parker, 3
Neb., 409, 19 Am. Rep., 634. His associates, Judges Crounse and Lake, each
wrote an opinion holding that a proclamation by the executive convening a
special session of the legislature might be revoked by a second
proclamation. During the absence of the secretary of state, who was acting
governor in the place of the regularly elected governor, who had been
impeached, the president of the senate issued such a proclamation. Upon
his return to the state, the secretary of state revoked the first
proclamation.
Judge Crounse was only thirty-two years of age when he was placed upon
the first Supreme Court of Nebraska. In the thirty-six years intervening
between his retirement from the bench and his death, he served four years
in Congress, as assistant secretary of the treasury under President
Harrison, and as governor of the state in 1892-1893. His opinion in
Brittle v. People, 2 Neb., 198, stands as a monument to his work as a
jurist. This opinion stated with clearness the history of the formation
and adoption of the constitution of 1866, and the condition imposed upon
Nebraska by Congress to secure admission, that there should be no denial
of the elective franchise, or of any other right, to any persons by reason
of race or color, excepting Indians not taxed.
Born during the administration of John Quincy Adams, and dying eighty-
four years later during President Taft's administration, Judge Lake filled
out fifty-four years of that long, busy career in Nebraska. He left Ohio
after five years of practice, and came to this state two years after its
formation as a territory. Ten years later he was chosen as a member of the
first state court, and was reëlected at each recurring election until he
had served sixteen years, and he then declined further service. A lineal
descendant of Roger Williams, he showed an indomitable spirit of
independence and perseverance that became such lineage. In his opinion in
Pleuler v. State, 11 Neb., 547, 10 N. W., 481, upholding the
constitutionality of the Slocumb liquor taw, he showed keen perception of
the rights, powers, and duties of the several departments of the
government, recognizing the line of demarcation between each, and
confirming them by judicial decision. His opinion in the Pleuler case
clearly defined the rules of law upon which Nebraska based her strict
regulation of
Page 697
the liquor traffic for thirty-six years, or until the adoption of the
prohibition amendment in 1916.
Judge Gantt came to Nebraska from Pennsylvania in 1857; practicing law
and holding office in territorial days, he served the last three years of
his life as chief justice of the state. He was succeeded in 1878 by
General Amasa Cobb, who remained on the court for fourteen years. Born in
1923, a native of Indiana, General Cobb served with distinction in the
Mexican War, and commanded two different Wisconsin regiments in the Civil
War. He also served Wisconsin in its state Senate, and in the national
Congress before coming to Nebraska in 1870.
Judge Samuel Maxwell became a member of the court in 1872, and so
remained for twenty-two years, serving longer than any other member in the
court's history, being chief justice four times. Judge Maxwell came to
Nebraska in 1855, returned to Michigan for a legal education, and upon
admission in 1859 came back to Nebraska and entered the practice. After
his retirement from the bench he served in Congress. In addition to the
arduous duties as a member of the court, Judge Maxwell was the author of
Nebraska Digest of 1877; Maxwell's Justice Practice; Code Pleading;
Criminal Procedure, and Pleading and Practice. All of these works still
stand out as Nebraska's standard works and guides on procedure, practice,
and forms in their respective lines. Judge Maxwell contributed to
Nebraska's jurisprudence not only the longest term of service, but his
wonderful dispatch of business, his ability to grasp the controling
question at issue and to discern the real merits of the controversy,
assured an administration of justice in application of sound legal
principles for the many years he served on the bench.
Supreme judges were elected in Nebraska on partisan tickets until 1914.
Nineteen of the twenty-four members of this court have been affiliated
with the Republican party, and the only two Democrats elected to this
position prior to 1914, Judges Holcomb and Sullivan, were swept in on the
crest of the Democratic-Populist fusion waves of 1898 and 1900.
In 1884, Judge Lake was succeeded by Judge Manoah B. Reese of Wahoo,
who served six years, and in 1908 was returned to the supreme bench,
serving for seven years as the first chief justice after the abolishment
of the rotation system. Judge Reese had been a member of the
constitutional convention of 1875 and one of the early district attorneys
of the state. After his retirement from the bench he practised law in
Lincoln until his death on September 29, 1917. Judge Reese was followed on
the court in 1896 by Judge T. L. Norval of Seward, whose successor was
Judge Samuel H. Sedgwick of York, who is now serving a third term on the
court. Judge Cobb was succeeded in 1892 by Judge A. M. Post of Columbus,
who was followed in 1898 by another member of the Columbus bar, Judge John
J. Sullivan, who has, since his retirement, twice declined appointment to
vacancies on the court. Judge John B. Barnes of Norfolk came to the court
in 1904 and served for thirteen years.
Judge Maxwell left his place on the bench in 1894 and was succeeded by
Judge T. 0. C. Harrison of Grand Island, who was in turn succeeded in 1900
by former Governor Silas A. Holcomb of Broken Bow, and he was succeeded in
1906 by Judge Charles B. Letton of Fairbury, who still remains a member of
the court.
In 1908, when the court was enlarged by constitutional amendment to
seven members, the four new places were taken by Judges William B. Rose of
Lincoln, who is a member of the present court; James R. Dean of Broken
Bow, who returned to the supreme bench in January, 1917; Jesse L. Root of
Plattsmouth, who was succeeded in 1912 by Francis G. Harmer of Kearney,
who served until his death in July, 1918; and Jacob Fawcett of Omaha, who
retired from the bench in 1917. Judge Albert J. Cornish of Lincoln came to
the court in January, 1917. Chief Justice Reese was succeeded in 1915 by
Judge Conrad Hollenbeck of Fremont, who was the first member of the court
elected on the non-partisan ballot. He died ten days after taking the oath
of office. The present chief justice, Andrew M. Morrissey of Lincoln, was
appointed
Page 698
by the governor as his successor, and was elected to succeed himself in
1916, making the second chief justice to be elected as a "nonpartisan." At
the same election, three associate justices were elected in the same way.
Ex-Governor Chester H. Aldrich was elected in November, 1918, and took
office in December to complete Judge Harmer's term.
At three periods in the history of Nebraska, a supreme court commission
has been provided to hear argument and dispose of certain classes of
cases. The present commission, formed in 1915, consists of Chairman
William C. Parriott of Auburn, Grant G. Martin, formerly of Fremont, and
Fred 0. McGirr of Beatrice. Five of the twenty-two members of the two
preceding commissions afterwards became supreme judges, and among the
other seventeen were Honorable Frank Irvine, now of the New York Public
Utilities Commission; Dr. Roscoe Pound, dean of Harvard law college; Judge
C. S. Lobinger of the United States Court for China; and Judge W. G.
[image caption: CHARLES B. LETTON & WILLIAM B. ROSE Associate Justices]
Hastings, dean of Nebraska University law college.
The court has at its command the second largest state library in the
country, affording access to all of the adjudicated cases of courts of
last resort, commissions, and various tribunals throughout the United
States, Great Britain, Canada, and practically every foreign nation. In
her procedure, Nebraska is one of the group of "Code" states which follow
the general rules of construction and liberal forms of pleading advanced
by New York, though the codes of Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa have had a
marked influence on Nebraska jurisprudence.
The first case filed in the State Supreme Court of Nebraska, on
September 6, 1867, Roush v. Verges, was later dismissed. The first case
reported, 1 Neb., 3, was Mattis v. Robinson, filed in the territorial
court as No. 154, and tried before territorial Judge Lockwood. It was
argued by J. M. Woolworth and A. J. Poppleton of Omaha, who became
Page 699
two of Nebraska's most eminent lawyers. Judge Crounse delivered the
opinion, dealing with the right of a tenant to deny the relation and
assail the landlord's title. The first criminal case reported, 1 Neb., 11,
93 Am. Dec., 325, was People v. Loughridge, relating to the bringing into
this state by a thief of property stolen in another state.
Nebraska is recognized as one of the leading states in agriculture. The
sandhill region of central Nebraska has developed into a great stock-
raising "range." But Nebraska has the largest creamery in the country; its
largest city, Omaha, ranks first in butter and dairy business and third as
a stockyard and meat packing center; western Nebraska has several large
sugar-beet factories; potash fields now threaten to out rival the wealth-
producing oil wells that skirt the western border of the state, and all of
the larger cities and towns of the state have numerous factories. So the
Nebraska court gives attention to not only the same general line of cases
as other agricultural states, but in some degree meets with such problems
of litigation as come to the courts of large manufacturing and industrial
states. Futhermore the wide diversity of climatic and soil conditions
between the rich "Missouri Valley" and high arid altitude of the western
"Panhandle" of the state causes Nebraska jurisprudence to present the
unusual result of the same state court considering many drainage cases on
one hand, and formu-
[image caption: FRANCIS G. HAMER & JAMES R. DEAN Associate justices]
lating a line of irrigation law on the other hand.
Nebraska has kept in the vanguard of the procession of progressive
legislation of the past decade. This state ten years ago adopted the anti-
pass laws and other strict regulatory matters relating to railroads and
public utilities in general. In Chollette v. Omaha & R. Valley R. Co., 26
Neb., 159, 41 N. W., 1106, 4 Am. Neg. Cas., 835, 4 L. R. A., 135, it was
held that a railroad could not escape duties imposed by law or liability
for its acts, by selling the stock, or transferring the ownership or
management of the road to another railroad or corporation. In Chicago, R.
I. & P.
Page 700
R. Co. v. Zernecke, 59 Neb., 689, 82 N. W., 26, 7 Am. Neg. Rep., 447, 55
L. W. A., 610, a statute was sustained which made carriers insurers of the
safety of their passengers as they were of baggage and freight, and
created a presumption that the accident was caused by the negligence of
the carrier or by its wrongful act, neglect, or default. In that case
proof was excluded that the injury had occured to the passenger in a wreck
caused by a third person. The court sustained the anti-pass law of 1907,
in State v. Mon P. R. Co., 87 Neb., 29, 126 N. W., 859, 31 L. R. A. (N.
S.), 657, and prevented not only free fares but special contracts
furnishing transportation in exchange for newspaper advertising and
special services. A common carrier of live stock is prevented from
relieving itself of liability for negligence by special contracts with the
shipper. Jeffries v. Chicago, B. & 0. R. Co., 88 Neb., 268, 129 N. W.,
273. in State ex rel. Webster v. Nebraska Teleph. Co., 17 Neb., 126, 52
Am. Rep., 404, 22 N. W., 237, it was held that a telephone company is a
public servant, and
[image caption: ALBERT J. CORNISH & SAMUEL H. SEDGWICK]
can be mandamused to supply the public without discrimination. A statute
fixing maximum charges by telegraph companies was long preceded by a
decision in Western U. Telegr. Co. v. State, 86 Neb., 17, 124 N. W., 937,
holding that telegraph companies are subject to acts relating to the
prevention of abuses, extortions, and unjust discriminations by common
carriers. An act fixing maximum rates for express companies was upheld in
State v. Adams Exp. Co., 85 Neb., 25, 122 N. W., 691, 42 L. R. A. (N. S.),
396.
Nebraska has the direct primary law, initiative and referendum, state
guaranty of bank deposits, employers' liability and workmen's
compensation, "blue sky" and warehouse regulatory legislation, regulation
of employment agencies and bureaus, nine-hour workday for women, child
labor, and an unexcelled group of laws relating to food, drug, oil, hotel,
and fire inspection. In the case of Re Arrigo, 98 Neb., 134, 152 N. W.,
319, L. R. A., 1917A, 1116, the court held it within the police power of
the state to forbid as "'misbranding" the
Page 701
inclosure of gifts, premiums, and prizes in food packages. This prevents
the insertion of toys, tickets, dishes, pictures, and advertising matter
in crackerjack, coffees, oatmeal, and other food articles. The Nebraska
court recently affirmed a large judgment for damages resulting from a
violation of the state antitrust law, through a combination and conspiracy
of coal dealers to drive another dealer out of business. Marsh-Burke Co.
v. Yost, 98 Neb., 523, 153 N. W., 573. Agricultural and live stock
interests in Nebraska are, safe-guarded with a pure-seed law which is
unexcelled in any state, and a law creating an administrative live-stock
sanitary board, and strict quarantine and serum laws. The court sustained
the validity of the law creating such a board and designating its powers
in Iams v. Mellor, 93 Neb., 438, 140 N. W., 784.
The common law was applied to the rights of riparian owners in Meng v.
Coffee, 67 Neb., 500, 108 Am. St. Rep., 697, 93 N. W., 713, 60 L. R. A.,
910, and in Crawford Co. v. Hathaway (Crawford Co. v. Hall), 67 Neb., 325,
108 Am. St. Rep., 647, 93 N. W., 781, 60 L. R. A., 889, decided on the
same day as Meng v. Coffee. It was said: "The two doctrines of water
rights, one the right of a riparian proprietor, and the other the right of
appropriation and application to a beneficial use by a nonriparian owner,
may exist in the state at the same time, and both do exist concurrently in
this state." The rapid development of irrigation is bringing on a line of
decisions, which began back with Com. Power Co. v. State Board, 94 Neb.,
613, 143 N. W., 937, and Enterprise Irrig. Dist. v. Tri-State Land Co., 92
Neb., 121, 138 N. W., 171.
In 1916 the Nebraska court upheld the validity of a statute restricting
the rate of interest to be charged by money lenders and loan sharks.
Althaus v. State, 99 Neb., 465, 156 N. W., 1038.
In insurance matters, the valued policy law was held good in Lancashire
Ins. Co. v. Bush, 60 Neb., 116, 82 N. W., 313, and recovery in case of
total loss restricted to the value of the property named in the insurance
contract; and in McElroy v. Metropolitan L. Ins. Co., 84 Neb., 866, 122 N.
W., 27, 23 L. R. A. (N. S.), 968, note, where parties to an insurance
contract are in different jurisdictions, the place where the last
necessary act is done is held to be the situs of the contract.
Since Pleuler v. State, 11 Neb., 547, 10 N. W., 481, regulating the
license of liquor sales, the Nebraska court has passed upon many cases
involving suits upon the bonds of liquor dealers. In Luther v. State, 83
Neb., 455, 120 N. W., 125, 20 L. R. A. (N. S.), 1146 note, 15 R. C. L.,
246, it was held that the statute prohibited the sale of malt liquors
without a license, whether intoxicating or not.
Two of the most interesting decisions made by this court in criminal
cases are Brott v. State, 70 Neb., 395, 97 N. W., 593, 63 L. R. A., 789,
wherein the conduct and behavior of bloodhounds was held not to be
admissible as evidence to prove the scent of the accused and that of the
perpetrator of the crime to be identical; and Schultz v. State, 89 Neb.,
34, 130 N. W., 972, Ann. Cas., 1912C, 495, 33 L. R. A. (N. S.), 403,
wherein defendant was found guilty of manslaughter for killing a person
while running an automobile at an unlawful rate of speed. The most
celebrated criminal case in the early history of Nebraska was Olive v.
State, 11 Neb., 17 N. W., 444, a murder case growing out of the long
struggle between the cattle ranchmen and the early homesteaders. Among the
counsel in the case were Chief Justice Mason, ex-Congressman Neville,
father of the state's governor 1917-1919, and the late Justice Hamer. One
of the interesting cases in the political history of the state was State
ex rel. Thayer v. Boyd, 31 Neb., 682, 48 N. W., 739, 51 N. W., 602 (143 U.
S., 135, 36 L. ed. 103, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep., 375), in which the right of
Governor Boyd to that office was contested by his predecessor, Governor
Thayer, because Boyd's citizenship was questioned. Governor Boyd was
ousted from office and later restored on the final decision of the case by
the Supreme Court of the United States.
An early interpretation by this court of a strict regulatory law was in
Halter v. State, 74 Neb., 757, 121 Am. St. Rep., 754, 105 N. W.,
Page 702
298, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.), 1079 (affirmed in 205 U. S., 34, 51 L. ed. 696,
27 Sup. Ct. Rep., 419, 10 Ann. Cas., 525), wherein the court sustained an
act prohibiting the use of the national flag for advertising purposes. In
that case the flag was desecrated by making it part of a trade mark placed
upon beer bottles.
The reported decisions of the Nebraska Supreme Court cover 101 volumes
of Nebraska reports. On September 20, 1917, the number of cases filed in
this court had reached 20,333, a volume of business approximately equal to
many older and more populous states, such as Minnesota, Kansas, Louisiana.
The number of volumes of decisions published in Nebraska exceeds that of
many of the older states, and more than six hundred decisions of this
court have passed the critical censorship of L. R. A.'s editorial staff,
and by publication of citation in that series been placed at the immediate
command of the bar of the whole country and sister nations.
History of Nebraska - End of Chapter 33
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