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LEGISLATIVE YEAR
BOOK
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tioned by General Dodge for bravery in battle. Returning
from the war, he was elected county superintendent of Iowa
county, and filled the same position in Powesheik county two
terms. In 1882 he removed to Fort Collins, Colorado, where
he practiced law some years. He became interested in
irrigation, making a special study of the subject, and
removed to the North Platte river near the Nebraska-Wyoming
line, where he assisted in constructing the first irrigating
canal on that stream. To no other man is more credit due for
the advancement of Scott's Bluff county in irrigation
development than to Senator Akers. He filed the first papers
in Nebraska relative to irrigation and has assisted in the.
organization of a large proportion of the irrigation
districts in his county. Mr. Akers was a member of the
senate in the legislature of 1895, chairman of the
irrigation committee, and a member of the committees on
judiciary, immigration, manufactures and commerce,
railroads, privileges and elections, live stock and grazing,
and of the special relief committee. He took a most
prominent part in securing the passage of irrigation
legislation, and the statute is usually referred to as the
"Akers Law." When the State Board of Irrigation was
organized he was chosen assistant secretary, and was
advanced to his present position April 11, 1896. He is one
of the best known men in Nebraska, and has been making a
study of the needs of the arid and semi-arid west, which can
be supplied only through national legislation.
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