No. 59--State Historical Society

   Conquerors sweep thru a nation or state bent only on conquest; traders camp on its borders intent only on immediate gains; missionaries kneel on its soil with the welfare of souls in mind; pioneers break the sod for the purpose of putting four walls around their families, bread in their mouths. It falls to the historian to follow after these men of one purpose, to gather up the fragments; to keep alive, in words at least, the spark struck off by fleeing hoof or flintlock or ringing ax.

   Musing with half-closed eyes one can see a throng of people entering Nebraska, spreading out over it in patterns interesting and intricate. One can see a giant, colorful picture painted on the plains, even hear the throng moving to simple slow strains of music--and realize how literature, painting, music, are born of movements of people, individual or en masse.

   There is no lack of romance in the building of Nebraska, beginning with its Indians--ships with adventurers and settlers sailing far up the rivers; the Mormon migration; the underground railroad (slaves were sold on the block in southeast Nebraska in the early sixties); the fight for the capital, the building of the railroads (which reminds us ___ilding of the Union Pacific given by the Ballet Russe _____oln several years ago); ____ Bill Hickok, Doc Middleton _____ir brother bandits; the _____ between homesteade______ __ow men in the north ____of the state. The Stat__ __ ical Society, state capio_____A. E. Sheldon, superintend ___as all this locked in ___ and file and safe-excep__ _nteresting exhibits spread __ its walls. The picture above, drawn at Omaha for Leslie's Sept. 26, 1860, depicts the arrival in that pioneer village of the Jennie Brown, bound for Fort Benton, Mont. It is one of over thirty thousand pictures filed by the librarian, Martha Turner, pertaining to the history of the state.

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No. 60--Orthopedic Hospital, 11th and South

   The time has come, we believe, gently to remove the guide who has been walking ahead in these Lincoln explorations, and to let those following--if there are those following --go on, each with his own sightseeing. Possibilities have n____ exhausted.

   There are, fo____mple, the state orthopedi___pital, with its brightee____ birds, seemingly si____f some great battering ___he reformatory, on ____mal college (a thousand __ uped on its door for admission 50 years ago this fall), later a military academy and now, last chance for wayward boys and young men; the state hospital, with its population of 1,440, widely known its treatments.

   There are old houses, patient, wise and worn; churches, each with its own flavor, history and problems; parks we have not mentioned; hospitals and theaters. The agricultural college, apple cheeked sister of the university we have inadevertently (sic) neglected.

   If you are interested particularly in the historical aspects of a community you will visit the historical society museum in the capitol. Here time will cease for an afternoon as in spirit you move rapidly from 1842 to 1942 and back again to 1842, your fingers touching visible evidence of periods between those dates. For Nebraska had its white people even before 1842--its fur traders, trappers, missionaries. In Bellevue, first Nebraska town, first territorial governor Francis Burt took his oath of office Oct. 16, 1854--only to die two days later in the log cabin home of Rev. William Hamilton.

   In short, we commend all ramblers into the past to the state historical society. It will serve as an excellent guide to early Lincoln and Nebraska.

   And so, goodbye.

(THE END)

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© 2000, 2001 by Kathie Harrison, Ted & Carole Miller