Copyright (c) 2009 University of Nebraska - Lincoln All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans Recent documents in Transactions and Reports, Nebraska State Historical Society en-us Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:07:32 PST 3600 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/68 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/68 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:22 PST The following biography of ex-governor Samuel W. Black was written and furnished the Nebraska State Historical Society by his daughter. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/67 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/67 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:21 PST Every old settler in Nebraska will remember "Father Hamilton," early and so long a missionary among the western Indians. I solicited his biography for this report from his own pen. The following letter in response I feel would be marred if it were changed, even in the "dotting of a single 'i' or the crossing of a 't.'" I therefore present it just as it came to me. DECATUR, BURT COUNTY, NEBRASKA, May 22nd, 1884 William Hamilton http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/66 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/66 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:19 PST The following letter is from Rev. Wm. Hamilton, who was a Presbyterian missionary among the north-western Indians, commencing in what is now Kansas, in 1837. William Hamilton http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/65 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/65 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:17 PST The biographies of these two old and prominent citizens were written by Mr. G. M. Hitchcock, grandson of Dr. Monell, and son of Mr. Hitchcock. DR. GILBERT C. MONELL was born Oct. 20th, 1816, in Montgomery, Orange county, N. Y., and was his parents' second son. As his father could afford to do so in but one case, the elder brother was alone accorded a college education, and the subject of this sketch was thrown upon his own resources at an early age with a fair common school education. He, however, at once made the resolve to acquire himself what his parents were unable to give him. He took a salaried position in a country store, and began at the same time earnestly to prosecute the studies preparatory for a college course. He was enabled by strict economy and by a gift from his father, to raise a sufficient amount for a three years' course, and by self education while at work in the store, he fitted himself to enter Union College in the Sophomore year, abreast fully with those of his own age. He graduated at the age of nineteen years, and soon thereafter married Miss Lucinda Carpenter, in 1836, and then for a short time he continued his mercantile occupation, but only for the purpose of supporting himself while he studied medicine in New York city. Completing his course there, he, with his wife and little son returned to Orange county, N. Y., and located in Newburg. Here a large practice soon rewarded his early privations, and in the specialty he made of the diseases of women his success was so great as to bring patients from New York city and New England. G. M. Hitchcock http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/64 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/64 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:15 PST The following is an abstract of an address delivered by. Prof. Howard at the opening of the winter term of the Nebraska University, at the time the Nebraska State Historical Society was in session, and by agreement before a joint session of the two organizations, to serve also as the annual address of the Historical Society. G. E. Howard http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/63 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/63 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:14 PST http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/62 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/62 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:11 PST Elder J.M. Young was really the founder of the city of Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska. He was born in Genesee county, New York, near Batavia, on the old Holland purchase, on November 25, 1806. In 1829, he married Alice Watson, at that time eighteen years of age, and who now survives him at the age of seventy-four. The following year he moved to Ohio and from Ohio he went to Page county, Iowa, in 1859. In 1860 he came to Nebraska and settled at Nebraska City. In 1863, near the end of the year, he came t Salt Creek and selected as a site for a town, and what he predicted would be the capital of Nebraska, the present site of Lincoln. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/61 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/61 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:10 PST JOHN MCCORMICK died at Omaha, June 2d, 1884; he was born on the 12th of September, 1822, at Johnstown, Westmoreland county, Penn. At an early age he was taken with his family to Cadiz, Ohio, and in 1856 removed to this city, engaging in the land and banking business. During the panic of '57 his business was injured, and in '59 he became the head of the grocery house which for a long time bore his name. He remained in business till 1869, when he engaged in grain, with which he had been identified up to his death. He built the first elevator in the city, and in other ways was counted among the leading of the town. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/60 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/60 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:08 PST HON. JOHN TAFFE died at North Platte, Nebraska, March 14, 1884, aged 57 years. He was a native of Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was born Jan. 30, 1827. He received an academic education, and after a diligent study of the law was admitted to the bar in the city of his birth. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/59 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/59 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:06 PST DR, ENOS LOWE was born at Guilford Court House, North Carolina, May 5th, 1804. When he was about ten years of age his parents moved to the territory of Indiana, locating at the small settlement known as Bloomington, in Monroe county, the community being mostly composed of quakers, his parents being of that denomination. When a mere boy he began the study of medicine, and soon began the practice of the profession in the midst of the many vicissitudes and privations incident to anew, wild, and sparsely settled country. Little by little, however, he accumulated enough from his practice to enable him to seek higher culture in the profession, and he entered the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, where, in due course, he graduated with honor and high standing. He now located as a practitioner at Greencastle, and some time after moved to Rockville, continuing in active practice there for some years, during which he was sent to the Indiana legislature. In 1836, the border country having gradually extended westward, he determined to spy out the new land, and accordingly made the journey on horseback to St. Louis; thence going up the Mississippi river to Flint Hills (now Burlington), then the home of Black-Hawk and his Sac and Fox Indians. Being favorably impressed with the new country, after a brief sojourn he returned to Indiana, and during the fall of 1837 moved, by wagons, across the country to Burlington, where he continued in active practice of his profession for the following ten years, his practice becoming so extended and laborious that the writer has known him to ride thirty and forty miles to visit the sick. W. W. Lowe http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/58 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/58 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:04 PST She was born in New Hampshire, in 1836. Her maiden name was Mary I. Turner. She and Mr. Mason were married in Madison county, New York, 1854. They came to Nebraska in February, 1856, locating at Nebraska City, Otoe county. She died at same place, May 15th, 1874, aged 38 years; leaving four children, aged at that time, Jessie, 14; Grace, 10; Alice, 5; Bessie, 3. June, 1882, Jessie Mason and F. L. Harris were married, and located at Ord, Valley county, Nebraska. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/57 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/57 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:03 PST The Rt. Rev. Robert H. Clarkson, Episcopal Bishop of Nebraska, died at his home on St. Mary's Avenue, Omaha, Monday, March 10, 1884. The following biography of Bishop Clarkson was an editorial in the Omaha Herald, written by Dr. Geo. L. Miller, editor. Geo L. Miller http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/56 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/56 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:01 PST MOSES STOCKING, of Saunders county, Nebraska, died at his residence, Friday, Sept. 30th, 1881, of paralysis. His wife, all his sons and daughters, except Mrs. White, Oregon, and Mrs. Bosworth, Colorado, were at his bedside. The following autobiography was written by him, at the request of Geo. S. Harris, Land Commissioner B. & M. R. R. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/55 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/55 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:59 PST I thank you kindly for the honor done me in your letter of the 26th ult., in behalf of the Old Settlers' Association of Otoe county, Nebraska, extending to me an invitation to deliver the annual address before your Society at the fourth reunion, to be held this present month. I would most gladly accept your invitation, but now is the busy mining season, and I have other and pressing duties that prevent, so that I must decline this opportunity of meeting my old friends in Otoe county-the best friends that man ever had. It was October 1, 1846, when, being just twenty-one years of age, I left my native Virginia and traveled two hundred miles on foot to Wyandotte, on the Ohio river. There I took passage on a steamboat to St. Louis as a deck passenger. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/54 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/54 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:58 PST An act to aid and encourage the "Nebraska State Historical Society." http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/53 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/53 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:56 PST The present historical society was organized at the time, date, and under circumstances as hereinafter indicated. Some thirty or more days prior to Sept. 25th, 1878, the following circular was signed and generally published in state papers. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/52 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/52 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:55 PST A list of the valuable relics the Society possesses. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/51 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/51 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:53 PST REV. ALVIN G. WHITE died at Lincoln, Nebraska, ........., 1884. He was born at Northfield, Massachusetts, June 18, 1833. He early in life moved to New Hampshire, and was called at that time into the ministry. He was licensed as a local preacher in 1853, while in the Wesleyan University. On account of failing health he was not able to finish the college course. He moved to Illinois in 1855, and taught school for two years. In 1857 he joined the Rock River conference, and during the year was married in 1843 to Miss Ella Thompson. In 1858 he transferred to Nebraska, and served as a supply for one year on the Brownville charge. He entered the Nebraska conference in the spring of 1860, and was returned to Brownville. He then served the church at Pawnee City for one year. His next field was Fort Calhoun, where he labored for two years. Then for three years he was chaplain in the United States army. He was then made presiding elder, and in this field he did the most important work of his life, and had his greatest usefulness. He served a full term on the Omaha district, when that district covered an area of 20,000 square miles. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/50 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/50 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:51 PST Rev. Wm. McCandlish died at Omaha, Nebraska, August 5th, 1884. He was born in Scotland; came to America when he was seven years old. He was educated for the ministry at Washington college, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and was ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian denomination in 1837, and has been actively engaged in that service and in the bible cause from that date to the very hour of his death, having but returned from carrying a bible to a neighbor at 9:40 in the morning. He complained of coldness in his feet, lay down on his bed and passed away as quietly as a tired child would drop to sleep. He leaves a wife and three children, residents of Nebraska, in which state Mr. McCandlish had made his home almost continuously since 1858. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/49 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/49 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:50 PST We are apt to look upon Nebraska as a young state; young in its geological formation, in its political existence, and in its historical records. For descriptions of its soil, its climate, its fruits, or its inhabitants, few have sought to look further back than the commencement of the present century, and the published memorials of its history prior to the advent of the French trappers and traders have boon thought too meagre to serve as a basis for any exact account. But hidden away in the lumber rooms of wealthy Spanish and French families, and piled on the shelves of national libraries in Paris, Madrid, and Mexico, are hosts of letters, journals, and reports which are gradually emerging from their seclusion and undergoing the scrutiny of acute and practiced eyes. The documents recently edited by M. Margry, in Paris, and now in course of publication by the United States government, throw a flood of light upon early French discoveries and explorations in the West. And when the vast libraries of all the nations which took part in those adventurous travels shall give up their dead treasures, we have reason to hope that we shall be able to add many years to the authentic history of our state. James W. Savage http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/48 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/48 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:46 PST SMITH SAMUEL CALDWELL died at Omaha, .............., 1884. He was the son of a farmer in Marion, Wayne county, New York, where he was born in 1834. He was a graduate of Union College, and came to Omaha in 1859. He was a lawyer by profession, and undertook its practice here, but soon afterwards engaged in the banking business, which he successfully pursued with a high reputation as a financier for nearly a quarter of a century. He was at first in the firm of Barrons, Millard & Co.; then in the firm of Millard, Caldwell & Co.; then in that of Caldwell, Hamilton & Co.; and latterly in the U. S. National Bank, of which he was vice-president and the largest stockholder when he died. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/47 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/47 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:45 PST http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/46 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/46 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:44 PST Agreeable to our promise to continue our investigations; we, last Tuesday, visited the site of the old village mentioned in Bell's History of Washington County, page 39, as the site of an old Mormon settlement of 1845; but thought by Mr. Grenell and others to have been of much older date, and probably a farm station or outpost of either Fort Atkinson, which lay about one mile east, or Fort Calhoun, four miles south. W. H. Woods http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/45 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/45 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:42 PST It is fit that in this year of grace, 1880, and in this month of January, we should, by public exercises now held for the first time, mark a period in the history of the state. It was in March, 1854, that the Indians, by treaty, ceded these regions to the United States, and in May, that a system of government was framed for them. In October, Francis Burt, the first governor landed on these shores. In a few weeks he died, and the work of organization devolved on Thomas B. Cuming, the secretary. On the 21st day of October he ordered a census of the new population; On the 23rd of November he divided the territory into counties and precincts, and apportioned the members of the Council and House of Representatives among them. On the 12th of December an election of members of the legislature was held. On the 20th of that month Gov. Cuming constituted the judicial districts, assigned the judges to them, and appointed the terms of court; and on the 16th of January, 1855, he convened the legislative assembly at Omaha. J. M. Woolworth http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/44 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/44 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:21:41 PST While at New Orleans during the Exposition of 1884-5, a very intelligent, well-preserved, elderly lady called at my office, Nebraska Headquarters, introducing herself as Mrs. Thompson, then of Chicago, and cousin of Henry Fontenelle. She was an exceedingly fluent and interesting conversationalist. She entered into details as to the history of the old French Fontenelle families. Before she left my office, I begged her on returning to her home, and at leisure, to furnish me in writing what information she had given me verbally during the to me pleasant hour of her visit. A. L. Thompson http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/43 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/43 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:03:09 PST Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, Council Bluffs, Iowa, under date of Dec. 26th, 1878, furnishes the following, relating to the first female suffragist movement in Nebraska. She prefaces with this historic note: My first visit to Omaha was July 4th, 1855. The day was being celebrated. Omaha was then a small place. The Douglas House was the only hotel. The speaker's stand was erected in front of it, across the road. The dinner table was out doors, on the east side of the street Acting Governor Thomas Cuming was the orator. Omaha was then but eight months old. Amelia Bloomer http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/42 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/42 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:03:08 PST Caroline Joy Morton was born on the 9th of August; 1833, at Hallowell, in Maine. Her father was Hiram Joy. He was of Irish descent. His ancestry, as far back as the family records in this country go, were seafaring people. They who go down to the sea in ship learn to cast out fear, and meet danger and toil and watching with steady nerve and toughened muscle. Their children have a heritage of courage and resolution, and the breath of the salt sea air is their constant stimulant. Her mother was Caroline Hayden. She, too, was reared in the rugged hill country of Maine, and breathed the same strong air and dwelt among the same stern and vigorous scenes. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/41 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/41 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:03:06 PST Charles Powell died at Omaha, 1884. He was born in Geneva, N.Y., on May 13, 1811, and was therefore at the time of his demise 73 years of age. He was married in 1843 to Miss Catherine M. Bacon, a lady who was a native also of New York, the wedding taking place at Jonesville, Mich. Mr. Powell came to Nebraska in 1858, and located at De Soto, to which point he transported an extensive outfit of machinery with which he started a mill, one of the first and most valuable to settlers in this territory. Two years later Mr. Powell brought out his family, and after seven years residence at De Soto they removed to this city, where in the social, religious, and commercial life of the community they have been valued factors. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/40 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/40 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:03:04 PST There is no portion of the history of the past which is not largely obscured, distorted, or absolutely falsified through the omission of unwritten portions. We are prone to forget or fail to realize how intense the interest of the future may be in the doings of to-day. Or if we feel the importance of leaving a record we are apt to note only the fading and vanishing items of the past. To make a record of transactions and happenings of to-day, of that which everyone knows all about, seems uncalled for and useless labor. Through this neglect important springs of action and leading incidents to even revolutionary acts die out of memory, and are thus lost to the historian, who, for lack of the real causes, founds upon false ones, if any. That truthful history, especially of partisan transactions, cannot be written in present time, is most unquestionably true. Partisan feeling, more or less active, will unconsciously color and distort the views of the' most impartial. Still a record Of the facts of the present may save the future historian much labor and from great error. A. L. Child http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/39 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/39 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:03:03 PST Table of Contents: Name of the Society Objects of the Society Officers Membership Active Members Correspondents and Honorary members Forfeiture of Membership Meetings of the Society Quorum Special Meetings Manuscripts, Correspondence, Etc. Seal and Diploma Officers and Their Duties Union of Officers in the Same Individual Standing Committees and their Duties Removal from OfficeInitiation Fee and Annual Assessment Revision of the List of Members Corresponding Members Honorary Membership Removal of Members Alteration in the Constitution By-Laws: Notices Adjournments Election of Corresponding and Honorary MembersNew Members Order of Business Nomination of Special Committees http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/38 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/38 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:03:01 PST Thinking a sketch of the early history of good old Otoe county would be a readable article in your columns and at the same time be appropriate to the times, I will give a few items of the many incidents that fell under my observation at an early day in the organization, settlement, and progress of the territory; more particularly that which refers to the then Pearce, but now Otoe county. E. H. Cowles http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/37 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/37 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:03:00 PST The following letters were written by Father De Smet, a Roman Catholic Missionary among the Northern Indians in a very early day. One was written to the St. Louis Historical Society, and the other to A. D. Jones, Secretary of the Old Settlers' Association of Omaha. Father De Smet http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/36 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/36 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:58 PST THE DEATH OF Gov. BURT - The Omaha (Nebraska) Arrow extra, of Oct. 18th, contains the following particulars of Gov. Burt's death: Francis Burt, governor of Nebraska, died at the old Presbyterian Mission House, at Belleview, at about 3½ o'clock this morning, retaining at the last hour a realization of his situation, and surrounded by the friends who accompanied him from his Carolina home. Immediately upon his arrival in 'the territory he was confined to his bed by sickness, occasioned by the long and tedious journey hitherward, commencing, we are informed, upon reaching the limestone country bf Tennessee in his overland journey to Louisville, Ky. Retaining, about an hour previous to his death, a consciousness of his situation, he called his friend, Mr. Doyle; who had accompanied him from South Carolina, to his bedside, and gave such directions concerning his private matters as the urgency of the case seemed to demand, then calling Rev. J. Hamilton to his bedside, after a brief conversation, he passed into that sleep which knows no waking. He was a native of Pendleton, S. C., and was about 45 years of age. He leaves an affectionate wife, two sons, and four daughters to mourn their afflicting bereavement. One son attended him and was with him in his last moment of life, and will return to the paternal roof with the corpse of him who in the prime of life, with high hopes, left his native land but a short time ago to enter upon the discharge of the arduous duties to which he had been assigned. In Governor Burt the people of the territory have lost an intelligent, efficient, and generous officer, whose death is most truly lamented by the people of Nebraska and the adjacent towns in Iowa. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/35 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/35 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:55 PST JOEL T. GRIFFEN was born in Otsego county, New York, May 22d, 1817. His parents (Rachel Willson and Stephen Griffen) were of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, American born, his father being of Welsh descent. He carried. on a small farm, beside running a grist mill, at which on mill days all the farmers congregated for a friendly chat and to procure their monthly flour and meal. It was proverbial of him that he was never heard to utter an oath or laugh out loud. Joel was the third son in his father's family, having two brothers and two sisters older, and a brother and sister younger. He was educated in the common or district schools of these times. He with his elder brother, Stephen, learned. the trade of millwright, and spent several summers in building mills in the western part of New York and Northern Ohio. In 1835 his father removed with his family to Washtenau county, Michigan, which was then considered the far West. There he performed great labors in felling the immense forest which encumbered this portion of the state. And here in this malarial district was sown the seed of the fatal disease which attacked him in his later years. Returning to New York he married Miss Juliette Cobb Griffin, June 11th, 1840, and for a year or two owned and run a boat on the Erie canal. Yielding at length to the entreaties of his mother, he returned to Michigan and engaged in farming. L. G. Egbert http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/34 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/34 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:54 PST To James Fitche, of Nebraska City, the Society is indebted for the following recollections, reminiscences, and records. A portion are papers read before the Otoe county Old Settlers' Association, and others as furnished and published in the local newspapers. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/33 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/33 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:53 PST At request of the editor of this report the following traditional history of the Omaha Indians is furnished by Henry Fontenelle, a reliable, intelligent, educated half-blood of that tribe. Henry Fontenelle http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/32 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/32 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:51 PST The following Indian names of streams and localities, is furnished by Henry Fontenelle. Henry Fontenelle http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/31 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/31 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:50 PST http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/30 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/30 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:49 PST This lady, notice of whose death appeared in last week's Economist, was a native of Louisiana, and a direct descendant of a powerful family of the French nobility, a daughter, if we are informed correctly, of the Marquis de Fontenelle, a nobleman of great wealth and character, whose property was contiguous to the city of Marseilles, but who in all probability had sought, like many others, either health or increased fortune on the fertile shores of New France. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/29 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/29 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:46 PST "The study of history deserves serious attention, if only for a knowledge of transactions, and inquiry into the eras when each of them happened. Yet it does not concern us so much to know that there was once such men as Alexander, Cǽsar, Aristides, or Cato, or that they lived in this or that period; that the empire of the Assyrians made way for that of the Babylonians, and the latter for that of the Medes and Persians, who were themselves subjected by the Macedonians, as those were afterward by the Romans. But it is of high concern to know by what methods those empires were founded; by what steps they rose to that exalted pitch of grandeur which we so much admire; what it was that constituted their true glory; and what were the causes of their declension and fall ." http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/28 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/28 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:44 PST NOTE.-The editor of this report was, during the life-time of "White Cow" or "White Buffalo," agent for the Omaha Indians, and familiar with the peculiar characteristics referred to by Mr. Fontenelle. A reference to two instances may not be an unpleasant digression. I was once sent for in great haste by "White Cow," on an exceeding bitter cold day in December, the messenger stating the old Indian was about to die, and desired to make his will, appoint his successor, and such like. I went at once, and found the old man stretched out on a buffalo robe before a blazing fire, in his tepee. He quickly as possible arose to a sitting position, greeted me, lighted his pipe and passed it around - a universal custom, and indicative of friendship and good will. He then proceeded to state his case. He was old, sick, and expected never again to get up and around. He wished a twelve year old grandson, then in the mission school, to succeed him as chief. He wished to be buried or rather placed in a sitting position, on the high bluff of the Missouri river, back a mile or so from the tepee, his face to the river, that the spirit might continue to see the steamboats passing up and down that stream. R. W. Furnas http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/27 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/27 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:43 PST The following correspondence relating to the first white child born in Nebraska was published in the Omaha Herald at dates indicated therein. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/26 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebhisttrans/26 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:02:40 PST To discuss the events of 1866 and 1867 at this time has seemed to me presumptuous. Barely a dozen years have elapsed since Nebraska turned the sharp corner from territorial dependency to state sovereignty, and, as in all sharp historical turns, there was a blaze of excitement, a bitter political contest, accompanied by more than the usual amount of bumptiousness and belligerency, of heart-burnings and jealousy, over which fourteen years may have deposited a thin layer of forgetfulness, through which a foolhardy explorer might break, to the discomfiture of himself and the revival of volcanic memories. But, pressed by your esteemed President for a paper upon the admission of Nebraska to the Union, and unable, from present experience and observation, to go back farther than that period, I have consented to take up this subject, and trust that I may handle it with sufficient discretion to obtain your pardon for the presumption in choosing a topic so nearly connected with the stage and actors of to-day. In 1860 the Nebraska legislature submitted to the people a proposition for holding a convention to adopt a constitution and knock at the doors of congress for admission to the Union. But the movement was premature. The people were too poor, the country was not being rapidly settled and improved, and the taxes were high enough without taking upon the handful of settlers then scattered up and down the Missouri valley the responsibility and expense of statehood, and the proposition for a convention was defeated. Charles Gere