Gage County, Nebraska - Chapter 3: Nebraska Up to 1866, 1918

EARI.Y Explorers in Nebraska - Coronado - Mali^et Brothers - Lewis and Ceark- Kansas-Nebraska Bill - Territory opened for Settlement - Area - Boundaries - Organization - - Census - Death oe Governor Burt - Governor Cuming - The First Legislature - Statehood

The Virgin of the wilderness , She sits upon her hills alone; Loose sprigs of cedar in her hair, A vine-zvreath round her zone, - As grey-eyed Pallas pure and free, Ux pedant of the things to be.

That portion of the "Great Purchase" which comprises the state of Nebraska was scarcely known to white men prior to the expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804-1806. Doubtless it had been traversed, in part at least, by French- Canadian trappers, traders, and couriers du hois, as well as by French missionaries who followed the Indian trails to the remotest regions of all New France. But these left no records of their travels and adventures- of which history can take notice. Just when the earliest visits of white men to Nebraska occurred may never be known.

In recent years efforts have been made by writers on the history of our state to connect the expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, in 1540, with Nebraska. It is claimed that this expedition not only crossed the southern boundary of the state somewhere between the eastern boundary of Gage county and points much further west, but also that it actually penetrated the state as far north as the Platte river. The most convincing evidence assigned in support of this contention is that the chroniclers of the expedition, as well as its leader, used descriptive terms, in relation to the soil, vegetation, landscape, and other phenomena observed by them, which might be applicable to southeastern Nebraska, and that Coronado himself declares that Quivera "where I have reached it is in the 40th degree." To say the most for such evidence it only indicates in a general way the route of the expedition. It is offset by considerations which are entitled to great weight, even in the face of Coronado's declaration. Coronado came to the New World in the train of Mendoiza, viceroy of Mexico, in 1.S35, and had been assigned by his patron to the governorship of Neuva Galicia, a northern province of the conquered country. Like all ambitious Spainards of that particular day, his imagination had been fired by the wonderful success of Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, and Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru. The fabulous wealth of these vanquished nations had gone to enrich their masters to an extent of which no Spainard had ever before so much as dreamed. Coronado, listening to the tales concerning the far away "Seven City of Cibola," whose wealth was said to rival the riches of Montezuma and the Incas of Peru, resolved to imitate the exploits of Cortez and Pizzaro by undertaking the conquest of these fabled cities of the plain. Obtaining leave from the viceroy, and assembling an army of three hundred Spanish soldiers and a band of warlike Mexican Indians and equipping them for conquest, he started from the capital of his province on the 23d day of February, 1540, animated solely by the hope of plunder. For two years this marauding, predatory ex- pedition wandered about over the barren wastes of New Mexico and possibly eastern Arizona, reddening their trail with the blood of the simple natives and committing heinous crimes against their chastity and virtue. The "Seven Cities of Cibola" dwindled to a few isolated Zuni villages, while the search for gold, always gold, proved an evanescent dream. Finally it was found that the riches lay far away to the east in the land of the Quivera. Here, the Spaniards were told, were large cities with unmeasured treasures of gold and vast herds of buffalo and other game. The rapacious leader gave willing ear to these tales, which no doubt were meant to involve his expedition in ruin, and, turning eastward, he traversed the plains of central Kansas as far as the neighborhood of Junction City, where, recently, enthusiastic Coronadists have erected a costly monument intended to commemorate the discovery of Quivera, a name apparently

Whether Coronado came as far north as Nebraska will never be known. His declaration that he found Quivera within the 40th degree means but little. He was not engaged in exploring the country and could not have been greatly concerned about such things as degrees of latitude. Besides it is a well settled fact that in the sixteenth century a common error of about two degrees runs through all Spanish computations as respects the fixing of degrees of latitude. If correct in the assumption that he did actually cross the fortieth parallel of latitude, then Coronado was the first white man to set foot on Nebraska soil, and Nebraska was known to the Caucasian race within a generation after the death of Columbus and more than eighty years before the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock.

It may be recorded that the first authentic account of the visit of white men to Nebraska is found in the journals of the brothers Pierre and Paul Mallet which fell into the hands of Jean Baptiste Lemoyne, siuer de Bienville, the founder of New Orleans and for many years the French-Canadian governor of the province of Louisiana. In attempting to reach Santa Fe by way of the Mississippi these explorers, with a party of French-Canadians, in 1739 passed up the Missouri, its chief tributary, and appear to have spent the winter at the mouth of the Niobrara. In the spring of 1740 they descended the Missouri to the Platte and, following the latter stream about seventy miles, struck across the plains to Santa Fe, thus traversing a considerable portion of what is now the state of Nebraska.

Whatever may be said concerning those who may have preceded them, it is true beyond cavil that the existence of what is now Nebraska was first brought strongly to public attention by the expedition of Lewis and Clark. These explorers, paddling up the swift and dangerous current of the Missouri river, were compelled to tie their crude vessels to objects along the river banks at night and to proceed only by daylight.

They camped indifferently on either side of the stream. July 15, 1804, their journal shows they first camped on Nebraska soil, at the mouth of the Little Nemaha river, near the present town of Nemaha, and on the way out their last encampment in Nebraska was made September 7, 1804, at a point a few miles below the northeast corner of the state. On their return trip the explorers floated past the northeast comer of the state, on Sunday, the 31st day of August, 1806, and passed the southeast corner on the 11th of the following September - a total of five hundred and fiftysix miles, channel measurement. Several points in Nebraska where the explorers pitched camp have been identified from the minute and accurate description supplied by the record of their movements along the course of the Missouri.

Scattered along the banks of this mighty stream Lewis and Clark found many Indian tribes, amongst them the Otoe and Missouri, which long afterward became domiciled in Gage county. While encamped at Council Bluiifs, a point .since identified as Fort Calhoun, the explorers made the following entries in their journal :

"The meridian altitude of this day [July 31, 1804] made the latitude of our Camp 41° -18' 1.4". We waited with much anxiety the return of our messenger to the Otoes. Our apprehensions were finally relieved by the arrival of a party of about fourteen Otoe and Missouri Indians, who came at sunset, on the 2d of August, accompanied by a Frenchman who resided among them and interpreted for us. Captain Lewis and Clark went out to meet them and told them we would hold a council in the morning."

The first political event of great significance in the history of Nebraska was the enactment by congress into law of a bill entitled "An act to organize the Territory of Nebraska." As early as 1848 the organization into a territory of that part of the public domain lying west of Missouri and extending to the Rocky mountains had received serious consideration in the halls of our national legislature, and in 1852 a bill for that purpose had been actually introduced in congress. The following year a bill was brought forward for the organization of Nebraska territory, which covered substantially the territory now included in the states of Kansas and Nebraska, extending from the Missouri frontier to the crests of the Rocky mountains. Neither of these measures attracted great public attention or received legislative sanction, but early in January, 1854. Stephen A. Douglas, who was then dominant in national politics, reported from the senate committee on territories, of which he was chairman, a bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. This was the historic Kansas-Nebraska bill, the passage of which through congress stirred the nation, north and south, east and west, to its greatest depths, and aroused passions destined to be cooled only in the agonies of fratricidal strife. No such public upheaval as followed the introduction of this bill had ever before been known in the United States. The act was drawn with the politician's most consummate art and with a boldness that startled the entire country. There was no effort on the part of the projectors of this measure or any one else to disguise the fact that it repealed the "Missouri Compromise," the most obnoxious measure to the slave-holding class ever passed by the national legislature, and permitted the extension of slavery north of the famed "Mason and Dixon Line." On the other hand, the bill, with the appearance of fairness, permitted the people of each of the proposed territories to determine, as states, whether they should be dedicated to slavery or freedom. Thus by adroitly uniting the Democratic representatives in congress, both north and south, in support of his measure, and having first by substitution divided the original bill into two organic acts, one applying to Kansas and the other to Nebraska alone, Senator Douglas secured the passage of the substitute bills through both houses of congress in May, 1854, and on the 30th day of that month the act creating the territory of Nebraska received the official approval of Franklin Pierce, then President of the United States.

In the interval between the introduction of the bill and its passage, great preparations were on foot in anticipation of the act ultimately becoming a law. On the 17th day of April, in that year, the federal government, by treaty stipulations, acquired the title of the various Indian tribes to all the lands within the boundaries of the proposed territories which bordered upon the western bank of the Missouri river. On the eastern shore of that great stream, during the spring of 1854, people gathered from many states and anxiously awaited final action on the bill and the Presi- dent's proclamation opening the new territory of Nebraska for settlement. No white man had previously been or was at that time adlowed to enter or remain on Nebraska soil without permission from the war department, and then only while engaged in hunting, trapping, or commerce with the Indians. Wh'le the act was effecting its passage through congress, the commissioner of the general land office at Washington, after a personal exploration of the eastern boundaries of Nebraska, asserted that there were not three bona fide white settlers in the entire territory. The President's proclamation declaring it open for settlement was issued June 24, 1854, and with the wave of immigration that immediately broke over our eastern boundary, the long, exciting struggle which attended the erection of Nebraska into a territory came to an end.

The area of the new territory as defined by the organic act far exceeded its present boundaries. Beginning at a point where the fortieth parallel of latitude crosses the Missouri river, that is to say at what is now the southeastern corner of Richardson county, the southern boundary line of the territory stretched away westward to the eastern boundary of Utah and the summit of the Rocky mountains, thence northward on the principal chain of those mountains to the British possessions, thence eastward on the national boundary line to Minnesota, and southward to the Missouri river, following the main channel of that stream to the point of beginning.

In addition to the present boundaries of our state, this fledgling territory embraced within its borders Montana, North and South Dakota, the northern part of Colorado, a portion of Idaho, and nearly the whole of Wyoming. It comprised a variety of soils, scenery, climate, and products. It was inhabited only by the red man and was the range of the greatest herds of wild buffalo known to mankind, as well as elk, deer, mountain lion, ?nd many other wild and ravenous beasts. It contained vast deposits of coal, mines of precious ores, oil fields of great and unknown value, immense forests, lakes, plains, and rivers with their rich, productive valleys. Doubtless the organic act which conferred upon the new territory such magnificent proportions was passed by congress under the belief that the major portion of the great plains region of the Missouri valley was unfit for human habitation.

But the act provided that congress might,* from time to time, as appeared proper or expedient, reduce the area of this territory by creating other territories or parts of territories from it, and it is by virtue of this original pro-,

1804. About 1835, the Presbyterian church had established at this point a mission for the Pawnee, Otoe, and Missouri Indians, and it was the most widely known spot in the territory at that time. It was beautifully located new territory, and to this end Francis Burt, of North Carolina, was apointed governor, and Thomas B. Cuming, of Iowa, secretary of state for the territory of Nebraska. These two officials arrived at Bellevue, in Sarpy county, October 10, 1854. This small western outpost of civilizatidh had been a station of the American Fur Company since on a rising plateau, near the Missouri river, and for some months it was the prospective capital of the new territory. On his way out to assume the duties of his office, the governor had contracted an illness, and on the 18th day of October, eight days after his arrival, in the old Mission House at Bellevue, at the foot of the hill, "Big Elk," in that remote village, he

In matters pertaining to the organization of the territorial government the organic act had clothed the governor with autocratic power and authority. Amongst other things it was made his duty, immediately upon his arrival, to take a census of the people and of the qualified voters of the territory ; to apportion amongst the counties the members of the two houses of the legislature, designated by the act as the council and house of representatives; to call an election for members of that body, and select a place for holding its first session. Before his arrival at Bellevue, Governor Burt had marked off the inhabited portions of the territory into counties, and the proclamation of Acting Governor Cuming, issued on the 21st day of November, 1854, calling the first territorial election, included eight counties, namely: Burt, Cass, Dodge, Forney (now Nemaha), Pierce (now Otoe), Richardson, and

The first official act of the acting governor was the issuing of a proclamation containing the announcement of the death of Governor Burt, and dated the day of his demise. Three days thereafter, to wit, October 21, 1854, the acting governor, in order that all absent residents might return to the territory for registration, issued his proclamation announcing that an enumeration of the census would commence on the following Tuesday, namely October 24, 1854. When completed, this census showed the entire population of the new territory to be 2,722. Upon the return of the census enumerators. Governor Cuming apportioned the thirty-nine members of the legislature provided for in the organic act amongst the eight counties already mentioned, and issued a proclamation for their election. On the 20th day of December, 1854, the election having been held, a call was issued convening the "General Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska on the -16th day of January, 1855."

This first legislature, or general assembly, as it was called, was an able and a wonderfully active body. Following the Iowa statutes, from which it borrowed with the utmost freedom, it enacted general laws for the government of the people, adopted codes of civil and criminal procedure, established numerous territorial roads, created and defined the boundaries of nineteen new counties and provided for the establishment of seats of justice therein. It passed laws for the incorporation of insurance, railroad, land,, manufacturing, milling, bridge, ferry, banking, colonization, and immigration companies. It incorporated cities, of which many were mere figments of some speculator's brain, their very names having been lost in the efflux of time. It incorporated colleges and seats of learning destined never to have faculty or curriculum, and finally, on the 16th day of March, 1855, it expired amidst a whirlwind of joint resolutions and memorials to congress. » pursue at length the history of the territory of Nebraska. The organic act was passed and approved May 30, 1854, and, as we have seen, it was quickly followed by executive proclamation opening the new territory to settlement. In October, 1854, on the arrival of Governor Burt at Bellevue, there were probably less than two thousand white persons in the entire territory. But the territorial period quickly passed. The national census of 1860 showed a total population of 28,841. In 1870 the census gave the state of Nebraska 123,993. As early as 1864 a movement was inaugurated which had for its object the admission of Nebraska into the Union of States. That year, on the 19th day of April, congress passed "An act to enable the people of Nebraska to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the "Union on an equal footing with the original states." After prescribing the boundaries of the proposed state, directing the election of delegates to a constitutional convention to be held for the purpose of framing a state constitution, and fixing the date for holding such convention, the act provided that the constitution of the proposed state, when framed, should be republican and not repugnant to the constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. The act further provided that such constitution should, by proper articles which should be forever irrevocable without the consent of congress, provided inter alia that slavery or involuntary sendtude should be forever prohibited in Nebraska, and that perfect tolerance of religious sentiment should be secured, and no inhabitant of the state should ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship.

In compliance with this enabling act and pursuant to the directions thereof, an election was held in the territory on the 6th day of June, 1866, for the selection of delegates to the proposed constitutional convention. At the same time, by a sort of referendum, the question of statehood was also submitted to a vote of the people. The election returns showed a clear majority against statehood, and the constitutional convention which assembled in June, in conformity with the enabling act, promptly adjourned without action.

In 1866 the subject of the admission of Nebraska as a state into the Union again challenged public attention. The territorial legislature for that year, on its own motion, submitted a state constitution, prepared under its direction, to the voters of the territory, and at an election held June 2, 1866, this action of the legislature was ratified and the constitution was adopted. Congress, thereupon, under date of February 9, 1867, passed a supplemental enabling act, wherein it was specified, as a condition precedent to statehood, that the legislature of Nebraska must declare that there should never be a denial of the right of suffrage on account of race or color, by the prospective state. This condition was finally accepted, and on March 1, 1867, the territory of Nebraska ceased to be, and the great state of Nebraska came into existence.