THE CITY OF LINCOLN NEBRASKA
Q
Just forty years ago this spring three
men, commissioned by the infant state of
Nebraska to locate a capital site, estab
lished the original metes and bounds of
what is now Lincoln. Omaha had been
the capital of Nebraska territory, but up
on admission to the sisterhood 01 states
it was determined to establish the capi
tal nearer the "center." The fact thai the
capitol commission established this "cen
ter" only fifty miles from the Missouri
river is an indication of what even N
braskans of that period thought of the
state as a whole as an agricultural area.
Today there are a half-dozen cities in Ne
braska west of Lincoln that are larger
than Omaha was when the territory be
came a state.
When the site of Lincoln was laid out
there was not a house or even a dugout
within five miles of where the city 'hall
now stands. Perhaps one reason for
selecting the site was that just west of
the city were some salt springs, and here
the earlier settlers, the Indians and the
wild animals of the plains gathered to se
cure their salt supply. This promised to
make it "quite a business center" in time,
for the early settlers expected this to be
the center of the republic's salt industry.
This dream has never been realized. The
name Lincoln was given to the new capi
tal in an effort to prevent it from being
removed from Omaha. The fight over the
question of removal was bitter, and fin
ally one of the opponents of removal from
Omaha moved to christen the new capital
"Lincoln," thinking that the name would .
prevent some still unreconstructed "cop
perheads" from voting for the removal
bill. The scheme did not work.
From nothing save a name, Lincoln
has grown in the short space of forty
years to be a city of 45,000 people, with
more than 100 miles of paved streets,
sixty miles of street railway, a municipal
ity owned water plant worth f 2,000,000,
a municipally owned electric lighting
plant, a splendid city hall, splendid the
atres, beautiful residences fronting wide
streets lined with trees, fine business
blocks and a rapidly growing manufac
turing section. It is the seat of the Uni
versity of Nebraska, with its College of
Agriculture and within fifteen minutes
ride of the heart of the city are such im
mense educational institutions as Wes
leyan University at University Place, a
Methodist school ; Bethany University at
Bethany, a Disciples of Christ school;
Nebraska Military Institue, and the uni
versity at College View maintained by
the Seventh Day Advents, the largest
educational institution maintained by
this organization. It is also the location
of the Nebraska State Prison, the Home
of the Friendless, and the Nebraska Hos
pital for the Insane. At Havelock, a su
burb within twenty minutes' ride of the
postoffice, is located the Burlington
shops, the largest shops of the Burling
ton system, employing from 1,000 to 1,
500 men. Lincoln is one of the largest
railroad centers west of Chicago, and
numbers among its inhabitants upwards
of 10,000 people engaged in the railroad
service or dependent thereon. More than
200 freight and passenger trains arrive
in and depart from Lincoln every twenty
four hours. Its railroad service is such
as to give it a strategic position, and be
cause of this its wholesale business is
growing by leaps and bounds. In the
one matter of distribution of agricultural
implements Lincoln ranks third, possibly
second, among the cities of the country
not manufacturing the same. Practically
every branch of wholesaleing, with the
exception of dry goods is represented in
Lincoln. The volume of the grocery and
drug business is immense.
As a manufacturing city Lincoln is
making rapid strides forward. It is man
ufacturing marine engines and shipping
them to all parts of the world. It is a
milling center, and the product is stand
ard the world over. It supplies an im
mense territory with structural iron and
steel; its confectionery industry is be
coming immense, and its manufacturing
chemists are to be listed among the big
ones of the country. The cement indus
try, too, is assuming immense propor
tions. It has two large and prosperous
garment factories, the outputs of which
have achieved wide favor. In the printing
and publishing lines Lincoln takes front
rank, more than 1,200 wage earners being
engaged in these lines. The wage earn
ers of Lincoln and suburbs receive up
wards of $6,000,000 a year in wages.
Lincoln offers peculiar inducements to
those looking for locations for manufac
turing industries. Its railroad advan
tages are superb; its environment ap
peals, and it is the center of a huge terri
tory that is developing at a marvelous
rate. The Lincoln Commercial Club
stands ready at all times to give intend
ing investors full and complete informa
tion concerning Lincoln's advantages in
every direction. W. S. Whitten, the effi
cient secretary of the organization, makes
it his especial business to supply all
inquirers with the real facts.
Lincoln is a city of homes. Perhaps no
other city of its size in America has as
many wage earners who own their own
homes. This gives stability to the labor
market. No other city of equal size is
better equipped with churches or has a
better public school system. Lincoln is
now expending $350,000 in the erection of
a new high school building and addi
tional ward school buildings. It boasts of
the two largest and best equipped hotels
between Chicago and the Pacific coast,
with several other hotels equally good
and only inferior in the point of size. It
has an auditorium capable of seating 3,
500 people, three fine theatres, a park
and boulevard system that is being de
veloped at a splendid rate, and efficient
fire and police forces for the protection
of the life and property of its people.
There is no better city in which to rear a
family, for it has every educational and
religious advantage, a splendid moral at
mosphere and is recognized as a center
of music and art.
LINCOLN COMMERCIAL CLUB.
The greatest factor in the commercial
life of Lincoln, and one of the great fac
tors in the upbuilding of Nebraska and
the northwest, is the Lincoln Commercial
Club. This organization has a member
ships of nearly one thousand, comprising
the live business and professional men of
the city. It is now erecting a handsome
building to cost $80,000, and which will
be one of the handsomest buildings of its
kind in the country.
The Lincoln Commercial Club is con
stantly at work securing good things for
the city. It seeks to further the business
interests of those already engaged in
business, as well as to secure new estab
lishments that will employ more people
and further increase the volume of trade.
Intending investors need but to write,
to Walter S. Whitten, secretary, to be
supplied with full and exact information
concerning Lincoln and the territory of
which it is the natural center a terri
tory so vast and so rich in potentialities
as to be an empire within itself.
OFFERED IN EVIDENCE.
In 1898 there was held in Omaha the
third largest exposition ever held in "the
United States the Trans-Mississippi ex
position. It had to compete with the
Spanish-American war, yet it achieved a
record. It was the only great exposition
ever held in the United States that came
anywhere near paying out. It repaid to
its stockholders and subscribers 95 cents
on the dollar. It broke all records up
to that time for architectural beauty of
its buildings and brilliance of its electric
lighting.
These few facts are offered in evidence
to prove that the Nebraska spirit is equal
to every occasion and then some.