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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (June 19, 1921)
"V 2 Z THE BEE: OMAHA, SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 1921., Important Part Played by The Bee in Development of Empire of Nebraska , ; ; : ; ! , 4 i Writer Pictures Historical Background of Events Out A Big Day in Downtown Omaha of 50 Years Ago Many Early Settler Avoided Nebraska Plains On Basis Of Misinformation Widely Circulated That Large Part of Territory Was "a Desert" Population Sparse When Territorial Organization Effected in 1854. 4 tws is! s 1- - s? s . 1 - V ' ss,,s J.J.S s s (S.S, s sj, tSViSt' "Sfs V. s sVjS ' s ,s 1 , s T.XJs s Ms sv.sjjlJ.lfS-S Of Which Have Emerged a Great State and a Great Newspaper Early Territorial Develop ment Retarded By False Reports Con cerning Fertility of the Soil. By ALBERT W ATKINS. (Albert Watkins, author of the following outline of that part of Nebraska's history which led to the founding of The Omaha Bee, is his torian of the Nebraska State Historical society. He probably has more defnite and detailed information about Nebraska's development, from trackless prairie, through territorial days into statehood, than any other living man. He was personally acquainted with almost all of the leading characters of Nebraska history since pioneer days Editor's Note.) As I conceive it, my contribution to the celebration of the semi-centennial period in the career of a great Nebraska newspaper is chiefly to supply a historical background for this main event to give some ac count of the circumstances which caused ''its creation and of the con ditions in which it flourished. But it seems proper to take advantage of a propitious opportunity tor spread ing some further knowledge Of the history of the commonwealth" than strictly appertains to the main pur pose. Moreover, a comprehensive body of facts, well tested, touching apti tude and accuracy, is not only essen tial to the ordinary purposes of his tory, but also for the suggestive in spiration to its picturing in an im pressionistic whole, fiction being its favorite, and perhaps only practica ble, form. At the present moment the most effective pictures of social life, past and present, largely, of course, because they are the most entertaining and widely current, are being painted by the world's great tictionists. bor Nebraska Miss Ca ther is brilliantly leading in this imaginative work. "The Nebraska Country." The state of Nebraska is the final remnant of the vastly larger terri , tory which was naturally shaped to the longest and otherwise most im portant affluent of the Missouri riv er. The untutored American Indian had a John Burroughs' sensibility to the beauties of nature, including a sensitive musical ear. Each of the three most important domestic tribes of Nebraska the Omaha, the Oto and the Pawnee- gave this great river an impression istic name with the same, meaning: flat water. As nearly as we can represent their pronunciation by our letters the Umahas called it "Ni Bthaska" and their kinsmen, the uto, jni tfrathka," "Nf meaning water and the other-words, "flat. , The French, so far as we know the first white people to see this river, in their naming borrowed the Indian meaning, but, alas, with the ugly, unmusical translation, Plate La Riviere Plate. Each of 14 of our states has the same name as its principal river, all but one . native Indian words or close derivatives, and all pleasing to both eye and ear. Platte has the merit, rather measly, as I think, of being shorter than Ne- braska. The natural name of the river prevailed in maps and in printed and spoken language until, only rather recently, while the 14 took time for taste, Nebraska took the distaste ful short cut. When, through the settlement of western Missouri and travelers over the Oregon Trail, the transmissouri plain became widely familiar to white people, that section of it, roughly rounded, between the divide of the waters flowing directly into the Missouri and those flowing into the Platte, on the north, and the divide between the Kansas and Ar kansas rivers, on the south, came to be called The Nebraska Country," true tribute to the truly great river which nearly evenly bisects it. "The Nebraska Territory.'"' In the first bill to organize this country into a territory, introduced in congress in 1844, it was called The Nebraska Territory, but it was commonly called Nebraska by pro moters of its political organization somewhat earlier. In this first bill the 43d parallel of latitude was the northern boundary, and the 38th its southern. In the first three bills In troduced for territorial organization the 43d parallel was the northern boundary; in the fourth, 43 degrees 30 minutes; in the other two the northern boundary was pushed up to the Canadian line, which was finally adopted. It is an interesting incident that when the carvings, up and down, of the prolific parent territory's vast area of 351,558 square miles into nu merous other commonwealths had been finished, this at first favorite, in some sort natural, territorial bound ary, was adopted as the northern limit of the remnant state of Ne braska. In the first bill the 38th parallel of latitude was the southern boundary; in the second, of 1848, the 40th; in the next three, 36 degrees, 30 min utes; In the final bill, the 37th. The 36 degrees, 30 minutes line was the favorite because it was the southern boundary of Missouri and the divi sion, touching slavery, agreed to in the Missouri compromise; but just at the last it was discovered that this line cut through the reservation of the Cherokee Indians, whose north ern boundary was the 37th parallel, the boundary also between the lands of the Cherokee and the Osage In dians. So the natural and very de sirable uniform boundary line for the two great states, Missouri and Kansas, was sacrificed. At any rate, the resulting jog lengthens the long list, as it seems, of the cases of the "tail wagging the dog." ' In common parlance, the Nebraska country comprised the territory op posite Iowa and Missouri and the Mexican line on the west In a speech at Platte City June 6, 1853, Senator Atchison of Missouri said: "First, then, as to Nebraska. This territory was formerly called the Missouri or Indian territory and was so laid down on the maps. It lies west of the states of Missouri and Iowa and extending to New Mexico and the Rocky mountains. Within a few years it has been called Ne braska, or at least that portion of it which is now proposed to be organ ized tinder a territorial government and opened to the settlement of white men." Called "Nebraska." George W. Manypenny, commis sioner of Indian affairs, in his report for 1853 speaks of "the specific Missouri and Iowa (what is gener ally termed just Nebraska)"; and lie calls this part of the plains just Nebraska severar times in the report. In October, 1853, he inspected this country and found that "there was no settlement made in any part of Nebraska. From all the information I could obtain, there were but three white men in the territory, except such as were there by authority of law and those adopted by marriage into Indian families." In this report he illustrates the ut terly lawless condition of Nebraska just before its territorial organiza tion: "These emigrants travel through the Indian country to their abodes on the Pacific without the protection of law. There is no law, there but the Intercourse, act, and y it gives them no protection whatever. fc,X' cept the Wyandottes and Ottawas, who have simple laws, the Indian tribes in , the territory are destitute of any prescribed form ot govern ment. Panoramic Nebraska. ' It would not be fanciful to repre sent the animal and plant life of early Nebraska in a moving pano ramie pageant. Historic facts ac tually present such a picture, and the constantly commingled primi tive American people and the Amert can bisons are its outstanding fea tures. They were alike ignorantly miscalled Indians and buffaloes. The people found all over the con tinent of North America by its Eu ropean discoverers are truly the American race; but these discoverers Columbus especially supposing they had touched the shores of India," named the ; inhabitants In dians. Peter H. Burnett, leader of the famous expedition of emigrants to Oregon in 1843, observed that when the season was wet so that the buffaloes could find water on the up lands nd in the sand hills, they would go back from the Platte river for wider grazing fields. Thus the Indians followed them, backward and forward, mostly northerly and southerly. Procession of the Plants. The native plants of Nebraska comprise an unusually large number of species. Plants, like alt living things,' continually move about, into new places. If the conditions are suitable in these new places, the new settlers stay and thrive there. Nebraska is so situated that it is the meeting place of species of plants which have migrated from valleys and woodlands to the east, with other species which have migrated from the mountains to the west Most kinds of trees and shrubs now native to Nebraska have moved in from the east. .Probably about a score of species of these native trees and shrubs have moved down from the mountains of the west . Procession of the Animals. The original animal - life of Ne braska was very rich in the number of species, especially of birds and mammals. The reason for this is the same as that givn for the great number of kinds of plants. By virtue of their great size, num ber and usefulness, bisons, now com monly called buffaloes', were the most remarkable of the native ani mals of Nebraska. They were of more importance to the Indians than the domestic European cattle are to the present white inhabitants. Their flesh supplied most of the meat; their skins were used for clothing, for shoes, for bedding, for tent covers and many other pur poses. Thread and cords were made of their sinews, tools of their bones, spoons of their horns, glue of their hoofs, ornaments of their teeth; their hair, like wool, was woven into many useful articles, and small boys used their ribs and shoulder blades to make sleds on which they had great fun coasting downhill over the frozen snow. The Desert Myth. A misapprehension that Nebraska was a "desert" was ' caused partly by superficial observation, of ex plorers and travelers, and, for the rest, by the slanderous reports of residents of the eastern and south western states, who were afraid that opening the vast territory to occupa tion would hinder the settlement of their own great area of vacant land. They wished also to preserve these western plains as a dumping ground for their own undesirable Indian population. This influence hindered the development of the Nebraska country for about 50 years while it gradually vanished before the ex periment of actual cultivators of the soil and the spread of the knowledge gained by competent scientific in vestigation. G. K. Chesterton has lately been very prosperously floating a series of lectures in this country in which he talked mostly about "the unedu cated educated." His original con ceit touching this topic, "AH vulgar errors arise from education. The uneducated are generally right; the badly educated are always wrong," seems to solve our present puzzle. A group of half educated repute.d scientific explorers did most of the mischief in question. In 1806. Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, Sixth infantry, led a- military expedition from St Louis to the Rocky mountains andnhe sources of the Arkansas river. His coarse was through the richest part of easterly Kansas and for some distance along the Republican river; but west of a line not far from the eastern bound ary of the present Kansas, he seemed to see little but sand and virtually a desert waste. And yet Pike's ca reer was distinguished for honor, gallantry and general efficiency. In 1820 Maj. Stephen H. Long, JJn&ed St&Jbw eoguieett, led a njita- : im ii 1 1 -mm -r A1. x" " "ftiitf' . i i in i " I ' it f't! mi a 'i..... , ffffiftyjjlffffi, " " " "" "' 1 1 , yy" tific exploring expedition from the first military post established in the Nebraska country (soon after called Fort Atkinson) up the Platte river to the Rocky mountains. A Poor Prophet. Ot the country west of his start ing point, then called Council Bluff, he fatuously prophesied: In regard to this extensive section of the coun try, we do not hesitate in giving the opinion that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation and, of course, un inhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their subsist ence. His observation was farcically su perficial and his summing up graph ically untrue. The bottom lands of the Platte, he found, were from two to ten miles wide. "Beyond these the surface is an undulating, plain, having an elevation of from 50 to 100 feet, and presents the aspect of hope less and irreclaimable sterility." It has been said, plausibly, . and it seems, charitably, that Long was piqued because he was allowed only scant outfit for his expedition, which had been ostenstatiously start ed as a scientific arm of the famous and infamous Yellowstone expedi tion, and so revenged himself in a rampage on the country. Lieut G. K. Warren, topographical engineers, whose military prescience earned the title of "Heco of Little Round Too" at Gettysburg, - made the following utterly incomprehensi- i reen Barnhart Brothers & Spindler -Suppliers to- PRINTERS and The Best in Type-Presses Composing Room Equipment 1114 Howard Street, Omaha, Neb. Call JA ckson 1076 ble round-up in the report of his ex ploration of 1855: "The general conclusions which I have drawn from my own observa tions and studies (though I may not have fully demonstrated them) are that the portion of Nebraska (which I have visited) lying north of White river is mostly of a clay for mation, and that south of it is mainly of sand; that but a small portion of it is susceptible of cultivation west of the 97th meridian; that the terri tory is occupied by powerful tribes of roving savages and is only adapt ed to a mode of life such as theirs; that it must long remain an Indian country. . . " The damnatory - dividing line of this topographical expert runs through this noble tier of , agricul tural counties: Dixon, Wayne, Cuming, Colfax, Butler, Seward, Sa line and Jefferson. It condemns all of Jefferson, Saline, Seward and Butler excepting a strip of their eastern tier of townships four miles and three-quarters' wide; a strip of the same width is all that is saved of Colfax; a strip a mile and three quarters wide is cut off Cuming and Dixon, and of Wayne about nine miles are safely within the palel One turns to Pope for the epigram to fit this malevolent myopia: "Say, what the use wer finer optica Kiven T Inspect the mite, Dot comprehend the heav'n." In his report for 1842 D. D. Mitch- ables The Dr. Benj. F. Bailey Sanatorium, Lincoln, Neb., is beautifully situ ated in its' grounds of 25 acres. IA request will bring particulars regarding its work. ! ! S PUBLISHERS ell, superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis, said: "All Desert." "If we draw a line running north and south, so as to cross the Mis souri' about at the mouth of the Ver milion river, we shall designate the limits beyond which civilized men are never likely to settle." If they should go beyond this line, he said, they would never stop on the east side ot the Kockv mountains. The mouth of the Vermilion river is in the very rich county of Clay. South Dakota, yet Mr. Mitchell said that "the sterility of sandy soil, to gether with the coldness and dry ness of the climate," barred settle ment thereabouts. Senator Atchison of Missouri in his notable speech at Parkville on August 6, 1853, said: "In one word. I have been told often and again by gentlemen who know that in all the country called Nebraska that there is not as much good tillable land as there is in the six counties constituting the Platte (purchase) country. And many persons in this assembly know that this information is substantially cor rect" Prejudiced Senator. But Senator Atchison's wish may well have ' fathered this slanderous thought, for he opposed the political Substantial, Yet Beautiful, Dignified and Worthy of Confidence, Is Western Bond Carp organization of the Nebraska coun try without slavery, and he feared that he could not get it with slavery. At about the same time Lazarus H. Read, , lately appointed chief jus tice of the Tetritory of Utah, also in gloriously sunk himself in the bog of prophecy: "After crossing this river (Big Blue) and its bottom, we enter a re gion entirely different The face of the country is a succession of bluffs, hard, dry, stony and without timber or water, except at long intervals, and in my opinion will never be set tled to any considerable extent." A correspondent with Gen. Wil liam S. Harney's expedition to avenge the killing of Lieutenant Grattan and his command near Fort Laramie, writing from O'Fallon's Bluffs on August 31, 1854, said: "In truth this Platte river is a humbug. It is about dry, and a per son can cross it dry-shod. . . From 100 miles east of Fort Kearny to the foot of the- Rocky Mountains the land is entirely unproductive and un inhabited. It belongs to the buffalo and the wild Indian and should be given up to them entirely. No white man has any business here. . ." The correspondent's eye was keen enough to see the superficial faults of the country and the vast number of buffaloes through which the com mand was traveling every day excit- WESTERN BOND is made for the better class of business stationery. How well it has come up to this requirement is attested by its remark able popularity and the ever-increasing demand. The prestige of over a quarter of a century of service to printers and lithographers in Nebraska, Western Iowa , and the Northwest territory proves this fact. WESTERN BOND is by choice the leader among good bond papers an endorsement, of its worth. WESTERN BOND is a paper of genuine high-grade characteristics. 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Samples sent on request with the name of your dealer. enter Wholesale Distributors O MA H A ed hfs wonder; but his mind was so dulled by prejudice that it could not reason the simple step to tne plain conclusion that a region with a soil and a climate which supported such vast herds of wild cattle, without protection, was destined to become famous throughout the world for the production of domestic cattle and of the most important foods for them as well as for mankind. "Great American Desert" In Bradford's General Atlas of 183S and Olney's Geography of 1837 the Great American LJesert was in definitely indicated as the region west of the Missouri river. In Mitchell's Geography of 1839 it is definitely shown as an oblong region just east of the Rocky mountains south of the Platte and extendinj as far south as the headwaters ol the Red river. In S. G. Goodrich's Comprehen sive Geography and History, puh lished by J. H. Colton & Co. in 1855, the Great American Desert is indi cated as extending from the south fork of the Platte southward, to the Red river, to the Rocky Mountains on the west and including parts of Nebraska, Kansas and the Indian Territory on the east. v Its general extent was noted thus: An im mense tract called the Great Amer ican Desert extends along the east ern part of the Rocky Mountains from the Nebraska territory to Texas, a length of nearly 600 miles." Early Explorers' Views. In a very superficial view these maps were as truthful as could be expected. From the earliest observ ers, on the other hand, we have stones of the great fertility of this region. Jaramillo, with Coronado's expedition in 1541, whom Chesterton would doubtless class among the un educated, expatiated on the agricul tural richness of eastern Kansas. In a letter dated April 10. 1706, Bien ville, the distinguished French colo nist of Louisiana, notes that Cana dian travelers along the Missouri said that the country was the finest in the world; and Nicholas de la Salle, writing October 16, 1708, had as cended the Missouri river as far as 300 to 400 leagues "through the finest countries in the world." An advance detachment of the military arm of the Yellowstone ex pedition of 1819 marched through a section of the condemned country from Belle Fontaine, a barracks about 25 miles west of St. Louis, to its winter quarters on Cow island, now 10 miles above Leavenworth. In a letter written at this camp an officer of the detachment said: "We have passed through a country which is not surpassed in fertility of soil and water courses by any in the world." The promoters of territorial gov Paper ernment for the Nebraska country, who lived on the Missouri border and knew precisely what they were talking about, reveled in descriptions of its richness. "Desert" a Phantasm. The desert, then, was a largely fac titious phantasm. Tne mighty senti nels of the Rockies, which immortal ike the names of the discoveries of the half-educated originators and sponsors of the myth Pikes Peak, Longs Peak, Fremonts Peak at this moment look down upon the putative desert plains at their feet teeming with crops of agricultural staples, and, with improved methods of cultivation, destined to support a large population of general farmers. Contemplating the world-wide ruin of the war, came an accusatory chorus of social seers against the in stitutions which should have pre vented it, and religion and education are the derelicts most severely con demned. Wells most profoundly reasons against the educational sys tem and Chesterton paradoxically lampoons it. ."There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island," is a whole chapter of "The Natural History of Ireland." , Thai sums up the great American desert myths. The Early Population. The sparse population of Nebraska on its territorial organization in 1854 is quite explicable. By the provi sions of the Indian country act ol June 30, 1834, noneof the territory was eligible to white setflers. The 275 who were here, most of them at Fort Kearny, comprised mostly licensed traders. . When Iowa was established as a. territory in 1838 the Indians had ceded a large part of their lands to the United States, and the two greal counties of Dubuque and Dea Moines had been under territorial government for two years as a part of the Territory of Wisconsin. Con sequently there were about 3u,UUX white' settlers in the new territory when it started. For similar reasons Wisconsin had a white population of 22,000 when it became a territory. In like cir cumstances the Territory of Mis souri began with a fairly stable , white population of 26,000. Minne sota had about 6,000, principally m the continuous group of eastern counties,. Ramsey, Washington and Dakota, and in Pembina, Lord Sel kirk s settlement on the Red river and now in North Dakota. So the ' political beginning of these neigh boring territories was comparatively regular and orderly, while that of Nebraska was perforce irregular and disorderly. Kansas and Nebraska . Contrasted. ntrasiea. rritoyr at ska, Vas Kansas, organized as a territo the same time as Nebraska, (Continued on Face Three. Co. Y a . y . - - - - - - - .. .... ... . 1 . .. . ... I V-