Web Page
The David City Bank failed in 1984. It was the 55th commercial bank in the United States to fail that year. In this case, the Nebraska State Banking Director declared that the bank was no longer solvent. The bank’s assets were turned over to the FDIC, which began to liquidate the assets of the loans.
Farmers in the surrounding area were facing a new crisis with the failure. Borrowers were sure that there would be foreclosures, and that farmers would be ... Read more
Web Page
Native American tribes, including the Omaha, Oto, Missouri, Pawnee, Arapaho and ... Read more
Web Page
In the first Nebraska territorial census of 1854, there were only four slaves listed. In 1855, Sally Bayne arrived in Omaha and is counted as the first free African American to settle in the Nebraska Territory. Before that, both slaves and free blacks had traveled through on the Oregon Trail and settled on the west coast. Gradually, along with ... Read more
Web Page
The homesteaders came from all over the globe, from all walks of life. They were newly arrived immigrants. They were American farmers without land of their own in the east. They were families with young kids. They were single women. They were former slaves, freed during and after the Civil War.
What united this diverse group of people was the desire to own their own ... Read more
Web Page
Prohibition of alcoholic beverages, like women’s suffrage, was a very emotional issue for most Nebraskans. Some saw an evil combination of saloons and alcohol and blamed liquor for a host of society’s ills. Drunken husbands spent their money on alcohol, money that would never benefit the family or community.
On the other hand, there were a number of large brewery and liquor businesses in Nebraska. And several ethnic groups that accepted alcohol ... Read more
Web Page
On November 11, 1918, World War I ended and America emerged victorious. But as thousands of soldiers returned from Europe ready to forget the terrible carnage they had seen, they arrived in a country with serious social and political problems that the war had simply swept under the surface.
There have always been racial divides in America. People tend to identify themselves as members of one group or another. Tensions ... Read more
Web Page
Over three million prisoners of war were captured by Allied forces during World War II. Of these, 370,000 Germans and 50,000 Italians were transferred from the battlefront to the United States at the request of our European allies, who were holding all the prisoners they could. Prisoner-of-war troops were typically referred to as P.W. or POWs.
Prisoners were brought to the U.S. to be safely confined and to supplement a ... Read more
Web Page
Nebraska entered the 21st century with impressive statistics. As of 2006, Nebraska had the top three beef cattle counties in the U.S., including the nation’s No. 1 cattle county — Cherry County, with nearly 165,000 cattle. Holt County was No. 2 (101,000) and Custer County was No. 3 (93,000). Also among the top counties in the ... Read more
Web Page
By 9,000 years ago, the last Ice Age had ended and the climatic patterns somewhat characteristic of the modern period were established. Many of the animals that had dominated the Plains during the Ice Age became extinct. Mammoths, camels, horses, and others all died out. People changed the way they lived in response to shifts in climate and available plants and animals. More diverse hunting was practiced, with both large and small game species killed. Wild plant resources were also ... Read more
Web Page
In 1714, a French explorer with a long name — Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont — reached the mouth of the Platte. He named it the "Nebraskier River," using an Oto word that means "flat water." Bourgmont had been in North America for 27 years and was a remarkable soldier, trader, and explorer. When he reached the Missouri territory he married a Missouria Indian woman and lived with the tribe. While living with them, he began to carefully explore ... Read more
Web Page
There is a remarkable record of Villasur’s defeat in 1720 still in existence. An unknown artist recorded the battle scene on three large buffalo hides based on descriptions provided by the survivors of the defeat. The artist was expertly trained in the Spanish style of painting, but we don’t know if he or she was Spanish or Indian. Scenes were first drawn in pencil, then traced in ink, and later the intense watercolors were added on a yellow ground.
The ... Read more
Web Page
The trappers, fur traders, and river men are generally given credit for exploring the West and opening it to settlement. The Army Corps of Engineers should also be credited. Stephen H. Long was a member of this group. Like most engineers, Long was college-trained and was willing to work with the modern technology of the time. Engineers were different from the ... Read more
Web Page
In the 1820s and 1830s, religious groups in the East began to look eagerly toward the lawless and “Godless West”. They decided it was their mission to convert non-believers to their faith. Churches set up "Missionary Societies" or boards to raise money for mission trips. They sent missionaries to the distant corners of the world. The churches saw missionary work as a way to bring both civilization and Christianity to the "savages." It was also a way to lessen the ... Read more
Web Page
The first routes west were the rivers, and "the Mighty Missouri" was very popular. Travelers who were coming from St. Louis or points south used the Missouri River. Communities along the Missouri River like Bellevue and Nebraska City became starting points for pioneers moving westward to California or Oregon.
The Missouri River ... Read more
Web Page
The Homestead Act of 1862 was a piece of inspired legislation. It allowed anyone who was over 21 or the head of a household to own land. The Homestead Act became a symbol of newfound freedom for many African Americans. The day that the Homestead Act went into effect — January 1, 1863 — was the same day that President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Many Black Americans began looking to the west as a place where ... Read more
Web Page
One of the first acts of the new Nebraska territorial legislature in 1855 was to provide for free public schools across the state, but life for children during the settlement period was probably centered less on school than it is now. The “Free Public School Act of 1855” created a territorial superintendent and provided for county school superintendents to be elected by popular vote. Each county superintendent was to organize school districts and levy a property tax to support the ... Read more
Web Page
The Homestead Act of 1862 stated that any person age twenty-one or head of a family could claim land. The Act also contained the provision that widows of Union soldiers could deduct the time of service their husbands spent in the Civil War from the five-year residency requirement. So, while the phrase "head of a family" did place limitations on which women could file, many women took advantage of the Homestead Act and other laws to file claims in their ... Read more
Web Page
Imagine what it would be like for your family to move to a new country. You would have to learn a new language and adjust to different customs. You would most likely have to leave many of your relatives behind.
What Factors Pushed People from their Homeland? Emigrants were pushed out of their homelands for a variety of reasons. Some were discriminated against because of their religious and political beliefs. Others weren’t able to buy land, either because they didn’t have ... Read more
Web Page
With the path wide open for cattle’s entry into Nebraska, three new markets for beef increased demand beyond the needs created by the Civil War.
In 1874, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer of the U.S. Cavalry emerged from an expedition into the Black Hills and announced that he had found gold there. Prospectors flooded into the area.
Web Page
Judge Dundy’s decision in the case Standing Bear vs. Crook was an important development in the history of Indian-white relations. It established for the first time that Indians were something more than just "Uncle Sam’s stepchildren" to be regulated by the Interior Department as they pleased. Standing Bear and his followers were now free. But, the unanswered questions were: Free to do what? Free to go where?
They had no place to live, no food to eat, nor clothing to wear. ... Read more
