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   The compilation of a Nebraska Blue Book as a publication of the state was first authorized by the Legislature of 1913. Several earlier publications of an unofficial character had been issued. In 1893 and 1897 Eric Johnson, former chief clerk of the Nebraska House of Representatives published a legislative manual and handbook, and in 1899 and 1901 blue books were issued by the State Journal Company.

    The Legislature selected the Legislative Reference Bureau as the agency for editing and publishing the official statistical and descriptive state book known as the Blue Book. The first edition was in print early in 1915, and subsequent revised editions were issued in 1918 and biennially (sic) thereafter, making this revision of 1936 the eleventh edition.

    The Nebraska Blue Book differs somewhat from many similar publications of other states and countries, in that it confines its scope absolutely to Nebraska matters. Its aim is to furnish in concise form a wide range of facts about Nebraska. Much of the information it contains is the result of original research on the part of members of the Legislative Reference Bureau staff, or has been prepared by persons specially qualified to cover given fields of knowledge.

    For the accounts of the regular and emergency activities of the federal government included in this edition, we are indebted to the officials administering those activities, the United States Information Bureau, George E. Condra, Thomas A. Blair and A. E. Anderson.

    Future editions should still further adjust the subject matter to the changing times. The Blue Book is used as a reference book on Nebraska in all the schools and libraries of the state. Constant efforts to include such information as will make it most useful is part of the Reference Bureau's work for more enlightened civic life in our state.

EDNA D. BULLOCK.

University of Nebraska
November, 1936.

    Earliest Records.--The earliest records of Nebraska are the rocks and the soil. These indicate that this part of the planet has at times been the bottom of a sea and other times has been elevated above the water; that at one time the region had a climate of tropical warmth and at a later time was covered in part by a thick sheet of ice. The remains of former plants and animals which testify to these conditions are abundant within the state.

    Prehistoric People.--Recent investigations indicate the presence of prehistoric men in Nebraska at a period several hundred, perhaps thousands of years ago. The remains and implements of these people have been funnel at many places along the Missouri river, in the Bad Lands and other places. Study of these remains now being carried on promise in the near future a far greater knowledge of these people than we now possess.

    The Nebraska Indians.--The Otoe, Omaha, Ponca, Pawnee, Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes of Indians were found in Nebraska by the first explorers. These numbered altogether about 40,000 people who lived chiefly by hunting, partly by primitive agriculture. War was the normal condition existing between these tribes. The traditions of these Indians indicate that they had migrated to the Nebraska region within a few hundred years of the time they were found by the first explorers.

    The First White Men.--Francisco Vasquez Coronado and his party of thirty Spanish cavalry were the first white men to visit this region. Their visit was in the summer of 1541. French fur traders and trappers began to venture up the Missouri river about the year 1700. In 1739 the Mallet brothers, with a party of eight Frenchmen, named the Platte river and traveled nearly the entire length of the state on a journey from the Missouri river to Santa Fe. They were followed by many other French fur traders during the next sixty years.

    Struggle for Possession of Nebraska.--Spain, France and England all claimed the Nebraska region at different times, basing their claims upon discoveries and explorations. In 1763, at the close of the Seven years' war, France ceded all her claims east of the Mississippi river to England and west of the Mississippi to Spain. Nebraska was thus a part of the Spanish province of Louisiana from 1763 until 1801, when Napoleon bought back the region from Spain and in 1803 sold the entire region to the United States.

    Early American Exploration.--Lewis and Clarke were the commanders of the first American expedition to visit Nebraska, in the years 1804-1806. In the year 1811 the Hunt party of Astorians skirted the Nebraska shores on their way to Oregon and in 1813 seven of the party crossed the mountains and followed the North Platte down to its junction with the Missouri. In 1819 Major Long with a party of twenty men traveled from the Missouri river up the Platte to the head waters of its south fork near Denver. During the years 1807-1820 Manuel Lisa, of Spanish descent, but a citizen of the United States, became the leading fur trader and explorer of the Nebraska region.

    The First Military Post--Fort Atkinson was established in the years 1819 and 1820 and abandoned in 1827. It was upon the site of the present village of Fort Calhoun in Washington county, 16 miles above Omaha. It had a population of over 1,000 people and was the site of the first school, the first library, the first brick-yard, the first sawmill, the first grist-mill and the first extensive farming by white men within the state.

    The Early Missionaries.--Moses Merrill and his wife, Eliza Wilcox, were the first missionaries to the Nebraska Indians. They arrived in Bellevue in 1833 and continued their work as missionaries and teachers until Mr. Merrill died in 1840. Rev. Samuel

Allis and John Dunbar arrived at Bellevue in 1834 and continued as missionaries to the Pawnee tribe for the next twelve years. Father DeSmet, a Catholic missionary, first came to Nebraska in 1838 and for the next thirty-five years gave his services to the Indians west of the Missouri river.

    The Overland Trail.--On April 10, 1830, Sublette and Jackson, with ten wagons and one milch cow, started from St. Louis for the Wind River mountains in Wyoming and returned in the fall. In 1832 Nathaniel I. Wyeth went over the same road to Oregon. Their route was up the valley of the Little Blue and Platte rivers and made the beginning of the Oregon trail, which for the next forty years was the greatest wagon road the world has ever seen. Other trails across Nebraska were the California trail, starting from Bellevue or Omaha and travelling up the north bank of the Platte; the Denver trail from the Missouri river to Denver and the 'steam wagon road" or Nebraska city cut-off, from Nebraska City up the West Blue to the Platte and on to Denver. These trails were traveled by thousands of wagons every year until the construction of the Pacific railroads.

    Steamboats on the Missouri.--The Western Engineer, which brought Major Long's party on its exploring expedition in September, 1819, was the first stream vessel to navigate Nebraska waters. Other steamboats took part in the Aricara expedition in 1823. In 1832 the steamboat Yellowstone began the first regular annual fur trading voyages up the Missouri river, stopping at points on the Nebraska shore. From 1850 to 1860 steamboat navigation along the Nebraska shores was at its height, forty or fifty different steamboats being in the Missouri river trade. With the construction of railroads the steamboat business rapidly fell off until only a few ferryboats and one or two steamboats a year navigated the Missouri along the Nebraska shore. The federal government is expending vast sums on the Missouri river with the expectation of restoring river traffic in the near future.

    Conditions in Nebraska from 1830 to 1854.--Frontier conditions of the most rugged nature ruled in Nebraska between these years. A few steamboats plied the Missouri river between St. Louis and the head of navigation. The overland trails from the Missouri river to the mountains and Pacific coast were traveled by caravans of emigrants and freighting wagons each summer. A little group of Christian missionaries and teachers were laboring among the Nebraska Indians. A few white fur traders and buffalo hunters followed the streams and crossed the prairies. Fort Kearny, on the Platte river, opposite the present city of Kearney and Bellevue, on the Missouri river, were the only two white settlements of any size within the present state. The dominant figures in the Nebraska landscape were the buffalo, the coyote, the prairie dog and the Indian.

    Beginning of Political Government--The Nebraska region was part of the territory of Indiana from October 1, 1804, to July 4, 1805. From July 4, 1805, to December 7, 1812, it was part of the territory of Louisiana with its capital at St. Louis. It then became a part of the territory of Missouri until the year 1821 when Missouri was made a state and Nebraska became a part of the unorganized region commonly called the "Indian country." By the act of June 30, 1834, congress defined the boundaries of the Indian country and enacted laws excluding white men and regulating relations with the Indians. The Indian Superintendent at St. Louis was made governor over the "Indian country."

    Nebraska Name and Organization--The name "Nebraska" first appears in literature about the year 1842. Lieutenant John C. Fremont explored the plains and mountains in that year. His report speaks of the "Nebraska river," the Otoe Indian name for the Platte from the Otoe word "Nebrathka," meaning "Flat Water." Secretary of War William Wilkins, in his report of November 30, 1844, says "the Platte or Nebraska river

being the central stream would very properly furnish a name to the (proposed) territory," The first bill to organize the new Nebraska territory was introduced in congress December 17, 1844, by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. This bill failed to pass. In 1848 Douglas introduced a second bill, which also failed. In 1853 a third bill was likewise defeated. In 1854, a fourth Nebraska bill, now called the "Nebraska-Kansas bill," was passed after a prolonged and bitter struggle and signed by President Franklin Pierce on May 30, 1854. This prolonged struggle between the slave states and the free states for dominance in the Nebraska region led to the organization of the new Republican party and the border conflicts which hastened the Civil war.

    The First Nebraska Government.--Francis Burt, of South Carolina, was the first governor of Nebraska territory. He arrived at Bellevue October 7, 1854, and died there October 18. Thomas B. Cuming became the acting governor. A struggle between the new town of Omaha and the old town of Bellevue for the territorial capital was determined in favor of Omaha by Governor Cuming, who called the first session of the territorial legislature to meet there January 16, 1855.

    The Early Territorial Period.--The questions of most interest in the early territorial Nebraska days were the settlement of the country, the laws relating to land and currency, the proposed Pacific railroad, the rivalry between north and south Platte regions, the organization of the Republican party in 1858, as a rival of the Democratic party, the defeat of the first effort to make Nebraska a state. The population grew slowly from 2,732 in November, 1854, to 28,841 in 1860.

    The Later Territorial Period.-The election of Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860, the Civil war which followed and the appointment of Alvin Saunders as governor of Nebraska territory by President Lincoln in 1861, constitute a dividing period in Nebraska territorial history. The chief events in this later period were the raising of the First Nebraska regiment under Colonel John M. Thayer for service in the union army; the enactment of the free homestead law, taking effect January 1, 1863; the beginning of construction upon the Union Pacific railway in 1865; the fierce war with the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians on the plains which broke out in August, 1864; the passage of the enabling act by congress on April 19, 1864, permitting Nebraska to become a state and the fight over statehood between the Republican and Democratic parties centering in the election of June 2, 1866, where victory was won for statehood by the close vote of 3,938 for to 3,838 against.

    From Admission as a State March 1, 1867, to the Adoption of the Constitution of 1875, November 1, 1875.--This is the formative period of the new state. Among its principal events were the relocation of the capital at Lincoln, July 29, 1867, the impeachment of Governor David Butler in 1871, the first period of railway construction, including the completion of the Pacific railroad to the ocean and the entrance of the Burlington and Northwestern railroads into the region, the hard times and grasshopper period beginning in 1873, the establishment of the state university and agricultural college February 15, 1869, and the first great wave of homesteading immigrants who settled most of the desirable land in the eastern half of the state and sent adventurous pioneers into the remotest parts.

    From the Adoption of the Constitution in 1875 to the Farmers' Alliance Revolution in 1890.--This period is marked by the complete settlement of all parts of the state except a few million acres of sand hills; by a rising demand for railroad regulation and political conflicts with railroad companies; by the removal of the Sioux, Pawnee, Ponca and Otoe Indians from their old Nebraska homes to new locations in Oklahoma and South Dakota; by continuing conflicts between the grangers and cattlemen for possession of the land in western Nebraska; by the beginning of the world-wide struggle between organized capital and organized wage-earners exemplified by strikes in the city

of Omaha in 1882 and the great Burlington strike of 1888; and finally by the organization of the Farmers' Alliance, its entrance into the political field, and first victory in the election of 1890.

    From 1890 to the Present Time.-The past forty-five years of Nebraska history have seen even greater changes than those which marked the period from 1850 to 1890. Some of the many events which have distinguished the later period have been the drouth and the hard times from 1891 to 1897 with the extension of state aid to the drouth stricken regions; the development of alfalfa, winter wheat and sugar beets as Nebraska crops; the motorization of farm machinery; the development of irrigation and soil culture as new methods in farming; the creation of the Omaha stock yards as a great public market and the large increase in home manufacture for the conversion of raw material into refined forms of wealth; the growth of co-operative unions among farmers, the organization of manufacturers' associations and the closer organization of all lines of business interests; the enactment of progressive statutes such as the Australian ballot, the direct primary, the initiative and referendum, the gasoline tax to provide funds for improvement of highways, and the civil administrative code of 1919 which consolidated decentralized boards and commissions into a few departments under heads appointed by the governor; public ownership of school text books, the growth of tenant farming, the development of a state highway system and the common use of the automobile.
    The economic depression which overwhelmed the country in 1929 was reflected in Nebraska by almost unprecedented low prices for the farmers' products, bank and business failures, foreclosures of mortgages on farms, homes and other property, and general business stagnation. Real property values declined, assessed valuations were lowered and public revenues fell off. Unemployment made heavy demands on public and private funds for relief of citizens who were in need of it. Wages and salaries, both public and private, were lowered, building projects were abandoned and expenditures curtailed.
    Indifferent citizens became interested in economies and government, and flocked to libraries for information. Taxpayers' leagues were organized, governmental activities were scrutinized, and many changes in the direction of economics advocated.
    Drouth and a scourge of grasshoppers in the season of 1931 devastated eight counties in northeastern Nebraska. Needed relief was supplied by the citizens of the state through the governor's relief organization, and other agencies, including the American Red Cross. Nebraska railroads contributed thousands of dollars by freely transporting supplies.
    The drouth of 1934 was the most devastating in the history of the state. In common with the other states, Nebraska cooperated with and shared in the various federal relief and recovery activities. But for these, many Nebraskans would have had no means of support. The drouth of 1936 repeats many of the conditions of 1934. Crops are short, and in some places entirely destroyed by drouth and grasshoppers. The various recovery and relief activities of the federal and state governments are described briefly elsewhere in this volume.

    Nebraska in the World War.--On April 6, 1917, the congress of the United States declared that a state of war existed between this country and Germany. Nebraska furnished 47,801 men for the war. For the various war causes, the purchase of United States bonds, the Red Cross and others, Nebraska furnished near $300,000,000. About one thousand Nebraska soldiers died in the service, and her men fought in all the great battles in Europe and served in ships in every part of the world. The greatest contribution Nebraska made to the war was, perhaps, the food supply. The surplus food which supplied the allies and the American soldiers was produced in six or seven

American states, of which Nebraska was one. Nebraska furnished Base Hospital 49, consisting of 400 men and women stationed at Allereye, France. This hospital cared for many thousands of badly wounded during the last campaign of the war.

    Constitutional Changes.--A constitutional convention met in December, 1919, and after a session of several months proposed forty-one amendments to the state constitution. All of these were adopted at a special election held September 21, 1920. The Nebraska state legisltaure (sic), called in special session on July 31, 1919, unanimously (sic) ratified an amendment to the federal constitution permitting women to vote in all states of the union on equal terms with men. In addition to this Nebraska placed woman suffrage in her own state constitution by vote September 21, 1920.
    A constitutional amendment adopted on November 6, 1934, makes Nebraska the first state to discard the two-house legislature and substitute a single chamber. The legislature meeting in 1937 will have a membership of forty-three, as determined by the legislature of 1935. Members are to be elected on a non-partisan ballot with no party designation.
    Two other amendments adopted in 1934 repealed the prohibition amendment and granted the legislature power to authorize pari-mutual betting on horse races.
     An amendment adopted at the November election in 1936 abolished the office of the commissioner of public lands and buildings.

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