3, of that year; but evidently no election was held, and so the legislature intervened as already stated.

May 20, 1872, Acting Governor James ordered an election of county officers for Harlan county, to be held June 29 of that year-for precinct No. 1, at the store of John McPherson; for precinct No. 2, at the store of Frank A. Beiyon. Precinct No. 1 comprised all that part of the territory east of range 19, and precinct No. 2 that part west of range 18. The act of February 11, 1873, defining the boundaries of Phelps county, designated Edward Barnes, Caleb J. Dilworth, and J. Q. Mustgrove as county commissioners. They were required to qualify within sixty days after the passage of the act and to call an election for county officers, including county commissioners, within thirty days of their qualification.3

An act of March 3, 1873, authorized Kearney county to fund its indebtedness by the issue of bonds to the amount of $20,000.

The Nebraska State Journal of July 8, 1870, notes that F. A. Beiyon intends to go with a party from Lincoln to the Republican valley about the first of August. The Daily State Journal of April 7, 1871, notes that Franklin county has completed its organization with the election of officers as follows: county commissioners, James Knight, Charles Vining, B. W. Powell; probate judge, C. L. Van Laningham; clerk, Matthew Lynch; sheriff and surveyor, Ernest Arnold; treasurer, John E. Simmons; superintendent of public instruction, Richard Walters.

The Daily Journal of January 10, 1871, notes that General Victor Vifquain is booming the settlement in the Republican valley. He says that not less than five hundred claims had been taken the past year. The site of the new

For a statement of votes cast at elections in Kearney county for 1860, 1864, 1865 and 1866 see the Illustrated History of Nebraska, v. 1, pp. 439, 493, 505.

town, called Napoleon, the future county seat of the county to be formed west of Franklin (Harlan), belonged to about thirty men. They had offered a mill site to the men who would build a mill upon it. General Vifquain insisted that Fort Kearny should be moved down into the Republican valley because, traffic having ceased along the south side of the Platte, it was useless in its original position. But the new town was called Orleans instead of Napoleon, and Alma, situated about five miles east, became the county seat.

In the Daily State Journal of June 22, 1872, a correspondent, writing under date of June 10, describes Kearney City. It was composed mostly of sod and log houses, "old and weather-beaten". There were about twenty-five houses in all, most of them in a decaying condition. There were innumerable old wagons and considerable other government property, which, the correspondent thought, would be "knocked down to the highest bidder one of these days". Moses Sydenham was booming Kearney City as the coming national capital. The office of his newspaper, the Central Star, was situated there. There was only an occasional settler along the road five miles west; and there were none on Plum Creek twenty-eight miles west.

ANNUAL ADDRESS OF JOHN LEE WEBSTER PRESIDENT, 1913

[Read at the annual meeting of the Nebraska State Historical Society, January 16, 1913.]

There is a well authenticated tradition among the Omaha Tribe of Indians, that, impelled by a spirit of migration like that which has gone with the white man from the cradle of his life in the far east to his invasion of the red man's country, they took up their journey from their eastern home near the headwaters of the Ohio and followed that river to the union of its waters with the Mississippi, and thence up the eastern side of the Missouri, and eventually permanently settled three and a half centuries ago in what afterward became known as the Nebraska region, and where they were subsequently found by the white man some two hundred and fifty years later.

The Omaha, when they came into this region, were invaders of the hunting lands of the Sioux, and both tribes having warlike chieftains, they became inveterate enemies and continued in almost constant warfare. Within the memory of the white man the Sioux killed the Omaha chieftain, Logan Fontenelle. I give this bit of Indian history because it finds its parallel in the invasion of the Indian lands by the white men at a later day.

Let us pause a moment for a reflection. Three and a half centuries ago. When was that on the page of history? Queen Elizabeth was just beginning her reign. It was about the time of the birth of Shakespeare. The Pilgrims had not landed at Plymouth, nor had the cavaliers settled at Jamestown. It was a period full of historic interest in

Europe, yet these Indians did not know that there was a Europe. They could not have had a conception that in a later day a white race should come across the big waters and take possession of these lands which had been the homes of the Indians through the countless ages of the dim and mysterious past. Yet we have on Nebraska soil a remnant of that ancient tribe of people, a living link connecting that remote past with our self-glorious present. I mention these incidents as a subject of more than passing interest and as an inviting and stimulating subject for historic research by our people.

Afterward there came the pioneer days of the white man following in the wake of the Omaha Indian invasion of this western country. It may be said of the Indians and pioneers alike, that they both loved the serene quiet of the open expanse of the prairies; that they both sought happiness from nature and enjoyed the peace and harmony of the wilderness as if it were a celestial garden set apart for them when the work of the creation was finished.

Those days have now passed into history. They have become the subject of romance. By reason of changed conditions they are impossible of repetition. Their history is only to be gathered from relics and traditions and manuscripts. Yet those days have for us a fascinating interest. They were at the beginning of the history of the progress of our people and the formation of our state.

In 1878 a few of the strongest and most honored citizens of this state, prompted by a strong desire to see that these historic relics and traditions and manuscripts of the past should be collected and housed and preserved for the present and future ages, issued a call for the formation of the Nebraska State Historical Society. Among that group of men were Thomas W. Tipton who had been United States Senator from '67 to '75; Alvin Saunders and Algernon S. Paddock who then were United States

senators; Robert W. Furnas who had been, and Silas Garber who then was governor; J. Sterling Morton the father of Arbor day, and who became a cabinet officer under Grover Cleveland; and George L. Miller the public spirited and forceful editorial writer of the Omaha Herald.

These, with others who became associated with them, were men who cherished the remembrance of these Indian and pioneer days as memorable events in our early history, very dear to their hearts, and who were always prompted by a desire to do the most and the best that could be done for the general welfare of the people of our state. So they formed the Nebraska State Historical Society with the purpose, hope and expectation that all legends and traditions of the original inhabitants should be collected, and the relics and material evidence of their lives, habits, customs and manner of dress, should be collected into its museum; and that biographies and memorials and historic materials of every character and sort relating to the pioneer days should be acquired and preserved under the auspices of the society.

Their worthy aim and purpose was that there should be created and fostered a historic society, as an independent and self-controlled organization, which should be the custodian of the historic archives and a place to collect and give out information relating to the early history of these regions and of the passing and current events which have gone along with the making and development of our state. They believed, as Macaulay once said, that "a people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants."

This society is still engaged in carrying on the work which its founders originated. How well, and how successfully this has been done may be illustrated by a comparison taken from its records of some things it has accomplished.