Publications - Nebraska State Historical Society

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR W. W. DENNISON. By I. A. Fort. William Wallace Dennison was born at Saybrook, Conn., April 20,1822, and received his education at Yale. He was descended from a noble English family, a branch of which, emigrating from the parent country, settled in Connecticut about the beginning of the last century. The greater part of his life was spent in government service, particularly that branch of it known as the Indian department. In 1857 he was appointed by President Pierce United States agent to the Pawnee, Otoe, and Missouri tribes of Indians, with headquarters at Nebraska City, which was then in its infancy. Enterprising and public spirited, Major Dennison, together with other kindred spirits, did all in his pdwer to invite immigration into the territory and to further in every way the interests of the growing colony at Nebraska City. Through his instrumentality the Indians under his control and over whom he exercised a most beneficent influence were instructed in the useful arts of civilization and also taught how to live on friendly terms with other Indian tribes, as also with their white neighbors. Treaties greatly to their advantage were, through Major Dennison's influence, concluded with the government, the articles of which were rigidly enforced by him, to the great advancement of the Indians. In 1859 his friends induced him to stand as democratic nominee for congress, but he was defeated by the republican candidate. During the fall of 1860, his health failing notably, he was advised to try a southern climate for its restoration, in pursuance of which advice he sent in to the Indian department his resignation as agent, and was preparing to proceed with his family to Virginia when the civil war broke upon the country. Certain unscrupulou...