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Show J & Gomfiusker State ! By EDWARD EMERINE WNU Features. ATOP the magnificent Ne-braska Ne-braska capitol stands a figure in bronze, The Sower. It is the symbol of Nebraska and its faith faith in the plains, in the soil, in nature. Nebraska is the abode of the sower. sow-er. The seeds are sown, the plants nurtured, the harvest garnered. In war or peace, food is first on Nebraska's long production line from Wyoming in the west, to the Missouri river on the east. Its corn fields, its grain lands, its rows of sugar beets, its ranges where cattle cat-tle feed on native grasses from these come the foods that add to this nation's greatness and the welfare wel-fare of men everywhere. Orchards, gardens, fields and ranges are Nebraska's Ne-braska's wealth and the top soil its source of well-being. The plains, with nature as the sower, were the camping and hunting hunt-ing grounds of seven tribes of Indians. In-dians. The Otoes, the Omahas, the Pawnees, the Poncas. the Sioux, the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes hunt- ! ed the shaggy buffalo, the fleet antelope, ante-lope, the deer and other game which had grown fat on the abundant fare ; provided by the prairies and streams. The Otoe Indians called the region "Nebrathka," which means "flat water" wa-ter" and referred to the long, wide and shallow Platte river. Battleground of Indians. Tribe attacked tribe, fighting for this greatest of hunting grounds. The last great battle was fought between be-tween the Sioux and the Pawnees at Massacre canyon, near Stanton, in 1873. There were around 40,000 Indians living in Nebraska, and their chief occupation was hunting. Some of them, however, practiced S i i . K :- ' - r - i -' -f 1 f. ' GOV. D WIGHT P. GRISWOLD Gov. Dwight Palmer Griswold ' was bora at Harrison, Sioux Co., Neb., in 1893. His parents were pioneers pi-oneers there. He graduated from Nebraska university In 1914. He served on the Mexican border as a sergeant in 1916, and as a first lieutenant lieu-tenant and captain in World War I. He was first a banker, then newspaper news-paper publisher, before becoming governor in 1940. He has been reelected re-elected twice. His home is Gordon, Neb. of Columbus. The Mallet brothers, with a party of eight Frenchmen, named the Platte river and traveled trav-eled nearly the entire length of the state in 1839. Spain, France and England all claimed the Nebraska plains at different dif-ferent times. In 1769 France ceded all of her claims to the area west of the Mississippi to Spain, but in the Nebraska region. The first military mili-tary post was Fort Atkinson, established estab-lished in 1819-1820. French traders and trappers, hunters of the buffalo, soldiers and adventurers began to wear deep trails in the grass. The Indian tribes resented the white man. There was unrest and battles and massacres. massa-cres. Blood stained the prairie grass. Blood-curdling war cries in the night drove fear into the hearts of strong men. Westward, Ho! Rich land in Oregon. Gold in California. Cali-fornia. Nebraska became the highway high-way of an expanding, restless, imaginative, adventurous nation. Westward across Nebraska the course of empire wended Its way. From Independence and St. Joseph Jo-seph came the covered wagons of the Oregon Trail. Gold-seekers came to Join them and men heard of the California Trail. The Mormons, under un-der Brigham Young, camped uneasily one winter near Omaha, then struck out boldly the next spring to mark the Mormon Trail. Intrepid riders ' ' M CHIMNEY ROCK . . . Near Bayard, Neb., one of the noted landmarks on the old Oregon Trail. lashed their horses from St. Joseph to Sacramento, and the Pony Express Ex-press was born, with 500 of its weary miles through Nebraska. Stagecoaches Stage-coaches traveled the Overland Trail through Nebraska, and the Union Pacific struck out boldly from Omaha toward the Pacific in 1865. The Western Union's telegrapn poles were often cut down by Nebraska Indians. The Sower beckoned, and men came with plows that bit into the grassroots. Nebraska was organized as a territory in 1854 and became a state on March 1, 1867. Lincoln, named for the Great Emancipator, was made the capital. Nebraska became be-came known as the "Tree Planter's State," for those hardy pioneers soon set out windbreaks, shade trees and orchards. The home of J. Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor day, stands today as a monument monu-ment to his outstanding work in Nebraska's early home-making days. Cattle Ranching Comes. The buffalo were replaced by cattle, cat-tle, and on the open range thousands thou-sands of cattle from Texas were fed and fattened. One of the most picturesque periods of Nebraska history was that of the cowboy, from 1867 to 1887. Enclosed ranches and mixed farming came next, but the famous old cow towns of Schuyler, North Platte, Kearney and Ogalla-la Ogalla-la will never be forgotten. Their modern equivalents are Broken Bow, Burwell, Alliance and Valentine. Val-entine. The epic struggle between the cattlemen and the homesteaders homestead-ers is recorded in "Old Jules" by Marl Sandoz. The Sower planted good seed In good earth. From that day in 1833 when Moses Merrill and his wife settled at Bellvue and established the first mission school, The Sower has blessed Nebraska. s '.7r 5s-.-1- ---'E i:-r . '1 NEBRASKA SOO HOUSE . . . This picture, taken in 1886, shows how a typical homesteader west of Broken Bow solved his housing problem. The modern, electrified farm homes now found In Nebraska contrast strangely with this primitive structure. primitive agriculture between wars. Many Indian braves, Including Spotted Spot-ted Horse, are buried in Fort Mc-Pherson Mc-Pherson cemetery, while others lie in Pawnee battlefield. The names of Yellow Hand, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull and others remain re-main a part of Nebraska's tradition tradi-tion and lore. Francesco Vasquez Coronado and his party of 30 Spanish cavalry were the first white men to visit Nebraska. Nebras-ka. That was in 1541. French fur traders and trappers began to venture ven-ture up the Missouri river about 1700. A Spanish expedition under Capt. Pedro de Villasur reached the region about 1720 and was promptly prompt-ly massacred near the present site 1801 Napoleon bought it back. Thomas Jefferson, in 1803, purchased pur-chased Nebraska from the Little Corporal. Lewis and Clark commanded the first expedition to Nebraska, 1804-1806. 1804-1806. The Hunt party of Astorians skirted the Nebraska region in 1811 on their way to Oregon. Seven of them returned the next year, finding find-ing their way across the vast region re-gion by following the Platte river to where it joins the Missouri. Major Ma-jor Long with a party of 20 men in 1819 traveled from the Missouri up the Platte to the headwaters of its south fork near Denver. From 1807 to 1820 Manuel Lisa became the leading fur trader and explorer of SOUJH DAKOTA COLORADO &?r MiPi KANSAS : i', . f ' fi ; SENATOR NOKRIS Many people know about Sen. George VV. Norrls of Nebraska and his record In the V. S. senate extending ex-tending over a third of a century. Rut in Nebraska he Is honored for more than the anti-injunction bill, the Tennessee Valley authority and the "lame-duck amendment. Nebraska has the only unicameral, unicam-eral, or one-house, state legislature in all of the 48 sta tcs. The one-house one-house system began In VJ'tf and has 4.1 mem hers elected on a non-partisan ticket. This reform Is the handiwork of George W. Norrls who devised the plan, spent his own money to campaign cam-paign and work For It. Through the efforts of Senator Norris, Nebraska has a huge grid system which. In connection with Irrigating a million acres of land, supplies clcctrio power to farms and towns. All except one or two private pri-vate electric utility companies have been taken over and added to the public power system. Senator Norris made his home ,il , McCook until he died there in I!UI |