Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/347

by a feverish activity in railway construction (the mileage in the state being increased from 1953 to 5407 m. in the ten years), and by an extraordinary rise in land values, urban and rural. Farm-land prices were raised to a basis of maximum productiveness when the best interests, especially of the western section, demanded steady growth based on average crop results under average conditions. The early ’nineties were marked by an economic collapse of false values, and succeeding years by a painful recovery of stable conditions.

The Democratic and Republican parties were first effectively organized in opposition, as parts of national bodies, in the territorial campaigns of 1858. Till then there were practically only Democratic factions; after 1861 the Republicans held the state securely until 1890. After about 1890 the national tendencies towards a re-alignment of political parties on social-economic issues were sharply displayed in Nebraska. This was in the main only an indication of the general Farmers’ Movement (q.v.),^[1] but this found in Nebraska special stimulus in large losses (almost $900,000) suffered by the state from the negligence and defalcation of certain Republican officeholders. Following 1890 the “Fusion” movement—the fusion, that is, of Populists, Democrats and (after 1896) of Silver Republicans—was of great importance. The only year in which these elements carried the state against the Republicans for presidential electors was in 1896, when William J. Bryan of Lincoln was their presidential candidate; although the state delegation of representatives and senators in Congress was for a time divided. The Fusionists practically controlled the state government from 1897–1899; they held the legislature from 1891–1895 and from 1897–1899, the supreme court from 1899–1901, and the governorship and executive departments from 1895–1901; they elected a Democratic governor also for 1891–1893; but he was not of the true Fusion type, and vetoed a maximum railway freight-rate bill, although his Republican successor approved one. The year 1891 was the most feverish political year of this period. Apart from these temporary Fusion successes the Republicans have always controlled the state.

The governors of Nebraska have been as follows:—

Territorial Period.
Francis Burt	11 days, Oct. 1854
Thomas B. Cuming[2]	Oct. 1854–Feb. 1855
Mark W. Izard	Feb. 1855–Oct. 1857
Thomas B. Cuming[2]	Oct. 1857–Jan. 1858
William A. Richardson	Jan. 1858–Dec. 1858
J. Sterling Morton[2]	Dec. 1858–May 1859
Samuel W. Black	May 1859–May 1861
Alvin Saunders	May 1861–Mar. 1867
Algernon S. Paddock[3]
State.
David Butler[4]	1867–1871	Republican
W. H. James[5]	1871–1873	,,
Robert W. Furnas	1873–1875	,,
Silas Garber	1875–1879	,,
Albinus Nance	1879–1883	,,
James W. Dawes	1883–1887	,,
John M. Thayer	1887–1891	,,
James E. Boyd[6]		Democrat
John M. Thayer[7]	1891–1892	,,
James E. Boyd	1892–1893	,,
Lorenzo Crounse	1893–1895	Republican
Silas A. Holcombe	1895–1899	Fusion
William A. Poynter	1899–1901	,,
Charles H. Dietrich[8]	1901	Republican
Ezra P. Savage[5]	1901–1903	,,
John H. Mickey	1903–1907	,,
George L. Sheldon	1907–1909	,,
A. C. Shallenberger	1909–1911	Democrat
Chester H. Aldrich	1911–	Republican

Bibliography.—N. H. Darton, Professional Paper No. 17 (in U.S. Geological Survey) (1903), Geology and Water Resources of (western) Nebraska, and No. 32 (1905), Geology and Underground Water Resources of the Central Great Plains; G. E. Condra, Geology and Water Resources of the Republican River Valley and Adjacent Areas (Washington, 1907), being Water Supply and Irrigation Paper No. 216 of the United States Geological Survey; id., Water Supply Paper No. 215, Geology and Water Resources of a Portion of the Missouri River Valley in North-Eastern Nebraska (Washington, 1908); J. C. Stevens, Surface Water Supply of Nebraska (Washington, 1909) Water Supply Paper 230; E. H. Barbour, Nebraska Geological Survey (Lincoln, 1903); G. E. Condra, Geography of Nebraska (Lincoln, 1906); R. Pound and F. C. Clements, Phytogeography of Nebraska, vol. i. (Lincoln, 1898); general scientific sketches by C. E. Bessey, L. Bruner and G. A. Loveland in the Morton history and agricultural and horticultural reports; Annual Reports of the State Board of Agriculture and State Horticultural Society; Publications of the State Bureau of Statistics and Labor; and Bulletins 52 (1904) and 66 (1905) of the United States Bureau of Forestry. For government consult the biennial legislative Public Documents, embracing reports of state officers and boards; also J. A. Barrett, History and Government of Nebraska (Lincoln, 1891), Nebraska and the Nation (Chicago, 1898); and C. S. Lobinger, “The Nebraska Constitution, some of its Original and Peculiar Features,” in Proceedings and Collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Series 2, vol. v. (Lincoln, 1902). For early history see bibliography under article Kansas. See especially the publications (since 1885) of the Nebraska State Historical Society; and J. Sterling Morton, Albert Watkins and others, Illustrated History of Nebraska (3 vols., Lincoln, 1905 sqq.), which has superseded H. Johnson, History of Nebraska (Omaha, 1880).

NEBRASKA CITY, a city and the county-seat of Otoe county, Nebraska, U.S.A., situated on the high W. bank of the Missouri river, about 40 m. below Omaha. Pop. (1880) 4183; (1890) 11,494; (1900) 7380 (882 foreign-born); (1910) 5488. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Missouri Pacific railway systems. A railway and wagon bridge spans the Missouri. The city is the seat of the state Institute for the Blind (1875), and has three public parks and a public library. The city is a distributing centre for a beautiful farming region, the trade in grain being especially large. In 1900 Nebraska City ranked third among the manufacturing cities of the state, the manufactures including canned fruits and vegetables, packed pork, flour, oatmeal, hominy, grits, meal, starch, cider-vinegar, agricultural implements, windmills, paving bricks, concrete, sewer pipe, beer, over-alls and shirts. It is one of the oldest settlements of the state. The first “old Fort Kearney” was established on the site of Nebraska City in 1847, but was abandoned in 1848, and the fort was re-established farther W. on the Platte river (see Kearney). Otoe county was organized in 1855, and the original Nebraska City was incorporated and made the county-seat in the same year. This city, together with Kearney City, incorporated in 1855—adjacent to the first “old” Fort Kearney—and South Nebraska City, were consolidated by the legislature into the present Nebraska City in 1858. (Twelve other city “additions” and so-called “towns,” all within or closely adjacent to the present city, were in existence in 1857.) Nebraska City was for some years the largest city of the state. In 1858 it became the headquarters of a great freighting-firm that distributed supplies for the United States government among the army posts between the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains; in seven months in 1859 this one firm employed 602 men, used 517 wagons, 5682 oxen, and 75 mules, and shipped 2,782,258 ℔. of freight. Nebraska City was the initial point of several roads, parts at one time or another of the “Oregon,” “Old California,” and “Great Salt Lake” trails. (See Nebraska (State): History.) Nebraska City became a city of the second class in 1871 and a city of the first class in 1901.

NEBUCHADREZZAR, or Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Ναβουκοδρόσορος of the Greeks. The first and last are nearer to the original name as it is found on the cuneiform monuments, viz. Nabu-kudurri-usur, “Nebo, defend the landmark.” Nebuchadrezzar seems to have been of Chaldean origin. He married Amuhia, daughter of the Median king, according to Abydenus, and in 605 B.C. defeated Necho at Carchemish, driving the Egyptians out of Asia and annexing Syria to the Babylonian empire. In the following year he succeeded his father Nabopolassar on the Babylonian throne,

1. Nebraska was one of the states in which the collapse of the co-operative enterprises of the Grange was particularly severe. The Farmers' Alliance was organized for the state in 1887, became a secret organization in 1889, and, as in other states, was a power by 1890. The membership of Grange, Alliance and Knights of Labour went over generally speaking into the People’s party.
2. Secretary, acting governor.
3. Secretary, several times acting governor, 1861–1867.
4. Impeached and removed from office 1871.
5. Lieut.-governor, succeeding.
6. Removed by decision of state supreme court on grounds of non-citizenship, 5th of May 1891; reinstated by decision of U.S. Supreme Court, 1st of February 1892.
7. Acting governor.
8. Elected U.S. Senator.