USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 24
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
1902. On January Ist. Governor Savage, insistent upon having his own way. granted a full pardon to Ex-State Treasurer Bartley. On this day occurred the death of W. H. B. Stout, a member of the 1868 Legislature, who had constructed the State Capitol and penitentiary. Acting Governor (Lieut .- Gov.) (. F. Steele
179
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
declared January 29th, MeKinley Day, a holiday. Governor Savage did not stand for re-election, withdrawing from the race in April. John H. Mickey, of Polk County, won the republican nomination and was elected over William II. Thompson, of Grand Island, by a vote of 96,471 to 91,116. The republicans won all congress- ional seats except the second, in which Gilbert ME. Hitchcock displaced David I. Mercer; the others were, Burkett, first ; and other four districts, John J. MeCarthy, Edmund H. Hinshaw, George W. Norris and Moses P. Kinkaid. Two of these six congressman, Norris and Hitchcock, have been Nebraska's two senators at Washington since 1915, and Kinkaid has served continously since 1903 from the Sixth district. In June of this year, the State Supreme Court held the Bartley bondsmen were liable for any shortages. G. M. Lambertson died in June.
GOVERNOR MICKEY'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 1903. In January, the State Supreme Court relieved the Omaha National Bank from liability in the Bartley case. The Legislature of this session met, with Lieut. Gov. (. F. Steele again presiding over the senate, and W. H. Harrison, of Grand Island, as president pro tem., and A. R. Keim as secretary and John H. Mockett, Jr., of Lincoln, was speaker of the house and John Wall was again chief clerk. During this session the house subponad Ex-Governor Savage, Ex-Treasurer Bartley and R. J. Clancy to appear and answer questions in an investigation. Governor Mickey approved a resolution which petitioned Congress to pass an Act giving each homesteader 640 acres of land. Ex-Congressman Neville of the Big Sixth had been working on this during his term there, but after he went into office, Congressman Kinkaid took up the matter and stayed with it until its successful passage, in April, 1904, and it became known as the Kinkaid Law, and further than that, the homesteads became called "Kinkaids" and the homesteaders themselves pretty generally known as "Kin- kaiders." President Theodore Roosevelt visited the state in April and again in June. A teamsters' strike in Omaha in May brought forth a visit of the governor and injunctions issued against the strikers by Judge Munger of the Federal Court and against the employers by Judge Dickinson of the State District Court. 1 settlement of the Bartley case was attempted by the bondsmen in August and rejected by the state but in November, another decision came forth exonerating the bondsmen from liability.
1904. General Vietor Vifquain died in January. In February, Senator Diet- rich called for an investigation of a senate committee and received exoneration. Three months before then, Judges Munger and Vandeventer had acquitted him of a federal grand jury indictment charging he had received moneys for post office appointments, it developing the transactions took place before he became a senator. In May of this year, after a contest in which Victor Seymour and W. B. Rose had also sought the appointment, II. (. Lindsay of Pawnee County, who had served in the state senate and as chairman of republican state committee received the appointment of clerk of the Supreme Court and State Librarian, which posts he has retained continously since then. In September, occurred the death of Charles H. Gere, editor and founder of the State Journal. This year turned out to be probably the high tide of republicanism. In national affairs, the republi- cans won the presidency, and all the congressmen electing E. M. Pollard, John L. Kennedy, and re-electing the other four members. Governor Mickey was re- elected, over George W. Berge, fusionist.
GOVERNOR MICKEY'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION. 1905. This Legislature was the
180
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
heyday of republicanism. Every member of the senate and all but nine of the hundred representatives were of that faith. Lieut .- Gov. E. G. McGilton of Omaha presided over the senate, with W. II. Jennings, of Thayer County, as president pro tem., and Wm. M. Wheeler as secretary and George L. Rouse, of Hall County, as speaker, and John Wall as chief clerk. This Legislature set about to do some reform work, catching the growing spirit of progressivism sufficiently to lay the foundation for the wonderful record of the next succeeding Legislature. Senator George L. Sheldon, of Cass County, introduced a measure to provide two mills for the payment of the State's two million dollar debt, and his firm, agressive stand against railroad passes to public officials, and primary elections for public offices, brought him the governorship at the next state election. Elmer J. Burkett won the United States senatorship on the first ballot. Ex-Governor Silas Garber died on January 12th, at his home in Red Cloud. Senator Geo. W. Shreck of York County introduced another bill in this session, destined to grow into a formid- able issue, the county option question. Not ready to come to a full dose of progress medicine, the senate killed Senator Sheldon's anti-pass bill, in March. Ex-Governor Furnas died on June 1st, and on July 5th, Ex-Supreme Judge ( General) Amasa Cobb died. On October 28th, Ex-President Grover Cleveland gave the principal address at the unveiling of a statue of J. Sterling Morton at Nebraska City. The sugar bounty Act of 1895 was held unconstitutional by the State Supreme Court, in November. On December 6th, the State Supreme Court, released the bonds- men of Ex-Treasurer Bartley, and the state lost over half a million dollars by this decision.
1906. In February, a jury at Omaha acquitted Pat Crowe in the Cudahy kidnaping case, and Judge Sutton denounced the verdict as disgraceful. On March 19th, occurred the death of Ex-Governor and Ex-Senator (General) Jolin M. Thayer. In April, Governor Mickey issued a proclamation asking the people of Nebraska to aid the sufferers from the San Francisco earthquake. The state Campaign of this year showed a decided turn abont on the part of the republican party from its conservative stand of the preceding decade. It nominated George I. Sheldon for governor and chose Atty .- Gen. Norris Brown of Kearney for United States senator and promised a full list of progressive measures, Brown triumphed over Edward Rosewater and Joseph H. Millard in the senatorial con- test. On September 5th, the citizens of Lincoln and Nebraska generally welcomed W. J. Bryan upon his return home from a trip abroad of over a year in which he had travelled in many countries.
GOVERNOR SHELDON'S ADMINISTRATION. 1907. As the last official act of his administration, Governor Mickey granted a full, unconditional pardon to Mrs. Lena Margaret Lillie, who had been convicted of the murder of her husband, Harvie Lillie. in Fillmore County. Governor Sheldon, who had defeated Ex-Congressman Ashton C. Shallenberger, took office with a thoroughly sympathetic legislature at his call. B. II. Gould was secretary of Senate, and in the House D. M. Nettleton of Clay County, speaker, and Clyde HI. Barnard, chief clerk. This legislature broke all records, and has times without number been referred to as the most progressive legislature Nebraska ever enjoyed. It started in on the railroad question, and passed a two eent passenger law, a stringent anti-pass law ; a railroad employer's liability law ; a terminal railway taxation law ; mileage book law; a minimum freight rate law, express regulation law, and then delved into general subjects, and passed the direct primary law,
181
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
under which the first primary election in Nebraska was held September 3, 1907. It passed a pure food law, and an anti-lobbying law, and fully met the wishes of the reform governor who posted a chart of the platform upon the wall of his office and checked off each pledge as it was redeemed. One law of this session, that prohibiting brewers from having a financial interest in saloons, furthered an alignment of the liquor interests with the democrats in the next election. Some of the other pieces of legislation named above also aroused the bitter antagonism of various political leaders and strong interests, and the combination of these factors served to reward Governor Sheldon with defeat at the next election. In February, 1907, Thomas C. Munger, a faithful republican wheelhorse, was appointed judge of the new second United States District Court, of Nebraska. In June, Attorney-General W. T. Thompson filed suits in the state supreme court to restrain the railroads from enjoining the two-cent fare, maximum freight rates, anti-free pass laws, and defying the order of the newly created railway commission, established by a constitutional amendment carried at the election of 1906. A similar injunction soon followed to interfere with the express companies charging higher rates than those prescribed by the new law, and they countered with an attempt at injunction, but Judge Munger denied them an injunction against the railway commission and the Sibley Act. A long litigation also ensued over the grain rate law. In November of this year, W. J. Bryan announced in his Commoner that if the rank and file of the party demanded it, he would make a third race for the presidency.
1908. The republicans of the state very early in the year began to express their preference for Secretary Taft for President. In February, Ross L. Hammond, a strong party worker, and editor at Fremont, was appointed collector of internal revenue. A national corn-show was projected and very successfully held at Omaha. On May 10th the first celebration of "Mothers Day" was held in Nebraska, an idea promoted and successfully projected by Senator Burkett of this state. During June tornadoes visited Kearney, Franklin, Geneva, Fairhury and Fairfield, and soon after that a series of troublesome floods ensued. W. J. Bryan was named on the first ballot for the democratic presidential nomination, at Denver, on July 9th. John W. Kern, of Indiana, his running-mate, called upon him three days later at Fair- view. At the state conventions, the republicans turned down a plank providing for a guarantee of bank deposits, but the democrats on the same day, in their convention espoused this issue. On Sept. 30th, William Howard Taft, republican nominee for president, spoke in Lincoln. Bryan carried the state of Nebraska and received its electoral vote, but received a decisive defeat in the nation. Ashton (. Shallenberger turned the tables this time, and defeated Governor Sheldon. By virtue of a constitutional amendment enlarging the supreme court to seven members, Governor Sheldon appointed four new judges, Jacob Fawcett, J. L. Root and W. B. Rose, who took office and Ex-Chief Justice John J. Sullivan, who recon- sidered and after one day's service, declined, and James R. Dean was appointed in his stead. On Dec. 30th occurred the death of Daniel Freeman at Beatrice, who had been the first homesteader in the nation, under the law of 1862.
GOVERNOR SHALLENBERGER'S ADMINISTRATION. 1909. Taking office as the second democratic governor of the state, Governor Shallenberger had a democratic Legislature to work with him. Lieut. Gov. M. R. Hopewell, again presided over the Senate with Wm. H. Smith as secretary of Senate and with George W. Tibbets, democrat, of Hastings. as president pro tem., and as speaker of the House
182
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
Charles W. Pool, democrat, of Tecumseh and Trenmor Cone as chief clerk. This legislature attempted to recanvass the vote on the amendment enlarging the mem- bership of the supreme court, and under this action, Governor Shallenberger made another set of appointments to the supreme court, retaining Judges Fawcett and Root, but displacing Judges Rose and Dean with John J. Sullivan and Silas A. Holcomb, former members of that court. but the latter resigned, and W. D. Oldham of Kearney took his claim, but in the litigation that ensued, Judges Rose and Dean retained their seats on the high bench. In this session of the Legislature, a bitter discussion ensned over the acceptance of the "C'arnegie Pension Fund" for university professors, which the Senate endorsed, but the House killed. A bank guaranty of deposits law was passed at this session. The "Oregon plan" of expressing a preference for United States Senators, in the direet primary, and taking this troublesome question out of the legislative hall, was adopted in Nebraska. The Senate killed the county option bill, and the House killed a daylight saloon proposal, but the real sensation of this session came in its closing hours. when Representative Vietor E. Wilson of Polk County slipped into an innocent measure that had been passed to prevent saloons opening on primary day, a provision that no saloons in Nebraska could open before ? A. M., and must close at 8 P. M. This provision shipped into enactment that night, and for the next three days, a bedlam ensued around the state capitol, besieging Governor Shallenberger to veto or sign the measure. On April 5th, immediately following his appeal to the governor to sign the same, Ex-Governor Poynter was stricken in the executive offices and died a few moments later. On April 6th, four days after its passage, the governor signed the "Daylight Saloon" measure, and thereby, like his pre- decessor, Governor Sheldon, incurred the displeasure of powerful liquor interests, that rewarded him with defeat for a re-nomination in 1910. In May, Ex-Governor and Ex-Supreme Justice Lorenzo Crounse died at his home in Omaha. In June of this year, sculptor Daniel C. French was chosen to design the statue of Abraham Lincoln which graces the capitol grounds. In June, Judge Cornish held the Dono- hoe non-partisan judiciary law invalid, and the affirmance of this by the supreme court held the election of its members into the partisan field for five years longer.
1910. On January 14th, occurred the death of Judge William Gashin at his home in Alma. Judge Gaslin was a pioneer judge and a very original character. This vear saw numerous conventions assembled and association formed fostering varions movements, such as the formation of the Nebraska League of Municipalities ; state baseball league: direct legislation league: brotherhood of threshermen: county option convention : laymen's missionary convention; Nebraska Conservation Con- vention, second in the union, following Minnesota. W. J. Bryan attempted to promote sentiment for calling a special session of the Legislature to formulate an initiative and referendum law. but Governor Shallenberger refused to call the same. On June 2d, Ex-Gov. John H. Mickey died at his home in Osceola. At the state conventions on July 26th, the republicans adopted county option, but the democrats not only refused to endorse county option, but the more conservative elements of the party undertook to give W. J. Bryan a first-class steam rolling. The Bryan faction favored county option, the Dahlman delegation favored local option. The result was a plank opposing making any plan a party creed. The republicans saw in this first defeat of Bryan in a democratic convention in seventeen years and in the growing prohibitory sentiment, an opportunity, so taking advantage of the
183
IHISTORY OF NEBRASKA
"open primary" law then in force, cast ballots on democratic raee for governor, and assisted in nominating Mayor James C. Dahlman, of Omaha, over Governor Shal- lenberger, and themselves defeated Addison E. Cady of St. Paul, with State Sen. Chester 11. Aldrich, of Polk County. The republican state ticket won, although the democratie candidate for secretary of state, Charles W. Pool, came within 100 votes of equalling Addison Wait. Gilbert M. Hitchcock, for United States Senator received 122,517 votes against 102,861 for Sen. E. J. Burkett. The democrats saved both houses of the legislature. W. J. Bryan had openly refused to support Dahlman for governor, and Aldrich won by 16,000 majority. The senatorial can- paign had been enlivened by charges which Edgar Howard of Columbus had made that G. M. Hitchcock had been a beneficiary of the Bartley shortage of state funds. Atty .- Gen. W. T. Thompson resigned on October 28th to accept the appointment ax solicitor-general of the U. S. Treasury Department, and Governor Shallen- berger appointed Arthur F. Mullen, as attorney-general. W. II. Cowgill, demo- cratic member of the state railway commission, died on October 16th, and the governor appointed his private secretary, W. J. Furse, to this vacancy.
GOVERNOR ALDRICH'S ADMINISTRATION. 1911. The twenty-fourth Legislature, in thirty-second session met on January 3, 1911. Lieut. Gov. John H. Morehead, the first of Nebraska's Senate presidents pro tem. governors to later become an acting lieutenant governor and then governor by election, held full presidency of the Senate, after the death of Lieutenant Governor Hopewell on May 5th. Wm. H. Smith was secretary of Senate, John Kuhl, democrat, Wayne, was speaker of the House, and Henry Richmond, chief clerk. Gilbert M. Hitchcock was Nebraska's first U. S. Senator to receive his eleetion at the hands of the Legislature, as a formal ratifiea- tion of the people's direct vote. The organization of this session was very difficult, as the county option question was a bitter bone of contention. A county option license bill was defeated in the House, by two votes, and in the Senate by a margin of one vote. The county option agitation, coupled with the fact that Lincoln had voted to abolish saloons, brought forth a formidable county removal agitation in this ses- sion, which resulted in Kearney, Grand Island, Hastings, Broken Bow and other central towns inviting the capital to take Horace Greeley's advice and move west- ward, but this proved to be the last strong movement on this question. The Senate voted the Ollis bill to place the stock yards under the jurisdiction of the rail- road commission : and also passed an initiative and referendum measure. A com- mission plan of government bill for towns over 5,000 was enacted at this session. In October, President Taft visited Nebraska. Albinus Nanee, fourth governor of the state, died on December 6th at Chicago.
1912. On February 9, notice was received of the death of Prof. Samuel Aughey, at Spokane, Washington. He was a professor in Nebraska University, 1871-1884, and it is upon the authority of his research that much of the chapters on geology and early natural features of the state, in this work, are based. As the presidential primary was now set for April, so the delegates to national conven- tion could be elected at that primary, national politics formulated very early. In February, a Harmon club was formed at Fremont to promote the candidacy of Judson Harmon of Ohio for the democratic nomination, and C. M. Gruenther, of Platte County, became chairman of a Harmon campaign movement in this state. Arthur F. Mullen successfully organized a Champ Clark campaign in Nebraska, and there was a formidable Woodrow Wilson organization. Governor Aldrich came
Vol. 1-13
184
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
out in February for Theodore Roosevelt. On February 11th, Deputy Warden Edward D. Davis was murdered by Albert Prince, negro conviet, at the close of chapel exercises at the state penitentiary. Prince was the last man in Nebraska to be legally executed, until the Cole-Granmmer electrocution on Dec. 20. 1920. On March 14, occurred an incident that considerably marred the peaceful repose of the Aldrich administration. Warden James Delahunty, Deputy Warden Wagner, Usher E. G. Hellman were killed, and Guard Thomas J. Doody wounded by three eseaping con- viets at the state penitentiary, and in the chase that ensued, on March 18th, near Gretna, the three convicts were captured. Roy Blunt, a young farmer, hauling some of the officers, was killed, as was convict "Shorty" Gray. Convict John Dowd com- mitted suicide, and convict Charles Morley surrendered and was later sentenced to life imprisonment. This uprising was made an issue in that year's gubernatorial campaign. In April, Senator Robert M. La Follette came to Nebraska for five days' campaign tour in behalf of his candidacy for the republican presidential nomina- tion. In July. W. J. Bryan made the fight of his life, up to that time. in the demoeratie national convention, and materially influenced the nomination of Wood- row Wilson for the presidency. The Bryan forces controlled the democratic state convention, and the Taft forces bolted the regular republican state convention, and organized their own separate convention, adopted their own platform, and made their own separate campaign, electing Frank M. Currie, of Broken Bow, as their state chairman, while the Roosevelt, or progressive republicans, chose Frank P. Corrick, of Lincoln, as their state chairman. John H. Morehead, democratic candi- date for governor extensively toured the state, but refused a challenge of a joint debate with Governor Aldrich, his opponent. Governor Hiram W. Johnson, of California, progressive candidate for viee president, on the ticket with Theodore Roosevelt, delivered an address on September 3d, at the state fair. A legal effort was made by the Taft state republicans to oust the Roosevelt electoral slate from the ballot, but that failed. Theodore Roosevelt came into the state to speak on September 20th, and Woodrow Wilson eame on October 5th. The fall election resulted in the election of John H. Morehead, as governor, and in the national election, Woodrow Wilson won. At the fall election of 1911, five amendments to the constitution were adopted by the electorate, providing for the initiative and referendum, holding elections of state officers biennially rather than annually, home rule for eities of the state, a state board of control of public institutions and increas- ing salaries of legislators from $300 to $600 per term.
GOVERNOR MOREHEAD'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 1913. When the task came of appointing the new board of control Governor Morehead offered one of these posts to ex-Governor Shallenberger who declined. The final appointments made were District Judge Howard Kennedy, of Omaha; ex-Governor Silas A. Holcomb of Broken Bow, and Henry Gerdes, of Falls City. The Legislature met at the regular time in January. Lieut .- Gov. Samuel R. McKelvie, Nebraska's first regu- larly elected lieutenant governor who later won election as governor, presided over the senate, with J. H. Kemp as president pro tem., and Clyde H. Barnard as secretary, and Dr. P. C. Kelley, of Grand Island, as speaker of the house, and Henry Richmond as chief clerk. Congressman George W. Norris was elected United States Senator, the second senator chosen in Nebraska under the Oregon plan. This legislature passed an anti-logrolling bill, turned down the university removal and the house passed a downtown campus bill, appropriated $100,000 for relief
185
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA
of tornado sufferers in the terrible disaster of March 23d, which tore up one edge of Omaha and cost over two hundred lives; passed a very comprehensive insurance code; a bill for county ownership of telephones; and finally decided to submit to the people the question of removal of the state university to the "farm campus." In May, Lincoln held its first election under its new commission form of govern- ment charter, for five city commissioners, Nebraska again received a cabinet portfolio when William Jennings Bryan was made secretary of state, and in June, Richard L. Metcalfe was appointed governor of Panama Canal Zone. Governor Morehead appointed that old veteran of republican circles. Thomas J. Majors, as a member of the state normal board. This board shortly thereafter became a storm cen- ter through its action in removing Dr. A. O. Thomas as principal of Kearney Normal School, but Doctor Thomas the next election won vindication by being elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
1914. The campaign of 1914 was a much more quiet affair than its prede- ressor of two years before. The democrats renominated Governor Morehead over Richard L. Metcalfe, and the republicans chose R. Beecher Howell, of Omaha, as their standard bearer. This time Governor Morehead was elected, and carried in with him a democratic state ticket, so for the first time in many years the demo- crats took control of all branches of the state government, except the supreme court, but even in that branch succeeded in electing a chief justice, Judge Conrad Hollen- beck, for twenty-one years district judge in the fifth district. But he only lived two weeks after taking his oath of office. His successor was Andrew M. Morrissey. assistant attorney general, who had theretofore been private secretary to Governor Morehead. The people decisively rejected the university removal proposal.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.