USA > Nebraska > Lancaster County > Lincoln > History of the city of Lincoln, Nebraska : with brief historical sketches of the state and of Lancaster County > Part 5
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On October 21, 1861, the day after he was twenty years old, Mr. Steen enlisted in Company G of the 12th Iowa Infantry, under Cap-
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
tain C. C. Tupper, a West Point graduate. His regimental com- mander was Col. J. J. Woods, who had also had some training at West Point. Two of his brothers, Theodore and Henry, joined the same company, and they served through the war together. But all six of these patriotic brothers were in the Union Army. The three brothers in the 12th Iowa were in their country's service until Jan- uary, 1866. The regiment went into a camp of instruction at Du- buque, Iowa, until November 28th, and thence proceeded to Benton Barracks, Missouri. It left there January 29, 1862, and proceeded to Smithland, Kentucky, and from that point joined General Grant's expedition against Forts Henry and Donelson. The 12th Iowa as- sisted to take Fort Henry, which surrendered February 6, 1862. Then it proceeded to Fort Donelson, which it reached February 12th, and participated in the storming and capture of that stronghold as a part of Col. Cook's Brigade, of Gen. C. F. Smith's Division. Here it will be recalled that the 12th and 2d Iowa were on the extreme left, and that the 2d Iowa made a very gallant charge, and gained the first lodgment, and was immediately supported on its right by the 12th lowa, which made almost as brilliant a dash as the 2d. This was on the 15th of February. Gen. Buckner surrendered the fort the next day, and the country was proud of Grant and the Iowa and Illinois troops, that had accomplished this brilliant achievement.
Then the gallant 12th went to Pittsburg Landing, and assisted all through that terrible 6th of April, 1862, to hold the center of the line, in company with the famous Iowa Brigade, composed of the 2d, 7th, 12th, and 14th, Iowa regiments, under the command of General J. M. Tuttle, and in the division of General W. H. L. Wallace. After this brigade had held the spot now historically illustrious as the " Hornets' Nest," and after the rebel force had broken away the Union line both to the right and left, and had surrounded the 12th and 14th and attacked them from all sides, they surrendered, and be- came prisoners of war. General Tuttle had ordered the brigade to fall back, but the order failed to reach the 12th and 14th. Just at the moment of capture Mr. Steen received a wound on his right side, under the right arm. The surrender took place between five and six o'clock in the evening. The prisoners were taken to Corinth, and for three days were without food. Of course the pangs of hun- ger became very keen with such a fast, after such a struggle as that of April 6th.
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From Corinth the prisoners were taken to Memphis, Tennessee, where they remained a few days, and were thence forwarded to Mo- bile, Alabama. From that place they were removed to Cahaba, Ala- bama, where they were huddled together in an old tobacco warehouse, and there suffered their first severe trial of rebel prison life. Here the starving process was begun. After two weeks of this pen, the prisoners, of whom Mr. Steen was one, were taken to Macon, Geor- gia, where he endured the infamous mistreatment for which that pen is historical, for two or three months. Then he was paroled, and was taken to Benton Barracks, Missouri, where he did garrison duty, un- til exchanged in January, 1863. Then the men of his regiment were reorganized in time to join in Gen. Grant's magnificent cam- paign, whereby he swung below Vicksburg, and with a masterly movement, as brilliant as any executed by Napoleon, in sixty days whipped an army of over sixty thousand, in detail, with a force of but forty-five thousand. Mr. Steen made the quick march to Jack- son, Miss., where Sherman and McPherson splendidly defeated Jo- seph E. Johnston, on the 14th of May, 1863. The 12th Iowa did not get to Champion Hill soon enough to help whip Pemberton, but, with Sherman, participated in the two gallant charges on the works at Vicksburg, on the 18th and 22d of May. Mr. Steen's regiment was with Sherman's 15th corps, on the right. This regiment, with others, was assigned to watch Johnston at Black River Bridge, dur- ing part of the siege. When the surrender took place, on July +, 1863, the 12th Iowa was of the troops which made a dash after John- ston, and beat him at Jackson and Brandon, and sent him whirling for safety beyond the Pearl river.
The term of enlistment of the gallant Twelfth expired in January, 1864, and the men promptly enlisted for a second three years, and were then allowed to visit home on a veteran furlough. During the summer of 1864 the regiment was attached to the Sixteenth Army Corps, commanded by Major General A. J. Smith, and was engaged in movements against Forrest, in Tennessee and Mississippi. At the battle of Tupelo, where there was terrific fighting for a short time, he lost the best friend he ever had, Lieut. Augustus A. Burdick, who had been as faithful to him as a brother. This was the saddest event of his army life.
Mr. Steen's regiment pursued Price through Arkansas and Mis-
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souri, and assisted to fight the battle of Pleasant Hill. Then his com- mand hurried to Nashville, and arrived just in time to help General Thomas fight the magnificent battle of Nashville, whereby Hood's army was annihilated and Thomas's soldiers were covered with glory.
In the spring of 1865 the 12th Iowa was sent to Mobile, Alabama, where it aided to capture Spanish Fort, after a hot fight, on the day Lee surrendered at Appomattox. This ended the gallant battle career of John Steen and his company ; but his regiment was held at Selma and Talladiga, Alabama, guarding the freedmen from the keen resent- ment of the Southern people until January, 1866.
Mr. Steen returned home after the war, and the Steen family was justly honored because of its six gallant veterans. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits for a few months, and then was appointed dep- uty sheriff of Winneshick county, Iowa, and held that position with credit until he removed to Nebraska, in 1869.
On coming to this State he settled in Omaha, and was soon after- ward appointed registry and money-order clerk in the Omaha post- office. From that position he was promoted to postal clerk on the Union Pacific railroad, through the influence of Senator William B. Allison, of Iowa. He continued in this service until the spring of 1871, when he was elected City Treasurer of Omaha. He served two terms of one year each with his usual faithfulness and skill.
He then was appointed Clerk to the Chief Paymaster of the Mil- itary Department of the Platte. This post he resigned in 1874, and he then removed to Fremont to engage in the lumber and agricultural implement business, in which he was wholly successful. In 1877 he took up his residence at Wahoo and entered the hardware trade. When the State militia was organized he became the first captain of a company at Wahoo belonging to the First Regiment. He was ap- pointed postmaster of that place in 1875, and Postoffice Inspector in 1883, his division comprising Nebraska and Wyoming. In this position he was very efficient, having been educated for the work while Deputy Sheriff and by his previous experience in the postal service. He was removed from this office as an "offensive partisan," by the Democratic Postmaster General, in 1885, and then reengaged in the hardware trade at Wahoo until elected to his present office, by about 28,000 majority, in 1888.
Mr. Steen was married on September 10, 1870, to Miss Marie
HON. JOHN STEEN, COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC LANDS AND BUILDINGS.
HON. JOHN JENKINS, COMMISSIONER OF LABOR.
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Louise Hough, an excellent and accomplished lady of El Dorado, Fay- ette county, Iowa. They had four children born to them, and all are living. Their names are Nora Cecelia, Theron Hough, Clarence Guido, and Mona Lillian. The family resides at Wahoo at present, where it possesses the highest respect of the people.
There have been eight Librarians, Mr. Kennard being the first State Librarian, as follows :
James S. Izard, March 16, 1855. H. C. Anderson, November 6, 1855. John H. Kellum, Angust 3, 1857. Alonzo D. Luce, November 7, 1859.
Robert S. Knox, 1861. Thomas P. Kennard, June 22, 1867. William H. Jones, January 10, 1871. Guy A. Brown, March 3, 1871.
Among the most important of the offices of the State is that of Com- missioner of Labor, created by act of the Legislature of 1887. By this act the Governor is the named Commissioner, (this being to avoid the constitutional prohibition against creating any new office,) with power to appoint a Deputy, to whose care the whole work of the department is consigned, and who is recognized as the real head of the depart- ment, the de facto Commissioner of Labor. And in selecting the Hon. John Jenkins to be the head of the State Bureau of Labor, Gov- ernor Thayer showed excellent judgment.
Mr. Jenkins is descended from distinguished ancestors. His grand- father was John Jenkins, whose residence was Hengoed, Wales. He was a minister of distinction in the Baptist church, and a college in Pennsylvania conferred upon him the title of D. D., about 1850, on account of his learned works on the Bible. He was the author of a commentary on the Bible which required sixteen years of labor to produce. The great work of his life was a religious allegory entitled the "Silver Palace," a work somewhat resembling Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." It was this which won him his theological title. He was also distinguished as an orator. There is no record of Mr. Jenkin's grandmother.
Mr. Jenkins's father was also John Jenkins. He was also a min- ister of distinction on account of learning and intellectual energy. He was sent by the Welsh Society to Morlaix, France, in 1832, to estab- lish a Baptist Mission. He was the author of various works of a lit- erary and scientific character, and on account of their high merit he was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He died
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
in France in 1873. Mr. JJenkins's mother was an excellent woman, and the mother of twelve children, eleven of whom were born in France. Of these, Mr. Jenkins, the Commissioner, was the fourth child and the third John Jenkins in direct succession. He was born at the Mission at Morlaix, France, May 25, 1838. He spent his boy- hood there in educational and industrial pursuits, and was sent to Wales in 1853, articled to become a mechanical engineer, under the tutelage of T. W. Kennard, Chief Engineer of the Atlantic & Great Western railway. In this position Mr. Jenkins became a skillful engineer and mechanic - in fact, a master workman.
In 1861, owing to the fact that the United States Mail Steamship, Arago, running from New York to Havre, of which he was engineer, was stopped in New York harbor because the rebel privateer Sump- ter was on the seas, he enlisted in the Seventy-first New York In- fantry, in 1862, to meet the rebel invasion at the time Banks was driven out of the Shenandoah Valley. The regiment reported to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton for a three months' term. The regiment was engaged in detailed service in Maryland, to prevent rebel recruits from passing from Maryland into Virginia. Soon after the term of enlistment, and subsequent to the second battle of Bull Run, Mr. Jenkins returned to his old work, mechanical engineering. In 1863, during Lee's raid into Pennsylvania, Mr. Jenkins again en- listed, this time in the Forty-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry. His regiment was mainly employed in defending Harrisburg against the advance of the rebel General Jenkins, until he left to join Lee at Gettysburg. Then the Forty-fourth pressed on to Gettysburg, but arrived just in time to see the battle won by the Union forces. His regiment was mustered out after three months' service, and Mr. Jen- kins returned to New York and resumed his occupation as a mechan- ical engineer, being mainly employed in the construction of Federal monitors. He helped to build the monitors, Tonwanda, Susquehanna, Lehigh, and others.
After the war his efficiency as a mechanical engineer called Mr. Jenkins to the oil regions of Pennsylvania, where he was employed for a time on the John Steele oil farm. By his skill he was enabled to make a fortune in eighteen months' time, but lost it all in an equal period, owing to the shrinkage of values which followed the first ad- vance. He left there penniless and in ill health, and his physician
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NEBRASKA FROM TERRITORIAL TIMES.
recommended a trip on the western plains. He made a journey over the western trail in 1867, and had the exhilaration of fighting Indi- ans frequently added to that of the fresh prairie air. During this trip he made the acquaintance of Col. W. F. Cody, (Buffalo Bill,) who was scouting for General Custer. He also met Generals Custer and Hancock during the trip, they being west looking after the In- dian warfare then in progress. On one occasion one wagon was cap- tured by the Indians which contained everything of value possessed by Mr. Jenkins. So he arrived in Denver in better health but with a low state of finances. He worked in Denver, then a mere village, for a while, and during the same year returned to Omaha, where he had the pleasure of assisting to build the first stationary engine ever manufactured in Nebraska, in the shop of Hall Brothers. From Omaha he went to work at his trade on the Erie & Susquehanna Railroad, and a few months later became connected with the Panama Company, on the Isthmus of Panama; this was in 1869. He spent two and one-half years on the Isthmus, two of which he was foreman of the shops there. At the end of that period he was called to Peru to assist in the mechanical department of the railroad Henry Meigs was constructing in that country. From 1872 to 1875 he was con- nected with this road, and assisted to construct water works at Iqui- que, and salt petre works at Pampanegoro. He concluded his work in Peru by driving a tunnel for Mr. Meigs, on the Oroya railroad, at a height of 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, during which he invented a new way of boring with diamond drills.
From Peru he returned to the United States and went to the mining regions of Nevada to introduce his diamond drill, but received such illiberal inducements that he abandoned the project, and entered the office of the chief engineer of the Union Mills and Mining Company, of Virginia City, Nevada, where he remained until, by the death of Mr. Ralston, the company was found to be intimately connected with the Bank of California, which, being deeply involved, caused the mines to change hands.
Mr. Jenkins then came east and engaged with the C. B. & Q. rail- road company, in 1877, expecting to return to South America; but the course of his life was changed by meeting the lady in Council Bluffs who became his wife. This was Miss Alice M. Canning, to whom he was married in June of 1878. Mr. Jenkins worked for the C. B.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
& Q). in various capacities, being employed at one time as draughts- man, at Aurora, Ilinois, under G. M. Stone, now general manager of the road. Owing to rheumatism, he had to resign a position in the service of the Atlantic & Pacific railroad company, and coming west entered the employ of the Union Pacific railroad in the fall of 1882. Ile worked three months at the bench, and then entered their offices as one of their mechanical engineers, where he remained until appointed by James E. Boyd, though a Republican, to the position of boiler in- spector for the city of Omaha. This was in 1886. This position he held, with credit to himself, until appointed Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor by Governor Thayer, in 1887.
Through his eventful career Mr. JJenkins has come to understand very thoroughly the relations that should govern employers and em- ployes. He is a prominent representative of the labor organizations of the day, and is a worthy man in the place, for he teaches just prin- ciples, intended to be thoroughly fair to employer and employed. He urges workingmen to be fair to employers, so that they can insist upon just treatment themselves. He favors patriotism, peace, and obedience to law. When anarchism was flauntingly and menacingly rampant in 1877, at the suggestion of Julius Meyers Mr. Jenkins led in the preparation of a grand labor demonstration on the 4th of July, in the city of Omaha, with the purpose of showing that labor organizations are loyal to the flag, and are not in sympathy with an- arehy, and allow no ensign to be carried in their processions but the flag of the United States. This demonstration had 8,000 men in line, and was conducted in perfect good order.
Mr. Jenkins distinguished himself in Omaha as an advocate of free education and free text books; and so effectively did he lead the workingmen in the contest with the school board that the board was compelled to adopt the free-text-book system in the Omaha schools, which the city now enjoys, to the great advantage of the general edu- cation of the masses.
As Commissioner of Labor Mr. Jenkins is making a marked sue- cess. The last Legislature was highly pleased with his report, and commissioned him to inquire into the feasibility of beet-sugar culture in Nebraska, which he is now giving a thorough investigation.
His family consists of Mrs. Jenkins, a daughter, Millie Maud, and a son, John Benjamin. He has a comfortable property at Omaha.
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NEBRASKA'S RESOURCES.
CHAPTER IV.
NEBRASKA'S RESOURCES-HER DEVELOPMENT FROM THE "GREAT AMERICAN DESERT"- TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, SOIL, ETC. - COMPARISONS WITH OTHER STATES-THE FIELD LINCOLN POSSESSES.
Less than thirty years ago the words, "Great American Desert,"" were printed in large capitals on nearly all maps representing the- western half of Nebraska and adjacent territory. Less than ten years. ago a really wise editor of Iowa gravely announced in his paper that farming, west of the one hundredth meridian, could not be carried on successfully in Nebraska and Kansas. These opinions are part of the candid belief of their time, and are standard humor in Nebraska at this time. The hundredth meridian passes through Keya Paha,. Brown, Blaine, Custer, Dawson, Gosper, and Furnas counties; and. millions of bushels of corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, and other farm: products, are annually produced in Box Butte, Cheyenne, Arthur,. Keith, Lincoln, Frontier, Red Willow, Chase, Hayes, Dundy, Hitch- cock, and other counties west of that ancient geographical dead line .. . Hundreds of thousands of farm animals are supported in that region. Many bright cities and towns are building up there, and railways, have penetrated nearly every part of that much-libeled territory .. The development of Western Nebraska has only fairly set in, and it is not beyond the power of any ordinary citizen of the State to certainly predict that within ten years the western half of Nebraska will be a populons, rich, and thriving empire, nearly five times the area of. Massachusetts, and more than thirty times as productive of King corn.
The growth of Nebraska in population, wealth, schools, churches, and general improvements, has not been surpassed, probably not: equaled, by any equivalent area on the globe, in the past ten years; and she now ranks as one of the great States of the Union. Her real merits will not be appreciated by the country at large until after. the next census is reported, when it will be admitted that she is;
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
swiftly moving to a position beside the richest agricultural and com- mercial States of the Nation.
The State of Nebraska is situated between 40° and 43º north lat- itude, and long. 95° 25' and 104° west from Greenwich. The length of the State is about four hundred and twenty miles east and west, the width about two hundred and eight miles, north and south. The area is 76,855 square miles, or 49,187,200 acres. It is the eighth State in the Union in size, not considering Montana, not yet fully admitted. The topography of the State is made up of rolling prairie, table land, and valleys, with a small percentage of bluff land, or high rolling surface. The State is devoid of mountains, possesses few lakes, and is practically without swamps. The prairie is as beautiful as any in the world, and comprises about fifty per cent of the whole area ; the table lands are really high prairies, terraced, and make about twenty per cent of the area. The valleys are generally low, level prairies, and, perhaps, make up nearly twenty per cent of the surface, while the high, rolling and bluff portion may be estimated at about ten per cent. There is a gradual slope from the west end of the State to the Missouri river, causing the three principal rivers, the Niobrara, Platte, and Republican, to take nearly an easterly course. The prin- cipal tributaries of the Niobrara, which is on the northern side of the State, flow northward; those of the Platte, which occupies the lower central portion of the State, flow to the southeast, and the branches of the Republican, which has its course along the south side of the State until it passes into Kansas, in Nuckolls county, also run in a southeasterly direction. A glance at the river system of Nebraska will give an idea of the general topography of the State. The Loup river is a tributary of the Platte, on the north side, and, with its branches, drains and waters nearly all of the north center of the State. The Elkhorn river is also a considerable stream, flowing south- easterly across the northeast corner of the State, and meeting the Platte about thirty-five miles from its confluence with the Missouri river. The Blue river takes its rise within five miles of the Platte, and flows in a southeasterly course through the southeast corner of the State, and empties into the Republican river, in Eastern Kansas, This is one of the most picturesque streams in the State. All three streams were fringed with timber in the earlier years of the State's history, and much of this yet remains. Along the Niobrara the
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NEBRASKA'S RESOURCES.
trees were pine, cedar, ash, oak, walnut, and such varieties as grow with these. In the western canons there was and is yet fine cedar timber. Along the easterly and southerly streams there were cot- tonwood, oak, hickory, elm, maple, ash, locust, willow, box elder, linn, hackberry, sycamore, mulberry, coffee-bean, and ironwood. There are fifty species of forest trees in Nebraska. Blackberry, goose- berry and other shrubs grow luxuriantly, and nearly all kinds of ordinary fruit trees are found in the orchards of the State. Almost every farmer has a grove of maples, cottonwood, walnut, or other trees which he planted, and in a few years fuel enough for use can be grown in almost any part of the State. The cultivation of groves of forest trees has been greatly encouraged by the establishment of "Ar- bor Day," a holiday conceived by Hon. J. Sterling Morton, of Ne- braska City, and devoted by the people to planting trees. This day is now made the subject of a general proclamation by the Governor every year.
The planting of trees and cultivation of the soil has made Nebraska a State of very equable climate. Dronth very seldom visits the State. Rains come with almost perfect timeliness in the State generally, and tornadoes are scarcely ever known. This seems strange, and is, in fact, a phenomenon of nature; but it is true that while the face of Kansas is raked from end to end by the most terrific storms, and while Mis- souri, Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota, are frequently devastated in places, Nebraska has scarcely ever known a genuine tornado. The atmosphere is dry and invigorating, and such diseases as consumption are little known. The mean average temperature during 1888 was 49º Fahrenheit. The winters are not severely cold, and the summers are not oppressively hot. The climate is both favorable to human health, the growth of farm animals, and agricultural products of all kinds. This is shown by the fact that Nebraska has had excellent erops for three years past, while States and Territories on all sides have suffered from drouth during the same period. The reason for this favorable condition of climate is owing, probably, to permanent natural causes, based on the topography of the Missouri Valley, and the location of the State with reference to the meeting of the hot and cold currents of air from south and north.
But the soil of Nebraska is peculiarly adapted to stand drouth or heavy rainfall. This is true of every part of the State. To show
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
the remarkable homogenity of the soil of various sections of Ne- braska, we will quote the figures of an analysis of soil taken from the counties of Douglas, Buffalo, Loup, Clay, and Harlan, represent- . ing the eastern, central, northern, and southern parts of the State. The columns represent the counties in the order named :
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