Mari Sandoz (1896-1966), Nebraska historian and novelist, lived at this site, 1226 J Street, from 1925 to 1937. Here in 1928, she began writing Old Jules, the biography of her father. From the J Street curb, she often wrote and watched construction of the capitol, completed in 1932. That same year, Sandoz submitted Old Jules to the Atlantic Monthly Press nonfiction contest, but it was rejected seven months later. Frustrated, she burned over 70 short stories behind the house, and in January 1934, Sandoz began work for the Nebraska State Historical Society on the ninth floor of the capitol. In 1935, Sandoz revised Old Jules for the Atlantic Press contest. Two days before the deadline, the manuscript fell into a scrub bucket, but Sandoz managed to retype it with the help of friends. Then on June 13, 1935, Sandoz received a telegram at the capitol. Old Jules won the first-place, $5,000 prize. Its subsequent publication launched Sandoz' prolific writing career.
]]>The North Bottoms neighborhood was settled by Germans from Russia beginning in the 1870s. During the preceding century they had colonized in Russia, attracted by offers of free land, military exemption, and political autonomy. In 1871, when the Czar revoked these privileges, a flood of German emigration to the Americas began.
Immigrants were drawn to the Great Plains by land and jobs. Lincoln became a majordestination. Here most took residence along the bottom lands of Salt Creek, where frequent flooding diminished land values and rail yards offered employment. Settler from the same villages clustered together, creating a distinct neighborhood.
The North Bottoms ethnic enclave developed its own businesses, social groups, churches, and schools. Small houses on long, narrow lots followed either Old World models or the new American styles. In the backyards, chicken coops, tiny barns, and summer kitchens recalled the old country agricultural community. Descendants have largely dispersed throughout Lincoln and the nation, but North Bottoms reminds us of the old "urban villages" immigrants built in a new land.
]]>The Territorial Legislature at Omaha drew the boundaries of Lancaster County in 1855. Settlers first arrived in 1856 and a county government was established "on paper" in 1859. Methodist Elder John M. Young arrived at the head of a colony in 1863, staked out claims, and laid out the townsite of Lancaster centered on this block the following year. Young erected on the block a two-story female seminary which served as a school and religious-governmental meeting hall before burning in 1867. The destiny of Lancaster, population 30, was determined in County Commissioner William T. Donovan's home (located near 9th and Q Streets) on July 29, 1867. There the State Capital Commission (Governor David Butler, Secretary of State Thomas P. Kennard, and State Auditor John Gillespie), after traveling throughout eastern Nebraska, designated Lancaster the site of the new seat of State Government to be known as Lincoln after the martyred President. This block accommodated much of Lincoln's early commerce: hotels, business houses, stagecoach depot, government offices, and religious halls. Lincoln's first church building, erected on this corner in 1968, was the predecessor to St. Paul's Methodist Church, 12th and M Streets.
]]>Chartered as a Land-Grant institution by the first regular session of the State Legislature on February 15, 1869, the University opened its doors to 20 collegiate students and 110 preparatory school pupils on September 7, 1871. Lincoln was then a raw prairie village of about 2,400 people.
University Hall, the original four-story building, stood on this site. Its lumber was hauled by wagon from Nebraska City; its brick made locally. It was finally razed in October, 1948.
Despite financial crises and ideological disputes, the University survived its early years and in 1886 inaugurated the first program of graduate instruction west of the Mississippi. Recognized for its high scholastic standards, the University was accorded membership in the Association of American Universities in 1908.
As a major institution of higher education, the University performed a key role in the early development of the State and continues now as a prime source of further Nebraska progress.
]]>From 1854 to 1867 the seat of territorial and state government was in Omaha. In 1867 the State Legislature appointed a Capital Commission to select a location for the new state capitol. Commission members Governor David Butler, Auditor John Gillespie and Secretary of State Thomas P. Kennard on July 29, 1867 selected the present site.
In 1869 John K. Winchell of Chicago designed masonry homes in Lincoln for each of the Commissioners. These showplaces did much to instill confidence in Lincoln's future. Of these three structures, only the Kennard House stands today. It is apparently the oldest house within the original plat of Lincoln and is one of the finest remaining Nebraska examples of Italianate domestic architecture, the leading American style from about 1855 to 1875, Nebraska's pioneer period.
In 1965 the State Legislature designated the structure the "Nebraska Statehood Memorial" and assigned responsibility for the memorial to the Nebraska State Historical Society. Thus the house stands today, a symbol of the confidence early Nebraskans had in their state.
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