This association was founded in 1891. Beginning with 1909, the legislature has appropriated funds for its support. It was incorporated in 1911, but is not a legalized state institution.

NEBRASKA POTATO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

President-Jacob Pedrett

Vice-President-C. O. Sawyer....

Secretary and Treasurer-H. O. Werner..

.Kimball Rushville ....Lincoln

This association was organized in 1917. The legislature of 1919 legalized it as a state institution and appropriated $1,500 for its use. Succeeding legislatures have continued to appropriate funds for the association, whose purpose is to encourage scientific production, handling and marketing.

The Nebraska state irrigation association was organized in 1893. The general purpose of this organization is to promote and diffuse knowledge concerning irrigation and other uses of water; to facilitate conference and deliberation among people of the state concerning irrigation and related interests; to provide means for bringing the needs of the people in respect to irrigation before the state and federal governments and to suggest and assist in procuring the enactment of needed changes in irrigation laws.

The association holds annual sessions. Bridgeport has been chosen as the permanent seat for these sessions but in 1919, owing to the lack of hotel facilities, the session was held in Gering.

The legislature of 1919 made two appropriations amounting to $1,500 for the use of the association. This money is being used to publish the proceedings in book form.

On July 9, 1867, David Butler, Thomas P. Kennard and John Jay Gillespie located Lincoln, the future capital of Nebraska, upon the tract of land lying between Salt and Antelope creeks in Lancaster county, more definitely described as "the S. E. 4 of section 23, W. 1⁄2 of the N. W. 4 and the W. 2 of the S. W. 4 of sections 25 and 26 of township No. 10 north of range 6 east of the 6th principal meridian."

Upon the 26th day of August, 1867, a plat of the proposed city of Lincoln was filed and certified by the same commissioners and by A. D. Smith and August W. Harvey, Surveyors. Upon this plat, block 20, lying between Q and R, Ninth and Tenth streets, at the southwest corner of the present university campus, was designated "State Historical and Library Association Block." On the 26th day of August, 1867, articles of incorporation of the state historical and library association were filed in the office of the county clerk of Lancaster county.

On the 15th day of February, 1869, the state legislature by joint resolution approved the report of the three commissioners locating Lincoln and therewith the plat filed by them carrying this legend: "The following blocks are reserved for public purposes; Block 29 for State His

torical Library Association incorporated August 26, 1867."

This account exhibits the beginnings of the state historical society idea and the conception of a site for a future historical building adjacent to the state university. Nothing further is of record in the years which immediately followed. The struggle for existence absorbed all the energies of the pioneers who were subduing the raw prairie soil and constantly under fire from drouth, grasshoppers, hard times and Indians. The very existence of Lincoln as the state capital was itself in jeopardy for the next eight years. "Historical Block", as it was called in these early years, was the camping ground of immigrants on their way to future homesteads.

On February 24, 1875, the state legislature passed an act donating block 29, to the city of Lincoln for market purposes only. The occasion for this act was the fact that Lincoln had just donated "Market Square," as it was then known, to the United States as a site for a post-office building and the farmers who had used that block as a market for loads of hay, wood, potatoes and other farm produce were about to be forced off by the excavation and construction of the post-office. The Lancaster county delegation in the legislature urged that nothing had ever been done by the state historical library association and that the people of Lincoln desired to accommodate the frontier farmers with a definite place for marketing their produce. Thus, at once, the state historical library association and the block dedicated to its use seemed to disappear forever.

The next chapter in the story of the historical society opens with a letter, dated Brownville, Nebr., August 1, 1878, and signed by Robert W. Furnas. This letter was addressed to a number of prominent citizens and asked the use of their names in calling a meeting at Lincoln during the state fair to organize a state historical society.1 Favorable responses were received and soon after a call for such a meeting to be held at the Commercial hotel in Lincoln on the evening of September 25, 1878, signed by twenty well known citizens, was published generally in the newspapers of that time.

At this first meeting committees were appointed and an address delivered by Dr. George L. Miller. On the following day a constitution was adopted and permament officers chosen, Robert W. Furnas, president, and Prof. Samuel Aughey of the state university as secretary.

The society was given rooms on the university campus, where it has remained. It now occupies quarters in the university library building.

In 1916 a joint committee of the society and the university made a report on the "concentration of state library agencies and of state museums." The committee recommended that "the Nebraska state historical society and the University of Nebraska join in an effort to secure

For an extended historical sketch of the society see the Nebraska Blue Book, 1915, p. 272.

the erection of a building for the use of both, and for the library commission and the legislative reference bureau." This recommendation was adopted by the historical society board, and agreed to by the other state library activities. A joint committee of the 1917 legislature, in a report (Senate Journal, 1917, p. 975) on the state library activities recommended the "erection by the state out of university funds at the university, of a commodious and handsome library building, to be governed and maintained by the university, and which shall house the university library, the historical society, the library commission, and such other state supported library activities as may be agreed upon."

The society maintains a historical museum, and has a library of approximately 60,000 books, pamphlets and bound newspapers. Since 1885 a regular series of volumes of historical collections and papers has been published. A periodical devoted to society affairs and historical notes is published quarterly and sent to sustaining members.

Since 1883 the society has received regular appropriations from the state. These constitute its chief support. Additional funds are received from membership dues.

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

Department Commander-John S. Davisson.
Senior Vice-Commander-O. C. Bell..
Junior Vice-Commander, B. R. Hilliard..
Assistant Adjutant General-Harmon Bross.

HISTORY

Omaha ..Lincoln Superior

The Nebraska department of the Grand army of the republic was organized June 12, 1877, with six posts and a membership of one hundred and sixty-six. It was immediately made an auxiliary of the national organization. January 31, 1906, the order was incorporated. The roster of members in Nebraska has always well represented the civil war veterans residing in the state. As to number, the highest point was reached in 1892, when there were over eighty-five hundred names on the roster. The Nebraska division of the Grand army of the republic, with the woman's branch, the Woman's relief corps, has been very effective both as a fraternal society to promote fellowship among the veterans of the civil war, and also as a charitable organization to assist veterans or families of veterans who are in need. For a number of years, the legislature has made a small appropriation to be expended by the department for office expense and the keeping of military records.

Deputy Warden-D. G. Kavanaugh.

Chief Clerk and Principal of School-James O'Connell.
Steward-W. A. Kirby.

Physician-B. A. Finkle, M. D.

Chaplain-T. A. Maxwell.

Matron-Frona Lockhard.

Handicraft Furniture Company-Manager, L. M. Eastman.

The first territorial act concerning the penitentiary, after the adoption of the criminal code of Iowa in 1855, was that approved January 22, 1856, naming a board of commissioners to locate a penitentiary within one mile of the public square in Tekamah, Burt county. An act approved February 13, 1857, named a new set of commissioners to locate the institution. The legislature of 1859, as a part of the criminal code, provided that convicts should be kept in county jails until a territorial penitentiary should be erected. An act approved January 6, 1860, authorized the territorial governor to "contract with the proper authorities of any of the states of the Union having a penitentiary or state prison, for the confinement of Nebraska convicts." In joint resolutions approved January 7, 1860, and January 4, 1861, the legislature memorialized congress for an appropriation to build a penitentiary at or near Bellevue, Sarpy county. Again in a joint resolution the legislature made this petition, asking for $40,000. Another petition for an appropriation for a penitentiary in the territory, without reference to location, was approved February 12, 1864. This petition asked for $100,000.

The criminal code of 1866 provided for the confinement of convicts in the county jails of the territory, and an act approved February 18, 1867, made an appropriation of $3,000 for the support of the territorial convicts, the jailers not to receive more than fifty cents a day for boarding each prisoner. In his message of January 8, 1869, Governor Butler stated that prisoners were in county jails, and that a penitentiary was needed.

very much

On March 3, 1870, a joint resolution of the legislature created a joint committee to draft a bill providing for the "immediate concentration, care and keeping of the state convicts." On the following day, March 4, 1870, a bill providing for the erection of a penitentiary at or near Lincoln was approved. A board of three inspectors elected by the legislature had the management of the penitentiary, the warden, only, being appointed by the governor. The state received grants of land amounting to 32,000 acres from the United States for a penitentiary, and the inspectors were directed to sell the lands and place the funds so derived in the treasury.

The inspectors were required to concentrate persons under sentence at or near Lincoln in a temporary penitentiary. They were also required to put the prisoners "at work upon the public buildings and in stone quarries for the use and benefit of the state, for the hours specified in their

respective sentences." The inspectors were also authorized to "hire out or contract the labor upon the best terms that can be obtained." The temporary penitentiary was ready for the occupancy of thirty-seven convicts in July, 1870.

The contract for the permanent buildings was let on June 13, 1870, to Stout and Jamison, who employed the prisoners at forty-two cents a day each. The buildings were erected on land which Judge Hilton and W. T. Donovan donated to the state for that purpose. An act approved March 9, 1871, made further provisions concerning the sale of the lands, and the extension of the contractor's limit for the completion of the building. An act of March 9, 1871, granted prisoners a deduction from the time of sentence for good behavior.

On March 20, 1871, it was provided that the "rents and revenues and profits derived from the leasing of the penitentiary shops, grounds and convict labor * * shall be paid into the state treasury and shall be held by the treasurer for the care and support of the prisoners."

The legislature of 1873, through a special committee of the house, investigated the penitentiary and failed to find any serious criticism of the contractor's work. An act approved February 24, 1873, levied a tax of one-half mill on the grand assessment roll of the state for 1873 and 1874 for the penitentiary building fund. A supplemental act made a one mill levy for the years 1875 and 1876. An act of February 19, 1877, transferred the balance remaining in this fund to the sinking fund.

The constitution of 1875 placed the penitentiary under the control of the board of public lands and buildings. On October 1, 1877, this board entered into a six-year contract with W. H. B. Stout, who was to pay all the "expense necessarily incurred in the maintenance of the prison, including the board and clothing of the convicts, and the salaries of all the officers and guards," for which he received from the state the labor of the convicts and sixty cents a day per capita for each convict for two years, and fifty-five cents and fifty cents a day per capita, respectively, for the succeeding terms of two years each. By an act approved February 26, 1879, this contract was extended for an additional six years from October 1, 1883, provided the contractor should build a cell-house of specified size and quality, and should receive only forty-five cents in cash, or its equivalent, a day for each convict for the first three years of the extended lease, and forty cents a day for each convict for the second three years of this lease, and provided that, after the first day of January, 1880, there should be one cell for each and every Nebraska prisoner, and that after January 1, 1884, only Nebraska prisoners should be kept at the penitentiary. The legislature of 1883 passed an act permitting the keeping of other than Nebraska convicts until 1889. During 1883 to 1889 the lessee employed convicts in the erection of the state capitol, for which he had the contract.

The legislature of 1887 extended the lessee's contract for ten years from October 1, 1889. W. H. B. Stout had assigned and transferred his contract to C. W. Mosher. It was stipulated that Mosher was to receive forty cents a day cash, for each convict, in full compensation. The employment of convicts in the manufacture of cigars, brick, or the cutting of stone, except for use at the penitentiary, was forbidden.

A special investigating committee of the legislature of 1895 strongly advocated the abolition of the contract with the lessee. Accordingly, an "act to annul a contract between the state of Nebraska and W. H. Dorgan, alleged assignee of C. W. Mosher," was approved April 11, 1895. The entire appropriation of $35,000 was exhausted in the culmination of this annulment. In spite of this legislative action, the board of public lands and buildings proceeded to make another contract over the protest of Governor Holcomb, who caused the matter to be submitted to the supreme court.