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FAMOUS NEBRASKANS AND MASONS WHO HELPED SHAPE OUR HISTORY These exerpts from the Andreas' History Journals published in 1882 Hiram D. Hathaway .HIRAM D. HATHAWAY, business manager Nebraska State Journal: came to Nebraska in May, 1858, and immediately took a contract to run the mechanical work on the Wyoming Telescope for one year. He then worked as a journeyman printer at Nebraska City until 1865, when he went to Plattsmouth and established the Nebraska Herald. This he conducted successfully until March, 1872; coming to Lincoln in that year and buying a half interest in the State Journal. While at Plattsmouth he was elected a member of the first State Legislature, and was a member of the Senate when that body first met at Lincoln. Mr. Hathaway was born at Johnston, Trumbull Co., Ohio, October 20, 1835. That was his home until 1852, when he came to Kanesville (now Council Bluffs), Iowa. Remained there one year, going thence to California. There he was employed at mining, lumbering, farming, etc., until 1858. He was married at Nebraska City, August 1, 1860, to Anna Lauer, a native of New York City. They have four children: Fred H., Frank L., Lillie E, and Ralph H. They lost one son, Charles, who died November 3, 1881, aged about twenty-one years. Mr. Hathaway is a member of A., F. & A. M., Lodge, Chapter and Commandery Albinus Nance (1848 - ? ) Lafayette, Illinois HON. ALBINUS NANCE, Governor of the State of Nebraska, was born at Lafayette, Stark Co., Ill., March 30, 1848, and is the oldest son of Dr. Hiram Nance, who has been for many years one of the most successful physicians in Central Illinois. The ancestors of Governor Nance on his father's side were French-Huguenots, and were driven from France by the religious intolerance and persecutions that followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They came with many others to the new world and formed a prosperous community in the State of North Carolina, their decendents moved northward and westward as the settlements advanced, and in 1836 Dr. H. Nance, above mentioned, located in the then new State of Illinois, the far West of that period. The Governor's ancestors on his mother's side were of English origin. His mother's maiden name was Sarah R. Smith, she was born in the State of Ohio. At the commencement of the war, Albinus was a mere boy; too young to become a soldier, but at a later period of the struggle he enlisted in the Ninth Illinois Cavalry. At the date of enlistment he was only sixteen years old. It is one of the traditions of the family that the young soldier was mustered in contrary to the wishes and earnest protests of his parents. He continued in the service until the close of the war, and participated in the following battles, viz.: Guntown, Hurricane Creek, Tupelo, Columbia, Tenn., Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville. In the charge which broke the enemy's line at the battle of Nashville he was slightly wounded. When the war closed and his regiment was disbanded he became a student at Knox College, Galesburg, Ill., taking part of the classical course. Soon after leaving college he commenced the study of law and in 1870 was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Illinois. Impressed with the belief that the West would afford a more promising field for the employment of his youthful energies he came to Nebraska in 1871 and took a homestead in Polk County, devoting part of his time to farming and giving some attention to the practice of law. Finally he removed to Osceola, the county-seat of Polk County, and soon established a very lucrative law practice. In 1874 his friends submitted his name to the Republican convention of the Thirteenth District for Representative in the State Legislature. The convention was composed of delegates from the following named counties: Platt, Butler, Polk, Hamilton, York, Fillmore, Clay and Adams. A prolonged and excited contest occurred in the convention. There were seven candidates in all, and the friends of each worked with untiring energy. Finally, after much balloting Albinus Nance received the nomination by a majority of one vote This was the commencement of a remarkable political career. His principal opponent in the convention entered the field as a independent candidate and desperate efforts were made to defeat the regular candidate, but with out success. Nance was elected by about 2,000 majority and during the ensuing session of the Legislature made a good record as a member of the House. In 1376 he was one of the six delegates chosen by the Republican State Convention to represent Nebraska in the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati and was elected chairman of the delegation. During that year he was re-nominated for the Legislature and re-elected almost without opposition. When the Legislature convened he was elected Speaker of the House. The splendid record that he made as a presiding officer brought him prominently before the people as a man worthy of additional honors, and in 1878 he was nominated for Governor by the Republican State Convention and was elected by a very large majority. In 1880 he was re-nominated by acclamation, and was re-elected by a majority larger than that of any other candidate on the State ticket. The distinguishing feature of his administration had been an unassuming but inflexible determination to execute the laws with fidelity to the best interests of the people of Nebraska. Since the commencement of his first term the vast and varied resources of the State have been wonderfully developed, and the Governor often refers with commendable pride to the rapid growth of his adopted State during the years he has occupied the position of chief executive. He was married in 1875 to Miss Sarah White, daughter of Egbert and Mary White, of Farragut, Iowa. A sweet little child, Nellie, now five years old, is the only darling of the Governor's family. Robert Wilkinson Furnas (l824-1905)Category: Agriculture, Frontier Life, Politics & Government, Commerce, Education,
conservation, journalism, military Robert Wilkinson Furnas, second governor of Nebraska (1873-1875),came to Nebraska in 1856. Two months after his arrival, he printed the first issue of the Nebraska Advertiser newspaper. As editor of this successful publication, Furnas promoted Nebraska, its soil, water, and agricultural possibilities, and had great influence on the development of the state. Furnas, before coming to Nebraska at age 32, had worked as a storekeeper, tinsmith, postmaster, village clerk, train conductor, insurance agent, and as a printer, editor, and publisher in Troy, Ohio, his birthplace. In l868 Furnas edited and published the Nebraska Farmer, the first agricultural paper to be published in Nebraska. In the fall of 1856, he was elected to the Council of the 3rd Legislative Assembly of Nebraska territory and served through the eighth session. He was the author of the first common school law of Nebraska and also the law forming a territorial Board of Agriculture. Furnas served six years as regent of the State University. He organized the first public school board and presided over the first educational convention held in the state. During the Civil War, Furnas was commissioned a colonel of the territorial militia. In l862 he was made a colonel in the regular army by President A. Lincoln. Furnas then organized and commanded three Indian regiments. Colonel Furnas captured the Cherokee Indian, Chief John Ross. By sending Chief Ross and his family to Washington, D.C., Furnas was instrumental in ending troubles between the government and the Cherokee nation. He was commissioned a colonel of the Second Nebraska Cavalry and served under General Sully in the campaign against the Sioux that culminated in the Battle of White Stone Hill in Dakota Territory, September 3, 1863. Following his military service Furnas was appointed by President Lincoln as Indian agent for the Omaha, Winnebago, and Ponca tribes and served for four years. During the time he was Indian agent, the Omahas ceded a portion of their reservation in Thurston County to the Winnebagos. Furnas was the first president of the newly organized Nebraska State Historical Society from 1878 to 1890 and served as president again from 1904 to 1905. He served as United States commissioner to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the New Orleans Cotton Centennial, the Chicago Columbian Exposition, and to the International Exposition in London. He was president of the American Fair Association and helped develop the Nebraska State Fair. Furnas served as president of the State Board of Agriculture and as president of the State Horticultural Society. He promoted the planting of trees in Nebraska and during his administration as governor Arbor Day was created. He was elected to the Hall of Agricultural Achievement in l9l8 and was named to the Nebraska Hall of Fame in l980. Furnas died at Lincoln on June 1, 1905. Charles Henry Gere (l838-l904)Category: Politics, commerce, law, journalism Charles Henry Gere, founder of the Nebraska State Journal, received his education in Pennsylvania, studied law in Baltimore, Maryland, and served in the Civil War before coming to Nebraska in l865. The New York native soon became a partner of David Butler in a law office in Pawnee City. When Butler became the state's first governor in l967, Gere served as his private secretary. Gere was a member of the first state legislature, which met in Omaha in l866, and served in the state senate 1869-70 and 1881-82. As a member of the education committee, he introduced a bill which founded the state university, and beginning in 1881, he was a member of the Board of Regents, serving as its president for ten years. Gere influenced the passage of legislation which helped establish and maintain free public libraries in Nebraska. Gere was a member of the committee on railroads, which sponsored a bill appropriating money for railroads within the state. Two years later, sections of four railroad systems were being built, with Lincoln on each one's route. Gere served on the railroad commission soon after its founding in the 1880s. In 1875 Gere served as a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention. Gere founded Lincoln's first newspaper, The Nebraska Commonwealth (later named the Nebraska State Journal) in l867. Gere had served as county prosecuting attorney at Pawnee City and as county attorney for Lancaster County. When the State Journal became a daily in 1870, Gere left the practice of law and became more actively involved in the newspaper. He was responsible for the controversial editorial position of the State Journal, taking a stand against the Farmer's Alliance and its candidates. Gere was president of the State Journal Company from 1872 until his death in Lincoln on September 30, 1904. DANIEL H. WHEELER (1834 - ? ) FLOWERFIELD, MICHIGAN DANIEL H. WHEELER, of D. H. Wheeler & Co., law office, real estate and insurance agents, was born in Flowerfield, St. Joseph County, Mich., November 26, 1834. His early life was spent upon the farm, where he remained till he attained his majority, at which time he learned the trade of a distiller, serving one year. He came to Nebraska in 1856, locating in Plattsmouth, clerking in various parts of the State till May 8, 1857. At this time, he associated himself in the hardware business with H. P. and J. W. Coolidge, under the style of Coolidge, Wheeler & Co., the firm name being changed to Coolidge & Wheeler, upon the withdrawal of J. W. Coolidge in 1860. In the following year, Mr. Coolidge disposed of his interest in the business, assuming the offices of County and City Treasurer, which he retained for two years; at the conclusion of this time he again entered the hardware business, in company with E. T. Duke, the firm continuing at Plattsmouth till 1875, when the base of their operations was changed to Omaha, Neb. Two years later, Mr. Wheeler sold his interest in the establishment to his partner. In 1859, Mr. Wheeler, in addition to his other business, opened his office as a real estate agent, continuing alone in the business till 1865, when he associated with him E. C. Lewis and J. C. Marshall, the firm continuing unchanged till Mr. Lewis' death in 1867, Mr. Marshall withdrawing from the partnership at about the same time. In March, 1868, he was joined by L. D. Bennett, the partnership continuing to the present time. Beginning in 1861, Mr. Wheeler for a period of six years read law with the Hon. T. M. Marquette, being admitted to the bar in 1869. In the following year, he became associated with J. C. Fox in the practice of his profession, and subsequently with J. W. Stinchcomb and with E. D. Stone, the latter remaining in the firm till December, 1878, since which time Mr. Wheeler has been alone in the law business. In 1859, Mr. Wheeler was elected Clerk of the Courts for Cass County, which position he filled for two years. In December, 1860, was chosen Assistant Secretary of the Fourth Territorial Council; was appointed Probate Judge of Cass County in December, 1863; was appointed United States Agent of the Pawnee Indian Reservation, entering upon his duties July 6, 1865, and serving until October, 1866, during which time he held the rank of Major in the United States Army. In 1869, was elected Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, a position which he retained for about twelve years; from 1873 to 1879, was Secretary of the State Senate, and in 1875 and 1876 was Secretary of the Centennial Commission. Mr. Wheeler has been a member of the State Horticultural Society since its organization, being Treasurer thereof for several years and Secretary since 1875. He was elected Mayor of Plattsmouth in 1869, serving one term, and has held various other city offices during his career. Since January, 1881, has been President of the Plattsmouth Board of Trade. On February 26, 1857, at Kalamazoo, Mich., Mr. Wheeler was married to Charlotte A. Lewis, a native of New York, a union that has been blessed with four children--Daniel H., Jr., Myron E., Frank L. and William H. William Frederick Cody (1846-1917) North Platte, Nebraska
Buffalo Bill's legendary status is partly due to the popularity of dime novels based on his life and adventures (however exaggerated) written by Ned Buntline. It was through Mr. Buntline's influence that Bill traveled to New York to star in a Wild West stage production. Soon after, Bill formed his own drama company and produced Wild West shows for the New York stage. These stage productions were the precursor to his more elaborate Wild West Shows. In 1883, nearly ten years after his introduction to the New York stage, Bill produced his first full scale Wild West Show before an audience of 8,000 in Omaha. The shows, entitled "Wild West, Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition," were a huge success; the first truly successful entertainment of this type, and tours in the United States and Europe soon followed, lasting from 1883 to 1913. Buffalo Bill's ranch in North Platte, Nebraska, is still in operation today and more about this remarkable American showman can be learned with a visit there Buffalo Bill Cody - February 26 is the birthday of one of the most flamboyant Nebraskans of all time--William F. Cody. The famed "Buffalo Bill" was born in 1846 and died in 1917. Volumes have been written about his exploits, both real and imagined. Separating the truth from the fiction about Buffalo Bill is no easy task. Even going straight to the source was of little help. One author wrote, "It is no derogation of his many substantial qualities to say that he was an untrustworthy chronicler of events. He dealt with the facts in a large, free way, and he had a tendency to make himself the central figure in each episode. Most of his statements are inaccurate; many are preposterous; and he sanctioned on the part of his publicity agents a gross indulgence of fiction." Although many facts about Buffalo Bill are disputed, he's generally credited with originating the first rodeo, near his Scout's Rest Range in North Platte. His Wild West Show attracted great throngs in the East and in Europe, and began a style of western entertainment that continues to the present day. William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) Lincoln, Nebraska
William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) Category: Politics, law, commerce Years in state: 1887-1921 State contribution: lawyer, newspaperman, politics National contribution: U.S. Congressman, soldier, Secretary of State, Scopes evolution trial lawyer William Jennings Bryan influenced Nebraska politics for nearly 30 years. Born in Illinois in 1860, Bryan came to Lincoln in 1887 and set up a law practice. In 1890 he became the first Democratic congressman from Nebraska, serving two terms. Bryan advocated free coinage of silver, and won Populist as well as Democratic support. At the age of 36, he was nominated at the Democratic National Convention in 1896 for president of the United States, but was defeated by William McKinley. He became the Democratic Party's nominee in both 1900 and in 1908, but again was defeated in both attempts. Bryan's influence made the Democratic Party of that time less conservative. He was appointed Secretary of State by Woodrow Wilson in 1913, but resigned in 1915 because of military policy disagreements. By 1916 Bryan's influence on state politics had lessened. Bryan was editor of the Omaha World-Herald from 1894-1896. He was known as the "Great Commoner" because of his concern for the working man. In 1901 he founded The Commoner newspaper in Lincoln to promote his political views. During the Spanish American War he served in Florida as Colonel of the Third Nebraska Volunteer Regiment in 1898. Bryan was a world traveler and writer, and was in great demand as a lecturer from 1915-1925. Bryan was married in 1884 to Mary Elizabeth Baird and they were the parents of three children. Mary Bryan acquired a law degree to help her husband in this career. She handled most of his correspondence and after his death completed his biography. The Bryans moved to Lincoln from Jacksonville, Illinois in 1887, and built a home at 1625 D Street. Approximately six years later they bought five acres of land about three miles southeast of downtown Lincoln and named this track of land Fairview. This was the beginning of a series of land purchases: by 1908 the farm consisted of 160 acres and later purchases brought the total to 350 acres. In the fall of 1901, construction of their new home at Fairview began. The next spring the family sold the D Street home and moved into the new brick barn at Fairview. That fall they moved into the Fairview mansion. This was their home until 1921 when they moved to Florida because of Mary Bryan's health. In 1906 Bryan donated a track of land along Antelope Creek,the largest of several donations of land for the establishment of Antelope Park. He deeded the mansion at Fairview, along with ten acres of land, to the Nebraska Methodist Conference in 1921 as a site for a hospital. Fairview mansion still stands today on the grounds of Bryan Memorial Hospital at 50th and Sumner Streets, Lincoln. Bryan assisted the State of Tennessee with the prosecution in the well-known Scopes evolution trial. Shortly after this trial, Bryan died at Dayton, Tennessee on July 26, 1915, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Bryan was named to the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1969. A bust of Bryan was placed in the United States Capitol Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. in 1937. . John Joseph Pershing (1860-1948) Lincoln, Nebraska
Many assignments and campaigns followed before his appointment in 1917 to command the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe when the United States entered World War I. Pershing's firm stand in a disagreement with other allied commanders led to the United States Army's fighting as an independent army under its own officers, rather than as mere replacements for British and French armies. At the end of the war, Pershing wanted to march into Berlin, but other allied commanders voted against it. In 1919, by act of Congress, Pershing was made General of the Armies of the United States, and later, in 1921, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. Lincoln and Nebraska have never forgotten John J. Pershing. Pershing Armory, Pershing Elementary School, Pershing Road and Pershing Municipal Auditorium, all in Lincoln, were named in his honor. Pershing was named to the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1963. Edward Creighton (1820-1874) Omaha, Nebraska
Edward was a banker and pioneer of the telegraph in Nebraska. He was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1981-82. Category: Commerce, Philanthropy, Frontier Life Edward A. Creighton, businessman and builder of telegraph lines, came to Omaha in l857. The Ohio native had been a farmer, freighter, and builder of telegraph lines before coming to Nebraska. He began his long career as an Omaha businessman with the sale of lumber he had arranged to have shipped to Omaha from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Creighton re-entered the telegraph business in l858, assisting with the building of a line from St. Joseph, Missouri to Omaha, which gave Omaha its first connection by telegraph to the east coast. Creighton visualized the building of a telegraph line to the Pacific Coast. He was commissioned in l860-6l to survey a route between the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast. The Union Pacific Railroad would later, for the most part, follow this route. Congress subsidized the building of a telegraph line from Julesburg, Colorado through South Pass to Salt Lake City, where it was to connect with a line to be built by a California company. Creighton became the first general superintendent of the new company, known as the Pacific Telegraph Company. In October, 1861 the lines merged at Salt Lake City. He resigned as company president in l867 and later built a telegraph line from Salt Lake City to Montana. Creighton invested both in the Pacific Telegraph Company and in a freighting company which operated out of Omaha to Denver, then to Salt Lake City, and on to the Montana gold fields. He also contracted for grading for the Union Pacific Railroad and put up its telegraph lines. In l864 Creighton became a cattleman near Laramie, Wyoming and supplied beef to the Union Pacific construction crews. Through the years Creighton maintained his business interests in Omaha. He was president of the First National Bank in Omaha from its founding in l863 until his death on November 5, l874. He had hoped to build an institution of learning in Omaha, but died before this was accomplished. However, his widow, Mary Wareham Creighton, provided the initial funds for the formation of Creighton University in l875 through her will. Creighton was made a member of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1958 and was
inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in March l983.
In 1877, Red Cloud, having been deposed as chief by General Crook the previous year, personally convinced the much-wanted war chief Crazy Horse, to surrender and accept reservation status. As reward, Red Cloud was allowed to resume his leadership of the Oglalas. It was a bitter accomplishment for Red Cloud, for not only was Crazy Horse slain for "attempted escape," but Red Cloud helplessly witnessed the slow erosion of his people's way of life over the next thirty years. Throughout his tenure, Red Cloud was criticized for giving in too easily to the white man's demands and for obstructing the progress of his people on the white man's road. As Red Cloud himself said, "I, of course, as many others have done before me, have made mistakes in not doing something I should have done and doing what I should not have done..." Can any leader say more? Standing Bear (1829-1908) Macy/Omaha, Nebraska
During an impassioned plea before the court, Standing Bear said, "If a white man had land and someone should swindle him, that man would try and get it back and you would not blame him. Look on me. Take pity on me and help me to save the women and children. My brothers, a power which I cannot resist, crowds me to the ground. I need help." In a celebrated ruling, Federal Judge Dundy ruled that, "an Indian is a person within the meaning of the law" and that Standing Bear was being illegally held. Standing Bear was freed and allowed to return to Northeast Nebraska, where he lived out his life. A senate investigation followed and the Ponca's Nebraska lands were restored. John Gneisenau Neihardt (1881-1973) Bancroft, Nebaska
He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, and of the International Institute of Arts and Letters, Lindau, Germany; a member and founder of the Westerners; vice-president for the Middle West of the Poetry Society of America; and a former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Among his other honors were the Poetry Society national prize, 1919; gold medal, foremost poet of the nation, Poetry Center, New York, 1963; first civilian member, Order of Indian Wars of the United States, 1925; bronze bust placed in the State Capitol building, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1961; first Sunday in each August named Neihardt Day in Nebraska by the governor's proclamation, 1968; Prairie Poet Laureate of America, citation and title by Poets Laureate International, 1968; named "Poet Laureate in Perpetuity," 1982. A unique honor accorded Neihardt was the selection of his "A Cycle of the West" by men and women of letters as one of the three thousand best books in the three thousand years from Homer to Hemingway. Neihardt was the author of some twenty-five other volumes of poetry, fiction, and philosophy. Neihardt received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Nebraska, 1917; Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, 1928; University of Missouri, 1947; and Midland Lutheran College, Fremont, Nebraska, 1972. In his late 80's Neihardt came home to Nebraska and lived in Lincoln with the Julius Youngs while continuing his writing and personal appearances. He was working on the second volume of his autobiography at the time of his death at the age of 92. Dr. Neihardt died Saturday, November 3, 1973, at the home of his daughter, Hilda Neihardt Petri, in Columbia, Missouri. Nathan Roscoe Pound (1870-1964) Lincoln, Nebraska
A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Roscoe Pound became one of the nation's foremost legal experts. He was educated at home by his mother until he entered the university at the age of fourteen, where he majored in botany. As a graduate student in botany, he studied law in the evenings, and attended Harvard Law School for one year, though never receiving a degree in law. During the 1890's Pound practiced law and continued his botonical studies. In 1898, he received his doctoral in that field and was the first person to receive a doctoral degree from the University of Nebraska. His dissertation, co-authored with Frederic E. Clements, A Phytogeography of Nebraska, is regarded as the first ecological study to be published in English. For this and other works, Pound was honored by both national and international scientific organizations. In 1901, he was appointed a commissioner of the Nebraska Supreme Court, and two years later became dean of the University of Nebraska Law School. He taught at Northwestern and Chicago Universities, and was dean of the Harvard Law School for twenty years. During these years he published many works, becoming a leading American philosopher of law. J. Sterling Morton (1832-1903) Nebraska City, Nebraska
Mr. Morton also has the distinction of being named the first presidential cabinet member from west of the Missouri River when, in 1893, he was appointed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture by then President Grover Cleveland. J. Sterling Morton is best remembered as the founder of Arbor Day. It was his resolution before the State Board of Agriculture which began Arbor Day in the year 1872. A prize was designated to be given to the person who "properly planted the most trees." In 1874, Governor Robert Furnas issued a proclamation asking Nebraskans to observe Arbor Day. In 1885, Arbor Day was changed from April 10 to April 22 in honor of Mr. Morton's birthday. Today, Arbor Day is designated as the last Friday in April and is observed throughout the nation. Arbor Lodge, Mr. Morton's home in Nebraska City, grew from a four-room farmhouse into a fifty-two room mansion, surrounded by a large grove of trees, most of which were planted by Mr. Morton and his wife. In 1923, the Morton family donated the house and grounds to the State of Nebraska as a monument to J. Sterling Morton. Today, Arbor Lodge is a state historical park. Willa Cather (1873-1947) Red Cloud, Nebraska
Cather's first novels (there were two, she said), followed: the Jamesian "Alexander's Bridge" -- and then "O Pioneers!". In a copy for a friend, Cather wrote of "O Pioneers!", "This was the first time I walked off on my own feet -- everything before was half real and half an imitation of writers whom I admired. In this one I hit the home pasture. During the next decade, Cather mined that home pasture. Under various names, Webster County and Red Cloud reappeared in "The Song of the Lark" (1915), "My Antonia" (1918), "One of Ours" (1922), and "A Lost Lady" (1923). Gradually, however, Cather's dismay over the results of "progress" in her Nebraska locale combined with her desire for artistic freedom to experiment with other locales and themes. In 1925 she explained that she did not want to become too identified with the West, for "using one setting all the time is very like planting a field with corn season after season. I believe in rotation of crops. If the public ties me down to the cornfield too much I'm afraid I'll leave that scene entirely." And leave she did, to write novels set in Michigan, the American Southwest, and Quebec. Cather's themes, too, changed during this period, as she turned from the passion of individuals aspiring to greatness and began writing of compassion of ordinary people who, confronting mortality, seek comfort in the human family. In the end, Cather returned to her earliest memories to write again of Nebraska and, in her last book, of Virginia. But unlike the sunny themes of her early novels drawn from childhood memories, "Lucy Gayheart" and "Sapphira and the Slave Girl" are Gothic stories in which dark passions break through the apparent calm of everyday lives. For during her final years Cather felt the horror of events leading to another world war, the pain over deaths of family and friends, and the frustration from an inflammation of her hand that meant an inability to write. But she also maintained old friendships and enjoyed new ones, most importantly with the Menuhin children; and she continued to write, publishing short stories (e.g. "The Best Years") and working on an Avignon novel that remained unfinished at the time of her death. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 24, 1947. Cather's life is remarkable for the faith that she kept -- to her family; her friends (she lived with Edith Lewis for thirty-eight years); her first editor, Ferris Greenslet, at Houghton Mifflin; her publisher, Alfred Knopf, to whom she went following "My Antonia" and with whom she remained the rest of her life; and most of all to her art. As her biographer James Woodress has written, she lived "a literary life," with "a single-minded dedication to the pursuit of art" (Willa Cather: A Literary Life, xvi). Awards came to Cather during her life time -- honorary degrees from numerous universities, the Pulitzer Prize for "One of Ours," a medal by the American Academy for "Death Comes for the Archbishop," and the gold medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters for a writer's lifetime achievement. Following her death, her reputation has grown steadily and, in the last fifteen years, exploded with activity, with over a hundred articles and several books appearing each year on her. In 1990 "A Lost Lady" was included among the Encyclopedia Britannica's "Great Books of the Western World," and Cather is now widely recognized as a major American writer, and our country's foremost woman writer. But more telling than such accolades, Willa Cather's novels have never gone out of print, for her popular following has remained strong. So the explosion of critical recognition means only that the experts have realized what her readers have known all along -- that Willa Cather's novels and stories, in such apparently simple style, provide companionship for a lifetime. Edward Joseph Flanagan (1886-1948) Omaha, Nebraska
Flanagan received many awards for his work with the homeless and delinquent boys. He served on several committees and boards dealing with the welfare of children, and was the author of articles on child welfare. Internationally known, Flanagan traveled to Japan and Korea in 1947 to study child welfare problems. He made a similar trip to Austria and Germany and while in Germany, died on May 15, 1948. He was buried in the Dowd Chapel at Boys Town. Flanagan was made a member of the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1965. George William Norris (1861-1944) McCook, Nebraska
TVA was the forerunner of the Rural Electrification Act (REA), which eventually brought electricity to the farms and ranches across the nation. Nebraska is unique in this area in that we are the only state that has all of its electricity generated by publicly owned power plants. The idea of harnessing Nebraska's vast network of rivers and streams for their potential for hydroelectric generation began with and was encouraged by Norris' work on TVA. Incidentally, very little of Nebraska's electricity today is generated by hydroelectric means. George William Norris is perhaps the greatest among a long line of distinguished Nebraska legislators. It should be noted that Mr. Norris was the first person selected to the newly created Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1961. Bess Streeter Aldrich (1881-1954) Elmwood, Nebraska
Aldrich had won her first writing prize at fourteen and another at seventeen, having been writing stories since childhood. However, for two years after the family moved to Elmwood, Aldrich was too busy with local activities to write. Then in 1911 she saw a fiction contest announcement in the "Ladies Home Journal" and wrote a story in a few afternoons while the baby napped. Her story was one of six chosen from among some two thousand entries. From that time on, Aldrich wrote whenever she could find a moment between caring for her growing family and her household chores. Indeed, she commented that, in the early days, many a story was liberally sprinkled with dishwater as she jotted down words or ideas while she worked. Aldrich's first book, "Mother Mason," a compilation of short stories, was published in 1924. In May 1925, shortly before her second book, "Rim of the Prairie," was published, Charles Aldrich died of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving Bess a widow with four children ranging from four to sixteen. Her writing now became the means of family support; with her pen she put all the children through college. Aldrich's short stories were as eagerly sought and read as her novels, and she became one of the best paid magazine writers of the time. Her work appeared in such magazines as "The American," "Saturday Evening Post," "Ladies Home Journal," "Collier's," "Cosmopolitan," and "McCall's." Aldrich also wrote several pieces on the art of writing, and these were published in "The Writer." In 1934, Aldrich was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Nebraska, and in 1949 she received the Iowa Authors Outstanding Contributions to Literature Award. She was posthumously inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1973. Aldrich moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1945 to be near her daughter and her daughter's family and did comparatively little writing thereafter. Bess Streeter Aldrich died in 1954 at the age of 73 and is buried beside her husband in the Elmwood Cemetery. Her legacy of books and stories remains, however, continuing to fulfill her hope that as future generations read her work they will understand the joys, the struggles, and the strengths that were all a part of pioneering in the Midwest. Mari Sandoz (1896-1966) Chadron & Rushville, Nebraska
Published long before most Americans were ready to listen, two books about American Indians, "Cheyenne Autumn" and "Crazy Horse," give Sandoz's impassioned view of the persecution of the northern Cheyenne and Oglala Sioux and of the near destruction of their culture. Only her death kept Sandoz from writing the seventh and last work of the series; she had completed much of the research. This unfinished work was to emphasize the importance of oil to the world and the struggle of those in the plains states to provide oil, destroying more of the environment in the process. Once again, Mari Sandoz was ahead of her time. Sandoz was aware of the importance of women to the West and of how few of their experiences had been told. "Old Jules" chronicles many stories of the brutal abuse of pioneer women by their husbands and fathers, telling of the death, insanity, or, in more fortunate cases, determined survival of these women, Sandoz also writes of the independence and endurance of single women homesteaders in "Old Jules." In her novels, Sandoz often places women in roles that traditionally have been primarily male. "Miss Morissa" is based in part on the careers of three women who were plains physicians; Dr. Mary W. Quick, Dr. Phoebe A. Oliver Briggs, and Dr. Georgia Arbuckle Fix. In "The Tom-Walker" one woman is a political writer and academician while another is a labor organizer. Gulla Slogum in "Slogum House" terrorizes the community as she gathers land and influence by any means she can in her attempt to control the county. Nature, its danger and its beauty, is often celebrated by Sandoz in lyrical passages, passages that sometimes appear unexpectedly in the midst of her usual reportorial style. She knew her land and her people and in each book her sly humor satirizes society, urging awareness of human vices that threaten the environment and the welfare of people. Sandoz was the recipient of many accolades and awards. Her honorary Doctorate of Literature from the University of Nebraska (1950) read: "Mari Sandoz, distinguished Nebraska historian, biographer, novelist, story writer, authority on Indians of the Nebraska territory and neighboring states...widely known teacher in creative writing at several state universities." In 1954 Sandoz received the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Native Sons and Daughters of Nebraska for her "sincere and realistic presentation of Nebraska as it was." Also in 1954, the Chicago Corral, the parent group of the Westerners, announced that she had four books on their list of one hundred best books about the West (Stauffer "Story Catcher" 181, 202, 209). A Mari Sandoz Award, to be given annually to "a person who has made specific, significant contributions to the Nebraska book world through writing (books, stories, poetry, plays, reviews), film production, or other related activity" was established by the Nebraska Library Association in 1969. A bust of Mari Sandoz stands in the State Rotunda, State Capital Building, Lincoln, Nebraska. Mari Sandoz died of cancer March 10, 1966, and is buried on a hillside overlooking the Sandoz Sand Hills ranch, south of Gordon, Nebraska. She worked until the last month of her life finishing "The Battle of the Little Bighorn." She died as she had lived, with spunk and grit and a determination to leave behind a blunt, accurate, and caring record of the region she so loved. This from the January 6th, 2002 Lincoln Journal Star comes this article written by Joe Duggan: "There was no other house in sight, only towering ridges of hills to the north and the south, reaching low arms together to hold them in. No company but the burrow owl in the little dog town west of the dry water hole", (From Old Jules). This from an October 3rd, 1962, letter written by Mari Sandoz to her sisters Caroline and Flora and I quote: I do not want a funeral in the ordinary sense of the word. I want no service, no preacher, no prayers, no mourning. I have tried to live as an adult, a mature member of the whole human race, with, I hope, an intelligence beyond the narrow creeds and romantic escapes. I should like to be buried on the Old Jules place in the sandhills if this can be arranged, in any case in some place where anyone who wishes can come and sit awhile, as the old Sioux used to come up to the river place to "throw their minds back", as they said, to the days of Conquering Bear whose body was supposedly laid on a scaffold near where our cherry trees grew later. "That is about it-" From this editor: Many have come to Gordon, Nebraska and have visited the gravesite and this remote patch of sandhills. There is a mailbox beside the grave and people from everywhere have written on a stenopad their thoughts of what they have experienced, and I quote: "Her spirit still seems to be here. Its good to come and feel it". "Thank you Mari, for 'Old Jules', 'Sloghum House', 'Capitol City', 'The Cattlemen', 'Crazy Horse', etc. I love the sandhills, too. May God preserve them and men and women conserve them". "The beauty of space, texture, and colors and the history captured in her books speaks so clearly. What a refreshing, moving visit for me." "Experience akin to a pilgrimage." "A city girl, born and bred, found my soul land in the Sandhills. Thank you Mari." "I come here every chance I get to pay my respects to the great vast prairie." "Took a class about Mari Sandoz in college and am glad to see and feel what her country was about." "A wish come true to get to come and see the real way and place. I am glad it isn't fancied up." "A lovely resting spot for a true blue Nebraska writer." " This place is so rare and beautiful, it takes my breath away". "Life must have been hard here, but you overcame." "Can any writer ever capture the spirit of this place as Mari did." FROM A SANDHILLER, "THANK YOU, MARI". Loren Eiseley (1907-1977) Lincoln, Nebraska
He was born in 1907 "at the turn of the century when the frontier was fading," and spent most of his first 26 years in Lincoln. Already in this prairie town that grew from 40,000 to 80,000 in those years, the schools, museums and libraries were well established. These resources were available without cost to poor families such as his, and in them he found much that helped determine the direction his creative ability would take. His father, a sometime amateur Shakespearean actor, gave him the knowledge of rich and beautiful language. His mother, an untaught prairie artist, fostered in him the eye with which to see beauty. Another relative, an uncle, introduced him to the wonders of the State Museum. And Eiseley benefited from having a truly special teacher, Letta Mae Clark. When Eiseley was five he taught himself to read in order to finish "Robinson Crusoe." His brother, Leo, had started to read it to him but had to depart when the foot-print had just been discovered. Eiseley wrote, "I began to read everything I could lay my hands on...it was a kind of vow I made to myself...to read books for the sake of reading." That joy was his all of his life. He wrote of "the local Carnegie Library to which I used to pedal in my coaster wagon." Here, on the site of the present Bennett Martin Library in downtown Lincoln, he found such books as "The Home Aquarium: How to Care for It" by Eugene Smith. This lead him to a pond south of town (now the lake at the Lincoln Country Club) where he not only collected for his aquarium but also nearly drowned when he went through the ice. Loren Eiseley attended public schools: Prescott Elementary and Lincoln High School. While at the latter he indicated that he wanted to be a nature writer. When he transferred to Teachers College High School at the University of Nebraska he found in Miss Clark, Supervisor of English, that special teacher that only the lucky among us find. In 1962 he dedicated "The Mind as Nature" to her, "in gratitude for counsel and encouragement in my youth." When Eiseley was twelve his Uncle Buck took him to visit the fossil collection at Morrill Hall (the present University of Nebraska State Museum). He made "neanderthal heads" of clay and baked them in the kitchen oven. His grandmother protested that they had a "Darwin look" and suggested that he "be staying out of that building now." But he returned again and again to look at the fossils in Morrill Hall and as a University student went on fossil digs with museum crews. He went on to attend the University of Nebraska of which he said "I never dreamed I could be more than my father until I found out I could go to the University of Nebraska for free." His bachelor's degree from there is in English and Anthropology. His advanced degrees from the University of Pennsylvania were in anthropology. He later dedicated his autobiography, "All the Strange Hours," to his uncle, "without whose help my life would have been different beyond imagining. Equally important with the schools, the library, and the museum in filling the attic that was his writer's mind was the land. Of it he wrote in "The Immense Journey"; "Some lands are flat and grass covered and smile so evenly up at the sun that they seem forever youthful, untouched by wind or time...a sunlit, timeless prairie over which nothing passed but an antelope or a wandering bird." In an essay, "The Flow of the River," that came out of an experience along the Platte, he wrote: "If there is magic in this planet, it is contained in water...It's substance reaches everywhere; it touches the past and prepares the future: It moves under the poles and wanders thinly in the heights of the air. It can assume forms of exquisite perfection in a snowflake, or strip the living to a single shining bone cast up by the sea." Fossils of the oldest flowering plants in the world can be found around Fairbury, Nebraska and in his essay, "How Flowers Changed the World," Eiseley wrote of their evolutionary importance. "Without the gift of flowers and the infinite diversity of their fruits, man and bird, if they continu ed to exist at all, would be today unrecognizable. Archaeopteryx, the lizard bird, might be snapping at a beetle on a sequoia limb; man might be a nocturnal insectivore gnawing a roach in the dark. The weight of a petal has changed the world and made it ours." The title work in Eiseley's book of poetry, "The Innocent Assassins," is based on a fossil find he made in western Nebraska. "Once in the sun-fierce badlands of the west, in that strange country of volcanic ash and cones...we found a saber tooth, most ancient cat far down in the cellars of the dead time...(a) fractured scapula, hung on the mighty saber, undetached; two beasts had died in mortal combat." (This fossil is now in the University of Nebraska State Museum.) Eiseley goes on to characterize these two ancient creatures as "designed by nature to strike and strike again" and philosophizes of people, "sometime we seem wrapped in wild innocence like sabertooths." Loren Eiseley's work is outstanding for its richness and the beauty of his language and metaphors; for his ability to portray the long, slow passage of time and the meaning of the past in the present; for his portrayal of the relationships among all living things; for his concern about the future, his awareness of how man's idolization of the machine, an unthinking, unfeeling material thing, was changing the world. Eiseley's later writing became more pessimistic as he reflected on the effect of modern man on the world. In "The Winter of Man" he wrote, "We have come now in this time to fear the water that we drink, the air we breathe, the insecticides that we have dusted over our giant fruits. Because of the substances we have poured into our contaminated rivers, we fear the food that comes to us from the sea...we fear the awesome powers we have lifted out of nature and cannot return to her. We fear the weapons we have made. the hatreds we have engendered...we have come to fear even the scientists and their gifts...we fear the end of man." Wright Morris (1910- ) Central CityWright Morris was born in Central City on January 6, 1910, and spent much of his childhood in various towns in Nebraska. Of perhaps crucial importance is that Morris was "half an orphan": his mother Grace died ("that he might live," as Morris often says) within days of his birth, and his father was something of a wanderer who frequently left Morris behind in the care of neighbors and some memorable matrons. From 1919 to 1924 Morris lived in Omaha, spending two summers on Uncle Harr's farm near Norfolk, the locale of "The Home Place." He lived in Chicago from 1924 to 1927. It was his father who took Morris on his first extended trips by car, and thus began for Morris an avid interest in travel. His father's life is the inspiration for the novel "The Works of Love" and the memoir "Will's Boy." It is helpful to remember that by the time Morris came to discover the autobiographical raw materials for fiction and photography, his strange childhood had already receded into the past; thus he often emphasizes an imaginative reconstruction of experience -- the basis for his frequently emphasized theme of transformation in human life. Morris attended Pomona College in California from 1930 until he left for a "Wanderjahr" in Europe in 1933, a trip which left him a number of impressionable memories -- among them a "blind Garten" in Vienna; a medieval castle in Schloss Ranna; and the prison in Grosseto, Italy where Morris was briefly detained "as a threat to Mussolini." The trip was recorded at length in "Solo" and fictionalized in "Cause for Wonder", but elements from it appear frequently in Morris's work. Morris has given several accounts of the beginnings of his creative life, but it clear that by the mid-30's he was taking photographs and by 1936 was experimenting with phototexts, combining photographs with short prose passages. He met Roy Stryker, head of the famous Farm Security Administration photography unit, but was seen as not having an appropriate Depression-era social conscience -- declining, for example, to document suffering people or the social conditions of poverty. Morris intended his photographs, instead, to show the forces of life shining through from within objects, living structures, and artifacts. Morris's first publication (in "New Directions," 1940) was "The Inhabitants," a Photo-text which he later expanded into a book. That same year, intending an expansive photographic project "to celebrate the eloquence of structures so plainly dedicated to human use and to salvage those that were on the edge of dissolution" ("Photographs and Words"), Morris traveled 15,000 miles by car around the United States. This formed the basis for further works, including his first novel, "My Uncle Dudley," which ended with a fictionalized account of Morris's arrest - this time in South Carolina - "as a vagrant and . . . possible spy." In Pennsylvania in the 1940's, with his first wife, Mary Ellen, Morris met Loren and Mabel Eiseley, and thus began a warm friendship, including dusty book-hunting expeditions and long conversations about the mysteries of life. Those conversations no doubt played a part in Morris's use of imaginative scientific metaphors in such later works as "The Huge Season," "What a Way to Go," and "Love Among the Cannibals." In 1947, Morris was back in Nebraska taking the important photographs which formed the basis for "The Home Place." After 1948 Morris took fewer photographs as he became much more involved as a novelist. Most of the works which established his reputation as a writer were written between 1948 and 1960, including "The Works of Love," "The Deep Sleep," "The Field of Vision," "Ceremony in Lone Tree," and the critical "The Territory Ahead." In the 1960's Morris was divorced from his first wife and married Josephine Kantor. In 1962 he became Professor of Creative Writing at California State in San Francisco, a position he retained until 1975. He has continued to write novels, criticism, and social observations on a regular basis; he has also written three memoirs. In the 1970's and 1980's he published several influential articles on photography criticism, thus reaffirming his position as an important voice in American photography. The Friends of Photography published "Photographs & Words," with excellent laser-scan reproductions of Morris's photos. Morris has achieved international reputations as both novelist and photographer. His photographs have been widely exhibited - from his first show at the New School for Social Research (1940) to shows at New York galleries, the Sheldon in Lincoln, and Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. In addition to three Guggenheim Fellowships to support his photography (1942, 1947, 1954), Morris has won National Book Awards in 1956 (for "The Field of Vision") and 1981 (for "Plains Song"). Among his many other awards are the Mari Sandoz Award (1975), honorary life membership in the Western Literature Association (1979), the Mark Twain Award (1982), and the Commonwealth Award for Distinguished service in Literature (1982). Several of Morris's short stories have been included in the short story annuals of best work accomplished by American writers. He was Novelist-in-Residence at the University of Nebraska in 1975, where the subject of the Montgomery Lectures was "The Art of Wright Morris." Morris's most recent book is "Time Pieces," a collection of his writings on photography covering his entire career and providing essential keys to understanding both his photographic and fictional practices. He and his wife Jo live in Mill Valley, California. Joseph J. Wydeven
SOME FAMOUS NEBRASKA ENTERTAINERSThis document contains information on the following entertainers: Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando, Johnny Carson, Buffalo Bill Cody, Henry Fonda, Swoosie Kurtz, Robert Taylor, and Darryl Zanuck.
Fred Astaire (1899-1987) OmahaFred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10, 1899 to a Storz beer salesman in Omaha, Nebraska. As a boy, Astaire enrolled by his mother in dancing school. She took him, with his older sister Adele, to New York for professional training in 1906. They left behind their father, and life in Nebraska, to embark upon a career in vaudeville under the new name of Astaire. In 1917, the two appeared in "Over The Top," and for the next 15 years starred in New York and London. Adele retired from the stage in 1931 to marry Lord Charles Cavendish, son of the Duke of Devonshire. Fred returned to the stage briefly before reluctantly trying his luck in Hollywood. A Paramount executive who viewed Astaire's 1930 screen test dismissed him but another studio signed him and loaned him to MGM for his debut with Joan Crawford in the 1933 "Dancing Lady." Astaire's debonair style dominated the Hollywood musical genre. His most well-known partner was Ginger Rogers. Rogers teamed up with Astaire in 1933 and they performed 10 musical hits together. The pair captivated depression era audiences, and the magic continued with succeeding partners, including Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn. In 1948, the Motion Picture Academy presented him with an honorary Oscar for his "unique artistry and his contributions to the techniques of musical pictures." In 1978, he was among the first recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievement. In 1981, The American Film Institute presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award on national television. Astaire also won nine Emmys for a series of TV specials in the 50's and 60's. Astaire's first wife, New York socialite Phyllis Baker Potter, died of cancer in 1954 after 21 years of marriage and two children Fred Jr., born in 1936, and Ava, born in 1942. The family also included Peter Hoffer, Mrs. Astaire's son from a previous marriage. Astaire remarried in 1980. Astaire remained physically active long into his 80's. He broke his arm at 80 showing off on a skateboard for his grandchildren. Astaire died of pneumonia June 22, 1987 at 88 years of age.
Marlon Brando (1924- ) OmahaMarlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska on April 3, 1924. His mother was involved in the Omaha Community Playhouse. A nonconformist even in youth, he withdrew from a Midwestern military academy a few weeks before graduation and went to New York City to study acting. The Actors Studio and its famous "method" were the main forces that formed his naturalistic acting style. After appearing briefly in summer stock, he made his Broadway debut in "I Remember Mama" (1944). He appeared subsequently on Broadway in 1946 in Shaw's "Candida," opposite Katharine Cornell, then leaped to fame in 1947 in "A Streetcar Named Desire." Brando's first film was "The Men" (1950). He repeated his celebrated role in the film version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1952) and won the Academy Award for best actor in 1954 for his performance in "On The Waterfront." In 1962 he starred in a remake of "Mutiny on the Bounty." He received another Academy Award for his title role in "The Godfather" (1972).
Johnny Carson (1925- ) NorfolkJohn William Carson was born October 23, 1925 in Corning, Iowa. His father, Homer R. "Kit" Carson moved his wife, Ruth, sons Johnny, Dick, and sister Catherine, a number of times - to Shenandoah, Clarinda, and Avoca, Iowa. In 1933, when Johnny was 8, the family settled in Norfolk, Nebraska. There Johnny spent his time hiking, and perfecting his magic skills. With the rest of the family, Johnny spent many evenings around the radio listening to the great comedians of the day - Jack Benny, Red Skelton, and Fred Allen, men who Johnny later would say influenced his comedy. Between his graduation from Norfolk High School in 1943 and his enlistment in the U.S. Navy that fall, he went to California. There, as a 17-year-old, he was hired by Orson Welles as an assistant in a magic show. After his discharge from the Navy in 1945, Carson enrolled at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He studied speech and radio and worked part-time for KFAB, a radio station then based in Lincoln. After graduating with a bachelor of arts degree, Carson headed to Omaha to a job at WOW radio as an announcer and disc jockey. In the afternoon Johnny would go to the WOW-TV studios to do his five day a week show, "The Squirrel's Nest." After leaving Omaha, Carson worked for a Hollywood station. He got his big break when on two hours notice he filled in for Red Skelton who had broken his arm. Johnny was soon given his own show, "Who Do You Trust." Johnny Carson took over "The Tonight Show" October 1, 1962, several months after Jack Paar had swept off in a final operatic exit. Johnny Carson successfully carried "The Tonight Show" for 30 years until he gracefully bid his audience "A Fond Goodnight" in May of 1992.
William Frederick Cody (1846-1917) North Platte, Nebraska[Photograph]William Frederick Cody, better known as " Bill", came to the Kansas/Nebraska Territory with his family at the age of eight. While still very young, Buffalo Bill began his legendary career as a military scout in Kansas, later serving in the same capacity for the 5th Cavalry, at Fort McPherson, Nebraska. As a buffalo hunter for the railroad, his proficiency for the job earned him his famous nickname. So legendary was his status as a buffalo hunter that, for a time, his only occupation was as a guide to wealthy Easterners and Europeans wishing to experience the thrill of a buffalo hunt on the wild western frontier. In 1872, Bill led the hunting party of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, observantly noting the Grand Duke's extreme pleasure with Bill's display of marksmanship and the horsemanship of the Indian members of the hunting party. Buffalo Bill's legendary status is partly due to the popularity of dime novels based on his life and adventures (however exaggerated) written by Ned Buntline. It was through Mr. Buntline's influence that Bill traveled to New York to star in a Wild West stage production. Soon after, Bill formed his own drama company and produced Wild West shows for the New York stage. These stage productions were the precursor to his more elaborate Wild West Shows. In 1883, nearly ten years after his introduction to the New York stage, Bill produced his first full scale Wild West Show before an audience of 8,000 in Omaha. The shows, entitled "Wild West, Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition," were a huge success; the first truly successful entertainment of this type, and tours in the United States and Europe soon followed, lasting from 1883 to 1913. Buffalo Bill's ranch in North Platte, Nebraska, is still in operation today and more about this remarkable American showman can be learned with a visit there.
Henry Fonda (1905-1982) OmahaHenry Fonda made his first appearance in 1905 in Grand Island, Nebraska. His father, William Brace Fonda, proprietor of a printing plant, moved his wife, his son and his presses to Omaha within six months of Henry's birth. After the birth of her son, Herberta Fonda bore two daughters, Harriet and Jayne. Henry was healthy throughout the better part of his childhood, but was extremely short. Fonda was a shy boy, eager to please, devoted to his mother and sisters, and in constant awe and admiration of his father. In his senior year of high school Henry Fonda began to grow. In less than 12 months he shot up from being a runt to 6'1". After graduation from Central High School, Henry chose the University of Minnesota. After two years he flunked out. Marlon Brando was still a baby when his mother coaxed 20-year-old Henry Fonda into trying out for the Community Playhouse. The 1925 season was about to start and the company needed a juvenile actor. Fonda read for the part and got it. He was too painfully shy to say he didn't want to do it or didn't know how to do it. He tucked the book under his arm and headed home to memorize his part. Henry Fonda didn't receive rave reviews on his opening night, but he was smitten with the magic of the theater. Fonda subsequently appeared in more than 80 films. In 1978 he received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. He won the 1982 Academy Award as best actor for "On Golden Pond" (1981).
Swoosie Kurtz (1944- ) OmahaSwoosie Kurtz was nicknamed Swoosie at birth, but the name stuck when a hospital nurse mistakenly logged in on her official birth certificate. She's spent most of her life explaining its origin, and being the daughter of a much traveled serviceman, she's had to do that all over the world. Swoosie was the name of her father's World War II Air Force plane, but it originally comes from the lyrics of a Kay Kayser song of that era that depicted a hybrid that was "half swan, half goose---a swoose." The red-haired, blue-eyed woman with the unusual name and unusually successful career, had an equally unusual childhood. She is the only child of a decorated American fighter pilot who was also a two-time U.S. Olympic Team diver. Although she was born in Omaha, Nebraska, Swoosie attended 17 different schools before settling in at Hollywood High in Los Angeles. She undertook drama studies at the University of Southern California and then went to England for two years at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Afterwards she returned to New York and made a concerted effort to break into the theater scene there. The incredibly talented actress has performed successfully on stage, in movies and on TV.
Robert Taylor (1911-1969) BeatriceRobert Taylor, born Spangler Arlington Brugh on August 5, 1911 in Filley, Nebraska attended kindergarden in Fremont, but grew up in Beatrice, where he was a musician, taking private cello lessons at the University School of Music in Lincoln. He rode a pony, learned to dance, and considered actor Tom Mix an idol. As a senior at Beatrice High, he was state oratorical champion. A shy, gentle, private, and meticulously groomed person with handsomeness and a widow's peak, he attended Doane College from 1929 to 1931, and for two summers performed as part of a trio at KMMJ at Clay Center. Nicknamed "Doc", young Arlington considered medicine as a career, but majored in music and took drama classes. He earned his bachelor's degree in business, at Pomona College in Claremont, California and in his senior year was discovered by a talent scout for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Taylor appeared in 80 motion picture and television films from 1934 to 1969, the vast majority with MGM, and ranked as a top box office attraction for three decades during Hollywood's Golden Era. He played romantic roles opposite such leading ladies as Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, and Vivien Leigh. In 1954, he was named most popular star abroad by the Hollywood Foreign Press Correspondents Association representing 500 million moviegoers worldwide. Magill's 1983 film guide rated seven of his films among the 1,000 best movies: "Magnificent Obsession" (1935), "Camille" (1937), "Three Comrades" (1938), "Waterloo Bridge" (1940), "Johnny Eager" (1942), "Quo Vadis" (1951), and "Ivanhoe" (1952). First married to actress Barbara Stanwyck from 1939 to 1951, Taylor remarried in 1954 to German-born actress Ursula Schmidt Thiess, a June 4, 1951 Life magazine cover girl. From his second marriage came two children: son Terence and daughter Tessa. He died of lung cancer on June 8, 1969. His close friend Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, delivered the eulogy at his funeral.
Darryl Zanuck (1902-1979) WahooDarryl Zanuck was born in Wahoo, Nebraska in 1902. In spite of his extreme youth, he joined the Army and headed to France to fight in World War I. After the war, he began to write, edit, and finally produce for Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.. He was made chief executive in charge of production in 1931. In 1933, with Joseph M. Schenck, he organized Twentieth Century Pictures, which two years later merged with Fox as the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation with Zanuck as vice president in charge of production. Zanuck served in the Army again early in World War II, making training and documentary films, and in 1943 returned to his company. In 1956 he became an independent producer, releasing his films through Twentieth Century-Fox, and in 1962 he was elected president of the company. Recognized as one of Hollywood's most brilliant producers, he developed many new star performers and pioneered in the use of CinemaScope.
P.O. Box 94666, Dept. 97INT Lincoln, NE 68509-4666 800-228-4307 Ext. 754 Web Site: http://www.ded.state.ne.us/tourism.html
A Division of the Department of Economic Development Also edited from Andreas History Journal by Roger W. Miner
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