Order your copy today. It is 13. 95 through the cspan online store at cspan. Org. Welcome to lincoln, nebraska on American History tv. This state capital of about 268,000 people is also home to the university of nebraska. With the help of our Time Warner Cable partners, and the next hour, we will explore the history of this city named for our nations 16th president. Coming up, a visit to the home of Thomas Kinard, one of the men responsible for moving the capital from omaha to lincoln following the civil war. The Capital Commissioners were having to make a statement because they had to rationalize moving the capital of nebraska from omaha, a city of several thousand people, to a village of 13 to 30, so they would put their money into something substantial to show their confidence in the city of lincoln existing. Later, explore the nebraska state capital archives and learn how the states third Capital Building broke the mold for legislative structures. His winning design was unique. It had a tower instead of the traditional capital style building. First, we lead off with the story of Solomon Butcher, a man who documented the hearts the harsh conditions of homesteaders. Generations later his photos remain an important chronicle from this time in American History. We came to this beautiful country in those early days poor, it is true, how poor and were we good, but rich beyond our dreams in everything that makes life worthwhile. I do not know how large a bank account some of the settlers have today and i do not care. They will never be as rich as i felt when i settled on my homestead. I remember the time i did not have money to buy a postage stamp. Iron member the hard winter and the many obstacles to overcome. We came here to win a battle and we did. To what amount those inconveniences compared to the joy we felt when we turned the long for rows of virgin soil and find the first trees, we were Empire Builders and the future was hours. The future was ours. Solomon butcher was a pioneering photographer in Custer County in western nebraska. He took photos from about 1887 until the early 1890s of homesteaders and saw houses and was able to tell the story of this Important Development in American History. During the homestead push, lots of people are traveling west to get this free land the government had made available. So his father decided to give up a really wellpaying, stable job with the railroads and try his hand at homesteading in nebraska. His father, his brother and his brotherinlaw pack up to covered wagons and take a sevenweek journey from illinois to Custer County. After about a year, solomon and his dad go back to illinois to pick up solomons mother and youngest brother to bring them out to the homestead while solomon decides he needs a break and he stays in illinois for a few weeks and then just in the nick of time, he makes it back to nebraska and throws together a small house with his siblings and dad. It basically just qualified for homesteading. He stays on his homestead for just a few more weeks and then gives it up. He thinks homesteading is not really for him. Lots of homesteaders didnt make it for a number of reasons. He decided to go to medical school in indianapolis. He meets his wife and decides to bring his wife act to Custer County. Theres a great quote where he says he has experienced just enough of the wild west that he was unfit for living in the east anymore. He packed up his wife and baby ring them out to Custer County where they live in a tiny house on his fathers property for a little while until solomon can make enough money working on the farm to buy a plot of land himself. He has an understanding of how hard and tough it was hes trying to think of a scheme and has what he calls a eureka moment. He comes up with this idea of creating a history of Custer County. Hes going to take photographs of all these homesteaders and gather all their stories and put them into a book. And hes going to make money. He says the idea came to him and he didnt sleep for seven days and seven nights. He didnt think about anything at this project. He goes to his father and tells his father his big plan of going out and gathering these stories and creating these stories in this book is going to sell. He doesnt want to give which are the money and is unsure about giving him the traveling studio so richard goes into town and Start Talking to these farmers and get 75 people to agree to be part of this book and have their photographs taken for this. He says you can have it so butcher starts out taking these photographs and is gathering these. He wasnt just taking portraits of these people, he was photographing a moment in history. This was digitized from a grant to the library of congress back in 2001 and we were able to discover a lot of things hidden inside the glass plates. The negatives have great tone a la the and depth to them, so we were able to use technology to bring out some of that information. You can look inside the door here and see inside the sod house, the culture that is beyond the door that is not visible in a traditional print. Also, we were able to look more closely at the roof and the cow on the roof that shes act shes actually not on the roof, it is on the hillside behind the house, even though dugouts were a common type of house for the pioneers. The cow is not standing on top of the roof of the house. Im going to show you one of my favorite images from the Solomon Butcher collection. Its a photograph of the christian sisters. It is for sisters who each took a homestead claim in Custer County. This is a really important photograph. Its one of the photographs that gets requested the most because this shows women homesteaders. It was the first time women could only end on their own. It did not belong to their husbands, it didnt belong to their fathers, single women could own their only end and that was a deal with the homestead act. So each of the sisters took a homestead near their fathers ranch. They each built a small house on the homestead which is part of the homestead act. They would take turns staying each others house and working each others arms. So the sisters really pulled together and made it in nebraska. I think its a Great Success story and says a lot about womens history. Another great glass plate native is the one of the sure family. They were former slaves that came to nebraska to claim a homestead. Africanamericans could claim homesteads just like traditional settlers and there was no one who could stop them. They work hard and gained the respect of the Community Around them. The brothers jerry, moses and henry all came to nebraska and settled in Custer County and took individual homesteads. I think that is important, that they work hard, right alongside other immigrants, whether they were swedish or german immigrants and you were respected for the hard work you put into the land and not where you came from. It is one thing to write about it and have those interpretations and photographs it is really like stepping back in time. You get to see the people interacting with their environment and see the people using their material cultures and see the people as they lived. I think it is really important for historians and students and scholars to look in the eyes of these pioneers and try to experience what they experienced. All weekend, American History tv is featuring lincoln, nebraska. William jennings bryan, a nebraska politician, public speaker and writer moved to lincoln in 1887. He served in the u. S. House of representatives, edited the omaha world herald and ran for president in 1890, 1896 and 1908. Hosted by our Time Warner Cable partners cspans tour staff visited many sites showcasing the show showcasing the citys history. Before lincoln became the capital of the state of nebraska in 1867, it was a village, if you could even call it a village, of lancaster probably probably about the time of statehood, the population would have been somewhere between 13 and 30. It was very, very small. There were no businesses here to speak of, the houses were very crude. When it was built, there is nothing here to attract the capital. The reason the capital came here was for entirely different reasons. It was no navigable water here, there were no trees, there were no minerals, with the exception of salt. They thought the salt flats to the west of lincoln would make a good industry that would support the capital, but the primary interest was not moving to lancaster. The primary interest was to move it out of omaha, for several reasons. The people in bellevue and over other cities were upset they had not gotten the capital. They wanted out of omaha but one of the other features they were looking for was someplace close to the center of the population. So the requirements were drawn by Thomas Kinard the first secretary of state of the state of nebraska. He true it so that he ultimately was on the Capital Commission along with the first governor of the state of nebraska and the first auditor. They made it the official commission and they are the ones that made the decision to move it here. The legislature stipulated they wanted, if they were going to move it, they wanted to move it once and for all as far west as anybody lived in the state of nebraska. Spanish and french mapmakers and historians, travelers and explorers had designated the better part of the northwest portion of nebraska as the Great American desert. One had written on his map that west of this line, which is the west edge of current lancaster county, west of this common no man will ever live and nothing will ever grow. So, the legislature reasoned if they moved the capital to the edge of that line, it would be close to the center of the population. So Thomas Kinard, the first secretary of state, came with the government and came with the republicans and nebraska became a state. He was interested in getting the capital out of omaha. He is considered the father of lincoln, because not only did he vote with the Capital Commission to move it to lincoln but was very instrumental in bringing about the original city of lincoln. The three Commission Members were having to make a statement because they had to rationalize their moving the capital of nebraska from omaha, a city of several thousand people, to a village of 13 to 30. So in what had to be a harebrained scheme, they had to go against the legislature in buying lots in lincoln and building houses of substance so they could show their confidence in this scheme. This house we are standing in has some interesting architectural features. The door seals and window seals were made of an experimental material called for your stone freer stone. The contractor was afraid it was not going to work, being experimental in nature, so they caps on with metal. Today, a house that did not contain for your stone freer stone would be the exception. Now it is known as concrete walk. When a visitor comes today, they will see the house much as it would have been seen from the exterior by mr. Kinard, but as soon as you come inside, you will find the furniture although all from the period with the exception of a picture and boot jack were not the possessions of mr. Kinard. We have the parlor and dining room, the kitchen and office on the first floor, bedrooms on the second floor. There was a wing that extended to the south that was a kitchen wing. That has been torn off and at some point consideration has been made to put it back and we know where it is at an the foundation is there. Other than that, it is a very some floor plan. We realize that lincoln is very young and the state was very young. If you dont have a few things that are original, you have nothing at all to say this is what was here to start with. From the point of view of children who find it hard to conceive of anything may be older than 1900 or 1950, to have a few things left to make it something to visit and something to learn from. All weekend, American History tv is featuring the city of lincoln, nebraska. The city of lincoln is named after the 16th president and became the state capital in 1867. Posted by our Time Warner Cable partners, cspan must tour staff visited many sites showcasing the citys history. Learn more about lincoln all weekend here on American History tv. While in lincoln, we spoke with republican Governor Pete Ricketts inside his office at the nebraska state capital. Is there an era or event in nebraska history that resonates with you . Governor ricketts one thing that a lot of people dont know about is theres a big european battle in 1720. So, the spanish were claiming high plains. They were actually at war with the french. They were concerned about french trappers infringing on their territory, so they sent an expedition from santa fe, new mexico to come investigate and kick the french trappers out of their territory. There were about 40 soldiers and some settlers and they brought some pueblo and apache native americans as scouts and so forth. They had a spanish slave who was a pawnee indian who was one of the scouts. He disappeared and reappeared with a tribe saying he was being held risner. That she was being held prisoner. He said he was being treated ok but the pawnee were not going to let him come back. It was also speculated that the spanish slave who had been scouting for the spanish actually told the pawnee the best time to attack. Because the spanish had dealt with native americans and were used to being attacked at dawn. The pawnee attacked at about 10 00 when they figured they were not going to attack and started a settling their horses. It was a large number, maybe 500, and the spanish were wiped out almost entirely. A few managed to escape but eight or nine made it back to santa fe. It was august 14, 1720. The interesting implication of this was this discouraged the spanish from trying to enforce their claims on the Central Plains and allowed the french to claim louisiana territory, which was eventually sold to the United States. So that pivotal battle may have discouraged the spanish from holding onto the Central Plains and allowed the french to eventually sell it to the United States. Little events like that can trigger big things. Looking at nebraskas political history, are there any nebraska politicians who have influence you or your ideals . Governor ricketts the derailment who started arbor day , the first arbor day, they planted almost a million trees. This is going back to 1872. The interesting thing about j sterling morgan was he was a journalist and promoted agriculture, which is our states largest industry, and planting trees. What influences me about that cites the fact that it is my hometown is that it demonstrates the spirit of nebraskans. Nebraskans are so involved in their communities, schools and churches. They are really engaged and they had that spirit of being involved in the community and start something that is now celebrated in all 50 states and is a state holiday in the rescue. It demonstrates the power of one person getting involved in making a change to influence the whole state, even over a century later. The keystone pipelines proposed path through nebraska has caused much debate in the state. How do you feel about the project . Governor ricketts heres an example of how we and nebraskans come together to solve problems. We had a political process that worked. We came together, we resolved to smooth the pipeline and address all the issues where people had concerns and now i believe it is time to get a bill. Its something that is going to be good for nebraska and create about 3000 jobs. The welders that do the pipeline that specialized welding pays 137 an hour. Those are fantastic jobs that will flow out into the community. It will support about 300 jobs in the counties of his being built and do a substantial amount in adding a Property Tax Base which allows us to pay for schools. I talked to one gentleman from nebraska who was unhappy if it were to get moved. They estimate they lost out about 15 million in property taxes. It is also something that will help us become Energy Independent. Think about what that means for geopolitical situations. If we can be Energy Independent in north america. Oil is moving already by rail so this is just another way to help us trends to help us transport that oil. Its a great thing for nebraska and a great thing for the country and i would encourage the state department to approve the pipeline so we can get moving on it. You mentioned the job that yesterday i had the privilege of sitting down with some Lincoln High School students to discuss issues important to them. One of the things they are concerned about is the young student workers minimum wage cap. How would that affect workers under the age of 18 . Governor ricketts the idea is we passed a minimum wage law here, but a lot of people taking those jobs are teens at entrylevel positions. If you have to pay those rates at the higher level we are talking about, its going to discourage that job creation. The ideas to help teens by helping to create more of those jobs to help young people get into that first job and start learning i have to be at work on time and shake someones hand and count change if you are a counter at a fast good place. It is designed to help create more jobs for teens coming into the workplace. The Supreme Court asked the Justice Department