This city is one of 25 cities or towns in the United States sharing the name of Lincoln. Sixteen of these 25 were named for Abraham Lincoln. It is perhaps not unduly vain to say that Lincoln, Neb., is most noted of these Lincolns. To begin with, it is the capital of a state, and that state is the geographical center of the North American continent.
Among other things which have drawn attention to this city of 81,000 are its illustrious one-time citizens. From the home base of Lincoln William Jennings Bryan spattered the country with silver words about the silver standard. General Pershing was one of the Atlases on whose shoulders the weight of the first World war rested. Charles G. Dawes, a dynamic young lawyer of Lincoln in the 80’s, eventually became a vice president. Willa Cather, precocious university student in the 90’s, at the height of her writing career was conceded to be this country’s most gifted woman writer. Charles Lindbergh is claimed by Lincoln after a fashion and with some degree of justification. It was here that he learned the art of flying, after trundling into town unobtrusively on a day in April—April Fool’s day in fact—1922. And there are many other notables whose names are in some way linked with the city.
The famous sculptor, Daniel Chester French, left behind him several famous statues of Abraham Lincoln. One of these has stood on the capitol grounds since its dedication, Sept. 2, 1912. As the new, and fifth, Nebraska capitol burgeoned slowly it elbowed off the grounds every vestige of the outgrown capitol with one exception—the Lincoln statue. It is something difficult to outgrow.
No. 3—Old Butler Mansion
Lincoln was chosen as the capital of Nebraska in the summer of 1867 by three young men, David Butler, John Gillespie and Thomas Kennard, who had been named as a commission to do this task. They have become almost legendary figures in the minds of Nebraskans—three men in tall silk hats silhouetted against the prairie sky as they pounded their ponies over the countryside in search of a capital site.
They were very actual people, however; Butler was the state of Nebraska’s first governor; Thomas Kennard, first secretary of state and Gillespie first state auditor. Interestingly, the homes built by these three men still stand, perhaps the three oldest houses in Lincoln. Herewith is shown the one-time mansion of Governor Butler, which has stood at Seventh and Washington for almost 75 years. At that time of course there were no such streets. The mansion was a country home, from which the governor drove to the capitol and back in state.
The original house was square and high. Built of blocks of brown stone with a cupola and a front stoop instead of a porch it was considered very imposing. Here Governor Butler lived from about 1867 until his impeachment in 1871. The impeachment by the legislature came about because of Butler’s borrowing $17,000 from the school fund. Land which he had deeded to the state was said to have more than paid in value the amount borrowed, and great bitterness resulted from the legislature’s action.
“Lord” Jones, a rich Englishman, purchased the building in the early 70’s. Thirty years later the Lincoln Country club took it over and added wings. The mansion has been used variously since as the home of the ku klux klan, a radio broadcasting studio and a dance house. Now, hands patiently folded, it awaits the auctioneer’s hammer.