Collection of Nebraska Pioneer ReminiscencesDaughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
History
Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences
Daughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
Frontier and pioneer life -- Nebraska; Nebraska -- History
The commissioners were also required, immediately upon such selections
being made, to appoint a competent surveyor and proceed to "survey, lay
off and stake out the said tract of land into lots, blocks, streets,
alleys, and public squares or reservations for public buildings"; and
the act declared that such town when so laid out and surveyed, should
"be named and known as Lincoln," and the same was thereby declared to be
"the permanent seat of government of the state of Nebraska, at which all
the public offices of the state should be kept, and at which all the
sessions of the legislature thereof should be held."
The act further provided that the lots in the alternate blocks, not
reserved as aforesaid, in said town, should, after notice thereof had
been given by advertisement for the time and in the manner therein
prescribed, be offered for sale to the highest and best bidder; and the
commissioners were authorized, after having held the sale for five
successive days, as therein provided, at Lincoln, Nebraska City, and
Omaha, to adjourn the same to be held at such other place or places
within or without the state, as they might see proper, provided that at
such sales no lots should be sold for a less price than a minimum to be
fixed on each lot by the commissioners, previous to the opening of the
sales. All moneys received for the sale of said lots were declared to be
a state building fund, and were directed to be deposited in the state
treasury and kept separate from all other funds for that purpose. Notice
was directed to be issued immediately after the sale of lots, asking
from architects plans and specifications for a building, the foundation
of which should be of stone, and the superstructure of stone or brick,
which should be suitable for the two houses of the legislature and the
executive offices of the state, and which might be designed as a portion
of a larger edifice, but the cost of which should not exceed fifty
thousand dollars. Provision was also made for the letting of the
contract for its construction, and appointing a superintendent thereof,
and also for the erection at Lincoln, as soon as sufficient funds
therefor could be secured by the sale of public lands or otherwise, of a
state university, agricultural college, and penitentiary; but no
appropriation, other than of the state lands and lots as above
described, was made for the aid of any of the enterprises herein
mentioned.
What was the result of sending three men fifty miles out into an
unbroken, and at that time, almost unknown prairie, to _speak_ into
existence simply by the magic of their own unconquerable, though
unaided, enterprise and perseverance, a city that should not only be
suitable for the seat of government of the state, but should be able,
almost as soon as its name was pronounced, to contribute from its own
resources sufficient funds for the erection of a state house and other
necessary public state buildings, remains to be seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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