Lincoln (Neb.) -- Guidebooks; Lincoln (Neb.) -- History
From this house at 1301 H, little changed since the nineties, was
Charles G. Dawes, later to be vice president of the United States and
ambassador to Great Britain, catapulted daily by the boundless energy
which eventually shot him up to the top in national affairs. Dawes lived
in Lincoln only eight years (1887-1894), but he made a quite indelible
impression, as will a red-hot little iron which a housewife goes off and
leaves for a few minutes.
His mobile hands reached out, in many directions. Everything he touched
seemed to thrive, his fingers being to many things what the green thumb
is said to be to gardens. His first law suit in Lincoln won a case for
some Nebraska farmers who believed they had been discriminated against
in the matter of freight rates. Thus he gained the reputation of being
an anti-monopolist—which he was not. Even in his twenties he was
organizing utilities and starting banks and building a fortune, which
eventually got up into the millions. He was a born financier and gained
a wider reputation as such on becoming President McKinley’s comptroller
of the currency.
For relaxation he loved to sit at the piano and improvise. He put on
paper a number of piano and violin duets. The best known, “Melody in A
Major” or something of the sort, became popular and often rolled out to
meet him in great volume when he came back to Lincoln. Once—not in
Lincoln—he had the whole Thomas orchestra come to his home so he could
play along with it on the fife.
In a letter to The Journal Mr. Dawes once said that the eight years he
lived in Lincoln he had always regarded as the most important in his
life, and some of the friendships then contracted were most valued.
No. 50—Wyuka, 36th and O
[Illustration: {uncaptioned}]
Wyuka is, we think, a beautiful word, and especially so for Nebraska.
Listening to the sound of it one hears not only the lonely prairie wind
but the more cheerful call of prairie birds.... And the name should
never be followed by “cemetery,” which is redundant, and, much worse,
robs it of beauty. It is an Indian word often interpreted as “place of
rest.” We like still better the more literal “place to lie down and
sleep.” At any rate, Wyuka is a beautiful, peaceful spot, especially on
a still summer day, when sun and shade lie side by side over it and
large white birds drift timelessly on its quiet lagoon.
This is Lincoln’s oldest burial place—tho not the oldest in Lancaster
county. Pale folded hands and open Bibles on pure white stones and flat
slabs from which lettering is almost obliterated indicate certain age.
The records show that it was founded in 1869, not as a city but a state
cemetery. Many names of interest may be found on its stones, among them
early governors Nance, Poynter, Thayer, Mickey and Aldrich. The founder
of the village of Lancaster, Elder Young, was carried here when his days
were done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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