Editor’s note: Flatwater Explains is an occasional series during which FFP reporters explain the people, places and things that make Nebraska what it is while answering questions that both longtime residents and first-time visitors might have.
Lincoln has claimed the title of Nebraska’s capital city for more than 100 years. But it didn’t always hold that distinction. Nor was the city named because of Nebraskans’ abiding love for the former president. So, how did we end up with Lincoln as capital of Nebraska?
Where was Nebraska’s first capital?
When President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, he authorized the creation of two new U.S. territories — you guessed it, Kansas and Nebraska.
With the creation of the Nebraska Territory came the need for a territorial capital. Francis Burt, selected as the territory’s first governor, had his eyes on Bellevue. But his untimely death laid waste to those plans, and acting Gov. Thomas Cuming instead named Omaha the capital.
Cuming had a political and financial interest in Omaha, and his decision started a years-long rift between those who wanted the capital to remain there and those who sought a new location.
The first legislature of the Nebraska Territory convened in 1855 inside of a stout two-story brick building in Omaha. In 1857, they moved to a second building with significantly more square footage. The same site now holds Central High School.
Why did Nebraska choose a new capital?
Arguments over where Nebraska’s capital should be located carried through multiple legislative sessions, with the Platte River often serving as the dividing line. Despite the fact that the majority of Nebraska’s population lived south of the river, they had fewer representatives in the statehouse, as Cuming had assigned the majority of seats to Omaha and northern counties.
In 1856, an effort to move the capital to Chester, an as-yet-nonexistent town, narrowly failed. The following year then-Gov. Mark Izard vetoed a bill that would have moved the capital to Douglas, in Lancaster County, which he described as “a floating town, not only without a location, but without inhabitants.” (Correction: This story incorrectly stated the year legislators proposed moving the capital to Chester.)
Tensions were so high at one point that lawmakers got into physical fights on the legislative floor, and some seriously considered a bid to split the territory by attaching the area south of the Platte River to Kansas.
After 1858, the issue of whether to relocate largely faded, overshadowed by national politics and the Civil War. It wasn’t until 1867, when Nebraska became a state, that the legislature authorized the creation of a new capital.
How did lawmakers choose Lincoln?
A trio of state officials were tasked with surveying land in Seward, Saunders, Butler and Lancaster counties for the new capital.
They visited Ashland — but a biting annoyance soon took the town out of contention. While staying overnight, the group was beset by mosquitoes, according to the 1899 book, “History of the city of Lincoln, Nebraska,” written by Arthur Badley Hayes and Samuel Cox.
Another option was Yankee Hill, which had around 100 residents at the time, rested well above the floodplain, and had a saloon — all attractive features for a capital, historian Jim McKee said during a 2009 lecture. But while visiting the Lancaster County community, the commission was treated to ice cream, an exorbitant expense that McKee said they looked upon as bribery.
Ultimately, their travels led them to choose the tiny village of Lancaster as the next capital. At the time, the village had only 30 residents to its name. But the Methodist settlers there had plenty of land, and they were willing to donate it to the state.
As part of the bill authorizing the creation of the new capital, Lancaster was renamed Lincoln.
Originally, according to Hayes and Cox, the capital was set to be named “Capital City” instead. But in an attempt to kill the effort and keep Omaha as the capital, State Sen. J. Patrick made a motion to change the language of the bill and instead name the new capital “Lincoln.”
Patrick hoped that the change would dissuade conservative, pro-slavery lawmakers from voting for the bill. His amendment was approved — but it didn’t stop Omaha from being decrowned as the capital.
“Thus Nebraska’s capital bears the name it does as the result of an attempted sharp trick, designed to defeat the removal bill, and not owing to the admiration of the first State Legislature for the great war President,” Hayes and Cox wrote.
7 Comments
There was a Bleeding Kansas between pro and anti slavery groups, but I never heard of Nebraska being fertile ground for slavery. Yet in 1867, two years after Lincoln is killed and the Civil War ended, there was still enough pro-slavery sentiment in Nebraska to appeal to. Call it Lincoln, a name distasteful to conservatives, and they will vote against it.
Omaha was a wide open town for a long time, built on railroading and packing houses. Both tough occupations. Moving to a clean slate place influenced by Methodists was seen as a way to separate the government from Omaha and its vices. It was not a bad move.
“Yet in 1867, two years after Lincoln is killed and the Civil War ended, there was still enough pro-slavery sentiment in Nebraska to appeal to. Call it Lincoln, a name distasteful to conservatives, and they will vote against it.”
There is no evidence that there was “enough” pro-slavery sentiment in NE to sway the capital debate (other than Hayes & Cox). More importantly, it was the DEMOCRATS who supported slavery, and may have held pro-slavery sentiment long after slavery was made illegal by the 13th Amendment in 1865, not “conservatives.”
J – remember this was before the “party flip” of the Republican’s mid-20th century Souther Strategy. At the time, the Democratic Party was the conservative and predominately rural party (remember Jeffersonian Democracy?). The Republican Party was the party of urban industrial interests, which found traction in Omaha at the time. A few decades later Teddy Roosevelt would win, as a republican, but adopting much of the Populist Party’s platform (the “Omaha Platform” put forward in that city).
Remember: Nebraska became a state in 1867. Slavery was abolished in 1865. Black [men] were ensured the vote in 1870. There is no evidence of any “pro-slavery” sentiment left in NE by the time of the debate about renaming Lancaster as “Lincoln” (other than Hayes & Cox) around 1869-70. The matter of slavery and black [male] suffrage was well-settled in NE by that point.
The assertion that Lancaster was renamed in order to sway the capital debate AWAY from Lincoln/Lancaster is largely apocryphal.
“At the time, the Democratic Party was the conservative and predominately rural party (remember Jeffersonian Democracy?). The Republican Party was the party of urban industrial interests, which found traction in Omaha at the time.”
Simply not true: in the presidential elections from 1872 (the first after statehood) and decades thereafter, Nebraska voted solidly Republican. Statewide, the sentiment was solidly ANTI-slavery and thus any assertion that the renaming of Lancaster to Lincoln was intended to take advantage of some “pro-slavery” sentiment in NE cannot be true.
Correction: Nebraska began voting for Republican presidents beginning in 1868 (not 1872), and did so for decades thereafter.
There is more to the story. During the fight to change locations, the State Seal was stolen from Omaha to Lancaster/Lincoln…and where the State Seal is, there is the State capital.
THEN in the last few decades of the 20th c (1980s or 90s???) the State Seal had to be repaired. The only place capable of doing so was in Omaha. Uh-oh!!!! The Seal was snuck out of Lincoln with great secrecy, repaired, and returned to Lincoln before the story broke in the OWH.