HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID
RG0837.AM: Henry Martyn Burt, 1831-1899
Letter: May 25, 1857
Burt County, Nebraska Territory: Surveyor
Size: Two items
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Born September 16, 1831, at Otisco, New York, Henry Martyn Burt moved with his family to Northampton, Massachusetts where he learned the printer’s trade. In the late 1850s he moved to Nebraska where he served as editor of the “Bellevue Gazette.” After two years he returned to Northampton where he founded the “Northampton Free Press.” He went on to publish the “Holyoke Transcript” and the “New England Homestead.” In 1877 Burt began publishing “Among the Clouds,” the first paper to be printed on a mountain summit (at Mt. Washington, New Hampshire). Henry M. Burt died March 7, 1899, at Springfield, Massachusetts.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
This collection contains a letter, May 25, 1857, written by Henry M. Burt to his cousin, Ansel, and a typescript of the same. There is also some biographical information on Burt. Burt writes of his past year’s journey west from Northampton, Massachusetts, which included a two-month stay in Beloit, Wisconsin. Afterwards he came to Burt County, Nebraska, where he helped to survey a town on the Missouri River, which was called Central City before its name was changed to Riverside. The letter gives his impressions of the West. One of his companions on his journey was B.B. Chapman, a Nebraska territorial delegate to Congress.
INVENTORY
Letter, May 25, 1857
Subject headings:
Burt County (Nebraska) — History
Burt, Henry Martyn, 1831-1899
Frontier & pioneer life
Nebraska — Description and travel
Overland journeys
Revised TMM 02-04-2016