During the six decades from 1859 to 1919, at least 45 men and two women died at the hands of lynch mobs in Nebraska while during the same period, only 23 or 24 individuals were executed according to law.

Edmund Perry Brown died as an infant in 1870 (grave at left) and is buried in the family plot on private property in western Lancaster County.

This year’s rainy season has been made more tolerable, and safer, thanks to flood control initiatives over the last 60 years. But on July 6, 1908, nearly seven inches of rain fell on the capital city, with 2.5 inches coming in one two-hour period. The creeks in the Salt Creek watershed became torrents.

Photo depicts a Fourth of July parade in Lincoln circa 1895.

The Fourth of July at Capitol Beach, once a popular recreation area near Lincoln, was a “record-breaker,” said the Nebraska State Journal on July 5, 1907.

7010-86; Source: Elizabeth Gaylord Rathburn (left).

Solomon D. Butcher’s photograph depicted workmen laying a concrete sidewalk. NSHS RG2608-2952 (left).

The year Nebraska celebrated its centennial, it got a new state song. “Beautiful Nebraska” was so designated by the Nebraska legislature and the bill was signed into law on June 21, 1967 by Governor Norbert Tiemann.   Russian immigrant Jim Fras said he got the idea for the melody during a drive in the countryside near Lincoln. He parked his car by a clump of trees near a farmer’s field. While resting on his back in tall grass and looking at the bright, blue sky, a new melody popped into his head.