Nebraska As It Was, As It Is, As It Will Be

This assessment of Nebraska’s potential appeared in Brownville’s Nebraska Farmer in the

autumn of 1859:

“It is now nearly four years ago since I, a wanderer from an Eastern State, set my foot for the

first time on the western shore of the ‘rolling, turbulent Missouri.’ I rambled up to the highest

point I could get in order to obtain a view of the country ahead and what a magnificent sight

met my gaze! The vast boundless prairie, rolling and undulating, lay before me like the waves

of a transfixed ocean, green and beautiful, mellowed to a rich glowing color by the setting rays

of the sun, and the rich, heavy massive clouds filled my soul with rapture and delight.

The busy hand of the settler had not yet appeared, with one solitary exception–away on the

prairie stood a lonely looking cabin, tending in a measure to lessen the solitude that seemed to

hang over the vast unbroken expanse of prairie.

“Such was Nebraska four years ago.–And now what a change!! The hand of the magician could

not have effected a more wondrous transformation. A magician truly has been at work; the

name of that magician is ‘Industry,’ brought here by the stout stalwart yeomanry of our land;

they, under its guiding genius, have by unflinching perseverance gone to work, and in four years

have wrought the wondrous changed, the virgin soil of our vast prairies has yielded to the genial

influence of industry, and where the homes of industrious farmers have sprung up, and the soil

of Nebraska now yields willing tribute amply and abundantly to the support of the fastly

increasing population now permanently settling upon her vast domain.

“The spot where I landed four years ago has grown into a large populous city. Four years ago,

all the corn, flour, and potatoes consumed in Nebraska were brought from abroad. Now we can

supply them; we can raise all we can consume, and have an abundance to send abroad.

“What will the next ten years do? The slow plodding ox trains will be replaced by the swift

locomotive. In less than 10 years eastern portions of Nebraska will no longer be considered ‘the

far west.’ In less than ten years Nebraska will have ceased to be a territory. She will have

become a sovereign state, and as such, in all her greatness, will proudly take her place among

the bright constellations of our land, and who then can prophesy her greatness, who can foretell

her destiny?”