For its first session, Nebraska's territorial legislature met in a ramshackle capitol in Omaha City, January 16, 1855. A thin coat of frozen ice and mud plastered interior walls. Legislators shared school desks. Red and green calico curtains dangled at the windows. An uneven floor threatened to topple the heedless.
On that first day, legislators from counties south of the Platte filled the streets and bellyached that their counties were not well represented, which they weren't. To dramatize their anger, each wore a bright red blanket tossed over his shoulder.
Liquor magnified the turbulence. Soon these legislators swore they would move the capital from Omaha City to a town south of the Platte. Come hell or high water.
Coming April 28
THIEVES, RASCALS & SORE LOSERS:
The Unsettling History of the Dirty
Deals that Helped Settle Nebraska
by Marilyn June Coffey
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