130 Years Ago -- 6/17/2007

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

   1877: The Nebraska Grasshopper Commission said the grasshopper menace was a thing of the past.

   The Burlington Railroad was surveying the Missouri River near Plattsmouth for a bridge.

   1887: A campaign to raise money for Lincoln's first YMCA building was under way.

   The Lincoln Board of Trade, forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce, laid out plans to fight for better railroad rates to the city.

   1897: Former State Treasurer Joseph Bartley was charged with embezzlement and released on bail.

   1907: The Nebraska State Historical Society asked Lincoln for a site on Market Square for construction of a historical building.

   The Northeast Branch Library opened on North 27th Street.

   The old Tabitha Home in east Lincoln was being remodeled for use as a hospital.

   1917: Among widely circulated and believed rumors: Gov. Keith Neville would retire to command the new 6th Nebraska Volunteer Regiment in Europe. Vast stores of pre-Prohibition liquor had been buried in Omaha, to be dug up and resold at exorbitant prices later. Both rumors proved false.

   1927: Farmers were optimistic over the prospects of the greatest wheat crop in Nebraska history.

   The late Waverly farmer Gustaf Noren gave his farm, valued at $30,000, to Lancaster County for charitable purposes.

   1937: The Rev. Paul C. Johnston of Westminster Presbyterian Church was elected president of the Lincoln Ministerial Association.   The temperature in Lincoln reached 106 degrees.

   1947: Arched iron gates that had served as the 12th and R streets entrance to the University of Nebraska for 55 years were removed. They were eventually relocated east of Memorial Stadium.

   1957: The Rev. James V. Casey of Dubuque, Iowa, was named Roman Catholic bishop of Lincoln, replacing the late Louis Kucera. Bishop Casey was to serve the Lincoln Diocese until May 1967.

   The Bankers Life Insurance office building at 14th and N streets was sold to the Sahara Coal Co. of Chicago for $438,000.

   1967: Chuck Connors, a television actor famous for his roles in Western series, received the Buffalo Bill Cody Award at NEBRASKAland Days in Lincoln. The celebration was set to move to North Platte in ensuing years.

   Beetles threatened the pines in the Nebraska National Forest at Halsey. Thousands of infected trees were cut and burned in an effort to halt the infestation.

   1977: The National Bank of Commerce received permission to install seven banking terminals in Safeway stores.

   1987: According to a poll conducted by Research Associates of Lincoln, just 8 percent of Nebraska adults ever gave money to a television evangelist, and people 45 to 64 were more likely to have done so. The poll was taken in the wake of the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker PTL ministry controversy.

   1997: A nearly complete fossilized skeleton of a mastodon was found on a farm near Trenton. According to Nebraska State Museum officials, the remains were of a 1.2- to 1.5-million-year-old Stegomastadon.

   Paul Sanderford, who led the Western Kentucky women's basketball team to three NCAA Final Fours, was introduced as the new Nebraska head coach.