130 Years Ago -- 3/30/2008

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

   1878: Gen. Silas A. Strickland, stricken with "a cold which developed into typhoid, which soon changed into brain fever, breathed his last" in Omaha, a news account from Omaha said. The general fought in the Civil War at Shiloh and the Wilderness, was appointed U.S. district attorney in Nebraska and served in the Territorial Legislature before helping to raise a company of the 1st Nebraska Volunteers.

   1888: The Postal Telegraph line, then called Pacific Mutual, opened between Omaha and Lincoln.

   The YWCA opened a boarding home for women in Lincoln.

   1898: Nebraska senators John M. Thurston and William V. Allen were leading hawks clamoring for war against Spain because of alleged imperialist atrocities committed in Cuba.

   1908: Secretary of War William Howard Taft, running for president on the Republican ticket, was to visit Omaha on "McKinley, the Pioneer of Expansion."

   1918: The Association of North Nebraska Teachers adopted a resolution that said in part: "We favor such a law as will make it impossible for the first language which is taught to children born in this country to be a foreign language." The resolution also proposed to forbid teaching any other foreign language before high school. The association reasoned that people who could not speak English "cannot be patriots."

   1928: What was considered the greatest victory in the history of Nebraska Wesleyan University was heralded when a $500,000 endowment fund was completed and an additional $250,000 promised in 1922 by the Rockefeller Foundation was secured.

   1938: Charles D. Robinson, state treasurer from 1923 to 1927, died at age 80. He came to Lincoln from Red Cloud when elected to the state office. He was a former Webster County treasurer.

   1948: Mrs. Robert A. Taft told a Norfolk audience that Nebraska's all-star presidential primary was a "pretty good idea." A few days earlier, her husband, a candidate for the GOP nomination, had said the primary was "foolish." She said that while "it is awfully interesting ... if every state did it, it would be terribly expensive."

   1958: Walter K. Beggs, chairman of the University of Nebraska Department of History and Principles of Education, was named dean of the NU Teachers College, succeeding Frank W. Henzlik. Charles S. Miller was appointed dean of the College of Business Administration to replace Earl S. Fullbrook. Henzlik and Fullbrook were retiring.

   1968: First showers, then a blizzard in the western half of the state relieved the drought. Snow as deep as 15 inches at Harrison blanketed the Panhandle and Sandhills, closing many schools and roads. Eight deaths were attributed to the storm.

   Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota campaigned in Nebraska following President Lyndon Johnson's surprise withdrawal from the Democratic race for the presidential nomination.

   1978:  Between $5,000 and $7,000 in rare coins taken during the June 1975 robbery and murder of Marianne Mitzner at her Havelock coin shop were found buried outside the city limits.

   Spring brought heavy winds and seasonal downpours to much of the state. Hailstones as large as baseballs battered Grand Island.

   1988: The Legislature gave 27-17 second-round approval to Sen. Ernie Chambers' bill to put some money in the pockets of University of Nebraska-Lincoln football players and consider them UNL employees. UNL Chancellor Martin Massengale indicated his support for the bill as a tool to help convince the NCAA to liberalize its rules on financial assistance for players.

   1998: The spiky thing, formally known as LB1142, died in the Legislature. Largely ignored by state senators, it died just before Gov. Ben Nelson, its intellectual father, headed off to California. The spiky thing was Nelson's proposal to head off sharp increases, or "spikes," in individuals' property taxes. In its original incarnation, the effort sought to limit the amount by which a property's valuation could be increased in any one year.