The precise date of settlement of the area known as Nebraska is undetermined but archeological evidence indicates that the first pioneers were prehistoric Indians who hunted big game over 10,000 years ago. Those early hunters were followed by tribes of Indians who raised crops of corn, other vegetables, and sun-flowers. At the dawn of recorded Plains history, 1750-1800, the tribes living in the area included the farming tribes of eastern Nebraska- Otoe, Omaha, Ponca, and Pawnee. These groups lived in permanent earth-lodge villages where they cultivated crops. It was still necessary, however, for these tribes to engage in buffalo hunts for a large portion of their food supply. Western Nebraska was under the control of the horse-riding, buffalo-hunting, semi-nomadic groups of the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Potawatome. These groups lived in skin teepees which could be dismantled and carried with them as they pursued the buffalo. About 40,000 Indians lived in Nebraska when the first white man came.
Fur trading played an important role in Nebraska’s preterritorial history. French traders and trappers, including the Mallett brothers who named the Platte River, were the first known white visitors. They traveled through Nebraska from 1700 to 1760, In 1804m the Lewis and Clark expedition mapped the eastern boundary of Nebraska. In 1806, Lt. Zebulon M. Pike visited the south central Nebraska as part of a government program to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. Other early explorers included the Hunt party in 1811 and Major Long’s expedition in 1819. Among the early trading groups was the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company. Manual Lisa established a post for this company in 1812 near the site where Lewis and Clark held council with Indian tribes in present Washington County. In 1820 a nearby camp became a permanent army post called Fort Atkinson. The post was established to discourage British encroachment and to protect America’s western frontier. Bellevue, founded in 1823, was the first permane nt settlement.

1861-1944: U.S. House Representatives 1903-13, U.S. Senate 1913-43. Initiator of reform of house rules, anti-injunction law for labor, Tennessee Valley Authority, rural electrification and 20th amendment to U.S. Constitution. Sponsor of Nebraska Unicameral Legislature. Lived in Beatrice, Beaver City, and McCook. Inducted into Nebraska Hall of Fame 1961.

1886-1948: Founder of Father Flanagan’s Boys Home, Boys Town. "I have never found a boy who really wanted to be bad." Lived in Omaha and Boys Town. Inducted into Nebraska Hall of Fame 1965-66.