The Loup City Northwestern

STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The State Meeting at Lincoln Serves to Awaken New Interest

LINCOLN, Jan. 12.-The meeting of the State Historical society has served to awaken public interest in the work that is being conducted by that organization. Much was accomplished during the last year in the way of collecting valuable information concerning the early history of Nebraska, and at this meeting plans were laid for carrying on the work on a still more extensive scale. An increased appropriation by the last legislature enabled the society to enlarge its work, but it has been found insufficient to meet all the demands made for publishing historical information and the expenses of maintaining the society rooms, its library and collections in the manner desired.

In conjunction with the Historical society the Association of Nebraska Pioneers met and discussed the proposition to consolidate the two organizations. While the object of both is practically the same, it was decided for many reasons to keep the associations distinct from each other. All who are interested in the history of Nebraska are eligible to membership in the Historical society, but only those who settled in Nebraska prior to March 1, 1867 are admitted to membership in the association of Pioneers, of which there are now about 600 members. The former is a permanent organization and will probably enjoy a rapid growth while the latter will in the course of time become extinct. The consolidation of the two organizations would necessitate amending the constitutions of both and such action, if attempted, would meet with the decided opposition of the pioneers, who do not desire to lose their identity in an organization whose membership is open to all citizens of the state.

The program of the Historical society on the last night, consisted of reminiscences of the old overland freighting period. Papers were read by Eugene Munn of University Place, William Fulton of Kansas City, R. M. Rolfe of Nebraska City and Thomas J. Majors of Peru.

The report of Secretary H. W. Caldwell in part is as follows:

"The year which now ends has been by far the most important of any to the Historical society. In the first place the last legislature increased our appropriation from $3,500 to $5,000 thus enabling the society to extend to some extent its work. However, the society, even yet, has less than half the income of any society of any state in the northwest. It seems to me that some way should be found to awaken the legislature to a fuller realization of the value of the work the society has to do and even now is doing. In the second place the amount of valuable material gathered and the number of books received is greater than ever before. The outlook for continued growth is exceedingly good, but the amount of work that ought to be done, compared with the means at command to do it, is so great that the outlook is not so rosy as one might wish."