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This city is one of 25 cities or towns in the United States sharing the
name of Lincoln. Sixteen of these 25 were named for Abraham Lincoln. It
is perhaps not unduly vain to say that Lincoln, Neb., is most noted of
these Lincolns. To begin with, it is the capital of a state, and that
state is the geographical center of the North American continent.
Among other things which have drawn attention to this city of 81,000 are
its illustrious one-time citizens. From the home base of Lincoln William
Jennings Bryan spattered the country with silver words about the silver
standard. General Pershing was one of the Atlases on whose shoulders the
weight of the first World war rested. Charles G. Dawes, a dynamic young
lawyer of Lincoln in the 80’s, eventually became a vice president. Willa
Cather, precocious university student in the 90’s, at the height of her
writing career was conceded to be this country’s most gifted woman
writer. Charles Lindbergh is claimed by Lincoln after a fashion and with
some degree of justification. It was here that he learned the art of
flying, after trundling into town unobtrusively on a day in April—April
Fool’s day in fact—1922. And there are many other notables whose names
are in some way linked with the city.
The famous sculptor, Daniel Chester French, left behind him several
famous statues of Abraham Lincoln. One of these has stood on the capitol
grounds since its dedication, Sept. 2, 1912. As the new, and fifth,
Nebraska capitol burgeoned slowly it elbowed off the grounds every
vestige of the outgrown capitol with one exception—the Lincoln statue.
It is something difficult to outgrow.