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On July 4, 1870, while Lincoln citizens were celebrating the nation’s
birthday in shady groves, as was their wont, there came from the
northeast a strange cavalcade. It was a string of flatcars, over which
bowers of cottonwood branches had been arranged, pulled by a chortling
little engine named The Wahoo, which name probably echoed the cries of
the tugging engine rather exactly. Under the bowers sat travelers on
improvised seats, chatting excitedly. It was the first passenger train
to pull into, or almost into, Lincoln. The Burlington and Missouri rails
had been laid to within a mile of the town and the company celebrated by
offering a free round trip from Plattsmouth to Lincoln, which was made
at the exhilarating speed of 15 or 20 miles an hour.
Within the year George B. Harris became Burlington land commissioner and
began colonizing Nebraska on a grand scale. In 1870 Nebraska had 122,993
inhabitants, and most of them lived in the southeastern counties near
the Burlington’s 2,500,000 acres. The success or failure of the
Burlington’s land department depended largely on price and credit
policies adopted by the company. Mr. Harris was given a free hand.
Boundlessly enthusiastic over the possibilities of the state, he went at
the job like one seating himself at a great organ. Towns sprang up
wherever his creative fingers strayed. To the west appeared quickly a
string of alphabetical stations—Crete, Dorchester, Exeter, Fairmont,
Grafton, Harvard, Inland, Juniata, Kennesaw and Lowell. The “Mayflower”
colony, “Plymouth” colony, colonies from England and the east were soon
grouped over the landscape.
In the middle 80’s the Burlington shops were located at Havelock. Thru
the Burlington lines flows the bloodstream of that part of Lincoln. It
thrives or grows pale and listless according to the fortunes of its
railroad. The shops at this moment are employing 750 men—550 in the
mechanical department, 250 in the store. The shops build cars, repair
cars, overhaul electrical equipment used on the lines west of Lincoln
and overhaul working equipment such as steam shovels and pile drivers
for the whole Burlington system.