MARRIED SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS
   Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Fletcher of Boelus, Neb., celebrated the sixty-eighth anniversary of their marriage on September 10th. They have nine children, forty grandchildren and twenty-six great-grandchildren. Mr. Fletcher is eighty-eight years old and his wife one year younger. Both are in good health.

of the fifth division in the World War and participated fit some of the hardest fighting overseas.

   Total Nebraska Casualties in the War Fixed at 3,031.

   Nebraska's part in the battles across the water is shown in a statement issued by the war department, detailing by states the number of killed and wounded.
   The statistics for Nebraska show:
      Killed in action, 7 officers, 357 men.
      Died of wounds, 5 officers, 177 men.
      Died of disease, 6 officers, 244 men.
      Died of accident, 6 officers, 15 men.
      Drowned, 1 man.
      Other causes, 7 men.
      Suicide 1 man.
      Cause undetermined, 16 men.
      Presumed lost, 1 officer, 12 men.
      Total dead or missing, 25 officers, 830 men.
      Prisoners, 20 men.
      Wounded slightly, 17 officers, 779 men.
      Wounded severely, 13 officers, 913 men.
      Wounded, degree undetermined, 6 officers,
          438 men.
      Total, 36 officers, 2,130 men.
      Grand total casualties for the state of Nebraska,
          61 officers, 2,960 men.

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(Handwritten below picture: "See D 366")

Genesis of the Great Seal of Nebraska

   Section 13, Article III of the first constitution of Nebraska, commonly called the constitution of 1866, follows:
   There shall be a seal of the state, which shall be kept by the governor and used by him officially; and shall be called The Great Seal of the State of Nebraska.
   Accordingly, on May 31, 1867, Isaac Wiles, of Cass county, introduced into the House of Representatives of the second legislature "H. R. No. 41, An act to provide for procuring a seal for the State of Nebraska." This was the third session of the legislature, and it was called by Governor Butler to meet in special session on May 16, to pass such laws as the governor thought necessary for starting the state government. After the second reading of the bill on June 1, on motion of James M. Woolworth, "the blank in the bill was filled by inserting the words Twenty-five ... .. to enable the secretary of state to carry into effect the provisions of this act." On June 4, the bill was read a third- time and passed; all of the thirty-five members present voting in the affirmative. The next day it reached the senate and was read the first time; on the 6th it was read the second time and referred to the committee on public buildings and state library; on the 11th the committee, by its chairman William A. Presson of Richardson county, reported it back without amendment; on the 12th it was recommended for passage in committee of the whole; on the 13th it was read the third time and passed, all of the eleven senators present voting in the affirmative, and on the 15th it was approved by the governor.
   Isaac Wiles, who was next friend and guide to the bill, though in his ninetieth year, had remarkably good health until a short time before his death, which occurred on January 20, 1921, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J. H. Hall, in Plattsmouth. He was born in Henry county, Indiana, on October 5, 1830; removed with his parents to Andrew county, Missouri, in 1841; was a farmer in California from 1852 to 1855; moved to Mills county, Iowa, and finally settled on a farm near Plattsmouth, Nebraska, in 1856. He had been engaged in farming, with his son, E. M. Wiles, near Minatare, Scotts Bluff county, since 1886. On account of illness, on January 16, 1921, he came to Plattsmouth. On October 18, 1862, he enlisted in Company H, Second Nebraska Cavalry Volunteers, was mustered in and commissioned first lieutenant of his company, December 13, and mustered out December 8, 1863, on the disbandment of the regiment. On August 29, 1864, he enlisted as captain of Company B, First Regiment Nebraska Militia, Second Brigade; mustered in September 29; mustered out February 13, 1865. He was a member of the first school board of his district; a member of the House of Representatives of the eighth and twelfth legislative assemblies-December 2, 1861, to January 10, 1862, and January 10 to February 18, 1867 - and of the House of Representatives of the second state legislature (1867-1868).
   Mr. Wiles was possessed of much more than ordinary native shrewdness, and his alert mind had gained in the school of experience, in the army and on the frontier, a goodly fund of intelligence. But lacking other training, he was obliged to seek assistance in the drawing of his bill. As he remembers, Elmer S. Dundy, then associate justice of the supreme court of the Territory of Nebraska, was his principal coach, though I cannot believe that so astute a person would have sponsored this curiously contrived act:

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska:
   Section 1. That the secretary of state shall be, and he is here-

by authorized and required to procure, at the cost and expense of the state, and as soon after the passage of this act as practicable, a seal for the state, to be designated and known as the great seal of the state of Nebraska, and of the design and device following, that is to say: The eastern part of the circle to be represented by a steamboat ascending the Missouri river; the mechanic arts to be represented by a smith with hammer and anvil; in the foreground, agriculture to be represented by a settler's cabin, sheaves of wheat, and stalks of growing corn; fix the back ground a train of cars heading towards the Rocky Mountains, and on the extreme west, the Rocky Mountains to be plainly in view; around the top of this circle, to be in capital letters, the motto "Equality Before the Law" and the circle to be surrounded with the words, "Great Seal of the State of Nebraska, March 1, 1867."
   Sec. 2. The sum of twenty-five dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any fund in the treasury not otherwise appropriated by law, to enable the secretary of state to carry into effect the provisions of this act.
   This descriptive prescription is a baffling conglomerate. I suppose it can be said that the designation of the position of parts of a circle in geographical terms, as "the eastern part" and "the extreme west" is at least original; and the mixing in of another method" the top of the circle" - equally unique, furnishes variety, though making in the sum "confusion worse confounded." Nevertheless, after the blacksmith was placed erect "in the foreground "- correct parlance - the extension of the line of his figure to the circumference clearly made the point of contact "the top of the circle," and the erection of the other figures of the seal in harmony, confirmed title in the whole picture to a legitimate top and bottom.
   "I am but mad north-northwest; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw", partly aberrated and partly feigning Hamlet explained. It is fortunate for the fame of our sturdy pioneer that touching responsibility for the form of the act he shows an alibi, and thus shifts the burden upon his trained assistants.
   The pictorial part of the seal is a landscape, so that in facing it one takes the top as north, as in the case of maps. By this view the specification of the act of the legislature is disobeyed, the Rocky Mountains being at the extreme north instead of the west; the train of cars runs at their base and parallel instead of "heading towards" them; the Missouri River extends across the middle of the landscape with an appearance of running toward the west with the steamboat going in the same direction, whereas the statute provides that the river should occupy "the eastern part of the circle." The smith with his anvil, put nowhere by the statute, usurps the stipulated place of agriculture in the extreme foreground, where he is every bit monarch of all he surveys. Truly

seem - prophetically in view of present procedure - to be welding together Labor and Agriculture, already pushed into the background,

ISAAC WILES

(handwritten: "See D 322")

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for a common political purpose. The solitary shock of wheat standing in the near background may now be regarded as a symbolic hostage held, by imperious Labor.
   Many of the state seals are happily simple, but some of them are, like Nebraska's, impracticably complex, though the designer is perhaps mainly at fault. About twenty years ago I chanced to be in the capitol with J. Sterling Morton, and while we stopped before an enlarged impression of the seal which was hanging in one of the offices, Morton lampooned the picture with characteristic acidity. Though I have forgotten the particulars of his exceptions, I remember that he emphasized the incongruity of the whole. No proper appraisal of Mr. Morton's principal service to Nebraska has yet been made. Concisely, it consisted of caustic criticism of crudity and corruption and merciless lampooning of shovers and pretenders, all in their heyday on the Nebraskan farthest frontier. This talent of Morton's contributed more than any other single social factor toward making life tolerable in our early untoward environment.
   As Mr. Wiles recollects, he presented to his mentor, Judge Dundy, two alternative mottoes or legends for the seal. One was Equal Rights For All; the other, Equality Before The Law, which Dundy promptly preferred. Mr. Wiles had been a strong partisan for the abolition of slavery, and so naturally cherished maxims appertaining to that cause. It was perhaps owing to this circumstance that he came to believe that he originated the legend; but "All men are equal before the natural law," is an old legal maxim.
   A few years ago I closely interviewed Thomas P. Kennard about the incidents of the removal of the capital from Omaha to Lincoln. Following is the part of his story relating to the removal of the state seal:
   We proceeded to let the contract for the building of the capitol, and as time progressed, week after week, month after month, it neared completion. When it was in such condition that we thought it could be occupied, we again began to look around to see whether the opposition was going to take any steps towards prevention of the removal. The air was full of rumors, whether founded on fact or not, that whenever we attempted to remove the seat of government from Omaha an injunction would be served on the state officers to prevent them from removing the seal and insignia of office to the new capitol. So Governor Butler and I, without consulting any other person, decided what steps we would take. We planned that he should leave Omaha and go to his home in Pawnee City and prepare his proclamation announcing the removal; that I would go to my home in Washington county and on the following Sunday morning I would hitch up my team and drive to Omaha, go in to the capitol, wrap up the seal, carefully take it out and place it under the seat in my buggy, drive straight to the west over the prairies and before Sunday closed cross the Platte River. The scheme was successfully carried out, and on the following Monday I appeared at the new capitol with the state seal and put the impression upon the proclamation of Governor Butler, who met me here, and which declared that the capitol of the state of Nebraska was at Lincoln, county of Lancaster, Nebraska, and now open for business.
   Mr. Kennard was secretary of state at the time of this exploit. The proclamation by Governor Butler adverted to was issued on December 3, 1868.
   Apropos to the discussion in and about the legislature of the desirability of procuring a new state seal, I am asked whether there are precedents for such action. Examination of constitutions and statutory laws of nine or ten states discloses the fact that such changes have been made frequently. I cite a few examples.
   The first constitution of Florida, adopted in 1846, provides for a state seal. Section 12 of article III directed that
   There shall be a seal of the State which shall be kept by the governor, and used by him officially, with such device as the governor first elected may direct, and the present seal of the Territory shall be the seal of the State until otherwise directed by the general assembly." The constitution of 1868 directed that, "The legislature shall at the first session adopt a seal for the state and such seal shall be of the size of the American silver dollar," and that the seal should not be changed after it had been adopted by the legislature. But the relevant point is that a new seal was designed and adopted.
   In 1868 Ohio adopted a substantially new seal.
   The original seals of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, have been changed, in some cases altered; in others, replaced by entirely new devices.
   There has been much heated criticism of the seal of the United States, which was adopted in 1782; but all attempts to discard it have been futile. However, the design has been modified by successive new cuttings. There has also been controversy over the question of changing seals of some of the states. For example on the admission of Illinois into the union of states (in 1818), the secretary of state was directed by the legislature to procure a seal, but no design was ever prescribed by law, and the first seal is still in use. In 1867 the Chicago Tribune, savagely, but ineffectually, attacked its motto, "State Sovereignty - National Union," for impropriety and incongruity, inasmuch as there had 'Just been a very bloody and costly :war to destroy the principle of state sovereignty and establish that of national union.

ALBERT WATKINS.

   House roll No. 571, introduced by Representative George A. Williams, of Fillmore county, at the request of the Nebraska Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, is now upon the general file of the House of Representatives. it provides that the governor shall appoint an unpaid commission for the purpose of procuring designs for a new state seal and for a state flag. The commission shall first pass upon a design for the state seal. When that is approved the bill provides that "the state flag shall consist of a reproduction of the emblem and motto approved for the great seal of the state, in gold and silver on a field of national blue, with a representation of the state flower, the golden rod, upon the upper margin of such field." An appropriation of $100 for the use of the committee in obtaining designs for the state seal and state flag is provided.
   Elsewhere in this magazine is a story of the genesis of the present state seal of Nebraska, by Mr. Watkins. It is remarkable that this story of the present seal, the introduction of a bill for a new design, and the death of the man who introduced the bill which created the first seal should occur at nearly the same time. It was fortunate for Nebraska history that Mr. Wiles survived in the full possession of his facilities until the present year. In a long interview last summer in the Historical Society rooms he gave very interesting details of the creation of the first Nebraska seal.
   A few of those details are here given in addition to the information found in Mr. Watkins' article: Mr. Wiles was strongly of the opinion that the motto "Equality Before The Law" did not refer to slavery nor to equal civil rights for white and black in this state. His impression was distinct that it originated from the early controversies over land locations in the Missouri River counties and was inspired by the frontier sentiment in favor of givng [sic] every man an equal chance to secure a home on the public domain. He may have been mistaken in this idea, but he certainly was tenacious in holding it.
   According to his recollection he conceived the idea of introducing a bill to provide a state seal unaided. As he was not a lawyer, he invited Elmer S. Dundy, afterward judge of the U. S. court for the district of Nebraska, to confer with him. The two met in Judge Dundy's room in an Omaha hotel and discussed the drafting of the bill. The main elements of the picture Mr. Wiles brought to that conference in his own mind. He wished to have the Missouri River, the mountains, growing crops upon the farm and a blacksmith to represent the mechanic arts. Judge Dundy gave, in part at least, the descriptive order to these parts of the picture was made the final draft of the bill which Mr. Wiles introduced in the legislature.
   As Mr. Watkins says, it was Mr. Wiles recollection also that he conceived the idea of the motto and proposed variant forms for it to Judge Dundy, who selected the one which has been the Nebraska state motto for the past half century.
   Efforts to determine who made the design for the present seal have failed. Mr. Wiles' impression was that an Omaha jeweler, whose name he did not remember, was the designer and that the twenty-five dollars provided for payment was thereby kept in Nebraska. A. thorough search of the vouchers of the early period of the auditor's office may yet disclose the designer of the present state seal.
   Isaac Wiles was a truly remarkable pioneer. His mind even in his 90th year was keen and logical and his recollections full of detail and overflowing with human interest. Whatever may be done to secure a more artistic design for our state seal - and there is room to do much - it may well be doubted that a better motto for seal or flag can be devised than the one of 1867.

ADDISON E. SHELDON.

SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE NEBRASKA SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND

   The forty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Nebraska School for the Blind was celebrated at Nebraska City March 5. Supt. Ned C. Abbott solids the Historical Society a program which carries the following interesting historical data relating to. the school:

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   (These obituaries are compiled largely from death notices printed in newspapers which are received and kept on file by the Historical Society. While the sketches have been carefully edited, it has been impossible to avoid and correct all inaccuracies The lives of some subjects of the obituaries were of unusual public interest, and in such cases the sketches have been duly amplified. Statements of fact, particularly those which are of record, have been verified as far as practicable. Obviously, it is, very desirable that these records which will always be used. for reference, should be correct, and surviving relatives and editors of local newspapers should carefully cooperate in preventing errors.)
   Mrs. Phoebe Ellen Young Stafford, born in Mills county, Iowa, August 11th, 1863, died December 25th at Clarinda, Iowa; came with parents to Cass county in 1856.
   Mrs. Elizabeth Lebs Schmid, wife of Jacob Schmid, Platte county, resident of Nebraska since 1867, died January 1st.
   Mrs. Marie Antoinette Newberry Filley, resident of Auburn, Nebraska, in the early sixties, died in Portland, Oregon, January 1st.
   Gus B. Speice, born in Columbus, Nebraska, July 16, 1864, died January 4th; son of Charles A. and Katherine Becker Speice, pioneers of Platte county; was active in business and political life; held the offices of clerk of the district court, mayor, and city treasurer.
   Mrs. Sarah Waite, Beatrice, died January 5th; settled at Brownville, Nebraska, in October, 1867.
   John Rhoden, Dixon county, pioneer of 1856, died January 5th.
   Mrs. Martha Nicholson Thorp, Nebraska City, died January 6th; married to Edwin F. Thorp, October 19, 1862; in 1863 moved to Nebraska City.
   William Henry Kerns, resident of Nebraska since 1867, died in Table Rock, January 6th.
   James T. Munson, resident of Lancaster county since 1866, died January 8th.
   Mrs. Rosina Uhlig, Falls City, died January 8th; settled in Nemaha county in 1857.
   Mrs. Achte Margaretha Neemann, resident of Otoe county since 1862, died January 9th.
   Aaron Wilson, pioneer of Burt county in 1866, died in Tacoma, Washington, January 9th.
   Mrs. Casper E. Yost, resident of Omaha since 1866, died at Long Beach, Cal., about January 10th.
   Mr. Yost died November 22, 1920. He was the principal founder of the Nebraska Telephone Company, and when he retired from business, in 1919, he was president of the company and also of the Iowa Telephone Company and the Northwestern Telephone Exchange Company.
   Mrs. Bridget Bourke, resident of Nemaha county since 1862, died January 10th.
   Mrs. Mary Costin a resident of Nebraska since 1857, died at her home near Gothenburg, January 11th.
   James McKenna, 85 years old, resident of Omaha since 1866, died January 11th.
   Mrs. Anna Marie Ramseyer, daughter of Rev. William Hamilton, noted missionary to the Indians, died about January 11th, in Missouri Valley, Iowa.
   Father Hamilton, as he was commonly called, was a missionary among Indians of the west-of-the-Missouri plains during the larger part of his life. He was a teacher at the Sauk and Fox mission, Great Nemaha agency, from 1841 to 1853, when he became superintendent of the Crow and Omaha mission on separate reservations, in (sic) mained until these tribes were placed on separate reservations, in 1855. He was superintendent of the Omaha mission under the patronage of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, from July, 1867, until 1869, when the mission was superseded by the new policy through which the Indian agencies were put under control of the several religious denominations, those in Nebraska falling to the Society of Friends.
   John S. Ellison, a farmer for fifty-five years near Liberty, Nebraska, died January 13th.
   Mrs. Mary Buskirk, resident of Cass county, near Murdock for fifty-three years, died January 15th.
   Claudius P. Douglass died at his home near Melba, Platte county, January 16th; freighted from Nebraska City to Fort Laramie in 1866; settled permanently in Nebraska in 1883.
   Joseph William Martin, born in Pawnee county, Nebraska, November 8, 1867, died January 18th; graduated from the college of medicine of the University of Nebraska in 1903.
   Peter Freese died in Nebraska City January 19th; said to have been fireman on the first train that ran from Nebraska City to Lincoln on the Midland Pacific railroad; was an engineer in the employ of that railroad for many years; and a resident of Nebraska from 1866.
   Barney Mullen, aged eighty-three years, resident of Nebraska since 1860, died at Shreveport, Louisiana, January 23rd; enlisted for service in the Civil War in the Sixth Illinois Cavalry, Company C, September 3, 1861; was mustered out at Nashville, December 16, 1865. After the war he resumed farming near Stella and left an estate of 1080 acres in Richardson county.
   Mrs. Hannah M. Beatty, resident of Johnson county since 1866, died January 24th.
   Peter E. Iler, resident of Omaha since 1866, died January 25th; engaged in the wholesale liquor business until 1902; president of the Willow Springs distillery and leader in anti-prohibition movements, was one of the promoters of the Omaha Stock Yards company; organized with others the South Omaha Land company; built many substantial buildings in Omaha among which was the Iler Grand Hotel.

Mr. Iler was a very influential citizen of Omaha for about forty years.
   Enoch W. Bline died January 26th in Omaha; crossed the plains in 1849; resided permanently in Nebraska since 1866.
   Eli Plummer, Lincoln, died January 27th; born November 26, 1835; settled in Plattsmouth in March 1863; engaged in wholesale grocery business in Lincoln in 1879; had a large part in the growth and development of Lincoln.
   Mrs. Emily Jane Conover Deweber, resident of Nebraska since 1859, died at her home near Pawnee City January 28th.
   Mrs. Margaret Jane Strop Wise died at Heartwell, January 28th; came to Nebraska in 1867.
   Mrs. Martha Jane Brown Selby, resident of Nebraska since 1865, died January 28th in Wauneta.
   Augustus Lockner, resident of Nebraska since 1866 died in Omaha January 29th. Mr. Lockner was a soldier of the Civil War and also aided in guarding General Dodge and his party against Indians during the building of the Union Pacific railroad.
   John Stevenson, resident of Florence and Omaha since 1856; died January 29th; born in Scotland; came with his father, Alexander Stevenson, to Florence in July 1856.
   Henry Schmidt, a member of the firm of Fred Schmidt and Brother, and a resident of Lancaster county for over fifty years, died January 29th.
   William G. Hall, born in Nebraska City, July 23, 1856, son of C. C. and Susan Hail, died January 30th in Omaha.
   Mrs. Elizabeth Catherine McCorkle Wiles, who settled in Cass county in 1856, died January 31st. She was the mother of ten sons, and four daughters.
   Mrs. William Daily, resident of Auburn and Nemaha county since 1861; died February 5th.  other (sic) of Mrs. A. K Goudy, deputy state superintendent 1891-95.
   Elmer E. Davis, native of Colfax county, born November 16, 1860, died February 5th.
   W. L. E. Green, Independent, died February 5th; resided in Nebraska for fifty-four years.
   Miss Margaret L. McCheane, Omaha, died February 5th at Long Beach, California; came to Omaha with her parents in 1857; was the third woman employed by the Union Pacific railroad company, starting in 1873 and was retired with a pension in 1909.
   Mrs. Johanna Haney, resident of Platte county in 1864, died February 6th at her home near Richland.
   V. W. Darling, ninety-three years old, a resident of Nebraska for sixty-five years, died in Auburn, February 7th.
   Milton M. Harney, resident of Burt county since 1867, died February 10th; in 1862 enlisted in the 2nd Nebraska Cavalry and served on the western frontier to protect the settlers from Indian depredations.
   Richard Dunning, born in Richardson county, July 3, 1859, died at his home in Indianola, February 11th.
   Daniel D. Johnson, Scottsbluff, died February 11th; settled in Cass county in 1867; born in Crawford, Pennsylvania, April 20, 1843; removed to Iowa and enlisted for service in the Civil War in Company A 29th Iowa Volunteers.
   George W. Brown, a resident of Otoe county before 1860, died February 15th.
   Mrs. Mary Cummings, eighty-six years old, resident of Omaha since 1866, died February 15th.
   Mrs. Lucy Helen Glover Tower, resident of Nebraska since 1858, died at her home in Lincoln, February 17th.
   William Blair, a soldier of the Civil War, died February 18th, in Brainard where he had lived since 1867.
   Michael Brannen died in Auburn, February 21; settled in Nebraska City in 1855; enlisted for service in the Civil War in a Missouri regiment of infantry; at the close of the war returned to Nebraska, settling at St. Deroin, later lived at Shubert. Mrs. Brannen died on February 26th, She had endured all the hardships of pioneer life on the western frontier and was with her husband at the time he was campaigning with the Union army in Kansas, one child being born at that time.
   Mrs. W. Albert Heikes, resident of Dakota City since 1867, died February 21st.
   James Firmon Harris, soldier of the Civil War, resident of Nebraska since 1866, died in Hildreth, February 22nd.
   William H. Turner, who freighted between Omaha and Denver in the sixties and helped to build the Union Pacific railroad through Wyoming, died in Fremont February 27th; came to Nebraska first in 1869.
   Mrs. Cornelia Olson, who settled on a farm five miles south of Herman in 1866, where she had since resided, died March 2.
   T. M. Wimberly of University Place, resident of Nebraska for almost sixty years, died March 7th.
   Lewis H. Laflin, soldier of the Civil War, died at his farm residence near Crab Orchard, March 7th, where he had settled in May 1857: served three years in Company I, First Regiment Nebraska Volunteers (afterward First Nebraska Cavalry and First Regiment Nebraska Veteran Volunteers); member of the Nebraska House of Representatives of 1873, and held many offices of responsibility in Johnson county.
   August Stark, pioneer Cuming county in 1863, died near Bennet, March 8th.
   Horace Dutton, Dakota City, resident of Nebraska for sixty-five years, died March 8th; was a member of Company D, Fifth Iowa Cavalry in the Civil War; was noted for the fact that although he had had four years active service in the war he was never known to tell a war story.