Gage County Historical Society Annual Meeting and Banquet
October 12, 2014
6pm
Valentino’s Primavera Room, 701 East Court
Beatrice, Nebraska
Advance Ticket $20 each
Open to the Public
Nebraska Humanities Speaker, Thomas N. King, will portray President Ulysses S. Grant at the Gage County Historical Society Meeting and Banquet. Mr. King has acquired degrees in history and secondary education from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. He has his doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Oklahoma State University. He teaches a Civil War course for Doane College in Crete. In his portrayal he will take you back to the Gilded Age with stories and personal history from one of America’s most popular and yet misunderstood presidents. His Chautauqua-style portrayal takes President Ulysses S. Grant from personal mediocrity to his promotion to the highest-ranking general in the Union Army to his election as the eighteenth President of the United States. Complete with period costume, the presentation allows audiences to relive the two controversial presidential terms through the eyes of Ulysses S. Grant.
Advance tickets can be purchased at the Gage County Musuem, 101 North 2nd Street, BeatriceNE For more information call 402-228-1679 Email: gagecountymuseum@beatricene.com Facebook: gage countymuseum
Just Some of Gage County’s Connections to President Grant
v On March 23, 1872, Gage County had the honor of organizing the first Grant Club in the state. The Constitution Article I of the Gage County Grant Club stated: The object of this club shall be to promote the re-election of U.S. Grant to the Presidency of the United Sates, and in general the success of the Republican Party and its principles. C.B. Palmer, president, H.M. Reynolds, vice president, and members including S.M. Hazen, J. Sharp, B.P. Zuver, F.H. Dobbs, K.A. Moore and Henry Albert.
v Mary Jane Dripps was born at Bellevue, Nebraska, to an Oto mother and white father. At age 3 she was sent to St. Louis, Missouri, to be raised. Her schoolmate was Julia Dent, future wife of President U.S. Grant. Mary Jane married Francis Barnes in 1856 and in 1870 the couple opened a trading post on the Oto reservation in southern Gage County. In 1875, when the Oto Reservation land was to be sold to white settlers, Mary Jane wrote to her schoolmate Mrs. U.S. (Julia) Grant to see if the President could “make us a title to our land” at Barneston. She said many Oto families had established homes and farms and wished to stay. On August 23, 1876 allotments were granted.
v On May 7, 1888, U.S. Grant Jr. sold his father’s Arabian stallion, Linden Tree, to L.W. Colby of Beatrice, Nebraska. This was one of two stallions’ his father received as a gift from the Sultan of Turkey in 1879. Colby would later purchase the other stallion, Leopard. The horses were brought to Beatrice and rumor had it that Linden Tree was worth $10,000. The much loved 30 year old Linden Tree died in Beatrice at age 30.
Date and Time
Sunday Oct 12, 2014
