Nebraska, town by town

J. Sterling Morton’s tree-planting day began in Nebraska, with an estimated million trees planted the first time. Source

Father Edward Flanagan took in five boys at a rented house on a $90 loan; the home moved to Overlook Farm in 1921 and became a village in 1936. Source

Omaha says grocer Reuben Kulakofsky asked for corned beef and sauerkraut at a poker game in the Blackstone Hotel; New York has a claim too. Source

Edwin Perkins turned his liquid Fruit Smack into a powder in his mother’s kitchen and called it Kool-Aid. Source

Nebraska’s Legislature first met as a single house in 1937; it is still the only state legislature with one chamber. Source

Volunteers met the troop trains with food and kindness through the war, nearly seven million servicemen in all: Nebraska Nice before it had a name. Source

Frank Zybach built his center-pivot business in Columbus in the early 1950s and licensed it in 1954 to Robert Daugherty’s Valley Manufacturing. Source

Omaha’s C.A. Swanson & Sons put the name TV dinner on a packaged frozen meal. Source