Samuel Clay Bassett Buffalo County, Nebraska and Its People

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Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. A land fertile and fruitful, a land abounding in running waters, sweet and Wholesome, a land having a healthful climate has been the supreme desire of all people, of all nations since time had a beginning. To possess such a goodly land, to enjoy it as a heritage and to transmit it to posterity, mankind, in all ages, have labored and endured, have suffered toil and privation, have fought, bled and died. Where, let me ask, in this wide, wide world, can you find a valley of like area so fertile and so fruitful and of such producing capacity? Where a climate more healthful and invigorating? Where a land whose waters, sweet and wholesome, are more abundant and unfailing? And where, let me ask, can you find a rural population of souls having so small a percentage of illiteracy, so small a percentage of poverty, so small a percentage of wretchedness, so small a percentage of vice and crime? Where can you find a people among whom you would prefer to make your home, to have for your neighbors and friends, among whom to do your life work and to enjoy the fruits of your labor? A people whose character, whose enterprise, whose public spirit, whose customs, whose habits, whose form of government, whose traditions, whose religious beliefs, together with the goodly land which they inhabit, you would rather leave as a heritage to your children and your children's children?