Lincoln Nebraska History

Founded in 1864 as Lancaster; the city was chosen as the site of the capital in 1867, and renamed Lincoln and became the state capital at the same time that Nebraska became a state.

In 1764, Russian Czarina Catherine the Great invited German natives to settle along the Volga River, and many responded because of the pledges made to them, however, by 1870, many of the opportunities had been disregarded by the Russian government. A mass migration began, and new settlements began in Lincoln.

The Germans from Russia came to Lincoln and the Great Plains primarily because of the climate and the agricultural opportunities. By 1914, more than one-third of Lincoln's population was made up of these immigrants and their descendants.