November 1996. KanColl director Dick Taylor is thinking of a new project for KanColl. Work was already well underway on William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, and the time is right to start on the Nebraska volume. Fortunately for all of us, Connie Snyder, a volunteer at KanColl, had herself been thinking about transcribing this classic reference, and agrees to serve as associate manager of the project.

     Now, more than four years later, this Cutler's history is completely online. This was no small undertaking. Included in the massive volume printed by the A. T. Andreas' Western Publishing Company in 1882 are separate chapters for each of the state's counties, as well as extensive sections on Nebraska territorial and state history. The Andreas/Cutler book is a treasure trove of information about early Nebraska history. The hundreds of pages include biographies, statistics, anecdotes about events of the day, military rosters, lists of public officials, and in-depth chronicles of important turning points in Nebraska history.

     More than 70 volunteers worked on the transcription, and it's difficult to single out people to recognize for this tremendous achievement. Connie, surely -- she carefully checked the electronic files that the volunteers returned, designed and coded the web pages, coordinated the volunteers' activities, and did her own share of transcribing. then there's Barb Hruza, who helped Connie with a lot of the copying and mailing of pages to volunteers. Ted and Carole Miller contributed a great deal of work, and Bill Oliver worked hard on organizing the volunteers who were putting together the companion index of names mentioned in the book. Some volunteers (many were members of the NEGenWeb group, eager to make this work available for genealogical research) soldiered through large chapters or endless statistical charts. Others may have done smaller chapters or sections, but battled personal tragedies and juggled other commitments to do their part. We thank them all for what they have given us, and invite you to review the names of these volunteers, who worked so hard on their parts of the project.

     And we invite you to browse this landmark history:

     In addition to the research opportunities provided by the book, you will find plenty of stories that are just plain interesting to read: storeis of the early settlers, politics, and the building of industries, educational institutions, and social structures that have shaped the Nebraska we know today.

     By the way, if you're interested in additional information or corrections to the 1882 work, you might visit the Cutler's Connection section of KanColl:

This is where we've posted information provided by descendents of people mentioned in the Andreas/Cutler's histories.