Nebraska
NEBRASKA

LANCASTER COUNTY

Lancaster county was named after the town and county of Lancaster in Pennsylvania which were named after Lancaster county, England. Its boundaries were defined by an act of the legislature approved March 6, 1855. The county was reestablished and its boundaries redefined by an act approved January 26, 1856.

Burnham. A station on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad, southwest of Lincoln, in Yankee Hill precinct. It was named
for S. W. Burnham, an early owner of land in the vicinity.

Lincoln. Originally named Lancaster, the county seat of Lancaster county. The site of Lincoln as capitol of the state of Nebraska
was formally located in July, 1867. The name was chosen in honor of President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was made the county
seat of Lancaster county by an act approved February 12, 1869.

Source : Nebraska, The Land and the People, Vol. 2

Silas H. Burnham.
One of the prominent figures in the history of banking in Nebraska during the past forty years has been Silas Henry Burnham.
Mr. Burnham is best known as president of the First National Bank of Lincoln. At different times, however, he has been
identified with the organization, ownership or management of a number of financial and business corporations throughout the
state.By education and early profession he was a lawyer. He was born at Harrison, Maine, [p.26] April 12, 1848, son of Sumner
and Christina (Washburn) Burnham. Mr. Burnham is an alumnus of Dartmouth College, where he took his A. B. degree in 1874.
He studied law at Portland, Maine, in the office of Charles S. Libby, of the firm Butler & Libby. He was admitted to the bar and practiced at Norway, Maine, from 1876 to 1880. His parents had lived at Norway since 1858. 

It was in 1880 that Mr. Burnham came to Nebraska and located at Lincoln. His older brother, Sumner W. Burnham, had preceded
him to Nebraska and at the time was engaged in farming and stock raising at Yankee Hill. After a brief experience as a lawyer at
Lincoln, Mr. Silas Burnham became identified in business in the ranch and range country at Broken Bow, seventy-five miles from
the nearest railroad, and there established the first bank, the private bank of Burnham & Jewett. When the railroad reached Broken
Bow the private bank was reorganized as the First National Bank, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars
Mr. Burnham subsequently established the first bank at Calloway, known as the Bank of Calloway, started a bank at Arcadia, and bought banks at Arnold in Custer County, at Gandy and a state bank at Sydney. During these years Mr. Burnham retained his
residence in Lincoln, but spent much of his time visiting and supervising the various banks, operated by employes and partners.

In 1888 he organized and founded the American Exchange Bank at Lincoln under a state charter. Three months later it became the American Exchange National Bank. In 1891 this corporation bought the State National Bank, merging it with the American Exchange. In May, 1899, the First National Bank was acquired, and after the merger of the two institutions the business was continued under the name and organization of the First National Bank. Mr. Burnham has been continuously president of this institution and its predecessors for nearly forty years. He bought and merged with the First National the Columbia National in 1907. In 1907 he organized the First Savings Bank of Lincoln and the First Trust Company in 1912, of both of which institutions he is president. He has also been vice president of the Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph Company and treasurer of the Lincoln Traction Company.

Mr. Burnham is a Republican, a member of the Plymouth Congregational Church, and he organized the first golf club in Lincoln. He has always been a lover of good horses. Mr. Burnham married, October 24, 1876, Elizabeth Lewis, of Glasgow, Kentucky. They have four children: Sarah W., wife of George W. Holmes; Joseph L.; Carrie Loise, wife of Willard W. Yates; and Silas H., Jr.