12 Historic Photos That Show Us What It Was Like Living In Nebraska In The Early 1900s
By Delana Lefevers|Published January 25, 2022
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Delana Lefevers
Author
As a lifelong Nebraskan, Delana loves discovering the many hidden treasures of her state. She has worked as a writer and editor since 2007. Delana's work has been featured on more than a dozen websites and in Nebraska Life Magazine.
Nebraska has, predictably, changed a whole lot since the turn of the 20th century. It’s almost like we’re living in a totally different world. Sometimes it’s enlightening to take a look back at where we came from. These 12 photos from the early 1900s give us a way to peer a century into the past.
This is what the Nebraska state capitol building looked like a little more than a century ago. The city's skyline sure does look different without the iconic Golden Sower rising high into the sky.
A man drives a brand-new Buick out of the showroom at the F.J. O'Hara Buick Dealership in Spalding. Across the street is another F.J. O'Hara business, the town hardware store.
Planting crops sure looked different back then. Here, a farmer puffs away on his pipe as his horses pull the plow through his cornfield in Lancaster County.
Not many people realize that some Nebraskans lived in sod houses well into the 20th century. In this photo from 1905, Ben Miller and his family pose outside of their sod house.
No town would be complete without its own saloon. In this pre-Prohibition photo, four men and a bartender have a chat at the Fred Krug Brewing Co. in Omaha.
It looks like half the population of Ericson turned out for this photo that was turned into a postcard. The larger photo shows Main Street from one angle while the inset shows it from a different viewpoint.
A car is being raffled off in this 1914 photo taken in Spalding. The small figure in the background was the blindfolded woman tasked with picking a winner at random. Jas Pepper of Omaha was the lucky winner, apparently with the lucky number 13.
If there's one thing that hasn't changed in the past century, it's Nebraska's love of county fairs. Here, a couple pays the entrance fee to attend the Greeley County Fair.
