Robert W. Furnas

(1824-1905) lived in Brownville, Nemaha County, and in Lincoln. Agriculturist, military officer, politician, known as Nebraska's greatest booster as member of Nebraska Board of Agriculture for four decades, served in territorial legislature and one term as Nebraska governor, wrote first common-school law for the state, was one of initiators of Arbor Day, and the major organizer of the Nebraska State Historical Society. Consult Nebraska History, Vol 32 (1951) 18-41, 186-203, 268-283 and Sunday /Omaha/ World Herald Magazine of the Midlands, September 24, 1978, pp.18-19, 22 and May 21, 1989, p. 6 and American National Biography, Vol 8 (1999) 583-584.

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