Romance of a Village: Story of Bellevue: The first permanent continuous settlement in Nebraska by William J. Shallcross, Centennial Souvenir Edition, Roncka Brothers Printers, Omaha, Nebraska, 1954.
This book is limited by when it was published, but it does provide some interesting information about the history of Omaha up until Offutt was created as the Strategic Air Command. It starts with the Lewis and Clark expedition, and then continues onto early trading posts and trapping. Manuel Lisa gave the area its name because of the view he observed long ago. Peter Sarpy was also an early trade post operator but after Lucien Fontanelle. Sarpy also ran a ferry. He talks about relationships with the Omaha Indians, Chief Big Elk. Bellevue had an early Indian agency.
Early visits to Bellevue included Prince Maximilian and Karl Bodmer the artists. Also Friederich Kurz the Swiss artist visited the area. Mormons came through the Bellevue area in 1846, and gold miners soon after. There was also a significant missionary effort to the Native Americans from the Baptists and Presbyterians. This ended when the Omaha left to their permanent reservation in 1856.
Bellevue could be considered the first territorial capitol, located at the mission; but the governor lived only one day after being sworn in. The people of Council Bluffs and the Lieutenant Governor preferred the Omaha area. So Bellevue missed out on the capital, and a few years later would also missed out on the railroad and the first bridge over the Missouri. In missing the bridge this was partly because flooding had wiped out the footing on the Iowa side opposite Bellevue. The bone tossed to Bellevue was that of the county seat, when Douglass county was divided and Sarpy County made. However this was given to Papillion to create a more central location.
Bellevue lost out on much, but began to establish itself as an education site with Bellevue University, a Christian University. However after the tornado of 1908, the school never really recovered and closed. After this the town of Bellevue struggled with few residents, until WWII. At this time a bomber manufacturing plant was established at Fort Crook. This added greatly to the population of the area, and was responsible for the creation of a downtown commercial area on Mission. However it was feared at the end of the war the city would dry up. This was adverted when the federal governemnt decided to place the SAC at the location of the old plant and Offutt was created from Fort Crook.
As mentioned this history is limited by its publication date. Much more history and expansion has taken place since the 1950s and Bellevue is now the third largest city in Nebraska.
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