Major General John M. Thayer - Lincoln, Nebraska - Relief Art Sculptures on Waymarking.com

From the Wyuka Cemetery Tour Brochure:
(visit link)

"Near the west side of the G.A.R. section is the large granite and bronze monument of John M. Thayer, “Erected by a Grateful State.” Mr. Thayer was an early immigrant into the Nebraska Territory from his native Massachusetts, arriving in the 1850s. He helped raise the First Nebraska Regiment when the Civil War broke out and was promoted from Colonel to Major General in the course of the conflict. He led the First Nebraska Regiment with distinction in major engagements such as the Battle of Shiloh. After the war Thayer helped secure Nebraska’s admission to the Union in 1867 and was appointed as the first U. S. Senator from the new state. He served as the appointed Governor of the Wyoming Territory from 1875-79 and was elected Governor of Nebraska in 1886 and 1888. During his second term he built a large, Queen Anne-style house in Lincoln which still stands at South 19th and Prospect Streets and is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.

Governor Thayer’s second two-year term was extended by a controversy surrounding the election of 1890, in which he did not run. Mayor James E. Boyd of Omaha, a native of Ireland, was elected. Governor Thayer contended that Mr. Boyd did not meet the Nebraska constitutional requirement of being a U. S. citizen. Governor Thayer held the office an extra year until the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Boyd had been “naturalized” as a citizen automatically upon Nebraska’s admission to the Union. John Milton Thayer died in March 1906. Governor Boyd died the next month in Omaha and is interred at Omaha’s scenic rural cemetery, Forest Lawn."

Text of the marker:

(Bust of John M. Thayer)
Born in Bellingham, Mass.
January 24, 1820
Came to Nebraska
January 1854,
Prominent in Early Indian Wars.
Colonel
1st Nebraska Volunteer Infantry
Brig. and Major General
1861 - 1865
First United States Senator
From Nebraska 1867.
Territorial Governor of Wyoming 1875.
Governor of Nebraska 1887-1891.
Died in Lincoln, Nebraska
March 19, 1906

Reverse of the marker reads:

(GAR Medal)

Erected by a Grateful State

My Commentary:
The actual granite block is 5 foot tall and it rests upon a wider granite stone. A bronze plaque with a bas relief of the General is centered in the large main granite stone block.

Your impression of the sculpture?: Date Sculpture was opened for vewing?: 03/19/1906 Website for sculpture?: [Web Link] Where is this sculpture?: 3600 O Street Lincoln, NE USA 68510 Sculptors Name: unknown

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