More than three-quarters of a century ago - 76 years this coming November [article was originally published in 1991] - the first concrete paved stretch of rural road come to Hall County. Built in 1915, it was called the "Seedling Mile," which began just east of the City of Grand Island [Nebraska].

"Great oaks from little acorns will grow; long roads of concrete from 'seedling miles' will spring," preached the Lincoln Highway Association to the public back in those bygone days.

And Nebraska's Hall and Buffalo Counties were among the first in the nation to plant their little "acorns" of concrete. A few days after Hall County's Seedling Mile was finished, Buffalo County completed its Seeding Mile west of Kearney [Nebraska]. Those were the first in Nebraska.

However, it would take another 20 years before Carl Graham Fisher's dream of what he initially called a "coast-to-coast rock highway" would be realized.

Graham would become known as the creator of the Lincoln Highway, today identified as U.S. Highway 30. In September 1912 he had proposed the building of a transcontinental highway of concrete before a group of the nation's leading automobile manufacturers and suppliers meeting at Indianapolis, Indiana. He wanted to form an association that would raise $10 million, not only from the auto companies and suppliers but also from private individuals.

An ex-racing driver, Graham was founder of the "Prest-O-Lite" Company which manufactured the carbide gas headlights used on most early automobiles. He realized that the success of the automobile depended not only on continuing advances in technology but also on good roads. It's difficult today to believe that there was not a mile of paved rural roads in the nation until 1908 when a stretch was completed out of Detroit, Michigan.

Graham found immediate support for his daring undertaking, a 3,389-mile road running from New York City's Times Square to the Pacific Ocean at San Francisco, open to all lawful traffic without toll charges. Pledges the day of his proposal totaled $300,000. Frank A. Seiberling, president of the Goodyear Tire Company, doubled that amount. The nation's concrete industry promised to donate 1,500,000 barrels of the paving material.

The Lincoln Highway Association, the name honoring the memory of President Abraham Lincoln, was formed in July 1913, with Henry B. Joy, chief executive of the Packard Motor Car Company, chosen association president. By August, a route was announced. In reality, it was a route composed of an association of twisting and turning existing dirt roads, which turned to muck when moisture fell.

In Nebraska, the Lincoln Highway skirted north Omaha, a shock to the state's metropolis, but Fremont, Columbus, Grand Island, Kearney, and North Platte were on the line. The chief tub-thumper for the highway in Hall County was Grand Island attorney Fred W. Ashton, who was named the county's "consul" for the highway association.

Ashton, president of Grand Island's Commercial Club (forerunner of today's Chamber of Commerce) spoke at the dedication of the soldiers and sailors monument at the Hall County Courthouse in October 1913, and took the opportunity to plug the new highway.

"The spirit of patriotism which has made it possible to erect this beautiful monument in the courthouse yard, commemorating the splendid achievements of the soldiers and sailors who took part in that terrible strife [the Civil War], is the same spirit that prompted a young man in Indianapolis to plan a great permanent highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific as a memorial to Abraham Lincoln," Ashton spoke.

Seedling Miles were promoted by the Lincoln Highway Association throughout the nation, the first completed in DeKalb County, Illinois (west of Chicago), in October 1914. Membership certificates could be purchased in the highway association for $5 and $100. [According to the October 6, 1913 Grand Island Independent, Willaim Viet secured the first certificate in Grand Island for the Lincoln Highway Association. David Kaufman purchased the second.]

In December 1914, Ashton submitted an application to the Lincoln Highway Association for Hall County's Seedling Mile, reporting that he had on deposit in Grand Island banks $1,170, the proceeds from the sale of memberships.

By the following May, the association gave Ashton the green light, but to insure its appropriation, he had to guarantee that cost would not exceed the estimate.

The association selected Second Street as the highway's route through Grand Island. Second Street was appealing since by the end of 1914 it had 19 blocks of brick surface, Plum Street west to Madison Street, and at Plum there was an underpass under the tracks of the Burlington Railroad, making one less railroad crossing on the highway.

The association also suggested that Second Street be renamed "Lincoln Way," but that apparently had no appeal for members of the Grand Island city council.

About half of the cost of paving the mile stretch, 16 feet wide, was to be met by the association. The cement was contributed by manufacturers, as were the culverts needed. On August 14, the Hall County board of supervisors accepted the bid for $4,375 by Ray Kingsbury of Grand Island for the labor.

According to oldtimers, a small section of the Seedling Mile's original pavement still exists. [As of 2002, the Nebraska Department of Roads recognized this stretch of pavement being historically significant and made efforts for its preservation.] Sprouting weeds through large cracks, it's near the intersection of today's U.S. 30, Stuhr Road, and Seedling Mile Road. It runs behind the small Kensinger service station, north side of U.S. 30. This was the start of the concrete paving, which ran east down today's Seedling Mile Road to Seedling Mile School. The school, originally Hall County District 74, derived its present name from this paved stretch of the Lincoln Highway.

By 1930, the original Lincoln Highway and its Seedling Mile east of Grand Island was bypassed by a new stretch of U.S. 30, slightly north of today's Seedling Mile Road. By then, there were nearly 60,000 miles of taxpayer-built pavement to travel on in the nation. In 1935, the Lincoln Highway, or U.S. 30, was completely paved from coast-to-cost, the last 28 miles finished in November west of North Platte.

It was in November 1915, that Hall County's Seedling Mile was complete. A ground breaking ceremony, Ashton and Albert M. Conners, secretary of Grand Island's Commercial Club, presiding was held on August 30. According to the Grand Island Daily Independent, the Seedling Mile was opened to the public on November 16.

It didn't take long for the Seedling Mile to record its first traffic accident. Four days later, November 20, two Chapman women, en route to Grand Island in a horse-drawn buggy were following another horse-drawn rig. An automobile, "without a warning honk," passed the vehicles. The horse on the Chapman buggy was frightened and plunged into the rear of the leading rig. Both women were thrown to the pavement, suffering cuts and bruises.

"The automobile, as is becoming usual in such cases, went blithely on its way," the Independent commented.

First Arrivals at Opening
of Seedling Mile
Grand Island, Nebraska
August 30, 1915
photographer: Julius Leschinsky