Grasshopper invasion, Omaha conference on

Scope and content: A letter on October 5, 1876, from W. H. Wood, asks Governor Osborn the names of the Governors who he will meet at Omaha, Nebraska, and the time of the meeting. A letter from C. O. Riley, November 4, 1876, requests the Governor to write to Professor F. V. Hayden of Washington. In the letter, Riley also asks that the Governor of Omaha adopt Professor Hayden's plan for destroying grasshoppers. A letter on November 18, 1876, from C. O. Riley, states the pamphlet embodying the proceedings of the conference of the Governors at Omaha, Nebraska, is prepared and will be ready for distribution in about two weeks. In mid-1874, millions of grasshoppers, or Rocky Mountain locusts, appeared on the prairies from the Dakotas to Texas. Kansas Governor Osborn called a special meeting of the legislature, which assembled on September 15, 1874, to think of ways to help Kansans survive the destruction and relieve the hardship left by the grasshoppers.