Salt Creek Basin Edward Manley, a Chicago educator, was the son
of Samuel Manley, one of the five men that composed the faculty
of the University of Nebraska when classes first began in the
fall of 1871. The father's health failed, and he soon resigned.
The Manley family lived in Lincoln only a few years when the
boy, Edward, was less than twelve years of age. He subsequently
reminisced about these early years in a paper read January 25,
1932, before the Chicago Literary Club. Manley recalled, "The
town was new. Enthusiastic citizens claimed for it a population
of 2,500. The prairie, undefiled by fences, came right up to the
town. . . . Between the town and Salt Creek was an alkaline
lowland, with steep banks, that was the Salt Basin. Into it
nearby sulphur springs discharged their overflow. These springs,
probably shaped centuries before by Indians, were lined with
beautiful green fleece-like moss, that floated lazily in the
depths. The water was palatable to many, who brought their jugs
and filled them at t