USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > History of Omaha from the pioneer days to the present time > Part 21
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Every twenty miles of completed road was duly in- spected by properly appointed inspectors, and numerous excursions were made to the end of the track as it was moved from point to point. Fifty miles of the road was completed and in running order on the 13th of March, 1866, and the commissioners of the government, General S. R. Curtis, Colonel J. H. Simpson and W. M. White, came to Omaha on April 15th, and the next day went over the road to North Bend, and accepted the work. In July it was announced that 135 miles were ready for the cars. The grading continued very rapidly, and the Casement Broth- ers, who had the contract for track-laying, frequently laid the track at the rate of five miles a day. There were 200 miles of road built during the year 1866; 240 miles in 1867, and from January 1st, 1868. to May 10, 1869, 555 miles were laid, completing the road and connecting with the Central Pacific, which had been pushed with equal rapidity and had crossed the Sierra Nevada mountains, being a marvelous triumph of engineering skill. There was a lively race between the Union Pacificand the Central Pacific roads to build the greatest number of miles, and a dangerous rivalry sprang up, which was likely to involve both roads in unpleasant and serious difficulties, which, however, were settled on April 9th, 1869, by the railroad committee of the house of representatives agreeing to ask the passage of a joint resolution declaring that no bonds be issued to either corporation for the eighty-mile section between Ogden and Monument point, until congress arranged a plan for the junction of the roads. Meanwhile the representatives of the two corporations met and agreed that the place of junction should be at Promontory point. It was there that the roads were united, on the 10th of May, 1869.
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The celebration at Omaha in honor of the completion of the Union Pacific and its junction with the Central Paci- fic was a grand and enthusiastic affair. It was a general holiday for everybody. Private and public buildings were ornamented with decorations of all kinds-flags, festoons, banners and mottoes. A telegraph line was run to a build- ing on Capitol hill, and direct communication was had with Promontory, where the golden spike, at the junction of the roads was being driven with a silver hammer into the last tie, which was of laurel wood. When the last blow was given at Promontory it was instantly known in Omaha, where one hundred guns were fired in rapid succession when the announcement was made.
A procession was formed in the afternoon on Farnam street and with flags and banners flying, the citizens marched to Capitol square, where the meeting was presided over by Governor Saunders. Eloquent speeches were made by General Clinton B. Fisk, of Missouri, and General Man- derson and Judge Wakely, of Omaha, amid the most un- bounded enthusiasm.
The illumination in the evening was a brilliant spectacle. The city was one blaze of of light, while the dis- play of pyrotechnics was very beautiful. It was the grandest day ever recorded in the history of Omaha. The Atlantic and Pacific were joined by bands of steel, and a revolution was accomplished in the world's commerce.
The Union Pacific bridge was not begun until after the completion of the road, although the initiatory steps had been taken in 1866 by getting an act passed through con- gress. A fight arose as to its location, whether it should be a low bridge at the " Telegraph poles," or a permanent high bridge down the river at "Child's Mills." Council Bluffs objected to the location at the " Telegraph poles," and both Council Bluffs and Omaha opposed "Child's Mills." The location where the bridge now stands was finally agreed upon. through the efforts of a committee composed of Alvin Saunders, Francis Smith, Augustus Kountze, Ezra Millard, Enos Lowe and O. P. Hurford, who went to New York for that purpose. On March 26, 1868, Mr. Saunders, chairman of the committee, telegraphed to Omaha: "The bridge is located at Train table. Omaha pledges the depot grounds and $250,000; Council Bluffs pledges $200,000; ground and right of way will be condemned."
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Omaha voted $250,000 in bonds as aid to the bridge, in consideration that she should have the main transfer depots, general offices, machine shops, etc. Council Bluffs voted $200.000 in bonds, but the company never received them.
The Missouri River bridge company, an organization which claimed to be an independent institution, although composed of Union Pacific stockholders, was organized under authority of a special act of congress to build the bridge. It was authorized to issue bonds to the amount of $2.500,000, and the bonds were sold in England.
The Boomer bridge company, of Chicago, on the 4th of September, 1868. secured the contract of building the bridge for $1,089,500, the time of its completion to be November 10, 1869. They were greatly delayed, however, and did not get the first cylinder ready for sinking until March, 1869. In
July following the Union Pacific took hold of the work, the contract with the Boomer bridge company having been an- nulled. The structure was completed on the 25th of March, 1843. It was 2,700 feet long-11 spans of 250 feet each-and was composed entirely of iron. The structure was supported by piers, each formed of two iron pneumatic tubes, sunk in sections and filled with cement masonry, each tube being eight and a-half feet in diameter. This bridge is said to have cost $1,450,000. Its completion. of course, did away with the transfer of passengers and freight by boats.
A fierce struggle now arose between Council Bluffs and Omaha as to which place should be the initial point of the Union Pacific railroad, the real question being whether the Union Pacific should cross its trains over the bridge to Iowa, or the Iowa roads come over to Nebraska. Both par- ties were obstinate, and as the Iowa roads held out, they being obliged to do so under the Iowa laws which gave them existence, the Union Pacific officials resorted to a little strategy. They organized a " Bridge transfer com- pany," and operated it as a separate institution, thus making a transfer at Omaha, and conveying passengers and freight over the bridge by transfer trains.
Council Bluffs always had maintained that the eastern terminus of the road was in Iowa, according to President Lincoln's order, and they finally brought a mandamus suit against the Union Pacific officials, compelling them to show cause why they should not operate their road as a continu-
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ous line to and from the Iowa side of the Missouri river. Judge Dillon decided the case in favor of Council Bluffs, compelling the Union Pacific to run its through trains to and from the Iowa side, but allowing it to still charge the usual toll on the bridge. This decision was affirmed by the supreme court of the United States, and the Union Pacific began running through trains to and from Spoon lake sta- tion, in compliance with this order, in May, 1876, and has ever since continued to do so.
During the year 1886-87 the old bridge was replaced by a more substantial structure. The new bridge is 1,750 feet in length, and has ten spans. Four of these are 250 feet in length each, and the remaining six, three at each end, are what is called "deck" spans, and each one is 125 feet in length. The width, over all, is 54 feet. The height of the floor above low water is 66 feet. In the center are the two tracks, on either side a wagon road 7 feet in width, and on the extreme outer edges, separated from the road-bed by iron railings, are the walks for foot passengers. The four main or central spans rest upon huge granite piers. These towers of masonry are 140 feet in height, and the first layer of stone rests 74 feet beneath the surface of "low water." The length of each pier is 55 feet at the water's edge and 43 feet under the coping or belting. Its thickness ranges from 12 feet at the bottom to 8 feet at the top. Each pier is faced with granite and filled in with large stone. The six end or "deck" spans rest upon the old iron piers. Al- though this bridge is entirely new, with the exception of the iron piers, there was no stoppage of running trains on regu- lar time during the entire reconstruction. This is the more remarkable from the fact that the iron piers in the channel were torn down and new ones of stone built. This is no un- common feat of engineering skill with small bridges, but was never before attempted with one of such great dimen- sions as the one at Omaha. The cost of the new bridge was about $900,000.
To the late Dr. Thomas C. Durant largely belongs the credit, and probably more so than to any other man, of building the Union Pacific railroad. He had been con- nected with the extension of the Missouri & Mississippi, now the Chicago & Rock Island, from Davenport to Grin- nell, and was an indomitable, energetic man, with a won-
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derful executive power. He was the first vice president and general manager of the Union Pacific company. He it was who organized victory for the Union Pacific in its race to the one hundredth meridian. The charter provided that the road which should first reach that point should have the right of way as the main line to a connection with the Central Pacific. The latter road was not chartered by congress, but by the California legislature to the boundary line of Nevada ; but by its acceptance of the conditions im- posed by congress upon the Pacific roads, it became pos- sessed of all the rights and subsidies of those roads.
When the race for the one hundredth meridian was begun the Kansas Pacific, under the management of Samuel Hallett and T. F. Oaks, got a big start. In the first place, they had direct connection with eastern railroads, so that they could easily and quickly transport their supplies, material and machinery, while the Union Pacific was 150 miles from any railroad connection, and had to bring its supplies from St. Joe by steamer, or by wagon from Grin . nell and Boone, Iowa, the former distant 150 miles from Omaha, and the latter 180 miles.
Durant organized an immense army of railroad con- tractors, and collected vast quantities of supplies and material around Omaha, covering miles of ground. He opened the campaign in accordance with the plans of a great general. At the start he had everything to contend with. The heaviest grades were those leading out of Omaha, and this necessarily caused great delay at the start. By the time the Platte valley was reached the Union Pacific was far behind the Kansas Pacific in the race, but when Durant struck the level country he caused his enter- prise to shoot ahead very rapidly, and the result was that the Union Pacific reached the one hundredth meridian ahead of its competitor. The victory gave Durant the right to construct the entire main line to a connection with the Central Pacific, which was being rapidly built eastward. While Stanford was aiming to make the connection in the vicinity of Salt Lake, Durant reached that locality first, and pushed on beyond it to Promontory, where he met the Central Pacific. The result was that the Central Pacific had to buy the Union Pacific road from Promontory back to Ogden, and Durant dictated his own terms, as he was absolute master of the situation.
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The Credit Mobilier, which furnished the money for the construction of the Union Pacific, was really the idea of George Francis Train. A special charter had been ob- tained under the laws of Pennsylvania, and it was owned by Duff Green. Train bought this charter for $500, and sold it for $100,000 to the Credit Mobilier company, which was organized subsequently by Durant, Bushnell and others.
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MOSS ENU. CON.
GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN.
Great difficulty, however, was experienced in securing money to complete the Union Pacific. and as a consequence there were times during the period of construction when the company was financially embarrassed, and that, toc, in a very critical manner. Financial aid was sought in vain in New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere, but finally in Boston considerable money was obtained, and eventually
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sufficient was secured for the completion and equipment of the road, by the sale of the first mortgage and land grant bonds of the company to Boston capitalists. This was in April. 1868. As soon as the money was forthcoming, the company settled up a large indebtedness which it had con- tracted in Omaha and elsewhere, and pushed the work to completion with a marvelous rapidity.
Mr. Train is thus described by the late George D. Pren- tiss: " A locomotive that has run off the track, turned up- side down with its cowcatcher buried in a stump and the wheels making a thousand revolutions a minute-a kite in the air which has lost its tail-a human novel without a hero-a man who climbs a tree for a bird's nest out on the limb, and in order to get it saws the limb off between him- self and the tree-a ship without a rudder-a clock without hands-a sermon that is all text-a pantomime of words- an arrow shot into the air-the apotheosis of talk-the incar- nation of gab. Handsome, vivacious, versatile, muscular, as neat as a cat, clean to the marrow, a judge of the effect of clothes, frugal in food and regular only in habits. A noonday mystery, a solved conundrum-a practical joke in earnest-a cipher wanting a figure to pass for something ; with the brains of twenty men in his head all pulling in different ways : not bad as to heart, but a man who has shaken hands with reverence."
The Union Pacific system now embraces 4,895 miles, and employs 16,500 men. The monthly pay-roll amounts to about $950,000. The money paid for wages during 1888 amounted to $11.500,000. The headquarters are located in Omaha, and in the general offices employment is given to 386 persons. The general officers located at Omaha are: Executive Department-W. H. Holcomb. first vice-president; Thomas L. Kimball, general manager ; C. S. Mellen, assist- ant general manager and purchasing agent : F. D. Brown, local treasurer. Traffic Department-J. S. Tebbetts, gen- eral passenger agent; E. L. Lomax, assistant general passenger agent ; J. A. Manroe, general freight agent ; H. A. Johnson, W. H. Baldwin, Jr .. assistant general freight agents : P. A. Warrack, division freight agent. A. Traynor, general baggage agent. Operating Department-E. Dick- inson, general superintendent : C. T. Resseguie, superin- tendent of the Nebraska division : Clem. Hackney, superin-
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tendent of machinery ; John Wilson, assistant superin- tendent of machinery ; C. H. Mckibben, general store- keeper ; E. C. Connor, timber and fuel agent : H. B. Hodges, chemist ; E. Buckingham, car accountant : L. H. Korty, superintendent of telegraph. Accounting Depart- ment-Erastus Young, auditor : D. B. Hunt, assistant auditor : J. W. Griffith, auditor of disbursements ; A. S. VanKuran. freight auditor ; W. S. Wing, auditor of pas- senger accounts ; F. W. Hills, auditor of agents' accounts ; S. T. Josselyn, paymaster. Legal Department-John M. Thurston, general attorney : W. R. Kelly. assistant. Land Department-C. J. Smith, general land examiner : B. McAl- laster, commissioner. Construction Department-V. G. Bogue. chief engineer : J. Blickensderfer, consulting engineer.
Thomas L. Kimball. the general manger of the Union Pacific, has been in the service of that road nearly eighteen years. He was born in Buxton, York county, Maine, Octo- ber 1, 1831. At the age of seventeen he left the old home- stead farm, and began a course of academic study, which covered a period of four years. During his vacations he taught school. In 1856. Mr. Kimball's family moved to the Western Reserve. in Ohio. where he resided until 1859, when he located in Cincinnati. Having had some experi- ence as a newspaper writer and reporter, he wrote and had published a series of articles on the west. These articles were in the interest of the Pennsylvania railroad company, in whose service he acted as southwestern passenger agent for three years. next as assistant general passenger agent. and then as general western passenger agent for three years. When Thomas A. Scott, of the Pennsylvania con- pany, was elected president of the Union Pacific. in March, 1871, he appointed Mr. Kimball as general passenger and ticket agent, which position he filled for ten years. He then became assistant general manager. in which capacity he served four years, The Union Pacific system had now grown to vast proportions, and the office of general traffic manager required a man of great executive ability to per- form the duties. Mr. Kimball was accordingly called to that position, which he held for the next three years. On September 1st, 1887, he was appointed assistant to the first vice-president, Thomas J. Potter, and upon the death of
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Mr. Potter. he was made acting general manager. On Nov- ember 1. 1888, Mr. Kimball was made general manager of the Union Pacific. He is a very thorough and systematic railroad man-a master of every detail, and in the science of railroading, especially from a commercial standpoint, he has but few equals. His long connection with the
THOMAS L. KIMBALL.
Union Pacific, through several administrations, attests the high value placed upon his services.
In the spring of 1888, Hon. John M. Thurston was ap- pointed the general attorney of the Union Pacific, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Poppleton, whose assistant he had been for a number of years. Mr. Thurston, who was born in Montpelier, Vermont. August 21. 1847, be- gan the practice of law in Omaha in 1870, and his career
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has been marked by a steady advance to the front rank of his profession. He has always taken a very prominent part in the politics of Omaha and Nebraska, and has filled various responsible and honorable positions to which he has
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77
OSS-ENG.
HON. JOHN M. THURSTON.
been elected by the people. He was chairman of the Ne- braska delegation to the republican national convention in 1884, and in 1888 as temporary chairman of the national republican convention he achieved a national reputation as
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an orator. Mr. Thurston is regarded as one of the leading lawyers of the west, and has been engaged in many of the most important cases ever tried in Nebraska.
The Union Pacific headquarters building was originally the Herndon house, and was built in 1857 by George Bridge, Dr. George L. Miller and Lyman Richardson. The city authorities had made a proposition in the summer of 1857 to give a site for a hotel of the size and character of the Herndon to any person who would bid to erect such a build- ing for the smallest lot of land. Bridge, Miller and Rich- areson secured the bid and the city gave them a block and a half of lots in the vicinity of where the Herndon now stands. They sold all the lots except two, on which they began the hotel with the money thus obtained. They then borrowed $16,000 from the city in scrip, which was also used in the construction of the building, which, when completed, was named "The Herndon house," after Lieutenant Hern- don, who was lost on the steamer "Central America," which was on her way from Panama to New York, about that time. The house was opened and run in mag- nificent style by M. W. Keith, and was the finest and largest hotel west of Chicago. It was considered a mammoth un- dertaking in those days, especially for a place the size of Omaha. After passing from landlord to landlord it finally went into the hands of the sheriff on account of the failure of the orignal builders and owners to meet their obligations incurred in its erection. Mr. J. T. Allan then took hold of it while it was in the hands of the law, and ran it for a time as a sort of bon ton boarding house and then as a hotel. Mr. Allan was succeeded in the fall of 1866 by Mrs. Bronson, she having leased the house from Dr. Monell, who had become the owner of it. About the year 1870 the Union Pacific railroad company rented it for headquarters, and moved into it from the old state house which was then just opposite on Ninth street. They have occupied the Herndon house ever since, and in 1875 they purchased it for $42,000 from Dr. Monell. The building has been greatly enlarged and reconstructed throughout, and in every way made a modern structure.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
OLD SETTLERS.
THE OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION-A NOTABLE REUNION-OLD SETTLERS' BALL AT THE HERNDON-A PARTIAL LIST OF OLD SETTLERS- DEATH OF WILLIAM D. BROWN, THE PIONEER OF OMAHA AND ORIGINAL CLAIMANT OF THE TOWN SITE- DR. LOWE, JESSE LOWE, AND OTHER PROMINENT PIONEERS -SOME BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
In January, 1866, the old settlers of Omaha formed the "The Old Settlers' Association," it being composed entirely of those men who located at Omaha previous to the year 1858. One of its objects was social intercourse, and another was to correct and preserve important statistics and inter- esting facts of the past history of Omaha for future reference for the historian. The officers of the association were: Dr. Lowe, president; Dr. G. L. Miller, vice-president ; A. D. Jones, secretary and treasurer. Mr. Jones as secre- tary faithfully performed his duties as long as the associa- tion existed, and thus obtained many historical facts.
Soon after the organization of the society Dr. Miller had a reunion of the old settlers at his residence. It was a notable gathering. There were present . Wm. D. Brown, the first ferryman and the man who first claimed the town site; A. D. Jones, the first postmaster and surveyor ; Wm. P. Snowden, the first actual settler and the first auctioneer; A. J. Poppleton, the first lawyer; John Logan, the first man married in Omaha; Dr. Lowe, one of the original founders of the town; Dr. Miller, the first physician: John Withnell, who assisted in laying the first brick in Omaha, in the old state house; O. B. Selden, who fired the first forge; Colonel A. R. Gilmore, the first United States land officer in Nebraska; James Megeath, one of the first merchants in Omaha; H. D. Johnson, who was one of the first men to run for congress; Captain McPherson, who ran the first steam ferry; Captain Downs, who assisted A. D. Jones to survey the town; General Estabrook, the first United States dis- trict attorney for Nebraska; Joseph W. Paddock, the first clerk of the first house of representatives; Lorin Miller,
1
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father of Dr. Miller; R. N. Withnell and many others the names of whom we have been unable to ascertain.
On the evening of Tuesday, January 1, 1867, a grand "old settlers reunion" was held at the Herndon house. The honorary managers were: Dr. Enos Lowe, Hon. A. S. Pad- dock. Hon. A. J. Poppleton, Colonel Lewis Merrill, J. H. Lacey. Francis Smith, Hadley D. Johnson, Hon. John I. Redick, Major-General Philip St. George Cook, Brigadier- General Myers, James M. Woolworth, James Megeath, Thomas Davis, Dr. G. C. Monell, Major J. W. Paddock and Augustus Kountze. The floor managers were: J. F. Coff- man, George Wallace, Reuben Wood, A. S. Patrick and George N. Lloyd.
The "Old Settlers' Association," had but a brief exist- ence. It died in 1868. The following is a partial list of old settlers. taken from an old publication, the dates represent- ing the time that they first stepped on Nebraska soil- those marked thus [*] being dead:
Wm. D. Brown*, June 3, 1850; Enos Lowe*, June 25, 1853; Jesse Lowe*, July 3, 1853; H. D. Johnson, October, 1853; A. D. Jones, November, 1853; C. H. Downs, April 23, 1854: A. R. Gilmore*, May 24, 1864; Wm. P. Snowden, July 11, 1854: O. B. Selden *. September 23, 1854; J. W. Paddock, September 24, 1854; Wm. Gray*, September, 1854; John Withnell, October, 1854; S. E. Rogers, October, 1854; A. J. Poppleton, October, 13, 1854; Lorin Miller*, October 19, 1854; Geo. L. Miller, October 19, 1854; James G. Megeath, Novem- ber, 1854; E. Estabrook, June 23, 1855; John Davis, March 16, 1855; John Evans, March, 1855; H. H. Visscher, April 3, 1855; David Richards, April, 1855; R. N. Withnell, May 2, 1855; Edwin Patrick, May 7, 1855; E. H. Warner, May 10, 1855; John Logan, July 9, 1855; O. P. Ingalls. September 7, 1855: John P. McPherson, October 25, 1855; Rev. R. Gay- lord*, December 25, 1855; M. Shinn*, April, 1855: S. M. Marston, November 18, 1855; H. A. Koster, 1855; W. W. Wyman *. June 5, 1855; Allen Root, May 16, 1855: A. B. Moore, April 22, 1854; D. C. Sutphen, September 4, 1857; H. B. Paris, November 15, 1857; M. B. Riley, August 11, 1857; Daniel Gantt*, May 12, 1857; J. W. Pickard, December 19, 1855; S. A. Orchard, November 15, 1855; J. H. Sahler, Aug- ust 29. 1856; R. S. Knox, January 3, 1856.
This list is very incomplete and it is a matter of regret
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that it cannot be filled out as it should be. The number of first actual settlers is very small, but if we draw a distinc- tion between first settlers and old settlers, quite a number of persons can be named who may be regarded as among the latter. Any person who came to Omaha previous to 1860, ought to be and is regarded as an old settler,
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