USA > Nebraska > Lancaster County > Lincoln > History of the city of Lincoln, Nebraska : with brief historical sketches of the state and of Lancaster County > Part 15
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REAL ESTATE AGENCY
BABAIN& BRO
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SOUTHEAST CORNER O AND TENTH.
their meat market where it has been ever since, next to Cropsey's office, to the west, and where they have since done an enormous busi- ness. Squire Blazier also opened a meat market about where the postoffice now stands, postoffice block then being known as "Market Square." The square was used in those days for a camping ground for immigrants and land seekers, and was generally thronged with machinery, covered wagons, horses, cattle, and men. Here the early land agents found many of their customers. On south Tenth street, about where the Lancaster County Bank now stands, David May opened a small stock of clothing during the year. A little south of the alley R. R. Tingley opened a little drug shop; and a short dis- tance south of this C. F. Damrow set up the first tailoring establish-
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GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE.
ment in the capital. On the north side of this block, about the center, facing "Market Square," was Moll's grocery. S. B. Pound had removed his stock of groceries to what is now 915 O street, where he united with Max Rich, of Rich & Oppenheimer, of Ne- braska City, in the grocery business during a few months of 1867 and 1868. The next year he sold his interest to Rich & Oppen- heimer, who carried a general stock there for a number of years.
Judge Pound, as a merchant, was noted for his close application to his law studies. He really made his grocery business a sort of sub- sidiary arrangement to fill up the time while he prepared for the bar.
SOUTHWEST CORNER O AND NINTH.
He is a good example of success won by tireless application and in- dustry.
On the northwest corner of this block a colored man named Moore had a barber shop, and near the southwest corner was the residence of L. A. Scoggin.
In the block bounded by O and N and Eighth and Ninth, there was one building, Dunbar's livery stable, located on the northeast corner of the block. It was a long low shed.
In the block bounded by O and P and Eighth and Ninth, there were two or three buildings. On the southeast corner, where the Humphrey Bros.' stately block now is, Dr. H. D. Gilbert, of Nebraska 11
154
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
City, had established a mercantile house, carrying the peculiar combi- nation of books, drugs, and hardware. His little house stood beside the store to the north. Humphrey Brothers succeeded Dr. Gilbert soon afterward. Milton Langdon, the first County Treasurer of Lancaster county under the new order of things, lived a little back from the southwest corner of Eighth and Q. His milk house, which was a little to the southward, became the first city and county jail. When a citizen became too " wild and woolly," they "put him in the milk house." It is a question in dispute whether J. D. Minshall had a small store of dry goods and groceries on P, between Eighth
DRUGS MEDICINES. PAINTS OILS. -BOOK S. STATIONERY, HARDWARE &c.
NORTHWEST CORNER O AND NINTHI.
and Ninth, or not, in 1868. Simon Benadom says he is certain that he did. Charles F. Damrow thinks that he did, also. Others think he never was anywhere but on O street, between Tenth and Eleventh, south side. But he was doubtless there.
In the block bounded by P and Q and Eighth and Ninth, there were two or three houses. H. S. Jennings had put up a stone resi- dence near the northeast corner. It is thought by several pioneers that there were two or three small houses on the south side, facing P, one of which was the Widow Gardner's dance house, which was a famous, or infamous, attraction during the legislative session of 1869. But these are not all fully authenticated. Near the northwest corner
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GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE.
of Ninth and Q a story-and-a-half cottonwood frame stood. It was thirty-three feet square, and was partly used for public and partly for private purposes.
In the block bounded by P and Q and Ninth and Tenth, there were six or more structures of various sorts and sizes. At the northwest corner was the Pioneer House, the original hotel in Lincoln, kept by L. A. Scoggin. John Cadman had overcome his disappointment at not getting the capital, and having bought the lots at the southwest corner of the block, on which the walls of the old stone seminary stood, he built up that structure late in 1867, and opened it as the "Cadman House." He only owned it a few months, until he sold it, in 1868, to Nathan Atwood, who built a brick front to it of much larger proportions, and opened the "Atwood House," which was the principal hotel of the town for several years, but was burned down in 1879. On the northeast corner was the Methodist church, a low white building, erected late in 1867 or early in 1868. It was the largest audience room in town for several years, and was used for church services, political and business meetings, lectures, and similar public purposes. Its dimensions were about 25 x 40 feet.
Seth B. Galey having been appointed County Clerk in April, 1867, and been elected to that office in the fall of 1867, erected a small stone office on P street, where John Sheedy's block now is, in which he transacted the county's business belonging to his department. Next to him on the west was a little building in which S. B. Pound and Seth Robinson opened a law office. At 922 P street was the Mon- teith shoe shop, heretofore mentioned.
On the block bounded by Q and R and Eleventh and Twelfth, a short distance north of the southwest corner, was the "stone school- house." This was the first school-house in Lincoln. The stone school-house was the educational center during several subsequent years.
In the block included between O and P and Tenth and Eleventh streets the first saloon was started, by Ans. and George Williams. This was the first building completed on the east side of the Govern- ment Square. It stood north of the center of the block, and the up- per floor was used for offices. The front room was Thomas H. Hyde's land office, where he transacted the leading land business of the town during 1868 and later. Mr. Hyde was an auctioneer at the State lot
156
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
sales in 1868. His office was head-quarters for State officers and pol- iticians, Governor Butler often resorting there to transact business. In after years the lower room became a notorious saloon, where more prominent men of the town drank whisky to their detriment than at any other place in the city. It is said that from fifteen to twenty leading men of Lincoln have snuffed ont their prospects at that bar. This old cottonwood frame still stands, at 1320 O street, and is used as a second-hand store.
A good story is told on Colonel J. E. Philpott, who arrived in the capital about this time. When he looked around for a law office, he found empty the upper front room of the building in which the Wil- liams boys had their bar. He took possession, and awaited the process of events. After a few days a tall, dignified-looking man came into his office, and said he was looking for a room in which to transact a land business. Colonel Philpott thereupon proceeded to lease the stranger a part of his office, and everything went on swimmingly, until it was developed, later on, that the stranger was the owner of the building, or Mr. Thomas H. Hyde, and Colonel Philpott had leased Mr. Hyde quarters in his own building. Mr. Hyde had been away on a land- exploring tour, and finding Colonel Philpott in his house on return- ing, played " tenderfoot" to have a little fun.
Dr. D. A. Sherwood had a real estate office near the southeast corner of this block, and a small stock of groceries in the same building.
Behind these shops, to the north and west, was located the first lum- ber yard in Lincoln. The proprietors of the yard were Monell & Larkley. Soon afterward Valentine Brothers opened a lumber yard on the ground fronting on Eleventh, from M to N streets, where Temple Block and the Billingsley Block now are. This firm supplied most of the lumber used in building the old State capitol. During 1868 and 1869 both yards employed teams to bring the lumber from the Missouri river, at a point about six miles above Nebraska City. Farmers and freighters going to the river with loads would return loaded with lumber, and the lumber trains were often long caravans.
1. J. Cropsey built a residence where the south end of the Capital hotel now is. Early in the fall of 1867 W. W. Carder had estab- lished the first newspaper of the town, near the middle of the cast side of the block bounded by N and O and Tenth and Eleventh streets. This was the Commonwealth, which in the summer of 1868 became the
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GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE.
State Journal. A little west of Carder's office was the beer saloon of Joe Hodges, who is said to have dished out the first lager sold in Lin- coln. Whisky had been sold for two years or more before this. Over on the southwest corner of this block William Shirley had erected a boarding house, and next to this building, on the north, was Cox's grocery and boarding house. About where Harley's drug store now is, at the southeast corner of Eleventh and O, stood William Rowe's harness shop, who was the pioneer horse furnisher of the town. About three lots east on O street was J. P. Lantz's land office. Mr. Lantz also conducted a real-estate monthly for about seven years, called the Nebraska Intelligencer. Of that he used to print an edition of 10,000 copies at times, and it was the means of inducing many to come to Nebraska. Mr. Lantz is still in the real estate business, on nearly the same spot he occupied in 1868. A couple of lots to the eastward was William Guy's residence. On the southeast corner of Twelfth and O streets was Charles May's bakery, where D. B. Alexander's block is now located. May baked 150 loaves per day in 1868. He also had a homestead. William Allen had a residence nearly opposite, north, near where the Burr Block stands. Leighton & Brown had a small drug store on the southeast corner of O and Eleventh, on the present site of the Richards Block. Seth H. Robinson lived on the northwest corner of Twelfth and P streets, where Mr. R. E. Moore now resides. It is said that Thomas Roberts had the first harness shop in town, near the southwest corner of Eleventh and O; but this is in dispute.
Such was Lincoln in 1868. There may have been a few small shops and residences in addition to those named, but those described substantially constituted the capital of Nebraska twenty-one years ago.
The ordinary trades were fully represented at this time. The pro- fessions were also. S. B. Galey, Seth Robinson, S. B. Pound, Ezra Tullis, Major Strunk, and J. E. Philpott, were the lawyers of this period. The first man admitted to the bar in this county was John S. Gregory, who became a disciple of Blackstone under the authority of Judge Dundy in 1866.' He and Milton Langdon had practiced in the little legal affairs of Lancaster settlement back in 1864 and 1865, but they did this because they were somewhat more "posted" than the other pioneers of the neighborhood. Robinson was a man of brill- iant mind, but not perfectly balanced. He became Attorney General of Nebraska in 1869. He died in California of quinsy a few years
158
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
ago. S. B. Pound has since held the office of Probate JJudge, [1871,] District Judge in 1875, and State Senator. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1875, which framed our present State constitution. He formed a law partnership with L. C. Burr in 1887, having resigned the judgship at that time, owing to the low salary at- tached to it. Major Strunk was a resonant political orator of the early days, and slipped from the community in an unceremonions halo of social indiscretion. Col. Philpott is in the addition to the Sweet Block, having officed in the original block when some of the county and State officers were doing business there. It was here, in 1869, that the colonel became the unwilling victim of one of his own prac- tical jokes. He was in partnership with Sam Tuttle, with an office at the east end of the block, on the upper floor. H. G. Brown, a good fellow, with a disposition to take things too seriously, was on the same floor, and was Deputy Clerk of both the District and Supreme courts. Philpott and Tuttle persuaded Brown to go down to the back yard at night to appropriate a little fire-wood for them from a pile belonging to the county. Brown obligingly went down for the wood, and Philpott slipped out and hid behind some sunflowers that grew further east in the yard. When Brown had filled his arms with wood, Philpott rose up suddenly and began to fire off his revolver, as if he had caught Brown stealing wood, expecting that the latter would drop the wood he had and run precipitately to cover. Then they would enjoy the joke on Brown at their leisure. This was the theory of the joke. But plans of jokers, like those of mice, do not always go the satisfactory way. No sooner had Philpott's gun flashed than Brown dropped his wood and wheeled toward Philpott's hiding place with the savage remark :
"Ah ha! you'll find that's a game that two can play at !"
And to Col. Philpott's dismay he began to reach for his hip pocket to get out his revolver. Col. Philpott saw that something must be done to case the situation, and that in a hurry. So he sprang out into Brown's view and threw up his hands, gesticulating wildly while he protested with an intense earnestness he had not experienced for years : " Don't shoot, Brown, don't shoot ! It's me, Philpott -just a joke -that's all !"
Brown was not cooled down at once, and growled that "he'd a no- tion to shoot Philpott anyway, just on account of his blamed foolish-
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GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE.
ness." Then Brown went off indignantly, and refused to be friendly for some time. All this time Tuttle was looking out of the window having all the fun there was in the performance.
In 1868 a drove of 1,000 Texas cattle passed through Lincoln northward bound. In going over the Salt creek bridge, at the foot of O street, the cattle broke the structure down, precipitating a lot of the long-horned bovines of Texas into the stream. The owner of the herd camped just across the creek, and the town trustees, Messrs. H. S. Jennings, S. B. Linderman, Dr. H. D. Gilbert, J. J. Van Dyke, and D. W. Tingley, donned their official dignity and proceeded toward the camp to require the proprietor of the herd to pay for the bridge. Major Bohanan and others of the population who were posted on the science of the Texas steer, followed at a prudent distance to see the fun. The trustees marched up to the steers in solemn state and art- less innocence. The animals raised up their heads in audacious amaze- ment, and began to move toward the officials of the city, who found it convenient to commence retracing their steps. This official retreat was at first conducted in good order, but the accelerated movement of the steers, and finally a charge from the animals, turned the retire- ment of the town officers into a precipitate rout, and they came pell mell back to cover with the steers in full pursuit. Having escaped, they then summoned the posse comitatus, and the owner of the steers was required to pay for the bridge; and their terms were not improved by the bad manners of his wild western cattle.
The doctors were here with the earliest comers. Dr. J. M. Mc- Kesson has already been mentioned as one of Elder Young's party, of 1863. Besides him there were in 1868 and 1869 Doetors H. D. Gilbert, George W. French, and J. W. Strickland. When the Lan- caster County Medical Society was organized, on the 24th of May, 1869, the following-named resident physicians of the capital were present : D. W. Tingley, F. G. Fuller, J. M. Evans, H. D. Gilbert, L. H. Robbins, and George W. French. In the fall of the same- year the following additional names were added to the roster: J. W. Strickland, John W. Northup, George A. Goodrich, and C. C. Rad- more.
Polities in a new country never exhibits a character of tameness. Some one, probably Seth P. Galey, had organized the Republican party about 1866. Galey was a natural leader. He stood six feet.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
in his stockings, and was as successful as he was large physically. He was county judge in 1867 and 1868. In 1870 he went to the Legislature, and in 1879 was chosen Mayor of Lincoln. He carried a hod to finish the stone seminary in 1866, and was attorney for the Atchison & Nebraska railroad in 1871 or 1872. He is now living in Portland, Oregon. There were many Union soldiers here in 1868, only three or four years out of the war, and they were intensely en- thusiastic for their old leader, General Grant, in the Grant and Col- fax campaign of 1868. So it was easy to stir up a hot discussion, especially with such candidates as Grant and Seymour, the latter's war record being decidedly unsatisfactory to the soldiers.
Some time during September, 1868, Simon P. Benadom, who had been appointed a postmaster in Jones county, Iowa, in 1856, by Bu- chanan, and was a warm Democrat, called a county convention of the Democratic party of the county. This was rather regarded as a joke by the Republicans. When the day came there were just three Dem- ocrats, besides Benadom, present in the old stone school house, two of whom were Irish stone cutters from the State Capitol building. Benadom was chairman and secretary of the convention, and an or- ganization was effected. Benadom was selected for chairman of the county committee, and also of the senatorial committee, places he held for years afterward. It was decided to erect a Seymour and Blair "liberty pole" on Market Square, preparatory to holding a rousing Democratie rally there in October. A committee was selected to procure the pole, but on the appointed day not a man appeared but Benadom. He remembered the old story of the lark and the farmer, and immediately drove his Jamber wagon to his woods, near Saltillo. There he found Matt Brackin, now commissary to the city jail, whom he invited to aid in getting the pole. Brackin was then and is yet a Democrat, and readily consented. They loaded three stalwart hickory saplings, and drove to Lincoln. Benadom welded iron rings, and the three poles were spliced together, and made a flag staff probably fifty-five feet high. It took all the Democrats in the town to raise it to a perpendicular position. But they planted it, a little to the southeast of the place where the Government Square ar- tesian well now is. Benadom remembers this zealous work yet as a hot and difficult performance that almost sweat polities out of him for the time.
161
GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE.
About three weeks afterward the Democratic rally took place around that pole. A platform had been erected at its base, and upon it Judge Savage, of Omaha, stood while he made a short and fiery speech to the assembled Democrats. Then A. J. Poppleton addressed the crowd for two hours, and it seemed to the followers of Seymour present that they had never heard a more eloquent speech. It estab- lished Poppleton's reputation as an orator of power, from that day to this, among Lancaster Democrats, and also among many Repub- lieans. General Victor Vifquain, now Consul of the United States at Aspinwall, Panama, was present also.
This demonstration of the Democracy around the hickory pole, supposed to be symbolic of "Old Hickory," fired up the Republicans. They had to have a pole also, and to excel the Democrats. They sent to the river vards, (it was at that time told to the Democrats even to Chicago,) for several very fine pine timbers. The base tim- ber was perhaps a foot square, and was left square. The next sec- tion was smaller, and was made with eight sides. The next was of less dimensions, and with more faces. The pole finally tapered off in a graceful round staff not larger than a man's wrist. When com- pleted by Mr. Sam McClay, the leading Democrats admitted it to be the most graceful and lofty flag staff they had ever seen. It was so heavy and tall that the Democrats had to assist in planting it. It was so top heavy and flexible in the wind, that it had to be stayed by ropes. It penetrated the atmosphere to a height of one hundred feet. It cost the Republicans, it was reported at the time to the Dem- ocrats, three hundred dollars. This was perhaps a little higher than the facts. It was set up some distance north of the Democratic pole. The Republicans were very proud of the surpassing excellence of their pole, and probably took some pains to exult at the expense of the Democratic staff.
At any rate, toward the close of the campaign it was found one morning to have been broken in three pieces, and two fragments, with the flag, were on the ground. This fired the blood of the Re- publicans, particularly of the old soldiers. They thought their staff had been broken through political envy, or even malice. They sus- pected a stage driver named Pool with having committed this flagrant act, and a warrant was immediately procured of County Judge John Cadman for Pool's arrest. Sheriff J. H. Hawke brought Pool back
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
to the city at the close of the day, and he was immediately arraigned before Judge Cadman in a little frame building, used for a saloon by Joe Hodges, on () street, between Tenth and Eleventh, where MeCon- nell's brick block now stands. The room was packed with men, and the ground in front was occupied by an angry crowd of old soldiers and others, who freely declared they would hang Pool if found guilty ; and very few who saw the menacing demonstrations doubted that they would carry out their threat.
S. B. Pound and C. H. Gere conducted the prosecution, and J. E. Philpott, H. S. Jennings, and Col. Van Armin, the defense. The trial had hardly opened before the floor broke down, and dropped the court, attorneys, prisoners, and reporters, to the ground, about a foot below. But a small affair like this cut no figure when a man was on trial for his life on a vague suspicion of having cut down a Grant and Colfax flag staff, and the trial went on. It soon devel- oped that there was no evidence against Pool, and he was discharged, and was hustled off into the dark, by the back way. While the Grand Army men did not wish to hang a man who really had not committed the offense, vet Pool found it convenient to keep out of sight for a good while after this. The pieces of the broken staff had been arranged for a gallows in front of the court room, the rope was adjusted, and the whole aspect of affairs looked so like some one was going to be executed, that no one could blame him for feeling as though it was not conducive to long life to remain in the capital of Nebraska.
At the election following this fiery proceeding there were 460 votes cast in the county, of which the Republicans polled 320, and the Dem- ocrats 123.
This was not the only time that a man escaped by a hair's breadth from being taken from a Lincoln court and hung. In 1869 a man named Bill McClain was suspected of horse stealing. He was ar- raigned before Judge Cadman, and an angry crowd, led by Martin Pflug, the merchant, were actually uncoiling their rope; but the em- phatic protestations of Simon Benadom and the size of Judge Cad- man induced the mob to cool down and disperse. Judge Cadman was a very powerful man, and he told Benadom that he would have pitched out the leaders of the mob faster than they could come into the room where he was, had they attempted the assault.
After much labor and inquiry, a diagram of the town, as it appeared
to
8- STREET
R
9TH STREET
10TH STREET
A.LPALMER'S RESIDENCE
47
12- STREET
13-STREETU
14THSTREET
Q STREET
2
45
46
3
IO.
11. Jacob Dawson's old log house, built in 1864.
12. Jacob Dawson's new house, built in 1867.
13. Moore's barber shop - first in Lincoln.
14. L. A. Scoggin's residence.
15. Rich & Oppenheimer's store.
16. Moll's Grocery.
17. Bohanan Bros .- meat market.
18. D. B. & A. J. Cropsey - land office.
29. Commonwealth office -- by Carder.
30. Squire Blazier's meat market.
31. Sweet & Brock's bank.
32. A. C. Rudolph-groceries.
33. Pflug Bros.' store.
34. Walsh & Putnam-land office.
35. Williams Bros.' saloon.
36. D. A. Sherwood-grocery store.
37. 1). A. Sherwood-real estate.
48. Seth Koninson's houst.
49. Leighton & Brown's drug store.
50. Wm. Rowel's harness shop.
51. J. P'. Lantz-land office.
52. William Guy's residence-first house in town. .
53. Valentine Bros.' lumber yard.
54. C. May-bakery.
55. Luke Lavender's house-built in 1864.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF LINCOLN.
to the city at the close of the day, and he was immediately arraigned before Judge Cadman in a little frame building, used for a saloon by Joe Hodges, on O street, between Tenth and Eleventh, where McCon- nell's brick block now stands. The room was packed with men, and the ground in front was occupied by an angry crowd of old soldiers and others, who freely declared they would hang Pool if found guilty ; and very few who saw the menacing demonstrations doubted that they would carry out their threat.
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