USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska > Part 108
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114
But the Magic City has now (1893) three daily papers, as before mentioned, all in flourishing condition.
" OFFICE OF SOUTH OMAHA LAND SYNDICATE (LAND DEPARTMENT), OMAHA, NEB., May 18, 1885. "J. B. Erion. Esq., Lewis, lowa.
" DEAR SIR: Replying to yours of 14th inst., we think the prospects for South Omaha and the stock yards very flattering However, as regards the publishing a paper there, don't think any more than expenses could be made the first year; but have no doubt but that in connection with job work it would eventually work into a splen- did business. There is every reason for us to be justified in thinking that a very large live stock market will be built up here. and that the killing and shipping of dressed beef, in refrigerator cars, will be carried on very extensively; likewise pork packing. canning of meats and vegetables. etc.
I enclose you map and descriptive circular of South Omaha. The slaughtering of beef com- mences tomorrow.
" Yours truly, M. A. UPTON, Asst. Sec'y."
NOTE II .- In September. 1890. a special teacher of drawing was employed to supervise the teach- ing of drawing in the schools. In September, 1891, music was added to the course of study. and a specialist elected to take charge of it. Music and drawing are now taught through the whole course, from the primary up. Pupils who finish the eighth grade, thus completing the common school course of study, are offered three years' instruction in each of three courses: the Latin, the German and the English; fitting them to enter the freshman class of the Nebraska State University. The first class of five was gradu- ated from the high school, in June, 1892. Mr. W. J. Taylor, a graduate of the Nebraska State Uni- versity, is the principal; Miss Helen Seeley. Miss Hettie Moore and Miss Hattie M. Wood are as- sistants.
CHAPTER VIII.
SOCIAL LIFE .*
It is not easy for any one living in South Omaha, or enjoying the hospitality of its peo- ple at this time, to imagine the chaotic state of its social life in the early days, or how hard its pioneers worked to get a little pleasure. The residents of to-day, with their beautiful homes and grounds, their receptions, church socials, balls, club entertainments, secret society events, kettle drums, lawn parties, carriages and short service of electric mo- tors-surely do not enter into the spirit of their entertainments with the pleasure we did, they having lost those enjoyment-givers, the necessity of and inconvenience in getting, only known to the early settler.
Three things were needed in the social life of those days: More wives, mothers and daughters, there being but five in the town proper np to Jnly, 1884. During the latter part of that year and all of 1885, South Omaha, with its army of workingmen of all ages and degrees of skill, nearly all strangers to one another, with their abund- ance of wage-money, the most meagre home accommodations, little to eat and plenty to drink-is it any wonder these were needed or that its history reads like a romance.
Perhaps some workingman had taken his dinner with a boarding-house matron who had carried the meat for the meal from a packing-house in an adjacent city upon her back, if no switch engine were available, and was back in time to place a smoking repast before her guest, upon pine boards laid upon other pine boards, in the center of a room into which the guest entered from any side, and, while dining, threw the cobs of the much enjoyed roasting ears into the entry ways.
Some of the earliest social events I will pass lightly over.
Gradually, toward the fall and winter of 1884, South Omaha's social life began to change. Those who took part in the early festivities were gone to greener fields; so that the many social gatherings which took
place upon a temporary platform erected under the willows of " Lake Pivonka," near the first Exchange building, where some of our best citizens tripped " the light fantastic toc," and drank lemonade from the same glass with the dining-room girls, were of not nearly so dangerous or hilarious a nature.
Ilow gład the hearts of Mrs. W. G. Sloane and Mrs. Isaac Brayton, those pioneer motli- ers, must have been made when they saw their labors crowned by the organization of a Union Sunday school, by Rev. Charles Savidge, of Omaha, that first Sunday of Sep- tember, 1884. Wm. Stewart was elected temporary superintendent. This Sunday school continued two years with Mrs. Sloane and Mrs. Brayton attending as superintend- ents. Never did the Rev. Charles Savidge have a more appreciative audience, not even on that memorable Decoration Day in 1888, when he was cheered to the echo by five hundred voices, for rendering Sheridan's Ride, and he and the Rev. Mrs. Andrews, of Omaha, drew tears of sorrow, by their eloquence for the patriotic dead.
A refining influence was abroad; so, when a Fourth of July celebration was talked of, all joined hands; and it must be said that the social life of South Omaha began in 1885 with that celebration. It was held at Kavan's garden, on Twenty-fourth Street, between J and K Streets, now known as "Turner Park." Wagons made hourly trips to and from Omaha to accommodate the celebrators. Hundreds came, and more than one of our wealthy taxpayers dates his development from a common laborer, to a land-owner and influential citizen, to that day, by combining business with pleasure, in negotiating for cheap lots, which have since advanced many fold.
About this time, those pious old settlers, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Hedderman and Thomas Ryan, deploring the state of affairs, within their vision, made a Sunday trip afoot, as was their wont, to Omaha and interested that noble pioneer priest John Jeannette, in behalf of the young men of his creed who
*Written for this Hislory hy Mrs. John C. Carroll, one of South Omaha's pioneers.
664
665
SOCIAL LIFE.
were fast going to ruin. By their com- combined efforts the first mass celebrated in South Omaha, was said, Sunday, the 8th of November, 1885, in the Ryan school house (where Miss Anna Carroll taught the chil- dren of the district), which stood near the tracks, on Twenty-seventh Street, between N and M Streets, in the same building in which the Union Sunday School was organ- ized some time before.
Both church services were held here till the 31st of October, 1886, when St. Bridget's Catholic Church was opened by the same priest-Rev. John Jeannette.
South Omaha, where cattle and hogs con- stituted the stock in trade, was beginning to be known, and every train brought new comers. It welcomed to its fold such pioneer wives, mothers and daughters as Mrs. Annie Maxwell, Mrs. John Doe, Mrs. Cary M. Hunt and daughters ( Luand Coe), Mrs. . I. M. Glas- gow and daughters (Grace and Anna), Miss Helen Leavitt, and a little later her sister, Mrs. Frank Hayward, and daughter Mand, Mrs. Frank Boyd, Mrs. Daniel Rafferty, Mrs. Patrick Rowley, Mrs. J. B. Erion and danghter Alice, and Miss Jessie Savage.
Thenceforth the social life of South Omaha was much changed. Until the winter of 1886 no event called out, as Mr. Erion would say, "our best people," unless an especially chartered train to Omaha and return would convey a select few to some opera or banquet.
Some of our feelings can be imagined when cards bearing the information that the stock commission men would give a ban- quet to celebrate the opening of the new brick Exchange building, came to us. It was to be upon Washington's birthday, with George Canfield, the veteran hotel keeper, as caterer. What were we to wear and how to get it? were the questions; we who had lived in our valises, with five miles-it might as well have been fifty-between us and the modiste and the milliner, with no way for many of us to get there unless on the 6:15 A. M. workingman's train, and if not fortunate enough to finish in time to catch the returning 8:15 train, to remain at the other end till the evening workingman's train. The way to get there was incon- venient and the necessity of going great, but any one who had been upon that train, would rather dispense with entertainments, new clothes and of necessity food than go again. Ladies, can't you smell those cars yet?
We went to the banquet and enjoyed ourselves nearly as well as at that noted electric light banquet December 20th, after the Ex- change building had been enlarged, in 1888.
By the year 1887 so many society people had come among us, that the necessity of clubs, musicales and literary doings had become apparent; and the young people, . equal to the emergency, formed the La Veta Club and the Young People's Literary So- ciety.
Nothing has been upon the boards since in South Omaha that gave half the pleasure, as did that little drama " Above the Clouds," given by home talent-the out-come of the La Veta club-to open Ilunt's Opera House, on N Street, between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Streets, in the year 1888. llow we waited longingly for the first night, spent hours in furbishing up long laid-by garments, fans and bonnets, and when at last the night arrived, lifted our skirts high above the mud that went in at the tops of our rubber boots, and went to see J. II. Van Duzen and L. C. Gibson grow eloquent in their love-making, Dr. C. E. C. Smith portray the funny character to perfection, and Maud Hayward, the leading lady, be recalled a half dozen times. What a success it was; no won- der it had to be repeated three nights after.
In October of that same year, when the Reed House, now the Great Western Hotel, on Twenty-fifth Street, between L and M Streets, was opened under the auspices of the Odd Fellows, what a time we had ! To this day, one lady has part of the 2x16 plank, she sat upon between dances, in the meshes of the lace upon her dress! What matter that the plastering was green, and the floor half swept; we danced with more gusto and felt for our partners than if the clouds of lime had not prevented us seeing them. James Smith, the barber, sang and played the band, and Lyman Carpenter, J. B. Erion, Col. Savage, H. Heyman and Wil- liam Anderson did the honors.
In the moonlight nights of November, 1889, there appeared an oasis to the vision of the church folks. The Rev. D. W. Mori- arity of St. Bridget's and the ladies of his congregation gave a church fair, the first of the kind held in South Omaha, and the first entertainment given in Rowley's Hall on Twenty-sixth Street between N and O Streets. Everybody went, and for thirteen nights everybody enjoyed themselves.
CHAPTER IX.
SOME OF SOUTH OMANIA'S ENTERPRISING MEN.
Thomas Geary (real estate agent) began business in South Omaha at an early day as grocer, being among the first to fore- see the rapid growth of the city. Being the choice of the people for city treas- urer, he disposed of his grocery and devoted his attention to the office. When his term expired he resumed business on his own account as a real estate, loan and insurance agent. Mr. Geary is a native of New York, settled in Nebraska about ten years ago, having previously been located in Colorado.
J. II. Eggers and Peter J. Bock, a firm doing business as Eggers & Bock, are con- tractors, builders and manufacturers of brick. They began operations here in 1886 and rapidly came to the front as the leading firm in their line. Many of the substantial brick structures which now adorn the city were erected by them. Among these are the South Omaha National Bank, the addition to the Stockyards Exchange, the Joslyn, Hardy and Brandeis Blocks, and the Stock- man building. They erected on their own account the Eggers Block, a three-story brick structure near the corner of Twenty- fourth and N Streets. This firm also own and operate brick yards covering nearly three acres. They manufacture about two and three-quarters millions of brick an- nually. In this enterprise alone they em- ploy thirty men. The members of the firm are both natives of Germany and bricklayers by trade, and capable and successful business men. Mr. Bock came to America in 1882 and joined Mr. Eggers in 1886. Mr. Eggers is a practical architect and a graduate of a school of architects in Germany.
The firm of Smith & Carter Bros. is formed of D. W. Smith, N. E. Carter, and A. E. Carter, owners of a planing mill in the Magic City. Mr. Smith is a native of Michi- gan; settled in Nebraska eight years ago; he is a carpenter and mill man of long ex- perience, and a member of the A. O. U. W. Mr. N. E. Carter is a native of Ohio, who has lived for many years in Iowa, Kansas
and Nebraska; settled here about four and a half years ago; he was for a time a contrac- tor and builder; he is a turner by trade. A. E. Carter, a native of Iowa, is a practical turner, was engineer at the mill and has recently become a partner.
In July, 1890, S. V. Decker, architect, be- gan business in this city. He is a carpenter and builder by trade. Mr. Decker is a native of New Jersey.
The proprietors of the General Transfer Line and Boarding Stable, are W. S. Glynn and D. L. Holmes, doing business as Glynn & Holmes. This partnership was formed September 1, 1892. Mr. Glynn, a native of Michigan, came to South Omaha April 1, 1887. Mr. Ilolmes is a native of New York, but subsequently did business in lowa in the hardware line, and came to the Magic City in July, 1886. The firm has erected a fine building, 34x150 feet, well adapted for the business intended.
The South Omaha Roller Mill, now the property of Axel L. Berquist, is located close to the county line in Albright's Addi- tion, and is connected with the railroad tracks running through that part of the city. It was built in 1887 and has a capacity of seventy-five barrels of flour per day. It has also machinery for feed and corn meal. The total cost of the mill was $11,000. Mr. Berquist is a native of Sweden and came to America in 1869, reaching South Omaha in 1887.
W. H. Slabangh, physician and surgeon of South Omaha, was born in Elkhart, Ind .; he was educated in Mount Union, Ohio. He studied medicine at the Bellevue Medical Hospital College, New York, taking a three years' course and graduating in 1883. He practised for one year in the Charity Hos- pital, New York, and afterwards for three years in Ohio. In 1877 the doctor settled here. He is a K. P. and a member of the A. O. U. W. and the Modern Woodmen.
One of the brick firms of the city is that of Kritenbrink Bros., established six years
666
667
SOME ENTERPRISING MEN.
ago. The capacity of their works is 24,000 bricks daily; they employ from twenty to twenty-five men.
One of the dealers in clothing and men's furnishing goods, in South Omaha, is H. Heyman, who came to the city in 1887, and began business in a small way, gradually increasing until the spring of 1892, when he removed to 2405 and 2407 N Street, occu- pying a new building which had been arranged for him.
The house of The Babcock Paint, Glass and Wall Paper Company, A. W. Bab- cock, manager, 413 Twenty-fourth Street, was established August 3d, 1888, as a branch of the Carter Manufacturing Com- pany of Omaha. In 1889 Mr. Babcock became proprietor, and on January 25th T. J. Beard succeeded to the business, with A. W. Babcock as manager. They occupy store-room and basement 24 by 75 feet. They carry a ten thousand dollar stock. A force of from ten to twenty men is em- ployed. The manager was born in Wauke- sha, Wisconsin, in April, 1852. In 1880 he accepted a position with the Omaha White Lead Company as superintendent, and re- mained there until the South Omaha house was established.
O'Neil's Real Estate, Loan and Insurance Agency was lately established by T. J. O'Neil, who is a native of Ireland, and came to this country at the age of seventeen. In the year 1881 he came to Omaha and was em- ployed as a clerk until he came to South Omaha in March, 1888, and opened a whole- sale flour and feed business, which he con- ducted for two years. At the end of that time he became a partner in the firm of Monahan & O'Neil, dealers in real estate. In August, 1892, Mr. O'Neil retired from the partnership and now conducts a prosper- ous business alone on Twenty-fourth Street.
In the coal, flour, grain and hay business are Sage Brothers (W. N.and W. R. Sage). W. R. Sage came to South Omaha in February, 1886, and established the business as dealer in feed, which he conducted until Septem- ber, 1887, when his brother (W. N.) became his partner. Afterwards they added coal to their business. The brothers are natives of Illinois.
Burnett Brothers are dealers in clothing and men's furnishing goods and occupy Nos. 407,409 and 411 north Twenty-fourth Street -a new building, into which they put, Au-
gust 13, 1892, a thirty thousand dollar stock. These brothers are natives of Indiana. The proprietors are O. P, and L. D. Burnett, who had been in Omaha for thirteen years, the greater part of the time with A. Pollock, clothier.
Frank Pivonka has contributed largely to the building of the Magic City. A na- tive of Bohemia, he came to America in 1865, and gradually worked west till he reached Omaha in 1874, remaining three years. In April, 1884, he came to South Omaha and soon after built a small building, which was replaced by a two-story brick building in 1886. In the last year he built a block of five stores of brick, three stories with basement, costing $45,000, the corner-stone being laid July 23, 1892, with appropriate ceremonies.
A. C. Raymer, late of Omaha, is the suc- cessor in business of Holmes & Smith, who started a small hardware business in June, 1886, at 2516 N Street. In 1890 this firm erected tlie large three-story brick building now occupied by the business at 2408 N Street, at a cost of $14,000, which was occu- pied by a $10,000 stock in December of that year. In February, 1892, D. H. IFuston succeeded Holmes & Smith, and in Septem- ber, 1892, Mr. Raymer succeeded him, and now carries a $20,000 stock.
J. M. Waugh & Son opened a real estate and insurance office in South Omaha in the spring of 1886. Their fire insurance agency was the first to be located in this place. D. B. Wangh, the junior partner, had the man- agement of the business. In July, 1889, John M. Westerfield became a member of the firm, which has since that time been Waugh & Westerfield,-J. M. Waugh retir- ing. D. B. Waugh is a native of Canton, Illinois. In 1882 he came to Omaha and took a position in a commission house, remaining there till his removal to this place in 1886. Johh M. Westerfield was born in Knoxville, Illinois. He came to Omaha in 1883 and took a position as bookkeeper, and later engaged in the commission business. In 1887 he was engaged in the live stock commission business in South Omaha, which he quit to enter the present firm in 1889.
Among the earliest settlers in Albright's addition was John S. Mullen, whose residence dates from the spring of 1887, when there were just four families in that suburb. Born in New York, raised in Iowa, Mr.
668
HISTORY OF SOUTH OMAHA.
Mullen served through the war as a volun- teer in the Union army, graduated as a physician from Ann Arbor University, prac- ticed medicine, with which he became dis- satisfied in a year and abandoned it for rail- road employment. In 1887 he built the first store in Albright, a two-story frame, which was afterwards burned and succeeded by the large frame building, he now occupies as a grocery store, in the summer of 1891.
Since the early part of 1888, Ed. Johnston & Co., real estate agents and abstraeters, have been sole agents at South Omaha for the South Omaha Land Company and have handled no lots in this city outside the com- pany's plats, although doing a business in real estate lying outside the city. From 1969 till the time he took charge of the company's business here Mr. Johnston was a citizen of Omaha.
Vaclav Pivonka, proprietor of the Bo- hemian National IIall (Naroni Sin), is a native of Bohemia. IIe settled in South Omaha in 1885 and has built two buildings in the city-one 36x70 feet and the other 24x60, both brick and two stories in height, situated on Twenty-fourth Street. Mr. Pivonka was in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 and was wounded at the battle of Koeniggratz.
The firm of Persons & Berry is engaged in real estate, loan and rental business. The partnership was formed in June, 1888, and has prospered. Frank J. Persons, the senior partner, is a native of New York. He reached South Omaha July 22, 1885, after several progressive steps westward- having been a resident of various localities in Illinois and Iowa. Ilis first employment in this city was about the stock yards, and later he was a partner in the firm of Ritch- hart & Persons, real estate dealers. Wil- liam B. Berry, of the above named firm, began life as a sailor on board the good ship Washington, in a great storm off Cape Horn, December 23, 1866. His father was the ship's captain and his mother a passenger, who frequently accompanied her husband on his voyages. Since that time Mr. Berry has traveled over the world a great deal. IIe settled in this city in August, 1888.
The firm of J. B. Watkins & Company, dealers in lumber, consists of J. B. Watkins and George A. Hoagland, and has been established in South Omaha since January
1, 1888, during which time Mr. Watkins has had charge of the business, which lias been second to none in this line in this city. J. B. Watkins is a native of Illinois, was raised and educated in Iowa and has been in the lumber business since 1879, having spent considerable time in the camps and mills of Wisconsin.
Thomas Iloctor is a native of Minnesota. On May 5, 1875, he came to Douglas County with his father's family and settled on a portion of what was known as the Dennis Dee farm, now a part of South Omaha, In 1888 he was elected city clerk of South Omaha and held that office two years. In 1890, he was elected city treasurer, for a term of two years and re-elected in 1892.
P. L. Monahan is in the real estate, loan and insurance business, in which he started in this city, in March 1891. The firm of Monahan & O'Neil, which was then estab- lished, existed till recently, Mr. Monahan continuing the business at the old stand. P. L. Monahan was born in Detroit, Michi- gan, and grew up in Iowa. Previous to coming to this city, he spent four years in Omaha as a clerk, first with the Commercial National Bank and later with the Bates- Smith Investment Company.
Nathan T. Gordon, a soldier in the Union army during the rebellion and the first settler Missouri Avenue, east
of Twentieth Street, is a native of New York. Ile settled where he now resides in October, 1887.
Alexander A. Munro for the past six years superintendent of the public schools of South Omaha, is a native of Prince Ed- ward Island. In 1872 he graduated from the Normal School, at Charlottetown. He has resided in Nebraska since May, 1874. Ile entered the Nebraska State Univerity at Lincoln in 1879, and graduated from there five years later. Mr. Munro's life work has been teaching and to him the present excellence of the South Omaha schools is largely due.
W. S. King is a native of Platte County, Nebraska, and is the son of a pioneer couple. From 1878 to 1887, he was in the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad, chiefly as an engineer in the Rocky Moun- tains. Since the latter date he has been engi- neer for the South Omaha Stock Yards Company, and for four years past city
669
SOME ENTERPRISING MEN.
engineer for South Omaha, having in charge a great amount of work on construction of stock yards, grading, paving and viaducts.
Among the early settlers of South Omaha is J. C. Carroll, who was born at Ardee, County Louth, Ireland, and came to Mil- waukee with his father at an early age. He spent his youth in Wisconsin and Iowa, and in 1880 visited Ireland for a year. Later he spent some years in the Rocky Mountains where he bought buffalo robes and furs. In August, 1885, he reached South Omaha and started the second store in the town on Nand Twenty-sixth Streets, where the Packers National Bank now stands. A few months later he opened the first general merchan- dize store in the young city. At the end of three years, he went out of commercial business and invested largely in real estate to which he now devotes his time. Mr. Car- roll was married August 17, 1886, to Mrs. Josephine Egan, widow of Michael J. Egan, and daughter of John Godola, who came to Omaha in 1857, and was a pioneer mer- chant in that city.
John Flynn & Company, are clothiers and men's outfitters. The company is Arnold Cohn, of Chicago. This house has been in business here since September, 1889, and now occupies 2404 and 2406, on N Street, and employs three clerks and eight tailors. Mr. Flynn was formerly a clerk in the house of M. Hellman & Company, and has built up the present trade from a small 14x18 house, which he first occupied.
G. II. Brewer settled in the great packing center Jannary 15, 1888, and went into business with D). Sullivan under the firm name of Brewer & Sullivan, furniture deal- ers and undertakers. In 1891 the partner- ship was dissolved, Mr. Brewer continuing in the undertaking business. In June, 1892, the firm of Brewer, Sloane & Co., was formed by G. H. Brewer, W. G. Sloane, and Eli II. Doud.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.