USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska > Part 17
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Jacob S. Shull, locating in 1855 on a quarter section just south of town, a portion of which had previously been platted by Roswell G. Pierce as Pierce's Addition, received a visit from the club; but, being warned of the intended honor, did not wait to receive his unwelcome guests. Ilis shanty was destroyed and for several days Mr. Shull was concealed under the counter of J. J. Brown & Brothers' store, corner of Douglas and Fourteenth, fearing personal violence. IIe finally decided to surrender his claim to the land and that ended the difficulty. The following spring he brought his family to Omaha, and died a few months later. Mrs. Shull then made claim to the land; the circumstances of the case were brought to the attention of the land depart- ment at Washington, an investigation fol- lowed and she was declared the legal owner of the property-now of great value.
The tract now known as Redick's Addi- tion, Terrace Addition and Bartlett's Addi-
98
99
THE OMAHA TOWNSHIP CLAIM ASSOCIATION.
tion was claimed by Governor Cuming; and in order to hold it he had a small house built and hired a man named Callahan, at $45 per month, to occupy it. Callahan concluded that this was an excellent oppor- tunity to get some land of his own, and made his filing at the land office. He was taken in charge by the club, asked to surren- der his certificate, and, upon his refusal, was ducked in the Missouri River, and thereupon concluded that he did not care very much for that particular tract of land, and gave up the paper.
The claim club was first organized as "The Omaha Township Claim Association," July 22, 1854, with A. D. Jones as Judge; S. Lewis, Clerk; M. C. Gaylord, Recorder; and Robert B. Whitted as Sheriff. The duty of the judge was to preside at all the meetings; the clerk kept a record of the proceedings; the recorder kept a register of quit claim deeds, description of claims and decisions of arbitrators in disputed cases; and the sheriff executed the judgment of arbitrators and the orders of the club, and was empowered to call out the entire membership, if neces- sary, in the performance of his duties. Under the re-organization afterwards effected Dr. Lowe and A. J. Hanscom served at different periods as president of the club, and Jesse Lowe as captain. Moral suasion was first used in all cases where conflicts arose, but where that failed the club was prepared to adopt harsher methods to carry out its objects.
Judge John I. Redick had a little experi- ence with the claim club in the winter of 1856, which he tells in this way: " Several of us who were boarding at the Tremont House, on Douglas Street, attended a tem- perance meeting one night, held in the Methodist Church, just around the corner on Thirteenth Street. It was proposed to organize to secure the adoption of the Maine Liquor Law, and I was asked to say some- thing. I objected to the proposition, and said that such a law could not be carried out
in Nebraska, and remarked, incidentally, that the United States laws allowed a man to enter but 160 acres of land. while the Omaha Claim Club said he could hold twice that amount and declared its readiness to defend him in elaiming that amount. Next morning I went to my office, and was met with a scolding by my partner, James G. Chapman, who said I had got myself and the firm of Redick & Chapman in a nice muddle. He kept on with a regular tirade, but I finally got him to explain what he was talking about, and learned, to my astonish- ment, that I had been reported as using treasonable language against the claim club. I soon found the town was posted with notices for a meeting of the club, and concluded that I had stirred up a good deal of a rumpus, without intending to. The club was a powerful organization, I knew, for I was a member of it. I laid in a revolver that day, loaded it, and put it in my over- coat pocket. Then I told Chapman that he owed it to me to see that I had a chance to speak when the club met. The meeting was held in the Pioneer Block, and the first speech was made by A. J. Hanscom, the president, who spoke in a very reasonable, moderate way. He was followed by Mitchell, of Florence, who was very abusive of new people who were coming into the Territory to break down local institutions. Then a man from Bellevue talked, and he was fol- lowed by John M. Thayer in a ponderous sort of a way, and in a tone similar to that of Mitchell; and then Jim Chapman said that his partner ought to be given a chance to explain his views as to claim clubs and other domestic institutions. Thereupon I came to the front, and for ten minutes dwelt upon the advantages of the Territory of Nebraska, and predicted its glorious future. Then I praised the claim club, and said I had improved the first opportunity I had to join it upon coming to Omaha, a few months previously. I then said that I had had no intention to reflect upon the club,
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.
and that what I had said had not been cor- rectly reported. I added that I knew that every man present was at least an ordinarily brave man, and with that I produced my revolver with one hand, and took out my watch with the other, and said: 'I denounce the man who has thus misrepresented me as a liar, a coward and a sneak, and will give him one minute in which to come out and face me.' As the time was ticked off, no one moved, and when I announced that the time had expired, there was a burst of applause, and I was convinced that I had nothing to fear."
The tracts in North Omaha, afterwards entered by John A. Horbach and George Smith, were included in an addition platted by the Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company in 1855, and known at that period as Serip Town. The survey was made by Colonel Lorin Miller, who received as pay for his services a block of eight lots and $2,000 in money. lle selected his block of ground, No. 172}, but made no improve- ments thereon. Years afterwards, that portion of the Serip Town plat having, in the mean- time, passed into the ownership of Mr. Ilorbach, and the stakes defining lots and blocks being obliterated, he sued Mr. Hor- bach to gain possession of his property. The latter demanded that its exact location be defined by Colonel Miller, which proved a matter of considerable difficulty, but was finally accomplished to the satisfaction of the District Court and the Supreme Court. The litigation lasted for several years, and resulted in a single block being platted in that portion of the Horbach tract, then used for market garden purposes, desig- nated by the number it bore in the original platting made more than a quarter of a century before, and for several years this block stood solitary and alone on the city maps. It is located about the intersection of Paul and Twenty-First Streets.
The first tract of land owned in this vicinity by the Kountze family-now such
extensive real estate proprietors-consisted of three fifteen-acre lots, purchased by Augus- tus Kountze, located in what was called the Clancy Claim. Additional ground adjoining was secured, and the 160 acres, now platted as Kountze Addition, grew out of the origi- nal tract of forty-five acres.
The main town site was entered by Jesse Lowe, as Mayor, March 17, 1857, and certain odds and ends claimed by the Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company were bid in by John McCormick as Trustee, July 5, 1859. The opening of the land office in 1857 was awaited with great anxiety by the settlers, as, previous to that time, valid titles to their land could not be obtained, and the country was overrun with men known as claim jumpers, whose chief charac- teristic was a reckless disregard for the rights of other 'people, and who usually carried revolvers and indulged in a great deal of bluster about what they would do if interfered with. Killings on one side or the other were not infreqnent, and the chance to purchase the land claimed was hailed as a period which would end an unsettled con- dition of society which all law-abiding citizens deplored.
The claim of 400 acres of land which Thomas Davis traded to Samuel S. Bayliss for the sawmill, elsewhere referred to, Mr. Bayliss traded to A. J. Hanscom; and a por- tion, 160 acres, was pre-empted by Mr. Han- scom when the land came into market in 1857. Ile sold part of his claim to Roswell G. Pierce, who laid it out as " Pierce's Addi- tion." It was within the boundaries of the Shull tract, however, and Pierce was not able to perfeet his title. The pre-emption laws allowed the entry of only 160 acres by each settler, but the hiring of others to pre- empt was a very common thing at that pe- riod ; and in this way one purpose of the law-securing a general ownership of land- was frustrated.
The first paper put on record in the Doug- las County deed records was a description
101
FIRST REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS.
of tracts of lands claimed by A. D. Jones, dated November 6, 1854, and recorded February 20, 1855, by Lyman Richardson, the first register of deeds for this county. It is as follows:
Commencing at the mouth of Purgatory Creek and running thence east to the Missouri River ; thence down the said river to near the mouth of the slough ; thence west to the bluff ; thence up, under the bluff to the place of beginning, contain- ing about 40 acres between the slough and the river, and bounded as follows: north by Peter- son; east by the Missouri River; south by Reeves and west by Hanscom and Allen. The lines are all distinctly and well marked so they can be easily traced, and all the improvements are on the part of my claim, south of Omaha City, and also another part of my claim northi of Omaha City, described as follows : north by H. D. Johnson ; west by W. Johnson ; south by W. Clancy ; and east by T. Jeffries, con- taining about 160 acres ; and is well staked, so the lines can be easily traced ; aud a furrow on the north, west and south.
The second transfer recorded was one by which Enos Lowe conveyed the title to six lots to A. J. Hanscom, for a consideration of $600.00 ; in the third, Lyman Richardson deeds away an undivided one-twentieth part of a claim, " bounded on the north by A. J. Hanscom; on the east by Clancy and Jef- fries; on the south by Hadley D. Johnson, and on the west by Murphy ; containing 273} acres." The fourth transfer recorded recites, that in consideration of the building of a house, the town site company convey to A. J. Ilanscom lots seven and eight, in block 105 ; and lots one and two, in block 138. The first lots are situated at the north- west corner of Douglas and Fourteenth, and the other two at the southwest corner of Farnam and Fourteenth, the ground now occupied by the Paxton Hotel. These two lots he sold in 1867 for $15,000. The build- ing referred to, the erection of which was the consideration, was put up on one of the Paxton Hotel lots for a printing office-the first in Omaha.
George Francis Train became identified with Omaha at an early period, through his
connection with the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1865 he purchased of the Kountze Broth- ers and Samuel E. Rogers a tract of 500 acres of land, of irregular form, the extreme northern boundary being a line 132 feet south of Pierce Street, the southern, the north line of Deer Park, the western, Twen- tieth Street, and the eastern, Second Street, as now platted. Eighty acres in the north- east corner of this tract he platted into lots and christened it "Credit Foncier Addi- tion." Ilere he had erected ten houses, at a cost of $1,200 each, the buildings being framed and prepared for erection in Chi- cago, from which city even the bricks used for foundations and chimneys were brought. This addition he sold to the organization known as the " Credit Foncier of America," of which he was president, and George P. Bemis, secretary. James G. Chapman was local superintendent. These Chicago-built cottages were rented to some of the leading people of Omaha at a rental of $60 per month. Train paid from $100 to $200 per acre for the land, and sold the platted portion for $250 per acre. He paid only $38,000 cash, giving notes secured by mortgages for the remainder; and the court records of Doug- las County, Nebraska, disclose much inter- esting information as to the result of this investment, suits being brought in 1872 by the Messrs. Kountze and Rogers to foreclose the mortgages held by them, which suits were finally successful. Train fought this litigation at long range, and under decidedly unfavorable circumstances, being confined in the Tombs Prison, New York City, a portion of the time, on the charge of publishing ob- scene literature in his newspaper, The Train Ligue. He had been making a lecture tour throughout the country, ostensibly as a can- didate for the presidency of the United States, and his arrest occurred in November, immediately following the election of 1872. Ile had somewhat championed the cause of the Woodhull Sisters, and thereby incurred public ill will; and when he printed in his
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.
paper certain quotations from the Bible, in a spirit of bravado, he was arrested at once, and that edition of the Ligue confiscated by the authorities. He was confined in the Tombs for several months, and an effort was made to prove that he was insane. The charge of circulating obscene literature, it was found, could not be established, and Train was finally discharged. In the mnean- time the foreclosure proceedings were car- ried on in Omaha against Train personally, and his counsel undertook to have them set aside on the ground that a guardian should have been appointed to protect his interests, claiming that, as a matter of fact, he was then of unsound mind, at least temporarily, and citing this experience with the New York authorities in support of their position. The direct action against Train was held by the court to be legal, however, and in due time decisions in favor of the plaintiffs were rendered, and they recovered all of the land except the "Credit Foncier Addition." The notes drew twelve per cent. interest, and with the costs of foreclosures, added very considerably to the amount of the principal, so that there was nothing left for the defend- ant. In these suits, George W. Ambrose was counsel for Mr. Rogers; James M. Wool- worth and George I. Gilbert appeared for the Kountzes, and John I. Redick, Arthur N. Ferguson and William J. Connell for Mr. Train. The tract thus recovered includes the ground since platted as Kountze's Ad- dition, Supplement Addition, Konntze's Second Addition, Kountze's Supplemental Addition, Kountze's Fourth Addition, S. E. Rogers' Addition, Bowery Hill, Rogers' Plat of Okahoma, Improvement Associa- tion Addition, the Ilascall Tract of ten acres on Thirteenth Street, and a large tract of unplatted ground, east of Thirteenth Street and west of Supplement Addition, and is now of immense value. The various mortgages, now included in the court files, are embellished with the internal revenue stamps then required by the government.
One of them, given to secure three notes, amounting to $24,999, bears two ten dollar stamps and one of five dollars, indicating that the general government was enriched to the extent of twenty-five dollars by that one mortgage.
May 2, 1876, a petition was filed in the District Court by George P. Bemis, in a suit against Mr. Train, as follows:
The plaintiff, George P. Bemis, represents to the Court that about the month of November, 1864, he entered into a verbal contract with one George Francis Train, in the capacity of his private secretary; that the said Train, at that time, was a man of large influence, and was indirectly connected with some of the largest enterprises in the United States, to-wit: the cor- poration known as the "Credit Mobilier of Amer- ica," and the successful construction, in the short- est possible time, of the Union Pacific Railroad, procured the passage of an act in Nebraska, by its legislature, incorporating what is known as the "Credit Foncier of America," whose pretended object was to buy large tracts of land along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad; as well also being engaged in the construction of street rail- ways in London, as well also being an aspirant for the highest office in the gift of the American people.
Plaintiff further says: That, by reason of his various business counections with these important enterprises and his unbridled ambition for politi- cal preference and glory, he deemed it important and necessary to employ some competent and true man to act as his confidante and private secretary, in all his business and political rela- tions.
Plaintiff further says: That, to that end, about the date aforesaid, he, the said Train, employed this plaintiff by the year, agreeing to pay him for his services the sum of $5,000 per annum; and, in consideration of said promise and agreement in that behalf, the plaintiff entered into his service and employ about the 15th day of November, 1864, and continued in his employ, faithfully performing the services demanded or required by him, of every kind and nature, in many instances jeopardizing his own personal safety and life, while acting as his secretary, to carry out his wishes and desires; in many instances working nights as well as days, aud has so continued in his employ up to aud including November 15th, 1874: that all of said services were accepted by said defendant, and to his entire satisfaction; that
103
GEORGE P. BEMIS VS. GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN.
he has paid said plaintiff, upon said contract, from time to time, in cash and otherwise, the first payment being made from the date first aforesaid to January 1, 1865, and at divers and sundry times since that, upon said contract, to December 10, 1875, amounting to $17,974.65, leaving a balance due this plaintiff of $47,660.68.
Plaintiff further says: That is all he has received upon said contract, and here submits to the Court an itemized statement of account between plaintiff and defendant, marked "A," and asks that it be made a part of the petition herein.
Plaintiff further says: That he has performed in every respect his part of said agreement, and that the said sum of $47,660.68 is the balance due and owing to him on said contract, and for that amount he prays judgment against said defendant, with costs.
Mr. Bemis clearly established his case and was awarded judgment for the full amount
claimed. Mr. Train's interest in the Credit Foncier Addition was levied upon, and the property sold, and a portion of the judgment thus satisfied, Mr. Train's interest not being sufficient to pay the full amount. The City Directory for 1871 contains the following, under the heading Real Estate: "Train, George Francis-N. P. A. (Owner of 5,000 lots, a hotel and ten other buildings in Omaha, 1,000 lots in Council Bluffs and 7,000 lots and a hotel in Columbus). Repre- sented by his private secretary and agent, George P. Bemis, Cozzens House." The N. P. A. stood for "Next President of America." Mr. Train's connection with the Cozzens' House enterprise is referred to elsewhere, in the chapter relating to hotels.
CHAPTER XII.
THE PIONEERS - BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES -PERSONAL POINTS CONCERNING THE EARLY SETTLERS-"SONS OF OMAIIA."
Much of the prosperity of a city depends upon its founders-their energy, liberality, public spirit, judgment, general information, knowledge of man, foresight, appreciation of the situation, or the lack of these qual- ities-all becoming important factors in the development or retarding the growth of a new settlement. In these respects, Omaha was peculiarly fortunate, its founders being men of far more than ordinary sagacity and enterprise. The first plat was made by the Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company, an organization perfected under the laws of Iowa for the purpose of establishing a ferry opposite Council Bluffs, across the Missouri River. This company was composed of Dr. Enos Lowe, Milton Tootle, James Jackson, Samuel S. Bayliss, Joseph H. D. Street, Bernhardt Henn, Jesse Williams, General Samuel R. Curtis, Tanner & Downs and Street & Redfield. Upon the admission of Nebraska as a Territory, May 23, 1854, the importance of securing a town site on the west bank of the river became apparent to these gentlemen, and Alfred D. Jones was employed to make a survey, in which work Captain C. H. Downs (both of these gentle- men are still residents of Omaha) assisted by carrying the chain and driving the stakes. The task was completed early in July of 1854, the town site consisting of 320 blocks, each 264 feet square, with streets 100 feet wide, and alleys of 20 feet. Mr. Jones says that if he had the work to do again he would make the lots 75 by 100 feet, twelve in a block. Capitol Avenue, running eastward from Capitol Square, and Twenty-First Street, running northward from the same 104
point, were each made 120 feet wide. The event was celebrated on the 4th of July by the owners of the town site and their friends coming over from Council Bluffs and having a picnic on Capitol Hill, the present site of the Iligh School building. The task of building upon this spot, so recently diverted from the possession of the Indians, homes and successful business enterprises for a popu- lous community was at once entered upon with zeal and earnestness, a rapid increase of population marking the good judgment of the founders of the town.
The legislative enactment by which Omaha was incorporated, dated February 2, 1857, defines the following described tracts of lands as constituting the site: Sections 15 and 22; fractional sections 11, 14 and 23; the south half of fractional section 10; tlie south half of the north half of fractional section 10; the south-east quarter of section 9; the east half of section 16; the north-east quarter of section 21; the east half of the south-east quarter of section 21; the northi- east quarter of the north-east quarter of section 28; the north half of the north half of section 27; the north half of the north half of fractional section 26 -all in town- ship 15, north of range 13, east of the sixth principal meridian. The name, " The City of Omaha," was given in the charter, and the "middle of the main channel of the Missouri River" was defined as the east line of the city. The officers designated were: Mayor, nine Aldermen, Recorder, Treasurer, Assessor and Marshal. The Legislature of 1858 amended the charter, reducing the number of Aldermen to six.
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LIST OF NAMES OF THE PIONEERS.
To Captain William P. Wilcox and Charles M. Conoyer belong the distinction of having first, of those now resident in the city, seen the site upon which Omaha is now built. In 1849, the former as clerk and the latter, then a boy of eight years of age, were on the steamer El Paso, while that boat was engaged for several weeks in trans- porting, across the Missouri, emigrants to the newly discovered gold fields of Cali- fornia, at a point just below the plateau on which Omaha now stands. Mr. Conoyer's father was at that time an employe of the American Fur Company, and the father of Captain Wilcox was one of the few passen- gers aboard the first steamboat which ascended the Missouri River, as is noted elsewhere in these pages. Captain Wilcox became a resident of Omaha in 1864, and for many years, as a member of the firm of Stephens & Wilcox, was extensively engaged in business in this city. Mr. Conoyer located in Omaha in June, 1860, and has since made this his home. He is now Secre- tary of the Board of Education, and lias served many years in that capacity. Mr. and Mrs. William P. Snowden, however, enjoy the honor of being the oldest continuous residents of this city, they having located here July 4, 1854, moving into the old Claim House, a log structure erected by the Town Site Company, on the 11th of July. They were employed by the company to board the hands then engaged in manufacturing brick for a building which the company erected for Territorial Capitol purposes. The enterprise proved a failure, however, as the brick makers were not familiar with the soil of Nebraska, and the result was that Council Bluffs brick entered into the erec- tion of the first brick structure in Omaha.
In the fall of 1854, Mr. A. D. Jones built a home on a claim he had taken south-east of the town site. Previous to the organiza- tion of the Steam Ferry Company, Mr. William B. Brown, father of Mrs. Alfred Sorenson and Mrs. Alexander Mckenzie,
was engaged in transporting passengers across the river at this point by means of a flat-boat. He became interested with the Steam Ferry Company in their enterprise on this side of the river, and located here in 1854.
Among the pioneers who gave tone and character to the new settlement may be mentioned the following, all of whom located liere in 1854, several bringing their families, and others a newly acquired wife:
Dr. George L. Miller, Col. Lorin Miller.
A. J. Poppleton, George Armstrong,
O. D. Richardson,
Alexander Davis,
John Davis,
Thomas Davis,
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