History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 34

Author: Savage, James Woodruff, 1826-1890; Bell, John T. (John Thomas), b. 1842, joint author; Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: New York, Chicago, Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1020

USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska > Part 34

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In the paving contracts let since 1890, wooden blocks have not been considered, the experience of the past in that regard having proven unsatisfactory. During the year 1890 nine and one-fifth miles of streets were paved at a cost of $506,480, making the total mileage of paved streets a trifle over sixty-one miles. Street curbing was done to the extent of nineteen and one-fifth miles, at a cost of 872,355. Twelve miles of sewers were constructed, costing 8112,- 430, making a total of eighty-five miles of sewers. Twenty-two and one-half miles of streets were graded, at an outlay of 8208- 253. Thirty thousand dollars was expended in building twenty-two miles of sidewalks, in addition to an expenditure of $22,000 by property holders. The total outlay for pub- lic improvements during the year, including county expenditures, on city streets, was $32,350; bonds voted for the Tenth Street viadnet, 8150,000, and $200,000 expended on the city hall foot np $1,377,317.

The following information on the im- provements of the city is obtained from the city engineer's report for the year ending December 31, 1891: There was expended for sewers, $70,376.03; for enrbing, $16,562.71, for about five miles; grading, $150,868.85; paving, $136,531.16. The total mileage is as follows: sewers, 92.11 miles; curbing, 117.64 miles; grading, 136.6 miles; paving 64.22 miles. The total amount expended for these improvements during the nine years ending June 1, 1892, was: for sewers. $1,412,334.50; for curbing, $609,996.32; for grading, $1,154,990.54; and for paving, $3,796,662.66.

In 1889 new plans for a city hall were adopted, Messrs. Fowler & Beindorf, of Omaha, being the successful architects in a competitive examination, and the building is now in course of erection on the site

217

LAYING THE CORNER STONE OF THE CITY HALL.

chosen by the voters of Omaha, in 1882, and again at an election held in the spring of 1889, the northeast corner of Farnam and Eighteenth Streets. John F. Coots, the builder of the Douglas County Court House, was awarded the contract for the building, which cost about $550,000. The corner stone was laid June 19, 1890, with appropri- ate ceremonies, by the Grand Lodge of Masons of Nebraska, which happened to be in session in Omaha on that date. An in- teresting feature of the occasion was the presence of ex-Mayors A. J. Poppleton, George Armstrong, B. E. B. Kennedy, Charles H. Brown, Joseph H. Millard, Cham- pion S. Chase, James E. Boyd and Wm. J. Broatch. Following is the address of Mayor R. C. Cushing:

" Fellow Citizens of Omaha, Gentlemen of the Common Council and of the Masonic Fra- ternity : We are assembled to-day to deposit a block of enduring granite stone which will, we trust, uphold years after all present shall have departed, a fabric devoted to our city's business.

"To its sealed recesses we confide such evidences of our city's present size and pros- perity as may serve to interest the busy populace of some future generation, when these firm walls shall have crumbled and the secrets of this corner stone shall have been brought to light.

" The pyramids and sphinx of the Nile tell to-day an Egyptian tale better than the ashes of the great Alexandrian library. The ruins of our ancient cities, for instance, the Coliseum of Rome, speak louder in the de- scriptive than the scribes of that day. Therefore, it is altogether fitting that such memorials of our day should be entrusted to the strong guardianship of stone.

" Here and there, even at this time, as our hills are leveled, or our foundations laid, the busy spade of the workman exhumes, from its long forgotten grave, Indian relics, some domestic utensil, or some weapon of war, upon which we gaze with absorbing interest

as the sole histories of nations long vanished.

" In their rugged outlines we may venture to read something of their wars, their daily pursuits, and their homes, which, but for these recovered implements of stone, would have been a blank forever.

" To the people of some long distant day, we offer a more legible story, and one which, we believe, is more in accord with the spirit of the present age. From this recess, here- after, will be taken no weapon of death, no evidence of barbaric wars, but tokens only of peace and prosperity, which have hitherto blessed this city, and which we devoutly hope may continue to bless it for ages yet to come.

"Upon the stone now to be placed will rise, we hope, a structure which will be an honor to our city and a satisfaction to its inhabitants. Within its walls, we trust that no ignoble motive, no corrupt suggestion, may ever find a place, and that it may be not only an edifice for the transaction of the city's business affairs, but also a temple of integrity, justice and patriotism. And may the figure which the architect has designed for its summit look down for many years upon a community happy, united, prosper- ous, honest and charitable.

" To yon, gentlemen of the Masonic Fra- ternity, I now extend my most hearty thanks for your interest in the occasion, and turn over this block to be fitted in its place by your skillful and experienced hands."

It is only within a few years past that there have been erected in Omaha business houses of any considerable size or cost. Boyd's Opera House, built in 1881, cost $125,000; the Ware Block, built in 1885, cost $86,000; the Omaha National Bank building, erected in 1882, and added to in 1889, cost about §140,000. The Nebraska National building was erected in 1883 at a cost of $65,000. The First National Bank building, costing $250,000, the Merchants' National, costing 8180,000, and the United States National, costing $150,000, were all completed in 1888.

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

The New York Life Insurance Company building, ten stories high, cost about $900,- 000, and was completed in 1889, as was also the magnificent structure erected by the Bee Publishing Company at a cost of $500,000. The Paxton Block was completed in 1888 at an expense of $361,000; the Barker Block, finished the same year, cost $70,000; the Granite Block, erected by William A. Pax- ton, who also built the Ware and Paxton buildings, cost 840,000; the Withnell was built by John and Richard Withnell, in 1887, at a cost of 840,000; the Karbach, completed in 1892, and owned by Charles J. Karbach, cost 8150,000; the Ramge, the property of Frank J. Ramge, finished in 1888. and cost $100,000; the Sheely was built in 1887-8 by Joseph Sheely, and cost nearly $100,- 000; the Commercial National Bank build- ing, built in 1890, cost about the same amount; the Murray Hotel, built by Thomas Murray, cost $140,000; the Dellone, built by Frank Dellone, cost $100,000; the Pax- ton Hotel, built by Charles W., James B. and Richard Kitchen, cost $275,000; the Millard Hotel, built by the Millard Hotel Company, cost $200,000; the Woolworth Block, on Howard Street, built by James M. Wool- worth, cost about $100,000; the Dr. S. D. Mercer Blocks on the same street, cost 8250,000; the Fred Ames buildings, corner of Eleventh and Howard and Sixteenth and Farnam, each cost about 8100,000; the buildings owned by the Ezra Millard estate, located on both sides of Harney, corner of Eleventh, cost 8204,000; Dewey & Stone's building, on Farnam near Twelfth, cost $40,- 000; the Chamber of Commerce building cost 8100,000; the Exposition building, with alterations, cost 8113,000; the Strang build- ing, erected by A. L. Strang, cost about $35,000; the Union Pacific Headquarters building cost $200,000, and the Burlington & Missouri River building, about half that sum; the buildings used by Mr. Fred Krug, for brewery purposes, cost $150,000; J. J. Brown's building, corner of Sixteenth and

Douglas, $100,000; the Kirkendall building corner of Sixteenth and Dodge, cost $50,000; the American National Bank cost $120,000; Charles Turner's business block on Tenth and Ilarney cost 836,000, and his residence on west Farnam Street a like amount; the Rector & Wilhelmy building, Tenth and Jackson, cost 825,000; the Smith building, corner of Harney and Twelfth, cost $40,000, and the W. II. Cremer building, adjoining on the west, 830,000; the W. J. Broatch building, on Harney, near Thirteenth, cost $25,000; the John McCreary building, on Douglas, east of the Millard Hotel, cost about 850,000; the Hellman Block, corner of Farnam and Thirteenth, about $40,000; the Young Men's Christian Association build- ing, Douglas and Sixteenth, 890,000; A. S. Paddock's building, corner of Douglas and Twelfth, $90,000; the Pacific Express Com- pany's building, Fourteenth and Harney, $130,000; the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Davenport and Twentieth Streets, $95,000; Parlin, Orendorf & Martin build- ing, Ninth and Jones, 830,000; the Max Meyer & Brothers' building, Farnam and Eleventh, 845,000; the MeGavock building, 840,000; the New St. Joseph Hospital, $150,000; the J. L. Byers' Block, Douglas and Fifteenth, $122,000; the Estabrook Block, Sixteenth and Chicago, cost $60,000; the J. W. Lytle Block, on Farnam between Eleventh and Twelfth, cost $35,000; Trinity Cathedral, 8100,000; First Congregational Church, $60,000; and many others.

The building of handsome and attractive residences in all portions of the city has also been a marked feature of Omaha's progress during the past few years.

The conversion of the village of Omaha into the present city has involved the re- moval of a vast amount of earth, in the grading down of hills and the filling up of ravines. In its earlier stages this work of transformation, now so gratifying to behold in its results, caused much bitterness of feeling on the part of old-time friends and

219

STREET GRADING AND IMPROVEMENT.

neighbors and damage suits without num- ber against the city. This era of street in- provement dates back to 1873, when a radi- cal grade was established for St. Mary's Av- enue, or, rather, a grade then considered radical, but which in these latter years ad- jacent property holders would reject as not providing for a sufficient filling in of the low ground and cutting down of the hills. But the grade then proposed for that street met with indignant opposition from heavy prop- erty owners on both sides of that then im- portant thoroughfare, and a compromise grade was finally accepted, the result being that the avenue has lost its prominence, and adjacent streets have absorbed its business.

Farnam Street has had three changes of grade, involving a cut of forty-five feet at the intersection of Seventeenth, and a fill of quite that much between Twentieth and Twenty-fourth. Previous to this the block bounded by Farnam, Harney, Seventeenth and Eighteenth had been purchased by the county commissioners as a court house site, on account of its commanding elevation. Anticipating a reduction of the grade on Farnam, the commissioners removed consid- erable earth from the court house block, and complaints were freely made that that beau- tiful site was being destroyed by a lot of men who had no eye for the picturesque. But those whose business requires them to climb the long flights of steps now reaching to the building from the street level do not complain because a few feet of earth were scaled off of the top of the hill by the county board, "but, on the contrary, quite the re- verse." This improvement of Farnam Street also caused the destruction of the handsome and expensive residence Governor Saunders had built at the northeast corner of Farnam and Eighteenth, the present site of the city hall. West of Twenty-fourth the cuts and fills were not so radical, which fact people owning the abutting property have already lived long enough to regret.

Cuming Street has been converted from a

hilly country road into a magnificent street, with an ascending grade westward so slight that it is scarcely perceptible. The creek, through which a sluggish stream flowed east- ward along the line of Nicholas Street, breeding pestilence and death" in the hot summer months, has been filled up and in its place are now the sites of substantial brick structures. Directly north of this stream, on Sixteenth Street, was formerly a hill of considerable steepness on which, west of the road, stood the "claim shanty" in which Mr. John A. Horbach lived when he per- fected his entry of eighty acres of land, paying therefor the government price of a dollar and a quarter an acre. On the Six- teenth Street bridge, by which the stream was crossed, a well-known citizen, Henry Dur- nall, was killed late one night by being thrown from his buggy by his runaway horse. This bridge was afterwards pur- chased by the county commissioners and placed across a stream near Florence.

South Sixteenth and South Eleventh Streets have been improved at great expense to the city and lot owners. At the inter- section of Jones, the former street has been cut about fifty feet, and Eleventh Street, at the intersection of Pierce, was cut sixty-six feet. Jones Street was formerly the bed of a stream called Otoe Creek (afterwards South Omaha Creek), and property in that vicinity was of little value. East of Eighth Street, from this creek northward to Far- nam, was a high bluff under which, just south of Farnam, was for many years a large pond which was used for skating pur- poses in the winter by the giddy youth of that period. The bluff has been graded down, the low levels raised, and a net work of iron placed thereon to accommodate the immense railway business of which Omaha is now the center.

But the greatest change, perhaps, is that which has been wrought on Leavenworth Street. A dozen years ago it had five dis- tinct and separate names - Leavenworth,

220

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

Plum, Sherman, Grant and Third-the va- rious parties platting additions which ex- tended the street westward fixing sueh names to the portions thus platted as suited their exuberant faney. At one point the street was only about forty feet wide, while high elevations and deep ravines characterized it from one end to the other. For two years a bitter warfare waged, with the proposed im- provement of this street as the bone of con- tention. Petitions and remonstranees by the dozens were sent in to the eouneil. Va- rious boards of appraisers were appointed and their reports rejected. Meetings of interested property holders were held and enlivened by loud talk and personal abuse. Some of the heaviest property holders on the street opposed the enterprise most strenu- ously, and on one occasion Mayor Boyd (during whose last term the fight oeeurred) remarked to a delegation which waited upon him in that connection that the council had devoted more time during the year preeed- ing to Leavenworth Street than to any other half dozen streets in the city. However, the progressive element succeeded; twenty-foot cuts were made, ravines filled, narrow places widened and one name given the street for its entire length. It is now one of the most promising east and west thoroughfares in the eity, is paved for a distance of over two miles, has a double-traek eleetrie motor line. and the solid business blocks completed, or now being built, along the street prove the wisdom and prudence of those who advocated

the improvement of the street. And a sim- ilar experience has followed in all portions of the city where first-elass grades have been established, regardless of public and private expense. In every case the property affected has been largely increased in value, and sub- stantial and expensive improvements have resulted.

An immense amount of eastern capital has sought investment in this eity, chiefly through the local loan associations, the prin- eipal of which are: The American Loan & Trust Company, O. M. Carter, president, capital 8400,000; the Omaha Loan & Trust Company, A. U. Wyman, president, capital $350,000; the Union Trust Company, W. A. Paxton, president, capital 8300,000; the Anglo-American Mortgage & Trust Com- pany, L. W. Tulleys, president, eapital 8300,000; the Equitable Trust Company, Lewis S. Reed, president, capital $200,000; Home Investment Company, Edwin S. Row- ley, president, capital and surplus §280,000; McCagne Investment Company, John L. McCague, president, capital 8200,000; Mu- tual Investment Company, W. H. Russell, president, capital 875,000; Globe Loan & Trust Company, H. O. Devries, president, capital 8300,000; Mead Investment Com- pany, W. D. Mead, president, paid in capital and surplus 880,000; Omaha Mortgage Com- pany, Thomas Brennan, president, capital $100,000. Many of the leading money syn- dieates of the East also have resident agents in Omaha.

J. ILL. Woolworth

CHAPTER XXIV.

BENCH AND BAR- PERSONAL MENTION OF MEMBERS OF A DISTINGUISHED PROFESSION -ORGANIZATION OF TERRITORIAL AND STATE COURTS.

[As is well-known, Judge Savage was first selected to write this chapter, as well as others, but his untimely death rendered it necessary for-some other person to perform that duty ; aod, at the request of the executors of the late judge, the writer conseoted to prepare these pagea, knowing full well the loss to the profession, as well as to the publication, in that Judge Savage had not completed his task. But, having accepted the office, I trust that I have given such attention and consideration to the subject as it deserves, and that it will be satisfactory to the members of the bar, as well as to the public generally. GEO. W. AMBROSE.]

Personally, I deem the subject of this chapter an important one, and I trust my view of it is not exaggerated. " Mine office " must not be magnified, however; but those who come after us may care to know some- thing of the order of men with whom the meanest as well as the greatest of individ- uals have to deal. The legal profession, it is said, " is a republic open to all," and from among its members are taken those, who, in a large degree, make as well as administer the law, and each, in the eloquent words of Bishop Horne, " when he goeth up to the judgment seat, puts on righteousness as a glorious and beautiful robe, and to render his tribunal a fit emblem of the eternal throne of which justice and judgment are the habitation."

The bar of Omaha has always been a prominent one in the territory as well as in the State. The writer recolleets that, in the early seventies, at one time when Asso- ciate Justice Miller, of the Supreme Court of the United States, was in attendance in this city, holding the circuit court, that he remarked that nowhere in the eight states then composing this cirenit was there an abler bar than in Omaha; and such has been its reputation, not only in the State,

but in the surrounding states as well. In the early territorial days the member- ship of the bar included many who are not here now, and it has been impossible for the writer to obtain some of their names; but Thomas B. Cuming, afterwards secretary and aeting governor of the territory, to- gether with one Turk, were, in 1858, a lead- ing firm, conducting a general business, and it is said that Governor Cuming especially was a silver-tongued orator of great ability. Jonas Seely, now dead, was then a resident of Omaha, engaged in the general practice, and John I. Redick and Clinton Briggs were then, as for many years thereafter, a prominent firm of attorneys, and, together with Poppleton, Lake, Woolworth, Brown, Kennedy, Little, Richardson, Estabrook, Hitchcock and Daniel Gantt, formed a com- bination of brains and pluck and push -all of them good lawyers, and all of them rose to eminence in their profession in later years. None of us who knew him could forget Dan- iel Gantt, a thorough chancery lawyer, im- bued with great love for his profession; nothing so delighted him as to have fall into his hands an intricate and complicated case in chancery. He was the last United States District Attorney of the Territory. Soon after the admission of the State he removed to Nebraska City and was afterwards made Chief Justice, and died in office in 1878. No purer man or brighter legal mind has ever adorned the bench of Nebraska. The personal mention of others of the territorial bar will be made under the proper head, in comments upon the bar of the city.

221

222

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

TERRITORIAL DAYS.

The organic act under which Nebraska was created a territory was passed by Con- gress in May, 1854. Under that act, on the 29th day of June, 1854, President Pierce commissioned Fenner Ferguson Chief Jus- tice, and Edward R. Hardin and James Bradley Associate Justices, of the Supreme Court. These judges came to Nebraska in the fall of that year, Chief Justice Ferguson taking the first judicial district, consisting of Douglas and Dodge Counties, Judge Har- din the second district, comprising the ter- ritory south of the Platte River, and Judge Bradley the third district, which embraced Washington and Burt Counties. These as- signments were made by Hon. Thomas B. Cuming, secretary of the territory, who, by reason of the death of Governor Burt, was the Acting Governor. The first term of the Supreme Court was fixed for the third Mon- day of February, 1855, at Omaha, and the first term of the District Court for this dis- trict was assigned to be held on the second Monday in March, 1855, at Bellevue, which was then a part of Douglas County. Feb- ruary 10, 1855, the Supreme Court was or- ganized at Omaha, in the Hall of Represen- tatives, in the old State House, on Nintlı Street between Farnam and Douglas Streets. There were present Chief Justice Ferguson; Judge Hardin; Experience Estabrook, United States Attorney; and J. Sterling Morton, clerk.

There was nothing done at that term, ex- cept to take an adjournment until the June following, when the court again convened with the same judges and the district attor- ney present. At this term there were ad- mitted, upon motion of General Estabrook, O. D. Richardson, A. J. Poppleton, A. J. Hanscom, Silas A. Strickland, L. L. Bowen, A. D. Jones and Samuel E. Rogers, as mem- bers of the bar, and their admission consti- tuted the only business transacted at that term of court.

By an act of the Territorial Legislature,

passed March 16, 1855, terms of the Supreme Court were appointed to be held at Omaha on the second Tuesday of December, and the second Tuesday in June, of each year. There were no other terms of the court held from June, 1855, until June, 1857. Judge Ferguson held his first term of District Court for this district at Bellevue, March 12. 1855, at which time the only business transacted was the appointment of Silas A. Strickland as clerk of the court.

On the 12th of April, following, the court met, but immediately adjourned until Octo- ber 16, 1855, at which term Allen Root and O. P. Mason, who have become historic characters in this State, were admitted as attorneys.

October 22, 1855, the first grand jury of the territory was convened, and consisted of the following named persons: R. Hoge- boom, I. P. Halleck, Sylvanus Dodge, Jesse Lowe, foreman, A. Davis, J. F. Kimball, H. Johnson, A. W. Trimble, S. Driskall, J. C. Reeves, J. Sailing, P. Cassidy, II. II. Smith, W. H. Smith, and J. R. Allen. The first in- dictment for murder was returned by this jury, Mr. Henry being the accused. He was defended by A. J. Poppleton and O. P. Mason, and was acquitted.

In 1856 Judge Bradley resigned, and re- turned to La Porte, Indiana, and Judge Eleazer Wakeley, of Wisconsin, was ap- pointed by President Pierce in January, 1857, to fill the vacancy; which position Judge Wakeley occupied until soon after the inauguration of President Lincoln, in 1861, when he returned to Wisconsin, again locat- ing in Nebraska in 1868.

Judge Ferguson, the first judge of this district, was elected a delegate to Congress in 1857, serving two years, and was suc- ceeded on the bench by IIon. Augustus Hall, of lowa. Judge Ferguson was born in Col- umbia County, New York, in 1814. He studied law in the office of Koon & Branhall, at Albany, was admitted as an attorney in 1840, and as a counselor in 1843. His res-

223

BENCH AND BAR IN TERRITORIAL DAYS.

idence in Nebraska was at Bellevue, then the trading post of the American Fur Com- pany under the agency of the famous Peter A. Sarpy. The death of Judge Ferguson occurred there November, 1859, at the age of forty-five, where his family continued to reside for many years.

Augustus IIall was appointed judge of this district in 1857. He died in 1861 at the age of forty-seven years. His residence was at Bellevue. He continued to act as judge until his death. His widow and son, Richard S. Hall, now of the firm of Hall, McCulloch & English, still reside in Omaha. Judge Hall was succeeded by William Pitt Kellogg, of Illinois. The last territorial judge of this district was William Kellogg, who was also of Illinois, and was the immediate suc- cessor of William Pitt Kellogg. The latter went into the army of the rebellion, and after the war removed to the State of Louis- iana, where he subsequently became known through the offices which he held as Gov- ernor of Louisiana and as Senator of the United States. Judge Wakeley was sue- ceeded by William F. Lockwood, who held the office until the admission of the State, in March, 1867. A very pleasing incident may here be noted. The territorial judges, Ferguson, Hall and Wakeley, have each sons in the active practice of the law in Omaha. Arthur Wakeley, Richard S. Hall and Arthur N. Ferguson (Mr. Ferguson hav- ing, as noted elsewhere, been appointed judge), also Experience Estabrook, the first United States Attorney, has a son, Ilenry D. Estabrook, engaged in the practice-all of them "chips of the old bloeks."

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History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 34

Author: Savage, James Woodruff, 1826-1890; Bell, John T. (John Thomas), b. 1842, joint author; Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: New York, Chicago, Munsell & Company Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Savage, James Woodruff, 1826-1890; Bell, John T. (John Thomas), b. 1842, joint author; Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: New York, Chicago, Munsell & Company
Number of Pages: 1020