USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska > Part 71
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Paxton & Gallagher (W. A. Paxton and Ben Gallagher). grocers, have in their em- ploy fifty-five persons, twenty-one of whom are commercial travelers. This house, which dates from 1879, does a general grocery business, imports large amounts of tea and cigars, and extends its trade to the Pa- cific States. The business occupies a large three-story building at 707 to 711 South Tenth Street.
Meyer & Raapke style themselves "The Pioneer Grocery llouse of Omaha," having been established in 1868. At that time they did only a retail business, amounting to about $20,000 annually. In 1872 it became
a wholesale traffic, Mr. Meyer doing all the traveling for the house for two or three years. The business now occupies a four- story building, at 1403 to 1407 llarney Street, and the trade amounts annually to half a million dollars, and keeps six men on the road. In 1887 a tussle with fire and water cost $20,000.
Allen Brothers, who were in the retail trade from 1881 to 1883, entered the whole- sale business at the latter date. They began with two men on the road, and now have seven. They occupy a four-story building, at 1108-1110 llarney Street.
Sloan, Johnson & Co., wholesale grocers, have been in business in Omaha since 1886. They employ twenty-five persons.
The Union Pacific Tea Company has one of its two hundred branches at Omaha, un- der the management of John Nevin, 204 North Sixteenth Street. The business is strictly a cash trade, and confined mainly to tea, coffee and spices. It was established in 1887.
T. S. Grigor & Co. have been established in the tea, coffee and spice trade here since 1884.
Sommer Brothers established a staple and fancy grocery business in 1885, which is now carried on at 2723 Farnam Street and 1302 North Eighteenth Street.
I. M. Back keeps a general stock of goods at 1120 to 1124 South Seventh Street, where he began work as a penniless elerk in 1875. After serving several years as clerk, he be- came a partner in the business, and later be- came sole proprietor.
Little & Williams, grocers, are located at 1407 Douglas Street. They have done busi- ness in this block since 1871.
William Gentleman, whose cognomen seems to have been appropriately bestowed, is a grocer at 501-503 North Sixteenth Street. He started in business in 1877.
A. H. Gladstone has been in the grocery business in Omaha since 1869, and was originally located on a portion of the ground
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occupied by the Millard Hotel. The present firm of Gladstone Brothers has existed since 1886, employs about fifteen people, and handles groceries, wines, liquors and cigars, at 1308-1310 Donglas Street.
In September, 1888, the Clarke Coffee Company and the firm of Gates. Cole & Miles united and formed the Consolidated Cof- fee Company, importer and jobber of teas, coffees, spices and cigars, with a capital stock of 130,000, one-half being paid in. Forty men are employed, ten of whom are on the road as commercial travelers. The amount of sales is half a million yearly.
The firm of Bates & Co. consists of J. E. and C. R. Bates, whose business dates back to 1886, when the commission house was started, to which a wholesale grocery trade has since attached. They do a business of $100,000, and keep three commercial men in the field.
A branch house of the A. Booth Packing Company is located in Omaha, and does a business in oysters, fish, etc., that compares favorably with that done by branches of the house in other cities.
The Platt Company, packers of the tiger brand of oysters, have had an agency in Omaha for ten years past, but it was not till the fall of 1889 that the business done here was sufficient to justify the establishment of a branch house. In addition to the oyster business, a large stock of fresh fislı and celery are also carried. Two commer- cial men solicit orders outside, and four within the city, and twenty persons are em- ployed in the work incident to the business in Omaha, which is managed by L. E. Wett- ling, who has had charge of the business since June, 1892. The firm's Omaha head- quarters is at 701 South Thirteenth Street.
WHOLESALE FLOUR DEALERS.
William Preston has been a dealer in flour in Omaha for about twenty years. His first location was at the corner of Sixteenth and Douglas Streets, where the J. J. Brown
Block now stands, where he conducted a wholesale and retail trade in flour and feed. In 1880, George Richardson and Charles L. Todd were associated in the business, and the firm became William Preston & Co., wholesale dealers in flour. Mr. Todd retired from the firm in 1884, and Mr. Richardson in June, 1891, since which time Mr. Preston has conducted the business, with the assist- ance of his sons, Alfred A. and Walter G. Preston. The annual sales of flour amount to 8250,000, and the trade covers Nebraska and adjoining states.
Since December, 1889, the R. T. Davis Mill Company, of St. Joseph, Missouri, has had a branch house at 802 Jackson Street, which does a large flour business.
C. E. Black manages the wholesale flour business of S. F. Gilman, 1013 to 1017 North Sixteenth Street. The enterprise was start- ed in the fall of 1887, with one carload of flour, and now that amount is disposed of daily. Since August, 1891, the trade has been carried on in a house built purposely for this firm. Mr. Gilman is a resident of Davenport, Iowa, and the business, since its institution, has been in the charge of Mr. Black.
George Richardson. a former employe of William Preston & Co., has, since September 1, 1891, conducted the business of wholesale dealer in flour, grain and hay, at 1207 to 1211 South Twentieth Street, employing six persons.
DRUGS.
The Richardson Drug Company, wholesale druggist at 902 to 906 Jackson Street, was established in January, 1887, as a branch of the well-known St. Louis house of the same name, and succeeded to the wholesale business of the Goodman Drug Company, on Jones Street. The building which this firm now uses is sixty-six feet wide, 132 feet long, and five stories high, with double base- ment, all of the space in the house being occupied. The business, which at first gave employment to four traveling men and
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twenty persons at the house, now requires nine men on the road and forty-seven per- sons at the house. The first year's business was over half a million dollars, and the trade has steadily grown each year since. The extensive laboratory is a prominent feature of the institution. The goods sold by this house are sent to all parts of the west, northwest and southwest. Since the burning of the establishment at St. Louis, the Omaha house has been the working cen- ter of the business. The officers of the company are: J. C. Richardson, president; C. F. Weller (president of the Chemical Bank of St. Louis), vice president and manager of the Omaha business, and Amos Field, secretary and treasurer.
The wholesale drug house of Blake, Bruce & Co., importers of druggists' and stationers' sundries, is the successor of the II. T. Clarke Drug Company. This house has done busi- ness here since January, 1887, and is located in the double four-story brick building, cor- ner of Tenth and Harney Streets. They do business on a capital of $150,000. The members of the company are: C. F. Blake, E. E. Bruce, W. B. Goodall, C. E. Bedwell. The trade extends into Western Iowa, Ne- braska, Missouri, Kansas, South Dakota, Wyoming, where the firm's commercial trav- elers visit, and to points farther west by mail orders.
In November, 1883, J. A. Fuller and J. H. Dumont enlisted in the drug trade, un- der the firm name of J. A. Fuller & Co. They are located at 1402 Douglas Street, and are engaged in the usual prescription business and in jobbing of heavy goods.
The Goodman Drug Company is the suc- cessor of C. F. Goodman, who started where the company now does business, 1110 Far- nam Street, in April, 1868. Mr. Goodman bought the realty and stock, succeeding E. A. Allen, and engaged in the wholesale and re- tail drug trade, in which he continued till January, 1886, when he organized the Good- man Drug Company, of which C. F. Good-
man is president and O. P. Goodman treasurer. The wholesale department was moved to Jones Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Streets, where it continued a year, and was then sold to the Richardson Drug Company. The retail business was continued at the old stand, and physicians' supplies and surgical instruments added to the usual line of goods. In 1877 the Pioneer Block, in which the company was located, burned, the store, warehouse and stock being a total loss, amounting to $50,000. The re-estab- lishment of the business was quickly accom- plished, and the jobbing and retail trade amounts ycarly to $100,000. Mr. Goodman was sole representative in this line of busi- ness when he engaged in it twenty-three years ago.
The Kinsler Drug Company began busi- ness in 1887. In November, 1889, it was incorporated, with a capital stock of $30,000. The officers are: J. T. Kinsler, president; M. J. Kinsler, vice president; J. C. Kinsler, secretary and treasurer. This firm first started in business in a nicely fitted up store at 1307 Farnam Street, succeeding Cheney & Olsen. In May, 1892, Hullinger & Railey bought this stock, and now occupy the store. In June, 1890, a second store was opened, on the corner of Sixteenth and Farnam Streets, in the Commercial National Bank building. This store is well fitted up, and has the finest marble soda fountain and counter in the central west.
McCormick & Lund are prosperous drug- gists at Fifteenth and Farnam Streets. In January, 1891, they succeeded D. W. Saxe, who had done business here for eight or ten years. The members of the firm are John McCormick and John G. Lund.
The Aloe & Penfold Company commenced business here in March, 1891, as a branch of A. S. Aloe & Co., of St. Louis, Missouri, with a capital stock of $10,000. Its trade in in- struments, supplies, optical goods, drugs, etc., extends from the Missouri River to the Pa- cific Coast. The officers of the company are,
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A. S. Aloe, St. Louis, Missouri, president; E. E. Muffitt, vice president; II. J. Penfold, secretary and treasurer. Place of business 114 South Fifteenth Street.
Charles R. Sherman and A. B. McConnell are manufacturing and prescription pharma- cists at 1513 Dodge Street, under the firm name of Sherman & McConnell. They have a neat store, and do a wholesale and retail business in homeopathic supplies, in addition to the usual line of traffic. They have been in business since 1889.
Leslie & Leslie, proprietors of the " C'en- tral Pharmacy," have been engaged in the drug business here since 1884.
James Forsyth came to Omaha in the spring of 1864, and after long service as a clerk in the drug business, opened a store on his own account, in 1877, on the corner of Fourteenth and Douglas Streets. Three years later he bought the branch store of C. F. Goodman, on the corner of Capitol A venne and Sixteenth Street, where he is now lo- cated.
Norman A. Kuhn (Kuhn & Co.), started in the drug business in April, 1879, at Fif- teenth and Douglas Streets, and has built up a brisk business.
John W. Bell, druggist, is located at the corner of Eleventh and Mason Streets. Ile came to Omaha in 1870, and conducted a branch store for Ish, on Twelfth and Doug- las Streets, till 1876, and soon after started in the drug business for himself, on Tenth, between Leavenworth and Marcy. In 1880 the block he was in, burned, and his loss was total; including stock, books, accounts, and all. Insurance $1,500. The fire occurred May 1st, and on June 1st Mr. Bell had com- pleted and occupied a new structure on the site of the one burned. The building of the viaduct necessitated a removal, and in Jan- mary, 1891, he moved to present location.
R. H. Blose, a former employe of Kuhn & Co., opened a drug store at 1101 North Eighteenth Street, in January, 1889, which he conducted till September, 1892, when he
disposed of his interest, and the establish- ment took the name of the Palace Pharmacy, under the management of C. Bartels, a na- tive of llanover, who received his education for this line of business in the old country. This house has a well-established suburban trade.
The Hunter llomeopathic Pharmacy Com- pany, established February, 1892, is com- posed of J. P. Hunter, president ; Herman Luyties, Jr., vice-president, and E. Irene Ilunter, secretary. The establishment does both wholesale and retail business and is the only exclusively homeopathie pharmacy in Omaha. The trade extends throughout Ne- braska and into surrounding States.
COMMISSION HOUSES.
Peycke Brothers, Ernest and Julins, do a large commission business in fruit and pro- (luce, at the corner of Eleventh and How- ard Streets. Ernest and Edmund Peycke began the business on Farnam Street in 1870, and later Julius was admitted as a member of the firm, and in 1884 the manufacture of confectionery was added to the business. Since January, 1891, Peycke Brothers have conducted the commission business, and Ed- mund Peycke has been proprietor of the candy manufacturing business. The com- mission trade amounts to a large figure yearly and keeps a large force of hands busy.
Porter Brothers' Company, commission merchants, of Chicago, Illinois, have a branch house here, managed by P. W. Butts, 801 to 811 Jones Street, which was established May, 1890, employing fifteen persons. The fruit received is almost entirely in car load lots from California, a portion of which is disposed of in Omaha and the remainder shipped to towns in lowa, Nebraska, Dakota and Kansas. Trackage accommodations permit the unloading of three cars at once greatly facilitating the disposal of consign- ments. The business is extensive and in- creasing.
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Branch & Co. are wholesale commission merchants at the corner of Harney and Thir- teenth Streets. The business, which is flour- ishing, was established in 1883, and embraces fruits, produce and oysters.
Kirschbraun & Sons have one of their three produce commission honses in Omaha, located here in 1884, at 1209 Howard Street. The business is managed by Louis Kirsch- braun.
The remainder of the produce and com- mission business is divided up among the following named companies, some of which do a large business:
Robert Purvis, 1220 Harney Street, estab- Iished 1870.
Schroeder & Co., 423 South Eleventh Street; in business since 1887.
The Iowa and Nebraska Creamery Com- pany, 309 South Twelfth Street, began busi- ness December; 1890. The members of this company are N. F. and P. C. Storey.
Ribbel & George, 1207 Howard Street, es- tablished 1888.
Williams & Cross, 1214 Harney Street, began business in 1890.
Mullin & McClain, 415 South Eleventh Street, started in 1888.
Riddell & Co., 1104-1106 Howard Street, whose business dates back to 1885.
S. I. Valentine & Co., 307 South Twelfth Street, are a later accession to the commis- sion business.
Jolin A. Krug & Co., 1011 Howard Street, established 1889.
L. M. Leslie, 1015 Howard Street, have been in the commission business since 1889.
J. II. Feilbach & Co., 1017 Howard Street, date back to 1887.
Icken & Wohlers, 1205 Howard Street, have been in business since January, 1891.
SEED HOUSES.
John Evans, now doing business at 1406 Dodge Street, is the proprietor of the origi- nal seed house of Nebraska, having started the business in 1867, in connection with
groceries. Ile does a jobbing business that extends to the Pacific Ocean, and has a large retail trade in Omaha.
Phil Stimmel is a grower and jobber of Nebraska and Northern seeds. He occupies a four-story building at 911 Jones Street, and has three traveling salesmen. The house was opened in 1885.
The Nebraska Seed Company has lately succeeded the Emerson Seed Company, at 421-423 South Fifteenth Street. This com- pany also has three traveling salesmen, and employs from five to fifteen men. Mrs. Philip Windheim is the proprietor of the business, and Richard Engelmann manager.
SADDLERY, LEATHER AND HIDES.
L. C. Iluntington engaged in the hide and leather business in 1861. As L. C. Ilunting- ton & Co. the business continued till 1875, when his son took the place of the company. This was the first house of the kind in Omaha. Since 1886 C. S. and A. S. Hunt- ington, the sons of the founder of the house, have carried on the business at 1114 Jackson Street, where they employ nine men.
G. Brandenburg & Co. are wholesale leather dealers at 1012 Farnam Street. This house was established in 1884.
C. D. Woodworth & Co., retail dealers in harness and saddles, have been in business since 1885, at that time succeeding L. Wood- worth, who had been in the carriage and harness business since 1861. In March, 1892, Woodworth & Co. bought out Welty & Guy, and occupied that firm's late quarters at 1316 Farnam Street.
Collins & Morrison are successors to G. H. & J. S. Collins, wholesale dealers in saddlery, 1316 Douglas Street, where the business was begun May 1, 1864. In the palmy days of the former firm's existence it sold large amounts of goods for stocking western mili- tary posts in the Department of the Platte, and when the Union Pacific was built, con- struction companies and graders were exten- sive purchasers, whose trade left a large
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margin of profit in the dealers' hands. In 1880 G. H. Collins died, but the business continued under the firm name till February, 1890, when John Morrison, who had been in the firm's employ for a long time, became a partner in the business, the partnership name becoming Collins & Morrison. From 1871 to 1880 the business was carried on at 1315 Farnam Street. At the latter date a fire destroyed the building this company occupied, and $20,000 worth of stock. Im- mediately after the fire the present three- story brick building was erected, and, on its completion, was occupied with a stock of saddles, harness and adjuncts of the trade. A large portion of the goods they handle are manufactured here. Twenty-five persons are employed, and goods are sent all over the northwestern country.
George Oberne & Co., of Chicago, dealers in hides, wool, etc., have five branch houses in western cities. The Omaha branch, managed by F. S. Bush, is located at 513 South Thirteenth Street, and has existed in Omaha since 1868. Four or five traveling men are employed, and the same number about the house.
J. S. Smith & Co. are in the same busi- ness as the foregoing, and are also a branch of a Chicago house. Mr. Ed. Perry has had charge of the business since it was opened here in 1885. The combined annual business of these two firms is nearly half a million dollars.
OIL, LEAD, PAINTS, AND GLASS,
The Consolidated Tank Line Company, of Cincinnati, established a branch here in 1879, which handles all the products of petroleum, and also linseed oil, turpentine, and axle grease. The company's office is in the Mer- chants' National Bank, the works at Thir- teenthi and Locust Streets, and occupy three acres of ground. Forty men are employed outside, and twelve in the office; 125,000 barrels of coal oil are handled, and the ag- gregate of the business is $900,000. The company does its own cooperage, and turns
out at its works in this city over three hun- dred barrels daily. Alex McDonald is president of the company, John B. Ruth is manager for the Omaha branch and its agencies, and L. J. Drake is general mana- ger, with headquarters at Omaha, having charge of Iowa, Nebraska, Dakota, Missouri and Kansas.
The Fidelity Oil Company, R. C. Baugh- man, proprietor, wholesale dealer in illumi- nating and lubricating oils, located at South Twentieth Street and Union Pacific Railroad tracks, began business here in 1886. The amount of sales of oil annually is 27,000 barrels. Employment is furnished to twen- ty-seven persons.
A branch house of Scofield, Shurmer & Teagle, refiners of petroleum and its prod- ucts, of Cleveland, Ohio, is located at Tenth and Clark Streets, having been established in 1890. Twelve men are employed, and the business is growing. T. S. Waltemeyer is manager.
Since the spring of 1890 the St. Louis Lead and Oil Company, the Collier White Lead and Oil Company, and the Southern White Lead Company, of St. Louis, Missouri, have been represented here by E. E. Brando. Two men travel from here for these firms. Between 800 and 1,000 tons of lead are an- nually sold.
The Omaha Oil and Paint Company sells paints and art glass at wholesale, at 1402 Dodge Street. The paint is manufactured at Lincoln.
The Kennard Glass and Paint Company has been in the import, jobbing and retail trade since 1887. The members of this firm, L. J. and F. B. Kennard, are among the old merchants of the city, having been in the dry goods trade in the latter part of the six- ties, and conducted a wholesale drug busi- ness from 1875 to 1883. They employ ten persons, and do a business extending as far west as Utah.
Ilarry T. Warner, corner of Twentieth and Cuming Streets, has dealt in paints,
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oils and wall paper since April, 1888. Since March, 1889, the manufacture of paste has been carried on, in connection with the other business, and a sufficient quantity is made to supply the city trade, and places easily accessible in Nebraska and Iowa.
TOBACCO AND CIGARS.
Max Meyer & Co., the junior partner be- ing Moritz Meyer, who has charge of the business, are wholesale and retail dealers in tobacco and cigars, at 1522 Farnam Street. They carry a very large stock of goods, and import cigars largely from Cuba and tobacco from Austria. Five salesmen sell their goods in the territory west of the Missouri River tributary to Omaha.
Henry Langstadter, successor to Erlich & Langstadter, 116 South Fifteenth Street, has dealt in cigars, tobacco and smokers' articles in Omaha since 1889.
E. L. Robertson & Bro., 216 South Fif- teenth Street, deal in cigars and tobaccos, at wholesale and retail, and rank among the first dealers in the city in amount of business done. They have been in business here about three years.
H. Rosenstock & Co. are importers and dealers in leaf tobacco, at 1104 Douglas Street. They succeeded, September, 1891, Wedeles & Co., who had been in business five years. Rosenstock & Co. do a strictly whole- sale business.
WHOLESALE LIQUOR STORES.
The oldest house in this line is that of Riley Brothers, who do a wholesale liquor and cigar business at 1118 Farnam Street. This firm, which now consists of Andrew, E. F. and Bernard Riley, began business on Twelfth and Douglas Streets in October, 1877, as A. Riley & Co. Since that time some changes have occurred in the member- ship, Mr. Dillon, a former member, retiring and the present partnership beginning in 1888.
The firm of Frick & Herbertz, composed of Andrew Frick and Charles Herbertz, be-
gan business in 1885, which has proved sat- isfactory. They are located at 1001 Farnam Street.
John Boekhoff, of 1210 Douglas Street, has been in the liquor business since 1885, when a partnership was formed by Boekhoff & Mack, which existed till 1889. Since then Mr. Boekhoff has carried on the business alone.
M. Wollstein & Co. first opened a liquor store on Thirteenth and Jackson Streets in 1881. The Chicago Liquor House, on Six- teenth and Davenport Streets, was started in 1884, and the Eagle Liquor House, at 2224 Cuming, early in 1891.
L. Kirscht and E. Durr have carried on a liquor business in Omaha since 1887, al- though the present house was established in Council Bluffs in 1861, as Groenewig & Kirscht, becoming L. Kirscht & Co. on the retirement of Mr. Groenewig, in 1879, and Kirscht & Durr in 1892. They are located at 407-409 South Tenth Street.
Adler & Heller, jobbers in liquors and cigars, at 1114 Farnam Street, first began business here in 1877. The monotony of commercial routine was varied in 1888 by a fire, which, with water, damaged them to some extent.
Ilenry Hiller, proprietor of the Family Wine and Liquor 1Iouse, began in 1890, and does a wholesale and retail business at 616 North Sixteenth Street. Number of em- ployes, five.
J. A. Wood & Co., liquor merchants, are located at 213 South Fifteenth Street. This firm, which has been established four years, imports fine foreign goods specially for its own trade. The members of the firm are: John A. Wood and E. E. Whitmore.
William Darst, importer and wholesale and retail dealer in wines and liquors, began business in Omaha in 1886, carrying a good stock, and having a trade extending west to Ogden, Utah, and into Montana. Mr. Darst was succeeded in July, 1892, by the Los Angeles Wine, Liquor & Cigar Co., whichi
Guv. a. Horplan
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was incorporated with L. M. Darst, presi- dent; M. J. Manix, vice president: William Darst, secretary and treasurer, with a paid up capital of $25,000. This is probably the only absolutely cash liquor house in Ne- braska. The business occupies numbers 116 and 118 South Sixteenth Street.
Ike New, wholesale dealer in wines and liquors, opened a store in the city January 1, 1892, at Thirteenth and Douglas Streets.
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