USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska > Part 73
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90.000
Confectionery
195,000
Cigars and tobacco.
Tea, coffee and spices
675 000
Oils
750.000
Total
$56,091,000
Millinery goods Confectionery.
600,000
Steam, water and railway supplies .. .
CHAPTER LIV.
MANUFACTURING INTERESTS -THEIR GROWTH AND PRESENT CONDITION - A GRATIFYING ARRAY OF FACTS.
It is only within a few years past that the manufacturing interests of Omaha have assumed importance, which fact is due, chiefly, to the lack of cheap fuel. The de- velopment of coal mines in lowa, Kansas and Missouri, with the gradual reduction of freight rates by the railroad companies and the introduction of electricity as a motive power for manufacturers, has produced great and most gratifying results in this connection, and now Omaha occupies a high station as a manufacturing center, the total capital invested at the close of 1892 being $12,267,600.00.
Manufacturing began with the begin- ning of Omaha, and the first thing at- tempted in this line was the making of brick on the block bounded by Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Leavenworth and Marcy Streets. Here, in the summer of 1854, Ben Winchester, the contractor for brick for the territorial capitol, prepared a kiln for burning and covered it with canvas to protect it from rain. The canvas was stolen (whether by Indians or whites, tradition saith not) and a heavy rain falling at night reduced the shapely parallelopipeds to a formless pile of clay. Thus ended the first attempt to man- ufacture in Omaha, and the bricks for the structure were brought from the Iowa side of the river. A little later O. B. Selden, the pioneer blacksmith, erected his forge on the north side of Howard between Thir- teenth and Fourteenth Streets, where he became an important adjunct to Omaha's incipient greatness.
In the same year a saw mill was estab- lished by Thomas Davis at the corner of
Ninth and Jackson Streets. This was close to the corner of the present Union Pa- cific freight depot. In 1855 Smith & Salisbury erected a saw mill on the bank of the river about 200 yards above the spot where later stood the old water works pumping station. To this mill logs were rafted down from points higher up the river. These mills were kept busy and the lumber was not generally allowed to remain long on the yard. In order to get lumber it was often necessary to have a team ready to haul it away as soon as it was sawed, for the rule, first come, first served, applied, and he who waited to allow others to be first supplied, often went away empty handed. The demand for lumber and fuel soon caused the destruction of the forest about Omaha and with it the mills also disappeared. It was not till 1858 that a permanent factory was established and then the first of the
CARRIAGE FACTORIES
was erected and business began by Andrew J. Simpson, who has the oldest established carriage manufactory in Nebraska. He en- gaged in that business in this city in that year, coming from Sacramento, California, and opening a small shop on Douglas Street, near Fourteenth, but for many years his business has been conducted in a three-story brick building, erected by himself, on Dodge Street, west of Fourteenth. He employs thirty-five men.
Frost & Ilarris-Harry Frost and L. D. Harris-both former employes of Andrew J. Simpson, began business for themselves in
492
493
MANUFACTURING INTERESTS.
May, 1889, at the corner of Twenty-third and Izard Streets, and now employ twenty- five men, doing an extensive business in carriage manufacturing and repairing.
William R. Drummond & Co., located in a three-story brick building, on Eighteenth Street, near Farnam, have twenty-five thous- and dollars capital. Their business as car- riage manufacturers was begun in this city in 1885. They employ twenty-eight work- men.
E. D. Meadimber is the successor of the firm of Meadimber & Daily, which began the business of carriage making in 1875, on the corner of Sixteenth Street and Capitol Av- enue, employing two men. In 1881 that partnership was dissolved. In July, 1890, the factory then occupied by Mr. Meadim- ber, on the corner of Sixteenth and Chicago Streets, burned, entailing a loss of thirty-five thousand dollars, but Phoenix-like he rose from the ashes, and within twenty-four hours from the time the fire broke out he had an awning stretched over the hardly-cold brick walls of his late factory, and a portion of his men were at work as usual, and within forty-five days from the time of the fire he had erected a substantial brick factory at 1513 and 1515 Chicago Strect, forty-four feet wide, 132 feet long and four stories high, with modern machinery and run by electric power. Fifty men are now employed and all sorts of carriages are made.
William Snyder began the business of carriage manufacture in 1879. The work of the first year was done by himself. Since then he has gradually increased the number of his employes, having at the present time twelve men. Ile makes a specialty of fine carriage work. The factory is located at the corner of Fourteenth and Harney Streets.
B. H. Osterhoudt is proprietor of the Cass Street Carriage Works. The business was begun in 1887.
The Cuming Street Carriage Works are operated by F. W. Simpson. The business was started in 1886.
The carriage works of William Pfeiffer are located at the southwest corner of Twen- ty-eighth and Leavenworth Streets,
IRON WORKERS.
P. J. Karbach is one of Omalia's old set- tlers. In 1858 he was in the employ of his brother, Charles J. Karbach, blacksmith, who then had a shop on Douglas Street, where Beard Brothers are now. For two years fol- lowing 1866 the brothers were partners in business. Then P. J. Karbach opened a shop, and in 1870 added wagon making, which he has continued till the present time. He is now located at 1312 Howard Street, where he has a substantial brick building of three stories, and employs eight men.
W. Boehl, proprietor of the Acme Iron and Wire Works, has been in the business since 1869. After experiencing some re- verses he finally built the establishment he now occupies at 512 South Sixteenth Street.
T. M. Trevett, machinist, established him- self in the locksmith and repair business on Douglas Street in 1869. Later he was burned out. In 1888 he removed to his present place, 714 South Fourteenth Street, where he mannfactures elevators and does a general manufacturing and repair business, employing seven hands.
E. P. Davis is president, J. B. Cowgill general superintendent and H. S. McDonald secretary of the Davis & Cowgill Iron Works, manufacturers and jobbers of machinery. They employ fifty men and are extensive manufacturers of electric street railroad ent gearing. Their machinery finds a market throughout the west from British Columbia to Texas and as far east as Indiana.
John McLearie and E. Oehrle are the pro- prietors of the Phenix Foundry and Ma- chine Company, which arose from the ashes of a business of the same kind carried on by these gentlemen at Twenty-fifth and Patrick Streets until burned down in 1889. They now employ twenty-five men at the works on Pinkney Street and Belt Line.
494
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.
Wearne Brothers are proprietors of a foundry at 1409 Jackson Street. The busi- ness dates from 1880. Fifteen men are em- ployed, and their castings are sent over the entire north-west.
The Mid-Continent Boiler Works, corner of Pierce and Nineteenth Streets, Wilson & Drake, proprietors, carry on an extensive business in the line of boilers, tanks, etc., with $30,000 invested. The establishment employs thirty men.
Carter & Son have been engaged in the manufacture of boilers, tanks, smoke stacks, etc., in Omaha since 1888, on the B. & M. railway tracks at the intersection of Twen- tieth Street. Twenty men are employed by this firm.
C. Specht is proprietor of the Western Cornice Works, which were started up in Omaha in 1880, with four or five men, now employing fifty to seventy. Mr. Specht has done an extensive business during the late building era, having done the work in his line on many of the finest buildings in the city.
The Eagle Cornice Works, John Epeneter, proprietor, are situated at 1110, 1112 Dodge Street, having been moved from Council Bluffs in 1885. Thirty men are employed. Ornamental stamping is done here, these be- ing the only works where this kind of work is done west of Chicago.
McBrien & Carter are manufacturers of sheet metal cornice work, etc., at 110 South Eleventh Street. They employ five men and have been established here since 1889.
J. J. Leddy is proprietor of the Champion Iron and Wire Works, at 403 South Four- teenth Street, which have been in operation since 1887, employing ten men.
The Omaha Machine Works were located in Omaha in 1888, and give employment to fifteen men. The proprietors are C. O. Michaelson and C. F. Jorgenson.
The Omaha Safe and Iron Works of G. Andreen, at 610, 612 South Fourteenth Street, have been operated since 1875. Mr.
Andreen is an inventor and has three patents on articles of his manufacture. In July, 1892, Earl W. Gannett purchased an interest in these works, of which G. Andreen is president and manager, and Mr. Gannett secretary and treasurer. Fifteen men are employed.
John Pabian has machine works at 1209 South Thirteenth Street. The business was started in 1890.
The Omaha Manufacturing Company was established here in 1891. Wrought iron and steel ribbon fencing are manufactured. Wm. C. Smith and Isaac N. Hamilton are the proprietors.
The Martin & Morrissey Manufacturing Company, of East Omaha, manufactures feed steamers, tank heaters and special ma- chinery, and also does all kinds of casting. This company began business in Iowa in 1888 and accepted the inducements offered by the East Omaha Land Company and located in East Omaha in July, 1890, being the second manufacturing company there. The building occupied is forty by ninety feet in size, part of it being two stories. Work is given to a number of men varying from twelve to twenty.
The Paxton & Vierling Iron Works, capi- tal 8125,000, corner of Seventeenth Street and the Union Pacific Railway, are the out- come of a small establishment located on C'ass Street a dozen years ago, known as the C'ass Street Foundry, of which T. W. T. Richards and L. G. Ileybrook were the pro- prietors. The destruction of the building by fire caused a removal of the business to the present site, and in 1886 it passed into the ownership of Wm. A. Paxton, Robert Vierling, Louis Vierling and A. J. Vierling, who now occupy the positions of president, vice president, secretary and treasurer, and manager, respectively, in the order named. Great success has attended the enterprise, and the establishment is now favorably known all over the west. Two hundred and fifty men are constantly employed. The
495
MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
manufactured product of these works amounts to $300,000.00 annually. The com- pany owns four acres of land, so that there is abundant room for growth.
The manufacture of barbed wire for fenc- ing purposes was inaugurated in Omaha by Thomas Gibson while secretary of the Board of Trade. He commenced in a small way at the foot of Capitol Avenue in 1880. A few years since M. M. Marshall, O. N. Ram- sey, W. J. Broatch and others purchased the plant, and it was by them removed to the corner of Fourteenth and Nicholas Streets. where $50,000 was expended in ground and buildings. Employment was given to one hundred men, the manufacture of wire, nails and wood fence pickets was added and the business largely increased. The company was later styled the Omaha Barb Wire Fence and Nail Company. The officers were: Jeff W. Bedford, president; Thomas H. Taylor, manager; Charles Burmester, secretary and treasurer; the capital being $150,000., and the annual product of barbed wire four or five thousand tons-enough to encircle the world once or make a five wire fence long enough to inclose twice the amount of land in the States of North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, and then have some to spare. The company was unable to com- pete with the larger factories of the kind. and closed down in the fall of 1892.
Nail works were established in this city in the spring or 1878, a temporary building be- ing erected on the north side of the Union Pacific track between Sixteenth and Seven- teenth Streets. Machinery to the value of $14,000 was put in and work carried on quite actively for a time. John A. Creigh- ton was president of the company; G. T. Walker, vice-president and superintendent; James Creighton, secretary and treasurer; John A. McShane, assistant secretary and treasurer; and Robt. W. Wilson, assistant superintendent. The company had a paid up capital of $50,000. During 1879 40,000 kegs of nails were made and an additional
outlay of $12,500 made, in providing more machinery and extending the buildings. Legal complications arising, work was sus- pended for several years, but in 1886 Mr. Walker re-organized the company, his asso- ciates being W. H. Havens, W. N. McCand- lish and George C. Towle. A considerable sum of money was expended during that year and the year following in improvements, and a quantity of nails were manufactured. It was then decided to remove the works to some locality where more ground could be secured and re-built on a much more ex- tensive plan, and the company concluded to accept a very generous offer made by certain property owners at St. Joseph, Mo., and in 1888 the plant was removed to that city.
UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD SIIOPS.
When the Union Pacific Railroad Company began the construction of its road. shops were established here in a small way. The investment has been gradually increased, as the needs of the road required, until $2,510 .- 000 have been expended in machinery and buildings, and now about sixty acres of ground are covered by the buildings, in which are carried on all the industries con- nected with shops of this character; the plant being the largest and most complete of its kind west of Chicago. The number of men employed, January 1, 1893, was 1,385, and the average number for the year 1892 was 1,318. The wages paid during the year to employes of the shops was $1,377,226, an average per month of nearly $115,000. The value of the output will aggregate more than $3,750,000, which includes the building of sixteen locomotives and the re- pairing of 250; the building and repairing of 5,911 freight and 250 passenger cars. Over 6,000 tons of castings were made, used and shipped to the other shops of the rail- road system. The furnaces used 12,150 tons of coal during the year. J. II. McCon- nell is the superintendent of motive power and machinery; J. II. Manning, division
496
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.
master mechanic; A . M. Collett, general fore- man car department; O. E. Gugler, foreman of the shops; Edward Richelieu of the found- ries, and A. A. Gibson of the blacksmith shop. The location of these shops at Omaha adds fully 7,000 persons to its population.
TINWARE FACTORIES.
The Western Tin ware Manufacturing Com- pany-M. M. Gowdy, C. G. Newell and M. G. Kibbe-began business January 1, 1890. Twenty-five persons find employment in the manufacture of pieced ware. The company also handles stamped and japanned tin ware. On account of the growth of this industry this firm moved, January 1, 1892, from its former quarters at 614-18 South Eleventh Street to 1211 Harney Street, where increased facilities afford the requisites for increased production.
The Omaha Tinware Manufacturing Com- pany - William Wallace, president; Frank P. Hanlon, vice president; Lewis Ley, man- ager; and C. Wright, superintendent - commenced business January 1, 1890, hav- ing been organized the year previous. The business is conducted at Nos. 1316-18 Jones Street, and employs seventy-five hands. The manufactured articles, among which are one million cans, being sold throughout Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Col- orado. Four car loads of tin plate per month are used.
SHOT WORKS.
The Omaha Shot and Lead Works, for- merly the Northwestern Shot and Lead Com- pany, have been in successful operation for twelve years, the first location being on South Twenty-fourth Street, in Wilcox's addition. New works of a solid and expen- sive character were built in 1890, on Seven- teenth Street near Mason. F. B. Lawrence is president and T. H. Merriam secretary of the company.
SMELTING WORKS.
The Omaha & Grant Smelting Company was organized October 15, 1870, by C. II.
Downs, Wm. H. Pier, John A. Horbach and W. W. Lowe, with a capital stock of $60,000, which amount was expended in construc- tion within a year or two. In its early history A. L. King, Leopold Balbach, C. W. Mead, C. B. Rustin and E. W. Nash were identified with the company, Mr. Nash being the only one of all of the above named who is now connected with it. Mr. Charles Bal- bach was superintendent of the works from 1871 to 1888. In August, 1882, the Grant Smelting Company, of Denver, Colorado, was consolidated with the Omaha company and a re-organization was effected with a capital of $2,500,000.00 fully paid in. The present officers are : Guy C. Barton, president; James B. Grant, vice-president; E. W. Nash, secretary and treasurer; Edward Eddy, general manager. The money invested in buildings and ma- chinery at Omaha and Denver foots up something over $1,000,000. The business for the year 1892, amounted to $21,354,000. More than one thousand men are employed at Omaha and Denver by the company-now the largest of its kind in the world-and over $70,000 per month is paid out for sal- aries and wages. The buildings are of the most substantial character, and those in this city, with the yards, cover about twenty-five acres of ground. The estab- lishment handles silver, lead and copper ores from the western States and territories, Mexico and the British possessions. The following is a statement of the product of the business for 1892:
48,000 tons lead, valued at .. $ 3,840,000 17,000,000 ounces of silver, valuedat ..... 14,716,550 123 000 ounces of gold, valued at ........ 2.534,800 1000 tous copper and sulphate, val. at ... 263 500
Total value $21,354,850.
WHITE LEAD WORKS.
The Carter White Lead Company is the successor to the Omaha White Lead Com- pany, which established in Omaha the first white lead works west of Chicago and St. Louis and started them up about the first of August, 1878. The original stockholders
WE FI TUBER
THE SMELTING WORKS DURING THE FLOOD OF 1881.
RUINS OF THE GRAND CENTRAL HOTEL, BURNED SEPTEMBER, 1878.
497
MANUFACTURING INTERESTS.
were Wm. A. Paxton, Levi Carter, C. Hart- man, W. B. Royal, C. W. Mead, N. Shelton, D. O. Clark and S. E. Locke. The company was organized with a capital stock of $60,- 000, with C. W. Mead, president; N. Shel- ton, secretary and S. E. Lock, manager; the capacity of the works being about 1,000 tons per year, and the working force num- bering about twenty. In 1881 the capacity of the works was increased to fifteen hun- dred tons per year and the, capital to ninety thousand dollars. The business flourished for two or three years and then, on account of the low price received for the manufac- tured product during the last part of 1885, the affairs of the company were brought to a close. In January, 1886, the works and. business were sold to Mr. L. Carter, who organized the Carter White Lead Company, with a capital of $150,000, with L. Carter, president; H. W. Yates, vice-president, and S. B. Ilayden, secretary. In 1889 the capi- tal was increased to $500,000, Mr. Yates selling his interest to Messrs. Carter and Ilayden. In the latter part of 1889 im- provements costing sixty thousand dollars, and increasing the capacity of the plant to over four thousand tons per year, were added, and the working force increased to about fifty men. On June 14, 1890, the works were completely destroyed by fire and on the 15th of July the company com- menced the erection of new works, cost- ing nearly $200.000, and having a capac- ity of ten thousand tons per year, at East Omaha, and by the first of December, of the same year, they were completed and in ope- ration. There are now employed at the works from sixty to seventy-five men, and the weekly pay-roll amounts to from $650 to $800. During the year 1892 the company's sales amounted to seven thousand tons, or fourteen million pounds of pure white lead, of the value of one million dollars. All the pig lead used is bought from the Omaha and Grant Smelting and Refining Company. The increasing business of these works, now 32
among the largest in the country, is expected to require their enlargement during the coming year.
GAS WORKS.
January 15, 1868, two petitions were pre- sented in the City Council praying for authority for the supplying of Omaha with gas-one by George B. Groff and others, on behalf of " The Omaha Gas Company," and the other by Enos Lowe and others, repre- senting " The Omaha Gas Manufacturing Company." The petitions were referred to a special committee, which afterwards pre- sented a favorable report, which was adopt- ed, and the proper ordinance drafted and also adopted. The first named company did not prosecute the work, however; but Dr. Lowe's company perfected its organization and went about their task with considerable enthusiasmn. Two lots were leased to the company by the city for a term of thirty years from February 19, 1868, at the nomi- nal rental of five dollars a year, the city having the right to bny the works at an ap- praised value at the end of fifteen years. In November, 1869, the Gas Company reported to the Council that the total number of con- sumers of gas was 198. One year later there were only one hundred street lamps in the city. From these small beginnings the busi- ness has steadily increased. Employment is now given to 125 men, to whom $6,000 is disbursed monthly. The works were ex- tended during the year 1890 at an outlay of $100,000, including $60,000 paid for a new gas holder at the corner of Twentieth and Center Streets, since which time about $25,000 has been annually paid out for repairs and extensions. The company has now nearly 4,000 patrons, and there are nearly 800 street lamps. Five thousand tons of coal are con- sumed yearly, brought chiefly from Pennsyl- vania. Three-fourths of the block bounded by Jones, Leavenworth, Eleventh and Twelfth Streets is covered by the buildings of the company, but it is purposed to remove the manufacturing plant to the tract of three
498
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMANIA.
acres owned by the company at Twentieth and Center Streets. The three gas holders have a capacity of 900,000 feet. There are eighty-five miles of mains. Frank Murphy is president of the company, George E. Barker secretary and Isaac Battin treasurer and superintendent. The company has a capital of $500,000, with a funded debt of $300,000. During 1890, $52,000 was ex- pended in additions and improvements.
STONE CUTTING.
Fred Drexel and John M. Drexel, cut stone contractors, began business here in 1859, at the corner of Eighth and Jones Streets, and continued as partners one year. Fred Drexel has been in the business con- tinuously since that time. The firm of Drexel & Foll, of which he is senior partner, was formed in the fall of 1884. H. P. Drexel became a partner in the firm in 1885. The saw mill and yard are located at the corner of Fifth and Jones Streets, where the com- pany have the latest ' improved machinery, and employ an average of seventy-five men throughout the year. The trade of this com- pany extends into Iowa on the east and as far north and west as Dakota and Western Nebraska.
On the 20th day of November, 1892, the stone saw mill, together with all the ma- chinery in it, was wholly destroyed by fire, the loss being about $8,000. The mill will be rebuilt immediately.
Benjamin Melquist has been in the cut stone business since the spring of 1883, when he started with three employes. His large yards are situated at 501 Jones Street. He now employs twenty-five men.
Schall & Hering are also cut stone con- tractors, with mill and yard on Jones be- tween Fifth and Sixth Streets. They em- ploy from twenty to forty-five men.
The principal part of the building stone used in the construction of buildings here is brought from otlier states. Gray sandstone from Warrensburg, Missouri; Oolitic lime-
stone from Bedford, Indiana; blue sandstone from Cleveland, Ohio; red sandstone from Portage, Wisconsin, Colorado Springs, Col- orado, and from Arizona and Wyoming; white limestone from Joliet, Illinois; brown stone from Ashland, Wisconsin, and pink and white sandstone from Kasota, Minnesota.
PLANING MILLS.
A. Moyer is proprietor of the Gate City Planing Mills, at 106, 108, 110 South Ninth Street. He built a one story wooden build- ing on the site of the present mill in 1877, employing four men at the beginning. In 1884 the finishing rooms burnt, involving a loss of $7,000; insurance, none. A second fire broke out in the main building in the spring of 1886 and destroyed nearly the whole building, involving a loss of five thousand dollars, with precisely the same amount of insurance he had at the first fire. He imme- diately rebuilt the factory, making it two stories and put in new and improved machin- ery. The number of employes is now gen- erally from fifteen to twenty-five.
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