History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 9

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 9

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Upon the summit of this hill the fierce and bloody warrior had often stood gazing upon the bends and mazes of the tortuous channel, and watching for the bateaux of his friends, the white traders. When he became aware that death was approaching, he enjoined upon his weeping attendants that he be buried on the spot where he had gazed down the valley, so that he could see, after death, the Frenchmen passing up and down the river in their boats. The Omaha village was then about sixty miles above his emi- nence, but in obedience to his dying eom- mand, his warriors took his body down the river to the pinnacle of this towering bluff, his favorite haunt. He had owned, amongst many horses, a noble white steed that was led to the top of the grass-covered hill, and with great pomp and ceremony in the pres- ence of the whole nation, and several of the fur traders, he was placed astride of his horse's back, with his bow in his hand, and his shield and quiver slung; with his pipe and his medicine bag, with his supply of dried meat, and his tobacco pouch replen- ished to last him through his journey to the beautiful hunting grounds of the shades of his fathers; with his flint and steel and his tinder to light his pipe by the way. The sealps that he had taken from his ene- mies could be trophies for nobody else, and were liung to the bridle of his horse. IIe was in full dress and fully equipped; and on his head waved, to the last moment, the beautiful head-dress of the war-eagle's plumes. In this plight, and the last funeral honors having been performed by the medi- cine men, every warrior of his band painted the palm and fingers of his right hand with

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

vermillion, which was stamped and perfectly impressed on the milk-white sides of his devoted horse.

This all done, turfs were brought and placed around the feet and legs of the horse. and gradually laid up to its sides, and at last over the back and head of the unsus- pecting animal; and last of all over the head and over the eagle plumes of its val- iant rider. On the top of the mound was planted a staff from which long waved the banner of the dead chief, and this conspicu- ous eminence is to this day known by the name of the Blackbird Hill. The mound, covered with green turf and spotted with wild flowers, with its cedar post in the center, was readily seen at the distance of fifteen miles by the voyagenr, and formed for him for years a familiar and useful land- mark. So late as 1811, the pious custom of placing near the grave articles of food and drink for the sustenance of the warrior during his long journey, was still kept up. Even to this day the crest of the grassy hill is pointed out to the passing traveler as the grave of a great chief.

It must be confessed, however, that Blackbird's sightless eyesockets were not permitted for more than a generation to scan the valley for his returning friends. When Mr. Catlin visited the romantic spot in 1832, for the purpose of making a sketch of the hill, he carried away more than his drawings. " Whilst visiting this mound,"' he says, " in company with Major Sanford, on our way up the river, I discovered in a hole made in the mound by a ground hog or other animal, the skull of a horse, and by a little pains also came at the skull of the chief, which I carried to the river side and secreted till my return in my canoe, when I took it in, and brought with me to this place, where I now have it, with others, which I have collected on my route." From the Catlin collection it found its way to the National Museum in Washington, where it is still to be seen. and where, if it

possessed the power of vision, which its rightful owner expected, it might behold more wonderful objects and more rapacious traders than it could ever have observed in the now peaceful and pastoral valley of the Missouri.

Blackbird's curious and poetic fancy of being buried where he could see vessels and sailors may remind the classical student of Plutarch's description of the tomb of Themistocles. "Diodorus, the geographer, says in his work on Tombs, but by conject- ure rather, than of certain knowledge, that near the port of Piraeus, where the land runs out like an elbow from the promontory of Alcinus, when you have doubled the cape and passed inward where the sea is always calm, there is a large piece of masonry, and upon this the tomb of Themis- tocles." Plato, the comedian, confirms this. he believes, in these verses:

"Thy tomb is fairly placed upon the strand,

Where merchants still shall greet it with the land;

Still in and out 'twill see them come and go, And watch the galleys as they race below."

The successor of Blackbird was Om-pah- tou-ga, or the Big Elk, who held the chief- taincy, it is said, until the year 1846, when he died. Ile was an able and highly respectable man, exercising vast influence over his tribe. His power was used with moderation, and all white men who visited this country during his life were ready to bear witness to his uniform fair dealing. hospitality and friendship. Less brilliant than his distinguished predecessor, he was no less successful in accomplishing the ends at which he aimed, by the sagacity and com- mon sense with which he laid his plans. It was the boast of the Big Elk, when Captain Long visited him in 1819, that neither his own hands, nor those of any of his tribe. had ever been stained with the blood of a white man. Ile was in his day a famous orator, and there has come down to our days a short specimen of his eloquence.

BIG ELK'S ADDRESS.

which has in it a not ineffective element of sad pathos. Black Buffalo, a chief of the Sioux, had died during a conference with the United States authorities, while arrang- ing with the chiefs of various other tribes the preliminaries of a treaty. Ile was buried hy a detachment of United States soldiers under the command of Colonel Miller, afterwards the hero of Lundy's Lane, with the honors of war. Big Elk was much impressed with the ceremonies, and made an address, in the course of which he said: "Would that I could have died today instead of the chief that lies before us. The loss to my people would have been but trifling. The honors of my burial would have repaid it twice over. Instead

of being covered with a cloud of sorrow, my warriors would have felt the sunshine of joy in their hearts. To me it would have a glorious triumph. But now. when I die at my little Omaha village on the Missouri, instead of a noble grave and a grand pro- cession, the rolling music and the thunder- ing cannon, with a banner waving at my head, I shall be wrapped in a tattered robe and hoisted on a slender scaffold, soon to be by the whistling winds blown down again to the earth-my flesh to be devoured and my bones scattered on the plain by the wolves. Chief of the soldiers, my nation shall know the respect that you pay to the dead. When I return I will echo the sound of your guns."

CHAPTER VII.

THE STATE ORGANIZED - LOCATION OF THE CAPITOL AT OMAHA-ASSEMBLING OF THE FIRST LEGISLATURE - PLATTE VALLEY & PACIFIC RAILROAD -CAPITOL REMOVAL SCHEMES-GOVERNOR IZARD'S DEPARTURE.

The Hon. Francis Burt, a native of South Carolina, was the first governor appointed for the new territory of Nebraska after its organization by act of Congress, on the 30th of May, 1854. The Governor reached the western bank of the Missouri on the 6th of October of that year, in a delicate state of health, which had been rendered still more precarious by the hardships and exposures of the journey from his home. IIe was a man of delicate and refined mental organiza- tion; remarkable for kindness of heart and suavity of manner; of absolute and sterling integrity; of limited means, but incapable of seeking wealth by any indirection.

To this gentleman in infirm health, in need of entire repose, suffering from anxiety and trouble, every influential man in the territory at once resorted in the hope of in- ducing him to fix the capitol of the territory at some one or other of the numberless sites suggested for that location. It was, of course, of vital importance to every man who owned or possessed a large interest in any town site within the limits of that ex- tensive territory. It is supposed that the prejudices of Gov. Burt were in favor of Bellevue as a location for the capitol, but doubtless he had made up his mind to give all portions of the eastern part of the territory an impartial and candid examina- tion, and to place the capitol, honestly and fairly, where it would be most beneficial to the population of the entire commonwealth. But he never made any decision known. ITarrassed beyond measure in the weak state of his health, and worn out by the vexatious

trials incident to his new position, and the persistency with which the conflicting claims of rival town site speculators were forced upon him, the new Governor, in just ten days after his arrival in the territory, relin- quished the struggle and sought in the grave that repose which it was evident he could never find in Nebraska.

IIe was, during his last illness, a guest of the Rev. William Hamilton, at that time the head of the Presbyterian mission at Bellevue. Mr. Hamilton has recorded it as his belief that the Governor had virtually decided to fix the capitol at Bellevue, and refers to some death-bed expressions, which seem to corroborate his views. llowever, that may be, no paper of any kind was left by him to indicate his intention, and the whole subject was left to his successor, Thomas B. Cuming, the secretary, who, upon the decease of Governor Burt, became the acting Governor of the territory.

Gov. Cuming was younger, stronger, and of sterner stuff than his predecessor, and took the importunities, of which he immediately became the victim, with much more coolness than Mr. Burt, though he was " plied, begged, pressed, entreated, assailed and even threatened" by almost every township in the territory. At last he was enabled to escape from further importunity, by design- ing Omaha as the place where the first ses- sion of the legislature should be held.

There were not wanting disappointed aspirants who charged the new Governor with selfish and even corrupt motives in this determination. But when we reflect that

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LOCATION OF THE CAPITOL AT OMAHA.

the last hours of Governor Burt were troubled by rival delegations, forcing their way to his bedside, to urge the respective claims of Omaha, Florence, Plattsmouth or Nebraska City for the seat of government, we can readily imagine that bribes would have readily been offered by the representa- tives of either of these places, and that wherever the capitol might have been fixed, the Governor could not have escaped like imputations, whether slanderous or not. On this subject Mr. C. Il. Gere remarks: "By what pathways the acting Governor was led to pitch the imperial tent upon the plateau of Omaha, it is not our province to inquire. If the statesmen of Kanesville, later Council Bluffs, had a hand in the matter, the city soon had reason to mourn that the nest of the new commonwealth was 1 lined with plumage from her own breast. From its very eradle her infant despoiled her of her commercial prestige, and now scoffs at her maternal ancestor every time she glances across the dreary bottom that separates the waxing from the waning metropolis."

Whatever the motive or reason, the action of Governor Cuming settled the question so far as the first assemblage of the Legislature was concerned, and gave to the ambitious little City of Omaha that prestige which enabled. her, not without importunity, lavish expenditure of money, great parliamentary shrewdness and even at times a resort to the powerful logic of fisticuffs, to retain its posi- tion as the metropolis for nearly thirteen years.

It was hoped that the first Legislature called to meet at Omaha would be able to wrest from Omaha the sceptre thus put into her hands by the Governor. In November 1854, this officer caused an enumeration of the inhabitants of the new territory to be made, upon which he based the representa- tion of the members of the Territorial Council and House of Representatives. Under this enumeration to the four counties north of the Platte River. Douglas (of which

Sarpy was then a part), Washington, Burt and Dodge were apportioned seven Council- men and fourteen Representatives, and to the four south of that stream, Cass, Pierce, now Otoe, Forney, now Nemaha, and Rich- ardson, were given six Councilmen and twelve Representatives. It was loudly claimed on the part of the opponents of Omaha, that this basis of representation was forced and partial, and that the Sonth Platte territory contained a larger population, and was entitled to a larger representation than the northern portion of the State.

Under these circumstances, various persons not holding the Governor's election certifi- cates applied for admission to the first session of the Legislature. The organic act pro- vided that the Governor should organize the territory, laying out counties and election districts, and set in motion the machinery of the territorial government. When the mem- bers of the first Legislature assembled, those holding certificates of election from the acting Governor favored, as was supposed, the permanent establishment of the capital at Omaha; while several of those who were contesting seats favored a change. When it became the business of the Legislature to pass upon these cases of contested seats. the legislators who favored Omaha as the per- manent capital, under the leadership of Mr. Poppleton, took the ground that under the organic act the Governor's certificates of election were conelusive, and put it out of the power of the Legislature to seat any who were unable to exhibit such evidences of their election.

The careful training and education of the legislative friends of Omaha was shown in the fact that this somewhat startling propo- sition was assented to by the members of the first Legislature, though it is in direct oppo- sition to one of the fundamental doctrines governing such bodies; that every legisla- ture has the right to pass upon and decide the qualification and election of its own members.

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

Probably Mr. Poppleton, after his long years of honorable labor at the bar, would hardly at this day contend that his interpre- tation of the law was strictly accurate, but there can be no doubt but that this refusal to go behind the Governor's certificates of election had an important bearing upon the question of capital location, and contributed materially to the success of Omaha in the struggle of which the first session was the scene.

At that session were gathered together, either in or out of the Legislature, all who were disappointed in the selection of Omaha by Governor Cuming, and loud threats and declarations as to what the coming session would accomplish were indulged in on the streets. Warmth of argument and the irreconcilable differences not unfrequently led to pugilistic encounters, but on the whole the determination seemed to be to submit the question of capital location to the arbi- trament of the Legislature.

The first session of the first Legislative Assembly for the new Territory of Nebraska , began at Omaha, on Tuesday, the 16th day of January, 1855. There were present as members of the House of Representatives from Douglas county, Messrs. Andrew J. Hanscom, Alfred D. Goyer, Andrew J. Pop- pleton, William Clancy, William N. Byers, Thomas Davis, Fleming Davidson and Rob- ert B. Whitted. Three of these gentlemen. together with Mr. J. W. Paddock, who was elected Chief Clerk of the House, are still, after the lapse of thirty-five years, living in Omaha, with constitutions and mental facul- ties unimpaired, and in the enjoyment of well earned reputations and competence.

The Council organized on the same day. Joseph L. Sharp, of Richardson county, was elected President, and Messrs. Samuel E. Rogers, O. D. Richardson, A. D. Jones and T. G. Goodwill were announced as members elect from the county of Douglas.

Mr. Andrew J. Hanscom was elected Speaker of the llouse, and the first motion

made in that body, being the first ever made in any legislative body in the State, was one by Mr. Poppleton for the temporary organi- zation of the House.

In the afternoon of that day the two branches of the Legislature met together in the hall of the House and listened to the reading of the message of acting Governor Cuming. This first message from the young Governor, whose public utterances always gave promise of distinguished success in public life, too soon to be frustrated by his untimely decease, merits notice from its wise forethought, its enlarged conception of the future, and its prophecies then deemed extravagant by some, long since brilliantly realized.

After some graceful references to the recent death of Governor Burt, and the unexpected responsibilities thus devolved upon him, the acting Governor proceeded:

One of the principal subjects of general inter- est to which, next to the enactment of your laws, your attention will be directed this winter. is that of a Pacific Railroad. You have acquired, in respect to this, an acknowledged precedence; and the expression in your representative capacity, of the wishes of your constituents, throughout the vast extent of your Territory, may have a potent influence, together with the efforts of your friends, in promoting the construction of such a road up the valley of the Platte.

Many reasons lead to the conclusion that such a memorial from you will be of practical efficacy in contributing to the speedy consummation of such an enterprise-an enterprise of such absolute necessity as a means of intercommunication between the Atlantic and Pacific States and as the purveyor of a lucrative commerce with India, China and the Pacific islands. Among these are the facts that the valley of the Platte is on the nearest and most direct continuous line from the commercial metropolis of the east by railroad and the great lakes, through the most practical moun- tain passes to the metropolis of the West; that it is fitted by nature for an easy grade; and that it is central and convenient to the great majority of grain growing States, and of the northern portion of the Union, being situated in latitude 4I degrees north, while the majority of the people of the whole country are between the 38th and 46th degrees of north latitude. It seems to me

PLATTE VALLEY & PACIFIC RAILROAD,

that it will be the desire of the friends of this great enterprise -- one of the most prominent and important of all the measures of national devel- opment upon this continent now under the consid- eration of the people of the United States-to act immediately in the selection of routes, and to establish a permanent policy, the details of which may be practically prosecuted in the coming spring ; and I sincerely hope and believe that your legislative memorial in Congress may have its legitimate weight in the decision of a question of such momentous interest.

In view, however, of the uncertainty arising from the sectional conflict with which the subject is surrounded. I would respectfully suggest that such a memorial should urgently, if not princi- pally, ask for a preliminary provision, from granting which, the general government will scarcely be deterred by considerations of policy or economy. I refer to a proposition presented to Congress eight years ago for "Telegraphic and Letter Mail Communication with the Pacific,", including the protection of emigrants and forma- tion of settlements along the route through Nebraska, Utah, California and Oregon; the pro- motion of amicable relations with the Indians, and facilitating intercourse across the American continent, between Europe and Asia, and the islands and American coasts of the Pacific.

The plan is substantially, that instead of or in addition to garrisons at isolated points-parties of twenty dragoons shall be stationed at stockades twenty to thirty miles apart, on a route designated by the Executive of the United States. as a "Post Road" between the Missouri River and the Pacific: that express mails shall be carried by said dragoons riding each way and meeting daily between the stockades, and affording complete supervision and protection of a line of electric telegraph constructed by private enterprise.

By such an arrangement, in which every detail is subject to free public competition. a line of telegraph may be opened within one year to the Rocky Mountains, and a largely increased mail transported in half the time now required. and with perfect security, between the Atlantic and Pacific States: at the same time giving complete protection to the thousands who annually travel on the route, and conducing not only to the settle- ment of Nebraska, but of the vast regions between us and our fellow pioneers upon our western coasts.

Such an emigrant highway would afford one of the best and speediest mail lines in the world, giving efficiency to troops already in service for purposes of protection: encouraging emigration

and making a continuous series of settlements and cultivated farms around the stockades, between which individual or corporate enterprise will the more speedily construct the long desired and expected " Pacific Railroad."

The location of Nebraska, remote from, but intermediate between the Atlantic and Pacific, indicates the necessity of facilitating intercourse between its inhabitants and their fellow citizens on the shores of both oceans. It is the duty of governments to defend life and property, and pro- tect and quicken communication between all portions of their domain; and this requirement is especially imperative upon the Federal and State governments of our widely extended Union in respect to territories where civilization is struggling for a foothold, and the farms and fire- sides of whose pioneers have a just claim upon the protection of a power, whose fleets are travers- ing every sea for the defense of its citizens.

Aside, too, from the direct practical blessings of such a system faithfully carried out in all its details, and its immense effect on the correspond- ence and business of the world, the project acquires additional importance from the fact that it will contribute to bind together States far sep- arate and of diverse interests, in the commercial fraternity and sympathy of an inseparable Union.

We may reasonably expect that a memorial advocating the advantages of the Platte Valley, as a route for the Pacific Railroad, and urging especially and strenuously, the immediate adop- tion of a policy similar to the above would not be without its influence upon the deliberations of Congress.

On the 24th day of January, Mr. Latham, of Cass County, gave notice in the House that on the morrow, or at an early day thereafter, he would present a bill "to locate the Capital of Nebraska."

Thus commenced a contest which lasted with great vehemence for more than twelve years, produced more ill-feeling, gave rise to more difficulties, and was more trouble- some to manage, than any question ever decided in the State. In the House at this time the parties for and against Omaha seemed nearly equally divided, but the location at Omaha was finally secured by a vote of fourteen to eleven. Those voting in favor of Omaha were: Messrs. Arnold,

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

Byers, Clancy, Davidson, Davis, Goyer, Kempton, Latham, Poppleton, Purple, Rich- ardson, Robertson, Thompson and Whitted. Those opposed were: Messrs. Bennett, Cowles, Decker, Doyle, Finney, Hail, John- ston, Maddox, Smith, Singleton and Wood.

In the Council the votes on nearly all the preliminary motions stood seven for Omaha to six opposed; and the final vote was as follows: Messrs. Clark, Folsom, Goodwill, Jones, Mitchell, Richardson and Rogers voted for Omaha, and Messrs. Bennett, Bradford, Brown, Cowles, Nuckolls and Sharp against it.

The bill thus passed by both branches of the Legislature was transmitted to the Gov- ernor for his signature; and notice being given by him on the 31st of January that the bill had received his signature, the vexed question was for the first session laid at rest, and the members were at liberty to proceed to other subjects of legislation.

One of the most important of these was a bill, pursuant to the recommendation of the acting Governor, chartering the Platte Val- ley & Pacific Railroad Company. The report of the Committee on Corporations, to which in the Council this bill was referred, contains some paragraphs which possess much interest. The Committee says:

" The valley of the Platte is well known in the West, it being the great highway through which nine-tenths of the overland emigration passes en route for the Pacific. Those coming by St. Louis travel by water up the Missouri to Independence, Weston, St. Joseph, Council Bluffs, and occasionally to Sargeant's Bluffs; and, uniting at these points with those who came by land from the east, pursue their way westward by con- verging lines that unite in the Platte Valley at various points within two hundred miles, a little north of a due west line from the cities of Omaha, Bellevue and Florence, in our infant territory.

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History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 9

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