History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 90

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 90

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EDWARD ROSEWATER was born at Bukowan, a village about fifty miles south from the historical city of Prague, in Bohe- mia, on January 28, 1841. IIis elementary education was acquired in the common schools of that country where Bohemian or Czech is the prevailing language. He also received instruction in German from private tutors. At the age of eleven lie was sent to an academy at Prague in which the branches taught are on about the same plane as those in American high schools.

On Christmas day, 1854, he landed with his parents in the city of New York, and thence

immediately moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Owing to the limited means of his parents and the fact that he was the oldest of a family of nine children, he was at once com- pelled to earn his own livelihood. Having no knowledge of the English language he had great difficulty in finding something to do. The first permanent employment he was able to secure was in a wholesale tin- ware and stove store, where his muscles were developed m polishing stoves and in assisting journeymen tinners in manual work. By 1856 he had acquired sufficient knowledge of English to secure a position as clerk in a retail grocery store at a salary of 87 a month and board.

At the end of another year he found a clerical position in a small dry goods store at a salary of $100 a year and board. In the summer of 1857 he severed his connec- tion with the mercantile business and took a three months course in a commercial col- lege, from which he graduated as an alleged accountant and bookkeeper. This was a year of great financial depression, and the first and only position he secured as book- keeper in a wholesale willow ware and basket establishment, terminated abruptly by the failure of the concern.

Unwilling to resume the drudgery of a clerk and unable to secure a position as bookkeeper, he left Cleveland in company with a young man who had been engaged as clerk in an employment office, and located in Sandusky, Ohio, where his first venture on his own resources was made under the title of "Rosewater & Warren, Intelligence Office." The partnership survived just three months. It had intelligence enough, but failed to secure employment either for its patrons or itself. Warren, the junior partner of the firm, was a telegraph opera- tor, but had temporarily discarded his pro- fession. It was mutually agreed that the two partners would seek their fortunes in the South, and although they had less than $5 cash when they reached Cincinnati, in October, 1858, they were not in the least disconcerted or despondent. Within twenty-four hours after landing at Cin- cinnati, Warren secured a temporary posi- tion as operator in the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad depot, and Rosewaterat once began his apprenticeship as a telegrapher.

At the end of three months he imagined he had fully mastered the profession and ac-

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cepted a position at Vincennes, Indiana, but he was chagrined when he found that he must continue " to practice" before he could hope to hold down a situation.

Returning to Cleveland in December, 1858, he completed his preliminary educa- cation as telegrapher within a few months, and in April, 1859, was finally assigned to Oberlin, Ohio, at a salary of twenty-five dollars a month. In June, 1859, he accepted a position as operator at Murfreesboro, Ten- nessee, thirty-two miles south of Nashville. Later on he was transferred to Stevenson, Alabama, at the junction of the Nashville & Chattanooga and Memphis & Charleston Railroads.

Here he remained until Alabama had seceded. In March, 1861, he accepted a posi- tion in the commercial office of the South- western Telegraph Company, at Nashville. After the capture of Fort Donelson and the occupancy of the city by the Union army he returned to Cleveland, where his parents still resided, and decided to enter the United States military telegraph corps. Ile was mustered into the service at Wheeling, West Virginia, in April, 1862, and assigned to ac- company General John C. Fremont in the West Virginia campaign. On the 1st of July, 1862, he was ordered to report at Washington, where he was assigned to the navy yard, then under command of Commo- dore Dalilgren. When General Pope was about to enter into his famous " On to Rich- mond" campaign the subject of this sketch made application to the war depart- ment to accompany General Pope, and was attached to Pope's staff, to do duty in the field. Ile accompanied the Army of Vir- ginia in its march to Rapidan, and its retreat across the Rappahanock, and during the three days battle near Bull Run, August 29, 30 and 31, and transmitted all of General Pope's dispatches from the battle field.

On the 1st of September, 1862, he was re- called to Washington and assigned to the war department. The members of the tele- graph corps in the war department were men picked from the most skilled and trusty operators in the service, this office being the receptacle of all the dispatches directed to President Lincoln, Secretary Stanton and the general of the army.

In September, 1863, at the instance of Ed- ward Creighton, who had the year previous built the Pacific Telegraph, he resigned his

position in the army telegraph corps and en- tered the service of the Pacific Telegraph Company at Omaha. In the spring of 1864, he was appointed manager of the Omaha office, and continued in that capacity until January, 1870. A few months later he ac- cepted the position of manager of the At- lantic & Pacific and Great Western telegraph lines.

While acting as local manager of the l'a- cific Telegraph Company he was also agent of the Associated Press and telegraphic cor- respondent of leading Chicago, New York, Cincinnati and St.Louis papers. Incidentally with this work he established a telegraphic correspondence bureau, which gathered im- portant news from the Rocky Mountain region as far west as Montana and Idaho.

In the spring of 1870, he. in conjunction with others, founded the Omaha Daily Tri- bune. When the paper made its first advent on July 25, 1870, its editor-in-chief, a schol- arly Massachusetts journalist, had failed to put in an appearance and his place was sup- plied during the first week by Mr. Rose- water, although ostensibly the editorials emanated from the pen of the gifted New Englander. This was Mr. Rosewater's first venture in journalism. The Tribune, al -. though an excellent paper, was from the start a losing undertaking. Owing to differ- ences regarding its management, Mr. Rose- water resigned his directorship in 1870, and fortunately for himself he had not sev- ered his connection with the telegraph com- pany, but had merely dipped into newspaper work as an amateur, with no expectation of following it as a profession.

In November, 1870, Mr. Rosewater was elected a member of the most stormy and protracted legislature that has ever been held in Nebraska. In that body he took a leading and active part in the impeachment of the governor, David Butler, and in the investigations into the management of state institutions. Among measures for which he successfully secured passage was the endorse- ment of the postal-telegraph system, the act regulating the practice of medicine, and the location and establishment of the state deaf and dumb institute at Omaha, and the creation of the board of education for that city. The latter measure met with strenuous opposition from the Omaha daily press.

The act creating the board of education required its submission to a ratification by

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the citizens of Omaha. Desiring to counter- act the adverse public opinion created by the press, Mr. Rosewater started on June 19, 1871, a small paper in the shape of a theatre programme, under the heading of "The Omaha Daily Bee." These sheets were given free distribution for several weeks. They contained the latest telegraphic and local news in brief, editorial comments on city and state politics.

The board of education law was sustained by the people by an overwhelming majority. Encouraged by this evidence of popular favor the paper after four weeks free distribution was enlarged and started on its career as an afternoon daily with local carrier subscrip- tions at twelve and one half cents per week. From the very outset the Bee met with the most phenomenal success. Within less than five years it outstripped the old established dailies in circulation and influence, not- withstanding the most determined and pow- erful opposition, both from the ruling poli- ticians and corporate influences, which were inimical to it, owing to its vigorous anti- monopoly policy.

From its inception until the present time, Mr. Rosewater has remained the chief editor and owner of The Bee, which for years has occupied a front rank among the great news- papers of America. Having firmly estab- lished his paper, Mr. Rosewater conceived the idea of erecting a monumental newspaper building, and this project was carried out by the erection of the Bee Building, which was begun in 1887 and completed in 1889. This structure is perfectly fire-proof and covers a larger area of ground than any other newspaper building erected on either side of the Atlantic. Its exterior is impos- ing and its interior is superbly fitted with all the modern appliances for the publica- tion of a great newspaper. Mr. Rosewater was married in 1864 to Miss Leah Cole- man, Ilis family consists of two sons and three daughters.

ALVIN SAUNDERS. - The popular voice, however capricious in the beginning, is apt to place, in the long run, just esti- mate upon the acts of a man, whether in public or private life; especially is this true where there has not been engendered a great amount of partisan feeling in his career to antagonize his views, or to combat his do- ings.

The subject of this sketch is to be spoken of not only as a citizen-as a neighbor-as a father-but as a statesman. The question and its answer, by Sir William Jones as to what constitutes a state, may here properly be recalled:

"What constitutes a state?

Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, Thick wall or moated gate;

Not cities fair, with spires and turrets crown'd; No ;- men, high-minded men." --

And one of the men such as here des- scribed, in a marked degree, ever since Ne- braska was admitted into the Union, and even while a Territory, it is now coneeded, has been Alvin Saunders, one of the prime factors of this trans-Missouri common- wealth.

Naturally, there is almost always in the case of a person occupying (or who has occupied) a prominent position in life, a desire by the public to know something of his early days-what were the surroundings of his youth? what the chief events of his early manhood?

Alvin Saunders was born July 12, 1817, ten miles south of Flemingsburgh, in Flem- ing County, Kentucky. His father, Gunnell Saunders, was a native of London County, Virginia, but removed to Kentucky when a young man, locating first in Bourbon County and subsequently in Fleming; he was of English descent. His mother, Mary Mauzy, was also of Virginia birth, having been born in Culpepper County; but she was of French origin.

Gunnell Saunders was a farmer and trained his boys, five in number, to business pursuits. "When Alvin was about twelve years of age, the whole family moved from Kentucky and located near Springfield, Illinois. But little attention was then given to education in Kentucky and especially so with those in the country, or of moderate means and our hero, so long as he remained in that region, shared the fate common to all of his class; nor was his condition much improved by removal to another State, for the country where his father located was then very sparsely settled and consequently a very poor opportunity was afforded for even a common school education. A school was taught two miles distant from where his father lived for only three months in each year, and that in the winter season. The consequence was that he received only t' c

37₡

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF OMAHA.

first rudiments of an education, and here he would have rested his case and passed through life without further advancement had it not been for a natural taste for books and an unusual degree of ambition for im- provement of the mind."*

At the age of nineteen Alvin concluded to strike ont for himself could he get the consent of his father; it was reluctantly given, and the boy went "on his own hook" to what is now Mount Pleasant, Iowa, but then a part of the Territory of Wisconsin. He engaged to work with a farmer near by, but not long after became a clerk in a small dry goods store that had started up in the village. He had the will and the strength to carry on the arduous labor expected of him by the farmer who had employed him, but his tendencies-his likings-were in the direction of what is termed a "business life." He soon found that as clerk he lacked sufli- cient education for even his limited position. Many young men less determined and ambi- tions would have abandoned the attempt and returned to the farm-or hired out to become "hewers of wood or drawers of water" for others. Instead of this, he in- duced a resident of the place to open a night school, which he attended, and by applying himself assiduously, he was soon so far ad- vanced in the elementary branches as to be able to hold his clerkship without difficulty. And it may here be added that as soon as he had earned sufficient money to enable him to do so, he attended an academy, and thus procured such an education as has enabled him to discharge acceptably the duties devolving upon him in his subse- quent official and business career of life.

The official career of Mr. Saunders com- menced by his being made postmaster of Mt. Pleasant, which he clung to for over seven years. In 1846, he assisted in form- ing the constitution under which lowa was admitted as a State. It is queer that his deviation from trade into politics was the result of accidental causes. When Polk was elected president, he was ousted from the Mt. Pleasant postoffice. Concerning this, the subject of this sketch subsequently said: " The federal administration was the turning point in my life-in getting into politics. I had no particular taste then for politics and I doubt if I have ever had much since. I was raised a whig, but de-

spite this I was appointed postmaster by Van Buren * * * the reason of my getting it being that no one else would have it, as it paid at first only about $20 a year. But it grew and when Polk was elected, our dele- gate to congress thought it a good thing to remember his friends, and I was removed. Thereupon my friends were indignant. They said I had been a good official, that I had been turned out unjustly; and now was the chance to get even. I suppose human nature is about the same the world over; and I did feel that I had been harshly dealt with. I entered the field as a candidate for delegate to the constitutional convention and was elected. I was the youngest man in the body, which probably gave me as much notoriety as any thing else, if I do say SO."

Meanwhile, despite his mixed Virginia and Kentucky origin, Mr. Saunders became a strong opponent to the extension of slavery into the territories. Entertaining such pro- nounced views, an election to the senate of Iowa as a Republican was the result. This was in 1854, and he was re-elected in 1858. During his two terms of office in the State senate, he was an active and energetic mem- ber. He gave his hearty support to the election of both Harlan and Grimes to the United States Senate, and assisted in the re- election of the former at the end of his first six years at Washington. Mr. Saunders par- ticipated as a delegate in the first Iowa Re- publican State convention and also in the national convention which nominated Abra- ham Lincoln as Republican candidate for president. He was personally acquainted with Lincoln and during the presidential canvas which followed, he took an active part in advocating his election by attending Republican county conventions and urging the claims of the nominee for that high of- fice of the republican party.

The election of Lincoln as President of the United States, and his inauguration on the 4th of March, 1861, was soon followed by the appointment of Mr. Saunders as governor of the Territory of Nebraska, a fact which serves to show that the president rec- ognized the ability of the appointee as well as the conspicious services which he had rendered during the presidential campaign. The appointment was made March 26, 1861, and he assumed the duties of his office on the 15th of May following. It did not

*Ten Sketches of Nebraskans, p. 417.

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confer on Mr. Saunders a sinecure, as may be readily inferred. The civil war was already a fixed fact, and it demanded a large share of his attention, to the duties of which were added those connected with the observation and care of a large body of hos- tile Indians on the frontiers of the Territory. Settlers there " were subjected to the toma- hawk and scalping-knife of the border sav- ages and neither sex nor age was spared; men, women and children were alike attacked and stricken down by these inhuman beings. Whole families of frontier settlers and train after train of emigrants were either killed outright or what was worse (and particularly so with females), taken prisoners and carried out of the country. This was truly a trying time for the people of Nebraska. Nearly all the able-bodied men of the country were then in the army and were fighting in the South to save the nation from being over- thrown by the rebels. But the emergency was met. The governor issued a proclama- tion calling on the able-bodied men of the Territory to volunteer for frontier service to protect our people from these savage foes. To this call a hearty and cheerful response was given."*

Governor Saunders had also to give at- tention, of course, to the ordinary affairs of the Territory-thus he was forced as chief executive officer to a triple-headed task, which required an ability-an industry-an endurance-of a high order.

Already mention has been made of the governor's giving, during the war of the re- bellion, a large share of his time to that con- test. As the breaking out of the conflict, Nebraska had only a small population, less in fact, than thirty thousand; yet, from this insignificant number, she sent into the field over three thousand troops, who did splendid service. As before intimated, in addition to those who went to the front against the confederates a large element was sent against the Indians, so that, in fact, the military aggregate of Nebraska at that time should include both those who went sonth and those who went west.

The struggle in the Territory against the double enemy was a particularly severe one, in that there was no funds in its treasury to put the forces in the field; but Governor Saunders solved the problem of how "to make something out of nothing." To care

at once for national and local interests; to enact in the same moment the part of a citi- zen of the United States and that of Neh- raska-proves conclusively that his skill, judgment, and energy were of no common degree .*

Governor Saunders was, for a number of years previous to the commencement of the Union Pacific Railroad, a zealous advocate of a trans-continental highway of the nation; and long before the bill passed congress, he had marked out in his own mind the route where it must pass. In his message to the territorial legislature of Nebraska, in 1861, he alluded to the subject: "A mere glance at the map of the country will convince every intelligent mind that the great Platte Valley, which passes through the heart and runs nearly through the entire length of Nebraska, is to become the route for the great central railway which is to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific states and territor- ies." When the bill passed congress, au- thorizing the formation of the company to build the road, the governor was made one of the incorporators to give practical form to the measure. Ground was broken, in com- meneing operations to build the road, on the 2d of December, 1863.t

At the commencement of the legislative session of 1865, the governor, in his message, intimated he would not ask for a re-appoint- ment to office on the expiration of his term; whereupon, on the 10th day of February, of that year, the legislature, without regard to party, passed resolutions, endorsing the gen- eral policy of his administration as chief executive of the Territory, and urgently requested the president to reappoint him for another term of four years, which was done.

One of the last public acts of President Lincoln was to sign the commission of Gov- ernor Saunder's for his second term. "I saw Mr. Lincoln," the governor afterwards rela- ted, "who told me to return home, as it was all right, and he would attend to the com- mission. I started home in the morning and in the evening of the same day he was killed. I telegraphed back to find out what had be- come of my commission and learned that the room had not been opened. When it was opened, the commission was found on the table, unfolded with his signature at-

* Pen Sketches of Nebraskans, p, 419.

*See, in this connection, an article in the Chicago Times (sup- plement ), of May 22. 1966, entitled "An Ex-War Governor." +Ante, p. 395.

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tached. It was not signed by Mr. Seward. I have the commission in Mr. Lincoln's name, but, as it was not signed by the sec- retary of state, or sealed, it was again issued by President Johnson."

On the 27th of March, 1867, Governor Saunders having received official notice from the state department at Washington, of the president's proclamation announcing that the legislature of Nebraska, had accepted the conditions proposed by congress, and de- claring the fact that Nebraska was admitted as one of the independent states of the union, the governor elect, being under the state organization then ready to take charge of the office-thereupon his duties as the chief executive of the Territory, that day ceased, when he issued an address to the people. After alluding to the proclamation of the president, declaring Nebraska's admission, he says : "I take pleasure, before retiring from this office, in availing myself of this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks to the people of the Territory for their uni- form kindness, and for the alacrity and promptness with which every official de- mand upon them has been honored, whether in war or in peace. No period of time of the same length, since the organization of our government, has been so eventful and full of interesting history as has becu the six years that I have been honored with an official connection with the people of Ne- braska, and it gives me great pleasure to know that peace and general prosperity now prevail throughout our whole country; and especially to know that no country can truthfully boast of greater peace or more genuine prosperity than can Nebraska. Especially do I feel proud of the financial condition of the Territory. Six years ago, when I assumed the duties of the office, the debt of the Territory was fully two dollars for every man, woman and child in it, and the warrants on the treasury were selling at from twenty-five to thirty cents on the dol- lar. Now her paper is at par, and she is ready to pay every dollar of her indebted- ness, of whatever character, so that the new state can commence her career without a dollar of debt hanging over her. This con- dition of affairs, so far as my knowledge extends, is without a parallel in the history of new states, and gives canse for mutual and general congratulation.

" While our officers and people have been

so attentive to the finances of our country, they have not been idle nor wanting in other important particulars, for during the war, Nebraska furnished as many troops as any other State or Territory, in proportion to its population, and no soldier from any quarter showed more valor and made a better record for bravery or true soldierly conduct, than did those from Nebraska. So, viewing it from any standpoint, I feel proud that I have been permitted to occupy so conspicuous a position among a people so patriotic, prompt and appreciative. With my best wishes for the prosperity of the whole people of our new State and for its great success, 1 am, etc.,

ALVIN SAUNDERS."

In 1868, Governor Saunders was a dele- gate to the Republican National Conven- tion which nominated Grant and Colfax. Ile then dropped politics, having already gone into business to recuperate the fortune which had been seriously impaired by the war. IIe devoted much of his time to bank- ing. However, from various causes beyond his control, a financial crisis, in 1875, over- took him and he became so involved that his entire means were swept away; but, in the end, he paid off his indebtedness to the- last dollar, and by devoting himself to various business enterprises in Omaha, bas completely recovered from his financial embarrassments, and is again in possession of an ample competency, as the result of his sagacity and perseverance.

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History of the city of Omaha, Nebraska, Part 90

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