USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 14
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Mr. Hamilton married Miss Fannie Murphy about two years after coming to Omaha, and two of his sons, C. Will Hamilton and Frank Hamilton, after- ward became identified with the banking interests of the city. He was one of the organizers of Trinity Episcopal Church (now Trinity Cathedral) and was
ALFRED D. JONES
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the first junior warden of the parish. He was also a member of the board of education under the present school system, and was an early member of Capital Lodge No. 3, Free and Accepted Masons. He died March 25, 1906.
Andrew J. Hanscom, one of Douglas County's representatives in the first Territorial Legislature, was born in the City of Detroit, Michigan, February 23, 1828. When the Mexican war broke out he enlisted as first lieutenant of Company C, First Michigan Infantry, in which Thomas B. Cuming enlisted as a private. In 1849 Mr. Hanscom started for California, but stopped at Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he built a mill, conducted a store and sometimes practiced law. When Omaha was laid out he removed across the Missouri River and located in what is now Shinn's addition, where he put up a claim house and a little later built a frame house at the southwest corner of Fifteenth and Farnam streets, which was used as a printing office by B. B. Chapman, publisher of the Nebraskian. In December, 1854, he was elected to the Legisla- ture and in the first session was speaker of the House. He also served in the sessions of 1857 and 1859; was a member of the school board in early days and was a member of the city council in 1859. Under the act of 1855 he was com- missioned a colonel of the First Regiment of the Nebraska militia, and in June of that year was admitted to practice law in the territory. He was one of the organizers of Trinity Episcopal Church, and in 1867 was one of the incorporators of the "Omaha Horse Railway Company." In 1872 Mr. Hanscom and James G. Megeath gave to the City of Omaha the tract of land now known as Hanscom Park, and in many other instances his public spirit was made manifest. His death occurred on September 10, 1908.
John A. Horbach was another man who played a conspicuous part in building up the City of Omaha. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1831, and when about nineteen years of age went to Pittsburgh, where he held a position with the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad Company for nearly six years. In April, 1856, he landed in Omaha and for three years was a clerk in the office of Colonel Gilmore, receiver of the United States land office, beginning his work in that capacity when the office was opened in March, 1857. He then accepted the agency for a line of steamboats running on the Missouri River between Omaha and St. Louis and at the same time was engaged in the commission business. Later W. J. Kennedy became associated with the steamboat, storage and general commission business established by Mr. Horbach. During the years 1866 and 1867 Mr. Horbach was the Omaha agent for the Merchants' Union (afterward merged into the American) Express Company. Competition was lively in those days in the express business, and Mr. Horbach used to say that he stood ready to accept anything from a steel pen to a steam engine for shipment, at rates satisfactory to the shipper. He was one of the organizers of the Omaha & Northwestern Railway Company; was a member of the committee appointed in 1874 to inspect the waterworks of certain cities, and was one of the incor- porators of the smelting works. He was also connected with other railroad and banking interests and owned a large cattle ranch in Southwestern Kansas.
Hadley D. Johnson, the "unofficial" delegate to Congress, elected on October II, 1853, was a native of Indiana. In 1850 he located at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and two years later was elected to represent Pottawattamie County in the State Senate. On October 11, 1853. an election was held at Sarpy's trading post at Vol 1-7
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Bellevue and, although Mr. Johnson resided on the east side of the river, he was elected as a delegate to Congress, with instructions to do all he could to secure the passage of a bill organizing a territory west of the Missouri River. Early in January, 1854, he arrived in Washington and was given several hearings by the committee on territories, his arguments having much to do with the forma- tion and passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Soon after Nebraska Territory was organized, Mr. Johnson located in Omaha. In 1858 he established the Omaha Democrat, which lived but a short time. At the second session of the Legislature he was elected territorial printer. After giving up the publication of the Democrat he practiced law for a short time and then went to Salt Lake City, where he died on July 2, 1898.
Harrison Johnson, who is probably best known as the author of a "History of Nebraska," was born near Dayton, Ohio, November 11, 1822. About the time he arrived at his majority he went to Montgomery County, Illinois, where he married Minerva Hambright. Soon after his marriage he went to Columbia, Missouri, but returned to Illinois, and in 1854 came to Omaha. He built his house on St. Mary's Avenue, and it is said the reason that street runs at an angle is due to Mr. Johnson's desire to have the shortest route to "get down town." Some years ago efforts were made to have the avenue altered so it would run due east and west, but they were not successful. He was a member of the third Territorial Legislature, which met on January 5, 1857; was elected county commissioner in 1859, and the same year was elected to the Omaha City Council. He was also a member of the first grand jury in Douglas County. In 1880 he published his "History of Nebraska" and the same year removed to Brown County, Nebraska, where he died on October 6, 1885.
Alfred D. Jones, the first man to select and mark a claim on the plateau where Omaha is now located, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1814. In his youth he learned the trade of bricklayer and plasterer, but afterward became a surveyor. In the early '4os he went to Jackson County, Missouri, where in September, 1847, he married Miss Sophronia Reeves. A year or so later he went to Iowa as a surveyor and while working in the western part of that state his attention was directed to the possibilities on the west side of the Missouri. On November 15, 1853, six months before the passage of the bill creating Nebraska Territory, he marked his claim and gave it the name of "Park Wild" (now Forest Hill). He was one of the first actual settlers in Omaha ; made the first survey of the town: was appointed the first postmaster when the office was established in 1854; was elected judge of the Omaha Claim Club when it was organized in July. 1854, and in December, 1854, was one of the four men elected to represent Douglas County in the upper house of the Territorial Legislature. In June, 1855. he was admitted to the bar, but never practiced. He was a member of Omaha's first city council in 1857, and intro- duced the first ordinance in that body ; was a member of the first school board in 1859; was speaker of the House in the Legislature of 1861, and was actively identified with many enterprises calculated to promote the interests of the city and its people.
Mr. Jones was a prominent figure in fraternal circles. He was one of the early members of the Capital Lodge No. 3, Free and Accepted Masons ; the first noble grand of Omaha Lodge No. 2, Independent Order of Odd Fellows ; was
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grand treasurer of that order for the State of Nebraska and representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge, and was grand chancellor and supreme representa- tive of the Knights of Pythias. The latter years of his life were spent in com- parative leisure, looking after his property interests. He died on August 30, 1902.
Augustus Kountze was one of four brothers-Augustus, Herman, Luther and Charles-who were prominently connected with the banking business in Omaha, New York and Denver. He came to Omaha in 1854 and purchased forty-five acres of what was known as the Clancy claim, where he lived for some time in a log house. The banking house of Kountze Bros. was opened in December, 1857, just after the great panic, Augustus having been previously the president of the Bank of Dakota. It was afterward reorganized as the First National Bank, of which Herman Kountze was president for several years. Augustus Kountze was the first president of the Omaha Board of Trade when it was organ- ized in 1865; was one of the incorporators and a director in the Union Pacific Railroad Company ; was connected with the Omaha Horse Railway Company, organized in 1867, and he and his brother Herman were actively interested in the Omaha & Northwestern Railroad. When the state, by an act of the Legis- lature in 1869, donated the old territorial capitol to the City of Omaha for a high school building, Mr. Kountze was one of the first board of regents to manage the institution. He was a member of the society known as the Sons of Omaha, of which Dr. George L. Miller was the founder, and was keenly interested in every movement for the advancement of his adopted city.
Herman Kountze came here at the same time as his brother Augustus. He was the first cashier of the First National Bank upon its organization in 1864, and upon the death of Edward Creighton succeeded to the presidency. He was one of the incorporators of the Omaha Library Association in 1871; was a member of the committee to inspect the waterworks of certain cities in 1874; donated the ground for the site of the Plymouth Congregational Church ; was one of the founders of Forest Lawn Cemetery, and was interested in the Union Stock Yards Company and the Stock Yards Bank. He was a member of Capital Lodge No. 3, Free and Accepted Masons, and was a charter member of Mount Calvary Commandery No. 1, Knights Templar, when it was organized in 1865. Mr. Kountze died at his home in Omaha on November 20, 1906.
Enos Lowe, M. D., one of the founders of the Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company, was born at Guilford Court House, North Carolina, May 5, 1804. When he was about ten years old his parents removed to Bloomington, Indiana, where he began the study of medicine. He began practice about the time he reached his majority and a few years later entered the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, where he completed the course and received his long coveted degree. For some years he practiced at Greencastle and Rockville, Indiana. While located at Rockville he was elected to represent Parke County in the Legislature. In the fall of 1837 he removed to Burlington, Iowa, where he continued in active practice for about ten years.
In 1847 President Polk appointed Doctor Lowe receiver of public moneys of the United States land office in Iowa City and from that time he gave up his profession. While living at Iowa City he was elected to the State Senate and was made president of that body. He was a delegate to two constitutional conven- tions in Iowa and was president of the second. In 1853 he was appointed receiver
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for the land office at Kanesville (now Council Bluffs) and removed with his family to that place. The Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company was organized in June, 1853, and Doctor Lowe went to Alton, Illinois, where he bought the steam ferry boat, General Marion, loaded her with a cargo of goods at St. Louis and brought her round to Council Bluffs. He was a member of the town company that laid out the City of Omaha in 1854 and quite a number of the important industries and enterprises of the city owe their origin and success to his initiative and executive ability. He was one of the organizers of the Omaha Gas Company; was active in promoting the Omaha & Southwestern Railroad Company, and was one of the incorporators of the State Bank of Nebraska. When the Old Settlers' Association was organized in 1866, he was elected president and held that office until his death on February 12, 1880.
Doctor Lowe was married in July, 1828, to Miss Kitty A. Mead, who died at Burlington, Iowa, February 19, 1870. At the beginning of the Civil war in 1861, although beyond the age where he would be subject to military duty, Doctor Lowe entered the army as surgeon of the First Nebraska Infantry, but was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, where he served as brigade and division surgeon until failing health compelled him to resign. His only son, William W. Lowe, graduated at the West Point Military Academy in July, 1853, and was made lieutenant of dragoons. He served at various places until the beginning of the Civil war, when he was promoted to captain in the Second United States Cavalry and took an active part in the war. Among the engage- ments in which he participated were the capture of Fort Donelson, the cavalry operations in Tennessee and Alabama, especially around Nashville, and a number of skirmishes in Northern Georgia. He remained in the army until June 23, 1869, when he resigned and took up his residence in Omaha, having been bre- vetted brigadier-general at the close of the Civil war "for gallant and meritorious services."
Jesse Lowe, a brother of Dr. Enos Lowe, was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, March 11, 1814. After the family removed to Bloomington, Indiana, he attended the State University of Indiana ; studied law with Gen. Tilghman Howard, and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced his profession. During the Mexican war he served as commissary of a regiment of Missouri volunteers commanded by Sterling Price, and later as paymaster At the close of the war he joined his brother in the land office at Iowa City, Iowa, and accompanied him to Council Bluffs as an assistant in the office of receiver. When the Town of Omaha was laid out in 1854 he suggested the name. He built the first banking house in the city-one of the first brick buildings erected-and, after being occupied by several private banking firms, it was the first home of the United States National Bank. Mr. Lowe was chosen the first mayor of Omaha under the charter of 1857; was one of the first board of county commissioners of Douglas County ; served on the school board under the old system, and was one of the promoters of the first county fair in 1858. He died on April 3, 1868.
James G. Megeath, a pioneer of 1854. was born in Loudoun County, Virginia, November 18, 1824, and was married in that state in 1851 to Miss Virginia Cooter. About the time of his marriage he went to California and engaged in the mercantile business. In 1854 he started back to Virginia, but upon arriving at Omaha he was so impressed with the new town that he concluded to remain.
HERMAN KOUNTZE
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Two years later the firm of Megeath, Richards & Company was organized, com- posed of James G. Megeath, Burr H. Richards and Samuel A. Megeath. The first place of business was a frame building on the south side of Farnam, a few doors east of Fourteenth Street, but they soon built a new store on the north side of Farnam, a short distance west of Thirteenth. In 1866 James G. and Samuel A. Megeath bought the McCoy Distillery at Council Bluffs and removed it across the river to Omaha, where it was reopened as the Willow Springs Dis- tillery. The next year James G. Megeath formed a company, under the firm name of Megeath & Co., to carry on a general forwarding and commission business, operating from the terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad-wherever that terminus happened to be-and built up a large trade. It is said that the company paid the Union Pacific $40,000 in one day for freight charges, and the trade with the Mormons amounted to more than a million dollars annually.
Notwithstanding the great demands of his private business, Mr. Megeath found time to serve the public in an official capacity. He was elected to the city council in 1866 and again in 1877; was a member of the lower branch of the Legislature at the session of January, 1866, and in July, 1866, was a state senator in the special session called to inaugurate the state government under the new constitution. In conjunction with A. J. Hanscom, he donated to the city the ground now included in Hanscom Park, one of the city's beauty spots.
Ezra Millard, who came to Omaha in 1856, was for more than a quarter of a century a prominent figure in financial and municipal affairs. He was a native of Hamilton, Canada ; located at Dubuque, Iowa, in 1850; came to Omaha six years later and organized the banking firm of Barrows, Millard & Co., later Millard, Caldwell & Co. This firm dealt extensively in real estate and was influential in bringing a number of people to Nebraska. When the Omaha National Bank was organized in 1866 he was elected president and held the office until 1884, when he withdrew and organized the Commercial National Bank, of which he was chosen president, remaining at the head of the institution until his death at Saratoga, New York, August 26, 1886.
Mr. Millard was elected to the Territorial Legislature in 1860; was one of the organizers of the Omaha Horse Railway Company in 1867; was elected mayor of Omaha in 1869; was one of the incorporators of the Omaha & North- western Railroad Company in that year ; was also one of the incorporators of the Omaha Library Association in 1871; was treasurer of the Union Elevator Com- pany for some time, and was actively connected with other enterprises. In the spring of 1870 he laid out the Town of Millard, on the Union Pacific Railroad twelve miles southwest of Omaha, and in 1882 was one of the principal stock- holders in the company which built the Millard Hotel. His brother, Joseph H. Millard, who came to Omaha at the same time, served one term as United States senator, was for six years a Government director of the Union Pacific Railroad, and is now president of the Omaha National Bank.
Lorin Miller, surveyor and civil engineer, was born in Oneida County, New York, in the year 1800. He was educated in his native state and studied for the profession of civil engineer. In October, 1854. he came to Omaha, his wife following him a few months later. One of his first commissions in Nebraska was to survey an addition for the Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company. This addition, at first known as "Scrip Town" and later as North Omaha, was laid
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out in 1855, Mr. Miller receiving for his services eight lots and $2,000 in money. He also platted other additions to the city. In 1858 he was elected to the city council; was chosen mayor in 1865; served at various times on the school board, and was one of the early members of Capital Lodge No. 3, Free and Accepted Masons. His death occurred on July 31, 1888. His son, Dr. George L. Miller, who is still living in Omaha, was the first physician of the city.
Joseph W. Paddock, who for forty years was an influential citizen of Douglas County, was born at Matena, New York, April 27, 1825, and came to Omaha in September, 1854. He was the clerk of the first House of Representatives in the Territorial Legislature, which met in January, 1855. In 1857 he was elected to the lower branch of the Legislature and soon after the expiration of his term was appointed territorial secretary. At the beginning of the Civil war he resigned his office to enter the army as captain of Company K, First Nebraska Infantry. In November, 1861, he was detailed on staff duty and the following year was attached to the staff of Gen. Frederick Steele. He served to the close of the war, when he was mustered out and returned to Omaha, where he became secre- tary and manager of the Western Transportation Company, which was engaged in freighting westward from the end of the Union Pacific Railroad. Mr. Paddock was again elected to the Legislature in 1865, and was a member of the House at the time the first constitution was adopted in 1866. In 1867 he was one of the incorporators of the Omaha Horse Railway Company, and in 1885 he assisted in organizing the Thomson-Houston Electric Light Company. His last public service was as county commissioner, having been elected a member of the board in 1891 to fill the unexpired term of P. J. Corrigan. Upon the expiration of his term as commissioner he retired to his farm, a few miles west of Omaha, where he passed the closing years of his life, his death occurring on January 17, 1895.
William A. Paxton, who is remembered by the people of Omaha as a wide- awake, energetic citizen, was born in Washington County, Kentucky, January 26, 1837. He received a limited education in the common schools and at the age of thirteen years left home to "shift for himself." He first went to work on a farm for $8 a month, but in 1854 he took charge of a farm in Montgomery County, Missouri, for $200 per year. The owner of the farm was M. J. Regan, who took the contract for building the bridges on the old military road between Omaha and Fort Kearney, and in January, 1857, Mr. Paxton, then only twenty years of age, came to Omaha as foreman for Mr. Regan. The work was finished in December following, when young Paxton returned to Missouri, where he married Miss Mary J. Ware on February 22, 1858.
About two years later he returned to Omaha and during the summer and fall of 1860 was engaged in freighting from Omaha to Denver. The next year he was employed by Edward Creighton in the construction of the Western Union telegraph line across the plains. In December, 1861, he returned to Missouri and resumed farming, but the Civil war was thien going on, Missouri was racked by internal dissensions and his savings were swept away. In July, 1863, he came to Omaha for the third time, bringing his wife and $135, his entire capital. By this time he had come to the conclusion that he was not "cut out for a farmer" and took employment as foreman of a livery stable. From 1864 to 1867 he was engaged in freighting, and in the latter year he took
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a contract to grade ten miles of the Union Pacific Railroad, starting at Julesburg and running westward. During the next two years he made some money out of his railroad contracts and in 1869 he engaged in the cattle business, in which he laid the foundation of his future success. In 1883 he sold his cattle ranch at Ogallala, Nebraska, for $657,000. Three years before that he engaged in the wholesale grocery business as the senior member of the firm of Paxton & Gallagher, their trade ultimately reaching more than two millions of dollars annually. He was one of the organizers of the Union Stock Yards Company ; one of the founders of the Paxton & Vierling Iron Works; president of the Union Trust Company and of the Stock Yards National Bank; was elected to the lower branch of the State Legislature in 1880, and state senator in 1888; erected the Paxton Block at the northeast corner of Sixteenth and Farnam streets, which at the time was considered one of the finest business buildings in the city ; and was always ready to assist any movement for the betterment of Omaha. Mr. Paxton died on July 18, 1907.
Byron Reed, one of the most progressive and philanthropic men who ever lived in Omaha, was born in Genesee County, New York, March 12, 1829. He left school in his boyhood and went with his parents to Walworth County, Wisconsin. Soon after the invention of the Morse telegraph he learned to be an operator and from 1849 to 1855 he worked on the line between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. When Nebraska Territory was organized he notified the super- intendent that he was going to give up his position to go west, but he was induced to remain another year. On November 10, 1855, he landed in Omaha and opened a real estate office in the old state house. In connection with the real estate business he acted as correspondent of the New York Tribune. In 1860 he was elected city clerk and held the office until 1866, part of that time serving also as county clerk, and in 1871 he was elected a member of the city council. For many years he devoted considerable time to the collection of rare coins, historic relics, interesting documents, etc., his collection of coins being valued at $50,000.
Mr. Reed gave fifteen acres of ground in 1859 to Prospect Hill Cemetery. In his will he left the lot at the southeast corner of Nineteenth and Harney streets in trust to his son, Abraham L. Reed, as a site for a public library, with the provision that, if the city accepted the bequest under certain conditions, his collections of coins, relics and curios should also be given to the library. The city accepted the conditions and the "Byron Reed Collection" is one of the attractions of the Omaha Public Library. About three years before his death he organized the Byron Reed Company, with a capital stock of $200,000, which is still in existence, his son, A. L. Reed, now being president of the company. Mr. Reed was a member of the Masonic fraternity and was at one time grand secretary of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for the State of Nebraska.
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