USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 29
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VIEW IN THE WHOLESALE DISTRICT, OMAHA
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blankets, vermilion, etc., for the Indian trade and large consignments of these goods were sent up the river to the Indian reservations. For several years the annual volume of business amounted to over three hundred thousand dollars. Delegations of Indian chiefs on their way to Washington to see the "Great Father," made the store of Stephens & Wilcox their headquarters during their stop in Omaha and held their councils on the second floor, sitting on rolls of carpet. Upon the death of Mr. Stephens in 1881 the firm passed out of existence.
In 1865 John Trimble was manager of a furniture store at Nos. 1115-III7 Farnam Street, of which Louis Hax of St. Joseph, Mo., was the owner. C. H. Dewey and Mr. Trimble purchased the stock from Mr. Hax and in 1866 E. L. Stone purchased an interest, the firm then taking the name of Dewey, Trimble & Company. Four years later Mr. Trimble sold his interest to his partners and the firm became Dewey & Stone. In 1888 the business was incorporated as the Dewey & Stone Furniture Company, with a capital stock of $500,000 and the following officers: C. H. Dewey, president; E. L. Stone, vice president; Wil- liam Gyger, secretary; George E. Crosby, treasurer; William I. Kierstead, man- ager. The five-story brick building occupied by this company on Harney Street, built in 1882, was the first five-story building in the State of Nebraska. The company also had for years a large warehouse on Leavenworth Street and car- ried on a wholesale business that extended to the Pacific coast.
Dr. George L. Miller, S. D. and D. V. Barkalow engaged in the book and stationery business in the spring of 1865. Doctor Miller furnished the capital and the business was conducted by the Barkalow brothers. When the Union Pacific Railroad was completed as far as Columbus, Neb., the firm engaged in the railway news business, placing boys on the trains of the Union Pacific. Finding the trade profitable, they subsequently secured the news privileges on a number of railroads and established a branch in Denver. The Barkalows then purchased Doctor Miller's interest, S. D. Barkalow assumed the management of the Omaha branch and D. V. Barkalow took charge at Denver. At one time this concern had about one hundred boys on the trains, or as agents at Kansas City, Fort Worth. Ogden and Portland. The business is still conducted as the Barka- low Brothers News Company, of which G. H. Schnell is general manager and Denise Barkalow, secretary and treasurer.
Smith & Hopkins, a firm composed of H. K. Smith and A. P. Hopkins, was formed in the latter part of the year 1866 and early in 1867 became agents for the "O" line of steamers running between St. Louis and Omaha. This firm car- ried on a general commission and forwarding business, occupying a building that had been erected for a flour mill on Thirteenth Street, between Farnam and Harney. C. C. Housel came into the firm as a partner in 1868, when the firm name was changed to Smith, Hopkins & Housel. The firm received on consign- inent entire steamboat cargoes, paid the freight, which sometimes ran into thou- sands of dollars, and held the goods for the consignees. A large portion of the wares received by Smith, Hopkins & Housel was shipped west overland. In 1871 Mr. Housel assumed entire control of the commission business. He was succeeded by a man named Troxel, who took a Mr. Williams into partnership. the firm of Troxel & Williams continuing in business until the railroads put the river traffic "out of commission."
The pioneer jeweler was William J. Kennedy, who opened his store and
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watch repairing establishment in December, 1856. In 1865 he engaged in the storage and general commission business with John A. Horbach, and the next year Max Meyer started in the jewelry business in a small way on the south side of Farnam Street near Eleventh. In 1869 two of Mr. Meyer's brothers became associated with him and the house then took the name of Max Meyer & Brother Company, with quarters in the Paxton Block, on the northeast corner of Sixteenth and Farnam streets. The imports of this firm sometimes reached as high as $50,000 a year and a wholesale trade was conducted for several years, the annual sales running to nearly one million dollars. A manufacturing depart- ment was added and jewelry of special designs was turned out by skilled work- men. The firm also handled musical instruments.
DEPARTMENT STORES
The first mercantile institution that could properly be called a "Department Store" was the business started by Ross & Cruikshank in 1868, in a small frame building on the corner of Fourteenth and Farnam streets. The stock consisted principally of dry goods and notions, with a department of household furnish- ings. In 1871 N. B. Falconer purchased Mr. Ross' interest, the firm then taking the name of A. Cruikshank & Company. Six years later Mr. Falconer erected a two-story brick building on the corner of Fifteenth and Douglas streets, into which the business was moved, and in 1883 he became sole proprietor. Book and toy departments had in the meantime been added. In 1887 Mr. Falconer built the store rooms now occupied by the Thomas Kilpatrick Company at Nos. 1505- 1507 Douglas Street, when Browning, King & Company occupied the rooms on the corner of Fifteenth and Douglas as a clothing store. Mr. Falconer's sales ran as high as half a million dollars annually.
In 1878 the W. R. Bennett Company began business in a four-story building located at Nos. 1502 to 1512 Capitol Avenue, and advertised as "wholesale and retail dealers in everything useful, ornamental and staple." At the start the two partners and a single clerk handled the business, but ten years later about one hundred people were employed. The stock was finally sold to other merchants and the firm went out of business.
In 1883 J. L. Brandeis began a small jobbing trade in Omaha. Later he took his sons into partnership and built the Boston Store on the northwest corner of Sixteenth and Douglas streets, where the firm engaged in the retail trade as a department store under the firm name of J. L. Brandeis & Sons. The "Brandeis Stores" now constitute one of the best known retail mercantile establishments in the Missouri Valley.
William and Edward Hayden, under the firm name of Hayden Brothers, began business at 116 South Sixteenth Street in May, 1888. They first occupied the lower floors of a building having a frontage of 132 feet on Douglas Street and running back 76 feet. In a short time more room was needed and the firm built the addition on Dodge Street, 66 by 132 feet and five stories in height. This store has about thirty different departments and carries in stock everything the average family needs. Over three hundred people are employed.
The Burgess-Nash department stores, on the southwest corner of Douglas and Harney streets, carry a large stock of dry goods, household furnishings,
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shoes, clothing, men's furnishing goods, etc. This house is one of the most popular mercantile concerns of the Gate City.
Then there are the Thomas Kilpatrick Company, located at Nos. 1505 to 1511 Douglas Street, the Thompson, Belden & Company stores on the northwest corner of Sixteenth and Howard streets, and a few smaller establishments in other localities. If the visitor to these several stores cannot find the article wanted. he may rest assured that it is not to be found in Omaha.
THE JOBBING TRADE
The emigrant outfitting business of pioneer days naturally led to the estab- lishment of the wholesale houses of subsequent years. As the great Northwest was settled and towns began to grow up, the retail merchants of those towns depended more and more each year upon Omaha for their supplies. At first the wholesale merchants undertook to supply practically everything needed for the general store, but in the course of a few years the jobbers commenced to specialize, different firms handling different lines of goods.
As early as 1867 the wholesale grocery house of Steele, Johnson & Company, of Council Bluffs, was doing a large business throughout the Northwest. In 1872 the firm moved across the river into Omaha and occupied the three-story building on the corner of Thirteenth & Harney streets. In 1885 the firm was reorganized as D. M. Steele & Company, the members being Dudley M. Steele, John M. Steele and Dudley Smith. As the trade increased a five-story building was erected on the corner of Jones and Twelfth streets, to which a railroad track was constructed, making it easy to receive and ship goods. About the same time a branch warehouse was built in Salt Lake City. For years the trade of this house extended to all parts of Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, the northern part of Kansas and the western portion of Iowa.
Meyer & Raapke used to advertise as the "Pioneer Grocery House of Omaha." They began business as retail grocers in 1868 and entered the wholesale field in 1872. For several years this firm was located at Nos. 1403-1407 Harney Street and carried on a business of half a million dollars a year.
The Paxton & Gallagher Company, which today advertises as "Omaha's greatest wholesale grocers," dates back to 1879, when William A. Paxton and Benjamin Gallagher formed a partnership and embarked in the wholesale grocery trade. Ten years later the concern was employing fifty-five people, twenty-one of whom were traveling salesmen. Some years after the firm first started, certain lines of heavy hardware, stoves, rope, washing machines, etc., were added. The business now occupies the five-story building at Nos. 701-711 South Tenth Street, in which is housed the hardware department ; east of, and adjoining this building is a six-story structure ( Nos. 901-911 Jones Street ) in which are the coffee roasters and special equipments for handling certain lines of groceries; next to the Jones Street Building is the nine-story warehouse, where orders are filled and goods started on their way to the retailer. The company is incorporated, the officers in 1916 being as follows: Charles H. Pickens, president ; W. A. Gallagher, vice president ; F. G. Keogh, secretary ; P. C. Gallagher, treasurer.
About 1880 the wholesale grocery firm of McCord, Brady & Company began business. In 1883 it occupied the five-story building at Nos. 719-733 South
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Thirteenth Street, where it is still located. The business was incorporated as the McCord-Brady Company on January 1, 1891, and at the beginning of the year 1916 the officers were: W. H. McCord, president; J. S. Brady, vice presi- dent; C. L. Deuel, secretary ; F. J. Hoel, treasurer. This company's traveling salesmen visit the principal towns in Nebraska, Northern Kansas, South Dakota, Eastern Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Utah.
The H. J. Hughes Company, located on the corner of Twelfth and Jones streets, is a wholesale grocery house of more recent origin, but one which com- mands a large share of the trade of the Northwest. This company occupies over fifty thousand square feet of floor space and makes a specialty of goods bearing trade labels as a guarantee of quality. H. J. Hughes is president of the com- pany ; Frank J. Hughes, vice president and manager : Clarence E. Hughes, sec- retary ; Walter J. Hughes, treasurer. Fourteen traveling salesmen are employed and about fifty persons are constantly engaged in filling orders, etc.
Omaha can claim something in the way of a novelty in the wholesale grocery line in the Italian Mercantile Company, which is located at Nos. 2117-2123 Pierce Street. Samuel Mancuso is president; Stephan Zaghini, secretary; Fortunato Mauro, treasurer. The company imports large quantities of olives, olive oil, cheese, macaroni and other products of "Sunny Italy" and the countries of South- ern Europe. There are probably half a dozen other firms that do a jobbing busi- ness in groceries in a limited way, but the above houses control by far the greater part of the trade.
In the wholesale dry goods trade the house of M. E. Smith & Company stands at the head. The firm began business in Council Bluffs almost half a century ago, but in 1886 moved across the Missouri River into Omaha. The first location of the company after coming to Omaha was on the corner of Eleventh and Douglas streets. In four years the quarters there were outgrown and a removal was made to Nos. 1101-1107 Howard Street, where buildings were erected for the special use of the firm. At that time the house employed eighteen traveling salesmen, who covered all the country between the Missouri River and the Pacific coast, north of the fortieth parallel. The next removal was to the corner of Ninth and Farnam, where the eight-story, twin buildings form one of Omaha's land- marks. About the time the firm removed to Howard Street, a manufacturing department was added for the production of workingmen's trousers, overalls, jumpers, women's aprons, wash dresses, etc. This department has been increased in capacity and now turns out house dresses, coats and suits for women, sleeping garments for both sexes, mackinaws and sheep lined coats for men, and several hundred employees are kept busy in this line of work. In the sales department, the number of traveling salesmen has been increased to about seventy-five and the business now covers all the Northwest and Alaska, the sales running into millions of dollars every year. The officers of the company in 1916 were: A. C. Smith, president; W. M. Burgess, vice president ; F. M. Smith, secretary and treasurer.
Thomas Kilpatrick & Company, on Douglas Street; Swenson Brothers, III2 Howard Street ; and the Byrne & Hammer Dry Goods Company, 417 South Ninth Street. all do a jobbing business in dry goods. The last named is a large concern and its salesmen cover practically all of the great Northwest. M. B. Koory, located at 1405 South Thirteenth Street, carries a large stock of dry goods and notions for the wholesale trade and covers a large territory. The
T
Courtesy of Garvin Brothers
EARLY VIEW OF FARNAM STREET FROM SIXTEENTH STREET, EAST
BOYD'S
THEATRE
THE SICH OF THE CROSS
Courtesy of Garvin Brothers
GEN. W W. LOWE PROPERTY, SOUTHWEST CORNER SIXTEENTH AND HARNEY STREETS, NOW SITE OF THE BURGESS.NASH STORE
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Carson-Pirie-Scott Company of Chicago maintains a representative in Omaha who sells to the merchants of the surrounding towns, the orders being filled from Chicago.
The pioneer hardware jobber in Omaha was W. J. Broatch, who began deal- ing in iron, steel and heavy hardware in 1874 in a small building on the north side of Harney Street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth. Outgrowing his quarters there, he moved across the street. In 1880 he erected a four-story building and carried on a successful business for several years, when he disposed of his stock and engaged in other lines of activity.
In 1888 the Baum Iron Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $100,000 and began business at 1208-1210 Harney Street. It built up a good business and sent its traveling salesmen into Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and parts of Iowa and Kansas. About the beginning of 1916 the company was consolidated with the Omaha Iron Store Company (the successor of W. J. Broatch), under the name of the Omaha-Baum Iron Store, incorporated. By the consolidation of the two concerns, the new house has nearly fifty thousand square feet of floor space. The officers of the company at the time of the consolida- tion were : H. I. Adams, president and general manager; H. J. McCarthy, secre- tary; F. L. Adams, treasurer. The new company advertises "everything used by the blacksmith, the wagonsmith, contractor or miner in the way of heavy hardware, tools and supplies."
In 1880 the firm of Lee, Fried & Company started in business handling hardware. cutlery and tinware. In January, 1888, the Lee-Clarke-Andreesen Hardware Company was incorporated as the successor of the old firm, with a capi- tal stock of $300,000. Within a short time the salesmen of this company were making regular trips to the principal towns of Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Western Iowa and parts of Colorado and Dakota. For some time the place of business was at Nos. 1219-1223 Harney Street. Subsequently the name of the company was changed to the Lee-Clarke-Andreesen Company, still later to the Lee-Coit-Andreesen Company, and the place of business was removed to the corner of Ninth and Harney streets. Early in the year 1916 the old Bailey Hotel, on the corner of Ninth and Farnam streets, was purchased by the company, the hotel was torn down and a substantial six-story brick building, connecting with the one on the corner of Ninth and Harney, was erected on the site. The officers of the company in the spring of 1916 were: H. J. Lee, president; J. C. Coit, secre- tary and manager; E. M. Andreesen, treasurer.
Located at Nos. 519-523 South Tenth Street is the Wright & Wilhelmy Hard- ware Company, which is the successor of the Rector & Wilhelmy Company, in- corporated in 1884. The officers of the company at the time of incorporation were : P. C. DeVol, president ; F. B. Hochstetler, vice president; W. S. Wright, secretary; Allen T. Rector, treasurer. The capital stock of the company was $125,000 and the fifth member of the company was J. F. Wilhelmy. Most of these men had been in the hardware business for several years prior to the incor- poration of the company and brought to the new enterprise the benefit of their experience. In 1916 F. B. Hochstetler was president; J. F. Wilhelmy, secretary ; W. S. Wright, treasurer. The present quarters were first occupied in 1906.
The firm of Henry & Allen, 1032 South Nineteenth Street ; the C. S. Bowman Hardware Company, 1207 Howard Street; and the H. F. Cady Lumber Com-
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pany, whose general offices are in the Woodmen of the World Building, all do a jobbing business in certain lines of hardware.
Closely allied to the hardware trade is that of implements and machinery. In 1868 G. W. Lininger and E. L. Shugert formed a partnership and opened an agricultural implement house in Council Bluffs. Five years later, seeing that the west side of the Missouri offered better opportunities, Mr. Lininger came to Omaha and commenced business as G. W. Lininger & Company. In 1879 he sold out his business, but in 1881 organized the firm of Lininger, Metcalf & Company, which was incorporated with a capital stock of $100,000; G. W. Linin- ger, president; J. M. Metcalf, vice president; H. P. Devalon, secretary and treasurer. After a few removals, the company bought the property formerly occupied by the Bemis Brewing Company, Sixth and Pacific streets, which was remodeled and gave them ample room to expand. Eighteen branch houses were established at as many places in Nebraska and over one hundred persons were employed by this company for a number of years before it went out of business. In recent years the manufacturers of agricultural implements have adopted the plan of establishing a general agent in Omaha, who looks after the business in a given territory. The International Harvester Company, John Deere, and a num- ber of other concerns maintain general agents for the disposal of their implements.
Fairbanks, Morse & Company have a branch house located on the corner of Ninth and Harney streets, of which Burton R. Hawley is manager. This con- pany makes gasoline and oil engines, windmills, etc., which are sold all over the State of Nebraska through agents, the volume of business running into thou- sands of dollars every year.
The Crane Company, manufacturers of steam, gasfitters' and plumbers' sup- plies, have a large warehouse and sales rooms at Nos. 313-323 South Tenth Street. The headquarters of this company are in Chicago. R. T. Crane, Jr., is president ; E. H. Raymond, vice president; J. B. Berryman, secretary ; A. D. MacGill, treasurer.
The jobbing trade in paints and glass is well represented by the Midland Glass and Paint Company and the Pioneer Glass and Paint Company. The former is located in the five-story building on the corner of Eleventh and Howard streets, where it has 100,000 square feet of floor space and carries an immense stock of Pittsburgh plate glass, common window glass, mirrors, paints, paint brushes, etc. F. W. Judson is the secretary and manager. The Pioneer Company is located on the northeast corner of Fifteenth and Davenport streets. This com- pany handles plate and window glass, the Zouri safety store front, a full line of paints and varnishes, lubricating oils, etc. L. P. Moore is president ; L. W. Kennard, vice president; G. C. Cunningham, secretary and treasurer.
The Carpenter Paper Company, wholesale dealers in paper, is located on the ' southeast corner of Ninth and Harney streets, in the heart of the wholesale district. Of this company I. W. Carpenter is president; J. A. Carpenter, of Kansas City, vice president; W. G. Carpenter, secretary; A. W. Carpenter, treasurer.
The above mentioned firms are all representative houses in their respective lines. There are also jobbers in boots and shoes, hats, electrical supplies, rubber goods, drugs, confectionery, cigars and tobacco, liquors, lumber, coal and coke, dental and photographic supplies and numerous lines of goods, each of which
1
FORD
FARNAM STREET, EAST FROM TWENTY-THIRD STREET, OMAHA. "AUTOMOBILE ROW"
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is equally representative. According to statistics compiled by the Omaha Com- mercial Club for the year 1915, the jobbing trade of the city amounted to $177,- 251,059. Of this aggregate, considerably more than half included twelve leading lines, to wit :
Agricultural implements $ 13,323,166
Automobiles and accessories
18,288,000
Building materials
13,557,740
Coal and coke
8,933,316
Drugs and druggists' sundries
3,318,785
Dry goods
9,681,000
Groceries
15,606,000
Hardware
5,938,000
Liquors
6,192,365
Oils, illuminating and lubricating.
5,411,500
Paints and glass
2,745,000
Tobacco and cigars
2,743,300
Total
$105,738,172
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES
There is no doubt that the first move toward the manufacture of any product in Omaha was the establishment of a brick yard. Hardly had the town been laid out in 1854, when the Council Bluffs & Nebraska Ferry Company, desirous of securing the location of the territorial capital in their town, employed Benjamin Winchester to make brick for a building, which was to be offered to the authori- ties for a capitol in the event Omaha should be chosen as the seat of govern- ment. Winchester went bravely to work and in a short time had several thousand brick set in a kiln ready for burning. Lacking lumber for sheds to protect the kiln from the weather, he covered it with canvas. One night the canvas was stolen and a hard rain coming at the same time the brick kiln was reduced to a shapeless mass of clay. The bricks for the state house were then brought over from Iowa.
A few years later, when Omaha was enjoying its first big boom, there were fifty-two brick yards in operation about the city, turning out 150,000,000 brick annually. By 1892 most of these yards had been discontinued, only fifteen being then engaged in the active manufacture of brick. One of the largest brick manu- facturers at that time was Martin Ittner, whose yards averaged over five million brick annually. Other brick makers during the boom and for some years after- ward, were the Withnell brothers, Rocheford & Gould, the Grand View Brick Company, G. W. McBrode, John P. Thomas, the Omaha Standard Brick Com- pany and Richard Smith. The last named began business in 1886 and brought the first brick making machine to Omaha.
The brick making industry of the present day is well represented by the Hydraulic-Press Brick Company, which was established in 1891. The company's plant covers seven acres at Avery, about three miles south of Omaha. At Louis- ville, Neb., the company owns 120 acres of the finest fire clay deposits in the West. From seventy-five to one hundred men are employed and the annual
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product is about six million brick. The capital invested amounts to nearly half a million of dollars. The general offices and display rooms of the company are in the Woodmen of the World Building, on the corner of Fourteenth and Farnam streets. Other concerns in this line of business are the Omaha Brick and Tile Company, the Standard Brick Company, the Omaha Clay Works, the Smith Brick Company and the Twin City Brick Company.
EARLY SAWMILLS
The truth of the old adage, "Necessity is the mother of invention," was prob- ably never better exemplified than in the settlement of Douglas County. The pioneers were called upon to provide shelter for their families : hence lumber was a necessity. And this necessity became the maternal parent of the first saw- mills. It is believed that the first sawmill about Omaha was the one established in 1854, near the intersection of Ninth and Jackson streets, by Thomas Davis, who afterward added a grist mill. In 1855 Smith & Salisbury built a sawmill on the bank of the Missouri River, about two hundred yards above the place where the first waterworks pumping station was afterward located. Logs for this mill were rafted down the river for a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles. Sawmills were also established in other parts of the county at an early date. Com- pared with the modern lumber manufacturing concerns of the great pine woods, these primitive sawmills were small affairs, but they proved a great boon to the settlers and were liberally patronized. So pressing was the demand for lumber that a settler would drive to the mill, back his wagon up as closely as possible, and take the boards as fast as they came from the saw, while other wagons stood waiting their turn, for the rule was "First come, first served." With the destruc- tion of the forests the mills disappeared.
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